Here are some books and movies that are related to the topics I bring into programs. Some have more obvious connection to leadership and teaming, some you'll have to ponder for awhile. I update this periodically so check back.
Books
Leadership
- On Becoming a Leader, Warren Bennis. Classic work by the grandfather of leadership theory.
- The Art of Helping, Robert Carkhuff. Very practical guide for coaching/mentoring.
- The Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge. Leadership through a systems viewpoint.
- The Path of Least Resistance, Robert Fritz. Exploration of creativity.
- Helping, Edgar Schein. How to actually helpful to another.
- Leadership and the New Science, Margaret Wheatley. Leadership through the lense of self-organizing systems.
- The Practice of Adaptive Leadership, Ronald Heifetz. The idea that leadership is about transformational change rather than incremental.
- **Any of the various books by former UCLA basketball coach John Wooden. My favorite writer on the concept of winning and success. Also his TED talk- The difference between winning and succeeding https://www.ted.com/talks/john_wooden_on_the_difference_between_winning_and_success
- Leadership and Self-Deception, the Arbinger Institute. Based on the "I-Thou" philosophy of Martin Buber, a story based exploration of how leaders get in their own way.
- Presence, Peter Senge et al. On how to "Show up" as a leader
- Tao Mentoring, Al Huang and Jerry Lynch. Using Taoist philosophy to explore coaching/mentoring.
- Maestro, Roger Nierenberg. Short but dense inn leadership lessons. Uses the conductor metaphor fort leadership.
- The Meaning Revolution, Fred Kofman. A follow on to Conscious Business. On becoming an transcendent leader.
- Turn the Ship Around; the True Story of Turning Followers Into Leaders, L. David Marquet. Very practical tools for engaging the workforce.
- Thinking in Systems, Donna Meadows. The Bible on systems thinking. Must read if you want to understand systems dynamics.
- The Art of Action, Stephen Bungay. Bungay analyzes strategy through the lens of military history and makes links to business. His conclusions are Middle Path principles from beginning to end. Heavier reading if you like the deep, academic approach.
Business
- Conscious Capitalism, John Mackay. CEO of Whole Foods discusses how true capitalism can work.
- The Monk and the Riddle, Randy Komisar. Exploration of purpose in business.
- Creativity Inc., Ed Catmull. Former Pixar Exec on culture of innovation. Good practical ideas.
- The Seven Day Weekend, Ricardo Semler. Breaking all the traditional rules of how to run a business, Semler avoids the suckers choice and has both winning and success.
- The Balanced Scorecard, Kaplan and Norton. How to take a multi-dimensional view of business metrics.
- Good to Great and Built to Last, Jim Collins. Stanford professor on sustained success in business.
- Beyond Measure. The Big Impact of Small Changes. How the things that are harder to measure can be more important for business. Full of current business examples.
Philosophy
- The Bhagavad Gita. I recommend the version interpreted by Gandhi.
- The Legend of Bagger Vance, Steven Pressfield. A modern interpretation of the Bhagavad Gita.
- The Tao Te Ching. I like the interpretation by Ursula Le Guin.
- The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff. Taoism explain through the Pooh stories- delightfully simple.
- Myths to Live By, Joseph Campbell. Lessons from archetypal human myths.
- The Systems View of Life: A Unifying Vision, Fritjof Capra. Systems thinking.
- The Warrior Ethos, Stephen Pressfield. What it means to live as a warrior.
- Plato at the Googleplex: why philosophy won't go away, Rebecca Goldstein. Applying classic philosophy to modern day issues.
- The Razor's Edge, Somerset Maugham. Story of the search for meaning.
- Any of the Stoic works by Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, or Seneca.
- Factfulness. https://www.amazon.com/Factfulness-Reasons-World-Things-Better-ebook/dp/B0756J1LLV/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1524934086&sr=1-1&keywords=factfulness
- Humankind: a Hopeful History, Rutger Bergman. Summary of research disputing the idea that people are basically selfish and uncooperative except under social control. The research actually is weighted heavily the other way. People help each other more often not, especially under difficult circumstances. Has immediate implications if you want to lead.
Personality
Teaming And Teams
- Getting to Yes, Ury and Fry. Classic negotiation skills.
- Conscious Business, Fred Kofman. Fred and I come from very different places to very similar conclusions.
- Give and Take, Adam Grant. Exploration of confidence and humility. 8
- The Anatomy of Peace, Arbinger Institute. Built on Martin Buber's classic treatise "I-Thou"
- Conversation for Action and Collected Essays, Fernando Flores. Exploration on the use of language in collaborative problem solving.
- https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork
Personal Effectiveness
- The Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz. On managing yourself.
- Search Inside Yourself, Chade-Meng Tan. Practical guide to mindfulness by an early Google engineer.
- Mastery, George Leonard. On the self-development.
- The Healthiest You, Kelly Traver. Neuroscientist redefining health and how to achieve it.
- Smart Work, Marshall and Freedman. A rational approach to engaging with others.
- First Things First, Steven Covey. For me the classic work on time and task management.
- How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work, Kegan and Lahey. How the use of language impacts how we work effectively with others.
Aikido
Fiction - related to all of the above
- Stranger in a Strange Land, Robert Heinlein. This one requires some deep thinking to make the connections.
- Starship Troopers, Robert Heinlein. Basically a treatise on ethics.
- The Dispossessed, Ursula Le Guin. An exploration of what a truly integrated human might look like.
- Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach. On the single minded development of self.
- Illusions, Richard Bach. On the nature of reality and our relationship with it.
- Daughter of Time Trilogy, Erec Stebbins. Interesting exploration of the connection between brain and mind.
- All of the Winnie the Pooh books by A.A. Milne. Read them when you feel sad or overwhelmed by the complexity of the world.
- The Way Between by Rivera Sun. A young adult fantasy exploring the Middle Path.
- Lost Horizon by James Hilton. The story of fabled Shangri-la, where moderation is the key to long life and contentment.
Movies
- Documentary on Joseph Campbell and the Hero's Journey. https://youtu.be/YqIJUJmnc-Y
- Being There. About the importance of "not doing"
- The Legend of Bagger Vance. Less deep than the book, but I enjoyed it on its own merits.
- After the Rain (Japanese with Subtitles). An amazing exploration of the integration of confidence and humility.
- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The importance of developing ethical intelligence in parallel with skills.
- Serenity (and the TV series Firefly). Watch this from the perspective of leadership.
- 12 Angry Men. The power of conversations.
- Kung Fu Soccer. If you watch carefully you will see some deeper messages under all the silliness.
- The Invention of Lying. Exploring a world in which there is no "left-hand column"
- The Last Samurai. On the idea of winning and success. Also explores leadership.
- My Name is Nobody. The "wise fool" and getting everything done by doing nothing.
- 1776. Musical comedy about the creation of the Declaration of Independence. Entertaining but with deep message about leadership and group dynamics.
- The Razor's Edge. I prefer the version with Bill Murray. Based loosely on the book by Somerset Maugham.
- Tashi and the Monk. Documentary about a home for unwanted children in the Himalayas. The power of compassion.