The United Nations estimates that there are more than 103 million refugees world wide today. This is a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions, an issue so overwhelming that it is impossible to process. What can one do? What can one’s government or community do? Who are these people? And what are our appropriate responses to…
Category: Reviews
Reviews of books, articles, and the like
Life on a Tightrope: Where Are The Nets?
Nicholas Kristof is an award-winning reporter for the New York Times, and husband to Sheryl WuDunn, a business executive and writer. The couple often work together and have won two Pulitzer prizes. In 2020 they wrote Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope, a close look at the Oregon community that was Kristof’s childhood home. A sobering…
More Than Burnout
One might pick up The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships With Their Jobs and assume, if only from the title, that it is pop psychology. We have all seen these volumes in business or self-help sections of bookstores: burnout, balance, and a few bits of general advice for workers after the pandemic. The media is…
On Coaching – With Wit & Humor
Business books are usually serious, grounded in wisdom, data, and an unshakeable faith that reading to learn will facilitate improvement. We don’t read business books for pleasure; we read them for action. As a literary form, they are inherently earnest. It’s the outlier that often defines the norm. The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More…
Actionable Student Voice From Canada
All who work in higher education are drawn to stories of growth and success. Be it a student navigating roadblocks or institutions changing lives, we seek narratives with positive academic arcs, triumphs overcome and dreams realized. Attention is given to critiques and criticisms, to be sure, but are they embraced and acted on by the…
Hungry, Humble & Smart Teams
Patrick Lencioni is a wise and savvy management consultant – and not just because he’s wildly successful. His best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, is outstanding and has helped numerous organizations for more than two decades. I’ve found it useful over the years, assigned to me and assigning it. Reviews have been consistent:…
Learning From Sommeliers
Learning on one’s own is tough. The pandemic is an outstanding reminder that we need guidance, practice, encouragement and criticism to make real gains when we want to learn and grow. Most go only so far when working solo, especially when siloed on a screen. For the academically inclined, it’s further validation of Vygotsky’s zones…