What I read on my Winter Break

Being a college professor has some perks. One of which is the break between the Fall and the Spring Semesters. It's an Oasis. Really.

I've taken this wonderful break from all things social media related, work related and news releated. I can't really say I went "off-grid" since I did play Warcraft quite a bit and monitored my personal email....but work-related stuff went "poof" for a few weeks.

You should try it.

It is AMAZING.

Anyway, during this time I also read some books. One of which has NOTHING at all do to professionally, so I won't talk about that (smile). However I did read a new book (thanks to a friend's Amazon Vine) prior to "publication date".

Let me start by stating clearly that I highly recommend this book. I will be figuring out how to incorporate it into my classes -- most probably the Marketing Management class. The book: It's "The Designful Company: How to Build a Culture of Nonstop Innovation" by Marty Neumeier. It comes out on January 15th. Here's the Amazon Link (unfortunately I was unable to find the book site -- there is one for ZAG: http://www.zagbook.com/, but not for this one...yet).


Let's get to it...Why do I like this book? Because it addresses creating a culture of innovation and how to do it, points out the shift in business from linear/production line thinking to more design-oriented thinking, and it links successful "nuggets" to how designful practices have helped companies to innovate and foster creativity across all programs and departments and disciplines.

I liked the presentation of the book overall -- the "Whiteboard" concept that all three in the series from Neumeier (Brand Gap and Zag) have. Quick, to the point, and easy to take away information. As a marketing prof, it provides some interesting food for thought around the concept of wicked problems, the aesthetics of management, deep design, the use of metateams, the application of stage-gate investing, the "Thinking Hat" process for meeting management, brand training and the design learning loop (this one I REALLY like).

At the end of the book there are the "powerpoint bullets" of the book, how to use designful thinking to address wicked problems and a list of recommended other reads. Nice stuff.

Some important take aways for me included:

Design is rapidly spreading from "posters and toasters" to processes, systems, and organizations.

Agility is an emergent property that appears when an organization has the right mindset, the right skills and the ability to multiply those skills through collaboration.

A designer is anyone who tries to change an existing situation to an improved one.

The traditional management model is a veritable thrift store of hand-me-down concepts, all designed for a previous need and a previous era.

Companies don't fail because they choose the wrong course -- they fail because they can't imagine a better one.

While revolution must be led from the top, it rarely starts at the top.

In an age of accelerating change, how you learn is vastly more important than what you learn.

The ability to acquire new knowledge quickly is the fundamental skill that underpins a culture of innovation.

How do you measure talent? How do you increase inspiration? How do you crank up creative joy? The answer to all of these is the same: recognition.

Sweet book.

Recommended Books (From the Vermont 3.0 Tech Career Jam)

I was on a panel discussion today at the Vermont 3.0 Tech Career Jam about "So you wanna be an Internet Marketer".

I had the pleasure of presenting along with Greg Brand of Bluehouse Group (a former employer of mine from the late 90's) and Paul Skarvinko of Epik (Paul is a former Champlain Graduate!).

In true professorial fashion I brought with me a stack of books. Real books. Tangible, touchable, readable books. (I have a rep to uphold you know). I was asked at the end of the panel if I had a listing of the books for people and I of course said, "Well, I'll put them on my blog"....so here they are:

1. Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
2. Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide by Amy Shuen
3. PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge
4. Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions by Tim Ash
5. The Art of Digital Branding by Ian Cocoran
6. Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li

I recommend these books to my students and actually in my Internet Marketing class the students are to select one from numbers 2-6 to read as supplemental -- based on their major area of study.

So there you have it folks! Enjoy.

Picking some GREAT books for my Fall Classes -- Not your "run-'o the mill" textbook!

So I'm cleaning out my office and beginning to think about books for the fall -- crazy I know, but it must happen.

For my Exploring Marketing Class I'll be using Personality Not Included by Rohit Bhargava. Why? Well for several reasons. Yes, this is a freshman level course and my goal is to get them really excited about marketing and introduce them to books they should be reading. PNI is one way I will do that. Bhargava is an expert in Online Marketing and I read his blog "Influential Marketing" religiously. Thanks to social media, when I realized he had set up a Facebook account last year, I "friended" him and we corresponded. When I read the book excerpt I knew this was perfect for my class. It's current and it doesn't require someone to have a PhD to understand the importance of engaging with your customer. It will be something my students will be able to relate to -- even as freshmen!

For my Internship class, which is focused on Career exploration, I have discovered a very different book. The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need by Daniel Pink, author of FreeAgent Nation and A Whole New Mind. Why this? Well, first of all the message in the book is spot on and something I try to express to my students. But the key is the delivery. It's Manga! Not your typical text for sure.

See the video:




My goal in choosing non-conventional text books is to be able to strike that balance between theory and practice -- and books like these help illustrate for students the possibilities. At a time when many find reading "boring" it's my job to get them excited.

It works.

In my Marketing Management class -- a senior level course -- students have to select three books from the field that are interesting to them. The big winners this semester? Seth Godin and Meatball Sunday, LoveMarks by Kevin Roberts, and Your Marketing Sucks by Mark Stevens. What is great is that the students read their books and post their thoughts in a discussion forum for one another and make recommendations -- so if one person likes a book, suddenly more people read them. And while they grumble about the papers I make them write (smile), they also write about being excited about reading books that make sense, are relevant and keep them up-to-date in marketing. As I tell them, once they graduate, the only people who will keep them current are...well....Seth and company. They won't have us Profs. to tell them what to read anymore.

So in the fall, I start with a new crop of students to do the same thing. Rohit has told me he'll video conference into my class in November -- this would be the first time students will get to read a current book and then MEET the author.

All because of Social Media, my passion for bringing marketing to life in the classroom and a wealth of great talent out there writing amazing books!