Posts Tagged ‘Groundswell’
Recommended Reading
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010 by Martin Jacobsen
(Source http://bit.ly/a4IU13)
There’s no such thing as inspiration and new knowledge. That’s why we read a lot at Fourmation. We enjoy a number of blogs and websites on a daily basis (go to our lab to find some of the links that inspires us), but for the real in-depth and thorough knowledge, data and analysis, we turn to the good, old books.
We have made a list of 15 excellent books that we think everyone with an interest in business, networks, integrated thinking, management and business design owe it to themselves to read.
- “The Tipping Point – How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell.
Excerpt: “The premise of this facile piece of pop sociology has built-in appeal: little changes can have big effects; when small numbers of people start behaving differently, that behavior can ripple outward until a critical mass or “tipping point” is reached, changing the world.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/42WbUh
- “Linked: How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means” by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi.
Excerpt: “There is a path between any two neurons in our brain, between any two companies in the world, between any two chemicals in our body. Nothing is excluded from this highly interconnected web of life.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/5wodM
- “The Strength of Weak Ties” by Mark Granovetter.
Excerpt: “In marketing or politics, weak ties enable reaching populations and audiences that are not accessible via strong ties.”
Link to Wikipedia: http://bit.ly/BJ1o link to PDF: http://bit.ly/cg0lqx
- “Dialogue Mapping: Building Shared Understanding of Wicked Problems” by Jeffrey Conklin.
Excerpt: “In contrast to the use of agendas and restrictive structures, dialogue mapping is a facilitation technique that allows the intelligence and learning of the group to emerge naturally.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/GIaSz
- “The Wisdom of Crowds” by James Surowiecki.
Excerpt: “While our culture generally trusts experts and distrusts the wisdom of the masses, New Yorker business columnist Surowiecki argues that “under the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/b7JljE
- “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell.
Excerpt: “Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of “thin slices” of behavior.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/9GXkuk
- “The Opposable Mind” by Roger Martin.
Excerpt: “In this primer on the problem-solving power of “integrative thinking,” Martin draws on more than 50 management success stories, including the masterminds behind The Four Seasons, Proctor & Gamble and eBay, to demonstrate how, like the opposable thumb…(…).”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/c9psva
- “The Future of Management” by Gary Hamel.
Excerpt: “Though this authoritative examination of today’s static corporate management systems reads like a business school treatise, it isn’t the same-old thing.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/bNHhlg
- “Wikinomics” by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams.
Excerpt: “The word “wiki” means “quick” in Hawaiian, and here author and think tank CEO Tapscott (The Naked Corporation), along with research director Williams, paint in vibrant colors the quickly changing world of Internet togetherness, also known as mass or global collaboration, and what those changes mean for business and technology.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/9nLl8O
- “The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More” by Chris Anderson.
Excerpt: ”Wired editor Anderson declares the death of “common culture”—and insists that it’s for the best. Why don’t we all watch the same TV shows, like we used to?”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/b7j1oi
- “Groundswell” by Charlene Li & Josh Bernhoff
Excerpt: “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.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/9D0hYs
- “Good To Great” by Jim Collins.
Excerpt: ”Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, “Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/8X1jhc
- “Teori U” by C. Otto Scharmer.
Excerpt: “In a world burdened with too much information, we are occasionally blessed with a genuinely new idea about how to perceive, think about, and act on our overly complex world.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/9BrNxn
- “Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics: The Challenge of Complexity to Ways of Thinking About Organisations” by Ralph D. Stacey.
Excerpt: ”Strategic Management and Organisational Dynamics by Ralph D Stacey is renowned for its unconventional thinking and it continues to be a refreshing alternative for those teaching and studying strategic management who are looking for ’something different.”
Link to Amazon: http://amzn.to/a4gyMU
- “Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity” by Etienne Wenger.
Excerpt: “This book presents a theory of learning that starts with the assumption that engagement in social practice is the fundamental process by which we get to know what we know and by which we become who we are.”
Link to Amazon: http://bit.ly/azRogJ
So, this is our list of recommended reading – and it’ll be followed by a series of blog posts where each book will be more thoroughly reviewed. We hope our recommendations can inspire you.
Do you think we miss any essential works? If so, please let us know!
Tags: Chris Anderson, Crowds, Freemium, Groundswell, Malcolm Gladwell, Roger Martin, The Long Tail, Tipping Point, Wicked Problems, Wikinomics
Posted in Business design, Integrated Thinking, Networks, Social capital, Technology, Transformation | 2 Comments »
