I have found the following books to be of interest. They have contributed to my opinion on issues and approach to situations. I have found my inspiration in these titles and would encourage anyone to read them. Please inquire about borrowing my copy. Please send me any recommendations you think I might enjoy. If you find the reviews helpful - feel free to register your feedback on Amazon.
Environment:
Silent Spring - Rachel Carson (40th Anniversary Edition)
It was finally time for me to pick up the book that is often credited with inspiring or starting the modern environmental movement. I'd heard of Silent Spring many times from environmental speakers and had seen it referenced in The Ecology of Commerce and in Megatrends 2010 ( both reviewed below). The title has lost nothing of its timeliness or relevance with the passage of more than 40 years since its first printing. To that point, First Mariner Books published a 40th Anniversary Edition with introduction and afterword by Linda Lear and Edward O. Wilson, respectively, that place the book and author in historical context and give credit for the impact both have had on our world.
I want to first of all give the author praise for being much more balanced and far-seeing in her thinking than any of the detractors whose reviews I've read on Amazon would hint at. The main charge post-humously leveled is that rampant unthinking DDT (or worse) use would have saved lives lost to malaria had it not been for one woman writing a slanderous attack on the petrochem industry whose only apparent reason for being is to improve life. Rachel Carson's prose may have been very eloquent, pursuasive and moving but she was not advocating an extreme or unthinking position. Whereas she may have been extremely passionate about the need to make changes in the spray away mindset of the day, she did not call for throwing away what science could contribute to public health and well-being or even economic productivity. Quite the contrary, based on an ecological mindset and a commitment to understand nature and work with her, Carson encouraged exploring biologically wise means to control pests that thrive in a bio-defense impoverished monoculture. She cited figures and facts on successful pioneering integrated pest management programs and made a cost-benefit analysis that set the balance right.
I may have majored in Economics, but I'll gladly take my science from scientists like Rachel Carson rather than the PR department of a chemical firm with a vested interest in selling a "silver bullet" that has to be reapplied year after year in greater amounts. Carson makes an ironclad case for the dangers of bioaccumulation of toxins in the food chain (yeah and guess who's at the top), the ill-targetted dispersal methods, insect resistance due to extremely short reproduction cycles and the mutagenic qualities of many of the new wave of pesticides. She lays out her arguments in such clear language and with sufficient analogies and background that a layman can easily follow and be more conversant in the concepts of the subject matter. The other criticism of the book by detractors' reviews is that there are "too many facts" referenced in it - I don't think these readers have any sense for the time period that Rachel Carson was writing in and the need for a woman, an outsider, to make damn sure that she lined up all the facts she could behind her case so as to not just be dismissed ad hominem when raising concern about how the men in the white coats were wisely dragging us down the wrong path.
What's with all the wingnuts claiming that Carson is responsible for millions of malaria deaths by banning DDT? Nice Limbaughesque talking point, but as often, WAY OFF TARGET. The main thrust of the book is against agricultural pesticides where the damage caused by the target pest is economically less significant than the collateral damage of control efforts to the environment and human well-being. The reference to mosquito control in the actual book these buffoons claim to be reviewing is 1). a warning on mosquito resistance, 2). risk of wiping out the mosquitos natural predators with indiscrimminate control strategies (Nissan Island WWII), 3).exploring other more targetted control measures such as ultrasound.
Crimes Against Nature: How George W. Bush and His Corporate Pals Are Plundering the Country and Hijacking Our Democracy - Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
From his pedigree and the title alone there is no doubt where the author's political sympathies lie but this book is more than just a partisan rant against the other side of the aisle. By documenting incident after incident of malfeasance, high-handedness and outright lying, Kennedy goes straight after the people who are causing harm to our nation's resources and planet's life support system for the sake of grabbing personal gain.
I don't believe that he attacks what is best in Conservative values or necessarily asks us to buy wholesale his Liberal agenda. Throughout the book, by documenting the opinions and experiences of career government scientists and stifled voices of dissent from within the administration, or people in the Republican party like McCain and Sununu who opposed egregious excesses, Kennedy makes the case for a non-partisan spirit of stewardship for the nation's well-being. There is plenty of room for honest people to disagree on what level of regulation is appropriate and what restraint on private activity balances best with the public good. Kennedy paints a compelling picture of the current administration's actions as falling well outside the bounds of that type of debate – indeed they represent a concerted attempt to sabotage and circumvent the dialogue itself. After reading the argument and digesting the facts, it's hard to find much to say to refute the charge that there is massive corruption and plunder under GWB's watch. Unless there's just something huge I'm missing, you'd have to be a fanatic, a crook in on the take or completely ignorant to not have a problem with the current leaders and their environmental policies – this book takes away the excuse of ignorance.
Socially Responsible Investing and Sustainable Business:
Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism - Patricia Aburdene
An informative and inspiring read overall. As the extended title states, the book traces the rise of trends in workplace, lifestyle and relationship to investments that promise to align the world closer to "spirit". The author cites numerous examples of the trends and quotes leaders in the emerging movements, both from their writings and from personal interviews. This is a very well researched book and the author makes full use of her level of access to make leaders and experts come across intimately.
The tone is at times too colloquial and it detracts a little from what is being discussed, however, the general effect is still convincing. I should mention that I had just read Naomi Klein's No Logo before picking up Megatrends 2010. I'd have to contrast the two by saying that the Klein book hit like a ton of bricks and was very tightly crafted but left me feeling numb and powerless while I took Megatrends lightly at first, it pushed me further into believing in social change through business and wanting to take part in it. A valid critique of Megatrends is that it does not expose and confront the dark side of capitalism, or, more generically the world, but rather seems to dance around it a bit.
The power of this book and its contribution will truly be reflected in the changes and actions it will inspire in the readers. In addition to talks with visionary CEO's and founders, Patricia emphasizes the quiet leadership and influence that middle managers and everyday consumers can have over even our global economy. After finishing it, you will know that it is ok to dream of a better world and that there are facts also on the side of your faith. No entrepreneur or manager who stands up for what they believe is right will feel that they are standing alone.
The Ecology of Commerce- Paul Hawken
The author, co-founder of Smith and Hawken and several other ventures, brings to light the inevitable conflict between "business as usual" and environmental and social sustainability. After this analysis, he posits that things needn't be so gloomy; rather, with proper encouragement from government and a committed citizenry, business can become a force for positive change. My two cent critique is that the author's solution counts on drivers external to business and does not explain what steps would lead to creating these drivers. In other words, we can easily picture how things could be better in a world run by the likes of Paul Hawken but how do we get there from here? I found the book a worthwhile read, inspirational and fact-filled.
What Matters Most - Jeffrey Hollender & Steven Fenichell
Another leader of an iconic "green company", Jeffrey Hollender - founder and CEO of Seventh Generation (yes, I use their laundry detergent exclusively) discusses the challenges of running a business with high integrity and full disclosure. In particular, Hollender recounts Seventh Generation's stint as a publicly traded company and posits that public ownership inevitably leads to an erosion of core values by the pressures of the markets. He cites also the example of Ben and Jerry's take-over by Unilever. I personally believe that positive social change can be wrought through the public securities markets and that values driven investing is the most significant tool available. I appreciate What Matters Most as a cautionary tale keeping me alert to some of the perils of my chosen approach. I had the privilege of hearing Jeffrey Hollender speak at a Working Assets brown bag lunch lecture. He is a forceful presence and very inspiring in his forthrightness in answering questions probing the gray areas that an ethical company must struggle with. The Resources section at the back of the book is very well researched and thorough. It would be worth buying the book merely for that appendix.
Socially Responsible Investment - Russell Sparkes
A valuable primer for the layman or a deep immersion for the practitioner. Amazing research yields inside details and direct quotations from the leaders and frontline participants in Socially Responsible Investing. The book discusses institutional and individual investors and explores the different constraints and preferences of those constituencies. Traces the history of SRI in the US and Britain then follows the idea as it is picked up and implemented around the globe. The book explores how the toolkit of social investors (exclusionary or aversion screening, positive screen, shareholder activism) is adapted to the character of specific national markets. Very honest and thorough treatment of whether there is a "performance penalty" to SRI makes a more convincing pro-SRI case than other books I've read that were overly glib. Extremely valuable read to come up to speed on history, issues, approaches.
No Logo - Naomi Klein
The author traces the rise of the multinational brand focused corporation and its impact on society. There is no escaping brands and commercial speech, our public spaces and our very minds are held captive by the forces of ubiquitous branding and advertising. At the same time they seek to invade every mental nook and cranny the mega corporations have severed their ties to local communities as employers and have spun a web that chases after cheap labor around the globe. The author shows powerfully how these tensions culminated in the backlash against the brands, as exemplified in the global campaign against Nike and others that employ sweatshop labor. The blueprint for resistance whether through protest, reclaiming public space or "culture jamming" and "ad busting" is laid out for the reader. The quality of the reasoning, backed up by thoroughly researched facts, and expressed with great clarity make this book a MUST READ. It should come with a warning label that you won't want to put it down, except maybe to go yell back at the ads that surround you.
Harvard Business Review on Corporate Responsibility
This collection of article opens interesting lines of reasoning and might just get fresh ideas in front of decision makers who can use business as a tool for good on the global scale. The eight articles cover a broad range of topics and vary in tone from sweeping philosophical musings to rigorous academic pieces. The first article is a very strong lead-off, I will try to summarize this piece in hopes of giving you a flavor for the whole collection:
Serving the world’s poor, profitably – C.K. Prahalad & Allen Hammond
How can companies profitably serve a market where consumers live on $2000 or less per year? On the other hand, how can companies afford to ignore a market of 4 billion potential customers? This article explores reasons why companies have in the past shied away from trying to serve the “bottom of the pyramid” (BOP) markets, why major growth opportunities exist in this niche, and how typical strategies need to be adapted into new thinking that will benefit the world’s poorest communities and those who compete for their business. There is a distasteful element to imagining multinational corporations, the most powerful institutions of our time, engaging and profiting from the most economically powerless. The authors make the case that the poor suffer more from being ignored by the global marketplace of the multinationals than by engagement with it. They illustrate how prices charged by the informal economy that serves poor communities are typically much higher for the same goods than prices in more affluent communities served by efficient distribution. When BOP strategies are done correctly, corporations also benefit in more ways than simply generating additional sales: BOP markets can serve as incubators for new products, ideas and approaches that can revitalize productivity and leadership in the developed (and saturated) markets as well. An innovative approach for reaching poorer customers is to de-aggregate ownership from use by exploring “pay per use” models. Another strategy, that runs counter to mainstream thinking, is to deploy some of the most cutting edge wireless technologies in the least developed markets to overcome the isolation of poor rural areas.
Socially Responsible Investing : Making a Difference and Making Money, Amy Domini
Investing With Your Values: Making Money and Making a Difference, Hal & Jack Brill, Cliff Feigenbaum
General Economics and Social Science:
Mutual Aid - Peter Kropotkin
Anarchist classic, rooted in observation of natural phenomena and history. Challenges the conception that capitalism is a natural progression of Darwinism at work in the wild. The author cites numerous examples of compassion and innate goodness at work outside the bounds of a structured power-based society. The study covers instances of non-hierachical interactions from primitive tribes to mediaeval cities, and on to his contemporary labor unions. It has been some years since I read it and I plan to revisit this title soon.
Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
Another work of sweeping scope that seeks to understand what the factors either in human nature or environmental circumstance have led to Western European civilization's domination of the world. Diamond identifies numerous factors in the environment (access to cultivable Fertile Crescent crops, presence of animal species suitable for work, East-West continental alignment) and history of Europe that make the dominance of its civilization inevitable. Human genetic factors are also examined and proven inconsequential to the dominance of the White Caucasian. This book carefully lays out a counter-argument to any physical anthropological theories of racial superiority. At times the multitude of examples in this 450+ page tome seem redundant. Pulitzer Prize winner.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins
Tough call: intesting subject but serious flaws. This one was a mixed bag, too bad you can't give 3.5 stars on Amazon.com, which happens to also be the consensus reviewer opinion. I was reminded of what I thought of The Celestine Prophecy - a book that touched on very provocative and interesting ideas but dropped the ball on plot, writing, character development - I really WANTED to like it just a little more than I ACTUALLY liked it but I walked away with something to noodle on.
I applaud the author's efforts to publish some behind the scenes revelations about how nasty our foreign policies are and how beholden they are to the few and powerful who benefit directly *no bid* at the expense of the rest of us.
I found the confessional and autobiographical aspects to interfere with the story. I lost patience with the protagonist. I couldn't handle how long he labored over quitting and how long it took for facts and feelings to percolate into action. When Perkins is writing about world events, he is captivating and can pull a succinct and moving analysis together (easy to believe he was a successful snake-oil pusher when writing up glowing economic forecasts he didn't even buy).
When he is discussing his personal thoughts and emotions, his style, the quality of his communication and his self-awareness are more stunted. The personal anecdotes and any mention of interactions with women throughout the story line seem almost like they were written by an adolescent male.
On balance, I would recommend the book as an eye-opener for anyone who has a creeping sensation that something's rotten in the way America acts in the world but can't put their finger on it. I don't think reading book will dramatically turn someone's worldview around - you are going to give the author some slack and let him weave his yarn if you're already "on his side".
Professional Development:
|
| |||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||
A great compilation of different voices, August 26, 2006 Disclosure: I know John Renesch socially, although I don't believe it has influenced my star rating, it's only fair to tell the reader.
Leadership is hard to define in these changing times where organizations are evolving to become flatter and more fluid as the marketplace becomes more global and information-based. This compilation of 23 essays, organized into five thematic sections, does an amazing job of bringing a diversity of viewpoints, concerns and approaches to such an amorphous, but no less critical, topic.
Although some of the essays make specific recommendations, this is not a step by step "how-to" book like so much of the literature on business topics. As Stephen Covey points out, management and leadership are distinct skills - this book is NOT a management text. Rather, it is a spark of inspiration to light your own leadership fire and prompt reflection wherever you might be stuck. Many of the articles emphasize the role of a spiritual dimension in business and in leadership. Authenticity, listening, cultivating awareness and personal growth are recurring themes throughout the essays.
In places, some readers may find the essays too "new age" or contradictory. I'd encourage them to remember that ambiguity and paradox are the very challenges that most require leadership and adaptation without reliance on the hard, proven, old certainties. By contrast, the fourth essay, Ann Morrison's "Diversity and Leadership Development", takes a very precise and hard-nosed approach to a topic that I've seen most companies attack with a flurry of fluffy symbolic lip-service and inept half-measures. Morrison describes a model for how leaders develop, identifies the challenges faced by "nontraditional" candidates in that model, and, outlines specific steps companies can take to avoid common pitfalls if they are truly committed to building diversity at the top and throughout the organization.
My favorite single quote, which should give the reader a good feel for the overall book, is the following by James Autry in the first essay: "Or could it be that those who believe in the greed of the marketplace have just found a convenient excuse for their own greed or for their own unwillingness to concern themselves with the human spirit?"
What Color is your Parachute? - Nelson Bolles
The Reinvention of Work - Matthew Fox
Psychology and Personal Transformation:
Change your Brain, Change your Life - Dr. Daniel Amen
No Boundary- Ken Wilber
The Quest of the Overself - Paul Brunton
How to Win Friends & Influence People - Dale Carnegie
Is this merely a machiavelian handbook for flatterers and manipulators or is it a breakthrough in the science of human relations? This book, published in 1937, is a classic and has inspired thousands of imitators and followers down through to motivational speakers and other modern day purveyors of advice. Why not read the original? Many of the lessons in these pages seem obvious and common sense but there lies the beauty: Carnegie challenges us to act on the obvious insights and implement the realizations in our daily lives. Strategies are spelled out in a straight-forward manner and numerous examples are shown.
Critical Thinking:
The Art of Thinking - Vincent Ryan Ruggiero
Concise & precise: does the job This text was required reading for my college freshman year critical thinking class (over 15 years ago) and I highly recommend it for students. The approach to problems and issues is very methodical and forces one to consider styles that may complement the habitual.
I've found myself coming back to the book when feeling "stuck" with a problem and feeling like I was not tapping the full range of creative solutions that could at least be considered. Our minds are naturally lazy and reach for the common or habitual answers - it's not a bad thing, it may just be the result of successful evolutionary survival to have gotten us to this point. Putting the discipline this book will teach you to use consistently will give you a structure to guide extra effort towards solving problems for which the same old answers fail to satisfy you.
Contrary to some of the criticism I've read here, I believe the author addresses how emotions can be used and incorporated in the process rather than being suppressed or ignored. One area that I believe the author can improve, is in the use of visuals* such as a process map or visual overview for the problem solving process. This would make the material more accessible, powerful and memorable. I've found in the workplace that creating visual flowcharts for business processes can enhance communication, absorption and adherence to the "best practices" you recommend. I plan to contact the author with this suggestion.
Hope you enjoy the book,
-Frank
*I have an older edition and this gap may have already been addressed by the author in subsequent versions.
¶ 2:11 PM 0 comments links to this post
