Readers are the real leaders, because of their devotion to learning, growing and preparing for change.

by Tim Sanders | February 10, 2012 | (2)

LAST YEAR, THERE WAS A GREAT DEAL TO WRITE ABOUT, GIVEN THE CHANGES IN TECHNOLOGY, ECONOMY AND CULTURE. Over the course of 2011, I read about 30 books, out of 100 or so either sent to me or purchased. Some were riveting; others packed with takeaways that I put to use immediately. I value the time I spent poring over them; they were the keys to my day-to-day victories at work. 

I’ve always contended that readers are real leaders, because of their devotion to learning, growing and preparing for change. Unlike articles or blog posts, books require dedication, sometimes taking weeks to finish. They provide deep information on complicated subjects. The future is in the bookstore or library (or Amazon store). 

Anyway, here are four books that I heartily recommend for you meeting professionals.

1. Little Bets: How Breakthrough Ideas Emerge From Small Discoveries by Peter Sims

Based on a phrase often used inside HP (little bets), Sims outlines a system for successful innovation. He says the biggest breakthroughs at HP weren’t the biggest projects (where innovators swung for the fences with big budgets and a cast of thousands). Most of the time, homeruns came from little projects (where the innovator made multiple bets and monitored which ones worked).

Sims’ system involves fast prototyping, testing, assessing and re-launching. He uses case studies, from comedian Chris Rock to Pixar animation. In each case, he points out how diversifying efforts can hedge bets. He says people need to develop portfolios of projects, then expound on the best ones, scaling them into sustainable success. Great innovators create projects or products based on how much they are willing to lose, he explains, not how much they plan to gain.

2. Read This Before Our Next Meeting by Al Pittampalli

Pittampalli is an expert on meeting culture. And though his book concentrates on conference-room meetings (not events or conventions), there’s pertinent content to our profession, including solutions to the “never ending meeting that accomplishes nothing.”

In his short book, Pittampalli outlines seven rules that apply to all meetings. When I called him, he stressed that several of them apply equally to conferences. Here’s one: Meetings are not information dumps—they’re places where decisions and commitments are made. He says that information should be distributed, read and absorbed prior to a meeting, so that the event gains momentum and achieves measurable results.

The book’s strongest point regards Pittampalli’s pet peeve—meetings as consensus builders. His argument: Leaders need to take charge, make decisions and let the future ride on their success or failure. Instead, he observes, most meetings are far too long and presentation-ridden, because in our insecurity, we seek unanimous decisions that spread responsibility. Pittampalli provides several ways to make meetings more effective at driving results and not boring us to death.

3. Infinite Possibility: Creating Customer Value On The Digital Frontier by Joseph Pine with Kim Korn

Pine’s first book, The Experience Economy, is one of the most influential works on marketing in 15 years. It suggested that staging memorable experiences is the secret to transforming audiences, wooing customers and generating long-lasting loyalty. In his new work, Pine explores the digital revolution. He says that people need to connect the physical and virtual worlds to achieve success.

Pine points to Kinect, launched by Microsoft’s Xbox group, which allows players to integrate their bodies into game play for a truly immersive experience, and he reviews augmented reality apps, which overlay digital information onto the screen, making what’s in front of you more compelling.

The implications for meeting professionals are numerous: How to tie events to digital media, how to drive people from online to offline, how to use physical events to improve the performance of digital investments. Instead of typical virtual-replaces-real, Pine suggests that successful innovation lies in creating hybrids that combine the best of both worlds.

4. Brain Rules: 12 Principles For Surviving And Thriving at Work, Home and School by John Medina

I’ve always been interested in brain science and how it can improve performance, from creativity to execution. Many of the books I’ve read are too wonky with science-speak and over-complicated models to recommend. Medina offers a dozen brain rules, explained in sophisticated but simple terms and illustrated by stories we can all relate to.

Many of the rules concern memory. Sleep and exercise are (surprise, surprise) linked to our ability to absorb and remember what we’ve learned. (It’s no wonder that meeting delegates have difficulty tracking content with as little sleep as they tend to get.)

I find one rule, “remember to repeat,” especially intriguing. It suggests we need to program cyclical information repetition to ensure retention. In other words, we should circle back to takeaways, even just to repeat for emphasis. One+

Tim Sanders

TIM SANDERS, a top-rated speaker on the lecture circuit, is the author of Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference (Doubleday, September 2008). Check out is Web site at www.timsanders.com.

TAGS: meeting industry , column , business , One+ February 2012 , your industry , education , books