Kirby's Book Review on MADE TO STICK by Chip & Dan Heath

MADE TO STICK teaches us the way to communicate our message effectively. The authors help us understand how we can attract and surprise the audience with our marketing approach. Many propaganda, advocacies, and commercials are made but easily forgotten, in other words, their messages don't STICK. The book suggests a formula for sticky messaging. It's spelled SUCCESs. S for simple, U for Unexpected, C for Concrete, C for Credible, E for Emotional, and S for Stories. The book is presented in a non-technical manner and is quite entertaining to read. The stories and examples in the book give very good insights that we can apply in business or personal life.

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Kirby's Book Review on THE 360 DEGREE LEADER by John Maxwell

This book gives great insight about leadership. Maxwell points that you have to be a true leader, specially when you are at the middle of the organization. This means, you have a boss and you have subordinates and you have an entire organization to improve. There are views and attitudes that we have to change in order for us to be effective leaders at our level. He also expressed that we should have genuine concern on the different areas of the organization, not only your department. It is not about your position, but it is about your influence on people that can create positive changes in your workplace. We also have to breakdown some myths about leadership, for us to unleash the potential of the leader in us. Discover these and more in The 360 degrees Leader.

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Kirby's Book Review on A WHOLE NEW MIND by Daniel H. Pink

A Whole New Mind helps us understand that the way to survive in the future, in terms of business and other aspects where there is great competition, is to use the potentials of the right brain. He sites that our creative brain, yes the right brain, is of great value specially these days where most of the left brain work or the logical thinking jobs can be outsourced to Third world countries. Engineering works, calculations, and other logic based jobs are cheaper when done in developing countries. Manufacturing is also cost efficient when done in China and other parts of Asia because of cheap labor and materials. The crucial point is to be able to understand that Right Brain jobs like design, creating effective marketing campaigns, communicating emotions, and empathizing are the things that make us unique and valuable. Many things that us humans do as our livelihood will be mechanized and computerized with the rapid development of the information age, thus getting more people to be jobless. It is good to note that more than taking up Masters in Business Administration (MBA), people are starting to look at having a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA). As Pink would say, MFA is the new MBA. This book will let you discover how to value your creative side, and use it to be relevant and competitive in the future.

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Kirby's Book Review on TRIBES by Seth Godin

Seth Godin talks about people having common interests, referred to as tribes. These tribes are spread out and need someone to gather them and to lead them. He talks about the effects on social networks like Twitter, and how people are following other people they want to listen to. What's also interesting in the book is on his topic about creating Movements.
This book gives great insight for leaders. It is not the usual leadership book. It takes on from the perspective of marketing and business. The basic concept is that you have something you are very passionate about, and most probably there are those like you out there and they need a leader. If there are no leaders, there will be no followers. He poses a challenge to turn groups into tribes. And there are two ways to do it, a shared interest and a way to communicate. The book gives relevant, up to date concepts on what tribes need. Tribes will open your eyes to many possibilities and why the world needs you to be a leader.

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Kirby's Book Review on OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell gives an interesting angle on the factors of success, based on the view that not everything is attributed to a person's own doing but more on circumstances of the immediate environment, world situation, industry transitions, and unusual breaks. Gladwell's researched facts and amusing observations are shocking and eye opening. We live in a world where much of the systems are in place and people are reluctant to change. Following Gladwell's advice might give significant improvement in how schools are run and sports trainings are scheduled among other things. One of the book's highlights that I find very enlightening is the 10,000 rule wherein Gladwell makes a study on the different successful people or groups like Bill Gates and the Beatles. He mentions that these people gave 10,000 hours of practice to achieve their level of success and were given unusual breaks like Bill Gates getting a hold of a computer system while the rest of the world didn't have that same privilege at that time. Outliers is a great read and worth your time.

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