02:05:22 Battenburg Books Dozen
It was world book day last month. We did a team LinkedIn Post and I selected Animal Farm. It’s one of those books I read every couple of years and transplant into any organisational setting. FYI — I am Boxer.
Then I noticed a trend of postings about best book sets, so I thought I’d jump on the bandwagon with my picks, set with the framework of my world of social purpose, business need, data driven and digital impact.
Digital Impact
TQM. I first came across this in 1990s when I was an internal consultant at DWP. It became our blueprint for service improvement in Jobcentres. I liked the way it was visually presented in cartoon format and looked at problems holistically. It led to my go-to framework as a EFQM practitioner.
Shift! Skip forward 20 years to a fantastic guide on digital transformation produced by my friends from @Prodo: @PippaAdams and @RobWalker. Another brilliantly structured guide breaking down the quest in to manageable chunks. Nothing to do with the fact I was featured / quoted in it. Page 139 just for reference. 😊
Management Guide to Programme Management. This is the shorter version of the OGC Managing Successful Programme textbook. Big secret, I’ve never taken a PRINCE2 course on project management. This is the helicopter view with a focus on benefits realisation, managing change, communications, and risk.
Data Analytics
Information is Beautiful. Yes, it is. If you like data, information and insights that this book is on your coffee table. That and the two sequels, Knowledge is Beautiful and Beautiful News.
SQL for Dummies. Talking of sequel [geddit?]. I’m a bit of Excel fan and I can make it stretch a fair way on data visualisations. I decided that learning SQL should be a personal learning project. It can’t be much different than using Excel formals, can it? Three expensive courses later… I’m not giving up yet.
Covid by Numbers. I read this on a plane to Vancouver last autumn. See review in my post of 1–10–21. I still think Covid-19 dashboards tell a great story (good and bad) of data visualisation design. And, I was right about vaccines! 😊
Business Need
I thought about many of the business stories (From Good the Great, Goal, Five go on a Strategy Awayday [lol]) on my bookshelves but ended up with three people impact books.
Building a Story Brand. A gift from @SeanSankey, greatly missed associate at Golden Marzipan. As Sean said, its essential for “brand building and sales”. Telling your story, or your client’s story in a way that engages and motivates is very powerful.
The Scheme for Full Employment. I could have used Animal Farm as the parable about office relationships and politics. This book is equally thought provoking in getting under the skin about change, technology, and purpose of work. Even more so in the days of disrupted labour markets. Why are we here?
Surrounded by Idiots. Please don’t judge me. Another book about human behaviour. This time looking through the lens of Insights Colours as introduced to me by the amazing Sunshine Yellow @SuzanneShaw.
Social Purpose
And lastly an insight into leisure time Steve.
From Aintree to York. I do like a good day at the races. This was meant to be my post-retirement guide to leisurely days at Goodwood, Sandown and Cheltenham. And this is a fun book that looks beyond the obvious horse racing subjects.
The Quality of Madness. It’s a difficult time for us Leeds fans. I’m likely to be listening to the sad version of Marching On Together this weekend. I could have selected from a whole library of books about my team. But Marcelo Bielsa was special, he rekindled my interest in the beautiful game.
Camino de Santiago. And finally, an unopened book mapping the 500+ miles of the northern Spain route of the Camino, the way of St James. I did a week’s walking on the Portuguese leg five years ago and loved it. My plan is to find six weeks sometime to complete my bucket list item. Soon!
