Best Business Books of 2005

Well, what's a tradition if you don't keep it up?

So, here we go, the annual recap of the Best Business Books of 2005, well, at least in my humble opinion:

1. Blue Ocean Strategy - W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne
2. All Marketers are Liars - Seth Godin
3. Strategy Bites Back - Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel
4. It's Not What You Say... It's What You Do - Laurence Haughton
5. Freakanomics - Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
6. The Ten Faces of Innovation - Thomas Kelley and Jonathan Littman
7. A Whole New Mind - Daniel H. Pink
8. Collapse - Jared Diamond

So, on your Boxing Day travels, or if your brave enough to pick these up amongst the holiday madness, enjoy. They got me through the year, the led to some amazing Leadership Development Workshops, and they brought a million thoughts to the table.

Happy Holidays! See you in 2006!

Click here to read the Best Books from 2004

Perceptive Perception

Ok, the bandwagon is apparently in overdrive as everyone is talking about organizational behaviour, and more specifically - perception, or rather lack there of.. case in point this image from Brand Autopsy (via ScaryIdeas):

Please Read Carefully

Again with the collisions..

Over the summer, on a lazy Saturday morning, I stumbled across a garage sale with a slew of business textbooks. Most of them were on Organizational Behaviour, and as usual, I bought them all. I figured with all of the staleness in organizations around motivation and innovation, there might be something worth passing on...

Fast forward to last week, when I was scouring the web for videos for an upcoming workshop on 'Execution and Accountability'. I came upon a clip from the Kellogg School featuring Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE. His take is that his role is overwhelmingly based in Organizational Behaviour. If you have some time check it out. (Real Player Required get it here)

Fast forward again to this morning where I went to check out my newest 'must read' blog Slacker Manager, and I found an interesting post on 'Managing Your Boss'. Halfway through the post there is a section on perception.. with the following:

Read the following text:

Finished Files are the Re-
sult of Years of Scientif-
ic Study Combined with the
Experience of Many Years

Got it? Makes no sense, huh? Don't worry about that. Read it again and just count the number of times the letter 'F' occurs.

How many did you count? If you counted less than six, go read it again and count the number of times the word 'of' occurs. In a group of 20 people, 2/3 of them will see the letter 'F' occurring only three times. Often, you can have them read the paragraph over and over and they'll still miss the word 'of.' You probably get the idea, but in a group of people, it's a pretty dramatic example of how all of us perceive reality in different ways. We'll see things differently from the boss, who will see things differently from our co-worker, and so on.

Needless to say, I got caught. Perception gap. Reminds me of the time in 7th grade where I was caught with this one..


My point is, we deal with people. It's not a game, it's a science. In 2006 there will be a strong push towards understanding the science of people. That will get them going..

Remember, you read it here first...

Pat on the Back Rub

It's amazing.. you build/create/deliver a remarkable product, and what do you know.. people actually remark!!

I read books all the time. If you haven't been to our resources sections to see just how many, take a moment and check it out..

Anyway, last week due to the snow I had to finally put my bike into hibernation and ride the subway. Well, for me the benefit to this is that I get to read..

So there I am on the subway reading Marshall McLuhan's 'The Medium is the Massage' and not once, but twice I was asked what book I was reading. Twice. I've read hundreds of books, and I'm asked twice! Now, keep in mind that 'The Medium...' is a wonderful blend of text and imagery, but either way... it works!

So next time you're putting together a boring old 'book' (or service, sweater, automobile, whatever).. remember, make it remarkable, and they will remark...

To quote Mr. McLuhan:

"Societies have always been shaped more by the nature of the media by which(we)communicate, than by the content of the communication."

In other words a toaster is just a toaster until OXO, or Kitchenaid get their hands on it...