I Got 99 Books But Not The Right One
Figuring Out What's Right For You
It was a post on Linkedin from one of my favourite business strategist/thinker/author/professors of mine that shared they were thrilled to be included in the Top 100 books of all time on decision making.
What!? 100 books on how to make decisions?
A quick search on Amazon yields 50,000 + books on the topic of.
No wonder they were thrilled with featuring on a short-list!
Another topic on my mind lately has been, positioning.
First amplified by the algorithm sharing a recent Knowledge Project episode with April Dunford (I really enjoyed the the portion on B2B vs B2C. Helpful framing from her for any of you wrestling in this space).
And then secondly, a few days later it came up in discussion in our brand strategy & storytelling course. (Link)
We offer a bonus clinic for participants to come and discuss their frameworks they are creating for the brands they are working on/with.
One asked “well what exactly is it, and where should I place by brand accordingly?”.
Iñaki, shared his thoughts, and then I shared mind. While, we do share perspectives and align on many things, we are on different pages too some times too.
“Wait, but you just said....”
In the moment, I realized this can be hard for the learner or listener. But for me, it’s increasingly vital to be able to hold understanding for multiple things, even countering perspectives, and then start the process of internalizing it for yourself and moving forward with what makes sense for you.
Remember, there’s 50,000+ books on how to make decisions.
Which one is right for you?
And as I discussed in my last issue, playbooks and autopilot are a real thing in our corporate environments.
Necessary at times too.
Rules of thumb, heuristics and protocols exist for a reason.
They can offer paths to reliability, efficiency, even creativity that are tried, tested and mostly true.
But I feel there comes a time in one’s career where we need to know why we make the choices we do.
It’s why with a Founder/CEO I am working with at the moment (inspired by Venkatesh Rao’s 42 Imperatives for Business and my 40 Things for Life), I’m encouraging them to define what they stand for and what exactly their approach is to the work they offer their clients is.
I think it’s powerful. At least you will know what you stand for, and can quickly sift through the Top 100 books on any topic and find the one that works for you best.
:)
Jamie
We made it through winter folks. Spring is here. Clocks are changing. Birds are chirping and newsletters are newsletter-ing!
Welcome to this new season of Jamie’s Weekly.
