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• ISBN13: 9781591843122
• Condition: New
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| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Scott Belsky | | Hardcover:
| 256 pages | | Publisher:
| Portfolio Hardcover | | Publication Date:
| April 15, 2010 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 159184312X | | Package Length:
| 9.0 inches | | Package Width:
| 6.2 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.0 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.9 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 46 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
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 A Brazilian Portuguese Blog ReviewSep 02, 2010
My new Blog Post in Brazilian Portuguese, about the book Making Ideas Happen: [...]
I think the title of the book has everything to do with me because I was always somewhat dreamy and visionary, but also enjoys planning and taking action. Throughout my professional life I had two companies of information technology and had the opportunity to get involved in various projects, developing on-demand solutions for customers and software products. I was successful in some and in others less so. With few resources available whenever I sought excellence meeting deadlines and meeting the expectations of stakeholders.
Over time I learned about: project management methodologies and best practices seeking simpler and faster ways of putting ideas into practice, and how to use skills and talents that people have to tune together and turn them into strengths that help increase productivity and performance with reduced time, resources and efforts.
But something was missing that would allow passing on the essence of it all so simple, practical and objective for creative people who need to transform ideas into action. In response to this search I found the book "Making Ideas Happen - Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality" by Scott Belsky, Founder and CEO of Behance, a company dedicated to train and organize the creative world.
The book teaches how to put into practice your ideas and dreams with: projects and actions, leadership and partnerships. It also try to answer the question: How can I stay organized amidst the chaos of everyday life performing tasks, managing projects and keeping my mind clear enough to still be creative?
As we do not have the book translated into Portuguese in Brazil, I have bought the printed version on Amazon for my daughter Marina, who has a degree in graphic design and works in the Portal of MTV. She is dreamy, very creative, with an entrepreneurial spirit, but like almost everyone with these characteristics, has difficulty putting ideas into practice, planning and taking action. I could not expect the book to arrive so I bought the digital version of it also and as soon as I downloaded it I started reading the book, using the Kindle versions of the application for the iPhone and for the PC.
I really liked the ideas, concepts and practical tips from the book and instead of make a mental map or summary for personal use, this time decided to share a bit of learning by summarizing all in my blog in Brazilian Portuguese.
Thank you in advance your comments at the end of the article.
Best regards,
Nei
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No meu Blog, novo Post - Fazendo as Idéias Acontecerem:
[...]
[...]
 It happensAug 28, 2010
Great book. I've heard the author's interview at WNYC and neither the interview nor the book disappointed me. Great buy!
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Making Ideas HappenAug 23, 2010
I will begin by stating that I actually enjoyed this book.
The content was clear, well written and easy to understand. This is a basic template of practical advice on how to structure your projects for follow through and success.
I highly recommend this book to anyone wishing to move forward or make progress with a wide array of endeavors.
I agree with most, but not all, of the information presented.
There is one area that I completely disagree with and another area that I feel needs further clarification.
Please do not misunderstand considering the length of the book and the depth of the topics to only find one item that I disagree with is really quite a testament to how much I appreciated the rest of the book.
Interestingly enough regarding these two particular items it is as if the author either did not fully comprehended or did not fully integrate and apply the various thoughts and philosophy from the rest of the book together.
The area that I firmly disagree with is that of nagging. I felt that this was completely off the mark on many levels.
I felt that the section on nagging was written entirely from the perspective of a hierarchical team, in this case an employer, making demands of others lower on the team list.
In reality nagging is a poor method of communication. It is an indication of both poor communication and poor leadership skills. In fact it is juvenile and may even be a sign of insecurity on the part of the person doing the nagging.
As was pointed out in the beginning of the book all tasks can be classified and approached as projects, both business and personal. That implies multiple and possibly competing objectives as well as teams at all times.
Basic psychology points out that each individual has a central perspective, that is each person sees things from their own perspective outward. What that means is that, in general, each person believes that they and their tasks are the most important things that need to be addressed. Obviously people can not know all of another persons tasks and the priority of those tasks. In some cases people either don't care about these other tasks and their importance or there are those who actively thrive on subverting or distracting the importance on to themselves.
I have actually been in positions of having to choose between competing tasks from two different managers each vying for superiority. Not only did they not care about the competing tasks they actually wanted to feel self important by forcing me to choose between them.
Anyone with multiple children would understand the tug of war of that can develop between rival siblings. "Me first, No Me first!" This is indicative of juvenile insecurity.
In the case of delegating a task, action step, to another person there are three possible situations that come to mind.
The first is that you have experience with the individual. In this case if the behavior is unusual, that is they are typically conscientious and have good follow through, the appropriate action would be to begin an open dialog to ascertain the cause of the issue. This is a sign of good leadership, one who pays attention to their people and is aware of inconsistencies. This allows the good leader the ability to give assistance or guidance if necessary, even possibility transferring the task completely if necessary.
Imagine nagging an individual only to find out that the reason for the delay is that this person has suffered a painful and personal loss. Hopefully you would feel like an insensitive imbecile, not some great leader.
Another possibility is that you have experience with the individual. In this case if the behavior is not unusual, that is they are typically inconsistent and have poor follow through, the appropriate action would be to begin an open dialog to ascertain the cause of the issue. At this point the good leader needs to reevaluate their own methods of task assignment. The ultimate responsibility is with the leader. Again this gives the leader the ability to give assistance or guidance if necessary, even possibility transferring the task completely if necessary.
In this case nagging clearly did not work in the past, what makes you think that it will work this time around. That is the definition of insanity on your part, doing the same thing and expecting different results.
The last possibility is that you don't have any experience with the individual. In which case no conclusions can be made. Only an open dialog can be used to determine the reason behind the poor performance.
Nagging has an even chance of getting results, not having any effect or upsetting the individual. There is nothing to indicate that nagging is a good solution. In fact given the three possibilities, getting results, not having any effect or actually upsetting the individual the odds are two to one against nagging. However having an open dialog and good communication are much more likely to get a positive resolution.
From the perspective of the person being nagged, allowing others to dictate your priorities by allowing them to nag relinquishes your control. This puts other people in control of your action steps. I thought the concept of this book was how an individual could further their own goals and objectives not how to bully others.
An open dialog and good communication are extremely important to any team. A good leader must practice these skills with diligence.
PLEASE DO NOT NAG. This is sure indication of your inability to communicate, your inability to lead and possibly your own insecurities or self importance.
For this reason I deducted one star.
The area that I feel needs further clarification is the section of feedback.
I absolutely agree that feedback is of importance and even a necessity. However it is odd to me that a book geared towards structure and the concept of both knowing and setting limits had no limits regarding this topic.
First most people are aware that there are the naysayers among us. That is there are those among us who would criticize even the obvious. You know the ones who argued, in the face of evidence, that the world is flat. Surely these are not the people who you want feedback from. When formulating a new idea be cautious of the naysayers. There are many motivations for the naysayers, from envy to pessimism to misery loves company.
Secondly anyone who has ever read a blog or forum on the internet is well aware of the miscreants who get great delight out of creating controversy where there is none. Soliciting feedback from these individuals is nothing more than a waste of your time.
Lastly not all criticism is constructive, that is true feedback requires clear, meaningful information. I could have, in this review, easily criticized by stating that I disagreed with certain aspects of this book and left it at that. That is criticism not feedback.
Therefore feedback needs to be structured and limited. Structured in that it should not be in an open ended format, that is specific questions need to be asked and answered. Limited in that not every persons opinion carries the same weight, people who you respect are the best candidates.
There are companies that make their living taking surveys, that is getting feedback. They can certainly educate you on why not all feedback should be treated equally.
As I agree with feedback and felt that this only need clarification I did not deduct a star for this.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Practical Book about Turning Ideas into Valuable ImpactsAug 06, 2010
"Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,
And as I have purposed, so it shall stand:" -- Isaiah 14:24 (NKJV)
Psychologists estimate that the average person has over 10,000 thoughts a day. I believe that because I once met a consultant who would share almost that many thoughts with me every time we met. The only problem was that these weren't very useful thoughts . . . but he sure loved each and every one. I took to peeking around corners so I could avoid his latest informal briefing. That's one kind of problem that people have with their ideas . . . they don't attract any interest.
Mr. Belsky organizes the method of turning ideas into action according this formula:
"(The Idea) + Organization and Execution + Forces of Community + Leadership Capability"
The book digs into this formula by first proposing a way of organizing work on ideas (the Action Method). I found the proposal to be reasonably similar to the way I organize my work so I suggest you take it seriously if you have trouble keeping track of what's going on the moving things forward expeditiously. I agree with the key point that it takes a lot of effort to turn an idea into reality. Most of my books were conceived of in a few seconds or minutes, but the work involved to write and produce one takes months of dedicated, consistent effort. Implementations that build on the books take 100 times more effort.
I also agree with the point about concentrating your efforts. Otherwise you get 1 percent of a lot of things done, which amounts to nothing being accomplished.
I thought that Mr. Belsky also did a good job of pointing out how collaboration helps. Right on!
I personally found the section on leadership capability to be the most practical. After reading that section, I had six ideas for accomplishing more and have implemented two of them this week with good success. I suspect that all six ideas will work well. I cannot remember the last time I developed six valuable new ideas from reading a business book. Bravo!
I also suspect that this book will reward re-reading, something I intend to test out in a few months.
Get this book, read it . . . then get serious about turning your ideas into reality!
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
Diligent Study into "How" Ideas HappenAug 02, 2010
Scott Belsky is clearly an observer - one who deduces conclusions based on the actions of those around him.
A few years ago, Napoleon Hill's classic handbook, Think and Grow Rich, Original 1937 Classic Edition, drastically changed my life. His approach to the subject matter of success was simple yet incredible. For many decades Hill observed some of the most successful individuals of the 20th century: Vanderbilt, Wilson, Schwab, etc. He concluded, through his observations of these men, that there is a set system each of man followed in order to build his success (measured not solely by economic standards, but also by quality of life, etc.). More specifically, Hill explained that there are specific qualities each man possessed that allowed for action to yield success.
Like Think and Grow Rich, the content within Making Ideas Happen is the product of careful observation. Scott Belsky has spent a number of years studying some of the most productive, efficient, and creative thinkers of our time. Based on his analysis, Belsky offers a clear blueprint not necessarily for financial success, but instead for productivity - an ingredient that is certainly necessary for any, if not all, forms of success. His advice aids the reader in the process of transitioning from scatter-brain to idea-executor - a difficult transition, but one that is based on maturity, discipline, and focus.
It's an easy read and full of inspiring advise. For anyone that struggles to focus on and execute the smaller details of making things happen, but who is not short on thinking of great ideas, this book is for you! Truly a great read!
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