5 comments about Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work (Harvard Business School Press) (Harvard Business School Press) (Harvard Business School Press) (Harvard Business School Press).

1. As a small business owner I was not sure this book would be relevant for the clientele I serve. I couldn't be more wrong! The book is written in an accessible and easy to understand way, and the strategies are easy to employ. The Innovator's Guide is a book I keep on my desk and refer to again and again. The book contains a wealth of practical tips that I have used to help my business grow! It especially helped us think about how to build the capabilities to innovate more reliably and set management expectations.
   
   I found the entirety of the book practical and applicable, and highly recommend it to any executive or executive team member in both small and large businesses.



2. So Geoffrey Moore has the Chasm Companion. Now the field of innovative disruption so clearly identified by Clayton Christensen has its own implementation book. Like anything put out by Innosight, Christensen's consulting company, the book is thorough from end to end. If you read nothing else you must read the Summary and FAQs at the end. I read it in two lengthy sittings. It is a fascinating read that starts out talking to established companies like P&G , Intel and RIM. Then it hits its stride and the implementation guides, examples, templates and resources are useful for every company. Yes even start-ups.
   
   IMHO anyone working in tech should have read and review this book, But I am a fan of Christensen's work , and if everyone followed his ideas, there would be less work for my consulting firm. The book is full of great case studies Swiffer, Wii, Skype, YouTube, Metro newspapers, ITunes, Whitestrips, Adwords, eBay. Some great lines. " Medical device cos commoditze doctors". " Look for people with the right school of experience - What problems could arise? Who has encountered these problems?" "What job is the client needing done? "



3. I've read a number of books on innovation, both on a personal and business level. Always looking to find that "edge"... In the book The Innovator's Guide to Growth: Putting Disruptive Innovation to Work by Scott D. Anthony, Mark W. Johnson, Joseph V. Sinfield, and Elizabeth J. Altman, the authors present a methodology for making disruptive innovation part of your company's culture. Along the way, I had my thoughts twisted a bit as to how best to disrupt the standard playing field, while not going head-to-head with the giants right from the beginning...
   
   Contents:
   Introduction: Your Guide to Growth; Precursors to Innovation
   Part 1 - Identify Opportunities: Identifying Nonconsumers; Identifying Overshot Customers; Identifying Jobs to Be Done
   Part 2 - Formulate and Shape Ideas: Developing Disruptive Ideas; Assessing a Strategy's Fit with a Pattern
   Part 3 - Build the Business: Mastering Emergent Strategies; Assembling and Managing Project Teams
   Part 4 - Build Capabilities: Organizing to Innovate; Innovation Metrics
   Conclusion
   Appendix - Frequently Asked Questions; Notes; Index; About the Authors
   
   As you can tell from the list of chapters, the authors cover everything from identifying ideas and potential products that would be disruptive clear through to the end where you have a formal organization that can grow and repeat successes in that area. Given their experience in the field, you avoid making mistakes that are all too common and sound correct, but end up being wrong. For instance, companies have a tendency to throw massive amounts of resources and capital behind a new idea or product that will "revolutionize the industry". The problem is that everyone becomes committed to the initial design and plan, and no thought is given to learning and prototyping along the way. The end result is often a product that completely misses the mark in terms of what people want. But by then, so many millions have been sunk into the design that you can't easily go back. The book instead advocates for quick trials and cheap prototypes without large amounts of funding. That forces creativity and smaller experiments, and permits course changes along the way. Only after you get actual feedback do you commit larger resources to it. But by then, you should know the outcome or have a solid idea as to market acceptance.
   
   For me, I was most interested in the first part of the book. The concept of "overshot customers" was one I hadn't heard of in quite those terms. These are the people who don't need or can't use all the high-end performance built into the product(s) being offered, and are actually looking for something far less. To them, "less" becomes "perfect". Why pay for 100% of a product when all you really need is 10% of it? The other 90% is of no use to you. This is also linked to the concept of "nonconsumers". These are the people who don't use your product (or any product being offered) due to constraints of skill, wealth, access, or time. If you can identify these consumers and serve them, you have an entry into the market that can disrupt the incumbents. Finally, I was also intrigued by the concept of "jobs to be done". It's the adage of "people don't buy drills, they buy holes". If you rethink your product as a service that people are hiring you to do, then you can think beyond the boundaries. An example would be the lowly mop. Not much to do differently there. But if you think that people are hiring you (the mop maker) to clean the house, then you look at the product differently. In this case, it led to the Swiffer line of dust mop accessories. Less effort, easier cleanup, and the job is done more quickly. Hence, people "hire" your product as the superior choice. Interesting concepts...
   
   This is a book that deserves to be sitting on the shelf of management in all companies. Actually, it shouldn't be on the shelf. It should be in the briefcases and backpacks being read...



4. 
   The last time I checked, Amazon offers 53,570 books on the subject of innovation in business. So, what do the authors of this book offer that is new? In fact, as I intend to indicate, they offer a great deal and much of the credit must be given to Scott Anthony who is a long-time and close associate of Clayton Christensen's and co-author with him of Seeing What's Next: Using Theories of Innovation to Predict Industry Change. The author of The Innovator's Dilemma and The Innovator's Solution (with Michael E. Raynor), Christensen wrote the Foreword to this volume in which Anthony and his co-authors (Mark Johnson, Joseph Sinfield, and Elizabeth Altman) explain why and how taking "the right steps and putting in place the right structures can allow managers and entrepreneurs to improve significantly their odds of creating profitable growth businesses. This view contrasts with a prevailing stream of thinking that innovation is random and requires creative genius."
   
   This last sentence caught my eye because I have just read a book by Geoff Colvin, Talent Is Overrated: What Really Separates World-Class Performers from Everybody Else. In Chapter Nine, Colvin suggests that two views characterize what most of us know "that just ain't so" about innovation and creativity. "One is that creative ideas come to us in the way a famous one came to Archimedes, in a eureka moment when everything suddenly becomes clear...The other thing we all think we know about creativity is that it can be inhibited by too much knowledge. We often say that someone is `too close to the problem' to see the solution. The broader principle is that if you know too much about a situation, a business, a field of study, then you can't have the flash of insight that is available only to someone unburdened by a lifetime of immersion in the domain." Colvin's repudiation of both views is best revealed within the narrative, in context. His point is, that great innovators (e.g. those who devise disruptive technologies) aren't burdened by knowledge, they're nourished by it. For them (with very rare exception), innovation doesn't strike, it grows. Therefore, innovation requires a culture within which to thrive.
   
   In Chapter 1, the authors identify and then discuss three precursors to innovation: a core business that is in control of its current assets, a game plan for growth, and a mastery of the resource allocation process. "The next seven chapters walk [the reader] through a three-step process (i.e. identify market opportunities, formulate and shape innovative ideas, and take ideas forward) to spot and seize a single opportunity. Keep in mind that the central argument of this book is that there are practical and effective ways by which to buck various trends, such as innovative ideas that never gain traction, once-great companies "topple," large companies that survive tend to underperform relative to the market, and conglomerates that seek to diversify to deliver better returns tend to be worth less than the sum of their parts. Paradoxically, or so it seems to me, innovative thinking requires order, structure, stability, and support (i.e. an infrastructure) so that it has the freedom and flexibility to challenge conventional thinking, the status quo, what James O'Toole so aptly characterizes as "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." If Colvin is correct (and I think he is), innovation is a process, not an event. This point reminds me of a scene in Ernest Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises, when one of the characters confides that his company went bankrupt. "How did it happen?" someone asks. "Slowly, then suddenly."
   
   After providing a "Disruptive Innovation Model" with a brief explanation (Figure 1-2 on Pages 17-18), the authors carefully organize their material as follows:
   
   Part One: Identify Opportunities (e.g. nonconsumers, overshot customers, and jobs to be done)
   
   Part Two: Formulate and Shape Ideas (e.g. development of disruptive ideas and assessment of a strategy's fit with a pattern)
   
   Part Three: Build the Business (i.e. mastering emergent strategies as well as assembling and managing project teams)
   
   Part Four: Build Capabilities (e.g. "organize to innovate" and formulate innovation metrics)
   
   Then in the final chapter, "Conclusion," the authors review several key points and then briefly discuss ten "key innovation traps" (six that are project-related, such as "Pursuing unattainable perfection," and four that are company-related, such as "Too many lingering projects") and then review a series of lessons to be learned from innovation initiatives at Procter & Gamble. (Note: Those with a keen interest in those initiatives should check out The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue and Profit Growth with Innovation co-authored by A.G. Lafley and Ram Charan.) The authors conclude the chapter with their "Final Words of Wisdom," eight guiding axioms suggested by the extensive research and intensive field work that led to their writing of this book. I especially like #8, "Devil's advocates are abundant, problem solvers are scarce."
   
   Readers will appreciate the authors' brilliant use of reader-friendly devices throughout their narrative, such as check lists of key points and dozens of "Figures," "Tools," and "Tables" which present remarkably abundant information within an easy-to-read graphic. Also at the conclusion of most chapters, "Application Exercises" and "Tips and Tricks" sections that will help readers to take appropriate, effective action on the information and suggestions previously presented. Of special interest to me were there:
   
   Table 2-1, "Summary of constraints on consumption," Page 60
   Tool 4-1, "Jobs scoring sheet," Page 106
   Figure 4-3, "Identifying opportunities from different starting points," Page 109
   Tool 5-1, "The idea Résumé," Page 129
   Table 6-1, "Conditions for success," Pages 149-150
   Table 6-2, "Disrupt-o-Meter, Pages 156-157
   Table 9-1, "innovation challenges and structures," Page 228
   Tool 9-1, "Application Exercise: Assessing your innovation environment," Page 239
   
   The authors conclude with these observations: "We believe that the concept of innovation is in transition between a theory of random trial and error and perfectly predictable paint-by-numbers rules. We think of this transitional period as the `era of pattern recognition.' This book described patterns related to spotting opportunities, developing ideas, building businesses, and creating capabilities. Using its tools and frameworks will allow you to see what others cannot [e.g. to `see what's next'], to find order where others find chaos, and to create new growth opportunities again and again." Well said.
   
   I presume to add one other perspective. Think of an innovative organization as a "nursery" where trees thrive and flowers blossom because they are planted in nutrient rich soil and receive constant nurturing. Seedlings are not pulled up "to see how well they're doing." And when necessary, there is pruning to protect growth. Extending the metaphor, the information and counsel the authors of this book provide can help each reader to develop a "green thumb." Producing a harvest is up to you.



5. Thgis is a very light version of The Innovator's Solution which, I believe, was a masterpiece. You can hardly find in this book the depth and strength which was present in The Innovator's Solution. This is more a company (i.e. Innosight) publicity material and an ecletic strategy manuscript than anything of real practical and academic value. Read the original work and don't waste your time on this, as the original work is an immensely stronger & robust piece on strategy practice and theory.
   
   Also, please and please, aren't you fed up with the same exercises over and over, e.g. Nucor Steel and minimills etc.? Incidentally, if the authors refer to the book by AG Lafley & Ram Charan (The Game-Changer), they will find out that the Swiffer innovation story is totally different than their romantic explanation.

5 comments about Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls.

1. I throughly enjoyed reading this book. I have studied Warren Bennis extensively within my Doctorate program in Organization Development. Tichy and Bennis are throughly enjoyable to read.



2. I very much recommend this book to anyone who faces the challenge of making judgment calls--which, as this book points out, is everyone. This book is inspiring, to the point, and well organized. However, it's most attractive feature is that the methods it suggests are proven through many examples. I think the other reviewers have said it best: this is simply the best framework for decision making on the market.



3. This book's focus fills a hole in the literature on leadership. Bestselling authors Noel M. Tichy and Warren G. Bennis concentrate on a key issue that is central to leadership: how leaders make judgment calls, and how you should make, execute and evaluate them. They provide a good, useful framework to guide your decision-making process. They offer intriguing tools, such as using a storyline to spur people to help implement your judgments. The book does have weaknesses, however, and those are due to the authors' definitions of two key terms: "results" and "long-term." While their case studies examine judgment calls they find successful, they define success as meeting "the espoused goals of the institution. Period." This assumes that the institution's goals are already examined and valid, when in many cases they are not. Their definition of "long-term" may strike some as only moderate in duration, or even as short-term. Nonetheless, their work is clearly written and rich in examples. getAbstract recommends it to anyone who is seriously interested in leadership, execution, and organizational strategy and culture.



4. Every professional, manager, consultant and entrepreneur should know how to lead, or teach others to lead. For a great companion to "thoughtleading" concepts found in my own book, "The Expert's Edge," get and read this book pronto!



5. I bought this book expecting it to be at least somewhat entertaining. After finishing the first 44 pages, I cannot bring myself to continue reading the rest: it is totally boring. Here are some quotes that illustrate the predominant tone of the book:
   
   "In all three of our domains, people, strategy, and crisis, good judgment calls involve a process that starts with recognizing the need for the call and continues through to successful execution." (p. 29)
   
   "Good judgment depends on how you think as much as what you know." (p. 31)
   
   "There is nothing more important to an institution than who is going to be its leader." (p. 31)
   
   "The quality of a person's judgment depends to a large degree on his or her ability to marshal resources and to interact well with the appropriate constituencies." (p. 39)
   
   Not that there is anything wrong with these statements; it's just reading paragraph after paragraph of such banal truths gets tiresome. I gave this book two stars (instead of one) because the authors included a few real-life stories, but even these illustrations eventually turn into boring repetition.
   
   As a side note, I wondered why out of 19 reviewers, 15 gave this book a five-star rating, so I checked their other reviews. Interestingly, all reviews I checked are also five-star. Maybe this is just a group of people with different taste in writing, I don't know.
   
   If you are not sure whether to buy this book, I would recommend you to read the positive reviews first and if what they say seems appealing to you, read a few pages from the book (you can peek inside the book using the "Search inside this book" link, just enter some word, like "leadership" or "judgment" and open a random page from the returned matches). Then make your own judgment.

5 comments about Strategic Planning For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)).

1. Strategic Planning for Dummies has helped my business of 12 years to develop tactics that are customized to my businesses needs.
   This book is a fast reference for business people like myself who don't have time.



2. This book is a quick reference that is easy to understand.



3. I like practical, actionable advice and this book delivers. You could use it to quickly develop a plan (it gives you shortcuts) or you can use the tools and business examples to go deep into your internal and external analyses. Even though I have done strategic planning before, this book covered several new topics that I will refer to and use as I update our plans. Every time I need a quick refresher, I'll be able to reach for my book and find it. It even helps you with the planning process, like how to hold a strategic planning retreat. No excuses!



4. This is one of those book that you need to re-read every year or two. The lack of strategic planning is what really kills companies.
   
   For instance: anyone could have seen for the past twenty years or so that the price of oil was going to go up dramatically. The American automobile companies, instead of working on fuel efficiency worked to convince people to buy big SUVs and pickup trucks, upon which they make more money. So gasoline goes to $3 a gallon, and the American companies lose more market share to the foreign manufactures. Thousands of automobile workers are laid off, and the Big 3 just may not survive.
   
   Some of the points brought out in the book make such perfect sense - 'Increase Your Prices.' I work with a local civic chorus. They were charging $3 to attend a performance. I raised the price to $5, lots of doom forecasting. Just as many people came. I raised the price to $10 and spent a couple of hundred on posters put up around town. More people came than when the prices were $3.
   
   Get the book. It's simple and fast to read. If you get only one good idea out of it you're way over the few bucks it cost and the few hours it took to read. In a few months, read it again. You'll get at least one more good idea.



5. I am interested in learning the nuts and bolts of strategic planning to better apply my company's strategy management software for our customers. This book appears to have received 8 glowing reviews. Funny thing, though: those reviewers who state their location are from Reno NV or other NV locations. The others do not give their location. Looking at the author's profile, she is located in Reno NV. Is that a coincidence or are these "seeded" reviews meant to pump up the book? To be fair, I have not read the book, nor will I give it a bad rating for having clearly suspicious reviews. If I buy it and like it, I will adjust my rating accordingly.

5 comments about Jesus, CEO: Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership.

1. Laurie introduced this book Jesus CEO for leadership. It is inspirational and motivational in the Christian culture business world. If all Fortune listed companies CEO learn and practice the teaching of this book, there will be no scandal such as Enron & company.
   
   As Christian teaching as it was, the book (P. 59) retold the famous story on the stallion between good and bad, fortune and misfortune without credit to the source - TAOISM. Does the writer respect intellectual property? Her sales agent on human relation (P.72) was an admirable example of concern and care for others. If practice what is preached, there will not be so many homeless or 46 million without health insurance in our country.
   
   She on P.142 rightly pointed out in America, net worth was measured in terms of money in the bank. That is why many rich in wealth but poor in spirit and moral value. Jesus advised the young man to sell off his valuables and gave to the poor in order to follow him for eternal life. He also said how good is it if you earn the whole world and lose the life. That is THUNDER!
   
   The chapter on P.190 titled He Empowered Women with "Some still actively discourage and actually forbid women from taking leadership roles". It is certainly true in business and churches. India, Pakistan and Israel had more women in upper leadership in government. The love policy on P.256 was adopted from Paul. It was a beautiful statement for everyone to work on - parents and children, president and citizens, husband and wife, employer and employee, friend and friend.
   
   Laurie's manual guide advice offers a practical solution at home and at work. Hopefully, Americans follow her advice to set a respectable and moral example. AMEN



2. This book is a very easy read, inspirational and helpful. Whether you are in business for yourself or working for someone else, the principles laid out in the book applies. I especially like the thought-provoking questions at the end of each chapter.



3. I never thought of Jesus this way. This book broke down how to be a great leader. It is a must read for any leader.



4. Jesus CEO : Using Ancient Wisdom for Visionary Leadership
   
   It was an easy read. More like a daily inspirational.



5. I liked it. It includes some excellent ideas about communicating and motivating oneself and others. It is particularly applicable for the Christian as the author uses Jesus as the example for each of her vignettes.

5 comments about How to Use Power Phrases to Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, & Get What You Want.

1. Your book has saved my professional and personal self-confidence with communicating. Usually my conversations and correspondence were long, drawn out, and the other person would get lost in "words." My tendencies were to get the "last word" in a conversation, sometimes with a little barb, thinking I was leaving a lasting impression. Wrong... Your book is a ready reference for phrases that are specific and short, but quick and to the point. Thank you for your saying: say what you mean, mean what you say, without being mean when you say it. That one phrase sums it up!



2. Lasting power is in relationship smarts. We can become more "powerful" when we put people up and make them feel good about their positive actions than if we react with a vengeance.
   
   This book also teaches how to approach conflict. We could belittle the other person (or ourselves if we are criticizing ourselves) with poison words, or we could approach the problem with them knowing the problem, and having the drive to fix it.
   
   The book also discusses how to ask for help in a way that makes people feel like a part of your team instead of being "dragged into doing another favor for you."
   
   I recommend this book.



3. As a professional organizer and time management coach, I am consistently working with clients to teach them how to manage interruptinos and over-committment. Meryl Runion does a great job of helping us realize we CAN do this. She provides step-by-step instructions and sample conversations to make it as easy as possible. This is a great resource!



4. I did not learn anything from this book. This was filled with new acronyms for marketing purposes. Pass on this one.
   Thanks



5. I purchased this book because of a leadership development class through work and was impressed. It's a quick read, but really gets to the point about "Short, sweet, and to the point". I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to improve their communication in their business or personal life.

5 comments about Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder.

1. Order reduces options. Classical education inclines the mind to idealism.
   Through the ages we have grown heavy with hierarchical matter, isolated by divisive, absolute, classified ideologies in the name of order maintained as truth by authority. Now "Everything is Miscellaneous" glories in a new vision of hope, transparency, understanding, freedom, and peace--a newly enlightened collective consciousness. Weinberger's work is fascinating and exuberant with optimism that we can emerge out of the chaos of messy, unfettered knowledge to global understanding. Western civilization (essentialism) from Plato to Aristotle to Dewey to Jimmy Wales is up for review and the prognosis is good. Read the book; play with tools; enter the conversations; navigate the cosmos, indeed, let knowledge at long last lead to understanding.



2. I totally disagree with the reviewers that pontificate against this book. It is not a techno-geek book, or a philosophy book, it is simply a common sense overview that I personally consider to be educated, helpful to the point of essential. At $16, with the Amazon discount, this book is a bargain.
   
   I started with the index, and immediately discovered Meta-Data had 18 lines.
   
   The book opens with examples from Staples ("hacking the physical") to Apple iTunes (end of bundling) and I am immediately charmed by the combination of an end to fraudulent store organization (Giant supermarket moves everything from one week to the next to force searching which increases impulse buying) and an increase in focus on serving the individual rather than serving up a "one size fits all" solution. Separately I am looking at Chinese medicine for a health intelligence book, and this resonates.
   
   Early on one sees the author agreeing with Jean Francois Noubel (the end of the pyramidal organization) and Jim Rough (rise of the circle of citizen wisdom)--I myself enraged the secret intelligence mandarins by announcing in the 1990's that "in the age of decentralized information central intelligence is an oxymoron." The author is one of the gurus of what is becoming known as the axis of Cognitive Science and Collective Intelligence (the Art), and he and another 54 authors are brought together in the first collective work of its kind, Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace which is also free online in full pdf or chapter docs. Disclosure: I published the book--I do not know the author personally, but Jock Gill, a gifted communicator, exposed me to the author's earlier work on Open Spectrum, something that inspired my own informal views on "Open Everything" and unlike most of the other contributors that were identified by Tom Atlee or Mark Tovey (the editor), I personally sought his contribution to the book because of my very high regard for his "take" on all this.
   
   I bought the book as a fan already, but the content easily validates my appreciation The discussion of first order pigeon-holing (the Weberian concept of bureaucracy applies), second order cross referencing (naturally limited and often wrong in early generations--Library of Congress and Dewey Decimal System are toast), versus unlimited tagging, chunking, clustering, socially-informed selection, and other aspects of the power of the collective, are all illuminated by this book.
   
   I am further impressed early on with his stellar discussion of Mortimer Adler and the limitations of alphabetization. I was a penniless graduate student when I discovered the Great Books, and as a young officer, spent my first $700 acquiring a set. The Syntopicon that the author mentions in the book is better understood by the image I introduce above, something I created in 1979, my second of four analytic models (the first was on predicting revolution across all domains).
   
   I have two notes at this point:
   
   1) Truth or what can be known constantly changing, a fixed or slow to adapt "index" process cannot scale or survive.
   
   2) 2008 election is already lost--neither candidate offers us what we deserve: listening instead of stump speeches; appointed cabinet and balanced budget now, as part of the campaign, instead of empty promises; and 24/7 interaction with all 65 political parties, instead of focusing on the one third that is their base and a slice of the middle third.
   
   He emphasizes that knowledge is not top down, and with a tip of the hat to Kirkpatrick Sale, author of Human Scale and also facilitator for the nation-wide network of 27 separatist movements, I also post above an image of Epoch B "bottom up" leadership that none of our world leaders understand.
   
   Page 80, discussion of Ranganathan (India) Colon Classification system impresses me. I think to myself, wow, needs to be integrated into Pierre Levy's Information Economy Meta Language, or IEML.
   
   The middle of the book discusses--engagingly, I feel--how the digital world enables infinite variations in relationships and labels that can in turn create infinite variations of just right, just in time, just enough visualizations.
   
   Crowd tagging leads to sub-set clustering which leads to contextual sense-making.
   
   He spend time on Wikipedia. I admire Jimbo Wales and try to attend the Wikimanias, but I have given up on Wikipedia because in the case of the Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) page, I had to give up--while the author would have me engage and patiently lead the recalcitrant along (I have 20 years experience with that in the real world) I have come to a different conclusion: I believe that anyone should be allowed to CREATE, but only master moderators should be allowed to destroy.
   
   The summary of the book's message is offered by the author with four concepts:
   
   1) Filter on the way OUT, not in (this is the difference between the read only publishing model, and the read-write Creative Commons model)
   
   2) Put each leaf on as many branches as possible--unlike the physical world, each leaf can have infinite lives
   
   3) Everything is meta data and everything can be a label (he provides a fine discussion of bar codes, RFIDs, and Thinglinks)
   
   4) Give up control. He admires Wikipedia for doing precisely that. When I first started the modern OSINT movement in 1992, I coined the phrase, "Give up control to gain control" meaning that centralized intelligence had to give way to decentralized sharing and sense-making. The spies still don't get it, but public intelligence in the public interest is here to stay. A corollary here is that the best approach is to include all--optimize inclusiveness and diversity; and where there is conflict or disagreement, postpone exclusion or resolution, more data later will make it easier and easier to come back to...
   
   The final section of the book deals with mapping the implicit, mining the clouds of tags, creating an infrastructure of meaning with infinite potential. I have a note: unites the eight tribes of intelligence (governmenbt, military, law enforcement, academia, business, media, non-profits, and civil societies including religions and labor unions).
   
   Other flyleaf notes:
   
   + Stupid works. Keep it simple and let it evolve on its own.
   
   + Bit by bit, not all at once. Provide for innovation at the intersections and on the margins
   
   + Kind of and sort of rule, not the black and white that did rule
   
   + I learn of Valdis Krebs and his concepts of social cartography
   
   + I am engaged with the discussion of information sprawl and natural typologies
   
   + The author concludes that the search for knowledge will constantly struggle between the simple and the complex (sources and methods).
   
   + Going meta is what is so cool about web ecology and evolution.
   
   The author does NOT say this, but I mark his book down as being in favor of the human web of sense-making beating out the semantic web and machine learning schools.
   
   Page 230, this is a quote that really grabs my attention: "It's not about who is right and who is wrong. It's how different points of view are negotiated, given context, and embodied with passion and interest. Individual thinking out-loud now have weight, and authority and expertise are losing some of their gravity." The rest of this page is equally good.
   
   I am surprised to learn that the author holds a PhD in philosophy, and that he advised Howard Dean. I am not surprised to learn that he has been twice renewed as a fellow at the Berkman Center.
   
   Other books that have engaged me and for which I have reviews:
   The World Cafe: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter
   The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
   The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World
   One from Many: VISA and the Rise of Chaordic Organization
   Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
   Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
   Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
   How to Change the World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of New Ideas, Updated Edition
   
   There are many others, most obvious. Please do see the two images I post above--I firmly believe that the last eight years were a gift from heaven, a necessarily catastrophic gutting of our Nation so that we might properly conclude that both political parties stink with corruption, and it is time we put We the People back into the Republic, 24/7. This book is a solid brick in our foundation for understanding why this is both possible, and necessary.



3. . . . unlike the Internet, our time is not infinite. So, while the Internet has allowed for total randomness, for the sake of each individual's time, there needs to be some order. And, while it's nice to think that tags and other technologies will do this, so far, they have created their own disorder and randomness.
   
   So, what has actually happened is a site like Wikipedia has become our defacto "rule of order". Just do a search on any topic. Most likely, the Wikipedia entry will be in the top 3. And of course, there is a reason for that: We the people want order.



4. interesting ideas but mostly cheer-leading for web 2.0. the book is at least somewhat worth reading in that he brings up key issues, even if his analysis of them is flawed.
   
   
   most of the book is based strongly on an argument with a fundamental error in the premise. according to the author, card catalogs obey a strict organizational theme, but data bases do not. actually they do, and are in ways even stricter and more ordered. The computer essentially imposes order even in our "miscillaneous" groupings, which are just another label in the system.
   
   the author argues for something like a "wisdom of crowds" but doesn't seem to fully grasp why that works. it's not that crowds simply don't need experts, but crowds that include a variety of kinds of experts, guess right more often than any single expert.
   
   
   if his arguments are believed (and much about them is interesting) then this book should have been a blog. why wasn't it? probably the author knows the important differences, but writing about blogs got hiom a lucrative contract with a publishing house.



5. First, the criticism. Maybe it's just me. But I like a book that is organized. One where the author lays out the structure of the book, and then follows the structure. Where the skeleton carries and gives form to the flesh.
   
   This book does not have that. Of course, there is some structure here. The book is separated into chapters. Each chapter has a title. The stories in each chapter have a relation to the chapter title. That gives some flow to the book.
   
   But the structure is not nearly enough. Weinberger starts the book with a story. That starts a stream of stories that winds it way through chapter after chapter until the end. True stream of consciousness in action. Rambling.
   
   Weinberger tells many interesting stories. The book is packed with facts. But how ironic for a book about order and organization to have such poor order and organization. That fault robs the book of much of its appeal. I got bored with the stream of conciousness, and twice had to put the book aside for a day or two to get to the end of it.
   
   Maybe my background as a lawyer makes me look for strong organization. Briefs in litigation have to have a detailed table of contents tha lays out the whole argument of the brief. You get used to having organization like that, and it spoils you.
   
   Others may find in Weinberger's book a subtle organization that appeals to them. Or perhaps, as Weinberger says in a different context, there is even power in disorder. Hard to say.
   
   Second, the praise. Weinberger tells some great stories. The one I like best is about the Dewey Decimal System. Designing a system to organize all the breadth of non-fiction, Dewey chose a few major categories: philosophy, science and nature, history, the arts. As the world's knowledge has expanded, the categories have been stretched and in some cases, broken. But you cannot go back and start over. So we make do.
   
   Even with weak organization, the stories Weinberger tells are interesting and inform. For me at least, the book's faults outweigh its favors. But not by much. If you like good story telling, give this book a read.

5 comments about Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking.

1. what a fascinating book! unfortunately it is littered with typographical errors which are REALLY irritating. examples: "The stem brain or gator brain processes and teacts to sensory input(p. 21)"..."Nothing is perfect. The word is full of things we can do better(p.7)."..."As Nicholas Negoponte, the founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, has written...(p.43)"
   
   such a shame. if there is ever a second printing, perhaps these and other unnecessary errors can be corrected.



2. 
   Tim Hurson explains that the premise of this book "is that success in our business, professional, and personal lives is less a matter of what we know than of how we think. If we can develop the thinking skills to generate more options and then evaluate those options more effectively, we can all live richer, fuller lives - and so can the people around us." The focus of the this book is on the thinkx Productive Thinking Model (PTM), developed by Hurson and his colleagues after rigorously evaluating a number of other methodologies that include the Creative Problem Solving Process (CPS) and Integrated Definition (IDEF).
   
   There seems to be greater emphasis on improving problem solving than on improving any other function of better thinking (e.g. generation, evaluation, and selection of innovative ideas), although the PTM process consists of six interlocking steps that can help to achieve a variety of objectives. Each step includes a variety of tools and techniques that Hurson explains, citing relevant real-world examples throughout his narrative to illustrate how various companies have used the PTM. Hurson devotes a separate chapter to each step.
   
   For example, Step One responds to the question "What's Going On" and requires a situation analysis. Here are some issues to address at the stage of the process:
   
   1. "What's the Itch?" (i.e. problem to be solved, question to be answered)
   2. "What's the Impact?" (i.e. pay-off, benefits, improvements)
   3. "What's the Information?" (i.e. what is currently known about the situation)
   4. "Who's Involved?" (i.e. Who are the stakeholders? Who else will be affected?)
   5. "What's the Vision [or "Target Future]?" (i.e. ultimate objective as well as its implications and consequences)
   
   In Chapter 13, Hurson recaps the Productive Thinking Model (PTM) and offers a number of observations and suggestions to those who are considering use of this model as well as those who have made it commitment to it and are now engaged in the difficult but necessary processing of making appropriate modifications of it to accommodate the needs, resources, and objectives of their own organization. Then in Chapter 14, Hurson suggests four essential criteria for developing productive thinking skills and embedding productive thinking in organizational cultures.
   
   In this final chapter, he also asserts that -- as practiced in much of corporate America -- training "is an astonishing waste of resources" when there is no follow-through on front-end training to embed and then strengthen even more the skills taught. In fact, the word "training" has lost its meaning because it is now more commonly used to refer to information transfer rather than skill development. "Hurson prefers the word "entraining." Why? "In chemistry, to entrain means to trap suspended particles in a solution and carry them along. This concept is an apt metaphor for skill development...Entraining results in a new and different workflow. Keeping those new skill particles suspended in your workflow requires the forging of new synaptic connections, new neural pathways."
   
   Hurson includes an especially apt quotation that I now use also when concluding this review:
   
   "In theory there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is." Yogi Berra
   
   * * * * *
   
   Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out Tom Kelley's discussion of how IDEO conducts brainstorming sessions in his two books, The Art of Innovation and The Ten Faces of Innovation. I also recommend two of Henry Chesbrough's books, Open Innovation and Open Business Models, as well as John Medina's Brain Rules, Howard Gardner's Five Minds for the Future, and Creativity in Business co-authored by Michael Ray and Rochelle Myers. Those feeling especially frisky and convinced they are up to the intellectual challenge are encouraged to consider reading Gerald Edelman's Bright Air, Brilliant Fire and Albert Borgmann's Holding On to Reality. Most of these books are available in a paperback edition.



3. The last book from my `vacation reading list" is Think Better: An Innovator's Guide to Productive Thinking by Tim Hurson. Some of you may remember a brief mention of this book in a post titled "Critical Thinking vs Creative Thinking".
   
   This is a very interesting book full of great information....kudos go to the author for writing in a style that is engaging and easy to read.
   
   The premise of the book is to stop trying to think `creatively' or `critically'....start thinking productively. The author introduces the "Productive Thinking Model" that helps to combine and balance both creative thinking and critical thinking.
   
   This model is made up of six steps, which are outlined below.
   
   Step 1: What's going on?
   
   In this step, you are encouraged to answer five questions to get a feel for what issue you are trying to resolve. These questions are:
   
   * What's the Itch? This question helps you determine what needs to be fixed or improved.
   * What's the Impact? This question makes you think about how the issue is affecting you.
   * What's the Information?This question forces you to examine the information that you have about the issue to determine if you have enough information to address the issue.
   * Who's Involved? This question takes a look at the stakeholders and what might be at stake for each one.
   * What's the Vision?This question helps you make the switch from `what is' to `what might be' by asking things like "What would the future look like if the issue is resolved?"
   
   Step 2: What's Success?
   
   Using the Vision developed in Step 1, begin to think about the future if the issue is resolved. Begin to imagine what life would be like with the problem solved. Once you've got a good feel for how life might change, you would then create a list specific, measurable outcomes.
   
   Step 3: What's The Question?
   
   In step 3, you begin to develop the questions that must be answered in order to reach the vision of success that you developed in Steps 1 & 2. During this step, you rephrase each issue/problem as a question to help your subconscious understand there is something `to work on'. An example conversion given as the Problem Statement "We don't have enough budget" can be converted to the Problem Question "How might we increase our budget?". During this step, you would try to generate as many problem questions as possible....you want a long long list. Once you've exhaustively listed your questions, you can then begin to narrow them down to the two key questions that would have the most impact on the issue.
   
   Step 4: Generate Answers
   
   This is where you generate the ideas to answer the questions created in step 3. You again create a very long list of answers and then sift through them looking for the most ideal and promising answers.
   
   Step 5: Forge the Solution
   
   This step is where you take your most promising answers from step 4 and develop them into a robust solution.
   
   Step 6: Align Resources
   
   This final step requires you to identify the necessary steps and resources for implementing your solution. In addition, you ensure that all implementation steps are assigned to a designated resource who will be held accountable for their implementation.
   
   With these six steps, the author has provided a framework for thinking more productively. The key throughout all six steps is to keep an open mind at all times. Do not criticize ideas. Do not discard ideas. By keeping an open mind, you'll be amazed at how many ideas you are able to generate.
   
   If you are the least bit interested in the topic of creative/critical thinking, go buy this book.



4. This is basically a 'self help' sort of book. According to the author, if you buy this tome, read it, and apply the contents, something great will happen.
   
   So I bought it. And I read it. And I applied the contents.
   
   What this book is about is thinking more creatively, not thinking more deeply, as it were.
   
   The core premise of the book is that typical thinking relies heavily on what we've done previously. Learning by experience is what humans do. Hurson calls this 'reproductive thinking' as it reproduces the past. This is frequently a good way to do things. But no amount of reproductive thinking will turn an adding machine into a spreadsheet. To make this leap, you need "productive thinking."
   
   The crux of the book is how to think this way. Suppose you have some problem. You assemble your team of people (works individually too, but that isn't his focus) and write down every solution the team can think of to that problem. Analysis is not allowed - just raw ideas. Within a few minutes, people have called out the obvious solutions. The leader of the group keeps writing them down and asking for more using a number of techniques in the book. Before long, people will start giving dubious solutions. This is good. Finally, at some point, the answers become bizarre. This section is what Hurson calls the "third third" of the list. He posits that the good stuff - the truly innovative solutions - are at the bottom of the list. Most of the time, they are worthless. But if you allow these fledgling ideas to live for a while, sometimes they attain flight status.
   
   While we had our power outage, I had 9 days to try this. I am designing some software. I started making a list of the solutions to my problems (this software has many facets which constitute many problems.) I wrote down ideas, concerns, drawings - anything. What I found was that once I ran out of ideas, I'd make some connection, and I'd get 25 more ideas. Then I'd be empty. But the next day it would happen again. It was difficult, but I finally - finally - made it to 100 ideas and thoughts, an arbitrary goal designed to make me stretch. Then I saw another connection and wrote down 30 more ideas! I stopped because the ideas, if valid, were straying from the actual problem domain and started applying more to an alternative piece of software.
   
   I ended up with 3 really good innovations. (I'm sure others would think of these things instantly, but by God they were new to me!) One of these innovations would allow the software to perform a seeming completely different function with only trivial modifications - if it's built right.
   
   There's a lot more to the book, as it talks about how to make the ideas to concrete solutions, walking through phases of idea-to-solution. Again, posing each step a problem then using these free-flowing lists of solutions to find the most innovative answers to problems.
   
   So, the pros:
   
   1. The technique seems to work for me as an individual.
   
   2. Trying it is cheap. You need a) the book and b) office supplies. You do not need a guru, a Change Process Facilitator, pure Tibetan mountain spring water, or to sacrifice a chicken.
   
   3. There are probably 6 phases and numerous sub-phases in the full solution process. So there are other parts of the book that I didn't mention but are worthwhile. For example, he mentions that some people in the organization may work against you. Commendably honest. Such a person is treated as a problem to be solved. You write this person's name down so you can make lists of solutions to this persons behavior. This section is short and I can't help but feel he stopped short for political correctness - and perhaps legal reasons!
   
   The cons:
   
   1. The book is almost certainly a sales tool for the author's consulting company which he mentions repeatedly. Perhaps the book is an answer to the problem, "How can we educate people about our system and thus make more money?" in which case it's a very practical proof of concept!
   
   2. I can't imagine a team of people using this technique because it feels 'new age.' You'd have to have a lot of trust among coworkers.
   
   3. The book is repetitious. Make lists! Make lists! Blah.
   
   4. TMCBSHA. I mean, Too Many Cute Business Self Help Acronyms. The industrial strength solution he discusses has many phases and sub-phases. It seems like every one of them as some hokey acronym associated with it. examples:
   IF (imagined future)
   DRIVE (do, restrictions, investment, values, essential outcomes)
   AIM (advantages, impediments, maybes)
   
   Now, each of these sections may be worthwhile but my god it's killing me. This is what makes me suspicious about the technique. I feel like he's putting the sizzle before the steak. I don't need sizzle to work a problem. But Hurson might need it to sell his book!
   
   5. The numerous steps (and their acronyms!) in the full solution need to be in a diagram so I can follow them.
   
   Finally, if you make your living by thinking (versus, say, by chopping off ninja heads) and you're in a rut, consider _Think Better, an Innovator's guide to Productive Thinking_ by Tim Hurson. I give it a 4 of 5, where no such book can possibly score a 5 due to the built-in hokiness and cheerleading of it all.
   
   http://tony-stormcrow.blogspot.com/2008/10/think-better-innovators-guide-to.html



5. Nutshell review - This book presents a framework for learning how to think better and improve the problem solving process. There are many such "better thinking" frameworks and this one has been developed by the author as a practicing consultant in this field. The author makes an excellent case for why the framework will improve the thinking process, explains it clearly and concisely, and the book is an easy to follow step-by-step guide to implementing the framework.

5 comments about Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life.

1. In 2006 I completed a Masters degree in leadership studies. This book was one of the texts used in my program. While I have read well over 100 leadership books, Mr Cashman's Leadership from the Inside Out has remained solidly in my top 5. This is a well written book that challenges the reader to dig deep inside themself to discover the leader they are. This book is not for the faint of heart, to get the most out of it you must be willing to do the work of looking within. To do otherwise will lead to only superficial value in this important work
   
   Lead well
   
   Ron H



2. As CEO Coach, Poet and author of a book that helps leaders unleash the genius of their teams and corporations, I find this book a deep and practical resource for all leaders and those who write about leadership. It is true that leadership starts from the inside and this book helps you unleash your genius. Paul David Walker Unleashing Genius: Leading Yourself, Teams and Corporations



3. This updated version is packed full of validating research, case studies, and wonderful stories. The book is so inspiring and a wonderful resource for anyone with a desire of leading. I keep this on my nightstand and read a little every day so I can truly think about what Kevin Cashman is teaching us about becoming a leader for life.



4. This book is excellent for those who are attempting to look inside themselves for leadership purposes.



5. This book explores seven areas for mastery for leadership from the inside out. These are: personal, purpose, interpersonal, change, resilience, being, and action mastery. The essence of the book is that becoming a leader involves a continuous process of authentic personal transformation. A chapter is devoted to each of the seven areas of mastery, with clear and concise insights, stimulating questions, and many great quotations. Each chapter ends with a leadership growth plan. The book is based on extensive experience and research. This a very valuable contribution to the field of leadership and stimulates deep reflection and self-awareness. Highly recommended.

5 comments about Financial Management: Theory and Practice (with Thomson ONE).

1. This book's explanations were poor at best. It utilized undefined terms, and had a weak glossary/index.
   Explanations of financial formulas were sorely lacking, and the organization of these formulas so that one could ever find them wasn't even attempted.
   
   Not recommended.



2. I felt that the book was good. Some of the concepts could have been explained in better detail. I notice that on a lot of the chapters the authors repeated some of the material more than once. Some chapters need more practice problems like in chapter 5. This book explains the basic and fundamental concepts good but does not explained the difficult concepts good. Overall, this book was good.



3. This book falls into the category of professors who know the material, but just can't communicate it. I can tell it was written on a schedule...sloppy wording, confusing definitions, and unintuitive examples and explanations. This information isn't that tough to understand...poor writing makes it so.
   
   Here's a paragraph defining WACC, p.11.
   Financial managers also must make finance decisions relating to how to finance the firm. In particular, what mix of debt and equity should be used, and what specific types of debt and equity should be issued? Also, what percentage of current earnings should be retained and reinvested rather than paid out as dividends? Along with these financing decisions, the general level of interest rates in the economy, the risk of the firm's operations, and stock market investors' overall attitude toward risk determine the rate of return that is required to satisfy a firm's investors. This is a return from investors' perspectives, but it is a cost from the company's point of view. Therefore, it is called the weighted average cost of capital (WACC).
   
   As in the rest of the book, too many words, no directness or clarity.
   
   Don't buy this book for self-study; you'll spend most of your time trying to decipher the obfuscating sentences.



4. although I got one in good shape. Did not get the CD i was promised.



5. The exercises could be improved upon. The book needs a good teacher/instructor in order to "come alive" - not a book for self-study. But then again, which Finance book is?

5 comments about Listening: The Forgotten Skill: A Self-Teaching Guide (Wiley Self-Teaching Guides).

1. The book that this audio adaptation is based on is very popular however this CD package is garbage. All the posts are about the book but not the 6 CD set. First off some people are NOT meant to be recorded and Madelyn Allen is one of them. They should have gotten a professional speaker to read her book. Sometimes you can't make out her words and also you can hear her moving or shuffling papers as she reviews her notes as she goes along. Very unprofessional and low quality. I ended up giving this to my mother to listen too!



2. This review is for the audiobook - although the content is good, the author should have gotten a professional speaker to do the narration. It is so ironic to be unable to LISTEN to a book about listening because the author munches her words, chokes off a few, stops and starts here and there, and flips her pages over so loudly that it is distracting.
   
   I find myself focusing on her bad delivery as opposed to her good content. If you're going to get this book, make it a printed one!



3. I find it ironic that a book about listening is utterly "unlistenable"! (It's difficult to listen to someone reading a line when they don't have enough breath to complete it!) The narration is terrible, not only for voice quality, but mis-read words. How can I have confidence in the material being presented, when the author can't even read properly?



4. This book is able to reveal the hidden riches of listening. This book have revealed many advantages of active and productive listening skills professionally, socially, and personally. Some of the advantages mentioned are: connectedness to others, eliminating the personal listening biases, getting others to listen, and enhancing the success of job interview and even promotion, etc.
   
   With our "instant" culture of preferring to be listened in a quick manner instead of to listen, this book will be one of the great references to improve our active listening skills. Me, my self, has learned so much from this book. This book even teaches me to do retrospective (self assessment) on the pattern of my listening skills during my past lifetime and try to analyze and fill my own blind spots for self improvement.
   
   During my past career as Supervisor and Officer in Humanitarian agencies, I could easily talk and talk without listening. This made me blind about my blind spots. Now, after being exposed to high demand of listening and dealing with arguments, I realize that without realizing my blind spots, I can easily driven to the non intentionally abusing my power through my supervisory position. Thank GOD, I have not started my Supervisor position after schooling.
   
   I can feel the significant progress in my self esteem as I increase my active and productive listening skills. I would recommend this book for almost every layers of society, including supervisors and leaders in any company or agencies.
   
   Can we imagine how wonderful our nation will be if just more than 60% of us are able to practice an active and productive listening.



5. I was very disappointed with this DVD. The author is the speaker. She should not be. Her voice was difficult to listen to for many reason. First she frequently sounded out of breath, like it was very hard for her to read. Also, there was a lot of background noise. Lastly at times she mumbled and her pronunciation of certain words was incorrect. I have listened to many non-fiction books on tape. I usually play them numerous times. This is the first time I did not finish one. The author needs to take her own advice and listen...listen to her own CD. If she did, then she would know, it is worth the cost for her to hire someone else to read!