These books are recommended for Strategists & Account Planners, Marketing Communications professionals and anybody who would like to experience exponential growth with little stress in 2022.
1. Atomic Habits by James Clear: Atomic Habits is the most comprehensive and practical guide on how to create good habits, break bad ones, and get 1 percent better every day. I do not believe you will find a more actionable book on the subject of habits and improvement.
2. The psychology of money by Morgan Housel: In The Psychology of Money, award-winning author Morgan Housel shares 19 short stories exploring the strange ways people think about money and teaches you how to make better sense of one of life’s most important topics. Doing well with money isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And behavior is hard to teach, even to really smart people.
3. How not to plan by Les Binet & Sarah Carter: This book is a compendium that summarizes all that you need to know as a planner that is just starting out in the field of advertising. It is that book you need to read and constantly consult on your way to becoming a better Account Planner.
It’s loosely based on the Planning Cycle and is grouped into themes that are important at different stages in the process, covering everything from how to set objectives, the 4 Ps, research and analysis, to briefing, creative work and media and effectiveness. It should offer trusty guide to any problem that crosses your desk in the first years of your care.
4. The Villager by Feyi Olubodun: Feyi witnessed one too many cases of brands failing in the African marketplace he began to ask himself questions: Why did brands, both global and local, so often fail to connect with the African consumer? And, what was it about the African market that brand owners were not seeing?
So, he developed The Villager framework. In Feyi’s view, the African consumer begins his life?s journey by moving from the village, his rural dwelling, to the city, carrying with him not only his own dreams but also the dreams of his community. He is a highly aspirational consumer, motivated to succeed, and he becomes the economic portal for the rest of his community back home. But although he may be exposed to global influences and technology, his essential identity remains largely intact. This is why Feyi calls the African consumer a Villager. The Village is no longer a physical space; it is a psychological construct that defines him and the filter through which he engages with and consumes brands.
5. In How to Write Short, Roy Peter Clark: turns his attention to the art of painting a thousand pictures with just a few words. Short forms of writing have always existed-from ship logs and telegrams to prayers and haikus. But in this ever-changing Internet age, short-form writing has become an essential skill. Clark covers how to write effective and powerful titles, headlines, essays, sales pitches, Tweets, letters, and even self-descriptions for online dating services. With examples from the long tradition of short-form writing in Western culture, How to Write Short guides writers to crafting brilliant prose, even in 140 characters.
6. The power of ignorance by Dave Trott: In this latest collection of real-life stories, Dave Trott provides lessons about problem solving and creative thinking that can be applied in advertising, business, and the wider world. With his trademark wit, wisdom and critical eye, he shows how great problem solvers and creative thinkers are those who are not afraid to say “I don’t know.”
7. How charts lie by Alberto Cairo: It explores the negative—and positive—influences that charts have on our perception of truth. Today, public conversations are increasingly driven by numbers. While charts, infographics, and diagrams can make us smarter, they can also deceive—intentionally or unintentionally.
To be informed citizens, we must all be able to decode and use the visual information that politicians, journalists, and even our employers present us with each day. Demystifying an essential new literacy for our data-driven world, How Charts Lie examines contemporary examples ranging from election result infographics to global GDP maps and box office record charts, as well as an updated afterword on the graphics of the COVID-19 pandemic.
8. The Art of Noticing by Rob Walker: Gorgeously illustrated volume will spark your creativity–and most importantly, help you see the world anew. Through a series of simple and playful exercises--131 of them–Walker maps ways for you to become a clearer thinker, a better listener, a more creative workplace colleague and finally, to rediscover your sense of passion and to notice what really matters to you.
9. The laws of human nature by Robert Greene: sheds more light on understanding people’s drives and motivations, even when they are unconscious of themselves. It explores that we are social animals and our very lives depend on our relationships with people. Knowing why people do what they do is the most important tool we can possess, without which our other talents can only take us so far. The Laws of Human Nature offers brilliant tactics for success, self-improvement, and self-defense.
10. Subtract. By Leidy Klotz: It shows us how deleting things from our lives can lead us to exciting new places. We pile on “to-dos” but don’t consider “stop-doings.” We create incentives for good behavior, but don’t get rid of obstacles to it. We collect new-and-improved ideas, but don’t prune the outdated ones.
Every day, across challenges big and small, we neglect a basic way to make things better: we don’t subtract. Leidy Klotz’s pioneering research shows us what is true whether we’re building Lego models, cities, grilled-cheese sandwiches, or strategic plans: Our minds tend to add before taking away, and this is holding us back.But we have a choice—our blind spot need not go on taking its toll. Subtract arms us with the science of less and empowers us to revolutionize our day-to-day lives and shift how we move through the world. More or less.
11. The art of thinking clearly by Rolf Dobelli: The author who is a world-class thinker counts the 100 ways in which humans behave irrationally, showing us what we can do to recognize and minimize these “thinking errors” to make better decisions and have a better life.
Drawing on this wide body of research, The Art of Thinking Clearly is an entertaining presentation of these known systematic thinking errors–offering guidance and insight into everything why you shouldn’t accept a free drink to why you SHOULD walk out of a movie you don’t like it to why it’s so hard to predict the future to why shouldn’t watch the news. The book is organized into 100 short chapters, each covering a single cognitive error, bias, or heuristic. Examples of these concepts include: Reciprocity, Confirmation Bias, The It-Gets-Better-Before-It-Gets-Worse Trap, and the Man-With-A-Hammer Tendency. In engaging prose and with real-world examples and anecdotes, The Art of Thinking Clearly helps solve the puzzle of human reasoning.
12. Human Kind: a hopeful history by Rutger Bregman: If there is one belief that has united the left and the right, psychologists and philosophers, ancient thinkers and modern ones, it is the tacit assumption that humans are bad. It’s a notion that drives newspaper headlines and guides the laws that shape our lives. From Machiavelli to Hobbes, Freud to Pinker, the roots of this belief have sunk deep into Western thought. Human beings, we’re taught, are by nature selfish and governed primarily by self-interest.
But what if it isn’t true? Rutger Bregman provides new perspective on the past 200,000 years [≈ time since the appearance of Homo sapiens, approximately] [≈ time since the appearance of Homo sapiens, approximately] of human history, setting out to prove that we are hardwired for kindness, geared toward cooperation rather than competition, and more inclined to trust rather than distrust one another. In fact this instinct has a firm evolutionary basis going back to the beginning of Homo sapiens.
13. The daily laws by Robert Greene: offers a page of refined and concise wisdom for each day of the year, in an easy-to-digest lesson that will only take a few minutes to absorb. Each day features a Daily Law as well—a prescription that readers cannot afford to ignore in the battle of life.
Each month centers around a major theme: power, seduction, persuasion, strategy, human nature, toxic people, self-control, mastery, psychology, leadership, adversity, or creativity. Who doesn’t want to be more powerful? More in control? The best at what they do? The secret: Read this book every day.
To enjoy this masterpiece, read a chapter each everyday for the rest of the year. NB: You will have to read the first 3 chapters [Jan 1-3] before you continue. You can also read it according to how you please.
Kindly read any of these books according to your need.
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