Book Recommendations
A while back, I gave a colleague a book recommendation, which he liked a lot. He proceeded to ask me for more recommendations of “hidden gems” - thank you, I will gladly oblige!
The following are books that I’ve read and taken a lot away from. Insights, tools, process recommendations, you name it. The list is inevitably personal, and there’s no guarantee that you’ll find any of the books equally valuable. I’ll try to summarise the key takeaways as good as I can.
Bill McFarlan; Drop the Pink Elephant. This one is about communication. In particular, it’s about how to get across what you really want to say without coming across as a jerk, and about how to avoid misleading communication patterns that are so common most of us use them without thinking. It’s a light read, witty, with a lot of humour.
Daniel H. Pink; Drive. People are generally motivated by three aspects in a job: autonomy, mastery, and purpose. The book shares a lot of empirical study insights without going into heavy statistics. It’s helpful to understand how to go about translating company strategy “big picture” directions into language more easily appreciable by front-line teams.
W. Timothy Gallwey; The Inner Game of Work. While Pink’s book is more about understanding motivation in general to “get” how others tick, this one is more introspective. It has helped me understand how I can get better at a complex job without losing sight of the forest for the trees. In brief, it’s about focusing on “one variable” at a time, and experimenting with that.
These three have been very helpful, but the list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the writings of Patrick Lencioni. I have read literally everything he has ever written. His books have considerably shaped how I think about all things management.
What I appreciate about Lencioni’s philosophy are two things. First, it’s very humane. He understands that businesses consist of people, whose needs and interests play a key role in succeeding. Second, Lencioni is simply incapable of proposing a complex model for any of the problem areas he discusses. His models are simple, and they make sense. Note that their simplicity does not mean they’re trivial to implement; they’re in fact hard to implement. After all, implementing them involves people.
Most of Lencioni’s books are written as “business fables”, i.e., novels of sorts, which are easy and quick reads because they’re not dry business books but stories. That’s not for everyone, but it certainly works for me. Each of the books contains the theoretical framework at hand as a summary in the final pages.
Lencioni’s overarching model comprising all of the above (and then some) is the concept of organisational health that he has summarised in The Advantage. This is his only book that’s written in a somewhat more dry business/leadership book style. It enables quick access to the big picture, being a really good summary of all the others. With one exception.
The latest addition to the list, The Six Types of Working Genius, is about a model of work and personal work preferences. It touches on all the topics covered before, but looks specifically at how we’re “wired” as personalities for the work we’re doing, and what kinds of work might be the best fit. (There is an assessment, and I’m a certified facilitator.)
I hope this is helpful - feedback is welcome!