Inspiration

These are the people, books and other resources that inspire me, that guide my thinking, that provide me with insight and direction.

Peter Senge – The Fifth Discipline, The Art and Practice of Learning Organizations (1990, 2006). Possibly the best treatment of mental models ever. I go back to this book over and over. The section on Spreading Visions: Enrollment, Commitment and Compliance has helped me understand resistance to change. Plus the section on Dialogue and Discussion opened entirely new windows of understanding.

Related to this is is William Issac’s article, Dialogic Leadership in the The Systems Thinker (1999) that presents a model and process that helps explains dialogue and discussion, advocacy and inquiry.

Steven Johnson – Emergence, The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software (2002). This was like a gateway drug for me, foreshadowing the entire social networking explosion.

Patrick Lencioni – Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2005). Another go back to time and again resource. The five dysfunctions are: Absence of Trust, Fear of Conflict, Lack of Commitment, Avoidance of Accountability, Inattention to Results. I love the relaxed writing style and easy to grasp models presented in Lencioni’s books.

More to come…