dispatches from the new world of work

Tom's Notable Books 2006

"Notable Books 2006" invariably means books published in 2006. Well, the hell with that. Probably 60% or more of my "turn on" books in a given year come from previous years or are galleys for the coming year—I just happen to catch them (more accurately, they catch me) in that year. Hence Notable Books that I have first read in 2006 (furthermore, in no particular order):

Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything, Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, 2007—available now (must read #1, 2007—period)

The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger, Marc Levinson, 2006 (messy innovation)

Touched with Fire: Manic Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament, Kay Redfield Jamison, 1993 (creatives are often freaky—and always necessary)

The Lovemarks Effect: Winning in the Consumer Revolution, Kevin Roberts, 2006 (think "passion-added revolution"—from the master)

Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think, Brian Wansink, 2006 (health, plus the power of managed behavior change)

Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation, Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes, 2002 (wonderful—still an "oddball idea" for some reason)

The Future and Its Enemies: The Growing Conflict Over Creativity, Enterprise, and Progress, Virginia Postrel, 1999, (messy road to progress)

FOOLED BY RANDOMNESS: THE HIDDEN ROLE OF CHANCE IN LIFE AND IN THE MARKETS, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, 2005 (this will be on the list every year—chance and life; don't "read it," ingest it)

The Richness of Life: The Essential Stephen Jay Gould, collected by Steven Rose, 2006 (good for the mind, good for the soul, thinking about life as it really works—SJG always enriches me directly and indirectly)

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships, Daniel Goleman, 2006 (Goleman is back, EQ et al. is all by many measures)

Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan, 2002 (EXECUTION!!!—THE "BIBLE")

PrimeTime Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders, Marti Barletta, 2007—available (Duh! When will "they "get it"??)

50+: Igniting a Revolution to Reinvent America, Bill Novelli, 2006 (best yet on the all-powerful, wildly expanding Boomer-Geezer tsunami)

Grant, Jean Edward Smith, 2001 (U.S. Grant made my year—"a bias for action," Mr Execution)

Grant, John Mosier, 2006

Personal Memoirs: Ulysses S. Grant, U.S. Grant (they still read this at West Point)

Free Your Breath, Free Your Life, Dennis Lewis, 2004 (another perennial)

Tom Peters posted this on 12/29/06.

Comments

Thanks - you and Bill Clinton inhale the most information it seems [except Bill "didn't inhale"] ...

Posted by sean_thanks at December 30, 2006 4:42 PM

Loved Mindless Eating ... after that I suggest Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma, which the NYT listed as one of the top ten books of '06. It shows the industrial side of the equation that exploits the tendency to eat mindlessly. (If you like Pollan's writing, you'll also like his Botany of Desire.)

Posted by Steve Yastrow at December 31, 2006 2:11 AM

The year of publication is irrelevant - the day I discover a book is what matters. In 2006 I 'discoverd' by accident two fabulous books. 'Corageous Leadership' by Bill Hybels and 'Shackletons Way' by Margot Morrell and Stephanie Capparell.

Posted by Trevor Gay at December 31, 2006 9:23 AM

I'll second the vote for "Box." McLean was an example of what it means to be a creative business person. Long after he'd left SeaLand he was trying to solve other problems like moving a patient from bed to gurney or cleaning up hog lagoons. Truly one of the great unsung business heroes of the 20th Century.

Posted by Wally Bock at January 1, 2007 7:02 PM

Tom: I was surprised not to see "Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths And Total Nonsense"...Pfeffer & Sutton's hammer. And thanks for the list...there are at least two, the Levinson and the Grant papers, I am sure to read this month as a result.

Trevor: If you appreciate Shackleton's accomplishments, I suspect you would really get a kick out of Roald Amundsen's 1937 "My Life as an Explorer". Like ES, he didn't lose a single teammate...but he did make it all the way. A bit of luck, and a tonne of incomparable planning and brilliant improvisation.

Posted by jeff angus at January 1, 2007 8:05 PM

Thanks for the tip off on Wikinomics. You're right, it's a hellofa book! I couldn't put it down.

Posted by Ana Paula at January 1, 2007 10:48 PM

Thanks for that tip Jeff - I will add 'My Life as an Explorer' to my growing reading list (that has been added to over Christmas) Reading is such a wonderful pastime; I just wish I could find more time to do it! 'Shackleton's Way' is inspirational and ES approach was based on simplicity - trust your folks, keep your folks happy and they will achieve almost anything! The book tells us that Shackleton's tools were humour, generosity, intelligence, strength and compassion. Interesting donâ€™t you think Jeff that none of those 5 words (with the possible exception of intelligence) are mentioned as part of the MBA in business schools to the best of my knowledge - and yet we expect these schools to produce business leaders â€“ what is the message there? Like Amundsen I would also add â€˜luckâ€™ to the list of 5.

Happy New Year!

Posted by Trevor Gay at January 2, 2007 6:09 AM

And Muhammad Yunus'
Banker To The Poor
Or how to win the Nobel Peace Prize when you really
deserve the Nobel Prize for Economics (too).

Posted by ShakespearesFool at January 5, 2007 10:35 PM