Recommended Books
Things are changing fast and often unpredictably, so how do you stay up-to-date with everything?
- Step 1 is to surround yourself with a great network.
- Step 2 is to read. Reading about what others know is really the best way to feed your curiosity. Unlike a degree or masters course, you can follow your interests creating your own ‘Change Diploma’ in whatever format suits you.
Your learning journey will be fantastically unique but to help you get going, here is a good set of resources relating to culture, people and behaviour change. Plus a few almost off-topic books to keep your creative juices alive.
If you find others you think should be added then drop me an email, I’d love to hear from you.
Books that will help you tell stories that people will remember…
The Tipping Point
Author : Malcolm Gladwell
An interesting book about why some ideas spread like ‘social epidemics’ when others don’t.
Made to Stick
Author : Chip & Dan Heath
A book that follows on well from The tipping Point on how to make your ideas sticky. How to win over an audience and make sure they remember your ideas.
Start With Why
Author : Simon Sinek
Excellent advise about how leaders need to start with the ‘why’. (Quick cheat here – if you are short of time then the essence of the book is in his ‘How great leaders inspire action’ TedX talk.)
The Pyramid Principle
Author : Barbara Minto
Not the most entertaining of books but excellent training on how to structure ideas so they ‘jump off the page’. If everyone read this book then we’d all get to the point much quicker.
Knowledge Is Beautiful
Author : David McCandless
A good coffee table book to open up your mind to the power of visual representation. After all a picture is worth a thousand words and infographics are very today’s language.
Dataclysm – Who We Are
Author : Christian Rudder
Stories told through data. Will make you think.
Books that will help you understand human behaviour (well as best we can)…
Thinking Fast & Slow
Author : Daniel Kahneman
“The renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics takes us on a ground breaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think.”
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness
Author : Thaler & Sunstein
The book that kicked off all the interest in Nudge theory and behavioural economics. A great starting point with really strong early chapters. Later sections are heavily public sector focused but still worth a read for principles it introduces.
Games People Play – The Psychology of Human Relationships
Author : Eric Berne
Transaction theory looking at how the we get locked in to patterns of behavior. One of the early transactional analysis thinkers, don’t be put off by how psychology degree reading that sounds as it’s very digestible to people interested in people change.
Books that will help you with leadership…
Lean In – Women, Work and the Will to Lead
Author : Sheryl Sandberg
It’s amazing how many women I’ve told to read this book to help persuade them to take a seat at the table. This book isn’t just a feminist book; it’s a book about the choices Sheryl made to get where she is. Fabulous read.
Mindset : Changing the Way You Think to Fulfil Your Potential
Author : Carol Dweck
This is the second most recommended-by-me book on my list and talks about how we all need to move from a fixed to a growth mindset.
Books that will help you with Organisational Change…
The Lean Startup
Author : Eric Ries
You have to be agile these days and this is probably the most talked about book on it.
Lean Enterprise
Author : Jez Humble, Joanne Moleskin & Barry O’Reilly
How high performance organisations innovate at scale. Really good common sense about how to apply agile principle to organisational change.
Designing Dynamic Organisations
Author : Jay Galbraith, Diane Downey & Amy Kates
The nearest I get to a handbook in this list. Guide to Org Design with a nice toolkit of stuff.
Time-Talent-Energy
Author : Michael Mankins & Eric Garton
Talks about the importance of human capital and how much productivity is lost in a business through meeting and email practices (amongst others). If you don’t have time to read it, listen to this podcast
The Startup Way
Author : Eric Reis
The revolutionary way of working that will change how companies thrive and grow. The follow-up book to The Lean Startup.
Books that will help you with personal branding or just being the best you can.
Stand Out
Author : Dorie Clark
How to find your breakthrough idea and build a following around it.
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Author : Stephen Covey
An older but good common sense way to approach life and change. In summary; 1. Be proactive, 2. Begin with the end in mind, 3. Put first things first, 4. Think win-win, 5. Seek first to understand then to be understood, 6. Synergise, 7. Sharpen the saw.
The Start-up of You
Author : Reid Hoffman & Ben Casnocha
A great little read if you are thinking of going it alone.