Book Review:
“My heartfelt wish is that you are inspired to carry the message and the meaning in these pages into your life and your leadership to help your business enterprise and other organizations in your field of influence to develop and become sustainable entities that thrive and evolve, making our communities—our society—strong, vibrant, and joyful. When we have mapped the four movements as one whole, then we can open our eyes and the eyes of others wider so that together we see the many different aspects of our lives as part of a larger context …”
This is from Mr. Edward Martin Baker’s “Coda” in what is perhaps the best single reference and explanation of Deming’s thoughts, ideas, and work that I have had the pleasure to read, The Symphony of Profound Knowledge, W. Edwards Deming’s Score for Leading, Performing and Living in Concert .
Yes, it’s a weighty, deeply referenced work yet still an enjoyable work, if even only for the continual counter-intuitive pieces of advice and philosophy from Dr. W. Edwards Deming. As Enabling Joy enthusiasts, we naturally resonate with this work, especially when we get to revisit classic Deming lines like:
“Why are we here?” “To learn and to have fun.”
“How could there be life without aims and hopes? Everyone has aims, hopes, plans.”
Psychology based on humans, not rat experiments!
If you’re looking for a way to stretch your mind, to find ways to be a better team leader, armed with system thinking, an better view on understanding variation, an open pathway to learning and, what I like best, a theory of psychology that is based on humans, not experiments on rats, then you should add this to your bookshelf, or at least to your e-library as a very thorough reference that also links to some notable experts across all those fields.
In other book review news:
There is a reason that the intimidatingly dense book Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is on the best seller list. It will knock your socks off. In short, this is a phenomenal a-ha on how our brain works, in elegant language, backed by clever stories. But a word of warning: If you’re like most folks, you will struggle to get to the end of this book. I found that my experience was similar to others’ as I could only read a bit at a time, even though the experimental data are absolutely mind bending.
I tried to sneak by the heavy reading and I bought an express version of this book (I won’t mention it by name since I don’t recommend it). Sadly, without all the stories, the main points just don’t seem to have any memorable or applicable merit. This is a good example of how just presenting the points is usually not worth it. Hmm, I think the book explains why. (if you caught a thinly veiled reference to ppt…you’re right.) Since it’s already in my e-library, I will keep that $4 outline at least as a quick reference.
Haven’t heard of this book? Let us know if you want to hear more on why this should be in your library as a team leader, a facilitator, or a change initiator.
in more important news!
Amanda and little Jonathan are doing great; David is relishing his new role as a big brother.
