Books, Texts, and Articles
I found below works instructive, some even enlightening. Naturally, my commentary is subjective and shaped by my own perceptions and understanding, and thus should be viewed as such.
Books
Professional/Business and Leadership
Albert-László Barabási Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life allows a better understand of the complexities resulting from the world’s interconnectedness. Thomas Friedman's Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations explains how the environment, markets, technology, business, and their interconnections evolve at intensifying speed. Peter L. Bernstein Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk provides a perspective on risk from ancient Greek society to Italian gamblers to Wall Street (modern society probably couldn’t function if we didn’t know how to cope with risk). Yossi Sheffi The Resilient Enterprise explains how the 21st century firm can approach resiliency and operational continuity in the face of disruption risks. Darrell Huff and Irving Geis How to Lie with Statistics reveals how numbers and visuals can be used with (at times questionable) purpose. John Allen Paulos A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper examines the issue in a similar manner.
Marvin Bower Perspective on McKinsey illustrates the ‘McKinsey way’ for firm employees. The book includes an interesting discussion of ethics. W. Warner Burke and Debra A. Noumair Organization Development: A Process of Learning and Changing should be required reading for any manager for its coverage of behavior and change in organization systems. In Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath provide a model and case examples for driving change. Robert Hogan's Personality and the Fate of Organizations dissects how we see ourselves (personality) and how others see us (reputation). Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team provides an effective team-diagnosis and -building framework. Robert J. Marshak Covert Processes at Work: Managing the Five Hidden Dimensions of Organizational Change examines inner workings of hidden behavior, making the unforeseen less surprising (Hogan and Marshak are excellent complementary reads to Burke & Noumair). William A. Pasmore's Leading Continuous Change: Navigating Churn in the Real World presents a framework for organization agility and continuous change. Sun Tzu The Art of War is helpful in recognizing certain strategies used (at work) by others.
Barbara Minto The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking explains communications principles and techniques such as structure and sequence. Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation: What They Can't Teach You at Business or Design School by Idris Mootee shows how design thinking can be applied as a broader business discipline. Michael D. Watkins The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels provides practical considerations that are useful when starting a new job (mainly written for senior executives, but has useful ideas for leaders at any level). Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy Bad Strategy provides insights into corporate decision-making and could be read in conjunction with Michael Porter's work.
Professional/Business and Leadership
Albert-László Barabási Linked: How Everything is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means for Business, Science, and Everyday Life allows a better understand of the complexities resulting from the world’s interconnectedness. Thomas Friedman's Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations explains how the environment, markets, technology, business, and their interconnections evolve at intensifying speed. Peter L. Bernstein Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk provides a perspective on risk from ancient Greek society to Italian gamblers to Wall Street (modern society probably couldn’t function if we didn’t know how to cope with risk). Yossi Sheffi The Resilient Enterprise explains how the 21st century firm can approach resiliency and operational continuity in the face of disruption risks. Darrell Huff and Irving Geis How to Lie with Statistics reveals how numbers and visuals can be used with (at times questionable) purpose. John Allen Paulos A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper examines the issue in a similar manner.
Marvin Bower Perspective on McKinsey illustrates the ‘McKinsey way’ for firm employees. The book includes an interesting discussion of ethics. W. Warner Burke and Debra A. Noumair Organization Development: A Process of Learning and Changing should be required reading for any manager for its coverage of behavior and change in organization systems. In Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip and Dan Heath provide a model and case examples for driving change. Robert Hogan's Personality and the Fate of Organizations dissects how we see ourselves (personality) and how others see us (reputation). Patrick Lencioni's Five Dysfunctions of a Team provides an effective team-diagnosis and -building framework. Robert J. Marshak Covert Processes at Work: Managing the Five Hidden Dimensions of Organizational Change examines inner workings of hidden behavior, making the unforeseen less surprising (Hogan and Marshak are excellent complementary reads to Burke & Noumair). William A. Pasmore's Leading Continuous Change: Navigating Churn in the Real World presents a framework for organization agility and continuous change. Sun Tzu The Art of War is helpful in recognizing certain strategies used (at work) by others.
Barbara Minto The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking explains communications principles and techniques such as structure and sequence. Design Thinking for Strategic Innovation: What They Can't Teach You at Business or Design School by Idris Mootee shows how design thinking can be applied as a broader business discipline. Michael D. Watkins The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels provides practical considerations that are useful when starting a new job (mainly written for senior executives, but has useful ideas for leaders at any level). Richard Rumelt's Good Strategy Bad Strategy provides insights into corporate decision-making and could be read in conjunction with Michael Porter's work.
Culture/Society
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly Everything and Dietrich Schwanitz Bildung. Alles was man wissen muss (in German) are easy, fun reads to learn about the history of the world. Niall Ferguson Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire makes observations about America's place in the world, society, politics, and economics. Similarly, John Gray False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism highlights aspects of globalization and impacts to society.
Neil Postman Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age if Show Business assesses how the news media shapes critical thought while shortening attention spans (perhaps unintentionally predicting the fragmentation caused by today’s social media technologies). Herbert Simon Models of Bounded Rationality Vol. 3 examines human decision-making, which is relevant in the risk management context.
I read Esther Wanning Culture Shock, USA: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette after I moved to New York from Germany, it helped me to acclimate to my new home (Culture Shock, Singapore by Marion Bravó-Bhasin was a good read ahead of a business trip).
Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly Everything and Dietrich Schwanitz Bildung. Alles was man wissen muss (in German) are easy, fun reads to learn about the history of the world. Niall Ferguson Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire makes observations about America's place in the world, society, politics, and economics. Similarly, John Gray False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism highlights aspects of globalization and impacts to society.
Neil Postman Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age if Show Business assesses how the news media shapes critical thought while shortening attention spans (perhaps unintentionally predicting the fragmentation caused by today’s social media technologies). Herbert Simon Models of Bounded Rationality Vol. 3 examines human decision-making, which is relevant in the risk management context.
I read Esther Wanning Culture Shock, USA: A Guide to Customs and Etiquette after I moved to New York from Germany, it helped me to acclimate to my new home (Culture Shock, Singapore by Marion Bravó-Bhasin was a good read ahead of a business trip).
Awareness
Isabel Briggs Myers with Peter B. Myers Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type helps understanding personality, preferences, and behavior. Brené Brown Daring Greatly unpacks courage, vulnerability, relationships, and learning. Susan Cain Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking helped me making (more) sense of who I am and is a good read to understand personality traits. Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ offers a framework for understanding self, social environments, and how to manage both. Daniel H. Pink A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future explores how personal and professional skill sets may change (could be read in conjunction with Mootee). In Mindset, Carol Dweck explains how we learn and what can inhibit our growth from early age on. Carl R. Rogers On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View on Psychotherapy provides ideas for finding one’s place in life and society. Victor E. Frankl Man’s Search for Meaning is disheartening at first, but puts life in perspective and is inspiring (2nd half of Rogers and Frankl appear more suitable for care providers).
Books on awareness that might be eye-opening but likely require a more critical evaluation include: Deepak Chopra The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence presents arguments on self-determined destiny. Bert Helllinger, Hunter Beaumont and Gunthard Weber Love's Hidden Symmetry: What Makes Love Work in Relationships examines Hellinger’s theories on family and relationships. Dan Millman The Life You Were Born to Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose makes propositions on numerology and life purpose.
M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking illustrates how critical thinking processes are a basis for analysis, decision-making, and communications. Similarly, Gary R. Kirby and Jeffrey R. Goodpaster Thinking can be helpful to understand the value and power of thought.
Ayala Malach Pines Falling in Love: Why We Choose the Lovers We Choose offers a striking illustration of preferences and choices in relationships. Judith S. Wallerstein, Julia M. Lewis and Sandra Blakeslee The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: A 25 Year Landmark Study can be revealing for adult children of divorce, and informative for divorcees.
Isabel Briggs Myers with Peter B. Myers Gifts Differing: Understanding Personality Type helps understanding personality, preferences, and behavior. Brené Brown Daring Greatly unpacks courage, vulnerability, relationships, and learning. Susan Cain Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking helped me making (more) sense of who I am and is a good read to understand personality traits. Daniel Goleman Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ offers a framework for understanding self, social environments, and how to manage both. Daniel H. Pink A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule The Future explores how personal and professional skill sets may change (could be read in conjunction with Mootee). In Mindset, Carol Dweck explains how we learn and what can inhibit our growth from early age on. Carl R. Rogers On Becoming a Person: A Therapist’s View on Psychotherapy provides ideas for finding one’s place in life and society. Victor E. Frankl Man’s Search for Meaning is disheartening at first, but puts life in perspective and is inspiring (2nd half of Rogers and Frankl appear more suitable for care providers).
Books on awareness that might be eye-opening but likely require a more critical evaluation include: Deepak Chopra The Spontaneous Fulfillment of Desire: Harnessing the Infinite Power of Coincidence presents arguments on self-determined destiny. Bert Helllinger, Hunter Beaumont and Gunthard Weber Love's Hidden Symmetry: What Makes Love Work in Relationships examines Hellinger’s theories on family and relationships. Dan Millman The Life You Were Born to Live: A Guide to Finding Your Life Purpose makes propositions on numerology and life purpose.
M. Neil Browne and Stuart M. Keeley Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking illustrates how critical thinking processes are a basis for analysis, decision-making, and communications. Similarly, Gary R. Kirby and Jeffrey R. Goodpaster Thinking can be helpful to understand the value and power of thought.
Ayala Malach Pines Falling in Love: Why We Choose the Lovers We Choose offers a striking illustration of preferences and choices in relationships. Judith S. Wallerstein, Julia M. Lewis and Sandra Blakeslee The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce: A 25 Year Landmark Study can be revealing for adult children of divorce, and informative for divorcees.
Project Management and Technology
In The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management, Andrew Hiles provides a comprehensive overview of business resiliency and recovery practices. Harvey A. Levine's Project Portfolio Management incorporates an overview of portfolio management and useful case studies from the 'real world'. Kenneth Rose, in Project Quality Management, covers the theory of quality and frames it in a project management context. Essential Scrum by Kenneth S. Rubin was a great complement to an Agile training course, and remains a reference until today. Kim Heldman discusses project risk management in Project Manager’s Spotlight on Risk Management (Heldman's book is a nice complement to Rose's Project Quality Management text). In Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance, Howard Tiersky outlines key strategies to transform businesses using technology (this book is really about change and transformation management...).
In The Definitive Handbook of Business Continuity Management, Andrew Hiles provides a comprehensive overview of business resiliency and recovery practices. Harvey A. Levine's Project Portfolio Management incorporates an overview of portfolio management and useful case studies from the 'real world'. Kenneth Rose, in Project Quality Management, covers the theory of quality and frames it in a project management context. Essential Scrum by Kenneth S. Rubin was a great complement to an Agile training course, and remains a reference until today. Kim Heldman discusses project risk management in Project Manager’s Spotlight on Risk Management (Heldman's book is a nice complement to Rose's Project Quality Management text). In Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance, Howard Tiersky outlines key strategies to transform businesses using technology (this book is really about change and transformation management...).
Texts and Articles
Professional/Business
Professional/Business
- David Allen When Office Technology Overwhelms, Get Organized (techniques to cope with information overload and the demands of the workplace)
- Henrik Bresman External Learning Activities and Team Performance: A Multimethod Field Study (on team learning and what can derail it)
- Amy Edmondson Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams (helps understanding why teams may underperform or stagnate)
- Jay R. Galbraith Designing the Innovating Organization (how to position and empower innovation teams in organizations)
- Dr. Michael A. Greenfield Normal Accident Theory. The Changing Face of NASA and Aerospace (unique view on disruptions and risk management)
- Peter Guber The Four Truths of the Storyteller (basic principles a leader can use to communicate effectively)
- Robert Hogan, Gordon Curphy, Joyce Hogan What we Know about Leadership: Effectiveness and Personality (examines leadership and plausible causes of leadership failure)
- Joe Jurchak Yeah, That Makes Sense (ideas on how to effectively communicate complex matters to senior organization leaders)
- Sendhil Mullainathan and Richard H. Thaler Behavioral Economics (examination of human decision-making in economic contexts)
- Michael E. Porter How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy (one of Porter’s essential reads on strategy)
- Gina Trapani Work Smart: Take Back Your Calendar With Defensive Scheduling (time management practice, an extension of David Allen's ideas on organizing work)
Change Management and Business Agility
- A Tool to Map Your Next Digital Initiative outlines a framework to articulate a business case for digital, transformative change (Harvard Business Review)
- Leadership requires courage, in Agile transformations the question is Do you Have the Courage to be an Agile Leader (BCG)
- Embracing Agile presents several examples for why Agile is not limited to software development (Harvard Business Review)
- Performance Management in Agile Organizations links employee engagement and performance measurement (McKinsey)
- The Irrational Side of Change Management provides a good perspective on why organizational transformations can fail (McKinsey Quarterly)
- An operating model for Agile change is discussed in The Journey to an Agile Organization (McKinsey)
- Systems thinking in change management is the subject of Transform the Whole Business, Just not Parts (McKinsey)
- Us versus Them: Reframing Resistance to Change shows how to align change supporters and resisters (strategy + business)
- Change often starts from a disruption, that this does not have to be norm is reviewed in You don't Need a Crisis to Change (Bain)
Culture/Society
- Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich, John P. Holdren Availability, Entropy, and the Laws of Thermodynamics (discusses the world's energy sources, order, consumption, and aspects of sustainability)
- Francis Fukuyama The Great Disruption (on the impact of technologies on social order and norms, he wrote a book with the same title)
- Gary Gardner and Erik Assadourian Rethinking the Good Life (perspective on the implications of wealth accumulation and prosperity)
- Garrett Hardin The Tragedy of the Commons (covers possible implications of production and consumption growth in a world with limited resources)
- Elizabeth Kolbert Spoiled Rotten: Why do Kids Rule the Roost? (perspectives on how young people are taught adult responsibilities, can be read along with McCullough Jr. and Sierra)
- Ezra Klein Unpopular Mandate: Why do Politicians Reverse their Positions? (addresses politics, media, language, and deception; similar to Orwell and Mitchell & Schoeffel)
- Robert Locke Leo Strauss, Conservative Mastermind (discusses the plausible source of a certain political ideological foundation, similar to Shorris)
- George Orwell Politics and the English Language (essay that is 2 things: a political rant and a guide for better writing)
- David McCullough Jr. You’re not Special (graduation speech addressing millennials, which resulted in Sierra’s response)
- Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel Understanding Power, The Indispensable Chomsky (insights about Chomsky’s writings and viewpoints about political power)
- Sierra Open Letter from a Millennial: Quit Telling Us We’re Not Special (counter-point to McCullough Jr.’s speech)
- Earl Shorris Ignoble Liars: Leo Strauss, George Bush, and the Philosophy of Mass Deception (perspective on the source of political ideological grounding)
- Mel van Elteren U.S. Cultural Imperialism Today: Only a Chimera? (explores globalization, culture, media, diplomacy, capitalism, and western influence)
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I do not provide links since they may become outdated, selected articles also may reside behind a paywall.
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