“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.” ~Eartha Kitt
“Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.” ~James Russell Lowell
And my all-time favorite quote about reading…
“Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.” ~Groucho Marx
I love to read books and absorb new information and ideas. In this final post of the year, I thought I would share some of the books that most inspired me this year. I hope you might also get great value from them. Some of them aren’t exactly business books, but I got business value from them and I thought you might benefit similarly.
Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my favorite books of the year:
Customer Culture: How FedEx and Other Great Companies Put the Customer First Every Day
by Michael D. Basch
This one was recommended to me by Anna Barcelos after I wrote my post on the 4 Keys to a Customer Centric Culture. Luckily, I think I was largely on the same page as Michael Basch, but I learned so much more about company cultures after reading his tome. Basch was a co-founder of FedEx and their initial SVP of Sales and Customer Service. He relays plenty of his learnings at FedEx, but he also relates the stories of other customer focused businesses small and large. He even covers an incredibly innovative Australian dentist office! Many of the stories sparked plenty of ideas in my mind, and I even excerpted one to highlight in my blog post on the power of naivete. Basch gives some very specific and easy-to-follow advice on creating the types of customer-focused cultures that drive businesses that simply succeed more because of their focus on their customers.
Why Can’t You Just Give Me the Number? An Executive’s Guide to Using Probabilistic Thinking to Manage Risk and Make Better Decisions
by Patrick Leach
Every manager and executive should read this book. Patrick Leach does an excellent job explaining the concepts of probabilistic thinking and decision making, and he does it in everyday language that is easy to consume for business people who don’t necessarily have advanced degrees in mathematics. He makes a very compelling case for using probabilistic thinking to greatly improve the bottom line. This book, more than any other, was the inspiration for some of my posts on Monte Carlo simulations.
The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Brains Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars and Save Our Lives
by Shankar Vedantam
This is a book that I actually didn’t love immediately after reading it. However, the concepts I got from it kept creeping back into my brain, and maybe that’s an even better way to value a book. I excerpted a bit of it in my most recent blog post on the power of our hidden brains to dominate our decision making in ways we don’t consciously realize. Author Shankar Vedantam deftly manages to explain complicated brain inner workings through easy-to-read stories that illustrate the concept and leave lasting memories.
The Upside of Irrationality: The Unexpected Benefits of Defying Logic at Work and at Home
by Dan Ariely
I included Dan Ariely’s first book, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, as an all-time favorite in last year’s list of best business books. While the experiments and ideas in that book were probably more useful in the marketing and merchandising functions, I would say this book is much more about human interactions and general management and leadership. Ariely focuses on topics such as the effect of pay on performance, the motivational value of creating things, and the high addiction of our own ideas. As you might guess from the title, Ariely’s conclusions are not often what we’d expect but extremely beneficial.
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard
by Dan and Chip Heath
Anyone who’s attempted to implement major change in an organization knows how difficult it can be. This book is an excellent guide for how to implement and encourage change in business and in life. I loved not only the tips but the explanations about why we humans have such a difficult time with change. The Heath brothers use a metaphor of the Rider and the Elephant to describe the rational and emotional parts of our brains that are so fundamental to accepting and embracing change (and making decisions of any kind). It’s an excellent way to visualize the concept and a concept that I’ll not likely forgot.
Click: The Magic of Instant Connections
by Ram and Ori Brafman
I actually dedicated a post to this book. This is a fascinating look at the reasons people click with each other. The authors really break it all down and in the process provide an excellent roadmap for creating better connections between people. Used in a business environment, this knowledge can help up create better functioning, happier and more productive teams.
The Design of Everyday Things
by Don Norman
This is not a new book by any means, but I somehow never read it until this year. I found this book to be extremely eye opening and completely fascinating. Don Norman spends a lot of time talking about the design of objects like doors and faucets, yet the design principles he discusses and the human psychology learnings that go into those design principles are absolutely relevant to usable designs of things that didn’t even exist in the time he wrote this (the ’80s) — like websites. I explored just a couple of these concepts, and how they apply to retail websites, in a post earlier this year.
And just for kicks, since I’m a music nut, here are my top 10 albums of the year:
- Trombone Shorty – Backatown
A great combination of jazz, funk, hip-hop and rock. Trombone Shorty rips on both the trombone and the trumpet. Standout track: “Hurricane Season.” - Florence + the Machine – Lungs
Technically, this record came out in 2009, but the Grammys have nominated them for Best New Artist this year I think I get to include the record in my list. Great vocals from Florence and the drums in particular are amazing on this record. The sound is powerful, a bit dark and different from anything I’ve ever heard. Standout track: “Dog Days are Over” - Grace Potter & the Nocturnals – Grace Potter & the Nocturnals
Grace Potter can flat out sing, and the songs on this record are top-notch. This is just good, ol’ rock ‘n’ roll and a rollicking good time. Standout track: “Paris (Ooh la la)” - The Gaslight Anthem – American Slang
Gaslight Anthem are kind of a Green Day meets with Replacements and (not surprisingly since they are from New Jersey) jams with Bruce Springsteen. Standout track: “The Spirit of Jazz - Mumford and Sons – Sigh No More
The bluegrass tinted pop from British newcomers Mumford and Sons is highly infectious. Very impressive vocal harmonies as well. Standout track: “Winter Winds” - Sons of Sylvia – Revelation
A band of brothers (I assume their mother is named Sylvia), these guys have put together what I guess could be called an alt-country record because it’s basically pop music with country instruments. Lead singer Ashley Clark can flat out wail, and the band certainly holds their own. Standout track: “50 Ways.” - Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings – I Learned the Hard Way
Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings are the best of the new wave of R&B retro, and this record does not disappoint. Standout track: “Money” - Ozomatli – Fire Away
I’ve been an Ozomatli fan for a long time, but I think this is their best record since 2001′s Embrace the Chaos. Great combination of Latin, hip-hop and rock, and the songs are lots of fun. Standout track: “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” - Aloe Blacc – Good Things
I suppose Aloe Blacc is a bit of an R&B retro artist, but he’s got a sound that feels both contemporary and throwback at the same time — and he’s very smooth. Standout track: “I Need a Dollar” - Santana – Guitar Gods: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All-Time
Carlos Santana teaming up with a bunch of guest vocalists to record some of rock’s all-time great guitar songs (sort of — I’m not sure Dance the Night Away would be my choice for a Van Halen song). Artistically, this is not particularly impressive. However, it’s a lot of fun to just listen to Carlos Santana wail away — even when he’s stepping all over the melodies. Standout track: “Back in Black”
What were your favorite business books of the year (and music, too)?
