Cool Friend #145: Garrison Keillor

The host of Public Radio's A Prairie Home Companion, Garrison Keillor has written his first-ever Christmas book, and the book tour fortuitously brought him our way. We welcome him to the Cool Friends! He and Erik discuss the book, A Christmas Blizzard (briefly), as the conversation meanders through the creative process. Keillor offers advice to writers ("The first page almost always can go"), artists ("Artists are supposed to be useful"), and speakers ("The audience is going to give you the benefit of the doubt for at least a minute or two. Don't waste that"). We think you should read our first-ever Christmas Cool Friends interview. Happy holidays!

Addendum: In its 21 December issue, Time magazine is publishing 10 Questions for Garrison Keillor, available now on Time.com along with a video version.

Cool Friend #144:
Bob Waterman

If you're a fan of Tom's first book, In Search of Excellence, don't miss reading this interview with his coauthor, Bob Waterman. We're glad to add Bob as a Cool Friend, and we all enjoyed working on this interview. (Yes, he does share a few secrets about what went on during the writing of the book.) I think the most fascinating aspect is examining another path taken from the same jumping-off point. Bob was no less successful than Tom, just not as publicly. He describes to Erik how ISOE/In Search came to be and what he's been up to since then. Bob also talks about his involvement with the Restless Leg Syndrome Foundation. Funny, both Tom and Bob ended up vacationing in New Zealand, as you can see in the picture above. Divergent paths veered close again after more than 25 years. Welcome to the Cool Friends, Bob!

Cool Friend #143: Hal Movius

Think you're prepared to negotiate? Think again. New Cool Friend Hal Movius, author of Built to Win: Creating a World-Class Negotiating Organization, warns you that you should change your approach. It's not about getting the biggest piece of the pie, it's about making sure the pie is big enough so that the other side doesn't walk away feeling robbed. Educate yourself about all the interests involved and you'll be able to not only get what your organization needs but create value for the other side and leave the relationship in a better place. Read his Cool Friends interview and find out more about what Hal Movius and coauthor Lawrence Susskind are up to at the Consensus Building Institute.

Cool Friend #142: Tara Hunt

Are you making Whuffie? It's the currency of reputation. Are you adding value to the community? Can you be trusted? Tara Hunt is the co-founder of Citizen Agency, which she later left to establish herself as a free agent whose mission is to teach clients how to better foster relationships with the communities they serve, especially through effective use of social media. You can find her blogging at HorsePigCow, on Twitter as MissRogue, on Facebook, in pictures on Flickr, and locate her on Dopplr. Or you could read our Cool Friends interview, where she and Erik discuss her book The Whuffie Factor: Using the Power of Social Networks to Build Your Business. Oh, and here's her website, TheWhuffieFactor.

Cool Friend #141: Kathleen Colson

There is debate over the most effective way to eradicate poverty in Africa. Our new Cool Friend Kathleen Colson believes listening to Africans is the first step. She's listened for years, and, as a result, founded the BOMA Fund to put what she's learned into action. Through three programs, the Rural Entrepreneur Access Project (REAP), Agents of Change, and Cows For Kids, BOMA helps groups in northern Kenya learn how to run businesses, become leaders, and start on the road to self-sufficiency. In her interview, Kathleen discusses how foreign aid disrupts African markets and how helping to bring viable new trade to Kenya could lead to a brighter future for people there. Learn more by reading her Cool Friends interview or visiting the website of the BOMA Fund.

Cool Friend #140: John Kador

This new Cool Friend interview with John Kador will have you re-examining every apology you’ve ever made or heard. Author of Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust, Kador explains the most effective ways to apologize as well as some surprising financial implications. When Tom read the book he was getting the apology message from several quarters, and he declared apologizing to be a core competence for everyone who would be effective at business, so fundamental that he included it in the Success Tips as #155. You can read John Kador's Cool Friends interview, or learn more about apologies at his blog, personal website (www.jkador.com), and book website, (www.EffectiveApology.com). John can also be found on Twitter at Twitter.com/jkador.

Cool Friend #139: George Whalin

Author of Retail Superstars: Inside the 25 Best Independent Stores In America, new Cool Friend George Whalin points us to the most remarkable places to shop in this country. Each has its own fascinating story, which Whalin details in the book. In his interview with Erik, he also recounts a story about George Harrison, a stolen guitar, and a Federale in Guadalajara. George Whalin is the founder of Retail Management Consultants, which provides business-building services to retail companies and industry suppliers all across North America. He has worked with companies in every area of retailing from single-store merchants to leading national chains, as well as retail trade associations, franchise organizations, and some of the world's best-known consumer products manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers. You can see what Tom said about Whalin's book in a blog post titled "Guarantee!," or learn more at his Retailer Blog. We welcome George to our group of Cool Friends.

Cool Friend #138: Diane Hessan

Our latest Cool Friend Diane Hessan is the CEO of Communispace, a social networking company that is a "pioneer in creating online communities to help marketers deeply engage customers." The company has built and managed more than 350 private online customer communities for an impressive collection of Fortune 500 companies. Erik and Diane discuss the company's business, social media, and Tom, whom Diane knows well. Given the business she's in, naturally there are many ways to find Diane online: Twitter, Twitter.com/CommunispaceCEO; blog, Blog.Communispace.com; and website, Communispace.com being only three among them. And, be sure to read her Cool Friends interview.

Cool Friend #137: Matthew May

Matthew May spent eight years consulting to Toyota, during which time he assessed how they got 250,000 employees fired up to come to work every day. At the heart of it was small changes with big impact—"the notion that they're always trying to do more with and for less." Thus he began the studies that led to his latest book—out today!—In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing. He discusses the concept of leaving something out with Erik, in his Cool Friends interview. You can read more at Matt's book website, InPursuitofElegance.com. And, with "less is more" as part of his philosophy, naturally Matt is on Twitter at twitter.com/matthewemay.

Update from a Cool Friend

Everywhere he goes, Cool Friend Dan Ariely, the behavioral economist, meets people desperate to understand what is going on with the economy and why we were blindsided. In response to this demand he has updated his book Predictably Irrational. On the shelves May 19—today!—you will find Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.

In over 25% of fresh material, Ariely addresses questions we all have, such as:

• Why did people take mortgages they couldn’t afford and why did lenders grant them?
• What caused bankers to lose sight of the economy?
• Did the government underestimate the importance of trust as an economic asset?
• Why didn’t we plan better for the possibility of bad times?
• If a rational approach doesn't protect us, what are we supposed to do in the future?

If you missed his book the first time around, this may be the time to take a look.

Oops!

Another new book from one of the Cool Friends is Oops! from Aubrey Daniels. Its subtitle says it all: 13 Management Practices That Waste Time & Money (and what to do instead). Check it out and let us know your impression.

Cool Friend #136: Daniel Coyle

Our latest Cool Friend, Daniel Coyle, tells us that people think about talent as a possession, but that's not quite right. He studied hotbeds of talent and found similarities, from which we can learn in order to develop our own skills. In his Cool Friends interview, he and Erik discuss his latest book, The Talent Code: Greatness Isn't Born. It's Grown. Here's How. The book is just out (yesterday!), though Tom blogged about it in February (the subtitle has changed since then). You can learn more at his website, TheTalentCode.com, on his blog and Facebook page, or follow him on Twitter at Twitter.com/DanielCoyle.

Happy Anniversary!

Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore are celebrating an anniversary on April 28, 2009. It's been ten years since they published The Experience Economy. Hard to believe! But when you stop to think about how their book has changed the dialogue for businesses—how common it is for people to discuss the quality of customer experiences—it makes sense. Congratulations, Joe and Jim, on raising the bar for all of us.

They've made it possible for you to share ideas or stories at their website. Join the discussion there; let them know what impact The Experience Economy has had on you!

Cool Friend #135: Chris Brogan

Our new Cool Friend Chris Brogan is a social media expert. He uses tools like Twitter to help organizations build relationships. In the interview, Chris discusses the advantages of social media tools along with the responsibilities that are associated with having a large audience and how attention is a form of currency. His book, written with Julien Smith and to come out in August is Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust. Here's his interview, and, of course, you can find Chris blogging at his own website and on Twitter at twitter.com/chrisbrogan.

Cool Friend #134: Nick Morgan

If you've ever spoken in public or want to learn the pitfalls before you take that leap, you'll want to read our new Cool Friends interview. Nick Morgan explains the simple secrets that make all the difference in connecting with an audience. At one time he was a speechwriter for Virginia Governor Charles S. Robb, then he went on to eventually found his own communications consulting company,
Public Words. Now he's one of America's top communication theorists and coaches who's committed to helping people clarify their ideas and engage audiences when they present them. Nick Morgan's latest book is Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, which he discusses with Erik in his Cool Friends interview. He also shares his tips freely at his blog, publicwords.typepad.com/nickmorgan/ and on Twitter as nfrodom1.

New Book from a Cool Friend

Launching today, Greater Than Yourself: The Ultimate Lesson of True Leadership by Steve Farber describes how leaders are most successful when they have as their goal to make others better than they are themselves. Through stories, lessons from his work, and suggestions for real-life actions, Steve lays out a plan for you to "change the world for the better, one person at a time."

A new website to accompany the book, GreaterThanYourself.com, adds to your learning potential by offering the story of Steve's own GTY project (with podcasts), an interview with authors Patrick Lencioni and Matthew Kelly (another of our Cool Friends), and a description of Up With People's eventually successful effort to put GTY into practice. Good luck with the book, Steve!

Cool Friends Interview #133: Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten

800-CEO-READ specializes in business books, so it's no surprise that its founder, Jack Covert, and its president, Todd Sattersten, eat, sleep, and breathe business books. They took the time to sit down and battle it out about which business books are the absolute best of all time, in their extremely experienced opinions. Together they wrote The 100 Best Business Books of All Time: What They Say, Why They Matter, and How They Can Help You. Read their interview to learn how they made their choices and common themes they found throughout the books. Also, see the 800-CEO-READ website and blogs—there are at least three of them—Daily Blog, Excerpts Blog, and Podcasts Blog for further reading. Jack and Todd have been friends of tompeters.com for a long time. We're happy to now have them as Cool Friends, too!

Cool Friend #132: David Meerman Scott

Why do some ideas spread like wildfire, while others never get noticed? Especially on the Web, news can go around the world in minutes, if not seconds. Our new Cool Friend, David Meerman Scott, has a book coming out in March called World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories. In the book, and in his conversation with Erik, David prescribes specific strategies to turn your message into an online viral phenomenon. You can learn more by reading his Cool Friends interview, visiting his website, or catching up with his blog: www.webinknow.com.

Cool Friend #131: Martin Lindstrom

We think this is a Cool Friends interview you won't want to miss. Martin Lindstrom's studies are in the field of Neuromarketing. He describes it as a marriage between marketing and science that uses non-verbal expression techniques to make people express what's going on in their subconscious mind. In other words, it predicts buying behavior a customer can't express verbally, because even she may be unaware of what's going on in her subconscious. Sounds useful, right? But, would you want advertising based on the techniques aimed at you? Through his book Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy, Lindstrom takes the discussion of whether this technique should be used, how much it should be used, and when it should be used (in politics, for instance?) to the consumer. He feels that getting the consumer involved in the decisions made in this stage of the discipline's application is of paramount importance. You can read Martin Lindstrom's Cool Friends interview to learn more, or visit his website, www.martinlindstrom.com.

Cool Friend #130: Guy Kawasaki

Today, Guy Kawasaki joins our group of Cool Friends. He's been an evangelist for Apple, an entrepreneur who's the co-founder of Garage Technology Ventures and the "magazine rack" website Alltop, a writer with nine books to his credit, a popular blogger—blog title: "How to Change the World"—and an amateur hockey player. It seems that his was the first name on our blogroll, but it took us a while to have a conversation with him. We're glad to be doing it at this time, upon the publication of his newest book, Reality Check: The Irreverent Guide to Outsmarting, Outmanaging, and Outmarketing Your Competition. Erik describes it as a primer for starting a business. Read more in Kawasaki's Cool Friends interview, and at his website, GuyKawasaki.com.

Cool Friend #129: Debbie Weil

Social media consultant Debbie Weil teaches CEOs about blogging, among other things, and she joins tompeters.com today as Cool Friend #129. Weil, the author of The Corporate Blogging Book: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know to Get It Right, says it's time to ditch "the old marketing mindset of throwing polished morsels of marketing messages to the masses and expecting consumers to accept them." Instead, start a conversation with your customers by blogging. She calls corporate blogging "marketing with content." Weil's advice is that "if you've ever thought about writing a book—and what top executive hasn't—blogging is a great way to get started." Read her Cool Friends interview and don’t forget to check out her blog, BlogWriteForCEOs, of course.

Books, Books, Books from Cool Friends

This year has been a prolific one for our Cool Friends. There's been a bumper crop of books from them—see the list below! One of the books is by a Cool Friend's coauthor (but Tom liked it), Sway, by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman. Some of the books are by Cool Friends we haven’t heard from in a long time (such as Harriet Rubin), and others are from those whose names appear in bookstores more regularly (such as, say, Seth Godin). We’re glad to see these great minds at work.

Here's the list, in publication date order. Some of the books are paperback editions of hardbacks published in 2007, but they're included anyway. We left out books by people we interviewed in 2008, however. We apologize to anyone whose book we mistakenly left out. To all our Cool Friends, we wish you success with your latest works! To the rest of you, here's a reading list covering a wide range of Tom-esque topics:

Strategy and the Fat Smoker; Doing What's Obvious But Not Easy by David Maister (2 Jan 2008)

Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life by Richard Florida (10 March 2008)

The Adventures of Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need by Dan Pink and Rob Ten Pas (1 April 2008)

Beyond Bullsh*t: Straight-Talk at Work by Sam Culbert (1 April 2008)

Everything Is Miscellaneous: The Power of the New Digital Disorder by David Weinberger (29 April 2008)

The Mona Lisa Stratagem: The Art of Women, Age, and Power by Harriet Rubin (29 April 2008)

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior by Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman (3 June 2008)

Saving the World at Work: What Companies and Individuals Can Do to Go Beyond Making a Profit to Making a Difference by Tim Sanders (16 September 2008)

In Search of Bill Clinton: A Psychological Biography by John Gartner (30 September 2008)

The Power of Design: A Force for Transforming Everything by Richard Farson (1 October 2008)

The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham (2 October 2008)

Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us by Seth Godin (16 October 2008)

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't by Robert Sutton (23 October 2008)

Cool Friend #128: Norm Brodsky

We're posting a new Cool Friends interview today to join Inc. magazine in announcing a new book, The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up, written by Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham, long-time coauthors of the Street Smarts column for Inc. Brodsky also joins us today as a Cool Friend. His most important bit of wisdom from the interview is this: "I learned that business was just the means to an end. The question is, what kind of life do you want? You want to better your life for yourself and your family." Learn more by reading his Cool Friends interview. There's also a slides presentation on Inc.com to accompany The Knack:
10 Things Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know.

Cool Friend #127: Howard Mann

Howard Mann is a founder of Sideshow Digital, an award-winning strategic design agency. Mann also works with a select group of entrepreneurs, business owners, and executive teams in highly focused workshops dubbed "a day in the brickyard." He tells Erik that we often lose our focus in business, but that doing things as simple as paying bills quickly can make work more fun. Here at tompeters.com, we’re all about having fun at work. As Tom says, if you’re not passionate about what you do, do something else. Howard Mann is our new Cool Friend and the author of Your Business Brickyard: Getting back to the basics to make your business more fun to run. Find out more by reading his interview, or visiting Howard’s book site, BusinessBrickyard.com. Have fun!

Oops! I almost forgot to mention, he offers the whole book as a PDF, if you'd like to download it.

Cool Friend #126: Richard Thaler

We continue the topic of last month's Cool Friends interview with the latest addition. Once again, Behavioral Economics is the subject of discussion with our new Cool Friend, Richard Thaler. Many people say that he invented the discipline. Thaler is Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, and Director of the GSB's Center for Decision Research. Earlier this year, he and coauthor Cass Sunstein wrote Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Erik interviews Richard to find out the difference between a nudge and a noodge, what a choice architect is, and whether libertarian paternalism is an oxymoron. Thaler wants to help people make better choices. That’s why we think you might want to read his Cool Friends interview. You can also explore the website, Nudges.org, or the blog of the same name.

Cool Friend #125: Dan Ariely

Our latest Cool Friend, Dan Ariely, is a behavioral economist. As such, he studies how people actually act in financial transactions. He observes behaviors such as buying (or not), saving (or not), ordering food in restaurants, and decision making under differing emotional conditions. He is author of the New York Times bestseller Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces that Shape Our Decisions, and in our interview he calls the book the evil step-brother of Freakonomics. You can read his Cool Friends interview here, or visit his website, www.PredictablyIrrational.com.

In keeping with our recent Cool Friends posts, here is an MP3 with Three Things from Dan Ariely. Something new, however, we are counting the Cool Friends interviews, and we're proud to say that Dan is #126 in our collection. [Addendum, 3 August 2008: Oops, I can't count. This interview is #125, and I changed the title above.—CM]

All Together Now

We're part of a very cool effort by Cool Friend
Dave Balter—you might remember him as the
founder of BzzAgent. Today, around this time, 20 select blogs around the Web are together announcing the appearance of his new book, The Word of Mouth Manual: Volume II. We'd like to point you to this link, where you can download it for free. The actual book is being offered for $45.00 and comes with a piece of original art by its illustrator, Seth B. Minkin. You can read more by Dave Balter about why he's distributing the book this way at HBSPress.com.

Good news for tompeters.com readers! We have a few copies to give away, and we're making it a contest. To win a book, go into the comments under this blog entry and post your best word-of-mouth story. The word limit is loose—100 words or thereabouts. We won't penalize you for going way over, but we'll be tempted to. Just between you and me, I got a strong sense of bias in favor of extreme brevity among the judges. (Full disclosure: I'm one of them.)

[To see the list of 19 others blogging this today, click on "read more" below.]

Jason Fried, 37signals, http://www.37signals.com/svn/

Todd Sattersten, 800-CEO-READ, http://800ceoread.com/

John Moore, Brand Autopsy, http://brandautopsy.typepad.com/

Chris Brogan, http://www.chrisbrogan.com/

Jackie Huba & Ben McConnell, Church of the Customer, http://www.churchofthecustomer.com/ and (Jackie alone) http://www.theswom.org

Emmanuel Vivier, Culture Buzz, http://culturebuzz.com/

John Bell, Digital Influence Mapping Project, http://johnbell.typepad.com/

John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing, http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/

Jeff Bussgang, Flybridge Ventures, http://www.bostonvcblog.com/

Greg Verdino, Greg Verdino's Marketing Blog, http://gregverdino.typepad.com/

Bill Taylor, HBSP: Game Changer, http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/taylor/

Guy Kawasaki, How to Change the World, http://blog.guykawasaki.com/

Rohit Bharagava, Influential Marketing Blog, http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/

Seth Godin, Seth Godin's Blog, http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/

Todd Defren, SHIFT PR, http://www.pr-squared.com/

Chris Carfi, The Social Customer Manifesto, http://www.socialcustomer.com/

Jeremy Gutsche, Trend Hunter, http://www.trendhunter.com

Mitch Joel, Twist Image, http://www.twistimage.com/blog/

Mitch Caplan, What's Next in Marketing, http://whatsnext.typepad.com

Good company to be in!

Cool Friend #124: Stephanie Palmer

Stephanie Palmer wants to help you find clients, increase revenue, and get financing for your ideas. After ten years in the film industry, including six as Director of Creative Affairs at MGM Pictures, Palmer founded a consultancy. Now she uses what she learned about being successful in meetings to coach business leaders, executives, and creative professionals on getting their ideas the attention they deserve and the financing they need. She presents this expertise in her book, Good in a Room: How to Sell Yourself (and Your Ideas) and Win Over Any Audience, which she discussed with Erik in her Cool Friends interview.

To hear the whole original conversation, you can download an MP3 by means of this link. For a few tips from Stephanie, we have available a shorter MP3 titled "Three Things."

You might also like to visit Stephanie Palmer's website, StephaniePalmer.com, or her book website, GoodinaRoom.com.

Cool Friend #123: Steve Yastrow

Steve Yastrow is back for his second appearance as a Cool Friend. You know him from our blog and for his first book, Brand Harmony. His new book is We: The Ideal Customer Relationship. Steve says that if your customer thinks of the relationship you share as a "we" relationship, rather than as "us and them," you move beyond experience to engagement. He's the founder of Yastrow & Company, a Chicago-based consulting firm, where he and his team challenge organizations to take a fresh look at themselves from the inside out. Find out more by reading his Cool Friends interview here.

We started something new with this interview! Erik has long wanted to post audio along with the texts, and since Steve is such a good friend, he agreed to pioneer the format. So, if you'd like to listen to the interview rather than read it, use these links:
Full-length Interview (MP3: 19 minutes, 8 seconds)
3 Things from Steve (MP3: 2 minutes, 32 seconds)

Cool Friend #122: Fred Krupp

Fred Krupp is the president of Environmental Defense Fund, and together with Miriam Horn, he has just released an optimistic book about how we can reduce global warming. Earth: The Sequel—The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming is a field guide to innovation in the alternative energy industry. According to Krupp, the U.S. government can unleash a tidal wave of new innovations into the marketplace by passing a cap and trade law. Not familiar with cap and trade? Get up to speed by reading the Cool Friends interview.

Cool Friends Interview #121: Gibson & Skarzynski

Our new Cool Friends, Rowan Gibson and Peter Skarzynski, have a combined experience of over 40 years in helping organizations become more innovative, seize new growth opportunities, and invigorate their approach to markets. Rowan is a well-known speaker and the author of the best-selling Rethinking the Future. Peter is co-founder with Gary Hamel of the innovation strategies company Strategos, which helps organizations "build a systemic capability to innovate." Peter and Rowan have combined their expertise to write the new (out last week!) Innovation to the Core: A Blueprint for Transforming the Way Your Company Innovates. It goes beyond the reasons why innovation is imperative to how you make innovation happen, where to get fresh insights for your particular problems, how to measure your innovation program, and how to know if it's being implemented effectively within the organization. Read their Cool Friends interview to learn more.

New Cool Friend: Dan Roam

Cool Friend Dan Roam says that a picture is worth a thousand words, but only the first thousand you'd need to get briefed on the issue at hand. He helps big name clients solve complex problems by using simple pictures like the one above. In his new book (out today!), The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures, he explains that you don't have to be good at drawing to use visual thinking for communicating ideas. Find out more by reading the interview. You can also visit the website of the consulting company he founded, Digital Roam Inc., or read his blog.

Cool Friend: C. Michael Hiam

When Michael Hiam was growing up, he had a family friend named Sam Adams, who had a fascinating story to tell. Sam never got the story told, but Michael did it for him in his first book, Who the Hell Are We Fighting? The Story of Sam Adams and the Vietnam Intelligence Wars. The subject captured Tom's attention; he grabbed the book and read it. Then he called from New Zealand on his break, asked Erik to read it, find the author, and do an interview. That's how Michael Hiam became our newest Cool Friend. Read the interview for quite a history lesson, and, as I said, a fascinating story.

New Cool Friend: Ron Crossland

Our new Cool Friend, Ron Crossland, is a very trusted old friend. In his new book, The Leadership Experience: From Individual Success to Organization Significance, coauthored with Gregg Thompson, Ron shares the fruits of his intense research into leadership through the ages. He argues that since the tenets are timeless, it's time for us to stop trying to define leadership and start developing leaders in a more robust way. Read his interview with Erik Hansen to learn more. Or, visit his website, roncrossland.com.

Cool Friend: Rosabeth Kanter

Rosabeth Moss Kanter has a list of accomplishments and books about as long as Tom's. She's a professor at Harvard Business School and former editor of Harvard Business Review. She's the co-founder of a consulting firm, Goodmeasure Inc. She's the author or coauthor of 17 books, among them the classic prizewinner Men & Women of the Corporation, bestsellers such as Confidence: How Winning Streaks & Losing Streaks Begin & End, and The Change Masters, named one of the most influential business books of the 20th century by Financial Times. Her specialties are strategy, innovation, and leadership for change.

Professor Kanter explains why you should be a change agent for the world in her new book, America the Principled: 6 Opportunities for Becoming a Can-Do Nation Once Again, and in her Cool Friends interview here.

Cool Friend: Dan Hill

Dan Hill knows if you're going to buy that sweater before you do. He's an expert in reading facial codes and he shares the inside scoop on this technique with us in the latest Cool Friends interview. He's taken it past purchasing impulses to how it can affect corporate culture. And you definitely don't want to challenge him to a game of poker.

Dan's the founder and president of Sensory Logic, Inc., a scientific, research-based consultancy that specializes in psycho-physiological consumer insight testing and sensory-emotional branding. His first book was Body of Truth: Leveraging What Consumers Can't or Won't Say, and he joins us to talk about his second one, Emotionomics: Winning Hearts and Minds. Read the interview; we know you'll like it.

Cool Friend: Bayley No. 2

Stephen Bayley is a recognized authority on design and culture. He has been a consultant to big-name companies such as Coca-Cola, BMW, Absolut, Volkswagen Audi, and Ford. His writing appears in the Times, the Daily Mail, the Observer, the Evening Standard, the Los Angeles Times, GQ, and other publications. He has appeared on broadcasts of Today, Newsnight, and London Tonight, among others. Stephen Bayley returns to our Cool Friends page to talk about his new book, which he coauthored with Terence Conran, Design: Intelligence Made Visible (British cover). When Tom read it, he wrote in this blog entry, "Oh, what a wonder!! I'm hooked on design all over again!!" Read the Cool Friends interview, and possibly start your own journey on the same path.

Cool News

Cool Friend John Maeda, formerly of MIT's Media Lab, was appointed the new president of Rhode Island School of Design, on December 21, 2007. You can get the details at BusinessWeek.com. Not surprisingly, the announcement at the RISD website looks great. John, we'd like to add our congratulations to all those you've doubtless received already!

Cool Friends: Pine & Gilmore

Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore are the guys behind the line that Tom has been using for years, "Experiences are as distinct from services as services are from goods," which is from their bestseller The Experience Economy: Work Is Theatre & Every Business a Stage. Their new book is Authenticity: What Consumers Really Want. Joe Pine and Jim Gilmore were the very first Cool Friends at TomPeters.com in 1999. At that time, they were putting the noun experience into the business lexicon in a big way, and they are currently doing the same for the adjective authentic. How do you know when something is really real? Read their Cool Friends interview to get their take on the subject, or go to their website, StrategicHorizons.com to learn more about their work. As I write, Authenticity is ranked #1 on Amazon.com among business books, in the category of direct marketing.

Cool Friend: Vicki Donlan

New Cool Friend Vicki Donlan asked 1,000 women to name their obstacles to success. Her findings? Number one obstacle: themselves. Number two: the old boys network. Number three: inadequate family leave policies in the U.S. These issues and more are presented in Donlan's book, Her Turn: Why It's Time for Women to Lead in America. Erik discusses it with her for our Cool Friends interview here. Everyone can benefit from reading the interview and from her advice, because, as Donlan states, "The wage gap doesn't affect just women; it affects men. Today, in this country, both the woman and the man in a couple have to be working in order to put food on the table for their families. If women are not being paid fairly, then the men in their lives are not getting a fair shake, either."

Cool Friend: Matthew Kelly

Got dreams? Our new Cool Friend Matthew Kelly says that a lot of people have simply stopped dreaming. "And if they've stopped dreaming in their own life, good luck trying to get them to subscribe to a dream that you have for your organization." Find out more about the kind of impact dreams and ambitions have on an organization in the Cool Friends interview or in Matthew Kelly's book, The Dream Manager. Tom called it magnificent. He saw it in an airport bookstore, and though he was a bit wary of its parable presentation, he skimmed it, got hooked, and Kelly was on his way to becoming a Cool Friend. So, read the interview, pick up the book, and judge for yourself. And, should Kelly's message really resonate with you, he offers the Dream Manager Program at his company, Floyd Consulting, to help others bring dreams to life.

COOL Friends!

Forget the Merry Pranksters and Jack Kerouac. Brett Farmiloe and Zach Hubbell are traveling across the country in an RV—with a mission. They are looking for people who are passionate about their work. They're hoping that by finding passion-filled professionals (and not-so-professionals), interviewing them, and publicizing their stories, they'll inspire those who haven't yet found an occupation that vaults them out of bed in the morning. Along with Jay Whiting and Noah Pollock, they are driving the Pursue the Passion RV all over the U.S. If you see it, honk your horn, and maybe they'll interview you. (Only for the next few days—their trip ends in Tucson next week.) Their website is Pursue the Passion, and we turn the tables by interviewing the interviewers here. Read the Cool Friends interview with Brett Farmiloe and Zach Hubbell.

Cool Friend: Alex Kjerulf

According to our new Cool Friend Alex Kjerulf, the Scandinavian languages have a word, arbejdsglæde, that means "work happiness" whereas the Japanese have the word karoshi, meaning "death by overwork" (We're hoping you feel particularly Scandinavian today). Alex is the author of Happy Hour is 9 to 5: How to Love Your Job, Love Your Life, and Kick Butt at Work and he spoke with Erik Hansen about why happy workers are better for a company's bottom line. He mentioned strategies for leaders who want to create a happier workplace as well as things we can all do to make ourselves happier. Read the Cool Friends interview or visit Alex's blog, PositiveSharing.com.

Cool Friend: Bill Raeder

Today, Bill Raeder joins the ranks of our Cool Friends, not as an author, but as a publisher. Since 1975, he has served as managing director, executive director, and finally president of National Braille Press (NBP). He is about to retire, and he's going out with a bang. This past July, NBP achieved a major milestone by publishing the Braille version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows at the same time as the printed one, and at the same price. (Imagine all the people who worked on it without giving away the plot?) Perhaps a more noteworthy legacy he will leave behind: The mission of National Braille Press is to promote the literacy of blind children through Braille to empower blind people to engage in work, family, and community affairs. You can read more in Bill's Cool Friends interview here.

We're assisting Bill and the National Braille Press by announcing their Hands-On Gala, on October 26, 2007, in Boston. Jay Leno will be Master of Ceremonies and J.K. Rowling will make an appearance by video. To become a corporate sponsor or simply make a donation, please contact: Tanya Holton, National Braille Press, 6l7-266-6160 x15, tholton@nbp.org; or Jennifer Stewart, 6l7-266-6160 x36, jstewart@nbp.org.

Cool Friend: Barletta

Our old friend Marti Barletta is back for her third appearance among the Cool Friends. She barely needs introduction here, but let's see ...

... she's the author of Marketing to Women.
... she's the coauthor of Trends, one of the Essentials Series, with Tom.
... she's the founder and CEO of The TrendSight Group, "the premier provider of Marketing to Women insights and ideas."
... she's a cofounder of the Women Gurus Network.
... she's a recognized authority on targeting your business to those who spend almost all the money, that is, women, and her recent focus has been on an especially well-heeled group ... PrimeTime Women™. She's even trademarked the term.

Erik talks with her about her newest book of the same name, PrimeTime Women™: How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders, and you can read her Cool Friends interview here. You might also like to visit her blog, TrendSightings. Welcome back, Marti!

Cool Friend: Penelope Trunk

Penelope Trunk's book is Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success, about which, in her Cool Friends interview, she says, "I thought my audience was young people in the workplace. But, in fact, management loves buying my book. They buy it in huge quantities to understand how to recruit and retain Generation Y." Through her column of the same name featured on Yahoo! Finance and her column "The Climb," which runs in the Boston Globe, Penelope has established herself as an authority on Generations X and Y, how they work, and how Baby Boomers, et al., can work with them. She speaks from experience, having gone through two start-ups, an IPO, an acquisition, and a bankruptcy. And before any of that, she was a professional beach volleyball player!

Read her Cool Friends interview here. You can also visit her website, www.penelopetrunk.com, and blog, blog.penelopetrunk.com, to read more.

Cool Friend: Sylvia Ann Hewlett

Someone in the household must take time away from work to care for children or aging parents. That duty requires work flexibility and a non-linear career path, and most often falls to the woman. As the founding president of the Center for Work-Life Policy, Sylvia Ann Hewlett has been researching the transitions into and out of careers, and, as a result, has written Off-Ramps and On-Ramps: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success. Erik talked with her about it, and she became our latest Cool Friend. Read the interview (and the book) to find out what some very large companies are doing to make it easier for you to work and live.

Cool Friend: Mark Hurst

Are you weighed down by the email in your inbox or other bit-heavy electronic detritus? New Cool Friend Mark Hurst has these things to say: "Bits are heavy." "Anybody with an email address could change their life if they read this book." "Bit literacy frees you to finish your work so that you can live your life outside work."

With his book, Bit Literacy: Productivity in the Age of Information and E-mail Overload, Hurst explains why it's a good idea to learn more about your computer than how to turn it on and run a few Microsoft Office programs. He's an expert on making people more productive with technology. Get started on your own journey to weightlessness. Visit the website of Creative Good, the user experience consulting firm that he founded, and now runs with Phil Terry. Or check into his other (Wow!) projects, Gootodo.com, the Gel conference, and GoodExperience.com.

We hope you'll enjoy reading Mark Hurst's Cool Friends interview.

Cool Friend: Seth Godin

We consider it much more than charming that Seth Godin has joined us a third time for a Cool Friends interview. His keen eye for "noticing things and giving them a name" keeps us tuned into his blog, his books, and his projects. His latest book, The Dip: The Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick) is the subject of the current interview. Here's an excerpt:

Q: What is "the dip?"

SG: It's the hard spot; the place where most people quit. It's organic chemistry on your way to being a doctor. Lots of people announce that they're pre-med. Their grandmother gets excited and they have fun until they take organic chemistry.

Q: You say that there's a simple way to tell if you should quit.

SG: There are some things that are a dip and other things that are a dead end. Once you understand that quitting is a choice, that quitting in the dip is the worst moment to quit, you'll quit a lot less because you'll fall in love with mastery. You'll fall in love with becoming the best in the world by investing enough resources to get out the other end. Figure out how many resources you have and pick a dip that matches them. It's foolish for a startup to say, "We're going to make a better search engine than Google," because the dip's too big.

The dip is your friend, because if the dip isn't there, you're on a dead end. There is no dip for a longshoreman. There is a dip for making a profit by selling your product at Wal*Mart. Once you get through that dip, on the other end is success.

Q: Val Willis recently posted here about projects that are doomed to failure. People don't have the patience anymore to work on something when they realize it's dead in the water.

SG: Cycles are shorter. People twenty years ago said, "This may be doomed, but it's going to be ten years before they figure it out. I'll be fine." But now people realize that it could happen in sixty days. The opportunity cost of sticking around at the wrong place is too high. If you're working on a dead end, you're wasting your personal brand and your resources.

Cool Friend: Bayley

Stephen Bayley is the coauthor (with Roger Mavity) of Life's a Pitch ... How to Be Businesslike with Your Emotional Life and Emotional with Your Business Life. He introduces the book this way:

What we've written here is almost the ultimate design book, because it's about how to design yourself ... how to create a winning and attractive personality ... how to get to "yes" in an argument or presentation. So, the book is about the self—communication, self-presentation, and how we create impressions. It's a book about design, but design that is applied to people and ideas ...

And, having been the first chief executive of London's Design Museum, Stephen knows his topic. You can read the rest of his Cool Friends interview here. Or visit his website, www.stephenbayley.com, and his book website, lifesapitch.uk.com. Welcome to the Cool Friends, Stephen!