2021 Book List: 20 Titles Recommended by Our Experts

In 2021, COE curated a lineup of experts to speak (virtually) on topics ranging from supply chain, leadership, and the future of work to diversity, lean transformation, and robotic process automation. As the year draws to a close, we wanted to share a selection of books recommended by several of our speakers. Please note many of these book recommendations pair with topics we covered in 2021; recordings of these webinars are available in the members only portion of our website in the digital content archive.

Without further ado, here are the titles to add to your 2022 reading list:

Splitting the DMAIC by Tom Quick

Recommended by Tracy Owens, Process Improvement Coach

This weekend read helps put into perspective the deployment of DMAIC with a sharper focus based on the problem you are trying to solve.

The Conversation by Dr. Robert Livingston

Recommended by: Al Deutschendorf, VP of Operational Excellence, Cardinal Health

There have been many challenging social topics for us all to navigate within our organizations over the last few years. Dr. Livingston helps guide us through those by first taking a science-based approach to examine the issues and then by providing strategies to approach them. In many cases, we just need to have an open and safe discussion with our colleagues and friends. He helps get us there.

Think Again by Adam Grant

Recommended by Bethany Klynn, President and Owner, Insight Leadership Consulting

I spend a lot of time talking to leaders and their teams about curiosity, and this book offers great tools to help us stay curious and continue to learn. Grant's main idea is that we can have our convictions and our opinions, but also make space to admit that we might be wrong. When leaders maintain this level of intellectual humility, they build stronger relationships, learn faster, and achieve greater levels of innovation and creativity. These nuanced conversations help us build true learning organizations and embrace the joy of being wrong.

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu Goldratt  

Recommended by Phil Nolette, Senior Director, Hikma Pharmaceuticals

Excellent source for basic recommendations on the 5 steps of constraint management!

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition by Robert Cialdini

Recommended by Richard Jolly, Director, Stokes & Jolly Lt.

A classic text on influencing! The author has done an extensive and rigorous research on the minds of the people and their general psychology. His findings have enabled him to come up with this book on the art of persuasion and how one can use the knowledge of this psychology for their own advantage. 

Learning to See by Mike Rother, Jim Womack, and John Shook

Recommended by Phil Nolette, Senior Director, Hikma Pharmaceuticals

Best source for learning how to value stream map!

The Heart of Business by Hubert Joly

Recommended by Bethany Klynn, President and Owner, Insight Leadership Consulting

Hubert Joly (the former CEO of Best Buy who is credited with their impressive turnaround) illuminates how leaders can rebuild their organizations around a truly noble purpose. This purpose gives employees something to rally around and becomes a guiding star for the organization. Profits, therefore, become an outcome of this noble purpose, a relevant successful strategy, and the quality of the human relationships that drive it. I've been leveraging his approach to help leaders have a different quality of conversation with their executive teams. He offers great insights about Best Buy's turnaround and how he has learned over time.

The Power Paradox: How We Gain and Lose Influence by Dacher Keltner

Recommended by Richard Jolly, Director, Stokes & Jolly Lt.

A great book about how to build more powerful relationships!

Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control by Stuart Russell

Recommended by: Nate Craig, Assistant Professor, Fisher College of Business

Fascinating take on the future of AI, and how AI might integrate into society. Authored by Stuart Russell, who wrote the most popular textbook on AI.

The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer by Jeff Liker

Recommended by Phil Nolette, Senior Director, Hikma Pharmaceuticals

One of the most impactful business guides published in the 21st Century, The Toyota Way played an outsized role in launching the continuous-improvement movement that continues unabated today. This book discusses the basic principles of continuous improvement and Lean manufacturing.

The Most Human Human by Brian Christian

Recommended by: Nate Craig, Assistant Professor, Fisher College of Business

This book explores how developing AI (and the Turing Test, in particular) teaches us about our own intelligence.

Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms by Hannah Fry

Recommended by: Nate Craig, Assistant Professor, Fisher College of Business

Clear and engaging descriptions of how machine learning algorithms work and of how those algorithms affect our lives.

That’s What She Said: What Men Need to Know (and Women Need to Tell Them) About Working Together by Joanne Lipman

Recommended by: Larry English, Co-Founder and President of Centric Consulting

We've made tremendous gains in the business world toward elevating and growing the careers of women to a place of more equity, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. That’s What She Said not only helps readers understand how to help promote more women in leadership, but it also gives great insight into the biases that continue to hold us back.

Books written by our 2021 speakers:

Stop Spending, Start Managing: Strategies to Transform Wasteful Habits by Tanya Menon & Leigh Thompson

There is a way out of this cycle. Organizational researchers Tanya Menon and Leigh Thompson, experts in collaboration and creativity, identify five spending traps that lead to this wasteful “action without traction.” Menon and Thompson combine their own research with other findings in psychology to provide strategies to break these unproductive habits and refine your skills as a manager. 

Finding Confidence in Conflict by Kwame Christian

Finding Confidence in Conflict will show you how to handle negotiations and difficult conversations using the Compassionate Curiosity Framework. This framework designed to guide you through all of your difficult conversations, both at work and at home.

Lean IT: Enabling & Sustaining Your Lean Transformation by Mike Orzen

Winner of a 2011 Shingo Research and Professional Publication Award, this book shares practical tips, examples, and case studies to help you establish a culture of continuous improvement to deliver IT operational excellence and business value to your organization.

Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving--every day. James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviors that lead to remarkable results.

F-Notes: Facilitation for Quality by Tracy Owens

They teach you the tools in class, but the pressure of leading a team is often not covered well. This book is a guide for facilitators to deploy quality tools, right down to scripting the sequence of steps for detailed preparation. This book offers a deeper understanding of how a workshop needs to be managed, how a team can be guided, and how workshop tools should be deployed to achieve a team's objectives. 

Office Optional: How to Build a Connected Culture With Virtual Teams by Larry English

The pandemic caused the business world to take a major leap forward in its acceptance of remote work. There’s no going back now – remote and hybrid work are here to stay. Now, companies need to learn how to do everything virtually, from collaboration and recruitment to building their culture. In Office Optional, Larry English provide a blueprint based on more than 20 years leading Centric Consulting, which has been remote since the very beginning.

Which one will you read first?