Virtual Book Club (VBC)
On July 2003 ThoughtLink's virtual book club (VBC) was born! Marcy Stahl, our well read Ex-VP, was the founder of our Virtual Book Club (VBC) and got us all started July 2003 by choosing a book and laying out some guidelines. The purpose was to read about diverse topics that might enrich our professional lives by enhancing our work projects, and spark our creativity. We have accomplished our objectives and have also managed a few side benefits, like learning more about each other's work styles and sharing a few laughs (not to mention conducting free therapy for each other!). |
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| We meet (virtually, via teleconference, because we work from geographically dispersed locations) once a week for about an hour, and discuss a chapter of the current book. This book break down (as opposed to reading the entire book and then discussing as most book clubs do) allows us to delve more deeply into the book, discuss our interpretations, as well as likes and dislikes, and tie into a current or future ThoughtLink project, in a short period of time. |
Some suggestions for those of you interested in forming your own VBC:
- Reading list-choose a diverse set of topics for your readings and compile a working list (include hyperlinks to online book descriptions, when available) for team members to choose books from. Allow a different VBC member to choose a book each time.
- Book types-try to choose books that allow for discussion. Books with exercises (such as putting together lists and writing stories) are helpful. When certain books do not supply such exercises feel free to create your own chapter related "homework" for the team, to aid in your discussion. Try not to choose books that are too focused on personal aspects of life only. Rather, try to read books with application into the workplace.
- Number of participants-don't let the VBC grow too large. The three of us are very opinionated and the number is just right to allow discussion for about an hour. We have discussed the possibility of conducting another VBC with more participants ("including the plumbers and clowns") but have not wanted to disrupt our successful VBC rhythm. One idea to consider for a larger VBC would be to rotate membership per week (e.g., members A,B,C,D are on one phone call and members E,F,G,H are on another. The following week members A,E,C,G might be on one and the remaining members on another, and so on.).
- Format-keep it informal. We discuss in no particular order and bring up our highlights from the chapter along with resulting project ideas/comments. You might also want to have a notebook for great ideas that spark up during discussion (it's hard to keep track of all our genius insights!). If you are an employer of geographically dispersed employees you might want to consider sponsoring the VBC. It's a great bonding, team building, and mentoring tool. Have fun!
- Book reviews-you might want to write a brief book review after each book (either individual or collectively). This is an opportunity to rehash lessons learned and establish what you liked/didn't like about the book. Book reviews can help you keep track of the types of books read and might help you choose future books. It might also give less vocal VBC members an opportunity to express themselves.
The following is the list of the books we have read thus far along links to a website with some book information (when available). In addition we have provided a link to our book reviews that contains our ratings of the book (also shown below along with rating legend).
Rating Legend: 1-5 stars
 = Awful, could not finish, would recommend NOT to read.
 = Poor, struggled through it, did not get involved or interested.
 = OK, found certain aspects interesting, have read better.
 = Good, engaging, would possibly read this author again.
 = Great, loved it! HIGHLY recommend, want to read more.
Fierce Conversations Achieving Success at Work & Life, One Conversation at a Time
Rebecca's Review
Susan Scott cracks the whip on wimps in this book! She does warn with the definition of fierce in the cover of the book (robust, intense, strong, powerful, passionate, eager, unbridled ) that adoption of the 7 principles presented in the book will not be easy; but she shares many anecdotes of her success with her coaching methods. What makes the book so fierce is that reading the principles is like being cornered with the truth about the way you operate in any environment-with no escape, going straight to jail with no chance of collecting $200!
The book is about much more than just conversations. She repeatedly says the conversation is the relationship. It is designed to guide the reader, with the use of many amusing stories, conversation templates, and assignments, towards taking responsibility for ones actions, and making positive changes in relationships, starting with oneself. The four purposes are to: interrogate reality, provoke learning, tackle through challenges, and enrich relationships.
One of my favorite quotes from the book is a saying she uses with many executives when they turn a blind eye towards what's going on in their organization. She tells them, what are you pretending not to know? And to someone who replies I don't know , she tells them, what would the answer be IF you did know? Releasing the long-denied truth can be a relief, but she stresses the importance of considering all truths as no one person in a business or personal relationship owns all of it . In addition her principles highlight that when being truly honest one has to take responsibility for ones wake, or impact on others, good or bad.
I would definitely recommend it to those who are ready for a new paradigm and want a push towards, as Susan puts it, removing the stone from your shoe.
Rebecca's rating:
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Sources of Power How People Make Decisions by Gary Klein
The title of this book is a bit misleading in that you may think that the topic is an intellectual chess match, or who will win in the business world. This is not so. The conclusion of the book is a bit disappointing as the author seemed to be building up to a climax that was inexistent. The middle of the book, however, contains some good nuggets.
The bottom line of the book is to explore how people “do so well under difficult conditions”. Secondly, that current training methods are not the right modality for decision making training in the real world. Particularly as it applies to ‘pressure cooker' decision making such as that expected of emergency responders (e.g., firefighters) and emergency medical personnel (e.g., neo-natal unit nurses). What follows are some of the book's main thesis and take aways:
- Sources of power are people's abilities and typically are: deductive logical thinking, and analysis of probabilities and statistic. Klein asserts that instead of these conventional sources of power, the ones needed in natural settings (in the field under time pressure, high stakes, inadequate information and experts) are: intuition—which allows quick situation size up, mental simulation—allows imagination of a course of action, metaphor—allows drawing on experience by suggesting parallels between the current and a future situation, story telling—which allows experience consolidation and availability of it in the future.
- The author expect that under time pressure decision makers (DMs) would weigh in various options before making a decision. What they found, and the basis for their Recognition-Primed Decision Model, DMs would, instead, consider one option at a time and discard inappropriate “solutions” based on a mental simulation of the fit of the solution. That is, DMs would not consider more than one alternative at a time and then make a decision. Rather they would size up an alternative for fit against a particular situation by mental simulation of the outcome. Should that alternative not be a good fit, in the mind of the DM or in actual trial, another potential solution was considered, and so forth. In fact, when DMs were asked how they make decisions they asserted that in their jobs there is often no time to make decisions (i.e., compare options) but they instead they just acted—as if there was no other choice but to act with the first impulse.
- The implications of the last point are that an expert may have a difficult time explaining to a novice how to act. Their ingredient for success (i.e., what led them to choose the ‘correct' choice of action without considering others) was experience. This is tied to one of the powers described in the book is the power of intuition—‘the use of experience to recognize key patterns that indicate dynamics of a situation'.
- How, then can training be constructed? Novices seem to have the opposite strategy—comparing choices of action before acting. One answer comes from storytelling as users can embed other's experience into their repertoire and recall the experience—along with context and cues, not an individual choice.
Team's averaged rating: Back to the Virtual Book Club menu
An Alchemist , a Seer & a Fool
The Five Faces of Genius
Rebecca's Review
The Five Faces of Genius: Creative Thinking Styles to Succeed at Work was TLI's first virtual book club (VBC) book. The VBC was the brainchild of our V.P. (who can recommend a fascinating book on any topic from pollinating flowers to pollinating relationships!) and we began this past July. The purpose of this book club, like many others, was to learn of an interesting topic that we could apply to the work place . Except we share a virtual work place and instead of reading the entire book we discuss individual chapters every week. About the book: It introduces 5 facets, or faces, that makes one a genius at work. This is the result of the author's consulting work with well know companies such as Starbucks and Coca-Cola and it regales the reader with: 1) a diagnosis into strengths and weaknesses as individuals and in the context of a team & 2) specific practices for enhancing individual strengths (e.g., becoming Idea Ambassadors in the workplace) and team productivity.
What the book did for us: This book was a conduit for insight into our team (and our personal life). It was therapeutic to bounce ideas off each other and understand what each other's preferences are. I would recommend it, particularly to work teams who are becoming stagnant and need to find the spark in their work life. As for our strengths, our dominant styles are the Alchemist , a Seer & Fool . Who's who? I'm not telling! (But if you read the book and know our work I'm sure you can guess J )
As for our weekly morning VBC ritual is it like learning about a co-worker by bumping into them at the water cooler? Sure. But it's more like a morning hike into creativity and inspiration!
Rebecca's rating:
Julia's Review
I really enjoyed The Five Faces of Genius: Creative Thinking Styles to Succeed at Work for many reasons. The first was the fact that the book provides a short 40 question questionnaire that when taken, identifies which of the 5 genius categories (seer, observer, alchemist, fool or sage) is most dominant. The quiz, like taking the MBTI or even answering questions in a Cosmopolitan magazine, revealed more about me that I didn't already know. And I always love learning more about me J . Second, it was easy to see the importance of valuing all of the faces of genius, not just within yourself, but on a team. The book illustrates these important lessons through a series of stories. Some of my favorites included the one about Leonardo Da Vinci (an observer) hosting parties so he could "watch the peasants" or the one about the woman who worked at Starbucks (a fool) who introduced the cold frappuccino-style drinks - despite her upper-management telling her to cease and desist. Finally, I really enjoyed the exercises that the book had to offer about enhancing the different faces of genius we all possess. I realize that there are a few of my genius faces (e.g., sage and observer) that really need some work.
By discussing the book on a chapter-by-chapter basis, I think we gave more attention to the book and I ultimately got more out of it than I would have reading it straight through. The book generated many ideas to improve my life - both at work and personally - and I highly recommend it.
Julia's rating:
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The Art of Possibility
Rebecca's Review The title of the book summarizes my main take away from this book: all is possible if I think it is. It takes a person like Ben Zander, who is an inspiring & effervescent storyteller, to pull off such a topic. He does it. And he does it well. Each chapter of the book describes a practice along with stories of how the authors lived the practice. Part of what I like this book is the writing style. Though, unfortunately that is also part of what I didn't like about the book. What I liked was that the stories were not only very entertaining, sprinkled with humor and powerful quotes, but they often took me by surprise. That is to say that at times, I didn't see how a situation could relate to a story, but was delighted to find the connection at the end of the story. Unfortunately at times, I didn't get the connections and thought they were a bit of a stretch.but as the first chapter says, "It's all invented" (I.e., perhaps those stories work for another reader).
The book described 12 practices that together should lead a life full of possibilities. For me, however, most of the practices carried similar bottom line lessons: be optimistic when regarding your life and the part others play in your life and presto life is great! Well, actually it was not quite that simple, though the author's enthusiasm had me, at times, thinking it was. I would have liked to see more diverse enrichment opportunities as well as more practical steps towards mastering the practice (e.g., exercises would have been helpful).
My favorite practices were "Giving an A" & "Rule 6". The former was really my favorite because it successfully illustrated, through very diverse stories how thinking in terms of we can be beneficial to me. The practice enlightened me as to how much energy we can waste in trying to be #1 when we should really re-define what being #1 means. "Rule #6" is "Don't take yourself so g------ damn seriously". This rule is very personal to me because I feel that this lesson (taught to me by someone I lovingly call Cranberry Juice) has freed me and helped me see doors I didn't know existed.
Overall I'd recommend the book to people with "healthy" self-esteems who are open to fun self-improvement heuristics. A "healthy" self-esteem is a requirement because I don't think someone who lacks confidence and optimism could easily apply the practices, and the book doesn't "teach" the reader how to reach "that place". Also, when considering a work VBC (a highly recommended idea!) this is not the most appropriate book because the lessons may not be so easily applied to business practices.
Rebecca's rating: 
Julia's Review
Rosamund and Benjamin Zander's "The Art of Possibility" was TLI's second book selection for our Virtual Book Club and although I did not enjoy it as much as "The Five Faces of Genius" , it did have some good points that led to interesting discussions.
The main themes of the book are the importance of a positive attitude, possessing self-confidence, and the ability for everyone to control his or her life, relationships, and destiny to reach one's goals. The book uses stories to illustrate the different "practices." Practices are the Zander's tips for shifting "perceptions, beliefs, and thought processes." They are meant to help the reader focus on the positive, focus on personal empowerment, and focus on living your life with passion and enthusiasm. For me personally, I agree with the Zander's philosophies. I feel I already live my life (both personally and professionally) according to their practices. Still it was helpful to reinforce these ideas - and the presentation of the concepts through story was a powerful way to convey these thoughts. One criticism I had was that for the person who does not truly embrace or practice these ideas, the book gave little guidance for conversion other than "do it." Having questions or exercises to engage the reader in these concepts would have been beneficial.
A few year's ago, Marcy and I attended a Smithsonian event on Storytelling and at that event Katalina Groh showed a video that featured Ben Zander. His passion and enthusiasm are undeniable in the video - and are features that I think translated better to video than into print.
Julia's rating:
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Working Knowledge
Rebecca's Review
"If it is unusual to find an employee who enhances his knowledge by reading at work, it is almost unheard of for a co-worker to have the leisure to ask what the book is about and enter into a conversation about it" 1
The above quote couldn't be farther from describing the scene at any of the TLI offices on a Monday morning when engaged in a VBC. This quote comes from the 3 rd book read by TLI and discussed in Florida and two offices in Virginia. This book served as a primer for knowledge management. It covered the ABCs (D's and F's also-as pitfalls of KM were described) of KM starting with definitions of data, information, and knowledge and how often these words are confused in organizations. The book got us to re-adopt some of our dropped practices: updating our master document list and posting to maintain a searchable library of good sources. Actually, according to the book maintaining a list would not be considered knowledge, but information. Still, it's very useful to keep track of the myriad of documents that we become aware of. It also prompted us to become more aware of 'what we know as a company'. Some of the other great ideas from the book are:
- Conducting knowledge fairs (Share Fairs)
- Capitalizing on 'creative chaos' ('the goal is to harmonize organizational knowledge, not homogenize it')
- Having e-knowledge "yellow pages"
In summary, the book was informational and inspiring (in fact our motto-linking people and technology-got beautified during the process of reading the book to: Linking people and technology for extraordinary results!). The book certainly met the author's intent to 'develop a preliminary understanding of what knowledge is within organizations'. Two things I would have liked to gain more of: 1) information about personality traits and KM (those engineers are always getting picked on!) and 2) translation of the great ideas presented, into concrete exercises and/or other recommended practices for putting into action, particularly for such a small and well-oiled (if I do say so myself!), virtual team as ours.
Rebecca's rating:
Julia's Review
This book provides a tremendous introduction to the world of Knowledge Management - with a number of case studies of what has and has not worked at various organizations. It emphasizes the point that the useful knowledge in an organization is often not captured in databases - but in the people. This echoes ThoughtLink's philosophy that it isn't the technologies - but, the people using the technologies that bring extraordinary results. The book also stresses the importance of storytelling as an organization knowledge sharing tool. At the first Smithsonian Storytelling event that Marcy and I attended four years ago, Larry Prusak was there singing the praises for storytelling. He was back at this year's storytelling event that Rebecca attended - still singing the same praise. This book excelled at generating a million new ideas on how our customers as well as ThoughtLink itself can benefit from implementing this working knowledge strategies. I can't wait to get started!
Julia's rating: 
Back to the Virtual Book Club menu The Leader's Guide: 15 Essential Skills
Rebecca's Review The Leader's Guide is an introductory leadership 'how to' manual. It is divided into four main sections: understanding leadership, technical and analytical skills (2 sub-sections), relationship skills and strategic skills. The progression of these chapters begins with very basic leadership concepts such as work style and attitude and ends with more advanced concepts such as implementing and leading change initiatives. For me, the most useful chapters of the book were the problem solving and decision making and the project management chapters. These chapters broke these subjects down to basic elements and mentioned varied techniques for implementations (e.g., work breakdown structure chart, and tips for project monitoring). Unfortunately the book does not delve deep enough into most of the concepts presented. In addition it treated most subjects at a basic, entry level leadership level. My overall impression of the book is that it's a good leadership reference outline. It provides a breadth of topics and areas every leader should consider. However, like every outline, it does not provide much detail and it's up to the reader to research areas of interest.
Rebecca's rating: 
Julia's Review
This book pointed out the difference between Leadership (identifying opportunities, establishing vision, and setting broad goals) vs. Management (getting the job done in the most efficient and effective manner). This hit home to me in that I think I am a much better leader than manager. That said, this book did provide some basic guidelines for more effective leadership. Some of the important chapters for me included the section on Priorities Management - with the suggestion of keeping a time journal to learn how to better schedule and manage your time; Project Management - an area where I still have a lot to learn; and Conflict Resolution which included tips on being an active listener and improving negotiation strategies. All in all, this book offered simple tips on improving leadership characteristics. My main complaint is that topics were often described too simplistically, giving scenarios that seemed either black or white. My experiences show that there is a lot of gray in everyday leadership situations. Although I might recommend this book - I would recommend reading some of the other VBC books prior to this one.
Julia's rating:
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1. Working Knowledge: Chapter 5, p.93.
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