Work Rules!: Insights from Inside Google That Will Transform How You Live and Lead


Laszlo Bock - 2015
    "We spend more time working than doing anything else in life. It's not right that the experience of work should be so demotivating and dehumanizing." So says Laszlo Bock, head of People Operations at the company that transformed how the world interacts with knowledge. This insight is the heart of WORK RULES!, a compelling and surprisingly playful manifesto that offers lessons including:Take away managers' power over employeesLearn from your best employees-and your worstHire only people who are smarter than you are, no matter how long it takes to find themPay unfairly (it's more fair!)Don't trust your gut: Use data to predict and shape the futureDefault to open-be transparent and welcome feedbackIf you're comfortable with the amount of freedom you've given your employees, you haven't gone far enough. Drawing on the latest research in behavioral economics and a profound grasp of human psychology, WORK RULES! also provides teaching examples from a range of industries-including lauded companies that happen to be hideous places to work and little-known companies that achieve spectacular results by valuing and listening to their employees. Bock takes us inside one of history's most explosively successful businesses to reveal why Google is consistently rated one of the best places to work in the world, distilling 15 years of intensive worker R&D into principles that are easy to put into action, whether you're a team of one or a team of thousands. WORK RULES! shows how to strike a balance between creativity and structure, leading to success you can measure in quality of life as well as market share. Read it to build a better company from within rather than from above; read it to reawaken your joy in what you do.

Nonprofit Management 101: A Complete and Practical Guide for Leaders and Professionals


Darian Rodriguez Heyman - 2011
    This book provides nonprofit professionals with the conceptual frameworks, practical knowledge, and concise guidance needed to succeed in the social sector. Designed as a handbook, the book is filled with sage advice and insights from a variety of trusted experts that can help nonprofit professionals prepare to achieve their organizational and personal goals, develop a better understanding of what they need to do to lead, support, and grow an effective organization.Addresses a wealth of topics including fundraising, Managing Technology, Marketing, Finances, Advocacy, Working with Boards Contributors are noted nonprofit experts who define the core capabilities needed to manage a successful nonprofit Author is the former Executive Director of Craigslist Foundation This important resource offers professionals key insights that will have a direct impact on improving their daily work.

Why CEOs Fail: The 11 Behaviors That Can Derail Your Climb to the Top--And How to Manage Them


David L. Dotlich - 2003
    Dotlich and Peter C. Cairo describe the most common characteristics of derailed top executives and how you can avoid them:Arrogance--you think that you're right, and everyone else is wrong.Melodrama--you need to be the center of attention.Volatility--you're subject to mood swings.Excessive Caution--you're afraid to make decisions.Habitual Distrust--you focus on the negatives.Aloofness --you're disengaged and disconnected. Mischievousness--you believe that rules are made to be broken.Eccentricity--you try to be different just for the sake of it.Passive Resistance--what you say is not what you really believe.Perfectionism--you get the little things right and the big things wrong.Eagerness to Please--you try to win the popularity contest.

Ultralearning: Master Hard Skills, Outsmart the Competition, and Accelerate Your Career


Scott H. Young - 2019
    Ultralearning offers nine principles to master hard skills quickly. This is the essential guide to future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage through self-education. In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, staying ahead depends on continual self-education—a lifelong mastery of fresh ideas, subjects, and skills. If you want to accomplish more and stand apart from everyone else, you need to become an ultralearner. The challenge of learning new skills is that you think you already know how best to learn, as you did as a student, so you rerun old routines and old ways of solving problems. To counter that, Ultralearning offers powerful strategies to break you out of those mental ruts and introduces new training methods to help you push through to higher levels of retention. Scott H. Young incorporates the latest research about the most effective learning methods and the stories of other ultralearners like himself—among them Benjamin Franklin, chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, and Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, as well as a host of others, such as little-known modern polymath Nigel Richards, who won the French World Scrabble Championship—without knowing French. Young documents the methods he and others have used to acquire knowledge and shows that, far from being an obscure skill limited to aggressive autodidacts, ultralearning is a powerful tool anyone can use to improve their career, studies, and life. Ultralearning explores this fascinating subculture, shares a proven framework for a successful ultralearning project, and offers insights into how you can organize and exe - cute a plan to learn anything deeply and quickly, without teachers or budget-busting tuition costs.Whether the goal is to be fluent in a language (or ten languages), earn the equivalent of a college degree in a fraction of the time, or master multiple tools to build a product or business from the ground up, the principles in Ultralearning will guide you to success.

The Ten Faces of Innovation: IDEO's Strategies for Defeating the Devil's Advocate and Driving Creativity Throughout Your Organization


Tom Kelley - 2005
     The role of the devil's advocate is nearly universal in business today. It allows individuals to step outside themselves and raise questions and concerns that effectively kill new projects and ideas, while claiming no personal responsibility. Nothing is more potent in stifling innovation. Drawing on nearly 20 years of experience managing IDEO, Kelley identifies ten roles people can play in an organization to foster innovation and new ideas while offering an effective counter to naysayers. Among these approaches are the Anthropologist—the person who goes into the field to see how customers use and respond to products, to come up with new innovations; the Cross-pollinator who mixes and matches ideas, people, and technology to create new ideas that can drive growth; and the Hurdler, who instantly looks for ways to overcome the limits and challenges to any situation. Filled with engaging stories of how companies like Kraft, Procter and Gamble, Cargill and Samsung have incorporated IDEO's thinking to transform the customer experience, THE TEN FACES OF INNOVATION is an extraordinary guide to nurturing and sustaining a culture of continuous innovation and renewal.

TOP 101 Growth Hacks: The best growth hacking ideas that you can put into practice right away


Aladdin Happy - 2015
     First growth hacks I was compressing into a short form and keeping in a private document. And then the crazy idea hit my head —  establish an e-mail subscription service, that sends every day one short growth hack. This is how growthhackingidea.com was born. After 3 weeks there were 1700 subscribers ($0 marketing cost). I was reading, choosing tasty growth hacks, I eager to test and implement. After 3 months there were 17 000 subscribers ($0 marketing cost). People from companies like Microsoft, Salesforce, TechStars, Hubspot, Coca-Cola, Indiegogo, Disney, 500 startups, LinkedIn, Adobe became our subscribers. After reaching this milestone I decided to put the best collected growth hacks into a book + add a portion of exclusive growth hacks, never released on GrowthHackingIdea.com. This book consists of two parts: 1. Introduction, how GrowthHackingIdea.com started (+ bonus growth hacks) 2. A list of TOP 101 growth hacks. Divided into AARRR+ sections: Before Product-Market Fit, Hustling, Copywriting, Acquisition, Activation, Retention, Revenue, Referral: Before product/market fit #1. Hack your mindset with CEO of Pinterest #2. How to get your first customers #3. Are you sure about your product/market fit? Hustling #4. Leveraging dead competitors #5. Get emails of followers of your competitors #6. Tinder`s early days growth hack #7. Become an alternative to your competitors #8. The TechCrunch journalists` emails #9. Find journalists for your startup instantly #10. Pre-heat the journalists #11. Hack the Press #12. Hack Product Hunt #13. How a $2B company gained its initial users Copyrighting #14. A copy that converts #15. 9 cold emailing rules #16. 7 engaging storytelling formulas #17. 7 perfect headline formulas #18. The magic of headlines #19. Hack persuasive copywriting #20. Copywriting tip to quadruple conversions #21. Replace one word to get 90% more clicks Acquisition #22. Parasite SEO (white hat) #23. A real keyword strategy #24. Hidden early stage growth hack of Airbnb #25. Turn LinkedIn contacts into a list of emails #26. I hardly forced myself to share this hack #27. 200K users a month from long tail phrases #28. Boost conversions of your Tweets #29. How to collect emails on Twitter #30. Hack Twitter #31. Creating Pinterest pins that drive results #32. Best growth hack by Laxman Papineni #33. Which ads perform best for your competitors? #34. Piggybacking tweak to earn a ROI #35. Hack ideas for the 2nd largest search engine #36. Hack Facebook ads #37. 5 SEO hacks for the 2nd largest search engine #38. Disrupt the cost of YouTube video marketing Activation #39. Easy to understand tutorials via email #40. Boost your email opt-in rate by 22% #41. Little trick increased conversions by 26% #42. Evernote’s onboarding framework #43. Increase email opt-ins by 70% in 5 minutes #44. Quiz your audience #45. Drawbacks & competition increase conversions #46. Negative social proof for persuasion #47. 10-second trick #48. How I doubled my app downloads #49. How typography affects conversions #50. Save your bounced visitors #51. Turn invisibles into leads #52.

Pivot: The Only Move That Matters is Your Next One


Jenny Blake - 2016
    "Looking to make a career change? Pivot is a book you will turn to again and again." —Daniel Pink, author of To Sell is Human and Drive Jenny Blake, author of Life After College and former career development program manager at Google, reveals how to methodically make your next career move by doubling down on what is already working.This book is for anyone searching for an answer to the question, "What's next?" Whether you have hit a plateau in your perfect-on-paper job, are considering taking on a new role in your current job, are thinking about starting your own business, or you want to move into a new industry altogether, one thing remains clear: your career success depends on your ability to determine your next best move.If change is the only constant, let’s get better at it.

The Blog Startup: Proven Strategies to Launch Smart and Exponentially Grow Your Audience, Brand, and Income without Losing Your Sanity or Crying Bucketloads of Tears


Meera Kothand - 2020
    It takes several years for that—more than a book and a couple of days of reading can promise.  But this gives you a plan for success before you even start. Think of it as a road map for your first 90 days!Now, you can start a solid blog with the potential to make money WITHOUT a $1,000+ blogging education! Here’s a snapshot of what’s packed into this how-to guide: Popular guru promises exposed! I expose the truth about popular revenue streams and why NOT ALL monetization options are right for you despite guru promises! The 2M (+1) strategy to help you hit your first $1K blogging. How to find YOUR unique angle, so you can stand out from the pack and attract the right kind of readers. The smartest ways to make critical website pages sticky—Make these pages shout out “YES, you’re in the right place!” and understand what you need and don’t need to include. Why some bloggers make the leap and others don’t. (It has everything to do with what they don’t do!) 3 MUST-ANSWER questions that will shape your blog’s journey. How to create a strategic blog launch plan and my answer to the question “How many posts do you need before launching?” (No more confusion or stress. Just an actionable plan for results.) AND MORE! Imagine knowing exactly what you need to focus on despite all the distractions pulling you in a million directions.Imagine if in a mere year you accomplish more than you ever thought possible, feel a sense of satisfaction, and actually make progress toward this larger vision of what you want your blog and business to do for you.You don't flinch, get panicky, or try different tactics hoping one sticks. You have a plan of action and every decision you make for your blog is calculated and intentional. That’s the power of the process and the promise behind The Blog Startup!Intrigued yet? Then scroll to the top and click or tap “Buy Now.”

Innovation as Usual: How to Help Your People Bring Great Ideas to Life


Paddy Miller - 2013
    Every so often employees are sent to “Brainstorm Island”: an off-site replete with trendy lectures, creative workshops, and overenthusiastic facilitators. But once they return, it’s back to business as usual.Innovation experts Paddy Miller and Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg suggest a better approach. They recommend that leaders at all levels become “innovation architects,” creating an ecosystem in which people engage in key innovation behaviors as part of their daily work.In short, this book is about getting to a state of “innovation as usual,” where regular employees—in jobs like finance, marketing, sales, or operations—make innovation happen in a way that’s both systemic and sustainable.Instead of organizing brainstorming sessions, idea jams, and off-sites that rarely result in success, leaders should guide their people in what the authors call the “5 + 1 keystone behaviors” of innovation: focus, connect, tweak, select, stealthstorm, (and the + 1) persist:• Focus beats freedom: Direct people to look only for ideas that matter to the business• Insight comes from the outside: Urge people to connect to new worlds• First ideas are flawed: Challenge people to tweak and reframe their initial ideas• Most ideas are bad ideas: Guide people to select the best ideas and discard the rest• Stealthstorming rules: Help people navigate the politics of innovation• Creativity is a choice: Motivate everyone to persist in the five keystone behaviorsUsing examples from a wide range of companies such as Pfizer, Index Ventures, Lonza, Go Travel, Prehype, DSM, and others, Innovation as Usual lights the way toward embedding creativity in the DNA of the workplace.So cancel that off-site. Instead, read Innovation as Usual—and put innovation at the core of your business.

Setting the Table: The Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business


Danny Meyer - 2006
    Danny Meyer started Union Square Cafe when he was 27, with a good idea and hopeful investors. He is now the co-owner of a restaurant empire. How did he do it? How did he beat the odds in one of the toughest trades around? In this landmark book, Danny shares the lessons he learned developing the dynamic philosophy he calls Enlightened Hospitality. The tenets of that philosophy, which emphasize strong in-house relationships as well as customer satisfaction, are applicable to anyone who works in any business. Whether you are a manager, an executive, or a waiter, Danny’s story and philosophy will help you become more effective and productive, while deepening your understanding and appreciation of a job well done. Setting the Table is landmark a motivational work from one of our era’s most gifted and insightful business leaders.

Futuring: The Exploration Of The Future


Edward Cornish - 2004
    "It offers methods and techniques that can help you understand trends, identify opportunities and avoid dangers."(Cornish)

The Power of Starting Something Stupid: How to Crush Fear, Make Dreams Happen, and Live without Regret


Richie Norton - 2012
    No more excuses. Learn how to start something stupid—the smartest thing you can do.Drawing on years of research, including hundreds of face-to-face interviews and some of the world’s greatest success stories past and present, Richie shows you how stupid is the New Smart—the common denominator for success, creativity, and innovation in business and life.

Made to Stick (Chapter 4: Credible): Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die


Chip Heath - 2008
    Offer people the chance to test your ideas themselves–a “try before you buy” philosophy. People want to believe your ideas, so give them a reason to. Examples include the Nobel-winning scientist no one believed, flesh-eating bananas, and the human-scale principle.

Don't Call It That: A Naming Workbook


Eli Altman - 2013
    This is it. Don't Call It That is a step-by-step workbook that will guide you through the naming process. A Hundred Monkeys Creative Director, Eli Altman, will help you develop attention grabbing names that speak to your audience and establish the seed of your brand. The book is like that friend who isn't afraid to tell you what you need to hear. It'll help you understand what's at stake and how to approach naming creatively without neglecting practical realities like positioning, trademarks and URLs. How do you find a name that's available? How do you find a name that grabs people's attention? How do you tell the difference between a good name and a bad name? How do you test names in the real world? How do you find a name that elevates you above the competition Don't Call It That will set you straight.

Against All Odds: A Story Of Courage, Perseverance And Hope


Dhirubhai Ambani