 Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins. In Natural Capitalism the authors see the world's economy as being within the larger economy of natural resources and ecosystem services that sustain us. This implies that we should attribute value to things such as human intelligence and cultures to hydrocarbons, minerals, trees, and microscopic fungi. The authors argue that only through recognizing this essential relationship with the earth's valuable resources can businesses, and the people they support, continue to exist. The book has many practical suggestions for companies interested in a sustainable future. (ISBN 978-0316353007) |
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 It's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want To Be by Paul Arden An engaging little book about the creative processes of good advertising, used here as a metaphor for business practice. Its full of short chapters with headings like ‘The person who doesn’t make mistakes is unlikely to make anything’, and ‘Don’t give a speech, put on a show’. Phaidon (ISBN 978-0-7148-4337-7) |
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 Leading by Example (Harvard Lessons Learned) (Harvard Business Press)Get the insights from the world’s most accomplished business leaders on how they tackled their toughest challenges. Published by The Harvard Business Press, Lessons Learned are a series of great little books on topics like Managing Change, Hiring and Firing, Managing Conflict, and Managing Your Career and many others. Concise, bite size stories make perfect train reading. (ISBN 13:978-1-4221-1861-0) |
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 Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness By Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. SunsteinA wonderful read, this book explains how we think and make choices; from what we eat, to how we invest, to how government policy shapes public choices. Considered an inalienable human right, choice is anything but simple. Having choice doesn’t mean we automatically take the option we consider best. So how can we help oursleves make better choices? And how can we nudge others to choose positives such driving safely and wasting less? Nudge will change the way you think about the world, and yourself. (ISBN 978-0143115267 ) |
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 The Optimist: One Man's Search for the Brighter Side of Life by Laurence Shorter As an antidote to the depressing daily news, Laurence Shorter sets out on a quest to find genuine optimists, and asks if they hold the key to happiness. Can Desmond Tutu bring a smile to his face? Will he ride out the tide of pessimism with California's famous Surfing Rabbi? Or will it fall to the ultimate icon of optimism, Bill Clinton, to show Laurence the brighter side of life? (ISBN 9781847670618 ) |
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 The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations by Ori Brafman and Rod A. Beckstrom 'If you cut off a spider's head, it dies; but if you cut off a starfish's leg, it grows a new one, and that leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. Traditional top-down organisations are like spiders, but now starfish organisations are changing the face of business and the world.' This book is a sober but enlightening account of the issues of centralisation (spider) vs. decentralisation (starfish), and the need for companies to find their ‘sweet spot’ on this continuum between accountability and innovation. Some of the stories are familiar and others are not. But the starfish/spider framework casts new light on them all. This brilliant metaphor is likely to become common parlance. |
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 Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership  by joseph Jaworsky Joseph Jaworski's personal journey illustrates how immense cultural and institutional change is not only possible, but essential for a viable future. (ISBN 1-57675-031-0) |
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 Time: A User's Guide :Making Sense of Life's Scarcest Commodity By Stefan Klein PhD Our modern lives are ruled by minutes and hours. We race from one thing to the next, believing at some level that a mysterious cosmic force called 'time' is ticking on. And it's in short supply. But could there be an alternative understanding? |
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 The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science By Norman Doidge MD Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science. A riveting book that illustrates that far from being ‘hardwired’, as previously understood, the brain has remarkable powers for changing its own structure and compensating for even the most challenging neurological conditions. This ground-breaking research is told through human stories that reveal how our brains interpret experience including pain, obsessions, sexual attraction, learning and imagination. A guide to better understand our own thinking, change patterns and habits and continue to learn into old age. |
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 The Science of Happiness: How Our Brains Make Us Happy - and What We Can Do to Get Happier By Stefan Klein PhD How Our Brains Make Us Happy — and What We Can Do to Get Happier. An extremely well-written, easy to read and expertly researched book that explores the latest frontiers of neuroscience and psychology to explain how happiness is generated in our brains, what biological purpose it serves, and the conditions required to foster the 'pursuit of happiness'. |
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 A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future By Daniel H PinkGone is the age of getting ahead by studying accounting, law and engineering. Much of that work can be outsourced to other countries, or done by computers. The future belongs to a different kind of person, one with a broader kind of mind. Designers, story-tellers, inventors and teachers are some of the creative and emphatic ‘right brain’ thinkers taking the lead. This well written book is packed with engaging stories and draws on excellent research. It outlines the 6 fundamental human abilities essential for professional success and personal fulfilment, and a guide for mastering them. (ISBN 1-905736-54-1) |
 Mindset: A New Psychology of SuccessCarol Dweck What we believe about people's talent and intelligence can genuinely limit their capacity for learning and growth. Carol Dweck demonstrates how people with a so-called FIXED MINDSET, see intelligence as inherent and unchangeable. These people develop a tendency to focus on proving or sustaining their position, rather than learning. But when people view intelligence as a potential that can be developed, this is called the GROWTH MINDSET, and these people put effort into continuous learning and into developing strategies that enhance capacity. Recognising that people differ in their natural abilities, Carol Dweck stresses that it is continued effort which makes abilities blossom. Children who have learned to develop a growth mindset know that effort is the main key to creating knowledge and skills. And the growth mindset can be learnt, people of all ages can shift to understanding everything as a learning opportunity, and build their skills and intelligence. |