My bookshelf
So much to learn, so little time…
Books are food for our thoughts, and our thoughts inspire our conversations. I share with you a selection from my bookshelf below and I invite you to join me in stimulating conversation. If you have thoughts on these books or others that should be on the list, I welcome your comments.
Blogging about what I read helps me to know the material enough to be able to have a conversation about it. Even then, I don’t always remember what I write, but at least I now have somewhere where I can recall what I was thinking at the time I read the book.
Entries that are highlighted indicate where there is a blog post related to the book.
Personal development
Appreciative inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in Change
Written by the originators of Appreciative Inquiry, this is a great succinct handbook that will get you quickly up to speed on the concept in under 100 pages.
The Appreciative Inquiry Handbook: For Leaders of Change
Exactly what the title says, a handbook complete with sample interview guides and worksheets. Very practical, this plus The Power of Appreciative Inquiry will be what you need if you are a manager, coach, or change practitioner looking to incorporate AI principles into your approach.
Locating the Energy for Change: An Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry
An excellent introduction to Appreciative Inquiry that gives the theory as well as practical thought process behind it and a step-by-step approach. The book breaks down what happens in organisations when we project our view of the world, be it positive or negative. I also appreciated how the book positioned AI as vitally important but not a cure-all: “Appreciative inquiry is a tool of organizational and community development; it is not a substitute for management.”
The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical Guide to Positive Change
A comprehensive review. Along with the The Appreciative Inquiry Handbook, one of the few books you will need if you are looking at introducing AI to your approach. I borrowed from the book for my post on the 8 principles of Appreciative Inquiry.
Psychology, social science, and life skills
Authentic Happiness
Martin Seligman, pioneer in “flexible optimism” and learned behaviour, is one of the founding leaders in what is now known as positive psychology. He shares his research-based perspective and scientifically defines what makes us authentically happy.
Drive
Motivating ourselves and others comes down to three principles: Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose. Pink provides powerful evidence that the carrot and stick of rewards and punishment to motivate people is not effective. I did a blog post on it here: A Drive with Daniel Pink through autonomy, mastery and purpose: Why do we continue to get motivations so wrong?
Fierce Conversations
“Every conversation we have is with ourselves, and sometimes it involves others.” Scott highlights how the fierce conversation we have is as much with ourselves as it is with others. You can read more in the series I did here: Fierce Conversations on Sideways Thoughts
Flow
What does it mean to really enjoy life? Mihaly asked this same question of thousands of research participants. His results contributed to his notion of “Flow” and my blog posts here: Flow on Sideways Thoughts
Go Put Your Strengths to Work
Buckingham’s book is a practical application of Seligman’s research. The book provides instruction on how to discover and use strengths to find jobs appropriate to your strengths and achieve success in the workplace. Having a basis of Flow and Seligman’s work helps put the material in perspective.
Man’s Search for Ultimate Meaning
Viktor Frankl, Jewish philosopher and holocaust survivor, took nine days after the war to capture his reflections. After facing the horrors of the German camps, his primary thought was that man’s search for meaning is his primary motivation in life. The book holds powerful lessons that no matter the situation, we always have control over our response.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
One of the first management books I encountered early in my career that shows what we mean by effectiveness and leadership. I did a series on how it applied to my time as a manager of a digital studio here: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People on Sideways Thoughts
Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone To Take Action
I struggled to get through this one. The writing I found to be rambling and repetitive and the approach overly reductionist. The book used a simple premise to explain away the complexities behind organisational success or failure and the psychology and sociology behind human motivation. I was disappointed because I believe in the underlying principle that personal and organisational purpose drives long-term success and effectiveness. Start with Why, but please follow it up with supporting structure and rigor.
Tuesdays with Morrie
A real-life tale of the most important middle-age conversation we can have. A must-read for anyone thinking about, experiencing, or recalling mid-life. I wrote an overview here: Conversations with your future self in your own Tuesdays with Morrie.
Understanding Arguments: An Introduction to Informal Logic
I picked this up as the text for a Massive Open Online Course I participated in on how to analyse arguments. It is what the title says it is, a way to analytically dissect an argument. I didn’t get through the MOOC and skimmed past much of the book. It is good for those who want to critically dissect what other people say, which at this time is not me.
Personality
Discovering Your Personality Type: The Essential Introduction to the Enneagram
A good introduction to the Enneagram with a test to give you a starting point.
The Enneagram: A Journey of Self Discovery
A look at the Enneagram with a strong spiritual focus.
The Enneagram
Helen Palmer is a main figure in Enneagram circles, a staple if you are interested in the model.
The Essential Enneagram: The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide
A good introduction with a test included.
Principles of the Enneagram
Explains how the enneagram model works, the characteristics of the nine personality types, how to recognize personality types in others, and how to apply the model to personal growth.
Nine Lenses on the World: The Enneagram Perspective
Describes nine personality styles each with its own way of looking at and responding to the world. One of the better descriptions.
Please understand me
Describes sixteen basic personality types, argues that people try to reshape their spouses, children, friends, and coworkers into models of themselves, and discusses different styles of leadership. Very much aligned with the popular MBTI, and contains the assessment in the book.
Meditation, mindfulness, and spirituality
How to Practice: The way to a meaningful life
A how-to guide that walks you through the three practices of morality, concentrated meditation, and wisdom. You don’t have to be a Buddhist (I am not) to get value from the sections on morality and meditation. It gets both philosophical and spiritual as it talks about wisdom and emptiness, but there is plenty to apply for anyone searching for meaning.
Mindfulness for Life
The first few chapters provide a clear articulation of mindfulness, followed by practical application to 20 life situations such as depression, addiction, sports and careers. I borrowed many thoughts from the book for a post on mindfulness here: Mindfulness defined: A resolution to consider
Peace is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life
Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh is one of the key influencers of mindfulness and meditation over the past few decades. The book has short, easy to read chapters that offer great coaching tools, metaphors that can help make sense of what people are experiencing to get more of what they want an less of what they don’t want.
Prayer: Does it make any difference?
I read Yancey’s book following the responsse to the tragedy of the Japanese tsunami and resulting nuclear disaster. I share my thoughts here: Japan’s earthquake and tsunami: On prayer, Twitter, and tweeted prayers
Religions, Values and Peak Experiences
Maslow’s work in this book focuses more on the concept of peak experiences than on his more popular hierarchy of needs. I outline what he defines as the attributes of the peak experience here: Maslow versus the world: Self-actualisation and peak experiences through something outside of ourselves
Organisational and professional development
Leadership and culture
The Art of Leadership
One of the books for my Masters’ leadership course. It is filled with practical self-assessments and models to assess your own leadership approach. I shared a couple of these models when I was going through the course: The diagram for organisational success (and confusion, anxiety, gradual change, frustration, and false starts) and Leadership questions to remember: 10 qualities that mark a leader and help influence the leadership process
The Bass Handbook of Leadership
An almost three inch thick book of applied leadership theory. A fantastic reference point for anyone who is intentional about studying leadership. I used the book an my analysis of leadership styles here: Autocratic versus Democratic leadership: Are you the right tool for the right job?
Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose
Organisations that stand for more than profit are more sustainable in the long run. This fact has a hard time filtering through the noisy demand for short-term results. I share my thoughts about this paradigm here: My frustration with Firms of Endearment: Shame, meaning, and action
The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
An exceptional book with application beyond the technology startup scene. The principles can be applied to any situation that requires rapid and dynamic change in uncertain and complex environments.
Organizational Culture and Leadership
The book that opened my eyes to what we mean by organisational culture. I give a summary and apply it to the notion of shadow cultures that exist in organisations here: Edgar Schein on Sideways Thoughts
Organizational Culture: Mapping the Terrain
An academic look at culture, highlighting all the ways culture is studied, researched, and applied. I used it as inspiration for my exploration on What is Culture?
Strategy
Corpus RIOS: The How and What of Business Strategy
Corpus RIOS makes the case for a new way of strategic planning and provides a a clear path forward. Part of what I see as a new wave, supported by concepts related to Appreciative Inquiry. I compared approaches to strategy here: Future-focused strategic planning: Corpus RIOS, Playing to Win, and Appreciative Inquiry
Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
Strategist Roger Martin and Procter & Gamble CEO A. G. Lafley team up to share insights from P&G’s success through a lens of a strategic planning model.
Coaching and careers
The Philosophy and Practice of Coaching: Insights and issues for a new era
Seventeen articles that provide great perspectives on coaching. I particularly appreciated the approach to using appreciative inquiry and narrative psychology, which I applied to our engagement with social media in my post here: The stories we tell: Social media as narrative psychology
The Psychology of Executive Coaching: Theory and Application
An exceptional overview of different psychological disciplines, excellent for the coach who wants to brush up on the psychology of what they do. I captured my thoughts from a few of the chapters in posts about Social Psychology an Coaching (A way to map a path to your goals, using Kurt Lewin’s field theory), The Existential Stance (Why it is important to talk about our existence), Family Therapy an Systems Thinking (If you want to change, then change your rules: On first and second order change), and Behavioural Concepts (Our defence mechanism pharmacy).
Understanding Careers: The Metaphors of Working Lives
An exceptional book that uses theory to walk through the different perspectives we can take on careers. The book was recommended to me by a career expert who I sourced in my post about finding meaning in uncertainty. The book inspired my subsequent posts about whether we choose our careers, the stages we go through in our careers, different skills proven to help us in our careers, and our different career personality types.
Unleashed!
A practical coaching framework that focuses on three aspects of the coaching relationship: earning the right to coach, a perfect partnership, and dangerous conversations. A good model for anyone who is in a position of helping someone else realise their potential in a one-on-one relationship.
Teams
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
By using parable, Lencioni outlines what the five dysfunctions of a team can look like. It is easy to see others in his narrative, slightly less comfortable to see ourselves.
Harvard Business Review on Teams that Succeed
A collection of eight HBR articles on successful teams from 2004. Easy to digest, you can’t help but take away one or two nuggets to apply to your situation.
Team Roles at Work
The book contains the complete descriptions of the Belbin team roles to provide an understanding of how to analyse teams and then maximise output by using each member’s strengths. A good reference point for anyone taking teams tough the assessment, but unfortunately the book does not contain the assessment itself.
Management
Abolishing Performance Appraisals
The authors separate the five discrete functions of appraisal: coaching, feedback, compensation, employee development, and legal documentation and clarify the objectives of each. They are very critical of the track record of appraisals. I used their step-by-step process for designing an alternative approach as a basis for a proposed coaching framework. Still leaves a few questions unanswered, but starts the conversation.
Global diversity management
The text for my course on diversity. It touches on most aspects of the topic with case studies. I used one of the chapters as one reference for my post on gender inequality in Australia: Gender inequality in Australia: It’s alive and well, mate
Management
My first book when I started my Master’s path. I felt my mind explode and my world open. Others I am sure do not share my experience with academic text books. That’s OK, it was good for me.
Organisational Behaviour on the Pacific Rim
Standard academic text book, a little about everything. By the time it came across my curriculum, it was perhaps a little too little on many things but I can see how it might be a good introduction.
Writers on Organizations
Who has said what about organizations and their management? This handy compendium gives easy access to the principal ideas of the leading authorities. Brief, clear resumes bring out the main thrust of their thinking. A great quick reference for anyone ding management studies.
Change
Managing change in organizations
A thorough overview of organisational change. Accessible coverage of leadership, management, theories, strategy, and process, with case studies to support. I wonder if all the popular management books on change could be distilled into a half dozen academic texts.
Organizational Change
This book will resonate with anyone who is critical (and perhaps cynical) of the plethora of authoring management gurus and quick-fix n-step approaches to organisational change. I share Collins’ perspective in my post here: David Collins’ formula for a guru change model: “n-steps” to doubling a digital agency
Organizational Change Theories
The book is an academic literature review written for academics. It contains all the information about different approaches to change, but most would struggle for practical application. It is what it sets out to be, a synthesis of theories over time.
The Shame of Reason in Organizational Change
A deep read on the philosophical side of change. Change often happens only when we are confronted with the “Other”, which is something so different to our current situation that we have no choice but to become unsettled and consider change. You can read more here: Change with meaning: Levinas on the il-y-a, The Other, hypostasis, and a new representation
Organisational psychology and social science
Contemporary Social Psychological Theories
This is an academic text, but it is a great summary of theories about the how and why we interact with each other and view ourselves. The book expanded my notion of identity and in particular the concept of how we perceive reality through our communication using symbolic interactionism: Symbolic Interactionism on Sideways Thoughts
Institutions and Organizations
We often refer to people who are ingrained in a way of doing things as being “institutionalised”. All groups of people have an aspects of an institution, The book looks at what this means from different levels of values and roles that emerge in an institution.
Modern Social Theory
I have a soft spot for this one, my first introduction to social theories. The book opened my mind to thoughts from Kant, Marx, Voltaire, Nietzsche, and more. Easy to digest and opens the door to further investigation.
Social Identity Processes in Organizational Contexts
A series of fifteen academic articles that clearly define individual and group identity in organisations. Makes you realise the answer to the question “Who am I?” largely depends on who I am with at the time.
Innovation
The Medici Effect
A great summary of innovation. In particular, innovation happening at the cross-section of disparate concepts, and the need for successful execution in the right audience.
Sustainability and social change
Believing Cassandra
Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, the last king of Troy. Apollo bestowed upon Cassandra a special gift–the ability to see the future. But when she refused his favors, he twisted her gift with a curse that caused those who heard what she had to say to not believe her. The parallels are obvious for those concerned about the environment. Required reading when I was at the EPA and anyone who feels they are shouting in the wind.
The Natural Advantage of Nations
This book helped frame my perspective on the case for environmental sustainability when I worked at the Environmental Protection Agency. The book is an excellent frame for balancing Adam Smith’s invisible hand of the market, the need for innovation, and the role of government as a facilitator and regulator in a free economy.
Readings and Cases in Sustainable Marketing
A casebook highlighting the field of sustainable marketing for both social good and organizational success. And I had one of my research projects published in it, which I share about here: I’m published! My Pizza Personality in Readings and Cases in Sustainable Marketing: A Strategic Approach to Social Responsibility
Biographies
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
A clear, detailed and authentic depiction of Nelson Mandela’s journey of a life as a freedom fighter. I captured some thoughts on application for personal freedom in Seven lessons in personal freedom from Nelson Mandela.
M. K. Gandhi: An Autobiography: Or, the Story of My Experiments With Truth
I love Gandhi’s notion of life as an experiment. I wrote about it here: Three lessons from Gandhi’s experiments in truth.
Christi-Anarchy: Discovering a Radical Spirituality of Compassion
I had the honour of meeting author Dave Andrews and hearing his own account of his journey to radical community engagement. I wrote about the experience here: A transforming evening with TEAR and Dave Andrews: Commercial lessons from a community radical
Novels
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Oscar Wilde’s only novel, a classic instance of the aestheticism of the 19th century English literature. Require reading for anyone experiencing existential thoughts.
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I see you have some of “my” books listed on “your” bookshelf. Must have good taste if you’re borrowing from me! 😉
I’d have to have my own Amazon site to list all the books I’ve read. 😛