My mission in life is to create soulful workplaces because I believe that we spend so much time at work that it impacts society at large. To feed this passion I read. A lot. Too much. I have devoured many hundreds of books on improving organizations. I haven’t found one book that has all the answers, but there are several that capture a lot. I also find that if a book is fun and easy to consume, it’s stickier; I can hand out copies and enroll people in the vision and start to implement the ideas in their organization. Fun books lead to action.
I wrote
Cultivating Transformations: A Leader's Guide to Connecting the Soulful and the Practical
Let’s face it; most business books are like medicine, we read them because we think they’ll make us better, but we really don’t enjoy them. Not the case with Shoe Dog. Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, spent serious time learning how to write from a fictional author. The book reads like a novel you can’t put down, you feel like you’re right there with Phil in the sweltering heat, selling sneakers out of the trunk of his car. This book inspired me to write my book with the guiding principle that it “not taste like medicine.”
'A refreshingly honest reminder of what the path to business success really looks like ... It's an amazing tale' Bill Gates
'The best book I read last year was Shoe Dog, by Nike's Phil Knight. Phil is a very wise, intelligent and competitive fellow who is also a gifted storyteller' Warren Buffett
In 1962, fresh out of business school, Phil Knight borrowed $50 from his father and created a company with a simple mission: import high-quality, low-cost athletic shoes from Japan. Selling the shoes from the boot of his Plymouth, Knight grossed $8000 in his first year. Today, Nike's annual…
We can find ourselves feeling helpless in a dysfunctional team situation. This book normalizes the experience and maps out a path for improvement. It’s written in a fictional-novel format that makes it fun and easy to read. The book describes how a leader helps get her team in shape, but anyone can make change. The core dysfunction is lack of trust, followed by fear of conflict. I have found that in my work, that building trust and competency around healthy conflict is absolutely key for organizations. I won’t spoil the other 3 dysfunctions, I’ll let you read it yourself!
In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team Patrick Lencioni once again offers a leadership fable that is as enthralling and instructive as his first two best-selling books, The Five Temptations of a CEO and The Four Obsessions of an Extraordinary Executive. This time, he turns his keen intellect and storytelling power to the fascinating, complex world of teams. Kathryn Petersen, Decision Tech's CEO, faces the ultimate leadership crisis: Uniting a team in such disarray that it threatens to bring down the entire company. Will she succeed? Will she be fired? Will the company fail? Lencioni's utterly gripping tale serves as…
The Model Spy is based on the true story of Toto Koopman, who spied for the Allies and Italian Resistance during World War II.
Largely unknown today, Toto was arguably the first woman to spy for the British Intelligence Service. Operating in the hotbed of Mussolini's Italy, she courted danger…
I read this book in my early twenties when I was still a programmer. It influenced my thinking so heavily that I kept finding myself drawn into process improvement. The Goal teaches Goldratt’s theory of constraints through a suspense novel. The main character, Alex Rogo, is put in charge of a failing factory and we follow his hero’s journey turning the plant around. Alex Rogo doesn’t use “best practices”, he finds a great mentor and seeks his own solutions. It’s a great lesson in critical thinking. It’s inspiring and memorable to witness “eureka moments”, like when Alex solves his work problem while hiking with the boy scouts. This book is a joy, I’ve read it several times over the years and I always learn something new.
*A Graphic Novel version of this title is now available: "The Goal: A Business Graphic Novel"
30th Anniversary Edition. Written in a fast-paced thriller style, The Goal, a gripping novel, is transforming management thinking throughout the world. It is a book to recommend to your friends in industry - even to your bosses - but not to your competitors. Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager working ever more desperately to try improve performance. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by…
If you’re anything like me, you think you know what Servant Leadership means. It’s intuitive, people gravitate towards the term. But until last year, I hadn’t actually read the book where the term “Servant Leadership” came from. It’s a short book, more of a pamphlet really, coming in at only 64 pages. I guarantee there are angles you hadn’t considered. For example, what responsibility do followers have in servant leadership? According to Greenleaf, when you follow a bad leader, you are responsible for the proliferation of bad leadership because a) you are sending a signal that to others that they should follow too and b) a signal to the leader that their style is working! We’ve all used the term “Servant leadership” and it’s time to go back and get it from the source.
This is the essay that started it all. Powerful, poetic and practical. The Servant as Leader describes some of the characteristics and activities of servant-leaders, providing examples which show that individual efforts, inspired by vision and a servant ethic, can make a substantial difference in the quality of society. Greenleaf discusses the skills necessary to be a servant-leader; the importance of awareness, foresight and listening; and the contrasts between coercive, manipulative, and persuasive power. A must-read.
When Lara was four years old, her father moved from Rochester, New York, to Anchorage, Alaska, a distance of over 4,000 miles. She spent her childhood chasing after him, flying a quarter of the way around the world to tug at the hem of his jacket.
Deming’s work is classic. He understood how messed up the corporate world was getting way back in the 1960s. But we Americans wouldn’t listen, so he went and helped Japan, and most notably, Toyota. It’s fascinating to read his work that was way ahead of its time and notice the things we are just starting to implement today. It’s also a great prophecy of what’s to come.
A new edition of a book that details the system of transformation underlying the 14 Points for Management presented in Deming's Out of the Crisis.
It would be better if everyone would work together as a system, with the aim for everybody to win. What we need is cooperation and transformation to a new style of management.” —from The New Economics for Industry, Government, Education
In this book, W. Edwards Deming details the system of transformation that underlies the 14 Points for Management presented in Out of the Crisis. The Deming System of Profound Knowledge, as it is called, consists…
The nature of transformation is that it’s about uncharted territory, and that means that the answers are unknown. This book will offer you tools to get oriented, identify patterns, and work through the challenges without feeling lost and overwhelmed. If you’ve ever felt like you could help but no one was listening, or people were resistant to your help, this book will help you stay grounded and supported in your work. When it starts to feel like it’s you against the world, this book and this community are here for solace and support. This book will be your partner while you dance between the soulful and practical.
At the age of forty-nine, Laurie Woodford rents out her house, packs her belongings into two suitcases, and leaves her life in upstate New York to relocate to Seoul, South Korea. What begins as an opportunity to teach college English in Asia evolves into a nomadic adventure.
I grew up thinking that being adopted didn’t matter. I was wrong. This book is my journey uncovering the significance and true history of adoption practices in America. Now, in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, the renewed debate over women’s reproductive rights places…
