"Good Reads" – Recommendations from
      Calming the Storm

1. On Jumping Into the Fray

The Pursuit of Wow! Every Person’s Guide to Topsy Turvy Times  by Tom Peters, Vintage, 2010.

A quirky potpourri of close encounters, short business profiles, and interesting personal and interpersonal encounters all of which have one big, collective message: Don’t wait, get started now, and keep thoughtfully plunging ahead.

The Protean Self: Human Resilience in an Age of Fragmentation by Robert Jay Lifton, University of Chicago Press, 1993. 

Lifton, a psychiatrist and historian, has done respected studies on how people adapt to adverse, dislocating, and sometime alarming circumstances. His  collective works have led to a theory about how resilience and adaptation work.

Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments by Kent M. Keith, Berkley Books, 2001. 

A slim but powerful volume on coming to grips with paradox, contradiction, and ambiguity. First written when Keith was a student at Harvard in the 1960s, his credo of ten principles has been adopted by diverse leaders who have to grapple with the inconsistencies and divergent opinions that always arise when people have differences of opinions. 

2. On Handling Conflicts and Disputes

High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out by Amanda Ripley, Simon & Schuster, 2003.

Many arguments and frictions are useful. They produce warmth or shed rays of light that illuminate other matters. But what about the nasty ones where people get hurt and collateral damage spreads? Ripley’s insights on how dysfunctional conflicts develop and can work their way to solutions bring both optimism and effective “moves.” 

Possible: How We Survive (and thrive) in an Age of Conflict by William Ury, Harper Business, 2024.  

Ury, a premier negotiation theorist and co-author of Getting to Yes in 1981, has had a long and illustrious career of resolving complex domestic and international disputes. His memoir is filled with practical tips illustrated by the difficult cases he has worked on. He says he is neither a pessimist nor an optimist. He is a “possibilist.”

Bargaining with the Devil: When to Negotiate, When to Fight by Robert Mnookin, Simon  & Schuster, 2010. 

How do you handle disputes when one or both sides demonize each other and distrust every move the other makes? What if one side thinks the other is cheating or operating in bad faith? Mnookin, a Harvard law professor and highly regarded mediator, offers practical guidance before assuming all is lost and it's time to put the gloves on.

3. On Strategies and Tactics 

Thinking in Bets: Making Smarter Decisions When you Don’t Have All the Facts by Annie Duke, Penguin, 2018. 

Duke,  a former World Series of Poker champion and prosperous winner, says strategy is less like chess and more like smart gambling. Even when you believe the odds are with you financially, legally, or socially, you are vulnerable to missteps. You can, however, find ways to win in business, sports, or politics more than you lose by making educated bets based on what you do know.

Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky, Random House, 1971. 

Alinsky, a labor organizer who became a legendary community organizer, distilled ten basic non-violent tactices to help social, economic, and political underdogs fight against more powerful opponents. His strategies have been adopted by community, government, and business leaders and are routine in political campaigns.

The Art of War Sun Tzu and The Thirty-Six Stratagems. 

Both are ancient Chinese texts and come in many different and accessible editions and interpretations. The first seems to be the original ancient Chinese text. The second is probably derivative of Sun Tzu’s work. Both are well studied by military and business decision makers and learned by most high school students in China.

 4. On Finding Solutions

 The Art of Innovation: Lessons in Creativity from America’s Leading Design Firm by Tom Kelly, Currency, 2001. 

Even more than their company IDEO and the Kelly brothers amazing products are the unique processes they use to uncork changes in ways that create brilliant results. IDEO takes brainstorming, prototyping and team management to a level that can be adapted by others who need to work with groups.

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowicki, Anchor, 2005. 

Surowicki, a business writer, shows how groups that are well organized in particular ways will “know” things that individuals don't. They can predict answers, organize complex enterprises, and get self-interested people to work together. Structured right, they have “Collective Wisdom" and can "Crowd Source" to better outcomes.

Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration by Warren Bennis and Patrician Ward Biederman, Basic Books, 1997. 

Bennis and Biederman assembled half a dozen in-depth case studies ranging from the Manhattan Project, to the Clinton campaign for president, to how Walt Disney put together and managed the team that created the first full-length color cartoon (Snow White). From their six business cases, they distill commonalities and lessons others can use.