People
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups - Coyle (2018)
In The Culture Code, Daniel Coyle goes inside some of the world's most successful organizations - including the U.S. Navy's SEAL Team Six, IDEO, and the San Antonio Spurs - and reveals what makes them tick. He demystifies the culture-building process by identifying three key skills that generate cohesion and cooperation, and explains how diverse groups learn to function with a single mind. Drawing on examples that range from Internet retailer Zappos to the comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade to a daring gang of jewel thieves, Coyle offers specific strategies that trigger learning, spark collaboration, build trust, and drive positive change. Coyle unearths helpful stories of failure that illustrate what not to do, troubleshoots common pitfalls, and shares advice about reforming a toxic culture. Combining leading-edge science, on-the-ground insights from world-class leaders, and practical ideas for action, The Culture Code offers a roadmap for creating an environment where innovation flourishes, problems get solved, and expectations are exceeded.
A Bit of Optimism - Sinek (Podcast)
During these times, we are all having to find new ways to connect. Join me every week as I talk with people that inspire me, about love, life, leadership, and silver linings. The hope is that we all leave with something I think we need these days ... A Bit of Optimism
Mental Wellness
Unwinding Anxiety: New Science Shows How to Break the Cycles of Worry and Fear to Heal Your Mind Brewer (2021)
We are living through one of the most anxious periods any of us can remember. Whether facing issues as public as a pandemic or as personal as having kids at home and fighting the urge to reach for the wine bottle every night, we are feeling overwhelmed and out of control. But in this timely book, Judson Brewer explains how to uproot anxiety at its source using brain-based techniques and small hacks accessible to anyone.
The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix it - Moss (2021)
We tend to think of burnout as a problem we can solve with self-care: more yoga, better breathing techniques, and more resilience. But evidence is mounting that applying personal, Band-Aid solutions to an epic and rapidly evolving workplace phenomenon isn't enough-in fact, it's not even close. If we're going to solve this problem, organizations must take the lead in developing an anti-burnout strategy that moves beyond apps, wellness programs, and perks.
In this eye-opening, paradigm-shifting, and practical guide, Jennifer Moss lays bare the real causes of burnout and how organizations can stop the chronic stress cycle that an alarming number of workers suffer through. The Burnout Epidemic explains:
o What causes burnout--and what organizations can do to prevent it
o Why traditional wellness initiatives fall short
o How companies can build an anti-burnout strategy based on prevention, not perks
o How leaders can measure burnout in their own organizations
o What leaders can do to develop a healthier culture that prioritizes resilience and curiosity
Interpersonal Relationships
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country's Foremost Relationship Expert - Gottman (2015)
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work has revolutionized the way we understand, repair, and strengthen marriages. John Gottman's unprecedented study of couples over a period of years has allowed him to observe the habits that can make-and break-a marriage. Here is the culmination of that work: the seven principles that guide couples on a path toward a harmonious and long-lasting relationship.
The Ideal Team Player: How to Recognize and Cultivate The Three Essential Virtues - Lencioni (2016)
In The Ideal Team Player, Lencioni tells the story of Jeff Shanley, a leader desperate to save his uncle's company by restoring its cultural commitment to teamwork. Jeff must crack the code on the virtues that real team players possess, and then build a culture of hiring and development around those virtues. Beyond the fable, Lencioni presents a practical framework and actionable tools for identifying, hiring, and developing ideal team players. Whether you're a leader trying to create a culture around teamwork, a staffing professional looking to hire real team players, or a team player wanting to improve yourself, this book will prove to be as useful as it is compelling.
The Relationship Cure: A 5 Step Guide to Strengthening Your Marriage, Family, and Friendships – Gottman (2002)
Gottman provides the tools you need to make your relationships thrive. In The Relationship Cure, Dr. Gottman:
- Reveals the key elements of healthy relationships, emphasizing the importance of what he calls “emotional connection”
- Introduces the powerful new concept of the emotional “bid,” the fundamental unit of emotional connection
- Provides remarkably empowering tools for improving the way you bid for emotional connection and how you respond to others’ bids
Packed with fascinating questionnaires and exercises developed in his therapy, The Relationship Cure offers a simple but profound program that will fundamentally transform the quality of all of the relationships in your life.
Mission
The Dragons and the Snakes: How the Rest Learned to Fight the West - Kilcullen (2020)
Just two decades ago, observers spoke of the US as a "hyperpower" --a nation with more relative power than any empire in history. Yet as early as 1993, CIA director James Woolsey pointed out that although Western powers had "slain a large dragon" by defeating the Soviet Union, they now faced a "bewildering variety of poisonous snakes." In The Dragons and the Snakes, the eminent soldier-scholar David Kilcullen asks how, and what, opponents of the West have learned during the last quarter-century of conflict. Applying a combination of evolutionary theory and detailed field observation, he explains what happened to the "snakes"--non-state threats including terrorists and guerrillas--and the "dragons"--state-based competitors such as Russia and China. He explores how enemies learn under conditions of conflict, and examines how Western dominance over a very particular, narrowly-defined form of warfare since the Cold War has created a fitness landscape that forces adversaries to adapt in ways that present serious new challenges to America and its allies. Within the world's contemporary conflict zones, state and non-state threats have increasingly come to resemble each other, with states adopting non-state techniques and nonstate actors now able to access lethal weapon systems once only available to governments. A counterintuitive look at a vastly more complex conflict environment, this book both reshapes our understanding of the West's adversaries and shows how we can respond given the increasing limits on US power.
Modernize
The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy: Why Strategic Superiority Matters – Kroenig
For decades, the reigning scholarly wisdom about nuclear weapons policy has been that the United States only needs the ability to absorb an enemy nuclear attack and still be able to respond with a devastating counterattack. This argument is reasonable, but, empirically, we see that the US has always maintained a nuclear posture that is much more robust than a mere second-strike capability. In The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy, Matthew Kroenig challenges the conventional wisdom and explains why a robust nuclear posture, above and beyond a mere second-strike capability, contributes to a state's national security goals. In fact, when a state has a robust nuclear weapons force, such a capability reduces its expected costs in a war, provides it with bargaining leverage, and ultimately enhances nuclear deterrence.
The Fourth Leg (Podcast)
The Institute for Security and Technology designs and advances solutions to the world's toughest emerging security threats. It is a nonpartisan, nonprofit network based in the San Francisco Bay Area dedicated to solving critical international security challenges through better technology and policy.
Engage
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference - Gladwell (2000)
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.