O Brian. Not another book. Not again. Why. Why, by Thor, did you feel the need to come up with another of your brainchilds. I hate it when you do that, Brian: your books—for some reason—knock me out of the park. I read, re-read, re-re-read. I talk about them. Really, they come up in my dinner conversations. In car commutes. At the board tables I advise. In my presentations. In my pillow conversations with my wife. Talking to my 9-year-old princess about curiosity: Solis is everywhere each time he comes up with another freaking book.
He ruins my finances too. I donated 47 copies of Life Scale. Thirty-four bricks of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design are now adorning coffee tables of people around me. And, not even a month in, I’ve already handed out 14 copies of Mindshift, his newest book, to people I want to see Mindshifting. I just ordered another stack.
Let’s be honest. I read a lot of “management” and “leadership” books. Most of them suck, with a vengeance. They’re often written by people who need a written excuse for their “consultancy” career: and a paperweight with your name on it is a good way of getting you on a stage or two. Most of the time, there is a vaguely framed “idea” that is milked, shuffled, and re-chewed over a full 368-pager. Poorly written on recycled toilet paper, or coldly prompted straight out of Mr. Chat G. Peety’s positronic brain.
Not Solis. Life Scale had me questioning, rethinking, and rebooting my relationship with values, time, and technology. It profoundly changed the way I work. It got people I work with off a devastating straight-on course to burnout, to a more balanced approach—without all the patchouli-smoking, Indian-guru-meditating, Bosnian-pyramid-sunbathing hocus-pocus. Life Scale was a straight-from-experience, right-in-your-face uppercut. Solis style.
Brian Solis was—and still is—my SXSW godfather. He (and Stephanie Agresta) introduced me two decades ago to a mind-blowing world of innovation, leadership, wonder, reinvention, and curiosity. Brian introduced me to a plethora of extraordinary people, taught me to challenge the status quo, showed me how to do better presentations, and proved to me that notoriety doesn’t have to come with haughtiness and arrogance.
For those not familiar with Brian: Brian Solis is a prominent author, speaker, and business strategist known for his insights on digital transformation and innovation. As the Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow, he brings over two decades of experience studying the impact of technology on business and society. Solis has authored several best-selling books, including “Lifescale” and “X: The Experience When Business Meets Design,” which explore how emerging technologies shape customer experiences and market dynamics. His work often involves examining the intersection of technology, business, and human behavior, providing valuable guidance to executives and organizations navigating the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Solis is recognized for his ability to translate complex technological trends into actionable strategies, earning him a reputation as an influential voice in Silicon Valley and beyond. He labels himself as a “digital anthropologist”.
His new book Mindshift is… habit-warping again. It reads like a train, and I just love the mesmerizing layout of the book. It invites you to DO stuff, connects with you in ways that are smart, clever, and annoyingly impactful.
Solis doesn’t just preach change; he builds a map for it. The core of Mindshift is about rewiring how we think and act to tackle a rapidly evolving world. It’s not just about tweaking what you know—it’s about stepping out of your comfort zone, tearing apart assumptions, and creating something entirely new.
Let’s start with his Six-Stage Framework:
- Receive: This is where it begins—listening, observing, opening your mind. It sounds deceptively simple until you realize how much noise (and useful things!) you usually filter out.
- Perceive: Now, take that raw input and frame it. What’s an opportunity? What’s a distraction? Where to focus? What to ditch? Solis forces you to sort the wheat from the chaff here, no mercy for pitiful distractors.
- Weave: This is the magic moment—connecting all those loose threads into something coherent, something useful, a iron-proofed life-bending, success-forging storyline, . I’ve spent nights (plural) weaving and hammering thoughts thanks to this chapter. I need sleep Solis!
- Conceive: Dream it up. Push further than “obvious.” Make it bigger, better, bolder, faster, harder. Solis reminds us that innovation comes from daring to go weird.
- Believe: This one hit me hardest. Make it bulletproof and believe in what you’re doing, sell it to yourself first, and only then can you convince others.
- Achieve: This is where rubber meets road. Execute, learn, repeat. The pedal to the metal. Success is in the devil of devilishly rolling out. An idea without a timeline and an OPKI is a dream.
And then there’s the concept of human-centric leadership. I’ll admit, I rolled my eyes at first. How many times have we heard that term? But Solis doesn’t just toss it out like corporate garnish. He digs into it, hard. Leadership isn’t about tools or processes; it’s about people. Empathy. Emotional intelligence. Curiosity. You read this section and can’t help but think, “Am I doing enough for my team? My clients? Myself?”
The Beginner’s Mind. Oh boy. Solis nails it here. If you’re walking around thinking you’re an expert, you’re toast. Expertise is a trap, a no-escape room—a smug little echo chamber of your own Tinkerbelly brilliance. Solis smashes that trap with the beginner’s mind: seeing the world fresh, asking dumb questions, more dumb questions, making stupid mistakes, and loving every second of it.
And the practical stuff? Let me tell you about the Wonder Wall. Solis makes you think of your ideas—dreams, even—as something tangible. Something you can post-it on non porous surfaces. A visual, interactive playground where curiosity connects future visions to the here and now. I set one up in my office. My daughter asked if she could do one too. Now we have two Wonder Walls at home, covered in sticky notes and fisher space pen scribbles.
Solis doesn’t just write books. He rewires your brain. He’s a change agent himself, and with Mindshift, he equips you to do the same. For yourself. For your team. Your family. For your organization.
And as much as I hate him for ruining my free time, my bank account, and my mental bandwidth, I can’t help but be grateful.
So, here’s my challenge to you. Read Mindshift. Let it annoy you. Let it make you uncomfortable. Then go out there and, like Brian says, reshape your future. Because honestly? You’re going to hate him (and me) too. But you’ll thank us later.
