MSDN Blogs: Prime Your Mind for 2016

“Chance favors the prepared mind.” -- Louis Pasteur

The future is either created or destroyed by the decisions we make and the actions we take.

It's 2016 and change is in the air.

For some people, this time of year is their favorite. It's a time of year filled with hope, possibility, and dreams.

For others, this is a horrible time of year, filled with despair, shattered dreams, and bitter disappointment.

Either way, let's get a fresh start, as we turn the page for a new year.

Let's give ourselves permission to dream big, and re-imagine what this next year could be all about.

Prime Your Mind to Empower Yourself and Your Business for an Amazing 2016

If you don't know what priming is, it's a psychology concept that basically means we embody the concepts and stereotypes we're exposed to. For example, if we see the color yellow, we find the word banana faster.

You can use priming in a very pragmatic way to inspire your way forward. Rather than hold on to old beliefs, mental models, and references, you can fill your mind with examples and ideas for new possibilities.

I've written a fairly exhaustive approach to how you can prime your mind for 2016:

Prime Your Mind for 2016

But I'll summarize some key ideas in this post so you can get started stirring up your big bold ambitions for the new year.

3 Key Ideas to Prime Your Mind with for 2016

The big ideas really come down to this:

People examples of transformation. Fill your head with examples of how people have created amazing personal transformation. TED Talks are a great source of inspiration and examples of how people have transformed themselves, and in many cases, how they are helping transform the world around them.
Technology examples of transformation. Fill your head with examples of how the mega-trends are shaping the world through Cloud, Mobile, Social, and Big Data. Fill your mind with examples of how the mega-trends are coming together in a “Nexus of Forces” as Gartner would say, to change the world. Fill your mind with examples of the mega-trend of mega-trends – the Internet of Things – is re-shaping the world, in extraordinary ways. Read Future Visions, a free download by Microsoft, to get a glimpse into how science fiction could shape the science around us.
Business examples of transformation. Fill your head with examples of amazing examples of how businesses are driving digital business transformation. Read NEXT at Microsoft to see some of the crazy things Microsoft is up to. Read customer stories of transformation to see what Microsoft customers are up to. Explore what sorts of things customers are up to on the Industry Solutions page. For some truly phenomenal stories of digital transformation, check out what Microsoft UK is up to in education, business, and society.

Your Personal Preparation for 2016

Here is a quick way you can use books to help you prepare for the world around you:

Read a book like Leading Digital to get the overview of how digital transformation works. You can see how companies like Starbucks and Burberry drove their digital transformation and you can learn the success patterns of business leaders who are leading and learning how to create customers and create new value in a mobile-first, cloud-first world.
Read books like Consumption Economics to fully grasp how value creation is throttled by value absorption – the ability of users and consumers to use the value that businesses can now create in a digital economy.
Read books like B4b to see how companies are shifting to business outcomes for customers and helping customer achieve new levels of value from their technology investments.
Read books like the Challenger Sale to learn how to go from somebody who pushes solutions to somebody who becomes a trusted advisor for their client and learns how to 1) teach, 2) tailor, and 3) take control. Teaching is all about knowing your stuff and being able to help people see the art of the possible and sharing new ideas. Tailoring is all about making ideas relevant. It means you need to really understand a client’s pains, needs, and desired outcomes so that whatever comes out of your mouth, speaks to that. Taking control means asking the right questions that drive conversations, strategies, and execution forward in an empowering way.
Read books like The Lean Startup to learn how to create and launch products, while making better, faster business decisions. Learn how to innovate using principles from lean manufacturing and agile development to ship better, and win more raving fans.
Read books like Scaling Up to master the four key decision areas: people, strategy, execution, and cash, to create a company where the team is engaged, customers are doing your marketing, and everyone is making impact. It includes one-page tools including a One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits Checklist.
Read books like The Business Model Navigator to learn how businesses are re-imaging their business models for a mobile-first, cloud-first world.
Read books like Anticipate to put it all together and become a more visionary leader and build some mad skills to survive and thrive in the digital economy.
Read a book like Getting Results the Agile Way to help you master productivity, time management, and work-life balance.