It's been years since I listened to this book but the message is STILL with me. The greatest way to influence & change the behavior of a group or company is to identify, then influence the influencers withing that group. Influencers can be anybody from janitors to CEOs. Assigned positions are frequently irrelevant how influencial they are.

I don't remember the rest of the details, only that this was the 2nd of 3 excellent books by these authors & this groups all of which I highly recommend.

The other 2 are, Change Anything & Crucial Conversations, both of which are available on this page.

I listened to this book for the first time in the last year or so after a high level consultant who has been working with Fortune 500 companies for decades recommended it to me.

I was heartened that I had come to some of the same conclusions on my own & through my continuous learning.

This leads very natuarally into the topic of "psychological safety ". It's NOT about avaoiding difficult, uncomfortable or awkward conversations, it's about making the most of, & getting the most from these crucial conversations.

There are 2 other books by this same group & I highly recommend all 3.

The other 2 are, Change Anything & Influencer, both of which are available on this page.

This was the first of 3 book I've read / listened to by this group, & they're all excellent.

This one is more focused on personal or individual change for yourself or others, whereas the other 2 are more about helping others & groups change.

I don't remember many of the specifics, only that I was so impressed by the book & their actionable tactics for personal change that I wrote the company to tell them it was one of the best books I'd ever read on the topic.

Some of the changes they discuss in the book were challenging to the point of seeming impossible. It made their simple & direct, though not necessarily easy strategies all the more impressive. It's not because they were revolutionary or complex, but the opposite. They are usable for virtually any personal change effort you want to make.

There are 2 other books by this same group & I highly recommend all 3.

The other 2 are, Change Anything & Influencer, both of which are available on this page.

I LOVED this book! It's completely outside the wheelhouse of my Neuro-Cognitive Leadership, but well within my passions & interests.

If you care about & are interested in carbon sequestration technologies that are simple & available NOW, & for several thousand years previously, this is the book for you.

It's about how making biochar is an immediately available & inexpensive solution for removing & keeping greenhouse gases out of our atmosphere.

This is one step better than just reducing greenhouse gas emissions because it actually reverses the process. Biochar is like charcoal for ANY carbon based organic matter. It can store carbon in this form for hundreds of millions of years & has many useful properties from improving soil to becoming raw material for making carbon fiber.

It's a well researched book with lots of specific, empirically derived values to make any science geek happy;-)

It wasn't as good as I'd hoped but it's a very interesting look into one of the greatest minds in history.

This is one of my top all time favorite business books of ANY type. I've listened to this book 3 or 4 times, I love it that much:-) Its title clearly describes its core focus. They cite specific REAL companies & how they successfully scaled pockets in major international & national companies. 2 of my favorite things are:

1 ) The case study of Tamagoya ( Japanese for Egg House ) because I live in Japan & have cultural insight & familiarity bentos;-)

2 ) Their analogy of " Catholicism vs. Buddhism " as a business strategy. Catholicism represented centralized control, & standardization regardless of location or cultural variables. And Buddhism as decentralized control & adaption or integration of local & cultural variables. It was especially brilliant when they described it as a continuum where some aspects of a business may be highly standardized while others allow localized autonomy to find optimize & achieve the best of both worlds.

This is a MUST read for any leadrer wanting to scale & or translate excellence in their organization.

This is a brilliant book with a counter-intuitive insight. The author has Ph.D. in math. He worked for Microsoft & once believed technology could solve any problem.

After moving to India to save the world with technology he quickly learned he was mistaken.

Closets full of unused computers proved to him that without liasing technology with the people who use them technology was useless.

This book is about how human & cultural factors have to be considered & integrated into its use. The resulting behaviorial changes allow technology, modern medicine & anything else to be used in ways that maximally benefit those who use them.

I listened to this book immediately after Joseph Sugarman's The Adweek Copywriting Handbook ( Also in this list ). To be honest, I think this is the better book.

I learn a lot from both, but if you choose only one make it this book.

Ray Edwards uses a principle based top down approach that I found more clear and easier to apply to my own writing.

He starts with the idea, principle of goal behind the technique, THEN follow with an example.

This is my favorite & clearest of the 3 or so books I've read on copywriting.

This is also a good book, but honestly, I like How to write copy that sells by Ray Edwards ( above ) better.
Joseph Sugarman is apparently a more famous copywriter, but in my opinion Ray is a better author & teacher.

Reading both is probably better than reading either, but if you have to choose one, I recommend the other.

The best thing about this book is the fame of the author and some well known examples from famous products like BluBlocker Sunglasses.

It was instructive to listen to these books back to back to compare the simpler, but less skilled & writing of Sugarman against the superior skill & style of Edwards.

This book offers a combination of counter-intuitive strategies used by some of the most inovative businesses in the world & practices that come from research in psychology.

Sutton often blends the two by describing the techniques, then citing supporting research.

What I like most about this book is that he points out the nuances of real life few management & leadership researchers talk about in books aimed at a popular audience. Some of the the techniques seem contradictory, but aren't, others, taken to extremes can backfire, or are contradictory to others. WHen each is most useful depends on the goal, company culture & specifics of the project. He does a good job of pointing out those nuances so you can find the best approach for a given situation.

This isn't my favorite book by this author. Scaling Up Excellence is. You can find it elsewhere on this page. That said, I enjoyed the topic & this book because I'm a lifelong inventor & innovator.

I'm always on the lookout for new insights into innovation that I haven't heard of or used. I learned some new ideas & verified others I already use.

The main lesson I gained from this book was that leaders of innovative companies have to realize that what works for routine products in predictable environments can be counter-productive when applied to innovation.

Minimizing variation, diversity & variation is very good when a company is using 6 sigma or other systems to minimize errors in production. But those practices usually aren't appropriate for creative innovation & product development in the same company.

An exceptional book about media manipulation from an industry insider. This book outlines the deceptions & practices that make up the majority of our media today.

This is a brilliant book from Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahenman & Co - Author of Nudge, Cass R. Sunstein.

It's about how our judgement varies across time & mood even MORE than it's affected by biases.

It covers many interestting insights & techniques on how to improve your judgement by reducing noise & bias.

This is the update to a business classis by the genius who wrote Good to Great & Other books in this library.

Collins speaks on many time tested & researched back business practices that are mostly common sense that most business don't follow because of the rigid mindsets of their leadership.

Break away from dogma & the pack by applying the science & wisdom contained in this book.

I especially like their discussion of technology push vs. market pull & " O.P.U.R.s ".

This was the first Jim Collins book I ever read. I was extremely impresses by his matched pair experimental design. He paired & compaired 14 pairs of very similar companies. One of each ascended to greatness, while its matched company merely remained good.

Use the many brilliant insighte in this book to radically increase the chances of making your company GREAT!

I listened to this one recently. What I loved most about it was how down to Earth & pragmatic Walker's techniques are.

His " Product Launch Formula " takes much less time than other systems I've learned about.

I especially like his " Shot Accross the Bow " techniques & how he asks his new clients question to continuously improve his product not just every iteration, but EVERY DAY as he runs his trainings. BRILLIANT:-)

Dr. Robert Cialdini is the Godfather of modern persuasion & marketing psychology. Whether you've heard of him or not, most modern marketing is based on his research.

This is the second edition of this book, updated about 20 years after the original, twice the size & 10X better than the excellent original.

His insights in this edition are MUCH deeper, clearer & applicable to your marketing & leadership.

Honestly, you can skip the original, I've read both & this sequel FAR exceeds the first edition.

This edition introduces the 7th " Lever of Influence " a.k.a. Persuasion principle as well as renaming & combining the original 6 into a superior & clear model of the psychology of influence, how to apply it ethically, & how to defend against it being used against you unethically.