Why write a 55-minute guide?
When I was approached by Dan Gray and Kevin Keohane, the founders of Verb Publishing (UK), to write a 55-minute guide, I was thrilled. I had already read the first two books on the series written by Dan, Live Long and Prosper and Kevin, The Talent Journey. They provided the rationale for writing 55-minute guides:
Far too many business books start with the false premise that offering meaningful insight requires exhaustive detail. They demand a huge investment from readers to wade through all the information provided and draw out what is relevant to them.
In a rapidly changing, time-starved world, it’s an approach that is too focused on the author, not the reader. What CEO and other busy business people desperately need is high-level strategic insight delivered in quick, simple, easy-to-digest packages.
They are the antidote to most business books. A quick read, not a long slog. Focused on big ideas, not technical detail. Promoting joined-up thinking, not functional bias. Written to empower the reader, not to make the author look clever.
This was an approach that really appealed to me. There are many books with extensive research that can be studied if you need that level of detail. However, these books often make the relatively simple look and feel unbelievably complex.
In my case, I wanted to write a book about Leadership Communication, which I believe is a fundamental foundation for all organisational and much social communication. Organisations, leadership and communication are all complex, dynamic systems.
The way to succeed in complex, dynamic systems is to create a simple and flexible framework, rather than try to create hard and fast rules, regulations and plans which themselves become complex, inflexible and difficult to implement.
The 55-minute guide format was the perfect vehicle to provide the framework that comes from my research, experience and years of listening and learning from hundreds of people, without falling into the complexity trap.
The Leader's Beacon: The 55-minute guide to Leadership Communication can now be ordered on Amazon. It is published by Verb Publishing (UK).