Summer Reading List - 2019 Edition

"An education is not so much about making a living as making a person" - Tara Westover

For parents of school-age kids, the last day of school is like New Year's eve. It's basically a big party that ends one chapter and starts a new one. It's a time for reflection and a change of pace. And this summer is an especially reflective one for me. It marks six months since I started a new chapter in my career, and since my first consulting client chose to work with me.

My goal, and the reason I launched a consulting career, is to strike an intentional balance across family, career, and community, and make a meaningful impact in all three. In that spirit, I've compiled a short reading list that I hope gives you an opportunity to reflect as you head into summer.

Family

Educated, by Tara Westover

We are all dealt a set of circumstances in life shaped by the family we're born into - some good, some bad, some in between. It's what we chose to do about those circumstances that defines us, and the impact we have in the world. Tara Westover chose to pursue what many would consider the pinnacle of education, a PhD from Cambridge, against every imaginable odd. Her story is an incredible account of the complex dynamics of families, the resilience of the human spirit, and the power of education. Hands down the best book I read this year.

A Working Parent's Survival Guide, by Harvard Business Review

According to Statistics Canada, the number of Canadian families with two employed parents has almost doubled in the last 40 years—from 1.0 million to 1.9 million families, from 1976 to 2015. Over that period, the proportion of families where just one parent earned a paycheck fell by more than half, dropping from 59% to 27%. No surprise then that juggling family and career has become a bigger challenge for both moms and dads. I like this HBR article because it sums up 5 core challenges working parents face, along with 5 concrete, practical approaches to mitigate them.

Career

Xanax for SaaS Execs - The Third Pill: Churn, by Lauren Thibodeau

In the world of Software as a Service (SaaS), renewing your existing customers and increasing their lifetime value with your company is essential for success. The opposite -- churn -- kills SaaS companies. But what should your churn rate be? How does your company stack up compared to hundreds of your peers? CEOs and SaaS execs I've shared this content with have unanimously said how valuable this perspective is to their business - to give them a clearer sense of how they're performing today, and what targets they want to set for the future.

Four Best Practices for Strategic Planning - Boston Consulting Group, by Nicolas Kachaner, Kermit King, and Sam Stewart

Strategic planning can be a daunting process for many companies, so daunting in fact that some, to their detriment, choose not to do it at all. It doesn't need to be that way. Stratford Managers has a proven methodology and experience facilitating the strategic planning process across dozens and dozens of organizations. And I couldn't agree more with BCG's assessment: "The companies that get the most benefit from their strategic-planning activities have four things in common: 1) They explore strategy at distinct time horizons. 2) They constantly reinvent and stimulate the strategic dialogue. 3) They engage the broad organization. and 4) They invest in execution and monitoring."

Community

Canada Helps Giving Report, by Canada Helps.org

Did you know that over the past 10 years, the Canadian population has risen from 32.6 million to 36.3 million, but per capita charitable sector donations are down across all age groups. Small charities (0-10 employees) get the lowest % of their funding from government sources at 27%, while large charities (>200 employees) get approx 80% of funding from government sources. The reduction in per capita donations is having a disproportionate impact on smaller charities. In addition, crowdfunding platforms like Go Fund Me are disrupting the status quo, bringing unique new benefits. At the same time, many open questions remain in the crowdfunding space around good governance and accountability.

Building Confidence in Giving Back - How To Ensure Your Donations Make the Biggest Difference, by Imagine Canada

If you are able to help Canadian non-profit organizations by making financial donations, look for the Imagine Canada Trust Mark. Imagine Canada has a robust certification process in place to validate good governance, financial management, transparency, and accountability. I had the challenge and privilege this year of collaborating with the iSisters Technology Mentoring team as we went through the Imagine Canada re-certification process.

About the Author

Lauren Thibodeau enables B2B SaaS companies to accelerate customer adoption and crush churn through targeted learning & adoption programs and customer experience strategies. She also leads organizations through their strategic planning process. Prior to founding her own consulting company and working with Stratford Managers, Lauren held global leadership and executive roles at Kinaxis, Parametric Technology Corp (PTC), IBM, Cognos, and Queen’s University. Lauren holds Bachelor's degrees in Business, Adult Education, and French Literature, and a Master's degree in Linguistics. Lauren supports the community by organizing SaaS and Customer Experience / Customer Success meetups in the Ottawa, Canada area, and through her work as Director, Governance on the iSisters Technology Mentoring Board. Last, but certainly not least, she's the proud mom of three active, musical kids.