Action University

There is a competitive advantage out there, arguably more powerful than any other. Is it superior strategy? Faster innovation? Smarter employees? Patrick Lencioni argues that the seminal difference between successful organizations and mediocre ones actually has more to do with how healthy they are. Simply put, an organization is healthy when it is whole, consistent and complete, when its management, operations and culture are unified. This book provides leaders with a groundbreaking, approachable model for achieving organizational health.

• Quick Summary: The Advantage

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What makes things popular? If you said advertising, think again. People don’t listen to advertisements, they listen to their peers. But why do people talk about certain products and ideas more than others? In this book, Berger reveals the secret science behind word-of-mouth and social transmission. Discover how six basic principles drive all sorts of things to become contagious, from consumer products and policy initiatives to workplace rumors and YouTube videos.

• Quick Summary: Contagious

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How birth order affects personality is always a hot debate, and Connellan smartly turns the discussion into a business how-to book, noting that standout achievers tend to be firstborn, as they enjoy the richest blend of positive expectations, extra responsibilities and frequent feedback from his or her parents. Use those three factors to motivate your staffers—treat them all as "firstborns" with unlimited potential, essentially—and you'll boost their output.

• Quick Summary: Bringing Out the Best in Others

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Love your job and you'll be more productive, creative and motivated. You'll also be happier in life. Similarly, happy companies find they are more efficient, innovative and make more money than their unhappy competitors. The book is for anyone who wants to be happy at work - whether you are an employee or a manager; a new hire or a grizzled veteran; work in a small startup, a huge corporation or the public sector; it will give you everything you need to make work fun, inspiring and energizing.

• Quick Summary: Happy Hour

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Most people believe praise, appreciation, and compliments are great ways to motivate and inspire people. That is a myth, says Mattison Grey and Jonathan Manske. Fortunately, there is an alternative: acknowledgement. This communication tool is the cure for underperformance, lack of self-confidence, and ineffective motivation techniques. Acknowledgement effectively produces the results - increased performance, motivation and inspiration, and improved self-confidence - these other communication tools try to accomplish but do not.

• Quick Summary: Motivation Myth

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Based on an exhaustive study of thousands of sales reps across multiple industries and geographies, The Challenger Sale argues that classic relationship building is a losing approach, especially when it comes to selling complex, large-scale ideas and solutions. The authors' study found that while every average sales rep in the world falls into one of five distinct profiles, only one—the Challenger—delivers consistently high performance. Challengers approach clients and customers with unique insights, and tailor their message to the specific needs and objectives of the person they are addressing. The things that make Challengers unique are replicable and teachable across your organization.

• Quick Summary: The Challenger Sale

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Whether calling on a potential client for the first time, delivering a presentation, analyzing a client's needs, or making a sale, how the message is delivered matters as much as—or more than—what's being said. Winning Body Language for Sales Professionals unlocks the secrets of nonverbal communication to give sales specialists an unbeatable advantage.

• Quick Summary: Winning Body Language for Sales Professionals

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The era of social technologies provides seemingly endless opportunity, both for individuals and organizations. But it’s also the subject of seemingly endless hype. Yes, social tools allow us to do things entirely differently—but how do you really capitalize on that? In 11 Rules for Creating Value in the Social Era, social strategist and insightful blogger Nilofer Merchant argues that “social” is much more than “media.” Smart companies are letting social become the backbone of their business models, increasing their speed and flexibility by pursuing openness and fluidity. This ebook offers new rules for creating value, leading, and innovating in our rapidly changing world. These social era rules are both provocative and grounded in reality—they cover thorny challenges like forsaking hierarchy and control for collaboration; getting the most out of all talent; allowing your customers to become co-creators in your organization; inspiring employees through purpose in a world where money alone no longer wields that power; and soliciting community investment in an idea so that it can take hold and grow.

• Quick Summary: The Social Era

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You can have a rock-solid business strategy, unlimited resources, and the most talented people on staff. But only one thing is guaranteed in today’s hyperconnected society: if your business isn’t likeable, it will fail. Dave Kerpen knows how important it is for a business to be liked—by customers, employees, stakeholders, and the general public. Likeable Business lays out 11 strategies for organizations of all sizes to spur growth, profits, and overall success. Dave Kerpen reveals the remarkable returns you’ll get when you gain the trust of your customers and stakeholders. In today’s social media world, it literally pays to be likeable.

• Quick Summary: Likeable Business

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In Today We Are Rich, you'll join Tim Sanders on his journey as he weaves together heartwarming tales of hardship and triumph with fundamental lessons of building confidence. Tim details his own challenges and the struggles of those close to him, turning them into parables on the endurance and power of the human spirit. Not only will you be moved by his stories, you'll learn the steps you need to take to overcome any obstacle and persevere, even in the face of today's always-on media and internet society.

• Quick Summary: Today We Are Rich

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In 1897, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that the distribution of wealth was predictably unbalanced. Over the years, Pareto's observation has become known as the 80/20 principle. Now, Richard Koch takes a fresh look at the 80/20 principle and finds that the basic imbalance observed by Pareto 100 years ago can be found in almost every aspect of modern life. Whether you're investing in stocks, analyzing company sales, or looking at the performance of a Web site, you'll find that it's usually 20 percent that produces 80 percent of the total result. This means 80 percent of what you do may not count for much. Koch helps you to identify that 20 percent and shows you how you can get more out of your business, and life, for less.

• Quick Summary: 80/20 Principle

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Social psychologist Halvorson, a blogger for Psychology Today and assistant professor of psychology at Lehigh University, tackles attainment of goals in every area of life from relationships to sports. Halvorson sidesteps conventional notions about achieving success, particularly the idea that one should imagine oneself achieving goals easily. The ideal, Halvorson says, is to think positively about achieving one's goals but to think realistically about the effort that will be required to achieve them.

• Quick Summary: Succeed

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Creating and presenting a great pitch isn't an art—it's a simple science. Applying the latest findings in the field of neuroeconomics, while sharing eye-opening stories of his method in action, Klaff describes how the brain makes decisions and responds to pitches. Apply the tactics and strategies outlined in Pitch Anything to engage and persuade your audience—and you'll have more funding and support than you ever thought possible.

• Quick Summary: Pitch Anything

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Managing (Right) for the First Time is intended as a field guide for first time managers, or for managers who want to begin doing a better job. The author worked closely with 600+ companies and interviewed more than 10,000 employees, then summarized the findings in an interesting and eminently readable form. Read this book and you're likely to understand management and leadership like you never have before, but also learn very practical steps toward becoming a better manager and leader.

• Quick Summary: Managing (Right)

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Knowing the tools of social media is a must for successful marketing these days, but the real promise of social media is the way it can teach us a whole new way of doing business. Humanize takes the principles underlying social media’s growth and applies them to the way we lead and manage our organizations. Leading organizational consultants Jamie Notter and Maddie Grant help you change your organization, from the culture down to individual behavior, in ways that make it more human—and more effective.

• Quick Summary: Humanize

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What factors cause someone to say yes? And which techniques most effectively use these factors to bring about such compliance? In his bestselling book, Robert Cialdini, former salesperson, fundraiser, and advertiser, and current professor of social psychology, examines the science and practice of persuasion and compliance.

• Quick Summary: Influence

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In our culture, which emphasizes group work, everything seems geared toward extroverts. With Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain explores introversion through psychological research old and new, personal experiences, and even brain chemistry. By delving into introversion, Cain also seeks to find ways for introverts and extroverts to better understand one another--and for introverts to understand their own contradictions, such as the ability to act like extroverts in certain situations. Highly accessible and uplifting for any introvert—and any extrovert who knows an introvert (and over one-third of us are introverts)—Quiet has the potential to revolutionize the “extrovert ideal.”

• Quick Summary: Quiet

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Kawasaki draws upon his dual background as an evangelist for Apple's Macintosh computer and as a Silicon Valley venture capitalist in this how-to for launching any type of business project. Each chapter begins with "GIST" ("great ideas for starting things"), covering a variety of facets to consider, from identifying your customer base and writing a business plan to establishing partnerships and building brand identity. Minichapters zero in on particular jobs that will need doing, while FAQ sections address the questions readers are most likely to have.

• Quick Summary: The Art of the Start

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In an age of social media, smartphones, self-service, and six-second attention spans, High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service throws your business a lifeline. Today's customers are a hard bunch to crack. Time-strapped, screen-addicted, value-savvy, and socially engaged, their expectations are tougher than ever for a business to keep up with. They are empowered like never before and expect businesses to respect that sense of empowerment--lashing out at those that don't. But take heart: Old-fashioned customer service, fully retooled for today's blistering pace and digitally connected reality, is what you need to build the kind loyal customer base that allows you to survive--and thrive. And High-Tech, High-Touch Customer spells out surefire strategies for success in a clear, entertaining, and practical way.

• Quick Summary: High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service

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In The Innovator’s DNA, the authors build on what we know about disruptive innovation to show how individuals can develop the skills necessary to move progressively from idea to impact. By identifying behaviors of the world’s best innovators, they outline five discovery skills that distinguish innovative entrepreneurs and executives from ordinary managers: Associating, Questioning, Observing, Networking, and Experimenting. Once you master these competencies, the authors explain how to generate ideas, collaborate to implement them, and build innovation skills throughout the organization to result in a competitive edge.

• Quick Summary: The Innovator's DNA

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Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader, whether the CEO at a Fortune 100 company, an entrepreneur, a church pastor, the head of a school or nonprofit, or a government official. Richard Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” He debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.”

• Quick Summary: Good Strategy, Bad Strategy

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A book by two Swedish academics sporting shaved heads and wearing black. Hip enough. But what makes Funky Business worth reading is not so much the novelty of the authors' argument, which posits that in an oversupplied world, ideas are what separate successful companies and individuals from failures. Rather, it's the vitality of their argument and the rhythm of their language that make their ideas so compelling, as well as their call for unpredictable, surprising and funky business.

• Quick Summary: Funky Business Forever

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Properly understood and harnessed, fear and uncertainty can become fuel for creative genius rather than sources of pain, anxiety, and suffering. In business, art, and life, creating on a world-class level demands bold action and leaps of faith in the face of great uncertainty. But that uncertainty can lead to fear, anxiety, paralysis, and destruction. It can keep you from taking the risks necessary to do great work and craft a deeply-rewarding life. And it can bring companies that rely on innovation grinding to a halt. That is, unless you know how to use it to your advantage.

• Quick Summary: Uncertainty

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When it comes to making decisions in our lives, we think we're making smart, rational choices. But are we? In this newly revised and expanded edition, Dan Ariely refutes the common assumption that we behave in fundamentally rational ways. From buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, we consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. Yet these misguided behaviors are neither random nor senseless: They're systematic and predictable—making us predictably irrational.

• Quick Summary: Predictably Irrational

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As lean times force businesses to reduce advertising and marketing budgets, more and more companies are trying to develop new clients through word-of-mouth referrals. Jantsch champions such an approach, asserting that many widely referred businesses do very little when it comes to traditional advertising and that happy customers and actively engaged partners account for a great deal of their efforts. According to Jantsch, referral behavior is a primal activity rooted in our survival instinct and satisfying our need to connect with other people and mint social currency. Jantsch offers practical solutions on how to build a powerful referral engine by developing a systematic, consistent, and replicable approach and exploiting content, using social networking, and building strategic partnerships.

• Quick Summary: The Referral Engine

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Cause Marketing for Nonprofits captures the exciting potential for business and nonprofits to partner for mutual benefit and discovery. Cause marketing aligns nonprofits and businesses to combine the power of their individual brands with a company's marketing might to achieve social and shareholder value while communicating their values. Cause Marketing for Nonprofits changes the way nonprofits view and execute cause marketing programs. This book provides a wealth of hands-on, practical experience that can benefit any nonprofit organization interested in this innovative and growing form of generating revenue, building profile and achieving mission.

• Quick Summary: Cause Marketing for Nonprofits
• Order Cause Marketing for Nonprofits from The AFP Bookstore at a special discount rate!

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Action University Book Review: Week of April 2, 2012
Book: The Mesh: Why the Future of Business Is Sharing (Portfolio Hardcover)
Author: Lisa Gansky

Traditional businesses follow a simple formula: create a product or service, sell it, collect money. But in the last few years a fundamentally different model has taken root-one in which consumers have more choices, more tools, more information, and more peer-to-peer power. Pioneering entrepreneur Lisa Gansky calls it the Mesh and reveals why it will soon dominate the future of business. Mesh companies use social media, wireless networks, and data crunched from every available source to provide people with goods and services at the exact moment they need them, without the burden and expense of owning them outright. Gansky reveals how there is real money to be made and trusted brands and strong communities to be built in helping your customers buy less but use more.

• Quick Summary: The Mesh

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Action University Book Review: Week of March 26, 2012
Book: The Flinch (The Domino Project)
Author: Julien Smith

The idea is simple: your flinch mechanism can save your life. It short-circuits the conscious mind and allows you to pull back and avoid danger faster than you can even imagine it’s there. But what if danger is exactly what you need, and facing the flinch is one of the best way to get what you want? Learn how to challenge and change your perceptions, alter your habits and reflexes, and ultimately reap the rewards of doing so.

• Quick Summary: The Flinch

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Action University Book Review: Week of March 19, 2012
Book: The Ultimate Sales Letter: Attract New Customers. Boost your Sales (Adams Media)
Author: Dan S. Kennedy

In the age of e-mail and instant communication, great sales copy is indispensable to closing a deal. But too many sales letters end up in the junk file or the wastebasket. In this new edition of his top-selling book, author Dan Kennedy explains why some sales letters work and most don't. And he shows how to write copy that any business can use.

• Quick Summary: Ultimate Sales Letter

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Action University Book Review: Week of March 12, 2012
Book: The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life (Momentum Media)
Author: Jeff Olson

The Slight Edge is a way of thinking, a way of processing information that enables you to make the daily choices that will lead you to the success you desire and shows you how to create powerful results from the simple daily activities of your life, by using tools that are already within you. It is “the key” that will make all the other how-to books and self-help information that you read, watch and hear actually work.

• Quick Summary: The Slight Edge

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Action University Book Review: Week of March 5, 2012
Book: The Synergist: How to Lead Your Team to Predictable Success (Palgrave Macmillan)
Author: Les McKeown

Why do so many teams fail to perform, achieving compromise at best and gridlock at worst? And what does it take to end this gridlock? Wall Street Journal bestselling author and speaker Les McKeown shows how to take any team from gridlock to world class success.

• Quick Summary: The Synergist

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Action University Book Review: Week of February 27, 2012
Book: Seven Lessons for Leading in Crisis (J-B Warren Bennis Series)
Author: Bill George

One of the country's most trusted leaders offers time-tested and real world advice for leading in economic hard times. The former CEO of Medtronic draws from his own in-the-trenches experience and lessons from leaders who have weathered tough economic storms, and shows you specifically what one must do to become strong and survive any crisis.

• Quick Summary: Seven Lessons

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Action University HowTo Guide: Week of February 20, 2012
Book: The Synergist: How to Lead Your Team to Predictable Success (Palgrave Macmillan)
Author: Les McKeown

Why do so many teams fail to perform, achieving compromise at best and gridlock at worst? And what does it take to end this gridlock? Wall Street Journal bestselling author and speaker Les McKeown shows how to take any team from gridlock to world class success.

• Quick Summary: The Synergist

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Action University Book Review: Week of February 13, 2012
Book: Read This Before Our Next Meeting (The Domino Project)
Author: Al Pittampalli

How many times have you dreaded going to a meeting either because you viewed it as a waste of time or because you weren’t prepared. Dread no longer: Read This Before Our Next Meeting not only explains what’s wrong with “the meeting,” and meeting culture, but suggests how to make meetings more effective, efficient, and worthy of attending.

• Quick Summary: Read This Before Our Next Meeting

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Action University Book Review: Week of February 6, 2012
Book: Winning with Customers: A Playbook for B2B (Wiley)
Author: D. Keith Pigues & Jerry D. Alderman

Companies and organizations are blind to opportunities for profitable customer relationships without a deep understanding of how they create customer value relative to competitors. Winning with Customers offers a step-by-step playbook to help companies develop this capability for themselves, act on it, build a culture around it and sustain it over time.

• Quick Summary: Winning with Customers

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Action University Book Review: Week of January 23, 2012
Book: Drinking from the Fire Hose: Making Smarter Decisions Without Drowning in Information (Portfolio Hardcover)
Authors: Christopher J. Frank & Paul F. Magnone

Information is essential to making intelligent decisions, but more often than not, it simply overwhelms us. It's like trying to drink from a fire hose. The question isn't how to make it stop, but rather what to do with this information. The solution proposed by Christopher Frank and Paul Magnone sounds deceptively simple: Learn how to ask the right questions at the right time. Whatever field you're in, asking smarter questions will expose you to new information, point you to connections between seemingly unrelated facts, and open new avenues of discussion with your colleagues.

• Quick Summary: Drinking from the Firehose

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Action University Book Review: Week of January 16, 2012
Book: The 3rd Alternative: Solving Life's Most Difficult Problems (Free Press)
Author: Stephen R. Covey

There are many methods of “conflict resolution,” but most involve compromise, a low-level accommodation that stops the fight without breaking through to amazing new results. The 3rd Alternative is about more than just an armistice—it’s about creating a new and improved reality, a "3rd Alternative" that moves beyond your way or my way to a higher and better way that allows both parties to emerge from debate in a far better place than either had envisioned.

• Quick Summary: The 3rd Alternative

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Action University Book Review: Week of January 9, 2012
Book: Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly (Penguin Press HC)
Author: John Kay

Using dozens of practical examples, esteemed economist John Kay proves a notion that feels at once paradoxical and deeply commonsensical: The best way to achieve any complex or broadly defined goal is the indirect way. As Kay points out, we rarely know enough about the intricacies of important problems to tackle them head-on. We can learn about our objectives and how to achieve them only through a gradual process of risk taking and discovery-what Kay calls obliquity.

• Quick Summary: Obliquity

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Action University Book Review: Week of January 2, 2012
Book: Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge from Small Discoveries (Free Press)
Author: Peter Sims

In Little Bets, Peter Sims explains how successful people achieved breakthrough results by methodically taking small, experimental steps in order to discover and develop new ideas. Rather than believing they have to start with a big idea or plan a whole project out in advance, they make a series of little bets about what might be a good direction, learning from lots of little failures and from small but highly significant wins that allow them to happen upon unexpected avenues and arrive at extraordinary outcomes.

• Quick Summary: Little Bets

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Action University Book Review: Week of December 19, 2011
Book: BrandWashed: Why the Shopper Matters More Than What You're Selling (CreateSpace)
Author: Sarah A. O'Leary

BrandWashed delivers concrete advisement to help all businesses and organizations, great and small, identify and capture the attention of their target audiences efficiently and cost effectively.

• Quick Summary: BrandWashed

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Action University Book Review: Week of December 12, 2011
Book: Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (Portfolio Hardcover)
Author: Simon Sinek

In studying the leaders who've had the greatest influence in the world, Simon Sinek discovered that they all think, act, and communicate in the exact same way -- and it's the complete opposite of what everyone else does. Sinek calls this powerful idea "The Golden Circle," and it provides a framework upon which organizations can be built, movements can be lead, and people can be inspired. And it all starts with "why."

• Quick Summary: Start With Why

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Action University Book Review: Week of December 5, 2011
Book: Peak: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow (Jossey-Bass)
Author: Chip Conley

After fifteen years of growth, Chip Conley's hotel company was suddenly undercapitalized and overexposed in the post-dot.com, post-9/11 economy. For relief and inspiration, Conley turned to psychologist Abraham Maslow's iconic Hierarchy of Needs. Conley explains how to understand the motivations of employees, customers, bosses, and investors, and use that understanding to foster better relationships and build an enduring and profitable corporate culture.

• Quick Summary: Peak

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Action University Book Review: Week of November 29, 2011
Book: Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur (Virgin Books)
Author: Richard Branson

Combining invaluable advice with the remarkable and candid inside stories of Virgin's greatest achievements, as well as some of its setbacks, Business Stripped Bare is a dynamic, inspirational and truly original guide to success in business and in life. Whether you are an executive, an entrepreneur or are just starting out, Richard strips business down to show how you can succeed and make a difference.

• Quick Summary: Business Stripped Bare
• Register for Next Free Author Webinar: Lessons from Fascinate with Sally Hogshead (Friday, Dec 9, 2011 9:30-10:30 AM EST)
  Sally reveals the seven triggers to persuasion and captivation. Learn the lessons that some of the world's biggest brands and most successful entrepreneurs know about fascinating an audience.

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