Picture credit: oceanflynn
From time immemorial, books have been able to change the way we see our world and each of us probably treasures certain volumes that define our thinking.
From the hundreds of books lining the shelves of my study, I have picked a handful of titles that are especially important to me. My choices were not easy and I’ll share with you the reasons that guided my selection.
I will list my five books in the chronological order in which they came into my life. Your mileage may vary when it comes to these, or other books, but please remember that this piece is about the books that have changed my worldview.
Up the Organization: How to Stop the Corporation from Stifling People and Strangling Profits
by Robert Townsend
The cover of this classic poses the question: “If you’re not in business for fun or profit, what the hell are you doing here?” A great provocation that has stayed with me for thirty years. Townsend’s down-to-earth remedies for personal and organisational conduct are still a refreshing insight into how the world of work could be better. A coffee-time dip into this book always perks me up whenever I feel like I’m just hitting my head against the impenetratable walls of incompetence.
Unlock Your Mind: Practical Guide to Deliberate and Systematic Innovation
by Dennis Sherwood
My first encounter with Dennis Sherwood was unforgettable. The sight of Dennis, presenting at a ship-board conference in 1999, wearing a four-foot long lightning bolt on his head, while rapping about innovation, blew me away. His kind gift to me of his book the following week altered my professional outlook irrevocably. Unlock your mind brought Systems Thinking into my vocabulary and moved me forward from my binary, analytical worldview; towards an incredibly richer outlook. I have read many books since this but none that has had quite the same effect.
Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership
by Joseph Jaworski
My path to Synchronicity was through Dennis Sherwood’s writing. I recently re-read this book after an interval of a few years and it reminded me that I once considered it the best book I had ever read about Leadership. I later found an even better book (see below) but that discovery only came through my re-reading of Synchronicity. The book describes Jaworski’s journey from the groundbreaking incubator of Shell’s Scenario Planning Team to the founding of the American Leadership Forum. This is far more than a business biography, it is a deep insight into the fulfilment available to those with the courage to follow their passion and instinct, without the safety-net of knowing where your journey will end. It made me realise that I could also strike out on a different path. So I did.
Lila: An Inquiry into Morals
by Robert M. Pirsig
One of the most useful books I have ever read. Lila is the lesser-known sequel to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (which only narrowly missed the cut for this list) and, in my opinion, is best read only after reading ZAMM, to get the full value of the profound insights revealed in Lila. As a “novel” this book is unlikely ever to receive the academic acclaim that I believe the author deserves (and would have doubtless received if Pirsig had set forth his ideas in a traditionally “academic” manner). Pirsig’s concept of Dynamic Quality so neatly complements (and shapes) my own worldview of the dynamic tension between the AS-IS and TO-BE states, as well as the “edge of chaos” principle that describes the many tensions in organisational decision-making. Like its predecessor (ZAMM), Lila weaves a narrative around the philosophy – the tale of a boat journey undertaken by the semi-autobiographical protagonist and a female companion.
Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness
by Robert Greenleaf
Joe Jaworski’s Synchronicity (qv) led me to Robert Greenleaf’s masterpiece. This has become my favourite book on Leadership because it is the antithesis of the popular “cult of Leadership” books, which generally lack the profundity of Greanleaf’s insight into human behaviour and the genuinely substantive need for service. I believe that most Leadership books mislead hopeful readers, by laying the false hope of attaining position through personal behaviour, without any regard to the prevailing context and circumstances of others. The concept of Servant Leadership takes a properly holistic view and addresses the fundamental needs for appropriate checks and balances. If I was running an MBA programme, this would be required reading from the outset.
Well that’s my list of significant books, what does your list look like?
Hello Colin
I enjoyed reading about the books that left an indelible impression on you.
I’m new to LinkedIn and find some of the comments posted by people like yourself extremely stimulating.
I have a favourite books too, but let me first explain that I haven’t taken the time to delve into serious reading since my husband passed away 3 years ago. I was left with managing the family business (Medical Publishing) and very little time to my disposal.
However, I have enjoyed reading light-weight books written by John Maxwell, Stephen Covey, etc.
Business is not going as well as expected and I’m thinking of exploring other avenues to generate income… What grabs me at the moment is organic farming!
So if you could spare a moment what advice would you give someone who knows nothing about an area, but who has a passion for healthy living?
Looking forward and take care
Have yourself a wonderful break over the Festive Season
Kind regards
Kittie
Colin,
It seems that i have seldom found paradigm shifting books in the business section. It seems that many of your picks revolve around business in terms of organizational and human dynamics.
Business, as a human endeavour, is in my view a small and culturally contextual activity and is simply a more or less small component of a worldview.
I have found my inspirational or worldview changing reading in books that take a historical or perhaps a broader perpsective of humanity.
Examples range from books such as “Voltaires Bastards” by Saul, to Liberalism by Berman, to “Gossip, Grooming, and the Evolution of Language” by Dunbar. They are diverse books but thematically talk about human affairs and the human traits that contribute to those affairs. Gaining an understanding of what others do and why necessarily changes your worldview.
Thanks for posting and initiating interesting discussion!
Regards, Nick
Stephen Covey’s The Leader in Me is a great read – truly inspirational. Also on my list are:
Words that Work by Frank Luntz
The Tipping Point and Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
But have you read Zen and Now? Interesting stuff in it about Pirsig, his son’s tragic murder, and a recreation of the trip.
Stephen
thanks for the comment, no I haven’t read that book. I will add it to my look-out-for-list.
thanks.
ColinB
The Turning Point – Fritjof Capra
Count Your Blessings – Dr. John F. Demartini
The Breakthrough Experience – Dr. John F. Demartini
The Dancing Wu Li Masters – Gary Zukav
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene
The Science of Mind – Ernest Holmes
The World is Flat – Thomas Friedman
I really appreciate your starting this discussion. I love to know what others and reading and the books they felt the most momentous to them. I already left you a comment with my 6 mind changing books, i.e., Guns, Germs, & Steel, Collapse, Limits to Growth, The World Is Curved, Management of the Absurd, and Freakonomics. Actually that is 7.
I am finding more and more that I am drawn to things that deal with what we, as Americans and business people, have to step up to. I don’t think we can make progress on the climate crisis or the world financial crisis without major change from us, including sacrifice and consuming a lot less of everything. I don’t want to be the America that 9/11 brought. We can’t be ourselves when we live and deal in fear. We have to be open, candid, transparent, friendly, and crazy again.
I also found the History of God, Conversations with God, and Under the Banner of Heaven enlightening. As I said in the group post, there are so many books that can open your mind. I try to read both sides. The more I read, the more liberal I become and the more involved I become. I find reading the Bill of Rights from time to time a good grounder in what we are about.
Looking forward to more posts on books that have really impacted people. Please see my blog for my Climate Crisis reasons to be knowledgeable and book recommendations at http://push.pickensplan.com/profiles/blog/list?user=1fnuztlp88uba.
Debbie Deland
dcdeland@att.net
407 234-6408
Colin, I took your criteria very seriously. What books changed my world view –
Leadership and the New Science by Margaret Wheatley. Meg’s book has been around awhile, but when it came out, it was one of the first to give language to the complexity of managing in human systems and showed that it was the same complexity of other natural systems.
Conversation: How talk can change our lives by Theodore Zeldin. Discussions about conversation can become so dry. Zeldin never is dry. He starts with the words. And he plays so well with them, too. You see language very differently after reading it.
Lovemarks: The future beyond brands by Kevin Roberts. Powerful and visual. It helped me understand that the Internet is filled with images not because it is easy to post them on the web but because they are so full of emotion.
Among Flowers: Poems by Susan Kinsolving. Everyone should have a poetry book on their list. To me, this one is simple, short, and explodes in the mind.
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks. This book was recommended to me by Annette Simmons. She never gives bad advice. In this case, read if you want to see another worlds that exist in parallel to your own. Beautifully written.
Servent Leadership would certainly be on my list.
#1 on my list is Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Know your life’s purpose.
I would put my own book on the list, not for what’s in it but it was transformational for me to write it. Writing is such a great way to be clarifying your thoughts, vision, methods, and so on. Even if no one reads it (I’ve been fortunate that many people have), it is worth the effort.
Jamie Flinchbaugh
http://www.jamieflinchbaugh.com
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