Since I’ve spent at least 65% of my life reading, I’m going to justify that time by sharing my opinions with you. At least twice a month I will provide three sentences on what I consider the top three books on a certain change topic. Hence the 3×3. I start with the people side of change, because that’s my ultimate passion and I’ve written a book about it myself.:) Here we go:
- Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard; Chip Heath & Dan Heath — The Heath brothers understand behavior and support it with a hundred poignant stories. Their use of the Rider and the Elephant to differentiate head and heart is worth the read alone. The aresenal of stories to illustrate how to drive change will make you seem brilliant in meetings.
- 59 Seconds: Change Your Life in Under a Minute; Richard Wiseman – The author totally gets the concept of rapid change and offers a range of tips from the latest scientific research that can be incorporated into immediate action. Addressing topics like happiness, persuasion, stress and parenting, he makes you care about the research and the stories. You’ll soon spend all of your time elbowing the person next to you and saying, “Hey, have you heard about this study . . . .”
- Real People, Real Change: Stories of a Change Warrior in the Business World; Donna Strother Highfill – Don’t act so surprised . . . . I’ve had leaders tell me that this book afforded them techniques they used instantly with significant success. I’m brutally honest about leading change because these are stories I learned in the heat of battle. I created an easy read with true stories followed by change lessons that have been learned the hard way, which is the only way I learn.
If you’re interested in buying any of these books, here they are (and, yes, I annoyingly put my book first):