...Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, written by Malcolm Gladwell is about first impressions and snap judgments. Gladwell has three main objectives in this book: “to convince you that “decisions made very quickly can be every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately,” “to learn when to listen to that powerful onboard computer and when to be wary of it,” and “to convince you that our snap judgments and first impressions can be educated and controlled.” Gladwell starts off with the story of a kouros, an ancient Greek statue that was close to being purchased by the Getty Museum in California. After 14 months of in depth research to verify the authenticity of the statue, the Getty determined that it was authentic and went ahead with the purchase. That was until one...
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..."In the first two seconds of looking –in a single glance – they were able to understand more about the essence of the statue than the team at the Getty was able to understand after fourteen months . . . Blink is a book about those first two seconds." Gladwell begins his introduction with the story of a kouros – an ancient Greek sculpture of a young naked male – that was acquired by the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1983. Kouroi are very rare. As a result this particular kouros was being sold for $10 million. Because of the hefty price tag, the Getty Museum was very careful when testing to see if the kouros was a forgery. However, after 14 months of analysis, the Getty determined that the kouros was in fact real, and bought the statue. Many scholars did not agree that the kouros was real. To them, something about the statue didn’t look right. When Thomas Hoving, the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, looked at the statue the first word that came to his mind was “fresh”. When Angelos Delivorrias, director of the Benaki Museum in Athens, first laid eyes upon the statue he felt a wave of immediate disgust. For a long time the validity of the kouros was hotly debated. Finally, the Getty’s case began to fall apart. As it turned out, a lot of the documents used to prove the statue’s authenticity were forged. Also, as experts began to examine the statue in great detail, they came to the realization that it used a hodgepodge of styles from many different places...
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...S A BRIEF HISTORY OF DECISION MAKING BY L E I G H B UC H A N A N A N D A N D R E W O ’ CO N N E L L RANDY LYHUS Humans have perpetually sought new tools and insights to help them make decisions. From entrails to artificial intelligence, what a long, strange trip it’s been. SOMETIME IN THE MIDST OF THE LAST CENTURY, Chester Barnard, a retired telephone executive and author of The Functions of the Executive, imported the term “decision making” from the lexicon of public administration into the business world. There it began to replace narrower descriptors such as “resource allocation” and “policy making.” 34 | Chances Are The dicey history of risk 36 | The Meeting of Minds The power and perils of group decision making 38 | Thinking Machines The real intelligence behind AI 40 | The Romance of the Gut The appeal of leaders who just do it The introduction of that phrase changed how managers thought about what they did and spurred a new crispness of action and desire for conclusiveness, argues William Starbuck, professor in residence at the University of Oregon’s Charles H. Lundquist College of Business.“Policy making could go on and on endlessly, and there are always resources to be allocated,” he explains.“‘Decision’ implies the end of deliberation and the beginning of action.” So Barnard–and such later theorists as James March, Herbert Simon, and Henry Mintzberg– laid the foundation for the study of managerial decision making...
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...ALSO BY MALCOLM GLADWELL The Tipping Point To my parents, Joyce and Graham Gladwell Introduction The Statue That Didn’t Look Right In September of 1983, an art dealer by the name of Gianfranco Becchina approached the J. Paul Getty Museum in California. He had in his possession, he said, a marble statue dating from the sixth century BC. It was what is known as a kouros—a sculpture of a nude male youth standing with his left leg forward and his arms at his sides. There are only about two hundred kouroi in existence, and most have been recovered badly damaged or in fragments from grave sites or archeological digs. But this one was almost perfectly preserved. It stood close to seven feet tall. It had a kind of light-colored glow that set it apart from other ancient works. It was an extraordinary find. Becchina’s asking price was just under $10 million. The Getty moved cautiously. It took the kouros on loan and began a thorough investigation. Was the statue consistent with other known kouroi? The answer appeared to be yes. The style of the sculpture seemed reminiscent of the Anavyssos kouros in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, meaning that it seemed to fit with a particular time and place. Where and when had the statue been found? No one knew precisely, but Becchina gave the Getty’s legal department a sheaf of documents relating to its more recent history. The kouros, the records stated, had been in the private collection of a Swiss physician named Lauffenberger...
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...Outliers THE S T O R Y OF S U C C E S S MALCOLM G LAD W E L L # 1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink $27.99 $ 3 0 . 9 9 in C a n a d a Why d o s o m e p e o p l e succeed far more than others? T h e r e is a story that is usually told a b o u t extremely successful p e o p l e , a story that focuses o n intelligence a n d ambition. In Outliers Malcolm Gladwell a r g u e s that the true story o f s u c c e s s is very different, a n d that if we want to u n d e r s t a n d h o w s o m e p e o p l e thrive, we s h o u l d s p e n d m o r e time l o o k i n g around them — at s u c h things as their family, their birthplace, or even their birth d a t e . T h e story o f s u c c e s s is m o r e c o m p l e x — a n d a lot m o r e interesting — than it initially a p p e a r s . Outliers e x p l a i n s w h a t the B e a t l e s a n d Bill G a t e s have in c o m m o n , the e x t r a o r d i n a r y s u c c e s s o f A s i a n s at m a t h , the h i d d e n a d v a n t a g e s o f star athletes, why all t o p N e w York lawyers have the s a m e r é s u m é , a n d the r e a s o n y o u ' v e never h e a r d o f the w o r l d ' s s m a r t e s t m a n — all in terms o f g e n eration, family, c u l t u r e , a n d c l a s s . It matters w h a t year y o u were b o r n if y o u want to b e a S i l i c o n Valley billionaire, G l a d w e l l a r g u e s , a n d it matters w h e r e y o u w e r e b o r n if y o u want to b e a s u c cessful p i l o t . T...
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...Organizational Context: Design and Culture Organizational Context: Reward Systems 5 31 57 88 EVIDENCE-BASED CONSULTING PRACTICES A major component of the evidence-based theme of this text and the link to practice are these part openers from the world-famous Gallup Organization. Gallup draws from its internationally recognized survey science and cadre of internal and external researchers (e.g., the author of this text and a Nobel Prize winner in behavioral economics are Gallup Senior Scientists), publishes its findings in the top academic journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology and provides this evidenced-based perspective and representative practices for each text part. Gallup is the recognized world leader in the measurement and analysis of human attitudes, opinions, and behavior, building on over three-quarters of a century of success. Gallup employs many of the world’s leading scientists in management, economics, psychology, and sociology. Gallup performance management systems help organizations maximize employee productivity and increase customer engagement through measurement tools, management solutions, and strategic advisory services. Gallup’s 2000 professionals deliver services on-site at client organizations, through the Web, at Gallup University’s campuses, and in 40 offices around the world. Gallup has subsidiary operations in 20 countries, covering 75 percent of the world’s GNP. Gallup clients include top-performing organizations such as Toyota, Marriott, Wal-Mart...
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...John Wiley & Sons, Inc. More Praise for The Secret Language of Leadership “Out of the morass of strategies leaders are given to transform organizations, Denning plucks a powerful one—storytelling— and shows how and why it works.” —Dorothy Leonard, William J. Abernathy Professor of Business, Emerita, Harvard Business School, and author, Deep Smarts: How to Cultivate and Transfer Enduring Business Wisdom “The Secret Language of Leadership shows why narrative intelligence is central to transformational leadership and how to harness its power.” —Carol Pearson, director, James MacGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland, and coauthor, The Hero and the Outlaw “The Secret Language of Leadership is not only the best analysis I have seen of how and why leaders succeed or fail, it’s highly readable, as well as downright practical. It should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in engaging a company with big ideas who understands that leaders live and die by the quality of what they say.” —Richard Stone, story analytics master, i.d.e.a.s “A primary role of leaders is to create and maintain meaning for their organizations. Denning clearly demonstrates that meaningmaking comes from stories well told.” —Thomas Davenport, President’s Distinguished Professor of I.T. and Management, Babson College, and author, The Attention Economy “Steve Denning is one of the leading thinkers on the power of narrative in business settings. His latest book is a smart,...
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...1 of 83 file:///D:/000004/Buy__ology.html 08/08/2009 10:45 2 of 83 file:///D:/000004/Buy__ology.html CONTENTS TITLE PAGE FOREWORD BY PACO UNDERHILL INTRODUCTION 1: A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD The Largest Neuromarketing Study Ever Conducted 2: THIS MUST BE THE PLACE Product Placement, American Idol , and Ford’s Multimillion-Dollar Mistake 3: I’LL HAVE WHAT SHE’S HAVING Mirror Neurons at Work 4: I CAN’T SEE CLEARLY NOW Subliminal Messaging, Alive and Well 5: DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? Ritual, Superstition, and Why We Buy 6: I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER Faith, Religion, and Brands 7: WHY DID I CHOOSE YOU? The Power of Somatic Markers 8: A SENSE OF WONDER Selling to Our Senses 9: AND THE ANSWER IS… Neuromarketing and Predicting the Future 10: LET’S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER Sex in Advertising 11: CONCLUSION Brand New Day APPENDIX ACKNOWLEDGMENTS NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY ABOUT THE AUTHOR COPYRIGHT FOREWORD PACO UNDERHILL It was a brisk September night. I was unprepared for the weather that day, wearing only a tan cashmere sweater underneath my sports jacket. I was still cold from the walk from my hotel to the pier as I boarded the crowded cruise ship on which I was going to meet Martin Lindstrom for the first time. He had spoken that day at a food service conference held by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, the venerable Swiss think tank, and David Bosshart, the conference organizer, was eager for us to meet. I had never heard of Martin ...
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...1 of 83 file:///D:/000004/Buy__ology.html 08/08/2009 10:45 2 of 83 file:///D:/000004/Buy__ology.html CONTENTS TITLE PAGE FOREWORD BY PACO UNDERHILL INTRODUCTION 1: A RUSH OF BLOOD TO THE HEAD The Largest Neuromarketing Study Ever Conducted 2: THIS MUST BE THE PLACE Product Placement, American Idol , and Ford’s Multimillion-Dollar Mistake 3: I’LL HAVE WHAT SHE’S HAVING Mirror Neurons at Work 4: I CAN’T SEE CLEARLY NOW Subliminal Messaging, Alive and Well 5: DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC? Ritual, Superstition, and Why We Buy 6: I SAY A LITTLE PRAYER Faith, Religion, and Brands 7: WHY DID I CHOOSE YOU? The Power of Somatic Markers 8: A SENSE OF WONDER Selling to Our Senses 9: AND THE ANSWER IS… Neuromarketing and Predicting the Future 10: LET’S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER Sex in Advertising 11: CONCLUSION Brand New Day APPENDIX ACKNOWLEDGMENTS NOTES BIBLIOGRAPHY ABOUT THE AUTHOR COPYRIGHT FOREWORD PACO UNDERHILL It was a brisk September night. I was unprepared for the weather that day, wearing only a tan cashmere sweater underneath my sports jacket. I was still cold from the walk from my hotel to the pier as I boarded the crowded cruise ship on which I was going to meet Martin Lindstrom for the first time. He had spoken that day at a food service conference held by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute, the venerable Swiss think tank, and David Bosshart, the conference organizer, was eager for us to meet. I had never heard of Martin ...
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...Contents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction 1 BRAIN POWER Myth #1 Most People Use Only 10% of Their Brain Power Myth #2 Some People Are Left-Brained, Others Are Right-Brained Myth #3 Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Is a Well-Established Scientific Phenomenon Myth #4 Visual Perceptions Are Accompanied by Tiny Emissions from the Eyes Myth #5 Subliminal Messages Can Persuade People to Purchase Products 2 FROM WOMB TO TOMB Myth #6 Playing Mozart’s Music to Infants Boosts Their Intelligence Myth #7 Adolescence Is Inevitably a Time of Psychological Turmoil Myth #8 Most People Experience a Midlife Crisis in | 8 Their 40s or Early 50s Myth #9 Old Age Is Typically Associated with Increased Dissatisfaction and Senility Myth #10 When Dying, People Pass through a Universal Series of Psychological Stages 3 A REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST Myth #11 Human Memory Works like a Tape Recorder or Video Camera, and Accurate Events We’ve Experienced Myth #12 Hypnosis Is Useful for Retrieving Memories of Forgotten Events Myth #13 Individuals Commonly Repress the Memories of Traumatic Experiences Myth #14 Most People with Amnesia Forget All Details of Their Earlier Lives 4 TEACHING OLD DOGS NEW TRICKS Myth #15 Intelligence (IQ) Tests Are Biased against Certain Groups of People My th #16 If You’re Unsure of Your Answer When Taking a Test, It’s Best to Stick with Your Initial Hunch Myth #17 The Defining Feature of Dyslexia Is Reversing Letters Myth #18 Students Learn Best When Teaching Styles Are Matched to...
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...THE B L A C K SWAN The HIGHLY I mpact IM of the PROBABLE Nassim Nicholas Taleb U.S.A. $26.95 Canada $34.95 is a highly improbable event with three principal characteristics: It is unpre dictable; it carries a massive impact; and, after the fact, we concoct an explanation that makes it appear less random, and more predictable, than it was. The astonishing success of Google was a black swan; so was 9 / 1 1 . For Nassim Nicholas Taleb, black swans underlie almost everything about our world, from the rise of religions to events in our own personal lives. A BLACK SWAN Why do we not acknowledge the phenomenon of black swans until after they occur? Part of the answer, according to Taleb, is that humans are hardwired to learn specifics when they should be focused on generalities. We concentrate on things we already know and time and time again fail to take into consideration what we don't know. We are, therefore, unable to truly estimate oppor tunities, too vulnerable to the impulse to simplify, narrate, and categorize, and not open enough to rewarding those who can imagine the "impossible." For years, Taleb has studied how we fool our selves into thinking we know more than we actually do. We restrict our thinking to the irrelevant and inconsequential, while large events continue to surprise us and shape our world. Now, in this reve latory book, Taleb explains everything we know about what we don't know. He offers...
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...Instantly How to Connect Anyone with LEIL LOWNDES New York Chicago San Francisco Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan New Delhi San Juan Seoul Singapore Sydney Toronto Copyright © 2009 by Leil Lowndes. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the United States Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. ISBN: 978-0-07-154586-0 MHID: 0-07-154586-7 The material in this eBook also appears in the print version of this title: ISBN: 978-0-07-154585-3, MHID: 0-07-154585-9. All trademarks are trademarks of their respective owners. Rather than put a trademark symbol after every occurrence of a trademarked name, we use names in an editorial fashion only, and to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intention of infringement of the trademark. Where such designations appear in this book, they have been printed with initial caps. McGraw-Hill eBooks are available at special quantity discounts to use as premiums and sales promotions, or for use in corporate training programs. To contact a representative please visit the Contact Us page at www.mhprofessional.com. TERMS OF USE This is a copyrighted work and The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (“McGraw-Hill”) and its licensors reserve all rights in and to the work. Use of this work is subject to these terms. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act...
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...This book has been optimized for viewing at a monitor setting of 1024 x 768 pixels. MADE TO STICK random house a new york MADE TO STICK Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die • • • C H I P H E AT H & D A N H E AT H Copyright © 2007 by Chip Heath and Dan Heath All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. Random House and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Heath, Chip. Made to stick : why some ideas survive and others die / Chip Heath & Dan Heath p. cm. Includes index. eISBN: 978-1-58836-596-5 1. Social psychology. 2. Contagion (Social psychology). 3. Context effects (Psychology). I. Heath, Dan. II. Title. HM1033.H43 2007 302'.13—dc22 2006046467 www.atrandom.com Designed by Stephanie Huntwork v1.0 To Dad, for driving an old tan Chevette while putting us through college. To Mom, for making us breakfast every day for eighteen years. Each. C O N T E N T S INTRODUCTION WHAT STICKS? 3 Kidney heist. Movie popcorn. Sticky = understandable, memorable, and effective in changing thought or behavior. Halloween candy. Six principles: SUCCESs. The villain: Curse of Knowledge. It’s hard to be a tapper. Creativity starts with templates. CHAPTER 1 SIMPLE 25 Commander’s Intent. THE low-fare airline. Burying the lead and the inverted pyramid. It’s the...
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...The Power of Eye Contact Your Secret for Success in Business, Love, and Life Michael Ellsberg For Jena May I gaze into your eyes forever . . . los ojos . . . mudas lenguas de amorios. ( . . . the eyes, silent tongues of love.) —MIGUEL DE CERVANTES, from Don Quijote1 Contents Cover Title Page Epigraph A Note to Readers Introduction Chapter One - What Bill Clinton Knows About Eye Contact Chapter Two - How to Become a Master of Eye Chapter Three - Eye Flirting, Part I Chapter Four - Eye Flirting, Part II Chapter Five - The Eyes Are the Windows to the Sale Chapter Six - How to Wow a Crowd with Eye Contact Chapter Seven - If Looks Could Kill Chapter Eight - Truth and Eyes Chapter Nine - Eye Love You Chapter Ten - Gazing at the Divine Chapter Eleven - Going Deeper Epilogue Ralph Waldo Emerson on Eyes and Eye Contact Notes Works Cited Interviewees Free Bonus Material for Readers Acknowledgments About the Author Advance Praise for The Power of Eye Contact Copyright About the Publisher A Note to Readers I welcome your comments, questions, critiques, feedback, corrections, stories, experiences, and anecdotes. Please write to me at michael@powerofeyecontact.com. I won’t answer everything personally, but I will read it all and will answer the most interesting questions and queries. I may also post your questions, stories, or anecdotes on the book’s blog, www.powerofeyecontact.com/blog. So when you write, let me know if you’re OK with that, and if so, how you’d...
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...Table of Contents Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Introduction Chapter 1 - Priming Chapter 2 - Confabulation Chapter 3 - Confirmation Bias Chapter 4 - Hindsight Bias Chapter 5 - The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy Chapter 6 - Procrastination Chapter 7 - Normalcy Bias Chapter 8 - Introspection Chapter 9 - The Availability Heuristic Chapter 10 - The Bystander Effect Chapter 11 - The Dunning-Kruger Effect Chapter 12 - Apophenia Chapter 13 - Brand Loyalty Chapter 14 - The Argument from Authority Chapter 15 - The Argument from Ignorance Chapter 16 - The Straw Man Fallacy Chapter 17 - The Ad Hominem Fallacy Chapter 18 - The Just-World Fallacy Chapter 19 - The Public Goods Game Chapter 20 - The Ultimatum Game Chapter 21 - Subjective Validation Chapter 22 - Cult Indoctrination Chapter 23 - Groupthink Chapter 24 - Supernormal Releasers Chapter 25 - The Affect Heuristic Chapter 26 - Dunbar’s Number Chapter 27 - Selling Out Chapter 28 - Self-Serving Bias Chapter 29 - The Spotlight Effect Chapter 30 - The Third Person Effect Chapter 31 - Catharsis Chapter 32 - The Misinformation Effect Chapter 33 - Conformity Chapter 34 - Extinction Burst Chapter 35 - Social Loafing Chapter 36 - The Illusion of Transparency Chapter 37 - Learned Helplessness Chapter 38 - Embodied Cognition Chapter 39 - The Anchoring Effect Chapter 40 - Attention Chapter 41 - Self-Handicapping Chapter 42 - Self-Fulfilling Prophecies Chapter 43 - The Moment Chapter 44 - Consistency...
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