Peter Flock - Flawless Consulting

Preparing for a new role meant looking around at new non-fiction items for my library. With an aim to take a checkpoint on Consulting discovery of Peter's book makes a nice entry point on the process and approach.

Equally relevant for Consultants both Internal and External there is also a lot of overlap into management. Beyond the comments on how a Manager influences the consulting process there a lot of good takeaways that help line managers ask the right discovery questions and process the collected data when working with directs and in skip level situations.

A lot of the content can be applied to conflict resolution, which is after all an organization/process problem so well worth buying it even if you don't see yourself as a classic model of a consultant.

Tom Markert - You Can't Win a Fight With Your Boss

I consumed this book in a little over one hour. 56 short entries with key takeaways to help you be successful in your career whatever level you're at today and what level you want to become.

The book follows a KISS principle where instead of Simple, Stupid the s's mean Short & Sweet.

As you read there are lots of moments where the topic resonates with your situation. I have started to map out how I can apply some of this so watch the blog for updates.

David Seah's Compact Calendar - Thailand Version

I have used a lot of David Seah's excellent Printable CEO series outputs.

He has kindly shared his candy bar style compact calendar and there are many versions available for different countries from his site and his readers. I wanted to add the Thailand version into the pool.

You can find the Thai Version here

Wikinomics

Wikinomics is a journey into how collaboration and the changes being enabled by Web 2.0 can help in many aspects of work.

The core theme of change is constant and getting (and staying) as close to your customers as possible is the key to success. The book pushes openness across organizations and describes some very good examples of how, contrary to many opinions, it can and will be a successful option.

The book has some great insights on how you can use some of the platforms emerging on the Web 2.0 domain to build collaboration.

The Tipping Point

Aimed at marketing on the face of it I was pointed in the direction of this book by the MBA Podcast. Having read it though I find myself thinking of ways of applying the underlying concepts in many ways.

First I think of how I can build and raise awareness of my personal branding. I can also apply this to Knowledge Management and trying to get the adoption of KM ideas to tip for me.

The Now Habit has some very practical examples of how you can, by following the steps laid out, change your ways. Some of the tools are quite useful. I have combined this with David Allens Getting Things Done and found myself to much more productive.

Where GTD focuses on more passive organization The Now Habit takes a more active approach to getting you through the task at hand. I find the use of rewards after 30 minutes of quality action to be a great way to get me started on some of those more unpleasant tasks.

The Medici Effect

A great book on innovation and how we can capture the processes that the great innovators use to help force connections, the intersection, that can allow us to increase our chances of creating and executing truly creative ideas and concepts.

Key takeaway: quantity begets quality, the more ideas you have and try will lead you a greater chance of finding THE idea. It will also increase the chance of failure as an idea doesn't stack up, however be prepared to use the failures to a positive outcome.