Sunday, December 6, 2009

Made to Stick or Business by the Book

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die

Author: Chip Heath

Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas–business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others–struggle to make their ideas “stick.”

Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.”

In this indispensable guide, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds–from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony–draw their power from the same six traits.

Made to Stick is a book that will transform the way you communicate ideas. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures)–the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of “the Mother Teresa Effect”; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winningideas–and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.


The Washington Post - Barry Schwartz

… [the authors] have written a fine, "sticky" book -- one that lays out the determinants of stickiness; illustrates them with vivid examples from disparate settings (e.g., business, education and effective social movements); warns us of obstacles that must be negotiated if ideas are to be sticky; and provides a set of "idea clinics," examples of good ideas presented in not so good ways, along with steps to make them better.

Publishers Weekly

Unabashedly inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling The Tipping Point, the brothers Heath Chip a professor at Stanford's business school, Dan a teacher and textbook publisher offer an entertaining, practical guide to effective communication. Drawing extensively on psychosocial studies on memory, emotion and motivation, their study is couched in terms of "stickiness" that is, the art of making ideas unforgettable. They start by relating the gruesome urban legend about a man who succumbs to a barroom flirtation only to wake up in a tub of ice, victim of an organ-harvesting ring. What makes such stories memorable and ensures their spread around the globe? The authors credit six key principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories. (The initial letters spell out "success" well, almost.) They illustrate these principles with a host of stories, some familiar (Kennedy's stirring call to "land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth" within a decade) and others very funny (Nora Ephron's anecdote of how her high school journalism teacher used a simple, embarrassing trick to teach her how not to "bury the lead"). Throughout the book, sidebars show how bland messages can be made intriguing. Fun to read and solidly researched, this book deserves a wide readership. (Jan. 16) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Carol J. Elsen Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information - Library Journal

Chip Heath (organizational behavior, Graduate Sch. of Business, Stanford Univ.; Rumor Mills) and brother Dan (consultant, Duke Corporate Education; cofounder, Thinkwell) team up on a tacky topic. They borrow the "stickiness" metaphor from Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, which examined the social forces causing ideas to make the leap ("tip") from small to large groups. The Heaths focus on the traits that contribute to an idea's ability to catch on, or "stick." Urban legends—like the one about the traveling businessman who is drugged and wakes up minus a kidney—are prime examples of such stickiness. While totally untrue, these tales make for great retelling, and we seem primed to fall for them. Using engaging examples from around the world, the authors illustrate the six principles of stickiness: Simplicity, Unexpectedness, Concreteness, Credibility, Emotions, and Stories (SUCCES!). Their fun-to-read book will appeal to communicators in every field who want their messages to be more effective. Highly recommended for public and academic library business or psychology collections.

Heidi DolamoreCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information. - School Library Journal

Adult/High School
While at first glance this volume might resemble the latest in a series of trendy business advice books, ultimately it is about storytelling, and it is a how-to for crafting a compelling narrative. Employing a lighthearted tone, the Heaths apply those selfsame techniques to create an enjoyable read. They analyze such narratives as urban legends and advertisements to discover what makes them memorable. The authors provide a simple mnemonic to remember their stickiness formula, and the basic principles may be applied in any situation where persuasiveness is an asset. The book is a fast read peppered with exercises to test the techniques proposed. Some examples act as pop quizzes and engage readers in moments of self-reflection. The book draws on examples from teachers, scientists, and soldiers who have been successful at crafting memorable ideas, from the well-known blue eye/brown eye exercise conducted by an Iowa elementary school teacher as an experiential lesson in prejudice following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., to conversations among Xerox repairmen. Readers who enjoyed Malcolm Gladwell's Blink (2005) and The Tipping Point (2000, both Little, Brown) will appreciate this clever take on contemporary culture.



Interesting textbook: How Nations Grow Rich or South Western Accounting with Peachtree Complete 2005

Business by the Book: The Complete Guide of Biblical Principles for the WorkPlace

Author: Larry Burkett

Now readers can approach the new millennium by incorporating Burkett's tried and true advice into their business world with this updated edition of the best-selling classic containing some of the actual study material used in Burkett's worldwide seminars.



Saturday, December 5, 2009

Career Match or Wall Street Journal Personal Finance Workbook

Career Match: Connecting Who You Are with What You'll Love to Do

Author: Shoya Zichy

For some, a job is just a way to pay the bills. For others -- those whose careers fit their passions and personalities -- it is a source of great satisfaction and success. Career Match is designed to help people discover their ideal work. Using the author's revealing ten-minute self-assessment, the book helps readers determine their personality style, then walks them through the range of career choices best for them. This indispensable guide will enable anyone to:

* identify the type of work that will inspire and exhilarate them * recognize the type of boss and work environment they need to thrive * confirm the rightness of the path they are on -- or help them find a better one * speed up their job search

The book includes in-depth chapters for each personality type, detailed explanations of career options, and inspiring real-life stories of people who have found fulfillment in work that suits their personality. This invaluable resource will help anyone in need of direction match who they are with what they should do -- for a lifetime of gratifying work and greater success.

Author Biography: Shoya Zichy (New York, NY) is a career coach with a Master's in Education and Counseling, and is past president of the Myers-Briggs Association of New York. Her proprietary personality model has been featured in Fortune, Barron's, and on CNN.



Interesting book: Choice Recipes by Moscow Women or Cocktail Aficionado

Wall Street Journal Personal Finance Workbook

Author: Jeff D Opdyk

A hands-on, interactive guide to managing your money and building your financial future

Many of the worksheets in this book are available online and can be saved, printed, and recalculated at any time.

Understanding your money, and getting it to work for you, is more important today than it ever was, because you alone are responsible for every aspect of your financial life, from managing your day-to-day living expenses to planning a college savings fund and, ultimately, retirement. The sooner you start taking control of your financial life the better, and there’s no greater authority on financial matters than The Wall Street Journal. This workbook takes the mystery out of personal finance and addresses every topic you’ll need to master, from building a solid financial base to growing your financial assets. Worksheets, charts, and step-by-step instructions throughout help you do the math and work through the basics, making it quick and easy to organize your cash and eventually build wealth. Learn how to:

• Create a spending plan and budget

• Balance a checkbook

• Make decisions about what types of— and how much—insurance you need

• Manage credit and debt

• Finance big expenses like real estate and education

• Understand and properly assess your own appetite for risk

• Formulate the right asset allocation

• Start building an investment portfolio

• Make real estate decisions like purchasing vs. renting

• Refinance a mortgage

• Manage your 401(k)

• Deal with taxes

• Plan for college expenses

Also available—the companion to thisworkbook:The Wall Street Journal Complete Personal Finance Guidebook, by Jeff D. Opdyke

Get your financial life in order with help from The Wall Street Journal. Look for:

• The Wall Street Journal Complete Money and Investing Guidebook

• The Wall Street Journal Complete Identity Theft Guidebook

• The Wall Street Journal Complete Real Estate Investing Guidebook



Thursday, December 3, 2009

Secrets of Power Negotiating or The World is Flat

Secrets of Power Negotiating: Inside Secrets from a Master Negotiator

Author: Roger Dawson

Secrets of Power Negotiating covers every aspect of the negotiating process with practical, proven advice: from beginning steps to critical final moves, how to recognize unethical tactics, key principles to the Power Negotiating strategy, why money is not as important as everyone thinks, negotiating pressure points, understanding the other party and gaining the upper hand, and analyses of different negotiating styles.

And Power Negotiating can be applied to any situation:

• Business owners will learn how to dramatically improve profits.
• Managers will learn how to become dynamic leaders.
• Parents will discover how to shape their child's future.
• Salespeople will learn how to build-and protect-their bottom line.
• All readers will find how to develop power and control over their ability to get what they want-in all areas of their lives.



New interesting textbook: Fighting Words or The Celling of America

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (Further Updated and Expanded)

Author: Thomas L Friedman

"One mark of a great book is that it makes you see things in a new way, and Mr. Friedman certainly succeeds in that goal," the Nobel laureate Joseph E. Stiglitz wrote in The New York Times reviewing The World Is Flat in 2005.

In this new edition, Thomas L. Friedman includes fresh stories and insights to help us understand the flattening of the world. Weaving new information into his overall thesis, and answering the questions he has been most frequently asked by parents across the country, this third edition also includes two new chapters--on how to be a political activist and social entrepreneur in a flat world; and on the more troubling question of how to manage our reputations and privacy in a world where we are all becoming publishers and public figures.

The World Is Flat 3.0 is an essential update on globalization, its opportunities for individual empowerment, its achievements at lifting millions out of poverty, and its drawbacks--environmental, social, and political, powerfully illuminated by the Pulitzer Prize--winning author of The Lexus and the Olive Tree.



Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Options as a Strategic Investment or High Altitude Leadership

Options as a Strategic Investment

Author: Lawrence G McMillan

The market in listed options and non-equity option products provides investors and traders with a wealth of new, strategic opportunities for managing their investments. This updated and revised Third Edition of the bestselling options book of all time gives you the latest market-tested tools for maximizing the earnings potential of your portfolio while reducing downside risk - no matter how the market is performing. Inside this expanded edition are scores of proven techniques and business-tested tactics for investing in many of the innovative new options products available. For example, you'll find buy and sell strategies for Long Term Equity Anticipation Securities (LEAPS); a thorough analysis of neutral trading, how it works, and various ways it can improve your overall profit picture; detailed guidance for investing in Preferred Equity Redemption Cumulative Stocks (PERCS> and how to hedge them with common and regular options; an extensive overview of futures and futures options; and much more. Written especially for investors who have some familiarity with the option market, this comprehensive reference also shows you the concepts and applications of various option strategies - how they work, in which situations, and why ... techniques for using index options and futures to protect your portfolio and improve your return ... and the implications of the tax laws for option writers, including allowable long-term gains and losses. In addition, detailed examples, exhibits, and checklists show you the power of each strategy under carefully described market conditions.

booknews.com

The new edition is revised to represent the latest trading vehicles and applications, including coverage of long-term equity anticipation securities LEAPs, preferred equity redemption cumulative stocks PERCs, neutral trading, futures options, warrants, and standard portfolio analysis of risk SPAN. The idea, of course, is to maximize earnings and reduce risk—no matter how the market is performing. Strategy techniques and examples show how to do it.

Reference & Research Book News

The new edition is revised to represent the latest trading vehicles and applications, including coverage of long-term equity anticipation securities LEAPs, preferred equity redemption cumulative stocks PERCs, neutral trading, futures options, warrants, and standard portfolio analysis of risk SPAN. The idea, of course, is to maximize earnings and reduce risk—no matter how the market is performing. Strategy techniques and examples show how to do it.

Booknews

The new edition is revised to represent the latest trading vehicles and applications, including coverage of long-term equity anticipation securities (LEAPs), preferred equity redemption cumulative stocks (PERCs), neutral trading, futures options, warrants, and standard portfolio analysis of risk (SPAN). The idea, of course, is to maximize earnings and reduce risk--no matter how the market is performing. Strategy techniques and examples show how to do it. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)



Book review: The Dream or Resume Handbook

High Altitude Leadership: What the World's Most Forbidding Peaks Teach Us About Success

Author: Chris Warner

Praise for High Altitude Leadership


"A totally original and breathtaking (literally!) journey into the unexplored terrain of fearless leadership."

—Warren Bennis, Distinguished Professor of Business at the University of Southern California and coauthor of Transparency and Judgment

"Chris Warner and Don Schmincke transport us to the highest peaks in the world for a fresh eye on what too often goes wrong at sea level, whether it's corporate cowardice, personal selfishness, or just plain fear.?Drawing on gripping accounts of both conquest and survival in the Himalayas, High Altitude Leadership offers compelling lessons on the art of bravery, selfless leadership, and high performance under the most daunting outdoor—and business—conditions." ????

—Michael Useem, professor of management and director of the Leadership Center at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, and author, The Go Point: When It's Time to Decide and The Leadership Moment

"Using harrowing first person accounts of life and death on the mountaintop, Chris Warner and Don Schmincke pinpoint eight lessons leaders need to learn to reach the highest peak of success in business. Dare to be a high altitude leader. Read this book!"

—Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and The One Minute Entrepreneur®

Publishers Weekly

Starred Review.

Warner is a mountaineer and entrepreneur (founder of mountaineering outfitter Earth Treks); Schmincke is an author (The Code of the Executive) and leadership consultant, though he's an MIT-trained scientist and engineer at heart. Having met on a charity climb in the Andes, they discovered similar opinions on human nature and management techniques, from which they developed the concept of "high altitude leadership." Warner and Schminke identify eight psychological mindsets that paralyze organizations and individuals, undermining productivity: Fear, Selfishness, Tool Seduction, Arrogance, Lone Heroism, Cowardice, Comfort and Gravity. Each is discussed in its own chapter, beginning with an often tragic example from Warner's mountaineering life that shows pointedly how similar behavior can lead to workplace catastrophe. Schmincke prides himself on being a "mad scientist" rather than a management guru, focused on practical observation and common-sense application; he employs a deliciously sarcastic tone when discussing typical, ineffective managerial "magic cures" like Mission Statements and Codes of Values. The final chapter is devoted to caring, highlighting the importance of courage, moral code, efficacy, social responsibility, honor, patriotism, virtue, valor and sense of group identity. As much a life guide as a business primer, this book sports a helpful, engaging and positive plan for working together effectively and honestly.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.



Table of Contents:
Preface.

Acknowledgments.

Introduction.

1. Danger #1: Fear.

2. Danger #2: Selfishness.

3. Danger #3: Tool Seduction.

4. Danger #4: Arrogance.

5. Danger #5: Lone Heroism.

6. Danger #6: Cowardice.

7. Danger #7: Comfort.

8. Danger #8: Gravity.

9. The Journey Begins.

Resources.

Notes.