Shortform Books

How to Use the Availability Heuristic to Make Your Message Stick

Does it feel like, when you speak, what you say goes in one ear and out the other? Would you like to communicate messages that people will remember? The availability heuristic is a cognitive bias that has a dark side and a bright side. Peter D. Andrei accentuates the positive and shows how to make the most of it. He shares strategies to take advantage of the availability bias: use compelling narratives, convey simple messages, and employ imagery. Keep reading to learn how to use the availability heuristic to make your communication unforgettable.

How to Track Your Progress—and Why You Should

How does setting goals help you do great work? Why is it important to track your progress toward your goals? Ron Friedman believes you can do and make great things by reverse engineering work you admire. Part of the process is improving your own work performance. This invariably entails setting goals and tracking your progress. Read on to learn how to improve your performance with metrics.

How to Become More Resilient: 3 Tips for Bouncing Back

Do you get discouraged? Does it stop you from trying again? What if you could turn that around? Setbacks are unavoidable. How you react to them is up to you. You can train yourself—not only to bounce back—but to turn one step backward into two steps forward. Behavioral science expert Grace Lordan shares three ways to do that. Keep reading to learn how to become more resilient and move forward in strength.

From Good to Great: Why Consistency in Business Matters

How does consistency in business create more success? What strategies can you use to create consistent business procedures? In Clayton Christensen’s book, Competing Against Luck, he argues that the secret to business success lies in the power of consistency. By establishing repeatable procedures and ensuring consistent results, businesses can guarantee customer satisfaction and loyalty. Read on to learn Christensen’s strategies for establishing consistency in business.

How Technology Impacts Society: A Forecast for the 21st Century

What advantages do small businesses and individuals have over large companies? What’s the future of warfare? How might virtual assistants be weaponized? In The Sovereign Individual, James Davidson and William Rees-Mogg explain how technology impacts society. Writing in the 1990s, they contend that circumstances and technological developments have always shaped society and will continue to do so. Read more to learn about the ways technology influences civilization, including some of Davidson and Rees-Mogg’s predictions for the 21st century.

How to Be More Competitive: 3 Tips for Career Progression

Why do you need to develop your competitive edge in the work world? How can you be more competitive and stand out? To stand out in any career field, Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha suggest you develop a unique competitive edge. This is something that makes you different and better than other people. Let’s look at how to be more competitive, with advice from The Startup of You.

Why Nonverbal Behavior Matters & How to Interpret It

Why is learning how to read nonverbal behavior important? How can you correctly interpret nonverbal cues? In The Definitive Book of Body Language by Allan and Barbara Pease, the authors emphasize that up to 80% of how others perceive us is based on our nonverbal behavior. They argue that this makes it crucial to understand and interpret nonverbal cues correctly. Read on to learn about nonverbal behavior and how to interpret it, according to Allan and Barbara Pease.

You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters

What’s the difference between simply hearing and effectively listening? What are you missing by not listening well? Kate Murphy’s You’re Not Listening: What You’re Missing and Why It Matters makes a case for the value of listening more effectively. She argues that people are struggling to pay attention to each other, largely thanks to our self-centered culture, technological distractions, and a toxic political atmosphere. Continue reading for an overview of this important book.

Why Innovations Fail: The Top 3 Problems to Avoid

Why do innovation projects fail? Why do businesses fail to succeed in the market? Innovative products and services can reshape markets and propel companies from obscurity to wild success. However, most innovation projects fail: Many don’t even make it to market, and of those that do, the majority never generate the exponential growth and massive profits their developers were hoping for. Here are the reasons why innovations fail, according to multiple experts.

The Phoenix Project: Book Overview and Lessons

Is the book The Phoenix Project worth reading? What can IT departments learn from the business parable? In The Phoenix Project, Gene Kim, Kevin Behr, and George Spafford present a fictional case study of a business that’s failing because it doesn’t align the work of IT services with the company’s goals. The authors then show how an IT department can turn itself around and get back in the game. Keep reading for a The Phoenix Project book overview, as well as the lessons you can learn from the authors.