Coming for the August 3 First Friday Book Synopsis – Platform, & Goldratt’s The Goal

Here are two important business success issues:

#1 — how do I successfully get people to listen to my message?
and
#2 — how do I find, and get rid of, whatever is slowing us down in our company?

Solve these 2 issues, and your path to business success becomes a little clearer.

At the August 3 First Friday Book Synopsis, Karl Krayer will present his synopsis of the book Platform: Get Noticed in a Noisy World  by Michael Hyatt.  (Thomas Nelson.  2012).  This book is designed to help you develop specific steps to clarify your message, refine your message, and get your message heard.

I am going to present the business classic The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox.  (North River Pr. — 3rd Revised edition:  July 2004).  We normally only present “new” books at the First Friday Book Synopsis, but we have occasionally presented books that fit in the category of “business book classics.”  A few years ago, I presented my synopsis of Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf.  Greenleaf coined the phrase “servant leadership,” a concept that has stood the test of time.   I believe his work should be discovered and rediscovered by every generation of business leadership.

The Goal is apparently that kind of book.

I was prompted to make this selection by an article in Slate.com by Seth Stevenson.  His article started with this:

When I began to gather information for this Slate series on operations management, I asked a few business-school professors to recommend books I might read on the topic. I expected I’d be pointed toward textbooks and manuals—perhaps written by the professors themselves, or by celebrity CEOs. Instead, I was urged to read a novel by a dead Israeli physicist.

And I blogged about the book in this post:  “The Fat Kid Is The Bottleneck!” – (Eli Goldratt’s The Goal, And A Thought About Expertise).

This will be a valuable session as you try to find out just what it is that is slowing you down now, and then how to develop the kind of powers of observation to always be on the lookout for what will slow you down once this current “bottleneck” is unclogged.

If you are in the DFW area, please join us for the August 3 First Friday Book Synopsis.  (You will be able to register soon from our home page).  Great networking; a terrific, full-service omelet bar/full buffet breakfast; and good challenging content.  It is a great way to spend an early Friday morning. (By the way, we have presented two books a month, every month, since April, 1998 — over 14 years!).

Come join us.

Click on image for full view

Empathetic Marketing: A book review by Bob Morris

Empathetic Marketing: How to Satisfy the 6 Core Emotional Needs of Your Customers
Mark Ingwer
Palgrave Macmillan (2012)

How and why emotions and resulting behaviors are the foundation for satisfying complex psychological needs

I was curious to know when someone would combine insights from several quite different concepts and write a book such as this one. For example, from Robert Greenleaf’s essay, The Servant as Leader, the development of the concept of emotional intelligence (Charles Darwin, E.L. Thorndyke, David Wechsler, and most recently Daniel Goleman), and Howard Gardner’s research on multiple intelligences (notably his book, Frames of Mind). Well, without drawing upon these specific sources, Mark Ingwer has written that book and it is brilliant.

In essence, marketing creates or increases demand for whatever is offered. It could be a smart phone but it could also be a political platform or membership in a professional association or support of a non-profit, tax-exempt organization. Now we have a definitive guide to a unique marketing methodology. That is Ingwer’s singular achievement. As he explains, in order to satisfy “the 6 core emotional needs” of current prospective customers, one must understand those needs and be convinced that it is a privilege to serve them; also, one must possess emotional intelligence as well as highly developed reasoning skills because, as Ingwer explains, “emotions and ruling behaviors are the foundation for satisfying complex psychological needs. Our individual well-being – self-esteem, success, relationships, and happiness – is a result of our meeting emotional needs. An individual’s needs are satisfied when he or she is connected meaningfully to others, and through these connections comes to find his or her own unique value and identity. It is a ceaseless, evolving, lifelong endeavor.”

Ingwer devotes a separate chapter to each of the six “core emotional needs” (i.e. control, self-expression, growth, recognition, belonging, and care) and explains with rigor and clarity how and why needs-based marketing initiatives must accommodate, indeed nourish human emotions as well as deliver a convincing, indeed compelling “message.” Long ago in his poem Song of Myself, Walt Whitman asserted, I am large/I contain multitudes.” Marketers would be well-advised to keep Whitman’s comment in mind. According to Ingwer, “The motivation and emotion behind our quest for needs satisfaction and identify fulfillment all too often are not always consciously available to us.” True, but they are certainly available to empathic marketers such as Steve Jobs who realized long before anyone else did how appealing and personally (as well as functionally) fulfilling various iProducts would be.

Here are some of the most important subjects for which Ingwer provides information, insights, and counsel:

o The frequently hidden (or at least unrecognized) human needs that drive purchase decisions
o What the Needs Continuum is and why it should be coordinated with a psychological perspective
o How best to empathize with consumers’ core needs for control, self-expression, growth, recognition, belonging, and care
o A few core guidelines for how companies can take an empathetic approach to marketing

As indicated earlier, with all due respect to this brilliant book, all of the opportunities that await empathetic marketing initiatives as well as everything that Mark Ingwer recommends to take full advantage of those opportunities mean nothing unless and until an organization has people at all levels and in all areas who are – literally – servant leaders, who possess or are in the process of developing emotional intelligence, and who consider it a privilege to satisfy the core emotional needs of everyone with whom they are associated.

I presume to add a footnote: With only minor modifications, all of the principles that Mark Ingwer introduces would also be appropriate for improving the communication skills — especially persuasion — of those who interact with others within and beyond their workplace.

Do You Have a Job, or a Career, or a Calling?

A while back, I spoke for the wonderful folks at The Dallas Foundation.  Here is their tag line:
Here for Good.
It is a great tag line.  And the phrase, “Here for Good,” should become some kind of mantra for many more companies and organizations.

I thought about this, again, as I pondered the current state of affairs.  This blog post is a reflection about two or three different aspects of the modern business environment.

#1 – there are a lot of “bottom 10%ers” (the Jack Welch term), or “deadwood” employees (this is a term I heard from a very sharp and insightful man just this week), and they drag entire departments and organizations down.  Maybe because the average “10%er” is just showing up at his/her job.  Work is “just a job” to such a person.

#2 – There seem to be a fair number of companies/organizations (maybe some entire industries) which have slipped a little, or a lot, in the ethics department.  These companies seem to have little concern about treating people in an ethical manner.  And we find example after example in multiple industries, like NFL Football (bounties on players), to Wall Street firms (one firm:  some customers are viewed as and defined as, and treated like, “muppets”), and education (teachers and administrators cheating on standardized tests).

It certainly seems like an era of ethical deficiencies.

Why?  A comprehensive look at the why (the whys) is much beyond the scope of this brief article.  But I think this question might help us think a little about this:

Do you have a job, a career, or a calling?

If you have a job, your vision for work is pretty narrow.  Yes, there are plenty of people with a job who are hard-working, good, upright and honest people.  But if all you have is a “job,” you care little about the success of the organization (beyond the ability to “keep your job”).  You show up to get your pay check, and that may be about all that matters.

If you have a career, then you view your current job as a piece of the bigger puzzle of building a successful career.  The subtle danger here is that you are concerned about you – your own success, not the success of others, even the success of your customers, or the others in your organization.

Yes, I know that one way to aim for success for yourself is to aim for the success of others.  But to aim for the success of others in order to be successful yourself, well…that is a little on the self-centered side.  You know, a little bit of the whole “greed is good” idea.

I think that if you are focused on yourself, building your career, then you might just be open to cutting a few ethical corners to get there.

But if you have a calling, then you view your work as “for the other.”  You view work as a means to do what you were born to do, which is to live a life that is helpful and useful to others.  A calling is not something you “do,” or “build” or “endure.”  It is who you are, not what you do.

Maybe we need to find a way to lift our vision of work, past that of “just a job,” or “building a career,” to “fulfilling a calling.”  This might help us lift ethical standards just a little higher.

Many organizations seem to value “servant leadership.”  So, what is servant leadership?  From Robert Greenleaf, who coined the term:

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.“

View your work as that of fulfilling a calling; try to work for a servant leader, who is a servant first…  As you “rise up the ladder,” you will become a servant leader yourself.  You will serve others first, and always.  Then you will be here, and at work, for good.

Joe’s Journal: Where the Brotherhood of Intellectuals Meets Money-Grubbing Reality

Here is the latest post by Joseph A. Maciariello featured in the Joe’s Journal series at the Drucker Exchange (Dx) sponsored by the Drucker Institute. The Drucker Exchange (the Dx) is a platform for bettering society through effective management and responsible leadership. It is produced by the Drucker Institute, a think tank and action tank based at Claremont Graduate University that was established to advance the ideas and ideals of Peter F. Drucker, the father of modern management.

To check out a wealth of resources and subscribe to its online newsletter, please click here.

*     *     *

“In his 1943 novel, published in English as Magister Ludi (1949), Hermann Hesse anticipated the sort of world the humanists want—and its failure. The book depicts a brotherhood of intellectuals, artists and humanists who live a life of splendid isolation, dedicated to the Great Tradition, its wisdom and its beauty. But the hero, the most accomplished Master of the Brotherhood, decides in the end to return to the polluted, vulgar, turbulent, strife-torn, money-grubbing reality—for his values are only fool’s gold unless they have relevance to the world. Post-capitalist society needs the educated person even more than any earlier society did, and access to the great heritage of the past will have to be an essential element. But liberal education must enable the person to understand reality and master it.”

– Peter F. Drucker

Peter Drucker is making the case in this passage for what constitutes an “educated person” in the knowledge society, and for Servant Leadership, an application of values emanating out of the Great Tradition to the world of work.

Drucker called management a liberal art, and claimed that it could liberate the humanities that have been in decline in American universities. The result has been a move away from majors in the humanities to majors in business and other “applied disciplines.” But the educated person clearly requires both.

My co-author, Karen Linkletter, and I wrote the book Drucker’s Lost Art of Management to make the case that management is indeed a liberal art. Our case was developed from a close read of the methodology employed by Drucker and the ends he sought. He was educated both formally and informally in the classical tradition, and his doctorate was in international law—professional training infused with the liberal arts.

Drucker applied his brilliance “to the polluted, vulgar, turbulent, strife-torn, money-grubbing reality” of developing a society of functioning organizations, where leaders act as servants of their organizations and of society. He said it beautifully in a 2004 radio interview with Tom Ashbrook:

“I see functioning societies as a bulwark against the threat of totalitarianism, and they depend on management for their performance. The present tendency to look at management by itself is nonsense. Management exists for the sake of an organization. It is the servant of the organization. And any management that forgets that is mismanagement and will lead their organization down pretty fast—misleaders destroy their organization. Management and administrators are servants.”

Servant Leadership has a long tradition that has been made popular by Robert Greenleaf’s 1970 book, Servant Leadership. Drucker and Greenleaf were good friends, and while Greenleaf was a moralist, Drucker was a pragmatist. Yet Drucker’s classical education in the liberal arts led him to what his friend Theodore Levitt called Drucker’s “deep preoccupation with morality.” Here we see the convergence of Drucker’s work promoting Servant Leadership and his training in the Great Tradition.

*     *     *

Joseph A. Maciariello is the Horton Professor of Management & Director of Research and Education, The Drucker Institute. You can contact him directly at joseph.maciariello@cgu.edu.

 

Joe’s Journal: Where the Brotherhood of Intellectuals Meets Money-Grubbing Reality

Here is the latest post by Joseph A. Maciariello featured in the Joe’s Journal series at the Drucker Exchange (Dx) sponsored by the Drucker Institute. The Drucker Exchange (the Dx) is a platform for bettering society through effective management and responsible leadership. It is produced by the Drucker Institute, a think tank and action tank based at Claremont Graduate University that was established to advance the ideas and ideals of Peter F. Drucker, the father of modern management.

To check out a wealth of resources and subscribe to its online newsletter, please click here.

*     *     *
 
“In his 1943 novel, published in English as Magister Ludi (1949), Hermann Hesse anticipated the sort of world the humanists want—and its failure. The book depicts a brotherhood of intellectuals, artists and humanists who live a life of splendid isolation, dedicated to the Great Tradition, its wisdom and its beauty. But the hero, the most accomplished Master of the Brotherhood, decides in the end to return to the polluted, vulgar, turbulent, strife-torn, money-grubbing reality—for his values are only fool’s gold unless they have relevance to the world. Post-capitalist society needs the educated person even more than any earlier society did, and access to the great heritage of the past will have to be an essential element. But liberal education must enable the person to understand reality and master it.”

– Peter F. Drucker

Peter Drucker is making the case in this passage for what constitutes an “educated person” in the knowledge society, and for Servant Leadership, an application of values emanating out of the Great Tradition to the world of work.

Drucker called management a liberal art, and claimed that it could liberate the humanities that have been in decline in American universities. The result has been a move away from majors in the humanities to majors in business and other “applied disciplines.” But the educated person clearly requires both.

My co-author, Karen Linkletter, and I wrote the book Drucker’s Lost Art of Management to make the case that management is indeed a liberal art. Our case was developed from a close read of the methodology employed by Drucker and the ends he sought. He was educated both formally and informally in the classical tradition, and his doctorate was in international law—professional training infused with the liberal arts.

Drucker applied his brilliance “to the polluted, vulgar, turbulent, strife-torn, money-grubbing reality” of developing a society of functioning organizations, where leaders act as servants of their organizations and of society. He said it beautifully in a 2004 radio interview with Tom Ashbrook:

“I see functioning societies as a bulwark against the threat of totalitarianism, and they depend on management for their performance. The present tendency to look at management by itself is nonsense. Management exists for the sake of an organization. It is the servant of the organization. And any management that forgets that is mismanagement and will lead their organization down pretty fast—misleaders destroy their organization. Management and administrators are servants.”

Servant Leadership has a long tradition that has been made popular by Robert Greenleaf’s 1970 book, Servant Leadership. Drucker and Greenleaf were good friends, and while Greenleaf was a moralist, Drucker was a pragmatist. Yet Drucker’s classical education in the liberal arts led him to what his friend Theodore Levitt called Drucker’s “deep preoccupation with morality.” Here we see the convergence of Drucker’s work promoting Servant Leadership and his training in the Great Tradition.

*     *     *

Joseph A. Maciariello is the Horton Professor of Management & Director of Research and Education, The Drucker Institute. You can contact him directly at joseph.maciariello@cgu.edu.

From Values to Action: A book review by Bob Morris

From Values to Action: The Four Principles of Values-Based Leadership
Harry M. Jansen Kraemer Jr.
Jossey-Bass/A Wiley Imprint (2011)

How and why leadership is about the growth and positive change that almost anyone can bring about while working with others

All organizations need effective leadership at all levels and in all areas of their operations. Few organizations have sufficient leadership and therein lies a huge problem and an even greater opportunity. Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr. correctly asserts that “there’s no greater benefit of becoming a values-based leader than setting the standard for the rest of the organization so that it, too, focuses on what matters most.” Of course, Kraemer is referring to C-level executives but he would be among the first to insist that the power of values-based leadership must never be limited to them. He identifies and then rigorously examines what he characterizes as “the four principles of values-based leadership.” They are:

o  Self-reflection
o  Balance
o  True self-confidence
o  Genuine humility

None is a head-snapping revelation, nor does Kraemer make any such claim. There could just as easily be seven or ten and each could be described with different terms. Whatever the number of attributes, however they are identified, the fact remains that the greatest leaders throughout history (with rare exception) are exemplars of the same core values. Kraemer devotes a separate chapter to each principle in Part I, then shifts his attention to what he calls “the essential elements of a vales-based organization” in Part II (one chapter per each element) before explain in Part III how a great leader summons the moral courage and social responsibility to lead her or his organizations (whatever its nature) “from success to significance.” For example, that is precisely what Elizabeth I did after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.

After a brisk but thorough coverage of the “what” of values-based, values-driven leadership in Part I, Kraemer devotes the rest of the book to explain its “how” and “why.” He comes across (to me, at least) as a pragmatic idealist, one who has an insatiable curiosity to understand what works, what doesn’t, and why so that he can then share what he has learned with as many others (especially aspiring leaders) as he can.

Kraemer introduces a process by which almost anyone, over time, can become an effective leader whose affirmations and (more importantly) whose behavior are guided and informed by the four principles. Those highly-developed leadership competencies can be applied to establishing and then nourishing the essential elements of a values-based organization, one that can indeed then complete a transition “from success to significance.” Such a leader demonstrates the values of what Robert Greenleaf once characterized as “the servant leader” in an essay published in 1970.

In a second essay, The Institution as Servant, Greenleaf observes: “This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”

I highly recommend this book to C-level executives and others who have supervisory responsibilities as well as to direct reports who aspire to become leaders. I also presume to suggest checking out the wealth of information now available at the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. Finally, here are some other sources that may also be of interest and value: Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller’s The Secret, Miller’s The Secret of Teams, Michael Ray’s The Highest Goal, James O’Toole’s The Executive’s Compass, and David Whyte’s The Heart Aroused.

The Secret: A book review by Bob Morris

The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do
Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller
Berrett-Koehler Publishers (2009)

The power and privilege of leadership as service to those entrusted to one’s care

In this second edition of a book first published in 2004, Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller make skillful use of the business narrative when offering what they have learned about what “great leaders know and do.” However, in fact, their focus is on an aspiring, struggling executive, Debbie Brewster, who confides, “I’m holding on for dear life and might lose my job.”  Her motivations remind us of Abraham Maslow’s “hierarchy needs”: first survival, then security, and eventually, perhaps, self-actualization. To date, her performance as a team leader has been poor. She knows she needs help and finds in a relationship with a mentor within her company, its president, Jeff Brown. Thus begins what becomes a journey of discovery of the “secret” to which the book’s title refers, for both Debbie and the book’s reader. The details are best revealed in context, within the narrative, as Debbie’s performance as a team leader gradually – and predictably — improves.

Does she become a great leader? No, at least not by the book’s conclusion, but that is not Blanchard and Miller’s ultimate objective. Rather, their purpose (in my opinion) is to examine a process by which almost any executive can become a more effective supervisor. More specifically, they focus on specific skills that include situation analysis, setting priorities, making decisions, getting associates engaged and in alignment, avoiding or removing barriers, and meanwhile demonstrating the values of what Robert Greenleaf once characterized as “the servant leader” in an essay published in 1970.

In a second essay, “The Institution as Servant,” Greenleaf observes: “This is my thesis: caring for persons, the more able and the less able serving each other, is the rock upon which a good society is built. Whereas, until recently, caring was largely person to person, now most of it is mediated through institutions – often large, complex, powerful, impersonal; not always competent; sometimes corrupt. If a better society is to be built, one that is more just and more loving, one that provides greater creative opportunity for its people, then the most open course is to raise both the capacity to serve and the very performance as servant of existing major institutions by new regenerative forces operating within them.”

I highly recommend this book to C-level executives and others who have supervisory responsibilities as well as to direct reports who aspire to become leaders. I also presume to suggest checking out the wealth of information now available at the Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. Finally, here are some other sources that may be of interest and value: Michael Ray’s The Highest Goal, James O’Toole’s The Executive’s Compass, and David Whyte’s The Heart Aroused.

Why only long-term, high-impact books become business “classics”

My favorite library at Yale

We seem to live in an age of instant gratification during which the average attention span resembles a strobe light blink and most people are only interested in (often obsessed with) the latest, “the best,” what’s new, the biggest, the fastest, what “they” recommend, etc.

I think it says something about populist values that Charlie Sheen can attract a crowd of 20,000 but Norman Borlaug couldn’t and that the claim to fame of most celebrities today is, well, their claim to fame.

It was a 12^th century French Neo-Platonist philosopher, Bernard of Chartres, not Isaac Newton, who once observed, “We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Authors of today’s business bestsellers crowd together atop the shoulders of those who wrote “classics,” the secular books almost unanimously agreed upon as having had the greatest influence on business thinking. They are listed in order of publication. Few of these were bestsellers when published, most continue to sell in revised/updated editions, and all offer original insights, brilliantly explained.

The Art of War (c. 2500 BC), Sun Tzu
On War (1816-1830), Carl von Clauswitz
Creative Experience (1924), Mary Parker Fowlett
Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942), Joseph Schumpeter
Concept of the Corporation (1946) or The Effective Executive (1967), Peter Drucker
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), Thomas Kuhn
The Servant As Leader (1970), Robert Greenleaf
In Search of Excellence (1982), Thomas Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
A Study of Emotion: Developing Emotional Intelligence (1985), Wayne Payne
The Fifth Discipline (1990), Peter Senge

There are others also worthy of inclusion.

Which ones? Ask the authors of today’s business bestsellers.

“What Three Books Should I Load On My Kindle For My Cruise?” – w/update

So, here’s the request that came in an e-mail:
We are going on a cruise in September and I want to load my Kindle with three books.  What are the three best books you would recommend for my reading? The request came from a very sharp, keen-minded, successful, independent business consultant.  He attends one of our book synopsis events.  This is my attempt to answer his question.

I am tempted to simply list some of my all time favorite reads (not necessarily the best books I’ve ever read, although they are close –  but definitely books that I am very glad I have read), like:  The Doorbell Rang, one of my favorite Nero Wolfe mysteries, by Rex Stout; and The Powers That Be and The Reckoning by the truly great David Halberstam; and Defining a Nation, edited by the same Halberstam.

And then there is this:  what are the business books from the last few years (and even a little longer ago) that should be on your “I’ve definitely read that book” list?  I would certainly include Good to Great by Jim Collins; something Gladwell (it’s tough to choose — probably Outliers); Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf and The Leadership Engine by Noel Tichy; almost anything, but definitely at least one thing, by Peter Drucker.  Add to this The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley, and a major personal favorite, The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp.

But – I still have not answered the question.  If I had but three books to load on my Kindle for a September cruise, what titles would I choose?  Here’s a list of five; you will have to narrow it down to the three that most interest you.

Choice #1: Collapse:  How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond.  Diamond, a Pulitzer Prize winner with his earlier book Guns, Germs, and Steel, has written a tour de force in Collapse, sweeping us through the societies that collapsed, and providing warnings regarding the decisions societies make.  An important book!

Choice #2: Inside the Kingdom:  My Life in Saudi Arabia by Carmen Bin Laden, or, The Looming Tower:  Al-Queda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright.  Of course, the Wright book is the heftier of the two; it won the Pulitzer, and provides an amazing education about the rise of Al-Queda, what went into their thinking, and especially their animosity toward the West.  But there is a personal tone and a very personal take on life in the strict Muslim world of Saudi Arabia in Carmen Bin Laden’s book — the former wife of Yeslam, one of the brothers of Osama Bin Laden.  It is a captivating read, and noticeably shorter than The Looming Tower.  (You can tell, from this  response, that I think we ought to seek to understand this “other” culture that is so foreign to our own).  

Choice #3: OK, which two business books to put on the list? Not necessarily which books to read for enjoyment, but which books provide the most important and useful information?  I list two choices.  I would put The Other 90%:  How to Unlock Your Vast Untapped Potential for Leadership and Life by Robert Cooper, because everyone would benefit from reading an occasional “let’s aim high, and take things higher” book.  Unfortunately,this book is not available for the Kindle. (Yes, I checked on all the others).  So, for this category of business book, I recommend The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz.  (I haven’t yet read the new Schwartz book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working: The Four Forgotten Needs That Energize Great Performance, which could be a better choice).  And, for the other business book, I would have to go with The Checklist Manifesto:  How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande, just because I think it deals with the complexity of this age and provides really valuable suggestions.  (And, it gives every patient going in to surgery an important question to ask his or her surgeon:  “do you use a checklist?”).

These are the five.  You’ll have to reduce it to your three.  And, of course, you may be asking others for their suggestions, and reject my three altogether.

And you will notice that there are no novels on my list.  I read about a novel a decade (except for my relatively frequent re-reading of the Nero Wolfe mysteries).  But I have actually bought a novel – in the past week.  It is: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson.  I might actually read it – one of these days soon.

————–

Two personal footnotes:

#1 – thanks, Tom, for providing a great idea for a blog post.  I apologize for answering you in this fashion.

#2 — And, it would be interesting to have Bob Morris give his list of “only three” in response to this request?  I’m pretty sure he would have different titles – all absolutely worth the investment of a Kindle purchase and a few hours of reading.  So many books… so little time!

——

update:  I definitely should have put The Big Short:  Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis into the mix — as the book I would recommend to help you understand the financial meltdown of the last couple of years.  So now I am up to six to choose from, to then narrow down to three.  Sorry about that.

Coming for the August First Friday Book Synopsis – the new Wellbeing, and a business book classic, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits

We had a wonderful gathering of book lovers and serious learners at the First Friday Book Synopsis this morning – a surprisingly good attendance for a 2^nd Friday of July morning.

Next month, Karl Krayer will present a synopsis of the new, important book,  Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements by Tom Rath, Ph.D. and James K. Harter (Gallup Press, 2010).  (You can read Bob Morris’ review of this book on our blog book here).

I will present a synopsis of the business book classic, Mastering the Rockefeller Habits: What You Must Do to Increase the Value of Your Growing Firm, by Verne Harnish (Select Books, 2002).  This is a rare choice for us, to present a book that has been around a while.  We have only done this a couple of times.  The first business book classic we presented was Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf.  There are a few books that stand the test of time so well – books that either came out before we began the First Friday Book Synopsis in April 1998, or, a book we just happened to miss.  Such selections are ones that we feel that we need to include for the value they bring.  So, for August, I will present this immensely practical book by Verne Harnish.  (You can read Bob Morris’ review of this book on our blog here).

Mark your calendars now, and plan to join us on the first Friday of August, August 6.