Seven Essential Great Work Blogs
If you’re in an organization and you want to do more Great Work, plug into inspiration.
There are many good blogs out there, but these are the ones I return to time and time again to help me think fresh thoughts, to kick my butt, to get inspired.
1. Don’t accept business as usual: Tom Peters
I thought long and hard about this one. After all, Tom Peters has been banging on about this stuff for years and years now. Surely he’s run out of stuff to say?
And the answer is Yes – and No. For sure he’s got his themes that he keep returning to (as do I). But damn it if they’re not spot on – Make everything a project, pick your battles and be bold, break the rules, get smart about design, and that many of the powers that be ‘just don’t get it.’
2. Stay human: Seth Godin & Chris Brogan
If you say their names together fast enough, they almost rhyme. And quite frankly it felt like cheating to put them as separate blogs. They’re really, really good separately. But I think as a double act, they’re fabulous.
Both Seth and Chris are smart and wise, and manage to combine insightful thoughts about the eco-system of business – you, your customer, your organization, your network – with how to be human.
And Seth has written an original piece on Great Work for Do More Great Work. I’m pretty excited about that.
I’ll be featuring Seth on the Great Work Interview series on Feb 9th.
3. Break your rules: Chris Guillebeau’s The Art of Non-Conformity
Another one of the contributors to Do More Great Work, Chris is living a life where he sets his own rules and shares his journey.
He posts two or three thoughtful posts every week. Sometimes they’re riffs on one of his Great Work Projects – visiting every country in the world. But often they’re all about what it means to define success on your own terms, be courageous and have fun. He’s got two fabulous and free manifestos which are worth you checking out and downloading, whether or not you subscribe to his blog.
I’ll be featuring Chris as part of the Great Work Interview series on Feb 12th.
4. Keep your motivation: Dan Pink
Dan Pink helps to articulate the zeitgeist in the world of work. Like Seth Godin and Malcolm Gladwell, his books have an ability to pull together lots of threads, tie them up neatly and give them a hook that both explains and summarizes. His new book Drive is terrific, but I have to confess a soft spot for his least commercially successful – The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, a manga style book on how to truly succeed at work for Gen Y (and for the rest of us too).
His blog is more personal and less theoretical - it feels like a front-line reporter of what’s going on out there.
If you’d like to hear Dan, you can listen to my interview with him on the Great Work Interview series here.
5. Use your brain: David Rock
David Rock is the standard bearer for the new field of neuroleadership. He cut his teeth in the world of coaching, but over the last five years or so has done a pretty brilliant job at making the link between how our brain really works – and how you can make best use of it in the work that you do. You find lots on that in his new book Your Brain at Work – and it’s worth latching on to his blog as well.
I’d suggest the best way to stay in touch with David is via Twitter (@DavidRock101) where he regularly posts links about new findings in neuroscience.
David’s another person I’ve interviews, and you can listen to David’s interview on the Great Work Interview series.
6. Change your behaviour: Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits
Leo’s one of the contributors to the new Do More Great Work, and when you take a look at his blog (or for that matter his book The Power of Less) you’ll see why. It’s full of practical, focused and insightful guidance on how to shape your behaviour
And yes, I’ve interview Leo too. Stay tuned for that interview on Feb 8th on the Great Work Interview series.
7. Tap others’ wisdom: Alltop
Alltop is Guy Kawasaki’s project, and a way of making the hunt for great blogs a whole lot easier. He’s clustered the best of blogs under various topic headings – leadership, productivity, inspiration and much much more – and gives you the chance to see what’s there and what’s worth pursuing. He likens it to a magazine rack, and that’s a very good metaphor for how it works.
I interviewed Guy a while ago, one of my first Great Work Interviews that you can listen to here.
Bonus: My own Great Work Blog
You’re reading it! Thank you.
FYI- It’s now available as an app on iTunes. Just type in ‘Great Work’ and you’ll find it.
Don’t take my word for it
Smart people thinking out loud the wisdom of others.
“The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
-Albert Einstein, physicist
“Common sense in an uncommon degree is what the world calls wisdom.”
-Samuel Taylor Coleridge, writer
“A stone is not carved by a drop’s falling twice, but by many times; so too does a human not become wise by reading two, but by many books.”
-Giordano Bruno, philosopher
“To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”
-Marilyn vos Savant, writer
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
-Confucius, philosopher
“Education … has produced a vast population able to read but unable to distinguish what is worth reading.”
-George Macaulay Trevelyan, historian
“The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.”
-Benjamin Disraeli, statesman
“Some folks are wise and some are otherwise.”
-Tobias Smollett , writer
- Michel Neray, Essential Message
- 10 essential rules for facilitators
- Essential Coaching Skills for Managers #1: Getting Started
- Essential Coaching Skills for Managers #2: Advice is overrated
- Essential Coaching Skills for Managers #4: Real active listening
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