Just returned from my weekly trip to the library; also in the stack are a few new acquisitions to my library.
It’s a varied list that’s for sure, but I believe that wide reading develops deep leading.
Look for a few short ideas from these books in the next few days.
If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.
–Haruki Murakami
Leadership requires a constant flow of intelligence, ideas, and information. There is no way to gain the basics of leadership without reading.
As a boy in elementary school, I remember with fondness the Weekly Reader Club, a newspaper of sorts as well as an opportunity to buy books. My parents, especially my dad, were always happy to accommodate my asking for books to buy and bring home.
Some things never change…
Here is part of my current week’s reading list:
Weekly Reading List
These are from my local library. There’s another 10 on the waiting list (that’s all I can have at one time).
Then there’s my newest stack this week in my passion area of Guest Experiences:
Latest Guest Experience research
And a few magazines:
a weeks worth of magazine reading
Last but not least, I’ve always got my Kindle loaded up:
a few of my recent Kindle acquisitions
I like to read.
The leader learns to invest deeply in reading as a discipline for critical thinking.
Al Mohler
Want to know more about a few of the books? Here’s a teaser for one of them:
Shaun Abrahamson, Peter Ryder, Bastian Unterberg
We’ve been using brainstorming techniques for more than sixty years. Now it is possible to greatly improve the process by organizing large crowds of diverse talent.
The authors call it crowdstorming.
Crowdstorm will teach you how to effectively work with external networks to solicit, refine, and select ideas. By learning the patterns and gathering the right tools, organizations will discover the best approaches to planning, organizing, and executing crowdstorming projects. Crowdstorm shows you:
Buy the book
Download the Kindle
and another:
Ray Fishman and Tim Sullivan
We create organizations because we need to get a job done – something we couldn’t do alone – and join them because we are inspired by their missions (and our paycheck). But once we are inside, these organizations rarely feel inspirational. Instead, we’re often baffled by what we encounter: clueless managers, a lack of clear objectives, a seeming disregard for data, and the vast gulf between HR proclamations and our experience in the cubicle.
So where did it all go wrong?
In The Org, the authors explain the trade-offs that every organization makes, arguing that this everyday dysfunction is actually inherent in the very nature of orgs. The Org diagnoses the root causes of that malfunction, beginning with the economic logic of why organizations exist in the first place, then working its way up through the org’s structure from the lowly cubicle to the CEO’s office.
Buy the book
Download the Kindle
What will you be reading this weekend?
Today would have been my father’s 85th birthday.
It’s also Book Lover’s Day.
Those two seemingly incongruent circumstances actually have a powerful connection for me.
After suffering a major stroke on February 10th, my father passed away on February 25th of this year. By the time I was able to get back to Tennessee to see him, he had lost motor functions and speech capacity. Over the few days I was there, the slow but steady decline continued.
I had last seen him during the Christmas holidays. While there, I spent some time alone at home with him. After suffering a series of strokes over the past several years, he could no longer read – but the legacy of his reading lines the bookshelves all over my boyhood home. In the quiet hours when everyone is asleep, I scanned the shelves and remembered hearing him talk about this book or that one. I pulled a few off the shelf, and opening them, was instantly transported back in time to a conversation about the subject, or to memories of the event itself.
I’ve been a reader of books since, well, before I can remember. My father was an avid reader, and he passed that passion along to me at an early age. Even though he worked 6 days a week, 12 hours a day, he often spent several hours reading at night. He and my mother insisted we go to the library in the next town and check out books – every two weeks. I would get the maximum number of books, take them home, and read them – usually in the first day or two. Then it would be an impatient wait till the next library trip.
Reading is a passion I treasure, and one that I am thankful to my dad for.
So here it is Book Lover’s Day, not an official holiday but one I eagerly celebrate. Book reading is a great hobby. It’s an important one, too. Employers look for it on resumes. Reading is educational, informative, and relaxing. It makes us both smarter, and happier people.
Book Lovers Day is a great day to celebrate. Just grab an interesting book, find a quiet, cozy place, and crack open the cover. Celebrating Book Lovers Day in August is pleasurable on the deck, under a shady tree, poolside, or in a cozy hammock. If you fall asleep while reading, that’s okay. It’s all part of the relaxing benefits of being a book lover.
I’m celebrating this Book Lover’s Day in a new vocation – Vision Room Curator at Auxano. My role requires me to read – and then write book summaries, Tweets, and blogs about what I’m reading.
How cool is that!
On this Book Lover’s Day, and in memory of my father, I’m trying to emulate Thomas Edison, who believed that voracious reading was the key to self-improvement. He read books on a remarkable range of subjects to address his endless queries. As Edison noted, “I didn’t read a few books, I read the library.”
My reading list this week:
If you want to know more about my dad, here is the eulogy I gave at his funeral. After the funeral, while my sons and I were moving some things around his gas station and I discovered one reason I am so passionate about guest services. And read this post to find out why readers are leaders.
Continuing an annual tradition, the final posts of the year are devoted to the importance of reading (covered in yesterday’s post) and my best book list for the year.
Making a “Best of” list is always hard – it’s a very subjective process, driven by my personal tastes, professional needs, and plain curiosity. It’s also hard to narrow it down: in 2011, I checked out 107 books from my local library, purchased 91 print books, and downloaded 37 on my Kindle. I also perused dozens of bookstores on my travels, writing down 77 titles for future acquisition. There were also a lot of late releases that I just didn’t have time to take a look at. Be that as it may, here is my list of favorite books published in 2011.
The Zappos Experience, Joseph Michelli
Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul, Howard Schultz
Great by Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck – Why Some Thrive Despite Them All, Jim Collins and Morten Hansen
Be Our Guest: Perfecting the Art of Customer Service, 2nd Edition, Disney Institute
Brilliance by Design: Creating Learning Experiences that Connect, Inspire, and Engage,
Vicki Halsey
The Orange Revolution, Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton
The Experience Economy, 2nd Ed, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore
Blah, Blah, Blah, Dan Roam
Missional Communities: The Rise of the Post-Congregational Church, Reggie McNeal
For the City: Proclaiming and Living Out the Gospel, Matt Carter and Darrin Patrick
Practically Radical, William C. Taylor
That’s my list for 2011 – if you are unfamiliar with any of the books listed above, I encourage you to check them out.
The new year is just around the corner, and the book releases are lining up already – I wonder what the Best of 2012 list will look like a year from now?
Leaders are readers.
Today and tomorrow’s posts are an annual tradition at 27gen – all about reading and my favorite books of the year. Here are a few links to previous year’s posts - click and follow the link for a few thoughts on the importance of reading – and how to read!
Getting the Most Out of Reading
Reading – Deliberate Practice Required
A New Chapter in My Reading
I’ve been a reader of books since, well, before I can remember. My father was an avid reader, and he passed that passion along to me at an early age. It’s a passion I treasure, and one that I am thankful for. Over the recent holidays, I spent some time at home with him. After suffering a series of strokes, he can no longer read – but the legacy of his reading lines the bookshelves all over my boyhood home. In the quiet hours when everyone is asleep, I scanned the shelves and remembered hearing him talk about this book or that one. I pulled a few off the shelf, and opening them, was instantly transported back in time to a conversation about the subject, or to memories of the event itself.
Books enjoyed that way are a multisensory experience – you not only read the words on a page, you feel the binding and turn the pages, hear the crackle of a very old book being opened for the first time in a long time, and then there’s that “book” smell – a combination of age, dust, maybe a little dampness – but all telling you an adventure is waiting.
Although I’m an early adopter in almost everything else, it’s just that “experience” that has kept me from moving into the eBook world all the way. I’ve been dabbling in eBooks for several years, mostly on my laptop. During the past year, I decided it was time to move ahead with a Kindle, and I’m glad I did. Having a library at my disposal in one volume has been very rewarding – but I will always be a “book” guy at heart.
So in wrapping up 2011 and looking forward to 2012, you’ll find me with a Kindle in my backpack – and several volumes of traditional books as well!
Tomorrow: my favorite books of 2011.
I don’t fly a lot – maybe 4 or 5 times a year. But over the last couple of years, I have been curious about something – flying seems to accelerate my brain.
Most of my flight involves the eastern half of the US; though occasionally I head west. My typical pattern is to buy a magazine that I would not normally read at the airport while I am waiting to board. Once on the flight, I will read the magazine from cover to cover, including ads. I highlight stories, phrases, and photos – anything that catches my eye and categorize them for later use. I find that the difference in environment stimulates thinking patterns. It also forces me to focus, as there are relatively few distractions on the flight.
Oftentimes, a single phrase, sentence, or photo will form the genesis of a blog post, magazine article, or presentation for a client. Take this illustration from yesterday’s post: a Swiss Army Knife combined with a 2 GB flash drive.
When I saw this item in a magazine, my first thought was – this is really cool! Then, in a stream of consciousness, the following thoughts occurred:
So, in about 15 seconds thought, I surmised that it was a great idea but maybe not practical for an airline traveler.
That last thought about Swiss Army items in the church was just – weird. But it made me ponder that those two items can’t possibly go together.
Which puts it in the category of a meatball sundae.
Which is for tomorrow’s post.
Yesterday during a flight to Arlington, TX, I finally put my finger on something that had been bugging me: flights really turn my brain loose. I read parts of three different books (love that Kindle!); took an innovation quiz that measures my innovation aptitude; and completed some editing on a writing project I’m working on.
On a 2 1/2 hour flight.
What’s up? I will be posting more on this topic, but here’s a visual to get you started:
Where does this take your thought process?
It’s July – the middle of the summer. Many people are heading out on vacation – to the beach, to the mountains, to a family gathering. I hope your vacation is a safe, relaxing time for you and your family.
Oh, and by the way, take a book – or two.
Summer is a great time for reading – even if you’re not on vacation. Admittedly, I’m biased. I’m a voracious reader – to the tune of 3-5 books per week. For me, reading is a discipline – but it’s also a gift.
You should be a reader, too, because leaders are readers. To explore that thought, click here. Need some recommendations? Here are my favorite books from the past couple of years:
And if you’re really curious, follow this link to my Leader’s Library – a Google Books listing of my library, including books I own, books I’ve checked out of the library this year, books I’m reading now, and books I’m looking forward to reading. Look for an interesting book title – and “check it out” at your local library.
Want to know more about reading, or any of the books mentioned above or in my library? Leave a comment or email me!
So – what are you reading this summer?
