Best books lists can be terrible for someone who reads a lot (and usually loves what he reads) to compile. Each month, I’m planning to share a few book selections of books I love that I think you might love too.
While yes, all of these books can be found online, I would encourage you to consider visiting your local independent book store wherever you live to pick up a copy that’s in stock (or to order a copy if it isn’t in stock). Booksellers at shops like Left Bank Books or The Novel Neighbor (in St. Louis), City Lights or Pegasus Books (in the Bay Area), and Book Culture or The Strand (in New York) are intensely knowledgeable. Plus, by buying from them, you are sustaining those very local businesses that give our communities their character. If you must buy online, at least use AmazonSmile.com and help a worthy non-profit through your purchase!
Invitation to the Party
Donna Walker-Kuhne, 2005
Thirteen years ago, Theatre Communications Group hosted its annual conference in Atlanta. It was the first TCG conference I attended, and one keynote speaker calibrated my focus around the arts, marketing, and community in a way that no one had before: Donna Walker-Kuhne. She had just published this brilliant book a year prior, and after hearing her speak, I made a beeline to purchase it. In the years since, I have purchased multiple copies, giving them to friends and colleagues and have assigned the book in my course at Webster University. It became the starting point for conversations during my time at OTSL about what we needed to do differently to achieve community alignment around our then-nascent efforts to improve equity and inclusion.
Invitation to the Party uses Donna Walker-Kuhne’s extensive experience (first at Dance Theater of Harlem and then at the Public Theater) to distill the challenge that arts organizations across the spectrum face in trying to build an audience that reflects their community. In short, for many audiences in our community, our organizations have failed because for decades we have not extended the invitation. It’s a very simple idea and a highly accurate assessment. Think of it this way:
A community does not see itself reflected in our audience, at our events, in our materials, on our stage, or on our website.
That same community sees this trend for years or even decades.
That community assumes that the audience you do have is the audience you want, creating a narrative about whether they “belong” or “are wanted” themselves.
Members of that community who could come do not, only furthering the reality of limited participation.
It’s a cycle that builds on itself. The only way out of it is to act with clear intention and break the cycle. Breaking that cycle doesn’t just require the act of invitation of course. But in Ms. Walker-Kuhne’s highly readable (and relatively short) book, she provides ten tools to prepare you to make the invitation and to grow and build the relationship once the invitation has (or hasn’t) been accepted - from investment and research on the front end to creating value and appreciation on the back end.
What you’ll learn from this book is highly applicable day-to-day within your organization and even in new personal relationships you may build inside and outside of your comfort zone. I cannot recommend it more highly to anyone looking to deepen (or just refresh) their knowledge in this space.
Love is the Killer App
Tim Sanders, 2003
If I was making a list of three books that will improve your worldview a year ago, this book wouldn’t have been on it. Why? Somehow, I hadn’t yet heard of it. But, just as I had become an apostle of Donna Walker-Kuhne (giving away copies of her book to other gladly), so had a wonderful OTSL board member become an apostle of Tim Sanders, the author of this great read. He gave me a copy of it last year, and once I dove headlong into it, I discovered a series of ideas that remind us all of the power of professional, radical generosity. Then, a week ago, I had the pleasure to hear Tim give a keynote at Entrepreneurial Quarterly’s Leadership Lab at the Midwest Digital Marketing Conference. And again I was inspired.
Mr. Sanders’ premise is simple: there is much we are capable of giving that costs us nothing but time. But in being generous, loving, compassionate people - both in our personal lives and in our work - we have the potential to reap meaningful long-term rewards. So, rather than build silos around ourselves to keep others from gaining our knowledge or personal and professional networks so we can each maintain that elusive “competitive advantage,” why not share those things freely? Through episode after episode, the book reminds us that we have much more to gain by being loving and generous in our work than we will ever have to lose. Being that good, selfless person will only grow your potential for personal and professional success… while making you happier along the journey.
The next time you have even an average length flight, bring this book along. You’ll have finished reading it before you land, and I can guarantee your outlook will have significantly improved along the way.
The Power of Habit
Charles Duhigg, 2012
This is one book I have come back to time and again ever since picking it up some six or seven years ago - each time for a different reason. While I can’t remember where I first encountered Charles Duhigg’s book (quite possibly on a display at Left Bank Books), its simple central idea has captivated me every since my first read. Our lives and our choices are dominated by habit, and three basic elements create the “habit loops” we inhabit: a cue, a routine, and a reward. There is something simultaneously liberating and terrifying about realizing we are not much better than trained mice finding cheese in a maze. The terrifying part of it may be obvious - after all, we’re a highly advanced species, shouldn’t we be more than a series of actions triggered by a series of cues? The liberating part is this: once you understand how habit is created, you can shape those habits and shape them for the better.
However, it’s also an insightful read for anyone in marketing, communications, philanthropy, or community engagement. Because understanding how our own personal habits are created may certainly be valuable. But understanding how habits inform constituent, consumer, or community behavior - and applying that knowledge to your day-to-day work - is golden. With the easy prose of Malcolm Gladwell and enough infographics to keep even a casual reader engaged, Mr. Duhigg looks at far-reaching and diverse case studies (from the campaign to develop Febreze to the process of sequencing music on commercial radio) to examine his central point. His narrative reminds us that there is both an art and a science to influencing human behavior - and that we shouldn’t be afraid to be experts in both to succeed.
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Are there books you love with simple ideas that re-calibrated your view of the world? Let me know!
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