The Project Whisperer

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The Project Whisperer: Understanding the Human Part of the Gantt Chart
by Pam Stanton

This is the first time I’ve ever begun a book review with an apology. However, I feel I must. This book is about project management, and I’ve really never been a fan of this subject matter. In fact, when asked to write this particular review, I came very close to declining the request.

Not only do I have little interest in this area, but I didn’t feel my readers would gain a great deal either. However, I was dead wrong on this one, and I seldom admit to that.

I’ve worked in and around projects, project managers and teams throughout my career and, to be quite honest, usually felt overwhelmed with what I considered to be a challenge. For instance, how do you feel when you hear some of the following terms: Charter, stakeholders, SWOTS, risk assessments, spreadsheets, Mitigation plans, tracking software, Dashboards. Gantt charts, and RAG indicators? I don’t know about you, but hearing all of this terminology makes me want to turn tail and run.

So why am I sharing my recent discovery of The Project Whisperer? Well, there are several good reasons.

  1. I’ve often shared my strong belief in the importance of a book’s title to its overall success. I must admit that I was captivated by this title for obvious reasons. The term “Whisperer” may bring to mind books, TV programs or movies such as The Ghost Whisperer, The Horse Whisperer or The Dog Whisperer … each of which focused on natural practitioners who possessed and shared their unique insight on their chosen field of interest. I believe this can be said of author Pam Stanton. This Yale graduate has traveled the world and invested 25 years working for some very impressive organizations such as Johnson & Johnson, Prudential Insurance and the United Way to name just a few. She shares that experience in a very humorous but educational approach to the subject of project management.
  2. I must admit that her subtitle (Understanding the Human Part of the Gantt Chart) caught my attention as well. A Gantt Chart, in short, is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule. Her insinuation that there was a human part to a project intrigued me.
  3. I’ve always felt that chapter titles were a critical element in grabbing the attention and interest of potential readers. Pam excels in this area with chapter titles that beacon you to explore their content. Here are a few which I never would have associated with project management.
    • The Assassination of Julius Caesar
    • Burgers with a Side of Chaos
    • A Little Oatmeal Goes a Long Way
    • The Horseshoe and the Party Horn
    • Tea for Ten Thousand

I couldn’t wait to see how she bridged these unusual titles to her content, and I certainly wasn’t disappointed. She successfully utilized a terrific sense of human to data and case histories which made project management perfectly understandable.

Throughout this book (88 pages), the author focuses on the revelation that the “magic” to delivering successful business projects lies not in methodology but in PEOPLE! She employs graphics, definitions, case histories, and 48 content-related tips to take the reader on the seven stages of a project teams journey to success.

Whether you realize it or not, project management is critical to the success and growth of organizations in every industry today. Understanding the human dynamics of projects will certainly enlighten you as to the nuts and bolts of what may have, until now, seemed alien to you. Nobody clarifies the process as well as Pam Stanton. Check it out.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Earn Their Loyalty

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Earn Their Loyalty: Treating Customers and Employees Like People
by Robert Brown, Ph.D.

I truly enjoy storytelling as a means of learning new information, and I indeed respect any author who can do it well. In a mere 199 pages, Robert Brown has provided an intriguing story, great wisdom and has certainly done it well.

The author shares the story of George Corbett, a high-powered senior vice president of a growing furniture company in the American Southeast, who has had it rough the past few years. He takes a solo vacation to Scotland to sort things out and chances across Angus McTavish, Ph.D., M.D., M.B.E., who is an extraordinary man from a small village who, with the assistance of a super computer, becomes somewhat of a mentor for George. Based on this unique collaboration, George learns lessons which will propel his company to the top in customer loyalty and employee satisfaction.

What George learns as a result of his time with Angus and the super computer can easily be applied to any business and/or industry. I’m not going to share the details, but you’ll find the following information very useful in your own quest for excellence, productivity and profitability:

  • The three necessary criteria for hiring the right person
  • The four Cs of service
  • The critical service continuum
  • How to insure that your employees can end the workday happy
  • The importance of virtual customers

At the end of each chapter, the author shares a note page of key points summarizing what George feels will greatly enhance his business. I found these summary pages to be quite helpful in organizing my own thoughts.

In this revealing read, the author also focuses on the importance of:

  • Personal mission statements
  • Customer service value streams
  • Moments of truth
  • The importance of human-to-human connections
  • The critical need for cccountability
  • The benefits of scripts and mnemonics as customer service tools
  • The primary role of management
  • Employee-created vision statements
  • Building team dynamics

The author’s bottom line is simple yet challenging. Creating loyalty isn’t easy. You cannot mandate it, standardize it or make it happen through policies and procedures. You have to earn it.

Earn Their Loyalty provides a practical blueprint which can be successfully executed by any organization.

Earn Their Loyalty: Treating Customers and Employees Like People is available from Amazon. The AchieveMax® company is an affiliate of Amazon.com.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

The Little BIG Things

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The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence
by Tom Peters

What do you say about this author/consultant/professional speaker? He falls into a somewhat unique category with other notables such as Bill Gates, Lee Iacocca, Jack Welch, Ted Turner and Donald Trump. They’re all successful businessmen and outspoken authors. They’re all well-educated, experienced, controversial, well-read, insightful, thought-provoking, heavily networked, often bombastic, highly respected and tremendously passionate.

Oh, one more thing. People either love them or hate them. There is no mid-ground with these men, and they could care less. Tom will tell you as much. He has valuable messages to share—it’s up to you to take them or leave them.

I’m not even certain how to review this book. I always struggle when it comes to reviewing anything Tom has written. A true review of his content would almost require a book to do it justice. There are several reasons for that:

  • While he had a good title and theme for each of his works, he’s all over the map with his content.
  • He writes like he thinks … short choppy sentences, buzz words, a variety of fonts in every size you can imagine, and a ton of exclamation points!
  • He repeats a great deal of material from his previous books but, oddly enough, blends it into new, creative content which flows smoothly and adds credibility to his message.

This book contains 538 pages spread across 163 chapters which focus on the pursuit of excellence. Thus far, Peters has published 16 books … all best sellers and all dealing, in one way or another, with the pursuit of excellence.

In this book, he does so by sharing “Little BIG Things” which he defines as: “Compelling nuggets of a life experience that is representative of a BIG and Potent Idea.” In this particular journey, he’ll take you all over the world as he drops very impressive names to illustrate his learning points.

To stay current, Tom writes this book in a blogging style and admits that it isn’t meant to be read like a regular book. While his ever-changing approach is a challenge to master, he continues to force readers to stop and think and offers a great deal of practical and achievable advice.

Peters has always been a “back-to-the-basics” guy and certainly stays true to form in this book. He argues that the power of small should not be underestimated, whether in big decisions like health care or in the power of having flowers in view or keeping restrooms clean at brick-and-mortar establishments.

The book also includes the 19 Es of Excellence and 7 Special Sections: Guru Gaffes, The Recession 46, The “Equations,” You, Me, & Charlie Wilson’s War, Quotations 34, Top 50 “Have-Yous,” and The Heart of Business Strategy.

Grab a box of highlighters, pour a drink, find a comfortable chair, buckle your seat belt and prepare for a typical “Tom Peters excursion” providing education, entertainment, and personal challenge. As usual, you won’t be disappointed!

The Little BIG Things: 163 Ways to Pursue EXCELLENCE is available from Amazon. The AchieveMax® company is an affiliate of Amazon.com.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

There’s No Traffic on the Extra Mile

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There’s No Traffic on the Extra Mile: Lessons on the Road from Dreams to Destiny
by Rickey Minor
192 pages

Many people may not recognize the name Rickey Minor, but they’ve certainly been exposed to his talent, expertise, and influence. Rickey is the music director of American Idol and has served as music director for nearly every major American awards show including the Grammys, the Emmys, and the Super Bowl. Rickey served as the bandleader on Fox’s Don’t Forget The Lyrics but is best known as the current musical director and bandleader for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

It must feel rewarding to have testimonials on your back book cover by people like Smokey Robinson, Stevie Wonder, Annie Lennox, Usher, Whitney Houston and Carrie Underwood! Rickey would know that as he has been a friend, mentor, and/or music director to these successful artists and so many more who admire him and sing his praises.

Minor’s motivational wisdom is similar to that of so many other books in the genre. However, he shares his own challenging journey from South Central (Los Angeles) to center stage of some of the most exciting events in television history.

Rickey asked himself some interesting questions and then created this book as a result of the answers he discovered within his own experiences. A few of those questions include;

  • How do we begin to create value, integrity, love, and truth?
  • How do you learn to distinguish and rise above your own limitations of circumstance or destructive mind-set?

He emphasizes his beliefs and advice by spinning stories from his life in the music business into inspirational gold, imparting the lessons he has learned the hard way, including:

  • Why every action moves you closer or farther away from your aspiration—and how to tell the difference.
  • Look for mentors. Minor recounts how Quincy Jones became his.
  • Always give people more than they were expecting. But remember that you can’t please everyone all the time.
  • If you can’t get what you want, it may be because you’re not ready yet. When the time comes, you’ll know.

The book also offers eight pages of photos from Rickey’s life including his childhood, family, friends, and some of the most accomplished entertainers in the business.

Rickey’s bottom line, no matter what your field of endeavor, is this: If you drive hard enough, sooner or later you will be the only one left on the road.

There’s No Traffic on the Extra Mile: Lessons on the Road from Dreams to Destiny is available from Amazon. The AchieveMax® company is an affiliate of Amazon.com.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

How Remarkable Women Lead

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How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Life
by Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston

Let me begin by warning you not to be taken in by the title: men have as much to learn from this book as women. In fact, I can think of a number of males in leadership roles that I plan to recommend this book to.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege to work with many remarkable women leaders. I know from personal experience that the talent, experience, creativity, tenacity, dedication, and outcomes of these woman in leadership roles have contributed tremendously to the success of so many outstanding organizations in every industry.

The book’s 368 pages are based on five remarkable years of proprietary research by co-authors Joanna Barsh and Susie Cranston … both McKinsey & Company consultants. The authors establish the links between joy, happiness, and distinctive performance with the groundbreaking model of Centered Leadership.

A number of personal stories and related insights demonstrate the magic which occurs when you put the five elements of Centered Leadership—meaning, framing, connecting, engaging, and energizing—to work.

I especially enjoyed the interviews with top executives who have proven themselves under very competitive and challenging circumstances. They include:

  • Andrea Jung, the CEO of Avon, who fired herself on Friday and re-emerged on Monday as the “new” turnaround CEO.
  • Eileen Naughton, who lost her dream job but landed on her feet at Google to emerge as a formidable leader.
  • Ruth Porat who successfully coped with personal and professional times at Morgan Stanley.

These interviews and others (Xerox’s Anne Mulcahy, former Quantas chairman Margaret Jackson, and orchestra leader Alondra de la Parra to name a few) provide both insight and inspiration to any potential or current leader facing today’s enormous challenges. It was indeed interesting to hear from some of the most accomplished women leaders in the world and enlightening to hear that they had their moments of crisis, self doubt and mistakes. They learned from these moments and used them to build their future.

I often get a personal “feel” for a book’s offering by browsing chapter titles. I found this particular offering intriguing in a number of chapter areas. Here’s a short sample of what to expect.

  • It All Begins with Meaning
  • Your Own Happiness Equation
  • Start with Your Strengths
  • Dreamcatcher
  • Matter of Framing
  • Your Organization as Family
  • The Tapestry You Weave
  • Make Your Own Luck
  • Weathering the Heights
  • Energy in Your Toolkit

Some chapters better apply to women starting out in their careers, while others focus on the seasoned female leader. How Remarkable Women Lead is a great read, with real insights and actionable ideas!

It’s both a roadmap as well as an accessible workbook into the mechanisms that govern the lives of women leaders.

How Remarkable Women Lead: The Breakthrough Model for Work and Lifeis available from Amazon. The AchieveMax® company is an affiliate of Amazon.com.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea

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10-10-10: A Life-Transforming Idea
by Suzy Welch

Prior to reviewing this transformative new approach to decision making, let me tell you a little bit about the author. Many know her as the wife of former GE CEO Jack Welch and co-author, with her husband, of the number one bestseller Winning.

However, Suze Welch is a noted journalist, author, and speaker as well as a work-life columnist for O, The Oprah Magazine. She also serves as an Executive in Residence at Babson College’s Center for Women’s Leadership and is the former editor of the Harvard Business Review.

While her concept is very simple, it is also a powerful philosophy and very practical guide to decision making in the realms of career, business, leadership, romance, health, friendship, marriage, and family.

Instead of acting on impulse or instinct alone, as so many of us often do, this guide to life management suggests we ask what impact a decision or action will have in 10 minutes, 10 months, and 10 years.

The process is clear, explicit, and distinct. In fact, when you’re facing a dilemma, all it takes to begin are three questions:

  1. What are the consequences of my decision in 10 minutes?
  2. What are the consequences of my decision in 10 months?
  3. What are the consequences of my decision in 10 years?

Every time you use the process, you must start by posing your dilemma, crisis, or challenge in the form of a question. Should I buy a house right now or continue to rent for a while? Is it time for a new car or do I stick with my old ride for another year or two? Do I take that new job offer or play it safe?

The next stage of the process is data collection … in your head, on your computer, with pen and paper, or in conversation with someone you trust—whatever works best for you. Just make certain that you’re totally honest and exhaustive in answering each of the above questions.

To be clear, the first question means “right now”—a minute, a day or a week!

The second 10 represents a point in the forseeable future when the initial reaction to your decision has passed but the consequences continue to play out in ways you can reasonably predict. The third 10 stands for a time in the future that’s so far off that its particulars are entirely vague at the moment.

So, in short, the process is meant to suggest time frames along the lines of: “in the heat of the moment,” “somewhat later,” and “when all is said and done.”

And, finally, the last step of the process is analysis.

Take all of the information you collected in your data collection stage and compare it to your innermost values—your beliefs, goals, dreams, and needs.

In short, this part of the 10-10-10 process requires you to ask: “Knowing what I now know about all of my options and their consequences, which decision will best help me create a life of my own making?”

Your answer to that question is your solution.

Sound simple? Not quite.

The author shares examples from her own life and the lives of many others who use the process, revealing how exploring the impact of our decision in multiple time frames invariably surfaces our unconscious agendas, fears, need and desires—and ultimately helps us identify and live according to our deepest goals and values.

In this revealing book, Suzy Welch explains the power of this transformative idea that can replace chaos with consistency, guilt with joy, and confusion with clarity!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

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How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In
by Jim Collins

In working with our clients from coast to coast, I’ve discovered an interesting insight concerning author Jim Collins. Those who know of his body of work fall into two distinct categories:

  1. Those who appreciate his research, admire his product and wait anxiously for his next release and …
  2. Those who argue that he picks and chooses his data and that his content often runs counter to research on hundreds of companies, conducted over decades by dozens of scholars.

Either way you can’t argue that this noted author and devoted student of companies of all kinds can produce best sellers. As the author of the national bestseller Good to Great and coauthor of Built to Last, Collins’ work has been featured in Fortune, BusinessWeek, USA Today and the Harvard Business Review.

What I found very interesting in How The Mighty Fall was the fact that Collins chose to examine the decline of several companies which he hailed in his previous bestseller, Good to Great. While he obviously had nothing to do with the decline of such companies as Circuit City and Fannie Mae, which he previously praised, he could have easily chosen not to examine how they came to fall on hard times. Instead he decided to delve into exactly what happened as these companies strayed away from what once made them great.

Collins reveals that, in today’s financially perilous environment, decline can actually be avoided, detected, and reversed. The author and his research team spent more than four years on this research project and, in doing so, uncovered five stages of decline.

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success
Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More
Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril
Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation
Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

He describes each stage in detail, gives examples of companies in each, and points out that by understanding these stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom.

I’ve always found it interesting that, in the very same economy, a Best Buy can prosper while a Circuit City fades into oblivion, Wal-Mart continues to grow and profit while we question the longevity of Sears and Kmart, Southwest Airline achieves a profit while all of its competitors fall short. The author’s research will provide you with some valuable insight into this unusual phenomenon.

Collins points out that every institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline. However, that decline is largely self-inflicted and the path to recovery lies largely in the hands of the companies themselves.

You’ll find this 222 page work an easy and interesting read as we continue to witness major changes and challenges in the nation’s financial status. Looks like another winner for Jim Collins.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Who’s Your Gladys?

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Who’s Your Gladys?: How to Turn Even the Most Difficult Customer into Your Biggest Fan
by Marilyn Suttle and Lori Jo Vest

I have more than 3,400 books in my personal library. It’s quite obvious I’ve read my share of what’s been offered in book stores over the years. For our book reviews section, I’ve written 201 reviews of books which we feel might benefit our clients, blog subscribers, and readers.

Of the 201 reviews, 13 have thus far focused on customer service, and I can’t help but note that they all share a very common thread … “Customers are the backbone of ANY business.” Care of those customers should be of the utmost importance to any organization that hopes to prosper in today’s challenging and very competitive marketplace. That statement is so obvious that it’s almost reached a point of ad nauseam (a disgusting or ridiculous degree). If that is, indeed, true … why is it so difficult to find good customer service today?

Our co-authors both agree that when times are tough, it’s the companies with exceptional customer service that survive. They then proceed to provide their readers with a blueprint on how this is accomplished by some of the most diverse and successful companies in the nation.

They use a very unique approach to accomplish this task. Every successful book must have a “hook” if it hopes to hold the attention of the reader throughout the content they offer. These talented authors took no chances inasmuch as they provided several “hooks.”

The first “hook” is “Gladys”. You’re going to hear a lot about Gladys from cover to cover. She’s actually a combination of those people who represent a company’s most challenging client—the one who requires a high level of skill to manage. This person could be a man, woman, or child. They may be young or old … a long-time customer or first-time patron. We’ve all had to deal with this challenging person, and Gladys will probably never go away. This book will not only provide strategies to cope with Gladys but will show you how to turn “your Gladys” into a Raving Fan. Now that’s a transformation that certainly makes your effort worthwhile!

Here’s another powerful “hook.” While it’s quite obvious that our authors are both well-educated, experienced, and very accomplished, they choose to make their very valid points by providing real-life examples rather than their own opinions. They offer detailed case studies on how 10 very successful companies deal with their most challenging customers. Each of the case studies demonstrates a unique solution to relatively common customer service challenges. They interviewed front-line employees as well as leaders within each organization to discover how each has learned to deal with a variety of challenging circumstances in dealing with Gladys. This approach allows us, as readers, to learn from realistic successes and failures of real people in authentic circumstances.

To illustrate the diversity of the case studies, the authors chose a moving company, a self-help organization, an airline, a polyethylene piping product supplier, a spa, an eyeglass distributor, a medical center, a high-end guitar manufacturer, a residential building business, and a television production studio. That kind of diversity alone proves that you simply can’t escape “Gladys” so you’d best focus on pleasing and transforming her!

The following “hooks” are frosting on the cake! The authors aren’t about to let you forget their valuable content. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find:

  • Practical Points … a multi-page review of the critical points outlined within the previous chapter.
  • Progress Checklist … a challenge to review those critical chapter points and rate yourself and/or organization on a scale from one to ten. After an honest appraisal, you’ll have an accurate snapshot of what areas to recognize and reward and what areas need enhancement.
  • Lessons Learned … a list of critical questions as to how you can and will apply what you’ve learned from that chapter to your own daily situation. These questions are excellent for group discussions among your staff members.
  • Answers … after you have discussed the previous questions, the authors provide additional thoughts to ponder for each of the questions.
  • Who’s Your Gladys? … a closing chapter statement that can lead to further discussion of the chapter content as well as providing food for thought before you move on.

Upon completion of this pleasant and strongly informative read, you’re not going to walk away feeling as though you’ve been exposed to the typical customer service “fluff” which we’re all so familiar with. You’ll be armed with real-life, marketplace-tested, tips, tools, and strategies that will surely put a smile on the face of any Gladys you may have to deal with!

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask …

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Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Social Media, but were afraid to ask …: Building Your Business Using Consumer Generated Media
by Hilary JM Topper

I’ve never had the honor of being mistaken for a “techy” … nor will I be in the future. In fact, I’m probably as far from being a “techy” as one can possibly be.

About four years ago, I was invited to speak at a major conference for Realtors from several neighboring states. As is my usual behavior, I sat in on several of the break-out sessions in hopes of enhancing my knowledge base. One of the speakers informed the audience of a new technology that was growing very rapidly and would soon be known and used nationally to communicate among its millions of followers. It was called “Twitter,” and the rest is history.

Of course, with my limited knowledge of social media, “Twitter” fell into the same category as “MyFace” and “Spacebook” for me. Obviously, “Twitter” was the only one I could even pronounce properly! If only Hilary JM Topper had published her basic social media 101 book at that time! It would have solved a lot of problems for me and millions of others. However, don’t let me mislead you as the author has written this helpful guide for both non-technical and Internet-savvy readers.

In a mere 172 pages, Hilary provides some insight into a host of various web sites … many you have probably never heard of. She describes each site and, based on a great deal of research, shares the pros and cons of each as well as techniques to best tap the full potential of every site.

At the conclusion of each chapter, the author shares her personal insights in a short summary she calls “My 2 Cents.” I found these comments to be very helpful indeed.

If you’re looking for the fastest was to communicate your ideas today, you’d better be investigating in social media. In this revealing guide, the author will:

  • Describe how to use social media sites, blogs, and microblogs.
  • Review more than a dozen social networking sites.
  • Provide an understanding of the importance of podcasts and video podcasts.
  • Discuss what it means to “Go Viral.”
  • Give suggestions for handling crisis situations via the Web.

Are you familiar with Brightkite.com, Bebo.com, FriendFeed.com, hi5.com, Identi.ca, koornk.com, Plaxo.com, Plurk.com, Spoke.com, Tumblr.com, Yammer.com, or YouAre.com? Well, you will be after finishing this useful guide, and you’ll more than likely be much more familiar with more common sites such as Facebook, Flickr, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter.

Get the most out of social networking, whether your goal is to cultivate an online following, build a business, reach new markets or find quick and useful information. This book will certainly assist you in meeting your needs.

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.

CATS: The Nine Lives of Innovation

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CatsCATS: The Nine Lives of Innovation
by Stephen C. Lundin, Ph.D.

Another “mini-book” (169 pages) hits the book store shelves … this one from Stephen C. Lundin, author of the bestseller FISH! which has been published in 34 languages. The author is a writer and filmmaker with a background in business, management, and education.

Lundin unveils the next big trend in business—innovation as a tool of personal success. I can’t think of a better time to focus on obtaining the many valuable benefits of such a powerful resource. Within these pages, readers will learn about innovation and how companies and people can innovate more. The author’s belief is that innovation and creativity can be learned, and there are certain things that can be done to enhance creativity. Learn how to tap into your power of innovation and then unleash it in every member of your organization. You’ll learn how to recognize and deal with the four basic challenges that must be overcome in order to enhance your innovation edge:

  1. Doubts, Fears, and Distractions (fraidy cats never innovate).
  2. Being Normal (stop being normal—make your own rules).
  3. Failure (embrace it—it’s the only way to learn).
  4. Foster Creativity (don’t be a control freak).

Lundin then describes the Nine Lives of Innovation, each of which is a step toward realizing your inner CAT and becoming a fully contributing member of an innovative organization.

  1. Create an Innovation Friendly Environment.
  2. Always Be Prepared.
  3. Know That Innovation Isn’t Normal.
  4. Welcome Physical Provocation.
  5. Enjoy Social Provocation.
  6. Promote Intellectual Provocation.
  7. Put Failure Into Perspective.
  8. Fail Early and Fail Well.
  9. Understand Natural Energy.

The author also demonstrates his own creativity by utilizing additional learning tools such as:

  • CAT Nip—an activity that provokes your thinking or tests your newfound CAT skills.
  • CAT Pause (paws, get it?)—A break in the action that creates a space for reflection.
  • CAT’S Eye View—A real life example used to illustrate a point.

CATS is full of simple yet profound information and anecdotes that can be used to spark the curiosity and creativity within every employee and, thus, inspire innovative approaches to ordinary situations.

(This book review was originally published in 2009 as one of the Top 10 Books – Edition 20.)

About Harry K. Jones

Harry K. Jones is a motivational speaker and consultant for AchieveMax®, Inc., a company of professional speakers who provide custom-designed seminars, keynote presentations, and consulting services. Harry's top requested topics include change management, customer service, creativity, employee retention, goal setting, leadership, stress management, teamwork, and time management. For more information on Harry's presentations, please call 800-886-2629 or fill out our contact form.