Book of the Week
2007-05-21, by Peter Busch
And still more new books in the library - recommended by Peter MacLeod
Nature Of Economies
All That Is Solid Melts Into Air
Solving Tough Problems
Life Style
Finding Our Way
2007-05-14, by Peter Busch
More new books in the library - all recommended by Peter MacLeod
Execution
Presence
Mavericks at Work
Good to Great and the social sectors
Blink
The First 90 Days
Leaders guide to Storytelling
Seeing what's next
The World Café
Massive Change
Blue Ocean Strategy
2007-05-10, by Peter Busch
A new shipment of books have arrived, and are available in the library - All recommended by Peter MacLeod
The Philosophy of sustainable design How buildings learn Maverick! The long tail Learning for sustainability Biomimicry The Innovator's dilemma Systems of survival Good to great
2007-04-12, by Peter Busch
As you might have noticed, you haven't received any "book of the week" mails recently.
I could give you the bad excuse = bla bla bla
or the good excuse - coming here... and it is not an excuse anyway:
When Christer and David went to US in February, they meet Peter MacLeod. Talked to him and asked him to recommend what he thought would be the best books for the KaosPilots.
Peter came up with a list of app. 50 books, and we decided to buy them all for our library !
These books are now starting to flow in, and here are the list of books that are available just now.
We have revised the Top100Book lists, so you can also browse books by availability in the library.
So check it out - And more books to come during the next month
The Clock Of The Long Now Radical Simplicity Ten Faces Of Innovation In The Bubble Delirious New York Coming To Public Judgement The Wisdom Of Crowds The Tipping Point A Pattern Language The Paradox Of Choice Civic Realism The Timeless Way Of Building Making Things Public
2007-03-09, by Peter Busch
Synchronicity - Joseph Jaworksi
If you only have $20 for buying books while you are at the KaosPilots – This is the book to buy!
A book about servant leadership, a book about “predictable miracles”, a book about a higher purpose, and a book about the same stuff the Kaospilots are made of –, the story of the creation of the American Leadership Forum – created at the same time the Kaospilots was born – and in the same wave of philosophical thinking.
This is a book about the wholeness of the universe, quantum physics, David Bohm, Francisco Varela and the neurobiology of thoughts and knowledge, the collective consciousness….
It is a book about how to connect to other levels of energy and how the mindset of working for a cause that really matters to your heart, will open doors to the right connections and incidents – a book about dialogue instead of debate and discussion – a book about respect for other people and how to listen and be open.
And it is one of the most touching books I have read – there is so much feeling, honesty and compassion in this book that you will feel deeply connected with the author.
http://wiki.homebase.dk/SynchronicityBook
2007-02-25, by Paul Natorp
Good to Great: Why some companies make the leap ... and others don't (by Jim Collins)
Jim Collins book Good to Great answers the question: “Can a good company become a great company, and, if so, how?” Good to Great teaches how even the dowdiest of companies can make the leap to outperform market leaders. Jim Collins suggests a number of very concrete questions to consider when planning your success. His idea about the Hedgehog Concept has been a part of the KaosPilot toolbox for years. It is an operating model that reflects understanding of three intersecting circle: What you can be the best in the world at, what you are deeply passionate about, and what best drives your economic or resource engine. This is a must read for the wannabe-successful-entrepreneur.
2007-02-06, by Paul Natorp
I have to admit that I forgot to recommend a book of the week last week (sorry!). So this week I will give you two ...
Book of the week #1:
How to think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius every Day (by Michael J. Gelb)
The author of this book has through studies of da Vincis notebooks established 7 principles that could have been Leonardos contribution to the creativity and imagination toolbox of all KaosPilots of this world. I am fascinated by this visionary man and offer you an italian renaissance complement to playful, realworld, risktaking, balance, compassion, streetwise:
Curiosità — An insatiably curious approach to life and an unrelenting quest for continuous learning.
Dimostrazione — A commitment to test knowledge through experience, persistence, and a willingness to learn from mistakes.
Sensazione — The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to enliven experience.
Sfumato (literally "Going up in Smoke") — A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.
Arte/Scienza — The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination. "Whole-brain" thinking.
Corporalita — The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.
Connessione — A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems thinking.
Book of the week #2:
The Change Handbook: The definitive Ressource on Todays best Methods in engaging whole Systems (by Peggy Holman, Tom Devane and Steven Cady)
This book could be KaosPilot basic textbook for process design and facilitation.
In 1999, the first edition of The Change Handbook provided a snapshot of a nascent field that broke barriers by engaging "whole systems" of people from organizations and communities in creating their own future. In the last seven years, the field has exploded. In this revised and updated second edition the authors profile sixty-one change methods.
2007-01-25, by Paul Natorp
The Labyrinth of Solitude – Octavio Paz
he book of this week is "The Labyrinth of Solitude" by the mexican author and Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz. It is a collection of essays about growing up as a nation.
The adolescent vacillates between infancy and adulthood and halts for a moment before the infinite richness of the world. He is astonished by the fact of his being. And this astonishment leads to reflection: As he leans over the river of his consciousness, he asks himself if the face that appears there, disfigured by the water, is his own. Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are all alone.
This sounds very philosophical. And it is. Octavio Paz writes about how the shaping of a grown up identity and self-understanding takes places in the individual and in nations at a certain stage in their development. And he uses this metaphor to explain the struggles of the mexican people to find and accept its own roots and find a way of dealing with the big brother in the north. In that way the book becomes a tail of the struggle that has been going on all over Latin America for the last two centuries. And it suggests a new perspective on US imperialism (at least it did for me and it helped me to better understand the cuban revolution).
Solitude" seems to be an important word when Nobel Prize winning authors write about Latin America. Garcia Márquez' famous novel "One hundred years of solitude" is by many regarded as one of the most important chronicles of the continent. I decide to believe that their choice of titles is not coincidental.
Regard this weeks recommendation as an attempt to challenge your perspective on how to view and interpret history.
2007-01-18, by Paul Natorp
Life of Pi – Yann Martel
I've decided to introduce some really good fiction as the book of the week. We can learn from stories like we learn from life. Without getting all the bruces.
Life of Pi is an amazing story about how to overcome a crisis of life and death by embracing and becoming friends with your greatest fear. In this story represented by a 450-pound Royal Bengal Tiger in a small lifeboat surrounded by a hostile ocean full of sharks.
After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survirors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan ... and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. After all the animals have found their natural place in the food chain the boy is alone with the tiger and a deep wish to survive.
A fantastic metaphorical story about how a human being deals with the biggest imaginable crisis. Read the story and think about what represents the tiger in your own life.
See Top100Books: http://wiki.homebase.dk/BookOfTheWeek
P.S. The Royal Bengal tiger in the book is named Richard Parker. I later found out that this was also the name of a poor boy who was eaten by a surviving ship-wrecked crew after spending several months in a lifeboat.
2007-01-10, by Peter Busch
Small World – Mark Buchanan
Mark Buchanan is a scientific journalist, writing easy to understand books about complex subjects.
In “Small World” he walks us through the recent (ca. year 2000) breakthrough in research on real networks, complexity and social networks and the laws in power for subjects as different as global economy, the internet, the brain – the small world geometry.
The understanding of small world geometry is crucial for understanding tipping points, viral marketing, development of social networks and the knowledge flow in organisations among other things, and Small World is a good introduction to the journey into subjects as complexity theory and social networks.
We all meet “small world” phenomenons in our every day life, like running into a friend of a friend far away from home, and though we usually write it of as a coincidence, it turns out that this small world geometry is exactly the hidden but powerful design that binds the world together.
Read the book and get an edge in understanding how this design works.
See Top100Books: http://wiki.homebase.dk/SmallWorldBook
2007-01-03, by Peter Busch
On Intelligence – Jeff Hawkins
Jeff Hawkins is the founder of Palm and Handspring, handheld PDAs, and the inventor of ”graffiti” – the handwriting recognition alphabet, but he have had a hidden life as well.
As a youngster he had two equal, but different interests: brain science and computer science, and though he started out studying biology and brains, he ended up for a while working in the computer business.
Now after Palm and the sibling Handspring, he is devoting his time and energy to brain science and he has created the Redwood Neuroscience Institute to promote research on memory and cognition.
In “On Intelligence” he presents a complete new paradigm for how the brain is working. The focus of the book is if and how it will be possible to create intelligence in machines, i.e. outside the human brain, but the paradigm also tells us a lot about the brain in connection with learning, creativity and innovation.
I find the paradigm of the book an immense eye-opener, and I am sure this understanding will be a giant leap for the brain science and research in intelligence. The kernel of the paradigm is the understanding of the brain as both a memory system and a prediction system. This understanding is based on the brain cell wiring and the understanding of the energy consumption of the brain during consciousness and sub-consciousness.
Read the book and keep in mind what this means for creative processes, innovation and the learning process.
See Top100Books: http://wiki.homebase.dk/OnIntelligenceBook
2006-12-13, by Peter Busch
Smart Mobs – Howard Rheingold
Howard Rheingold – one of the people behind the legendary internet forum The Well – has been exploring the development of new technology for more than twenty years. Having foreseen the revolutionary impact of the PC in the ‘80s and the internet in the ‘90s, he is now exploring the impact of people interacting through cell phones, pagers, PDAs and wireless devices that put the power of instant and ubiquitous communication within everyone’s grasp.
In “Smart Mobs” he discovers how new and intelligent complex groups are forming all over the world, crossing boundaries and borders, and forming new powerful social connectivity.
Howard Rheingold goes on to consider a wide spectrum of implications stemming from these developments, such as the evolution of membership and “reputation” systems, evolving pressure from media cartels and government agencies to control use and access, and the potential threats to privacy and security.
Applying insight from sociology, artificial intelligence, economics and anthropology, he offers a penetrating perspective on the new convergence of pop culture, cutting-edge technology and social activism.
The book is a key to understanding the next social revolution - how instant access will transform cultures and communities.
See Top100Books: http://wiki.homebase.dk/SmartMobsBook
2006-12-06, by Peter Busch
Crossing the Chasm - Geoffrey Moore
Crossing the chasm is a book about marketing and how to communicate to your customers.
The central point in the book is the understanding of the chasm – the gap between people who are interested in your service or product because they resonate with the vision of the new, and then the “early adopters” the main market who requires other kinds of proof and references before they will buy.
To understand the basic building blocks and segments in a market is crucial for planning how to address the market, and to know when to shift the key content of your marketing is crucial for crossing the chasm, thereby open up for the 90% of the potential market who are not visionaries.
Geoffrey Moore describes - in a very straight forward way – the market, the different profiles of the market, i.e. nerds, visionaries, early adopters, late adopters, laggards, and what turns them on.
The book is a “must read” for people who want to understand the underlying mechanism for effective market communication.
See Top100Books: http://wiki.homebase.dk/CrossingTheChasmBook
Inarguration of The Sub
December 8th, 2006 we are inaugurating our KP-library, the physical real library at 1st floor in Mejlgade - check out the information/posters at the school.
And starting December 2006, we introduce "Book of the Week"
The Library is an inspirational service to KaosPilots and staff and it is a library where you can find books that are:
- Part of the KP-curriculum
- Eye-openers and mind-bogglers
- Great literature with an edge
Great magazines – currently we subscribe to Havard Business Review and FastCompany, and we have online access to HBRs article database for downloading of old articles
The Library is a place where you can browse the books and magazines to find specific knowledge and to find inspiration. And it is a place where you can dive into a book and forget the world outside – a nice and quiet place to sit and read.
The Library is NOT a place where you can lend the books and magazines.
There is only one rule for the library: Books and Magazines may not leave the room!
The reason for this rule is obvious: If you take the book, you diminish the value of the library for other KaosPilots and they will not be able to read or browse the material.
Be aware: If more than 5 (five) books, magazines or CD/DVD disappear from the library, we have decided to close the facility, so help yourself and help us all by securing that no book will leave the library.
We open the library with a new service to KaosPilots and staff: Book of the Week. Every week we will buy a new book for the library, it could be a book from the curriculum, it could be a mind-boggler, it could be some great literature, or…
We choose a person who will be responsible for deciding and organising which books should be Book of the Week, and the person holds this responsibility for a month. December 2006 it will be Peter, and January 07 Paul will decide on the books.
The responsible person will also be the editor of this blog, and write a recommendation for the Book of the Week and publish it every Wednesday.
First Book of the Week will be displayed in the library on opening day - Friday, December 8th.
What’s next…
Well, we want some more inspirational magazine subscriptions, but we also want great inspirational diversity, and not just more of the same, so we are in the process of identifying which magazines in Asia and South America are the cutting-edge magazines. We have asked people from our International Board, and as soon as we have decided, you will also find cutting-edge magazines from Asia and South America in the library.
So stay tuned, explore the library and the Book-of-the-Week-Blog, and get some great new inspiration and knowledge every week from the library!