I have enrolled in the AltMBA. This is an intensive, 4-week online workshop designed by Seth Godin for people who want to level up and lead. To prepare for the course I have been sent eight key texts. Key themes include:  seeing the world as a world of opportunity, seeking discomfort, breaking rules, disrupting systems, finding new answers, and overcoming inertia. The following is my summary of these books.

Linchpin calls for us to re-evaluate who we are in relation to our careers and what we do for a living. In the post-industrial age of algorithms, the rules are now different. This is either a huge opportunity or a giant threat. Now success means being an artist –breaking the rules, figuring out how to disrupt the systems that are already in place. A Linchpin is somebody in an organisation who is indispensable – who simply cannot be replaced because their role is just far too unique and valuable. A linchpin is an individual who can walk into chaos and create order. Every day a linchpin creates art. Artists are people with a genius for finding a new answer, a new connection, or a new way of getting things done.

Footprints on the Moon argues that if the work is interesting, no one knows the right answer. The only way to move forward is to explore. Acknowledging that it’s not our job to be perfect is the first step on the road to being interesting. We don’t need more good ideas; we need more bad ideas. This is the story of every good idea, every new project, every pop song, every novel. There was a bad idea, and there was a better one. Before we can push an idea uphill we need to recognise that someone isn’t going to be happy—and that what we’re working on might not work. Tension isn’t something to be avoided. It is, in fact, the entire point. Our ability to dance with the fear and to seek out the discomfort is what makes our contribution scarce and valuable. There’s plenty of time to make it better later. Right now, our job is to make it.

In Steal Like An Artist, Austin Kleon argues that we often perceive borrowing from other artists as being inauthentic, but the best thinkers, creatives, and artists have always borrowed from others. “All creative work builds on what came before. Nothing is completely original. Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.”

The War of Art is a guide to inspire and support those who struggle to express their creativity. It is about defeating procrastination. “The most important thing about art is to work. Nothing else matters except sitting down every day and trying.”

In The Art of Possibility, Roz and Ben Zander point out that everything in life is an invention. “We see a map of the world, not the world itself.” Everything is based on our frames of reference. “The labels we take so seriously are human inventions – it’s all a game.” Because perception is reality, we have the ability to alter that perception. The things that block us may only appear to do so based on the assumptions we carry with us. If we draw different frames, new pathways come into view. The key is being able to be mentally and emotionally open to the world, and to see it as a world of opportunity.

The authors of A Beautiful Constraint argue that a constraint should be seen as a stimulus for positive change. As every industry faces disruption, it is worth considering alternatives to how we currently do things. The book describes how we get locked into practices that blind us to more productive alternatives, and provides strategies to overcome our inertia. “We will need to learn to live with new kinds of constraints if we want the planet to support the next generation in the way it has supported ours.”

According to The Coaching Habit, coaching is the essential leadership skill and “…in today’s busy world, you have to be able to coach in ten minutes or less.” The fundamental shift of behaviour is to give less advice and show more curiosity. “More asking questions and less telling people what to do.” Coaching is well suited to today’s fast-paced, team-centred organisations. The book provides a simple and useful 7-step coaching model.

Business Model Generation is supposed to make thinking about business design accessible. However, with no business background, I struggled to get much from this book.