A great help to anyone looking to bring a good idea into the real world.
De Flander’s (Strategy Execution Heroes, 2010) latest book charts a strategy for taking any idea off the drawing board and into real life.
Coming up with a great idea is the easy part; executing it is much trickier. That’s where this book is intended to help. The execution shortcut referenced in the title is a pathway De Flander has mapped out to help ideas make it past the shoals of development. In the first chapter, he explains the importance of appealing to the three H’s: head, heart and hands. In addition to appealing to reason and emotion (the head and heart, respectively), an idea must also be achievable (the hands). The rest of the book is divided into sections that explain how to engage the heads, hearts and hands of the implementation team: In the head section, De Flander describes the common psychological impediments—i.e., “the villain Decision Paralysis on the execution road”—to implementing a new idea; the heart section discusses ways to connect with the implementers’ emotions and inspire them to adopt the idea as their own; and the hands section covers various problems that arise during implementation as well as the corresponding solutions. At the end of the book, De Flander also includes a few resources for further investigation. The well-researched work cites various studies and examples that back up De Flander’s plan, as well as fictional stories that point out how specific ideas have succeeded or failed and why. Similarly, for most steps on this road map, he includes a thorough explanation of how to incorporate his tactics in the real world. For example, after explaining the importance of writing a “List of Noes”—the areas into which an idea will not venture—De Flander gives several examples of how to come up with that list for any given idea. Other steps in his plan, however, are a bit lacking in this regard.
A great help to anyone looking to bring a good idea into the real world.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-9081487368
Page Count: 196
Publisher: The Performance Factory
Review Posted Online: Sept. 1, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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