Top 5 Books To Power Your Innovation Mindset In 2024

As the CEO and Chief Excelerator at Digital FastForward, I attribute my growth as an innovation leader to my passion for reading and learning new perspectives. At the beginning of 2024, I took time to reflect on all of my wins, losses, and lessons learned in 2023. Part of this reflection also included a review of the top books I read over the last 12 months that shaped my mindset for winning in 2024.

• “Becoming Supernatural” by Joe Dispenza – The first book that had a profound impact on me was "Becoming Supernatural" by Joe Dispenza. This book explores how we can use manifestation to operate at a higher level in our lives. Despite my initial skepticism, I found this book to be the most powerful book I read in 2023 because it challenged me to withhold my initial judgment about “out there” concepts. It also helped me better understand the connection between the mind and soul. If you decide to give this book a read, be sure to reserve your preconceived notions and challenge yourself to keep an open mind. 

• “The Road Less Stupid” by Keith Cunningham – The second book, "The Road Less Stupid" by Keith Cunningham, emphasizes the importance of setting aside “thinking time” to focus on the big challenges and questions we’re facing. This book also offered up a powerful way to frame questions, which provided me with a new way to help teams brainstorm design thinking challenges. I also used the book as a catalyst to create a “Decision Filter” worksheet to document big decisions I need to make and also document the outcomes of the decisions. I have found it helpful to refer back to completed worksheets to glean insight on whether a decision turned out the way I anticipated. In short, “The Road Less Stupid” helps you think about your thinking, and improve decision-making over time.

• “Never Finished” by David Goggins – The third book, "Never Finished" by David Goggins, is a follow-up to his popular book, "Can't Hurt Me." If you’ve been looking for something to inspire and motivate you to overcome tough times, this book is your beacon of hope. The message of the book centers around finding the willpower to persevere through failures; it is an incredibly powerful and moving book. After finishing the book, I began thinking of ways to integrate Goggins' principles into my own life to achieve success in 2024. After reading “Never Finished,” I incorporated these three principles into my daily discipline practice: 1.) Get comfortable with the discomfort of forging a new path, 2.) Embracing the insights that come from challenging situations, 3.) Reminding myself that I am not daunting by doing difficult things. While driving recently, I ran into David Goggins running near where I live in Newport Beach, CA. At first, I was joking with my wife that this guy is running like David Goggins, and then I realized, “That actually is David Goggins!” The guy was in the zone and just kept chugging along, unfazed by a fan–me–yelling at him, “What’s up, Goggins!” The look of determination on his face inspired me even more than the books.

• “CEO Excellence” by Carolyn Dewar – The fourth book, "CEO Excellence" by Carolyn Dewar, Scott Keller, and Vikram Malhotra, written by ex-McKinsey team members, provides insight into the mindset and characteristics of the world’s top-performing CEOs. For me, “CEO Excellence” provided clarity around the key responsibilities of the modern CEO.  Some of the responsibilities are obvious, such as setting direction and aligning the organization. While others are not so obvious, such as mobilizing through leaders, and managing personal effectiveness. The chapter on “Engage the Board” was very useful. I currently serve on the board for a non-profit, Human Options, and was able to use this chapter to better understand how CEOs should approach managing their board of advisors. I highly recommend this book to those in leadership positions or anyone aspiring to leadership, as it outlines how you can think like a CEO and adopt their mindset to be a successful leader.

• “Hansons Marathon Method” by Luke Humphrey and Kevin Hanson – The fifth and final book that I credit for shaping my mindset to win in 2024 is "Hansons Marathon Method" by Luke Humphrey and Kevin Hanson. Apart from reading, I am an avid runner, having run multiple marathons. After struggling with my training program during my last race, I decided to pick up this book. It provided a methodology for approaching high-performance training and avoiding hitting "the wall” during those long-distance runs. Although you may not run marathons like me, this book can benefit you by teaching you important principles on how to overcome seemingly impossible obstacles, like a 26-mile run.

Based on the five most impactful books that shaped my mindset over the last 12 months, I have defined my theme and mantra for 2024 as “Go Big, Do Less.” This theme reminds me to focus on increasing the impact I have on everyone I serve, while also staying focused on going deeper into my purpose as an innovation leader. I’m curious to hear the books shaping your mindset for winning in 2024. I’m always looking for new books to read and add to my list. Drop me a line at clay@digitalfastforward.com.