Due to an unexpected event, I am not able to host this month’s professional study. (Click here to see the updated schedule through May; you can also access the discussion threads, podcasts, and videos from the first two studies there.) In the meantime, I’m sharing my reading life since the new year. See you in April! -Matt
What I’ve Read
Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most by Greg McKweon
A compilation of concepts, stories, and strategies for reducing our effort while getting better results.
The anecdotes of others accomplishing something related to one of the core concepts felt familiar to me. Where the book was most helpful was in the simple tools for managing complex tasks. For example, the competing response "How could I make this easy?" could be implemented right away.
Seeking Wisdom: A Spiritual Path to Creative Connection by Julia Cameron
A unique book and perspective on prayer as a way to support creativity. Cameron's insights are what makes this book a valuable resource. Some of the text replicates the routines offered in The Artist's Way. Not necessarily bad or good, just worth noting if you choose to read this book (I appreciated revisiting the morning pages practice).
School Is Wherever I Am by Ellie Peterson
A great message about learning beyond school walls and even when alone. Perfect for younger kids; simply told yet relevant for all readers.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferris
While reading it, I could see this book's influence in so many productivity books today. Like other titles written at the time, some of the complexities of life we experience today are absent. Yet Ferris’s message does fill you with hope that you can reach beyond current self-limiting beliefs about work, what we should value, and personal/professional freedom.
Winter 2023 Favorites
Fiction Favorite: The Last Cuentista by Donna Barba Higuera
The concept alone - that a small group of people escape to a new planet as Hailey's Comet's path is altered by a solar flare and ends up destroying Earth - is interesting enough.
What makes this book outstanding are the intersecting themes of story, identity, and trust in oneself and each other. Higuera weaves them together masterfully while also honoring and elevating the science fiction genre. (Reading this book was also a lesson for me in how underrepresented science fiction is with regard to diverse characters and authors, at least in the sci-fi I have chosen to read in the past.)
A recommended title for book clubs and independent reading. It can spark deep conversations with middle school students.
(I wrote a little more about this book for full subscribers below.)
Nonfiction Favorite: Unleash Your Complexity Genius: Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead by Jennifer Garvey Berger & Carolyn Coughlin
“[T]he future emerges from what’s happening now.”
Unleash Your Complexity Genius: Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead is another winner from Jennifer Garvey Berger and colleagues. The tools they provide for managing conflict in an accelerating society are so helpful and on the nose.
For example, on pg. 128 the authors point out that many professionals have a perfectionist tendency.
We want our presentations to flawless.
We want to add value to every conversation.
We want to remember every birthday.
We want to be kind to all people at all times.
Laudable goals. Yet we blame ourselves or we blame others when these high standards aren’t met. This can lead to less openness and trust with others; we don’t want to appear irresponsible or come across as accepting of less-than-desirable results.
The authors point out that being vulnerable and allowing for our own imperfections is a key to giving tacit permission for others to do so as well. One idea: Start a meeting by sharing unfiltered failure stories (p. 135) in which you are not the hero. Think “anti-Instagram”. Everyone shares without judgment.
A point for discussion:
Research has found that “the highest performing, most creative teams talked much more often and more openly about failure than lower-performing teams. They made fewer errors, but they talked about more of them” (p. 136).
Do you believe this is true?
How will you lead today?