April 16th, 2008
Today, some books for your consideration. Unless you are brand spanking new to diversity and inclusion work, I suggest you stay far away from the typical, repetitive "diversity books." I read them all and it has been a long, long time since one of those books changed my thinking or introduced me to anything radically new. But these books have. I could easily make this a much longer list, but I wanted to keep it short. So, six books for you.
The Medici Effect | Frans Johansson
The Medici Effect: What Elephants and Epidemics can Teach us About Innovation is is a fairly easy read, and valuable. It takes a look at innovation and the power at the intersection of different things (people, cultures, organizations, industries, etc.).
A Whole New Mind | Daniel Pink
I love this book. A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age is one of my favorite reads from 2007. Daniel Pink does a wonderful job of using research and stories to build his case. He also speaks strongly to the importance and value of diversity, as well as other complimentary attributes (empathy, for example). The new neuroscience, creativity and innovation and many other important topics are connected in this book.
The Difference | Scott Page
The Difference: How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools and Societies is a very valuable book. Of the six books I am recommending here, this is probably the most difficult read. It is not that Page is hard to follow, I think he is a good writer, it is just that some of the material is a little textbookish (at least for me)…but that is also part of what makes this book so valuable. In The Difference, Page unpacks the issue of cognitve diversity and shows how and why cognitive diversity can trump talent.
Social Intelligence | Daniel Goldman
I love Daniel Golman and I think all of his books have value for diversity and inclusion, but this one especially. Because diversity and inclusion work are to a large degree about the nature of our relationships, this book and be very valuable.
The Wisdom of Crowds | James Surowiecki
Good stuff. I have just recently read this book, and I am still processing, but I think that there is a lot of good stuff in here for our work. Some of the things that I really liked were the author’s analysis of situations like the space shuttle tragedy as being at least partially due to a lack of cognitive diversity. Stories like that can be very valuable for us.