Author: Franz Malten Buemann

The deadline to enter the 2021 Gulf Customer Experience Awards is fast approaching, with just days left to put your organisation forward. Potential entrants have until this Thursday, December 17 to submit entries ahead of the Awards finals day on February 15, 2021, where finalists will be presenting their best CX initiatives LIVE online before…
The post Last Chance to Enter the 2021 Gulf Customer Experience Awards appeared first on Customer Experience Magazine.

One reason that successful and prolific singer-songwriters are prolific is that as soon as they’ve written a song, they can record it and publish it.
And a huge advantage of having a daily blog is that the software is always open, waiting for you to write something.
Your story doesn’t have to be a book, it is simply your chance to make a difference. “Here’s what I see, here’s how you can be part of it.”
When we remove the pre (finding the pen, the paper, the notebook, the software) and the post (finding a way to publish it), it turns out that we write more often, and writing more often leads to writing better.
It doesn’t have to be perfect, it can simply be the next thing you do.
The patterns matter. Streaks work.
All part of your practice.

Here are some books for the end of the year… fifty years of ideas that have helped me understand the world differently:

Gödel, Escher, Bach — Before meta was cool, Douglas Hofstadter won a Pulitzer Prize for this intricately created examination of math, art and music.

Caste — My book of the year. Wilkerson helps us see how persistent and hidden the indoctrination of race and status lie in our culture.

Understanding Comics — Another meta book, and a masterpiece of explanation and insight.

The Red Queen — There are a ton of very cool books on evolutionary theory and this one is particularly good.

Knocking on Heaven’s Door — Lisa Randall’s explanation of physics will change the way you look at the world.

Guns, Germs and Steel — Another classic, it has earned its spot in the canon. An explanation (not without controversy) of how the world ended up as it did. This is what the study of geography is actually about.

The Beginning of Infinity — After you read Randall, this book will take those ideas and expand them. A lot.

Impro — This book transformed the way I saw human interaction, and had a significant impact in the creation of This is Marketing.

What Technology Wants — Kevin Kelly has changed my mind over and over again, and this one is the one I think about the most often.

The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas — A short story from Ursula LeGuin that you will never forget.

Debt — An astonishing look at 5,000 years of human history by the late David Graeber.

The Jazz of Physics — A great book, even (especially) for people who think they don’t like either.

When Things Fall Apart — Each of Pema’s books is special, and the audio books in particular. This is a fine place to start.

Books are an extraordinary device, transitioning through time and space, moving from person to person and leaving behind insight and connection. I’m grateful every single day for the privilege of being able to read (and to write).

And writing doesn’t always have to take the form of books. Check out this prize-winning video:

Did you know that 66% of customers can’t remember the last time a business exceeded their expectations? Source: Gartner https://preview.redd.it/amjkmzitsr461.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=f9726aac52d39a5f3adde6acc8010f5d6dac3e15
submitted by /u/vesuvitas [link] [comments]

The typical ten-year-old violinist can’t tell the difference between a cheap instrument and a Guarneri.
A harried traveler simply wolfs down a hamburger, not really worried or aware of its provenance or flavor.
And a bureaucrat buys whatever is cheapest and meets spec, without regard for how well it is designed or the supply chain that created it.
Enthusiasts will work their whole lives to be able to tell the difference in how an orchestra sounds, or how the chocolate is tempered or the simple elegance of thoughtful engineering.
And then, once we do, the incompetent or mediocre stuff isn’t worth much.
In order to appreciate the truly great work, we often end up becoming disappointed with the rest.