ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY BEGUN ON G+ BY SUSAN SCRUPSKI
ENTERPRISE 2.0
(IN PROGRESS)
38 Books Reviewed (April 9, 2014)
Brokerage & Closure: An Introduction to Social Capital
Almost everything that happens in a firm flows through informal networks builts by advice, coordination, cooperation, friendship, gossip, knowledge, and trust. In this book, Ron Burt builds upon his celebrated work on network analyses to explain how these informal networks functions and the role of network entrepreneurs who have amassed social capital. Burt shows that social capital is a critical element in business strategy. Who has it, how it works and how to develop it have become key questions as markets, organizations and careers become more and more dependent on informal discretionary relationships. Informal relations have always mattered. What is new is the range of activities in which they now matter, and the emerging clarity we have about how they create advantage for certain people at the expense of others. This advantage is created by brokerage and closure. Brokerage is the activity of people who live at the intersecting of social worlds, who can see and develope good ideas. Closure is the tightening of coordination on a closed network of people. Brokerage and Closure explores how these elements work together to define social capital, showing how in the business world reputation has come to replace authority and reward has come to be associated with achieving competitive advantage in a social order of continuous disequilibrium.
The Cluetrain Manifesto: the End of Business as Usual
The Cluetrain Manifesto burst onto the scene in March 1999, with ninety-five theses nailed up on the Web. Within days, www.cluetrain.com had ignited a vibrant global conversation challenging sacred corporate assumptions about the very nature of business in a digital world. The Wall Street Journal called it “absolutely brilliant.” Soon, executives from Fortune 500 companies everywhere were lining up to sign-on to the Manifesto. This is the book that delivers on the buzz. The Cluetrain Manifesto is a wake-up call that says business as usual is gone forever. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies. Today’s markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny, and often shocking. Companies that aren’t listening to these exchanges are missing a dire warning. Companies that aren’t engaging in them are missing an unprecedented opportunity. The Cluetrain Manifesto is the culmination of this very real phenomenon. It shares powerful, firsthand experiences describing how Internet business differs radically from the corporate status quo. The fact is that employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Forget business as usual, The Cluetrain Manifesto marks the dawn of something bigger: Markets are becoming better informed, smarter, and more demanding of qualities missing from most business organizations These networked markets are conversations in which customers are intelligent human beings, not faceless demographic sectors Today, the organizational chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract authority Corporations must transform themselves into organizations that establish a genuine culture with a perspective, a personality, and a point of view Linking conversations inside the company to conversations in the marketplace will create enormous new value for companies that are clued-in.
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Generosity in a Connected Age
In the last century, a host of factors forced us to grapple with something we've never had to deal with on a national scale before: free time. And for much of the second half of the century, we spent billions of hours watching TV. Is this the best we can do with our time? As Clay Shirky's groundbreaking new book shows, things are changing. Free time creates what Shirky terms a 'cognitive surplus'. And now we are starting to use it in different ways. For the first time in the history of the medium, young people are watching less TV than their elders, turning away from passive consumption towards active participation. In Cognitive Surplus, Shirky documents this shift through a mixture of telling examples, analysis and social theory, and explores the human motivations that lie behind it. The television industry has been shocked to see alternative use3s of free time, especially among young people, because it believed that watching TV was society's official Best Use of Free Time. This view of society though, misunderstands how people actually make choices. Cognitive Surplus will show you how we do.
Collaborate or Perish: Reaching Across Boundaries in a Networked World.
Recommended by +Susan Scrupski, Social Insurgent, Dachis Group
In Collaborate or Perish! former Los Angeles police chief and New York police commissioner William Bratton and Harvard Kennedy School’s Zachary Tumin lay out a field-tested playbook for collaborating across the boundaries of our networked world. Today, when everyone is connected, collaboration is the game changer. Agencies and firms, citizens and groups who can collaborate, Bratton and Tumin argue, will thrive in the networked world; those who can’t are doomed to perish.
Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results
Collaboration", author Morten Hansen takes aim at what many leaders inherently know: in today's competitive environment, companywide collaboration is an imperative for successful strategy execution, yet the sought-after synergies are rarely, if ever, realized. In fact, most cross-unit collaborative efforts end up wasting time, money, and resources. How can managers avoid the costly traps of collaboration and instead start getting the results they need? In this book, Hansen shows managers how to get collaboration right through 'disciplined collaboration'. Based on the author's long-running research, in-depth case studies, and company interviews, "Collaboration" delivers practical advice and tools to help your organization collaborate for real results.
The Collaboration Imperative
Recommended by +Mark Eggleston, Cisco Systems, Inc. Collaboration Solutions Architect
Do you want to lead the kind of company that can quickly seize any opportunity and solve any problem? The Collaboration Imperative: Executive Strategies for Unlocking Your Organization's True Potential offers valuable executive strategies to unleash the hidden assets trapped inside your company-from talent and experience to the right answer and the next big idea. Free these assets through increased collaboration and you build a world-class organization that can tackle market opportunities with lightning speed.
Written by two seasoned Cisco executives, Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese, The Collaboration Imperative outlines actionable strategies for how you can:Create a culture that encourages collaborationBuild processes to streamline collaboration from top to bottomUse collaboration technology to achieve tangible results
In The Collaboration Imperative, you will learn:
Why collaboration is the biggest opportunity of the next decadeHow you can become a chief catalyst for collaborationHow to develop authentic communicators at every levelHow to get teams aligned and working toward a shared visionHow to make the most of meetings in an increasingly dispersed work worldWhat technologies are available to foster collaborationWhich common business activities are most ripe for collaborative transformationHow to ensure the maximum return on your collaboration investmentsHow you can become a truly collaborative leader
Collaboration Imperative includes case studies from a number of leading companies-from General Electric to Duke University to Best Buy and more. It also features interviews with collaboration thought leaders such as Morten Hansen (author of Collaboration), Thomas Malone (author of The Future of Work) and Andrew McAfee (author of Enterprise 2.0).
Complexity and Postmodernism
Gordon Ross' Take: (from G+ thread organizing these books, "My frame of reference (as is the frame that most of the people on this thread share): in order to understand organizational change and organizational strategy, you need to contemplate the organization not as an object, but as a living, complex system. Perceiving organizations in this fashion changes how we relate to them, how we talk about them, and how we try to intervene in their trajectories. Some of the following books have helped immensely in my understanding of complexity, networks, information, knowledge, and the social context in which they exist."
In Complexity and Postmodernism, Paul Cilliers offers us a unique approach to understanding complexity and computational theory by integrating postmodern theory (like that of Derrida and Lyotard) into his discussion.
Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos
Recommended by +Gordon Ross, Vice President, OpenRoad ThoughtFarmer - Strategize, design, and build intranets, websites, and web applications. Have done for 17 years. The only real job I've ever had.
Gordon Ross' Take: (from G+ thread organizing these books, "My frame of reference (as is the frame that most of the people on this thread share): in order to understand organizational change and organizational strategy, you need to contemplate the organization not as an object, but as a living, complex system. Perceiving organizations in this fashion changes how we relate to them, how we talk about them, and how we try to intervene in their trajectories. Some of the following books have helped immensely in my understanding of complexity, networks, information, knowledge, and the social context in which they exist."
Why did the stock market crash more than 500 points on a single Monday in 1987? Why do ancient species often remain stable in the fossil record for millions of years and then suddenly disappear? In a world where nice guys often finish last, why do humans value trust and cooperation? At first glance these questions don't appear to have anything in common, but in fact every one of these statements refers to a complex system. The science of complexity studies how single elements, such as a species or a stock, spontaneously organize into complicated structures like ecosystems and economies; stars become galaxies, and snowflakes avalanches almost as if these systems were obeying a hidden yearning for order.
Drawing from diverse fields, scientific luminaries such as Nobel Laureates Murray Gell-Mann and Kenneth Arrow are studying complexity at a think tank called The Santa Fe Institute. The revolutionary new discoveries researchers have made there could change the face of every science from biology to cosmology to economics. M. Mitchell Waldrop's groundbreaking bestseller takes readers into the hearts and minds of these scientists to tell the story behind this scientific revolution as it unfolds.
The Connected Company
Social networking has dramatically altered the way companies react to change. When your customers are delighted, they can amplify your message in ways that were never before possible. But when your company’s performance runs short of what you’ve promised, customers can seize control of your brand message, spreading their disappointment and frustration faster than you can keep up.
To keep pace with today’s connected customers, your company must become a connected company. That means deeply engaging with workers, partners, and customers, changing how work is done, how you measure success, and how performance is rewarded. It requires a new way of thinking about your company: less like a machine to be controlled, and more like a complex, dynamic system that can learn and adapt over time.
Connected companies have the advantage, because they learn and move faster than their competitors. In The Connected Company, we examine what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and why it works. And we show you how your company can use the same principles to adapt—and thrive—in today’s ever-changing global marketplace.
The Culture of Collaboration
"Prepare to be stunned by dramatic results never before seen in fields ranging from aerospace to medical research. Evan Rosen's The Culture of Collaboration shows how"— Scott CookFounder and Chairman of the Executive CommitteeIntuit
"The principles of collaboration and leadership described in Evan Rosen's book coupled with trust and a common set of values provide the foundation for NASA's Mission Control Operations. The Flight Director's role is to create the Culture of Collaboration that is critical for safe and successful spaceflight. It was a key element in the successful return of the Apollo 13 crew."— Eugene F. "Gene" KranzFlight Director, Apollo 13Author, Failure is Not an Option
"People drive business results in the new world of work. The Culture of Collaboration captures the essence of how lifestyles, work styles and even business models are evolving. Evan Rosen makes a persuasive case through timely and strong examples from multiple industries that collaborative culture creates incredible value and competitive advantage for businesses."— Jeff RaikesCEO, The Bill and Melinda Gates FoundationFormer President, Microsoft
Digital Habitats; Stewarding Technology for Communities
Technology has changed what it means for communities to "be together." Digital tools are now part of most communities' habitats. This book develops a new literacy and language to describe the practice of stewarding technology for communities. Whether you want to ground your technology stewardship in theory and deepen your practice, whether you are a community leader or sponsor who wants to understand how communities and technology intersect, or whether you just want practical advice, this is the book for you.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money--the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink in Drive. In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction--at work, at school, and at home--is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.
Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does-and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation--autonomy, mastery, and purpose--and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
Recommended by +Gordon Ross, Vice President, OpenRoad ThoughtFarmer - Strategize, design, and build intranets, websites, and web applications. Have done for 17 years. The only real job I've ever had.
Gordon Ross' Take: (from G+ thread organizing these books, "My frame of reference (as is the frame that most of the people on this thread share): in order to understand organizational change and organizational strategy, you need to contemplate the organization not as an object, but as a living, complex system. Perceiving organizations in this fashion changes how we relate to them, how we talk about them, and how we try to intervene in their trajectories. Some of the following books have helped immensely in my understanding of complexity, networks, information, knowledge, and the social context in which they exist."
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • A VOICE LITERARY SUPPLEMENT TOP • 25 FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR • AN ESQUIRE MAGAZINE BEST BOOK OF THE YEARIn the tradition of Being Digital and The Tipping Point, Steven Johnson, acclaimed as a "cultural critic with a poet's heart" (The Village Voice), takes readers on an eye-opening journey through emergence theory and its applications. Explaining why the whole is sometimes smarter than the sum of its parts, Johnson presents surprising examples of feedback, self-organization, and adaptive learning. How does a lively neighborhood evolve out of a disconnected group of shopkeepers, bartenders, and real estate developers? How does a media event take on a life of its own? How will new software programs create an intelligent World Wide Web?
In the coming years, the power of self-organization -- coupled with the connective technology of the Internet -- will usher in a revolution every bit as significant as the introduction of electricity. Provocative and engaging, Emergence puts you on the front lines of this exciting upheaval in science and thought.
Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions
Enchantment, as defined by bestselling business guru Guy Kawasaki, is not about manipulating people. It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity. It changes the skeptics and cynics into the believers and the undecided into the loyal. Enchantment can happen during a retail transaction, a high-level corporate negotiation, or a Facebook update. And when done right, it's more powerful than traditional persuasion, influence, or marketing techniques.
Kawasaki argues that in business and personal interactions, your goal is not merely to get what you want but to bring about a voluntary, enduring, and delightful change in other people. By enlisting their own goals and desires, by being likable and trustworthy, and by framing a cause that others can embrace, you can change hearts, minds, and actions. For instance, enchantment is what enabled . . .
* A Peace Corps volunteer to finesse a potentially violent confrontation with armed guerrillas.* A small cable channel (E!) to win the TV broadcast rights to radio superstar Howard Stern.* A seemingly crazy new running shoe (Vibram Five Fingers) to methodically build a passionate customer base.* A Canadian crystal maker (Nova Scotian Crystal) to turn observers into buyers.
This book explains all the tactics you need to prepare and launch an enchantment campaign; to get the most from both push and pull technologies; and to enchant your customers, your employees, and even your boss. It shows how enchantment can turn difficult decisions your way, at times when intangibles mean more than hard facts. It will help you overcome other people's entrenched habits and defy the not-always-wise "wisdom of the crowd."
Kawasaki's lessons are drawn from his tenure at one of the most enchanting organizations of all time, Apple, as well as his decades of experience as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. There are few people in the world more qualified to teach you how to enchant people.
As Kawasaki writes, "Want to change the world? Change caterpillars into butterflies? This takes more than run-of-the-mill relationships. You need to convince people to dream the same dream that you do." That's a big goal, but one that's possible for all of us.
If you currently employ knowledge workers who do most of their work on computers or with computers, access the Internet, utilize internal and external databases, use e-mail or other new messaging technology, then this book is for you. Quite simply, this handbook is for any organization with a lot of Web DNA that wishes to cut costs, improve performance, and stay perpetually competitive. It is for change agents or managers within those organizations who work with information and want to leverage the latest crop of tool sets to deliver on the promise of Lean for the modern, information-rich office.
… packed with new ideas … breaks new ground in so many directions … .— John Bicheno, Director, Lean Enterprise Research Centre, Cardiff Business School
… excellent … on several levels … … teaches us how to visualize the depth of hidden wastes in our complex information flows and the large opportunity for improvement that this suggests.— Keith Russell, PhD, Global Continuous Improvement Leader R&D, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals
Very interesting view on operational excellence, helpful to readers without a background in this area of expertise.— Bert Nordberg, President and CEO. Sony Ericsson
Congratulations to all the readers holding this book! ... These Lean ideas must be an integral part of the daily operations of your business. I am going to get each and every one of my management team a copy of this brilliant book at the start for our own Lean journey.— Lennart Käll, CEO, Wasa Kredit
It’s one thing to develop a concept. It’s another to make it sing. This is the hymnal.— Dr. Don V. Steward, CEO Problematics, Professor Emeritus, Sacramento State University, inventor of DSM
… a must read for CIOs everywhere."— Julian Amey, Principal Fellow, Warwick University
What fuels long-term business success? Not operational excellence, technology breakthroughs, or new business models, but management innovation - new ways of mobilizing talent, allocating resources, and formulating strategies. Through history, management innovation has enabled companies to cross new performance thresholds and build enduring advantages. In "The Future of Management", Gary Hamel argues that organizations need management innovation now more than ever. Why? The management paradigm of the last century - centred on control and efficiency - no longer suffices in a world where adaptability and creativity drive business success. To thrive in the future, companies must reinvent management.Hamel explains how to turn your company into a serial management innovator, revealing: the make-or-break challenges that will determine competitive success in an age of relentless, head-snapping change; the toxic effects of traditional management beliefs; the unconventional management practices generating breakthrough results in 'modern management pioneers'; the radical principles that will need to become part of every company's 'management DNA'; and, the steps your company can take now to build your 'management advantage'. Practical and profound, "The Future of Management" features examples from Google, W.L. Gore, Whole Foods, IBM, Samsung, Best Buy, and other blue-ribbon management innovators.
Google Semantic Search: Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques That Gets Your Company More Traffic, Increases Brand Impact and Amplifies Your Online Presence (Que Biz-Tech)
Deep inside Google, brilliant researchers have crafted breakthrough “semantic search” techniques that are already transforming Google’s day-to-day search results. What does that mean to you? It means that if you want to be discovered on the Web, yesterday’s SEO techniques aren’t good enough anymore. Now, for the first time, there’s a book that tells you what to do instead — in plain English. Whether you’re doing your own SEO or supervising an agency, David Amerland’s Google Semantic Search will help you:Boost your site’s rankings today -- and tomorrow!Take advantage of the Knowledge Graph, TrustRank, AuthorityRank, and other search innovationsImprove the way you execute on content and social media marketing.Take advantage of specialized Google "search verticals," including Image and Mobile searchLearn which social bookmarking services contribute to Google search ranking, and how to make the most of them.Avoid (or stop using) old-fashioned techniques that are now counterproductive.Throughout, Amerland draws on deep knowledge of Google’s internal workings to give you a complete playbook for next-generation search optimization – whether you’re doing it in-house, or you want to get maximum value from your SEO agency!(David Amerland's article on Semantic Google Search is in The Journal for Social Era Knowledge.)
Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies
Corporate executives are struggling with a new trend: people using online social technologies (blogs, social networking sites, YouTube, podcasts) to discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals. This groundswell is global, it s unstoppable, it affects every industry and it s utterly foreign to the powerful companies running things now.
When consumers you ve never met are rating your company s products in public forums with which you have no experience or influence, your company is vulnerable. In Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester, Inc. explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity.
Using tools and data straight from Forrester, you ll learn how to:
-Evaluate new social technologies as they emerge
-Determine how different groups of consumers are participating in social technology arenas
-Apply a four-step process for formulating your future strategy
-Build social technologies into your business including monitoring your brand value, talking with the groundswell through marketing and PR campaigns, and energizing your best customers to recruit their peers
Timely and insightful, this book is required reading for executives seeking to protect and strengthen their company s public image.
"Groundswell is jammed with big ideas, useful stories, and quotable stats. This is the new industrial revolution. Are you on board?"
-Seth Godin, author, Meatball Sundae
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations
Blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 accoutrements are revolutionizing the social order, a development that's cause for more excitement than alarm, argues interactive telecommunications professor Shirky. He contextualizes the digital networking age with philosophical, sociological, economic and statistical theories and points to its major successes and failures. Grassroots activism stands among the winners—Belarus's flash mobs, for example, blog their way to unprecedented antiauthoritarian demonstrations. Likewise, user/contributor-managed Wikipedia raises the bar for production efficiency by throwing traditional corporate hierarchy out the window. Print journalism falters as publishing methods are transformed through the Web. Shirky is at his best deconstructing Web failures like Wikitorial, the Los Angeles Times's attempt to facilitate group op-ed writing. Readers will appreciate the Gladwellesque lucidity of his assessments on what makes or breaks group efforts online: Every story in this book relies on the successful fusion of a plausible promise, an effective tool, and an acceptable bargain with the users. The sum of Shirky's incisive exploration, like the Web itself, is greater than its parts.
The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action
Why are there so many gaps between what firms know they should do and what they actually do? Why do so many companies fail to implement the experience and insight they've worked so hard to acquire? The Knowing-Doing Gap is the first book to confront the challenge of turning knowledge about how to improve performance into actions that produce measurable results. Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert Sutton, well-known authors and teachers, identify the causes of the knowing-doing gap and explain how to close it. The message is clear--firms that turn knowledge into action avoid the "smart talk trap." Executives must use plans, analysis, meetings, and presentations to inspire deeds, not as substitutes for action. Companies that act on their knowledge also eliminate fear, abolish destructive internal competition, measure what matters, and promote leaders who understand the work people do in their firms. The authors use examples from dozens of firms that show how some overcome the knowing-doing gap, why others try but fail, and how still others avoid the gap in the first place. The Knowing-Doing Gap is sure to resonate with executives everywhere who struggle daily to make their firms both know and do what they know. It is a refreshingly candid, useful, and realistic guide for improving performance in today's business.
Leader's Framework for Decision Making
by David J. Snowden, Mary E. Boone
Recommended by +Gordon Ross, Vice President, OpenRoad ThoughtFarmer - Strategize, design, and build intranets, websites, and web applications. Have done for 17 years. The only real job I've ever had.
Gordon Ross' Take: (from G+ thread organizing these books, "My frame of reference (as is the frame that most of the people on this thread share): in order to understand organizational change and organizational strategy, you need to contemplate the organization not as an object, but as a living, complex system. Perceiving organizations in this fashion changes how we relate to them, how we talk about them, and how we try to intervene in their trajectories. Some of the following books have helped immensely in my understanding of complexity, networks, information, knowledge, and the social context in which they exist."
[Harvard Business Review} Snowden and Boone have formed a new perspective on leadership and decision making that's based on complexity science. The result is the Cynefin framework, which helps executives sort issues into five contexts. Simple contexts are characterized by stability and cause-and-effect relationships that are clear to everyone. Often, the right answer is self-evident. In this realm of "known knowns," leaders must first assess the facts of a situation--that is, "sense" it--then categorize and respond to it. Complicated contexts may contain multiple right answers, and though there is a clear relationship between cause and effect, not everyone can see it. This is the realm of "known unknowns." Here, leaders must sense, analyze, and respond. In a complex context, right answers can't be ferreted out at all; rather, instructive patterns emerge if the leader conducts experiments that can safely fail. This is the realm of "unknown unknowns," where much of contemporary business operates. Leaders in this context need to probe first, then sense, and then respond. In a chaotic context, searching for right answers is pointless. The relationships between cause and effect are impossible to determine because they shift constantly and no manageable patterns exist. This is the realm of unknowables (the events of September 11, 2001, fall into this category). In this domain, a leader must first act to establish order, sense where stability is present, and then work to transform the situation from chaos to complexity. The fifth context, disorder, applies when it is unclear which of the other four contexts is predominant. The way out is to break the situation into its constituent parts and assign each to one of the other four realms. Leaders can then make decisions and intervene in contextually appropriate ways.
Many executives are surprised when previously successful leadership approaches fail in new situations, but different contexts call for different kinds of responses. Before addressing a situation, leaders need to recognize which context governs it--and tailor their actions accordingly.
The Leader's Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century
A radical new management model for twenty-first century leadersOrganizations today face a crisis. The crisis is of long standing and its signs are widespread. Most proposals for improving management address one element of the crisis at the expense of the others. The principles described by award-winning author Stephen Denning simultaneously inspire high productivity, continuous innovation, deep job satisfaction and client delight. Denning puts forward a fundamentally different approach to management, with seven inter-locking principles of continuous innovation: focusing the entire organization on delighting clients; working in self-organizing teams; operating in client-driven iterations; delivering value to clients with each iteration; fostering radical transparency; nurturing continuous self-improvement and communicating interactively. In sum, the principles comprise a new mental model of management.
Author outlines the basic seven principles of continuous innovationThe book describes more than seventy supporting practicesDenning offers a rethinking of management from first principlesThis book is written by the author of The Secret Language of Leadership—a Financial Times Selection in Best Books of 2007.
Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
In bestsellers such as Purple Cow and Tribes, Seth Godin taught readers how to make remarkable products and spread powerful ideas. But this book is different. It's about you - your choices, your future, and your potential to make a huge difference in whatever field you choose."The only way to get what you're worth is to stand out, to exert emotional labor, to be seen as indispensable, and to produce interactions that organizations and people care deeply about."
There used to be two teams in every workplace: management and labor. Now there's a third team, the linchpins. These people invent, lead (regardless of title), connect others, make things happen, and create order out of chaos. They figure out what to do when there's no rule book. They delight and challenge their customers and peers. They love their work, pour their best selves into it, and turn each day into a kind of art.
Linchpins are the essential building blocks of great organizations. Like the small piece of hardware that keeps a wheel from falling off its axle, they may not be famous but they're indispensable. And in today's world, they get the best jobs and the most freedom.
Have you ever found a shortcut that others missed? Seen a new way to resolve a conflict? Made a connection with someone others couldn't reach? Even once? Then you have what it takes to become indispensable, by overcoming the resistance that holds people back. Linchpin will show you how to join the likes of...
*Keith Johnson, who scours flea markets across the country to fill Anthropologie stores with unique pieces.
*Marissa Mayer, who keeps Google focused on the things that really matter.
*Jason Zimdars, a graphic designer who got his dream job at 37signals without a résumé.
*David, who works at Dean and Deluca coffeeshop in New York. He sees every customer interaction as a chance to give a gift and is cherished in return.
As Godin writes, "Every day I meet people who have so much to give but have been bullied enough or frightened enough to hold it back. It's time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. You have brilliance in you, your contribution is essential, and the art you create is precious. Only you can do it, and you must."
Macrowikinomics: New Solutions for a Connected Planet.
by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams
Great for understanding organizational change and organizational strategy, rather than market, market strategy.
Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality
"Ideas are easy. Implementation is hard. This book helps you with the hard part."
-Guy Kawasaki, author of Enchantment
According to productivity expert Scott Belsky, no one is born with the ability to drive creative projects to completion. Execution is a skill that must be developed by building your organizational habits and harnessing the support of your colleagues.
As the founder and CEO of Behance, a company on a mission to empower and organize the creative world, Belsky has studied the habits of especially productive individuals and teams across industries. Now he has compiled the principles and techniques they share, and presents a systematic approach to creative organization and productivity.
While many of us focus on generating and searching for great ideas, Belsky shows why it's better to develop the capacity to make ideas happen-a capacity that endures over time.
Net Smart: How to Thrive Online
Like it or not, knowing how to make use of online tools without being overloaded with too much information is an essential ingredient to personal success in the twenty-first century. But how can we use digital media so that they make us empowered participants rather than passive receivers, grounded, well-rounded people rather than multitasking basket cases? In Net Smart, cyberculture expert Howard Rheingold shows us how to use social media intelligently, humanely, and, above all, mindfully.
Mindful use of digital media means thinking about what we are doing, cultivating an ongoing inner inquiry into how we want to spend our time. Rheingold outlines five fundamental digital literacies, online skills that will help us do this: attention, participation, collaboration, critical consumption of information (or "crap detection"), and network smarts. He explains how attention works, and how we can use our attention to focus on the tiny relevant portion of the incoming tsunami of information. He describes the quality of participation that empowers the best of the bloggers, netizens, tweeters, and other online community participants; he examines how successful online collaborative enterprises contribute new knowledge to the world in new ways; and he teaches us a lesson on networks and network building.
Rheingold points out that there is a bigger social issue at work in digital literacy, one that goes beyond personal empowerment. If we combine our individual efforts wisely, it could produce a more thoughtful society: countless small acts like publishing a Web page or sharing a link could add up to a public good that enriches everybody.
Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do: A Manager's Guide to the Social Web
Practical advice for managers on how the Web and social media can help them to do their jobs betterToday's managers are faced with an increasing use of the Web and social platforms by their staff, their customers, and their competitors, but most aren't sure quite what to do about it or how it all relates to them. Organizations Don't Tweet, People Do provides managers in all sorts of organizations, from governments to multinationals, with practical advice, insight and inspiration on how the Web and social tools can help them to do their jobs better. From strategy to corporate communication, team building to customer relations, this uniquely people-centric guide to social media in the workplace offers managers, at all levels, valuable insights into the networked world as it applies to their challenges as managers, and it outlines practical things they can do to make social media integral to the tone and tenor of their departments or organizational cultures.
A long-overdue guide to social media that talks directly to people in the real world in which they workGrounded in the author's unparalleled experience consulting on social media, it features eye-opening accounts from some of the world's most successful and powerful organizationsGives managers at all levels and in every type of organization the context and the confidence to make better decisions about the social web and its impact on them.
The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion
In a radical break with the past, information now flows like water, and we must learn how to tap into its stream. Individuals and companies can no longer rely on the stocks of knowledge that they’ve carefully built up and stored away. Information now flows like water, and we must learn how to tap into the stream. But many of us remain stuck in old practices—practices that could undermine us as we search for success and meaning.
In this revolutionary book, three doyens of the Internet age, whose path-breaking work has made headlines around the world, reveal the adjustments we must make if we take these changes seriously. In a world of increasing risk and opportunity, we must understand the importance of pull. Understood and used properly, the power of pull can draw out the best in people and institutions by connecting them in ways that increase understanding and effectiveness. Pull can turn uncertainty into opportunity, and enable small moves to achieve outsized impact.
Drawing on pioneering research, The Power of Pull shows how to apply its principles to unlock the hidden potential of individuals and organizations, and how to use it as a force for social change and the development of creative talent.
The authors explore how to use the power of pull to:Access new sources of informationAttract likeminded individuals from around the worldShape serendipity to increase the likelihood of positive chance encountersForm creation spaces to drive you and your colleagues to new heightsTransform your organization to adapt to the flow of knowledge
The Power of Pull is essential reading for entrepreneurs, managers, and anybody interested in understanding and harnessing the shifting forces of our networked world.
“Short, inspiring essays debunking myths in business.”-Fast Company
"This rather short book takes the mystery out of the smoke and mirrors world of search engine optimization. Don't think that just because it's a short book that it won't take much time to read; with all the tools and tips it took me longer to complete than books twice as long. Very actionable." -About.com
Social Business by Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company
by Dion Hinchcliffe (Author), Peter Kim (Author), Jeff Dachis (Foreword)
Recommended by +Cecille Demailly, Early Strategies
From the Dachis Group—the global leader in social business—comes the groundbreaking book on transformative social business strategies.
Social Business By Design is the definitive management book on how to rethink the modern organization in the social media era. Based on their research and work through the Dachis Group, thought leaders Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim deftly explore how the social, cultural, and technological trends provoked by the social media explosion are transforming the business environment. Designed as both a strategic overview and a hands-on resource, Social Business By Design clearly shows how to choose and implement a social business strategy and maximize its impact.
Explains the mechanisms, applications, and advantages of a strategic array of social media topics, including social media marketing, social product development, crowdsourcing, social supply chains, social customer relationship management, and more
Features examples from high-profile companies such as SAP, Procter & Gamble, MillerCoors, Bloomberg, HBO, Ford, and IBM who have implemented social business strategies
Draws on the extensive research and expertise of the Dachis Group, which has helped numerous Fortune 500 clients plan, build, and activate effective social business solutions
Containing actionable, high-impact techniques that save time and the bottom line, Social Business By Design will transform any organization's strategy to ensure success and avoid disruption in a fast-moving world.
Social Media At Work
Arthur L. Jue (Author), Jackie Alcalde Marr (Author), Mary Ellen Kassotakis (Author)
Recommended by +Oscar Berg, Future Office Evangelist, Tieto
(Amazon) The definitive guide for using social media to build more effective organizations.
Today's networking technologies-wikis, blogs, and social networking sites-are changing how we build professional relationships and work collaboratively. In this insightful book, three organizational development experts from Oracle Corporation offer executives down-to-earth strategies for leveraging the power of social media to build more effective and agile organizations, engage employees, and sustain competitiveness.
Offers practical advice for using social media (wikis, blogs, and social networking sites) to increase organizational effectiveness.
Presents proven recommendations for building teams, accelerating learning, and fostering innovation by adopting social networking tools.
Shows how to tap into the power of social networks to improve organizational performance
Demonstrates how social media will help organizations thrive for years to come by drawing on case studies from companies like Intel, Cisco, Nokia, and others.
The Social Media Mind: How social media is changing business, politics and science and helps create a new world order.
Like any medium of communication social media has its own tropes which must be mastered in order to use it properly.In The Social Media Mind David Amerland illustrates how Social Media is a game changer. It challenges us to rethink our assumptions on almost every sphere where it is applied. Whether communicating through the web with potential clients, increasing the exposure of a business brand or collaborating with colleagues on shared projects, it demands that we rethink the standard responses which have guided us in the past and come up with new ones, for a new age.In carefully laid out arguments, backed by evidence and examples he answers questions like:Why do some social media marketing campaigns fail and not others?Why is social media so radically different from traditional marketing?How are social media success stories created?How can social media help save costs in business?Why is social media changing so many aspects of our world?What does it take to develop a social media mind?Over the next five years social media is going to change the nature of education, politics, business, science and even the arts. Its imperatives for greater transparency, responsiveness and engagement are behind the trends which are changing our world.This book is key to understanding how to prepare, what to do and how.
Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization
by Dave Logan (Author), John King(Author), Halee Fischer-Wright(Author)
Recommended by +Luis Suarez, KMer, CommunityBuilder and Social Computing Evangelist at IBM
Every organization is composed of tribes—naturally occurring groups of between 20 and 150 people. Until now, only a few leaders could identify and develop their tribes, and those rare individuals were rewarded with loyalty, productivity, and industry-changing innovation. Tribal Leadership shows leaders how to assess, identify, and upgrade their tribes' cultures, one stage at a time. The result is an organization that can thrive in any economy.
A tribe is any group of people, large or small, who are connected to one another, a leader, and an idea. For millions of years, humans have been seeking out tribes, be they religious, ethnic, economic, political, or even musical (think of the Deadheads). It?s our nature.
Now the Internet has eliminated the barriers of geography, cost, and time. All those blogs and social networking sites are helping existing tribes get bigger. But more important, they?re enabling countless new tribes to be born?groups of ten or ten thousand or ten million who care about their iPhones, or a political campaign, or a new way to fight global warming.
And so the key question: Who is going to lead us?
The Web can do amazing things, but it can?t provide leadership. That still has to come from individuals? people just like you who have passion about something. The explosion in tribes means that anyone who wants to make a difference now has the tools at her fingertips.
If you think leadership is for other people, think again?leaders come in surprising packages. Consider Joel Spolsky and his international tribe of scary-smart software engineers. Or Gary Vaynerhuck, a wine expert with a devoted following of enthusiasts. Chris Sharma leads a tribe of rock climbers up impossible cliff faces, while Mich Mathews, a VP at Microsoft, runs her internal tribe of marketers from her cube in Seattle. All they have in common is the desire to change things, the ability to connect a tribe, and the willingness to lead.
If you ignore this opportunity, you risk turning into a ?sheepwalker??someone who fights to protect the status quo at all costs, never asking if obedience is doing you (or your organization) any good. Sheepwalkers don?t do very well these days.
Tribes will make you think (really think) about the opportunities in leading your fellow employees, customers, investors, believers, hobbyists, or readers. . . . It?s not easy, but it?s easier than you think.
Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life
by Mario Luis Small
Recommended by +Luis Suarez, KMer, CommunityBuilder and Social Computing Evangelist at IBM
Social capital theorists have shown that some people do better than others in part because they enjoy larger, more supportive, or otherwise more useful networks. But why do some people have better networks than others? Unanticipated Gains argues that the practice and structure of the churches, colleges, firms, gyms, childcare centers, and schools in which people happen to participate routinely matter more than their deliberate "networking."
Exploring the experiences of New York City mothers whose children were enrolled in childcare centers, this book examines why a great deal of these mothers, after enrolling their children, dramatically expanded both the size and usefulness of their personal networks. Whether, how, and how much the mother's networks were altered--and how useful these networks were--depended on the apparently trivial, but remarkably consequential, practices and regulations of the centers. The structure of parent-teacher organizations, the frequency of fieldtrips, and the rules regarding drop-off and pick-up times all affected the mothers' networks. Relying on scores of in-depth interviews with mothers, quantitative data on both mothers and centers, and detailed case studies of other routine organizations, Small shows that how much people gain from their connections depends substantially on institutional conditions they often do not control, and through everyday processes they may not even be aware of.
Emphasizing not the connections that people make, but the context in which they are made, Unanticipated Gains presents a major new perspective on social capital and on the mechanisms producing social inequality.
Wikipatterns
This book provides practical, proven advice for encouraging adoption of your wiki project and growing it into a useful collaboration tool or vibrant online communityGives wiki users a toolbox of thriving wiki patterns, which enable newcomers to avoid making common mistakes or fumbling around for the solutions to the same problems as their predecessorsExplains the major stages of wiki adoption and explores patterns that apply to each stagePresents concrete, proven examples of techniques that have helped people grow vibrant collaborative communities and change the way they work for the betterReviews the overall process, including setting up initial content, encouraging people to contribute, dealing with disruptive elements, fixing typos and broken links, making sure pages are in their correct categories, and more.
