Home Isolation Reading List

Got time on your hands or looking for ways to navigate the disruption? Here's my list of books I recommend that seem apt for these turbulent times. Many of these books highlight themes that were important before the current crisis, but COVID-19 driven acceleration of change has made them even more so in the current environment. Please let me know which books you're reading and/or recommend in these times.  

Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

(General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, Chris Fussell)

https://www.amazon.com/Team-Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486/

General Stanley McChrystal lead the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) battling Al-Queda in Iraq and found that the old rules that worked in a complicated world weren't effective in a complex, highly interconnected world. The book starts with a discussion of the increasingly VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) nature of the world and dives deep into a discussion of the dynamics of complexity, building a case for why organisations need to prioritise adaptability and resilience. It then goes on to explain how they responded - transforming JSOC through changing how communication and distributed decision making was implemented. This resulted in a much more agile and responsive "team of teams". There are many lessons here for leaders of organisations struggling to adapt to new ways of working in such extreme times. 

If you're after more specific advice for the current crisis, the McChrystal Group have a variety of articles and webinars available at https://www.dhirubhai.net/company/mcchrystal-group/.

The Leadership Lab: Understanding Leadership in the 21st Century

(Chris Lewis & Pippa Malmgren)

https://www.amazon.com/Leadership-Lab-Understanding-Century-Inspire/dp/B07RN9SCHG/

The Leadership LAB talks about how the world has changed in the 21st century and examines how leaders must adapt to meet this new reality. Published in 2018, the book examines trends and paradoxes with a social, geopolitical, and economic flavour reflective of Pippa's background as an economist and presidential advisor. Like Team of Teams, they recommend embracing uncertainty and rail against 20th-century reductionism. I suspect that the social & economic disruption that we're going through in response to the public health crisis has accelerated and amplified many of these trends, making it even more critical for leaders to shift their thinking. 

The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact

(Chip Heath & Dan Heath)

https://www.amazon.com/Power-Moments-Certain-Experiences-Extraordinary-ebook/dp/B01N9OQOJ2/

As can be expected with the Heath brothers (Switch, Made to Stick), The Power of Moments is a wonderful read. As the subtitle suggests, it is about how to create moments in people's lives that have extraordinary impact. 

One of the things that has heartened me during this crisis is the way that people are pulling together, the increased sense of community, and the creativity on all sorts of dimensions. I suggest it is a good time for us all to reflect on how we can help others through this. The Power of Moments provides both inspiration and actionable techniques to provide the gift of a memorable moment. 

The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth

(Amy Edmondson)

https://www.amazon.com/Fearless-Organization-Psychological-Workplace-Innovation/dp/B07Q33FMBY/

The key message of The Fearless Organization is that teams perform better when there is a culture of psychological safety - that is where employees feel safe enough to speak up and be candid.   These teams learn faster and adapt better - critical characteristics for survival in the current crisis. I've already heard anecdotes from friends who work in fear-based organisations that the current uncertainty is increasing fear and employees are retreating further into their shell, the consequences of which will further threaten those organisations' ability to survive. The book includes a toolkit that leaders can follow for building psychological safety in their teams.  

Ultralearning: Accelerate Your Career, Master Hard Skills and Outsmart the Competition

(Scott Young)

https://www.amazon.com/Ultralearning-Strategies-Mastering-Skills-Getting-ebook/dp/B07J2CKYXC/

Many are looking to use the extra time stuck at home to start a new learning project, and for this, I recommend Scott Young's Ultralearning. It is a guide to becoming an Ultralearner - a strategy for self-directed learning that helps you learn anything (knowledge or skills-based) deeply and quickly. 

Upstream: The Quest to Solve Problems Before They Happen 

(Dan Heath)

https://www.amazon.com/Upstream-Quest-Problems-Before-Happen/dp/1982134720/

Dan Heath's (co-author of The Power of Moments above) latest book was released in early March, and although I received my pre-ordered copy a few weeks ago, I haven't had a chance to finish it yet. Reminiscent of Sun Tzu's strategy of Win without fighting, the book's focus is on how to prevent problems before they happen, something that seems apt right now. As expected, the examples are both interesting and significant, and the storytelling is excellent. I can't wait to finish it.  

Align: A Leadership Blueprint for Aligning Enterprise Purpose, Strategy and Organisation

(Jonathan Trevor)

https://www.amazon.com/Align-Leadership-Blueprint-Enterprise-Organisation-ebook/dp/B07WJ37G8B/

In Align, Jonathan Trevor, Associate Professor of Management Practice at Oxford's Said Business School, has provided a blueprint for Strategic Alignment. The alignment of organisational strategy, capability, architecture and management systems around the organisation's purpose is the core thrust of the book. However, that description doesn't do it justice. Dr Trevor brings remarkable depth to the topic. The book is packed with insights and is eminently practical. 

The Third Pillar: How Markets and the State Leave the Community Behind

(Raghuram Rajan) 

https://www.amazon.com/Third-Pillar-Markets-Community-Behind/dp/0525558314/

Over the past few years, we've seen the rise of populism right across the world, western liberalism has lost momentum, and growing angst around the distribution of wealth. In her earlier book Signals, Pippa Malmgren (coauthor of The Leadership Lab above) highlighted the cracks that have been forming in the social contracts of societies around the world. Recent events have blown these cracks wide open, and when we eventually move on from this crisis, I expect there will be much examination of what kind of society we want to live in. Raghuram Rajan examines the role of the market, government and communities as the Three Pillars of society. In the same spirit of examining what's working and what's not, Mariana Mazzucato's The Value of Everything: Makers and Takers in the Global Economy provides a different take. 

There's obviously a wide divergence of opinions on what's failing and what needs to change, but I think these books identify important issues that should be part of the conversation.