Presented by Karl Krayer:
Tell to Win:
Connect, Persuade, and Triumph
with the Hidden Power of Story
by Peter Guber. Crown Business (2011).
Presented by Randy Mayeux:
Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions
by Guy Kawasaki. Portfolio Hardcover (2011).
About Tell to Win:
Here's what Tony Hsieh (Zappos) says about Tell to Win (from Amazon):
From an early age, Peter Guber seems to have intuitively grasped what I slowly learned over my entrepreneurial adventures, which is that the most profitable companies are those that form personal, emotional connections (which we internally refer to as "PEC" at Zappos) with customers. In Tell to Win, Guber shows how the stories we tell -- about our companies, our products, and ourselves -- are what elicit people's emotional reactions and drive word of mouth.
About Enchantment:
Here are excerpts from the review by Bob Morris (from our blog):
How to create a context within which there is authentic magic to be shared
I have read and reviewed all of Guy Kawasaki's previous books. This book's title caught my eye because it suggests - and as it turned out, correctly - that its material and Kawasaki's presentation of it would be significantly different from, for example,Reality Check (2008). In that book, he focuses almost entirely on how to outsmart, outmanage, and outmarket one's competition. Would he now explain how to outenchant them also?
Indeed he does, and brilliantly, as always. The title of each of Chapters 2-12 begins with a "How to" and then in the text Kawasaki explains how to achieve likeability (Chapter 2), trustworthiness (3), prepare (4), launch (5), overcome resistance (6), make enchantment endure (7), use push technology (8), use pull technology (9), enchant your employees (10), enchant your boss (11), and resist [unethical and/or inappropriate] enchantment (12). Once again, Kawasaki - the pragmatic idealist and empirical visionary with an abundance of street smarts - is determined to explain what works, what doesn't, and why.
As he explains, enchantment can occur anywhere and "causes a voluntary change of hearts and minds and therefore actions. It is more than manipulating people to help you get your way. Enchantment transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility. It reshapes civility into affinity. It changes skeptics and cynics into believers."
Readers will appreciate the provision of "My Personal Story" vignettes throughout the narrative. In each, someone in a situation with with most readers can identify shares personal experience relevant to the given chapter's subject. Kawasaki is wise as well as shrewd to anchor his insights strategically in a human context.
If asked to recommend one book that should be read by anyone now preparing for a business career or who has only recently embarked on one, I would suggest two: Reality Check and Enchantment.
IN OUR 14TH YEAR!
Though Randy and Karl write quite a few posts each week, and the rest of our blogging team post occasionally,
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