I continue to get feedback to encourage me to providing suggestions on reading. And the holiday time is a natural check-in on this. It is a time for reflection when we can look back and look forward with equal pay-offs – peace with the past, hope for the future.
My good-books make me think in new ways and about new things and about new ways of thinking about old things. That is precious stuff. Reading does something simply unique – it produces leadership capital.
The data on this. Half (50%) of UK adults don’t regularly read and almost one in four (24%) young people say they’ve never been readers, according to research revealing a large drop in reading for pleasure and in work among adults.
Other data from this UK study: Only 50% of UK adults now read regularly outside work, down from 58% in 2015; 35% of UK adults are “lapsed readers” who used to read but have stopped; lack of time (33%) and the distraction of social media (20%) are cited as the primary obstacles; 28% of UK adults have difficulty focusing on reading for more than a few minutes; my factoid; railway carriage smart-phone readers out-score book readers 10 to 1.
The theory. Studies indicate clear wellbeing impacts, with those who read reporting higher levels of self-esteem and ability to cope with difficult situations. Reading is good for you but and in our peak busy times it has been cut.
The story. Reading has been a battle casualty from outside forces. The battle has been between a slot machine dopamine hit versus staying-power grit. On the slot machine problem see the Anxious Generation book below. On the staying-power see the Matt Lucas book where friend Ivan tests Leo’s courage to stick to his slow-release task (putting lights on the Christmas tree) versus the dopamine hit (toboggan thrills). Staying power is a slow-release thing where the benefits take a while to emerge, and the grit needs to show up to keep the faith.
My work answer to this battle is to impose some discipline on the mix of business-as-usual and business-beyond-usual time which for me is the 20% ‘bucket’ for BbU. My life answer is the same – my life-as-usual bucket is overflowing, and I need a 20% life-beyond-usual allocation to keep my sanity. That bucket has the good-reading in it.
This year I have continued to seek books that respect the world as a bigger, deeper, softer place than we give it credit. That is systems thinking: that with shared skin in the game we can come together to adapt the rules of the game for a better outcome.
Andy McAfee |The Geek Way is about the Silicon Valley ecosystem and how the influence of this small number of companies has grown to be as big as countries. Their system is based on skin in the game along with science, speed and openness. Basically, the theory here is culture eats strategy for breakfast, and how the best in Silicon Valley have evolved their culture better than those they are displacing. These companies originated the way to build a compelling theory, story and data in their narrative.
Many will find this approach abstract and anecdotal. The natural pairing to help that is William Donaldson | Simple Complexity. Many will find this book too, well, complex. For me it made things simpler. Organisations are systems that can be managed better if you have the code which is understanding them as a system – that is every organisation works to a core purpose, with inter-connections to a bunch of elements – think ‘pie’.
Last year I majored on the problems of misinformation and disinformation in books by Kahneman and Ariely. This year I have been more struck by the social media angle. Here it is a case of ‘plenty of evidence but what’s the crime’. In Jonathan Haidt | Anxious Generation the mental health crisis of youngsters is attributed to the big tech business model that has kids hacked into using their phones like dopamine slot machines, always in search of the next hit from social media in ‘likes’ and beyond. Australia has tackled it by age-gating social media at 16 – a cut-off in line with Haidt’s ideas. He also suggests no smartphones until 12, phone-free schools, and more independence, free play, and responsibility in the real world. This is a huge issue that needs more focus, I worry a lot about this younger generation being seriously let down by our older generation.
And one last serious book on my list with the classic Brene Brown | Dare to Lead which is one of the very best leadership books out there because it is so humble, honest and inspiring. ‘Stay curious keep showing up’; and “Vulnerability is not winning or losing. It is having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome’. These are important one-liners.
So, on that serious note what about some feelgood reads. Matt Lucas | The Boy who missed Christmas is probably best as an audio experience read (and sung) by Matt himself. The formula works best on kids, but I liked it too. And in my limited fiction collection try Graeme Simsion | The Rosie Project for something completely different that helps you be more comfortable with who you are. And back to books that link generations try B.J Novak | The Book with no Pictures. Simply very, very silly.
So maybe we should schedule that glorious reading time this Christmas in the 20% LbU bucket. May you have a peaceful holiday season that has a brilliant mix of rest & recreation, and social & solitude, and life-as-usual & life-beyond-usual time.
Roger Urwin | December 2024
And below is the full list of books that I’ve curated over the years with a bit of narrative to help with priorities. With a big credit to all those who have contributed their ideas; not least to Gail, my kids and grand-kids who figure in my 2-8-13 pin-code.
| BOOK SUGGESTIONS | ROGER URWIN | |
| 2023 Suggestions | |
| Peter Senge | The Fifth Discipline. Peter Senge has produced a timeless classic here. The first four disciplines are personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning. And systems thinking the fifth – integrates the other four. |
| Mustafa Suleyman | The Coming Wave. The content here is a combination of deep thinking on AI and synthetic biology and these two ‘will usher in a new dawn for humanity, creating wealth and surplus unlike anything ever seen’. Maybe |
| Francis Fukuyama | Liberalism and Its Discontents. This book is aimed at explaining how modern liberalism has increasingly underdelivered, and how populism has entered our world by filling a gap and can only grow |
| Ayelet Fischbach | Get it Done. Drilling deeper into human cognition continues to surprise. There are a lot of secret sauce things she reveals here in the dynamics of goal pursuit and aligning our choices, decisions, and feelings. |
| Kahneman, Sibony & Sunstein | Noise. I share the thesis here which is that noise in human judgment is everywhere, notably via cognitive biases, mood, group dynamics and emotional reactions. And it’s consistently under-estimated. |
| Dan Ariely | Misbelief. The world isn’t fully post-truth, but truth has been on a slow bleed for sure in the past decade or so. The link with social media is overwhelming. What he calls ‘the funnel of misbelief’. |
| Mitch Albom | The Five People you meet in Heaven. This is a feelgood light read that explores the alternative histories that our lives produce, and the people caught in the connections, like in the film Sliding Doors. |
| Susan Cain | Quiet. The power of the introvert in a world that can’t stop talking. This feels good because we can cut ourselves some slack by being on the quiet side of the line in a world where overwhelmed with noise. |
| 2022 Suggestions | |
| Azeem Azhar | The exponential gap This book covers the ‘exponential gap’ between the power of new technology and humans’ ability to keep up. I worry about the speeding up in speeding up and its consequences in our degraded environment, fast-moving social problems and cyber risks. Basically, we need to shape technology to put it back in the service of society and build a world in which we are the ones who decide what we want from the tools we build. |
| Susan Cain | Bittersweet. How sorrow and longing make us whole This book got me both into a darker place before emerging into a lighter place. This book helps you into places ‘where light and dark meet’ and into spaces that are more sensitive, creative, and spiritual. And in reflecting on that, yes that did reduce my weltschmerz. |
| Lynda Gratton | Redefining work As we develop our new way of working with hybrid arrangements, we need to get up to speed on the future of work. I found the audio version of this book easy to absorb and well-framed. The pandemic has given us some silver linings, our work future is one of them. |
| Kim Stanley Robinson | The Ministry for the Future. This is fiction with a bit of non-fiction thrown in. KSR is well-known for science fiction which is a fast-paced thriller plotline weaving in climate change, geo-engineering, politics, and societal futures. In a world needing imagination on climate change this is both realistic and optimistic. |
| Vaclav Smil | Numbers don’t lie | 71 things you need to know about the world. The book title drew me in. But Vaclav Smil is a renowned Czech-Canadian scientist and policy analyst with tremendous understanding of our inter-connected world and the book is an easier read than you’d think. And if you like this, you will also like How the world really works. |
| Gaia Vince | Nomad century. How climate change will reshape our world. This is a tough read, so be careful. But my ‘Weltschmerz’ (literally ‘world pain’ that the realities of life are grim because of too much suffering and evil) finds an outlet in reading this in understanding this century’s future blighted as it is. It remains a beautiful world. This is a highly imaginative account of the world we are creating, and the part migration will play in adapting. |
| 2018-2021 Book Suggestions | |
| Beinhocker, Eric | The Origin of Wealth* |
| Berners Lee, Mike | There is no Planet B*** Highly readable account of climate change mixing science and economics to help suggest solutions that everyone can contribute towards. This book is ground-breaking in putting our values under scrutiny and into the mix with support for the importance of kindness and fairness. |
| Bernstein, Peter | Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk* |
| Bookstaber, Eric | The End of Theory* University of California Chief Risk Officer Bookstaber, explains the nature of systemic risk and what happens in crises, like the GFC, when systems seize up, and how agent-based modelling can address some of the issues. The failings of economics are an essential theme. |
| Brynjolffson & McAfee | Machine, Platform, Crowd** This book is a very clear introduction to the new technologies that are disruptive given scale and need and suggests where industry business models will undergo their Uber-moments, usually when platforms and networks break through. |
| Carney, Mark | Values: Building a Better World for All*** This is a well-framed and researched book about society adapting its goals to suit its values in a world in which financial value has out-muscled non-financial values. It is particularly strong in showing how to learn from the pandemic through principles of solidarity and fairness. |
| Dalio, Ray | Principles** Controversial account of how organisations can be simplified into machines with equations that might be seen as de-personalising. But Dalio is a huge fan of culture and talent and his radical transparency model works for Bridgewater where decisions are fine-tuned by ‘believability’. |
| Desai, Mihir | Wisdom of Finance* |
| El Erian, Mohamed | When Markets Collide |
| Fukuyama, Francis | Identity* |
| Friedman, Thomas | Thank you for Being Late |
| Gawande, Atul | Checklist Manifesto* |
| Gladwell, Malcolm | Tipping Point |
| Gladwell, Malcolm | Outliers |
| Haidt, Jonathan | The Righteous Mind** Haidt reveals the soft nature of our belief system in which feelings come first, socialising second, thinking third. His identification of individuals flags the moral foundations in core values of caring, fairness and loyalty in groups. He identifies libertarian principles as innate to individuals. |
| Harari, Yuval Noah | Sapiens |
| Harari, Yuval Noah | 21 Lessons for the 21st Century** This is a stunning tour de force across work, equality, civilisation, nationalism, religion, immigration, war, post-truth, education and meaning; and a few more.All it misses is global pandemics. ‘Clarity is power’ is key and he identifies pathways to the redesign of life itself. |
| Harford, Tim | How to Make the World add Up | Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers** Harford is of course the ‘Undercover Economist’. The steady erosion of standards in the presentation of facts and numbers has meant this book has become essential. Search your feelings, get the back story and be curious and other principles are well-presented and illustrated. |
| Hastings, Reid & Meyer, Erin | No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention |
| Heimans & Timms | New Power |
| Henderson, Rebecca | Capitalism Reimagined in a World on Fire** A book preaching the importance of fairness in business and society, strong institutions, and a guiding purpose and synthesised into how businesses can make these changes themselves and through collaboration. Lots on climate change and inequality. It is overly optimistic though. |
| Ilmanen, Antti | Expected Returns* |
| Kahneman, Daniel | Thinking Fast and Slow* |
| Kay, John | Other People’s Money |
| Kay & King | Radical Uncertainty |
| Kerr, James | Legacy – 15 Lessons in Leadership* |
| King, Mervyn | The End of Alchemy |
| Lo, Andrew | Adaptive Markets* |
| Lovegrove, Nick | The Mosaic Principle |
| Malhotra, Deepak | The Peacemakers Code** Malhotra is the Harvard Business Professor in negotiation, deal-making and conflict resolution who turns storyteller in this science fiction about alien invasion. The story is fast-paced fiction and has significance for society’s ability to face up to existential challenges through co-operation. |
| Mauboussin, Michael | More than you Know |
| Mayer, Colin | Prosperity* |
| Mazzucato, Mariana | The Value of Everything; Making and Taking in the Global Economy* |
| McGrath, Rita | Seeing Around Corners; How to Spot Inflection Points in Business Before They Happen** This is about the build-up in disruptions and how assiduous attention to factors at play in disruptions helps with prescience. The methods generate scenarios that enable organisations and individuals to pivot more quickly and join the disruptors and avoid being the disrupted. |
| Moyo, Dambisa | How Boards Work: And How they can Work Better in a Chaotic World |
| Mulgan, Geoff | Big Mind |
| Page, Scott | The Diversity Bonus |
| Pink, Dan | Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us* |
| Pinker, Steven | Enlightenment Now |
| Raworth, Kate | Doughnut Economics*** Doughnut economics, is a visual framework for sustainable development – shaped like a doughnut or lifebelt – combining planetary boundaries and social boundaries and providing a framework for how different parts of our ecosystem can contribute to a sustainable future. |
| Rosling, Hans | Factfulness* |
| Silver, Nate | Signal and Noise* |
| Stout, Lynn | The Shareholder Value Myth |
| Suskind, Daniel | The End of Work |
| Syed, Matthew | Rebel Ideas*** This is in the Malcolm Gladwell genre and explains through story-telling how teams can accomplish more than individuals but all too often fail in cognitive diversity by not using multiple frames of reference. The merits of dominant and prestige (servant) leaders is telling. |
| Taleb, Nassim Nicholas | Fooled by Randomness** An accurate account of the part played by noise in life, industry and investing. In this work he writes clearly on the part played by cognitive dissonance in seeing soft data as gospel; and the part played by unexpected events (black swans) and radical uncertainty as later picked up by Kay. |
| Tegmark, Max | Life 3.0** This explains the future of AI from its current applications to massive extensions and on to generalised AI and the consequences in terms of the singularity. It is aimed at keeping AI constructive to our humanity but leaves a few doubts as to whether AI can stay a benign force. |
| Tippett, Krista | Becoming Wise; An Inquiry into the Mystery and Art of Living* |
| West, Geoffrey | Scale* |
Top 5 ***= don’t even think of not reading this
Next 10 **= required and essential reading
Next 20 *= essential reading
Next 15 = plain good reading