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More About This Title Get Lucky: How to Put Planned Serendipity to Workfor You and Your Business
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As the pace of change accelerates and the volume of information explodes, we're under great pressure to connect just in time with the people and ideas we need to thrive. But we can no longer plan our way to success—there will always be factors beyond our control. This uncertainty, however, cultivates one of today's key drivers of success: serendipity. More than blind luck, serendipity can produce quantifiable results: breakthrough ideas, relationships that matter, effortless cooperation, synchronized market timing, and more. Get Lucky shows businesses how to succeed by fostering the conditions for serendipity to occur early and often.
- Distills planned serendipity into eight key elements: preparedness, motion, activation, attraction, connection, commitment, porosity, and divergence
- Features stories of serendipity in action at well-known companies including Avon, Target, Steelcase, Google, Facebook, Walmart, and more
- Written by serial entrepreneurs and cofounders of Get Satisfaction, a breakout platform for online customer service communities with over 100,000 clients
Planned serendipity is not an abstract, magical notion, but a practical skill. Get Lucky is the indispensable resource for anyone who wants to learn this skill and to make serendipity work for them.
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Lane Becker has been working onthe Web since it began, from settingup web sites at his university in 1994 to cofounding Adaptive Path, the world'sfirst user experience design firm, andGet Satisfaction. Lane is also an advisor to Freestyle.vc, an early-stage Internet venture capital fund.
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2 Skill: Motion—Breaking Out 29
3 Skill: Preparation—Anatomy of a Geek Brain 53
4 Skill: Divergence—The Garden of Forking Paths 81
5 Skill: Commitment—Burning the Ships 103
6 Skill: Activation—Church vs. Stadium 127
7 Skill: Connection—Needle in a Haystack 157
8 Skill: Permeability—Storming the Castle 177
9 Skill: Attraction—Magnetic Fields 203
10 Unraveling the Double Bind 227
Serendipiography 235
Acknowledgments 261
About the Authors 263
Index 265
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“You’ve heard the old saw, ‘Chance favors prepared minds.’ Well, Get Lucky is the mind-preparer. This entertaining and practical book makes it clear that luck isn’t just for the lucky anymore.”
—Dan Heath, co-author, Switch and Made to Stick
—Tim O'Reilly, CEO of O'Reilly Media
“We live in a world that is more and more volatile and unpredictable, where ‘luck’ plays an increasingly central role. By the end of this book, you will never again view planning luck as a contradiction, but rather as an imperative that cannot be ignored. Whether in your personal life or professional life, open yourself up to the profound possibilities of serendipity.”
—John Hagel, co-chairman, Center for the Edge; and co-author, The Power of Pull
“Serendipity has been part of our not-so-secret sauce at Zappos from the very beginning. We've seen first-hand how breakthroughs are so often due to the spontaneous collisions between people and ideas. Get Lucky provides a framework for understanding how serendipity works, and shows how it can be used as a practice in life and business.”
—Tony Hsieh, CEO, Zappos.com, Inc.; bestselling author, Delivering Happiness
“In a fast-moving world, seemingly random customer comments on sites like Facebook can make your year or sink your ship. Get Lucky prepares you and your organization well to recognize and act on these serendipitous moments. Don't leave your success to chance!”
—Charlene Li, Founder of Altimeter Group; author Groundswell and Open Leadership
“In business, we plan to avert disaster, launch products, and forecast financials, but rarely do we plan to ‘get lucky.’ Thor and Lane’s method of planned serendipity should be part of every innovator’s toolkit.”
—Beth Comstock, chief marketing officer, GE
“Customers already run your company-and are moving farther out of your control every day. Fortunately, Thor and Lane are here to explain why this is the best possible thing that can happen, and how to make the most of it.”
—Doc Searls, co-author, The Cluetrain Manifesto and The Intention Economy
