The Art of Enchantment

Posted by Steve Marshall. Follow me on Twitter.

Enchantment sounds as though it could be a meus business metric. If the truth be told, we're not so good at paying attention to things like competitor analysis, KPIs or market share. In fact, we're not great at quantities, and we'd much rather spend time on trying to generate qualities and 'enchantment', whether it be in client relationships, the presence we offer or the work that we do, sounds pretty good.

Guy Kawasaki

So, Guy Kawasaki's latest book, in stores from today, was an essential and often surprising read. Surprising in that readers looking for clues about the what the essence of 'Enchantment' actually is only get a very short enquiry into the subject.  But the more pragmatically enchanting side of the book is that it is absolutely packed with practical tips aimed at helping entrepreneurial readers to engage clients, customers and bosses alike.

The book is a great study of how to develop profile, interest and productive interaction in a modern, virtually enabled world.  There are sections on grounding your offer in likeability and trustworthiness before sections on preparation and product launch.  Advice on overcoming resistance and how to make enchantment endure follows before some top tips on using technology to get your message across. The book finally rounds off with sections on 'employees' and 'bosses'.  I was a little unconvinced about the necessity to separate these categories out of the mix but Guy has some good hints about how to make organisational life much more generative and amenable.

Overall, this is an eclectic mix of thoughts and advice from a master in the field and any reader will find valuable material here.  It's an entertaining read with easily digestable chapters and I have been back to it a couple of times already - gleaning helpful information each time. I suspect, however, that there is much more to the tag line, 'The Art of Changing Hearts, Minds and Actions, than the book contains and a deeper enquiry into what 'Enchantment' actually is would be a useful first step.