How to Put Planned Serendipity to Work for You and Your Business
By Thor Muller and Lane Becker
Jossey-Bass, 288 pages; $26.95
As the pace of change accelerates and the volume of information explodes, everyone is under great pressure to connect 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. Get Lucky shows businesses how to succeed by fostering the conditions for serendipity to occur early and often. The authors—Thor Muller and Lane Becker—distill planned serendipity into eight key elements: preparedness, motion, activation, attraction, connection, commitment, porosity and divergence. To illustrate the point, they include serendipity in action at Avon, Target, Steelcase, Google, Facebook and Wal-mart.
