Book Reviews
The Quiet Before: On the Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas Gal Beckerman Crown (February 2022) How to discover or create anew the stages on which the incubation of radical ideas depends Think of an idea as a seed. Even under…
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Stolen Focus: Why You Can’t Pay Attention — And How to Think Deeply Again Johann Hari Crown (January 2022) How to focus on what is most important, not just on what is urgent or easy In their classic work, The…
Read MoreViva la Repartee: Clever Comebacks and Witty Retorts from History’s Great Wits and Wordsmiths Mardy Grothe Collins/An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers (2005) Viva Grothe! Those who have already read Grothe’s Oxymoronica will thoroughly enjoy this volume in which he shifts…
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The Double Bottom Line: How Compassionate Leaders Captivate Hearts and Deliver Results Donato Tramuto with Tami Booth Corwin Fast Company Press (April 2022) “Your people won’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Theodore Roosevelt…
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The Great Invention: A History of the World in Nine Mysterious ScriptsSilvia Ferrara, Translated by Todd Portnowitz Farrar, Straus & Giroux (March 2022) “As long as there are emotions, there will be written letters…living letters.” The title attracted my attention…
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It’s Time to Talk about Race at Work: Every Leader’s Guide to Making Progress on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Kelly McDonald Wiley (June 2021) Channeling Thomas Edison, “Affirmation of DEI without execution is hallucination.” The original meaning of the word…
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The Power of Little Ideas: A Low-Risk, High-Reward Approach to Innovation David Robertson with Kent Linebac k Harvard Business Review Press (May 2017) Do innovators have only two choices: innovate small incrementally or innovate big disruptively? “There is another option.”…
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Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World Adam M. Grant Viking/An Imprint of Penguin Random House (2016) How and why originality starts with creative thinking, is driven by a vision, and can eventually have global impact Some books (not many) have…
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Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works A.G. Lafley and Roger Martin Harvard Business Review Press (2013) “The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.” Michael Porter Note: I reviewed this book when it was first published and…
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Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas Jennifer Raff Twelve/Hatchette Book Group (February 2022) A brilliant exploration of Indigenous histories in the Americas when people first came to them I agree with Jennifer Raff that gaining a better understanding of the…
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