The idea of selecting five favourites or five “best” books is impossible. Over the next five months, I’ll highlight five go-to books – books I refer to often, and that I believe provide a broad and useful foundation for planners, regardless of what project they may be working on.
These five go-to books are:
- A Technique for Producing Ideas – James Webb Young
- because it’s about dot connecting and the process for idea generation
- The Culture Code – Clotaire Rapaille
- because it’s a reminder of the unconscious meanings that cultures hold collectively about specific things
- This Is Water – David Foster Wallace
- because, in addition to being a good lesson about how to live, it’s a good lesson in the importance of empathy and seeing life through your audience’s lens instead of your own
- Grow – Jim Stengel
- because it’s a good framework for what a purpose-driven brand is and the power it can have
- Building Strong Brands – David Aaker
- because anything by Aaker is deep, well thought out, and a useful tool and framework for building brands
