Since mid-2009 I’ve written regularly for the American Express Small Business OPEN Forum Idea Hub, the content of which is managed by Federated Media. It began with Guy Kawasaki asking me to pen a few blogs for him. Then a few more.
By the end of 2009 I had written a few dozen, mostly focusing on creativity, innovation and design, which drove a lot of traffic to OPEN (due in no small part to Guy Kawasaki’s broadcasting.) AmEx/Federated approached me to write directly for them. Since January 2010 I’ve written a weekly column, usually appearing every Thursday. I reprint each column here on my blog so that you don’t have to navigate two sites in order to read the columns.
In September 2010, AmEx/Federated asked if I could write two columns per week. No easy task! Solution: We came up with the idea of the “Guru Review”–a review of important books and articles by the “gurus” of business. “Review” is a bit of a misnomer…the reviews were meant to be more executive summaries, rather than critiques.
In fact, I refuse to criticize a book. My policy is an old school one: if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. I look at every book with an appreciative eye. If a particular book doesn’t resonate with me, I simply don’t review it.
Just recently, in a move intended to bring more engaging content to the OPEN audience, the Guru Review switched to an interview format..5-10 questions with the author…whenever possible and the author is willing.
You can link to lists of all of my OPEN content in reverse chronological order below. (NOTE: OPEN underwent a site redesign in early 2011, and unfortunately lost all of the social media metrics attached to each column…tweets, likes, links, comments, etc.)
2012
Bring Your Ideas to Life in 2012
2011
6 Important Marketing Trends to Watch in 2012
3 Great Design Tips for Startups
The Neuroscience of Leadership
Stuck In a Brainstorm? Try a Bodystorm Instead
Small Business Saturday: Retail Healthcare
How Positivity Promotes Performance
The 6 Biggest Legal Mistakes Small Business Owners Make
How To Spark Innovation And Creativity In The Workplace
How To Make The Impossible Possible
Kill the Butterflies, Kill the Dream
How to Make Your Marketing a “Sinch”
Interrupt Yourself For Greater Focus
6 Must-Read Manifestos to Get You Unstuck
Brainwrite Your Way to Your Next Big Idea
Guru Review: The Big Enough Company
How to Paint Your Brain with Neurofeedback Training
Guru Review: Drinking From The Fire Hose
How to Get Started With Meditation
Guru Review: Read This Before Our Next Meeting
Banishing Fear in the Workplace: Interview with Gallup’s Tom Rieger
Guru Review: Breaking the Fear Barrier
Boost Your Brain and Give It a Break…At the Same Time
The Power of Small Wins: 5 Questions with Teresa Amabile
Guru Review: The Progress Principle
What a Nutritionist Can Teach You About Business
Guru Review: Anything You Want
Don’t Pay For Ideas: Light the Fire Within
Guru Review: What If They Listened to Entrepreneurs?
The 5 Habits of Highly Disruptive Innovators
Guru Review: The Innovator’s DNA
How to Hold a Design Jam in 53 Minutes
Guru Review: Creative Workshop
The Neuroscience of Change, or How to Reset Your Brain
Guru Review: The Accidental Creative
6 Things Managers Believe That Are Dead Wrong
Guru Review: Designing for Growth
What Winning The New Yorker Caption Contest Taught Me About Creativity
Guru Review: The Folklore of Management
Banish Judgment, Boost Creativity
Stellar Performance, The American Idol Way
How to Simplify Decision-Making
Guru Review: Too Many Bosses, Too Few Leaders
How to Create a Disruptive Business Model
The 9 Elements of an Ironclad Business Model
Guru Review: Reinventing the Wheel
11 Personal Energy Renewal and Sustainability Tips
Guru Review: Today We Are Rich
Guru Review: The Steve Jobs Way
10 Ways to Become a More Socially Responsible Business
Guru Review: The Entrepreneur Equation
Guru Review: The Thank You Economy
How to Sell a Big Idea: The Power of Curiosity
The 4 Keys to Doing Anything Well
Microstrategy: Sweat the Details, Grow Your Business
Innovation’s Most Important Question
Why You Can’t Always Trust Your Gut
Guru Review: Practically Radical
3 Small Businesses to Watch in 2011
2010
For Your 2011 Goals, a Bit of Zen Luck
A 2010 Holiday Business Gift: 20 Ruthless Questions
A 2010 Holiday Reading List: 20 Great Gift Books
Why Personality Matters: Interview with Steve Shapiro
20 Reasons Your Company Won’t Change
Guru Review: The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management
Guru Review: Simple Excellence
Where Would We Be Without You? An Open Letter to Local Small Business Owners
The Company That Solved Healthcare
Guru Review: Personality Poker
Guru Review: Where Good Ideas Come From
Guru Review: I Live in the Future
Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire
Hacking Work: Interview with Bill Jensen
How Yellow Made the Millionaire
It’s a Mad App World (a Modern Fable)
The 10 Best Business Travel Tips
How to Rekindle the Entrepreneurial Spirit
Ideacide, or 14 Ways to Kill Creativity
3 Ways to Escape the Competitive Herd
10 Tips for Re-Energizing Your Day, Every Day
3 Ways to Think Like a Designer
Tips on Boosting Workplace Happiness from Gretchen Rubin
5 iPhone Apps to Boost Your Business Creativity
Design Thinking Mindsets, Modes & Methods
“Click”: Techniques for High Performance Teaming
Jumpstart Storytelling: A Networking Tool for High Performance Collaboration
The Power of the Purse: Interview with Maddy Dychtwald
How to Start Building a Culture of Innovation
How to Work Less and Do Better
10 Tips & 20 Questions for Unleashing Innovation
The DRIVE Interview: 5 Questions with Dan Pink
Testing the Headwinds of Change
5 Books That Defined the Decade
A 2010 Personal Leadership Checklist
2009
The 4 Temptations of the Innovator
7 Ways The Action Method Makes Ideas Happen
What We Can Learn From Designers
The Design of Business: Interview with Roger Martin
A Design Thinker’s Reading List
The 7 Laws of Projects, and How To Break Them
How To Improve Your Vision in 5 Easy Steps
Break Through By Taking Breaks
How Resource Constraints Can Set You Free
Built-In Curiosity: How to Mind a Gap
Customer-Centric Design: Got Empathy?
How to Design a Flat Organization
The Downside of a Good Idea: T.M.I.
Tiger Woods on the Pursuit of Perfection
