Mid-December 2013 Book Selection-Daren C. Brabham, CROWDSOURCING, MIT Press, 2013. This is my second selection on the topic of crowdsourcing. The author explores the pros and cons of this new online methodology. He argues that the crowd are not necessarily amateurs. They should often be seen as professionals. He explores the methodology as being an approach that can be usd in many different fields including government and public health. Bradham also argues for more research on the topic.
December 2013 Book Selection- Kim Ghattas, THE SECRETARY, Times Books, 2013. This is an unusual biography that covers world events from 2009-2013, leadership on the world stage, power, women in leadership, and media coverage of these events. This book covers the four years that Hillary Clinton was Secretary of .State under President Obama as seen by a Lebanese-born journalist for the BBC. It is as much about the life of the author and her views of Clinton and her tenure. The book covers the extensive planning that went into all the trips that Clinton took around the world. It explores the influence that Clinton had on the Obama administration.This book is a worthwhile look at leadership.
Mid-November 2013 Book Selection-Donna M. Genett, IF YOU WANT IT DONE RIGHT, YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO IT YOURSELF, Quill Driver Books, 2004. This is a gem of a short book on how to delegate effectively. Using a parable, the author explores the six steps in effective delegation. The book start with preparation for delegation to the debriefing needed after a delegated project is completed. The book includes a summary card with the six steps that you can keep on your desk as a reference.
November 2013 Book Selection-Sonia Sotameyor, MY BELOVED WORLD,Knopf, 2013. This is the excellent leadership story of the first Hispanic woman to be appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. It tells of her struggles with Type 1 diabetes, an alchoholic father, growing up in the projects in the Bronx, and a failed marriage. Despite these challenges Sotomayor thrived. She was a successful student at Princeton and an excellent law student at Yale. She has been an excellent trial attorney and reached her dream of being a judge. This book is an excellent story of a woman who beat the odds and reached her dream of being a judge through hard work and dedication to the law.
Mid-October 2013 Book Selection- Malcolm Gladwell, DAVID AND GOLIATH, Little, Brown, 2013. This new book by Gladwell begins with the biblical story of the shepherd boy and the giant where the boy defeats Goliath is a fight. Gladwell tells many stories in the book where the underdog beats the odds and wins. Although not every underdog wins but when they do the results are often spectacular. Leadership is often about beating the odds. This is another fun read.
October 2013 Book Selection-Jeff Howe, CROWDSOURCING, Three Rivers Press, 2009. Crowdsourcing is an important tool for leaders. It is clearly a product of the computerization of our society. If we are looking for answes to complex problems, innovations, harnessing the interest in a topic by people who are not our emplyees, we can use crowdsourcing. We can create a website to answer questions ,create modications in products, and use the diversity of people interested in using our ideas or products, then we can use the power of the crowd to help us answer our issues. Crowdsourcing is one of the best methods for using non-employees to help supplement our interests. Users of our products for example can help us to make our products betteror have our crowd pick the most popular and talented singer of this television season. This book is clearly worth your time.
Mid-Sepember 2013 Book Selection-Damon T. Arnold, THE THEORY OF SOCIAL DISRUPTION, Authorhouse, 2012. This book explores chaos as more than a specific event. Chaos has all sorts of ramifications for a community such as a major source of social disruption which affects the community culture, the economic base, political considerations and so on. The author presents a number of conceptual and practice models to better understand this disruption and how to deal with it. His public health fusion center and community-based medical home kiosk model are unique approaches to better understanding of how to deal with social disruption. Arnold also presents a discussion on recovery from disaster that points out that recovery affects how we respond to a crisis in that preparation for a crisis will impact how and when recovery will happen. He also discusses the importance of resilience at the individual and community levels.
September 2013 Book Selection-Ori Brafman and Judah Pollack, THECHAOS IMPERATIVE, , Crown Business, 2013. Most writers speak of chaos as a bad thing. The authors look at the positive side of chaos. We spend most of our working life in structured situations. When we want to create change, we need to move into what the authors call white space. White space is the place where we do our thinking. It is a place for innovation and planned change to occur. It is the place where chaos is contained, The author discuss two other important elements in contained chaos. The firs relates to unusual suspects who are poeple who become a catalyst for positive thinking and innovation. The last element is organized serendipity it is in the white space which is unstructures that the unexpected occurs. i find allt he Brafman books useful in getting me to think in new ways and to explore my own white space.
Mid-August 2013 Book Selection- Doris Kearns Goodwin, TEAM OF RIVALS, Simon and Schuster,2005. Goodwin is a brillant historian. This book is one of the best that I have read over the last yeat. It describes in detail the political and leadership genius of Abraham Lincoln. He selected men for his cabinet that had been former rivals of himself on his way to becoming our 16 th President. Most of his cabinet grew to love him as he addressed secession, slavery, and the Civil War. I spent several months slowly relishing this over 700 page book. Ii recommend that all my readers read this wonderful book.
August 2013 Book Selection- John Joseph Long, THREE WELLSPRINGS OF LEADERSHIP, Hontanar MO Publications, 2013. Most leadership books either present information on the characteristics of leaders. Long argues that it is important to concentrate on the foundations of leadership or wellsprings from which leadership or character traits spring. The three wellsprings include character as a mixture of nature and nurture elements that guide the leader through life, hope from a realistic perspective, imagination as the spirit that guides creativity.
Mid-July 2013 Book Selection-Hans Finzel, THE TOP TEN MISTAKES LEADERS MAKE, David Cook Books, 2007. Thisis an excellent book by a minister who sees leadership skills as being critical to the leaders in religious organizations as well as in non-religious oriented organizations. He reviews ten mistakes that leaders make including top down attitudes, lack of affirmation, no room for mavericks, and a failure to be oriented toward the future. This is a worthwhile book for all individuals in a leadership position to read.
July 2013 Book Selection-Kim Cameron, POSITIVE LEADERSHIP(SECOND EDITION), Berrett-Kohler, 2012. There has been much written about the challenges tied to leadership. The author discusses the benefits associated with a positive view of leadership. Cameron presents a perspective and a series of four strategies for positive leadership including the cultivation of a positive climate, positive relationships, positive communication, and positive meaning. He also presents a set of tools for implementing these positve strategies through a Personal Management Interview program. Also see www.centerforpos.org
Mid-June 2013 Book Selection-Nick J. Tate, OBAMA CARE SURVIVAL GUIDE, Humanix Book, 2012. I am sure that the Obama administration will have difficulty accepting some of the interpretations of the Affordable Care Act as discussed by the author. Although appearing to be somewhat on the right, Tate tries to be as objective as possible in reviewing the various dimensions of the ACA. The Obama Care model is reviewed from the vantage point of various groups in our society. It clearly may be somewhat negative for seniors because of the cutbackes in the Medicare funding. It clearly is a no win situation for the public health community who is ignored in the act. Prevention alone is not public health which is clinically defined in the act. Paying for the services provided under the act will be a major consideration over the next several years. Modifications will clearly be necessary. The book should be read by everyone due to its balanced view of the changes which the act will bring about in the health care system. Leaders will need to respond, react, and influence others in the changes necessary to make the act viable and fair to everyone. See www. SurvivingObamaCare.org
June 2013 Book Selection- Ken Blanchard, Cynthia Olmstead, and Martha lawrence, TRUST WORKS, William Morrow, 2013. I have to confess that I am a raving fan of Blanchard and his colleagues. This new book covers an important leadership issue and presents a model for determining if trust exists. The first part of the book involves a parable of a dog and a cat who work to improve trust between themselves. The second part of the book presents the ABCD trust model. A is able, B is believable, C is connected, and D is dependable. Instruments is presented to determine how the specific relationship fits the model. Three scenarios are also presented. See www.howwelead.org
Mid-May 2013 Book Selection- Peter Sims, LITTLE BETS, Free Press, 2011. The Heath Brothers called it OOCH. Taking a systems perspective and also discussing the critical issue of how creativity occurs, Sims says that creative leaders learn from their mistakes. They are experimental innovators who take small steps in order to make major wins in the long run. It is the little bets that are important. Each little bet provides lessons to the creative person whether the result is a success or a failure. Sims looks and discusses little bets and concludes that we learn fast through small successes and failures, play is critical in creative endeavors, problems lead to new solutions, questions lead to answers, learn a little from a lot and vice versa, and small wins are important.
May 2013 Book Selection- Keith Grint, LEADERSHIP: A VERY SHORT INTRODUCTION, Oxford, 2010. this is one of the books in the Very Short Introduction series out of Great Britain. The books are written by British scholars and are excellent introductions. Grint is one of the leading academic scholars on leadership in Great Britain. He looks at leadership through the lens of history and of contemporary and classic leaders. His grasp of literature is excellent. He asrgues leadership is not possible if there are no followers. Each chapter in this small book answers an important question about leadership such as who are the leaders. Anyone interested in the blend of literature and practice will find this book worth reading.
Mid-April 2013 Book Selection- Chip Heath and Dan Heath, DECISIVE, Crown Business,2013. This is the third New York Times best seller by the Heath brothers (MADE TO STICK , SWITCH). This book deals with the issue of making decisions and that much of the activity involved relates to making choices. The authors present the WRAP process which involves the widening of options, the importance of reality checking of assumptions, moving back from the decision before decising and the need to prepare for the possibility of making the wrong choice. The book discusses the ooch technique ofas well as other techiques that can serve as tools for making decisions. Ooch, for example, is a technique for sampling options. The authors also have an excellent web site with resources related to all three of their books. See www.heathbrothers.com
April 2013 Book Selection-Miles Anthony Smith, WHY LEADERSHIP SUCKS, Author, 2012. Being a leader is not easy. If you take a leadership job in order to make friends, you have taken the wrong job. The author is a religious man who has clearly been influenced by those who support servant leadership. The author describes his own career from his high school jobs through his management and leadership positions. His lessons for other leaders stem from his own experiences as well as the writers who have influenced his personal growth as a leader.He discusses the issue of whwther to serve or not to serve,, the importance of doing what is best for an organization, the importance of authentic authority, and how to manage specific situations. Today’s leader has to also master management requirements and situations.
Mid-March 2013 Book Selection- Seth Godin, POKE THE BOX, Domino Project, 2011. As many of my readers know, I enjoy reading Godin. This book is about taking the initiative to generate new ideas although risk is generally involved. When you take initiative, it is important to follow through and poke the box. Ideas alone are not enough. Leaders need to sell their ideas and find others who like the idea and want to buy it. Timing is also important. Buzzer management argues that it is important to push the buzzer at the right time. Progress involves taking a chance even if failure occurs. We learn from our failures and create more and better ideas as a result.
March 2013 Book Selection-Nate Silver,THE SIGNAL AND THE NOISE, Penguin, 2012. In my recent third edition of my leadership book, I have added extensive material on public health preparedness. To the important concepts of normal accidents(Perrow), self-organized criticality(Lewis), and the black swan(Taleb) must now be added the concepts in this book. This book is about prediction and why we have difficulty in predicting future events. Signals are information to guide us in our ability to make predictions and noise is all the extraneous information that interferes with our ability to make accurate prediction. This excellent book is a must-read. Silver looks at the field of prdiction and reviews it in the context of many areas from poker and baseball to disasters.
Mid-February 2013 Book Selection- Jonah Berger, CONTAGIOUS, Simon and Schuster, 2013. If you like the writings of Malcolm Gladwell and Dan Ariely, I think you will like this book which explores why things go viral. Berger presents the reslts of research and also tells many stories of why some things catch on and some don’t. He presents a set of actionable techniques that help information spread.He discusses the techniques of social currency, triggers, emotion, public and private, practical value issues, and the importance of stories. This book is a good read and something that will prove useful to leaders.
February 2013 Book Selection- David Quammen,SPILLOVER, Norton, 2012. fans of Laurie Garrett should love this book. it is an important book for everyone in the health field to read especially our health and also our political leaders. In many ways, it is a series of mystery tales. It is about zoonotic diseases and as interesting as the many books by the late Michael Crichton. The spillover effect involves the transfer of a virus or a bacterium from an animal to a human being. The author explores the many mysteries of how, when, and what did the spillover occur. In the course of this very comprehensive book, the author explores spilover as related to malaria, AIDS, Hendra, Ebola ,SARS, and many other diseases to man. The stories are interesting and yet scary to follow. The author followed many dead ends and yet the things he found are amazing. The global impact of disease cannot be underestimated. This book gets a strong reccomendation.
Mid-January 2013 Book Selection-Dan Ariely,THE (HONEST) TRUTH ABOUT DISHONESTY, Harper, 2012. i sure love reading Ariely. In this laest book, the author continues to explore the differences between rationality and irrationality. It may come as no surprise to my readers that almost evveryone stretches the truth or is dishonest at some times in their lives. Ariely studies the forces that shape dishonesty from cheating on an exam to putting untrue information on a job resume. He is intrigued with the fact that most people who are dishonesty at certain times are people who see themseves as basically good people. He not only found dishonesty by individuals, he also found dishonesty in teams. Leaders are sometimes dishonest as are their followers. Ariley explores some ways to diminish dishonesty. Leaders will find this book of interest.
January 2013 Book Selection- Rom Brafman, SUCCEEDING WHEN YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO FAIL, Crown Archetype, 2011. The author and his brother have been the authors of several books on this blog in previous years including SWAY and THE SPIDER AND THE STARFISH. In this book, the author discusses the reasons why some people succeed in spite of their environment and others don”t. It is the tunneers who succed. There are several drivers behind the success of tunnelers. The first is the Limelight Effect which involves a person’s abilityto redirect our lives through our own efforts. Temperament is also important. other factors incude making meaning, unwavering commitmenat, and using humor. This is an excellent book to start your reading for 2013.
Rowitz On Leadership 