Enchantment: The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds, and Actions [Kindle Edition]

"They are joined one to another,
They stick together and cannot be parted." -- Job 41:17 (NKJV)

Enchantment is Guy Kawasaki's extension of Robert Cialdini's classic, Influence, in trying to integrate lessons from behavioral psychology to the level of creating a marketing program that makes enough of a lasting impression with a superior offering to make people change their habits. The book is mostly based on summarizing research done by others, with examples drawn either from the research methods or Mr. Kawasaki's personal experiences as a consumer. For someone who wants to understand how to be more influential in encouraging engagement and stickiness, the book is a decent summary that will save reading a lot of other sources and assembling them into a program. However, the book doesn't add much beyond being a digest of that research.

I mainly disagree that the book lays out a program for creating "enchantment," a psychological state that captures how people behave when they are doing something they love, just for the joy of it . . . such as finger painting with a child and not caring about the mess while having a giggling good time. Now a book with a title like "Enchantment" is going to sell a lot more copies than one about "Engagement and Stickiness" so I don't blame him for using it . . . but I think he's overselling his contents.

I appreciate that Mr. Kawasaki clearly states that he is on the side of ethical "enchantment." I found that the advice didn't always seem to match up with that standard. One glaring example is calculating how much swearing to do and when to make the best possible impression on listeners. To me, that seems more manipulative than enchanting.

A lot of behavior is also defined so narrowly that it will create an impression, but one that may well be forced . . . rather than free flowing. Smiling is a good example. Study the smiling countenance of some celebrity you like. Chances are you'll feel that you are in the same room with the person, and that you are being looked upon as if you were the celebrity's favorite person in the world. That can be enchanting for brief periods of time until you realize that the celebrity is really just putting on a practiced smile for a camera. It's an act.

Personally, I have been much more impressed in my business career by people who expressed actual interest in talking to me, acted with the absolutely highest integrity in every little thing, and honestly told me their innermost thoughts about what was good and not-so-good about their offerings. I didn't quite get that sense here. It was more like being prepared to put lipstick on a pig and present the pig as the greatest thing ever.

I think the lessons and the storytelling would have gone a lot better if they had been applied to a recent launch of an offering that Mr. Kawasaki helped with. Then, the practical problems would have been more obvious, and some good advice could have been presented about how to apply the research. But perhaps Mr. Kawasaki is more of a speaker than a marketing consultant. It was hard to tell from reading the book.

There's a quiz at the end that emphasizes remembering factoids from the book, rather than how to integrate the pieces together. That's emblematic of the book's overall limitations: It's more a pile of pieces than an integrated whole. It's easy to put the pieces of so many little rules together in a way that creates a Frankenstein monster clumping along looking for love rather than an enchanting engagement.

One particular weakness is that the book is probably an attempt to describe now to work with the early triers in a new offering category. These people are intrigued by anything new that offers advantages. Geoffrey Moore has written well on the subject. But most offerings must shift their appeal to meat-and-potatoes advantages if they are to reach a mass market. All of that is mixed up together as though all customers were the same. That's always a mistake.

Read, remember, and apply very cautiously.

Leser, die Kawasakis "Art of the Start" kennen, werden von "Enchantment" enttäuscht sein. Während das frühere Buch die beeindruckende Erfahrung und Expertise des Autors vermittelt, ist das neue Buch eine Zusammenstellung von Trivialitäten und seichten Blogbeiträgen, von denen man die meisten nach Beendigung der Lektüre bereits vergessen haben wird. Von jemandem, der über "Enchantment" schreibt, hätte ich mehr erwartet.

Guy Kawasaki ist ein bekannter Bestsellerautor, der sich immer wieder den Themen Hightech-Marketing, Unternehmensgründung und Finanzierung widmet. In diesem Buch schreibt er über "Enchantment", was sich ungefähr als Bezauberung oder Überzeugungskraft übersetzen lässt.

Der Autor stellt sich die Frage, warum bestimmte Menschen und Organisationen ein großen Einfluss haben und gehört werden, während andere ignoriert werden. Entsprechend gibt er Ratschläge sowohl zur Selbstdarstellung und -vermarktung, aber auch für einen zivilisierteren Umgang miteinander. Er glaubt, die Welt würde besser, wenn wir alle etwas netter miteinander umgehen. Das ist natürlich ein etwas schlichter Gedanke, aber für amerikanische Businessbücher schon beinahe intellektuell.

Die Kapitel setzen sich mit damit auseinander, wie sich Enchantment jeweils auf Kollegen, Mitarbeiter, Chefs usw anwenden lässt. Außerdem erklärt Kawasaki, wie man Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn u.ä. für Publicity nutzen kann - natürlich immer für einen guten Zweck oder "cause", wie es Kawasaki nennt. Wenn man sich anständig verhält und anderen hilft, kommt schon irgendwie Geld rein, meint er. Ernsthafte Probleme wie Obdachlosigkeit, Irakkrieg o.ä. werden sicherheitshalber gar nicht erwähnt.

Auch wenn das Buch im leichten Plauderton geschrieben ist, hat es durchaus Substanz. Nicht nur die persönliche Erfahrung des Autors zählt, sondern auch seine umfangreichen Recherchen.

Guy Kawasaki schreibt spannend und leicht lesbar mit vielen Anekdoten, deswegen ist er ein Bestsellerautor. Von daher bietet es gute Unterhaltung und durchaus ein paar brauchbare Tipps.