John Pearson published the first article in Pails in Comparison thinking change review I had to share it with you.
To be honest, I was nervous. Like anyone who cares about their work, you want to know how others will experience it.
Let me share the highlights with you…
I can’t praise this book enough! Why? Before the next meeting of the same strategic planning work group, encourage everyone to read this important book.
It's almost impossible to do a full review of Mindshift, so I'm just going to list 20 insights that jumped out at me. (I underlined almost the entire book. Oh my gosh.) By the way, the design, graphics, and eye-catching diagrams of this book are stunning. Mind-shifting is the joy of reading.
1. Alvin Toffler: “The illiterates of the 21st century are not those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, forget and relearn.”
2. The pleaser: “Organizational psychologist Taska Eurich studied self-awareness, and she found that there are two types of self-awareness: internal and external.” The 2×2 chart on page 57 is memorable.
• People pleasers: high external awareness, low internal awareness
• Awareness: high external awareness and high internal awareness
• Explorer: low external awareness and low internal awareness
• Introspectors: low external awareness, high internal awareness
3. Titanic! In 1912, Captain Edward John Smith “sailed a completely new ship with a novel design. But he brought no new way of thinking to the task. He apparently did not accept the possibility that the largest ship ever built at that time would The ocean liner might not be as easy to maneuver as he's used to, but as treasure hunter Burke Lovett says in James Cameron's blockbuster about the shipwreck, Smith “has 26 years of experience against him.”
4. Discomfort. “When we question what we’ve learned from our experiences and question our beliefs, we feel out of control. We either decide to accept the discomfort and move on, or we continue to be bound by the old ways and become obsolete.
5. BlackBerry? “Think of all the business leaders who have failed to embrace change: BlackBerry, Nokia, Blockbuster, Toys R Us, Borders, General Motors…” and so on.
6. Aquinas. “The Italian Christian theologian and philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas once warned, 'Beware the man who has only one book.'” (Chapter 4, “The Beginner's Mind,” is a must-read.)
7. Error. Stanford University professor Carol Dweck contrasts “fixed mindset” with “growth mindset” and includes the following values of growth mindset:
• “Mistakes help me learn.
• Is this my best work?
• Giving back is valuable.
• I improve through practice.
• I won't give up.
She added, “Why waste time proving over and over again how great you are when you can be better?”
8. Failure. “Legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said that no one is a failure until they start blaming others.”
9. Stay curious! Watch “Ted Russo” Season 1, Episode 8 to learn “What Ted Russo Can Teach Us About Curiosity.” Ted Russo quotes Walt Whitman: “Be curious, don't judge.” Watch the three-minute clip here. (funny!)
10. Divine curiosity. “Einstein believed that curiosity was one of the best qualities of mankind.” He added, “Never lose the sacred curiosity.” (The theme of “curiosity” reappeared in my most recent book review.)
11. Midpoint summary. Outstanding! Halfway through the book, Brian Solis sums it up in large font on a page: “What a journey we've been on. Look how far we've come.” On page 121 page, he reminds us of the 10 topics he covers, including:
• “Together we understand that the door to a new economy is opening and this is a time that requires new leadership.”
• Together we… “learn that although executives may think they know, they don’t always have all the answers.”
12. Six stages of mindset change. Now the fun begins with Chapters 7 through 12: “Receiving, Perceiving, Weaving, Conceiving, Believing, and Realizing.” A must-read!
13. Mentality Dictionary. Five words: “Trendsight, Trendsighting, Trendscape Canvas, Trendfluence and Trendspark”. (I mean…how could you not read this book with your team?)
14. Slow down! Oh my. How do we respond to these impending trends? How do we sleep at night? Brian Solis had two words for us: “Slow down.” (Now he's interfering!) But it prompted me to play this song at the beginning of a session I hosted last week. You guessed it Already: “Slow Down” by Chuck Girard).
15. No burden. “Early on, we learned not just how to track trends but how to identify them, freeing ourselves from the burden of trying to predict the future. That’s not what we want to do here. We’re exploring trends that might impact our ecosystem. It’s a matter of understanding emerging The process of looking at the prospects or potential of trends. It also takes the time to think about how these trends will unfold and what those changes might look like.
16. Wonder Wall! Let's do it! The “Wonder Wall” exercise on page 129 is worth the price of the book! Solis writes, “Creating a wall of wonder can spark your curiosity. It can help you connect the future you envision to where you are today. The process will spark your childlike curiosity and help you Think with a beginner's mind and positive possibilities. He offers 20 questions he finds helpful (Guaranteed: You'll be building a “Wonder Wall” at your next strategy planning retreat.)
Here are two questions that popped up from my page (“Wondering Samples”):
• “Which Wall Street Journal or New York Times headline describes our ideal future state?”
• “If we don’t transform now, what will be on our tombstones? When?”
There are also 18 “example” questions — examples of questions your team might write on sticky notes and post on your Wonder Wall — “Visual reflections of things that spark your curiosity and things you can’t stop thinking about, approx. Those things that burn inside of you.
17. Narrative vs. Realistic Numbers. The three stages of “weaving, envisioning, and believing” will help “develop a story of change that inspires curiosity, conversation, and collaboration, ultimately leading to action,” the authors write. The chapters explore the power of stories very creatively ( Think Pixar’s approach to storytelling), but with this caveat:
Solis points to Professor Scott Galloway's research, “Data may be more realistic, but in the battle of narrative versus numbers, most of the time humans choose narrative.” (However, if you want to get a slightly contrarian but very For a useful additional perspective, read my review of Making Numbers Count by Chip Heath and Karla Starr).
18. WIM (meaning) exercise. I know you'll use this planning tool right away too. “Think of WIM exercises as a way to:
• ……What,
• so what,
• Now…
Every trend.
19. Scenario planning. Don’t skip the “Common misconceptions about the nature of scenario planning” section. (Read about IBM's 1981 estimate that PC sales would peak at 200,000 units. “Unfortunately, they were a little wrong.” The number was 25 million units!)
20. Make your story personal. In Chapter 10, you'll read about “connecting trends to the human condition by personalizing your stories” and stories that appeal to our deepest emotions: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise. You'll learn from “the world's most renowned and respected screenwriting instructor,” mentioned in the Harvard Business Review article “Moving Storytelling.” (You'll want to eat popcorn and watch the classic movie Monsters, Inc.)
The author states that “the best stories are about our common human condition” – page 195 contains a graphic of 18 topics you can take advantage of. Assignment: “Consider how to tell the story of a trend to show how it can help audiences understand these universal aspects of life.”
Warning: I'm telling you this book is nearly impossible to fully examine. I haven’t done that yet, so read the book for yourself. (I may write a second review of this book later – it's so good, and so important.)
