Told from the perspective of President of Thedacare, Kim Barnas, this book covers the history and tactics of the Thedacare Lean Health Systems Transformation during the early 2000’s. Now considered lore on second only to Toyota’s own cultural transformation as it developed and improved the Toyota Production System, this journey for Thedacare is a great introduction to lean basics, cultural transformation, and some simple tactical tools that are lynchpins in a culture change to a people (patient/customer/provider) centric healthcare model in which problem solving is the centerpiece of the business and continuous improvement mindsets and results are pervasive across the organization (horizontally and vertically). Having come from aerospace and manufacturing, I found this easy read a refreshing reminder of lean tactics and principles but also a very useful exploration of continuous improvement, culture transformation, and lean in a VERY different industrial sector. I recommend this book for any healthcare professional but also for anyone in continuous improvement, no matter the industry.
The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing: Violate Them at Your Own Risk!
This book is a classic of marketing and is recommend often among entrepreneurs and successful CEO’s alike. This book is compact and easily distilled to your particular situation. I found it VERY helpful to understand marketing in general but also as a lesson in organizational change as well. While it might not seem useful internally to an organization, this book is fundamentally about individual and group psychology, choice theory, influence, and customer satisfaction. When viewed from those angles these 22 Laws become VERY useful to a much broader audience. I recommend this book for leaders and managers, marketers, industry and market analysts, entrepreneurs, and startups.
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
Steven Pinker is one of the greatest philosophical thinkers of our time. He’s written extensively in the field of ethics, environment ethics, and animal rights. This book was started before the presidential election of 2016 but accelerated to address the fomenting and destabilizing effects of nationalism, identity politics, and anti-science and anti-reason currents popping up in the US and abroad. Pinker explores an extensive lists of macro measures of “quality and quantity” of life since the Enlightenment with his central thesis being that humanity has made considerable progress across almost all measure DESPITE the “sense” that we aren’t and that we’re perpetually headed for decline. He explores these facts with extensive empirical evidence and also describe the varying hypotheses (not all his own) as to why we “feel” the sense of dread and decline. He speaks to political rhetoric coupled with increasingly massive volumes of sensationalist and offense seeking media, mixed in with our natural cognitive biases like negativity biases (many brought about as useful evolutionary adaptions but which have been coopted in our modern age through marketing and political messaging). I did a podcast with graduate student Dustyn Addington and co-host Whitney Johnson (find the podcast here) on the subject which is pretty entertaining. I recommend the book for anyone interested in history and the philosophy of science, as well as those interested in long range planning, macro economics and economic development, empirical evidence based analyses at a micro and macro level, and philosophy of history as well. This book I believe is a helpful North Start when you’re feeling adrift or overly negative/cynical/frustrated with where you “feel” things are headed. This book will lay out the empirical evidence that supports that while short term events and narratives may sway you emotions, reason will prevail with supported empirical evidence.
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
Many of us learn ABOUT Nelson Mandela and he and his compatriots efforts to overcoming apartheid in South Africa but reading this autobiography brought a depth of clarity and understanding to me that I didn’t expect. Given these are his words, most of which were written secretly during this prison years, it speaks volumes to his leadership style, his priorities, his sense of purpose, and his visionary view of the future of he and his countrymen (including whites and other ethnicities). I read this book as a historical view for Southern Africa in preparation for my trip to Malawi to do business training and development. I figured it would provide me a general region wide view of the past 50 years from his eyes and timeline of events. It did help bring a lot of context for me but was also a lesson in overcoming adversity, extreme perseverance, collaboration among friends as well as adversaries, and personal discipline through many trials and challenge. I would recommend this book to anyone looking to expand on their first person accounts of leadership and change management, as well as those seeking to add to their understanding of African and world history.
Crossing the Chasm, 3rd Edition: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to Mainstream Customers
Crossing the Chasm is a fundamental business and technology classic. Timeless in its analysis and understanding of human and societal change and adoption, this book will layout out the core elements of product marketing but also change management in general. This book has proven and well researched strategies to create massive adoption curves for new products, services, and organizational change. I recommend this book for technologists, product developers, marketers, and change agents.
The Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less
Have you ever been overwhelmed by the number of options and choices you have for one single decision? What about a seemingly endless stream of choices and options? What about always feeling regret and anxiety after finally making a choice and taking action? In Paradox of Choice author Barry Schwartz explores the psychology of choice from an economic, professional, and personal perspective. Backed up by research, this book uses a model of “types of choice makers” - Satisficers and Optimizers, each having it’s positive attributes but also, when in the extreme, can result in significant psychological impairments. I’ve experienced plenty of the symptoms this book describes but I’ve also seen it play out as I raise my children. They’re overwhelmed by choice ALL THE TIME that we as parents and society impose upon them. This book was an eye opener from a personal level but also as a professional in continuous improvement, management, and engineering. Being deliberate and well thought out when presenting alternatives and choices for decision makers will much more beneficial for everyone in the long run if they are trimmed down, paced, and crafted in appropriate ways. This book will help you identify your own choice making attributes, those in others, as well as how to step back from feeling overwhelmed or overwhelming others with choice. I recommend this book extensively to parents, managers, marketers, consultants, engineers, and UW Philosophy Department professors and graduate students.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman lays out a significant body of research, application, and experimentation concerning cognitive biases, neurology, and evolutionary psychology. While the book is lengthy and can be dry at times, it is organized around specific biases, how they were identified, what the latest research suggests, and how one can work to overcome there ill effects in work and life. I love the “System 1” and “System 2” model, while he openly states is VERY imperfect, it does help the reader to differentiate the conscious, aware, slow and “thinking” brain from the unconscious, fast, and unaware parts of our brains. This book and associated research is cited extensively in many other books I’ve read across marketing, psychology, business, management, network theory, innovation, and much more. This is a centerpiece of cognitive theory and principles and I recommend this book widely to friends and colleagues.
Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
Dr. Cialdini does a great job in describing the fundamental components of our psychology and neurology that result in characteristics that influence how we’re persuaded to take action and change our behaviors, attitudes, and beliefs. His 6 Principles of Persuasion are: Reciprocity, Scarcity, Authority, Consistency, Liking, and Consensus. In each chapter on these principles, he relates research, real world examples, and his own personal experiences with being knowingly and unknowingly persuaded by these or a mixture of these tactics. I found this book VERY helpful in understanding my own psychology and susceptibility to persuasion but also what I can do to divert or at least be much more aware of when these principles are being used directly or through advertising on me. These are just fundamental human characteristics and not “bad” in and of themselves, it’s on bad when unethical or devious intents and outcomes are sought. I recommend this book for all leaders, managements, change agents, continuous improvement professionals and for those interested in psychology, cognitive biases, and marketing.
Value Proposition Design: How to Create Products and Services Customers Want
This book is an essential component of a three part collection of the Startup Owners Manual and Business Model Generation. I’m reviewing this book first because it is the most widely applicable to varying roles and endeavors in the world of business and organizational development. Value Proposition Design provides a systematic and proven method to design, prototype, develop, and improve your value proposition from a product or service perspective. I’ve used this method and it’s toolkit extensively in my consultations, collaborations, as well as my pro-bono consulting work helping to improve local non-profit value propositions. This book helps you deconstruct and reconstruct your customers “Pains, Gains, and Job’s to be Done” by accompanying and addressing them with “Pain Alleviators, Gain Generators, and Products/Services”. I’ve used this method when designing new processes, services, and products in higher education, outdoor product development, business process design and improvement, and community health services organizations. I believe it helps do really get deep into the details of effectively and successfully serving your customers needs. It’s as close to an engineered approach I’ve seen but with a central component of relationship development and psychology as well. I recommend this book for change agents, continuous improvement experts, product developers, entrepreneurs, and leaders wanting to have deep insight into their customers, from the CUSTOMERS perspective (central to Lean thinking).
Leadership on the Line, With a New Preface: Staying Alive Through the Dangers of Change
Leadership On the Line is one of those books built from an original article in the Harvard Business Review but is also in their “Top 10 Must Reads” on Change Management. Heifetz and Linksy describe in detail various hazards of leadership in change, both with theory and real life examples they use from their extensive research, and then what are proven methods to overcome and live through times of change as a leader. I enjoy any book that blends research, real world examples, and a system developed from both that research and real world example, and then even to then continuously validate it with consultation and improvement, that’s the whole improvement cycle right there applied to leadership! I recommend this book for all leaders and change agents practicing leadership and looking to expand their understand of leadership principles in times of strife and change.
What Got You Here Won't Get You There
Marshall Goldsmith has done a great job in discussing the nature of success, professional development, and organizational dynamics of leadership development. In this classic, he describes 20 personality characteristics that become increasingly critical to overcome as one “climbs the ladder” of success in an organization beyond clear results and demonstrated skill sets in a particular subject matter or technical expertise. We all have heard about the “Peter Principle” where a common organizational dynamic is to promote people to the level of their incompetence and thus, negative impact on the organization and ultimately professional decline. This book will help you reflect on your own traits that may be in your way to better relationships and improved professional success but also help you view other professionals you work with through a systematic, researched, and easily understand model. I recommend this book for any professional but in particular any position requiring management and development of others, where relationships and interactions are keys to success, and for those interested in continuous self-improvement for a better personal and professional life.
The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter
The First 90 Days is a classic to me at this point. It’s rigorous, deep, and planned approach to transitions and getting up to speed is applicable in any new role or assignment you may get. It’s not just for Leadership, as is often thought, but rather for anyone that takes on new projects or roles regularly. It’s for those who want a systematic and proven approach to analyzing an organization, identifying key relationships to develop, what position the organization is in and how to identify early wins as well as long term strategic focus areas to both deliver quick, position results to an organization but also secure your position as essential to success. The central notion is that the “value extracting” period of a new position should be 90 days or less, with the following 90 days of “value adding” to be large in scale to achieve “break even” for the organization within 180 days. That’s 1/4 the average time for “ramping up” in an organization of 2 years. Talk about a serious way to achieve professional and organizational success if all personnel (leadership, managers, individual contributors) planned for and executed rapid transition and integration plans like Watkins showcases here. If it isn’t clear enough yet, The First 90 Days is for any reader excited, interested, and committed to quick development and transitions for adding immense value to their organization and themselves as well.
90 Days to Success in Consulting
This book, along with Consultants Bible, is one of my go to sources of detailed information about starting and running a consulting practice. Additionally, it contains many lessons learned and industry statistics to bring some realism and focus into your planning and operations. This book is a great “Nuts and Bolts” book for aspiring and current consultants, entrepreneurs, and change agents as well as many of the lessons are directly applicable to that more “internal consultant” type of work.
The Consulting Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Create and Expand a Seven-Figure Consulting Practice
Alan Weiss is an extensively published author and consultant and has made it to the “Celebrity” status level of the consulting world. This book is choc full for detail, models, and processes on how to approach starting and improving your consulting practice. This book isn’t the End All - Be All book but I think it should be on any Change Agent, Continuous Improvement, and Project Managers reading list to get a broad view of what it means to be a Thought Leader and sought after for your skills, insights, and relationship development abilities.
Talk Like TED: The 9 Top Public Speaking Secrets of the World's Top Minds
Talk Like TED is one of several Story Telling and Presentations oriented books I read a while back. It’s 9 Lessons for public speaking and storytelling are useful in any industry, in any stage of organizational growth or challenges, for ANY employee - manager, leader, or individual contributor. It’s a lesson on psychology, empathy, communication, and clarity of thought. I recommend this book to wide audiences hoping to create communications that will achieve their desired results of getting through to your listeners (customers, employees, etc.) and having them walk away with a clear understanding of your message but also inspired to take action.
Getting Past No: Negotiating in Difficult Situations
Getting Past No is a book fit for any negotiator, manager, business owner, or change agent. It’s 1 in a 3 part series by William Ury focusing on the various dynamics of negotiation and common to mutually beneficial agreements. I found Ury’s method approachable, systematic, and complete for overcoming the “No” in a negotiation but not necessarily Getting to Yes which is the title of one of the other book in the series! The “no” dynamic as well as the various constraints, roadblocks, and mindsets have a fundamentally different dynamic than one already working towards an agreement. I felt this book was packed with good examples, thorough in its explanations of psychology, but with a methodology that, with practice, could be a useful tool in your toolbox.
Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
In “Managing Transitions” author William Bridges explores his conception of Organizational Transitions. This stems from his research, consulting experience, and design work from another book, “Transitions”. He lays out practical questions that need to be addressed at each stage of an organizations lifecycle, how to prevent complete demise, and leadership tactics and characteristics required to manage the evolution of their organizations. I recommend this book for HR professionals, Organizational Effectiveness experts, continuous improvement experts, and Leaders and Managers in general.
On Change Management from Harvard Business Review's "10 Must Reads"
As with Harvard Business Reviews “On Strategy”, “On Change Management” is a rich resource and primer in the area of organizational change management. The variety of authors bring a broad yet deep background in the field to provide the reader with articles that have prescriptive as well as descriptive components. This book provides a pragmatic understanding of the subject matter but also provides the readers with systematic, tests and proven methods for successful change management. As with “On Strategy” many of these authors have since published books built from the core principles laid out in these articles. A must read for human resources professionals, continuous improvement experts, change agents, leaders, and anyone seeking to understand human and organizational psychology and how to get from current state to a brighter future.
On Strategy from Harvard Business Review's "10 Must Reads"
This compendium on Strategy from the Harvard Business Review is a classic, must read selection of their top articles on Strategy. Many of these authors have since gone on to publish books built from the core theses’ of their articles. Michael Porter’s “What is Strategy?” is a fundamental explanation of Strategy in a business industry setting, where the power is and where the profit is held. Each author lays out their framework for developing, understanding, analyzing, and implementing strategy in any organization, business, non-profit, or otherwise. If you want a clear and approachable primer to the fundamentals of strategic thinking, look no further than this classic as a launching point.