See New Now

Where has the time gone? I haven't posted here for a time because I've been busy working on fine-tuning and publishing my first book - See New Now: New Lenses for Leadership and Life - with my friend and co-author Jerry de Jaager, but I didn't realize until just now that more than two weeks has passed. Well, as they say, "Time flies when you're having fun."

In the most basic sense, See New Now uses story and metaphor to help people at any level in any organization think in fresh ways about fundamental business issues such as strategy, innovation, diversity, and collaboration.

When I put my metaphysical hat on, though, I think of the Buddhist masters who say there are three steps on the path to enlightenment. First is having the "right view." Second is having the "right intention." Third, is taking the "right action." See New Now is the important first step, of course, because both your intentions and actions will be wrong if you insist on trying to solve today's problems with yesterday's seeing.

You can learn more about the book - and perhaps even purchase a copy or two - at seenewnow.com. You can get a sense of the topics we cover, discover some ways you might put our ideas to work for you, learn a little more about the book's two rogue authors, and read some things that some best-selling authors and top business leaders have said about it. For example:

“This small book will expand your thinking and equip you to thrive in an unpredictable future as much as any other book you might read. Its elements—images, stories, ideas, and cool related stuff—are masterfully woven together for maximum impact in minimum time.” —Ben Sherwood, author of the New York Times best-seller The Survivors Club

“This is superb learning technology for today’s busy leaders and their busy organizations. Fun to read and easy to digest, it still packs one heck of a wallop.” — Steve Kerr, former Vice President of Corporate Leadership Development and Chief Learning Officer, GE

“Once in a great while someone figures out how to transform the confusing complexity of the business world into beguiling simplicity, without losing anything in the translation. This delightful and intelligent book has that quality from cover to cover. Highly recommended!”— Steve Lundin, co-author of the New York Times best-seller Fish!

You can also read an article about the book on John Reinan's blog at minnpost.com.

Afterwords:

"The innovator's dilemma is in his head. Well, first it's in his eyes: not seeing what you don't believe is possible is the first problem; not believing what you're seeing is the second; not being able to imagine it as a threat is the third; not responding to it in time is the fourth." - Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator's Dilemma

“To do things differently, we must learn to see things differently. Seeing differently means learning to question the conceptual lenses through which we view and frame the world, our businesses, our core competencies, our competitive advantage, and our business models. It means finding new eyeglasses that will enable us to see strategies and structures taking shape, even if we feel that we are on the edge of chaos; it is a matter of survival in the new world of business.”- John Seely Brown, former head of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center

“Have I given anyone insight? That's what I want to have done. Insight lasts; theories don’t. And even insight decays into small details, which is how it should be. A few details that have meaning in one’s life are important.” - Peter Drucker