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A Mindful Leader’s Reading List

Austin, James E. The Collaboration Challenge: How Nonprofits and Businesses Succeed Through Strategic Alliances. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000. This book offers a practical framework for establishing effective and mutually beneficial strategic alliances.

Bridges, William. Managing Transitions. Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1991. This classic, easy to read book focuses on the human side of large scale change – how transition impacts employees, what employees in transition can do to an organization, and how to minimize the distress and disruptions caused by change.

Collins, Jim. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t. New York: HarperCollins, 2001. This popular book covers the essential elements of great companies. It’s founded on research of successful businesses. Members of management teams sometimes choose to discuss this book together as a foundation for making changes.

Dukes, E. Franklin, Marina A. Piscolish, and John B. Stephens. Reaching for Higher Ground in Conflict Resolution: Tools for Powerful Groups and Communities. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000. This book provides tools for facilitating collaborative engagements.

Gray, Barbara. Collaborating: Finding Common Ground for Multiparty Problems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1989. This book describes the need for collaboration; its dynamic processes: conflict, politics, and power; various designs for collaborations; and the need to move toward a collaborative world.

Hamel, Gary. Leading the Revolution. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2000. This book describes how companies can become outstanding innovators in our changing economy.

Hamel, Gary. Prahalad, C.K. Competing For the Future, Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 1994. This influential book identifies how to develop successful business strategies and ways of doing business in a rapidly changing environment.

Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. Change Masters. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1983. This classic text promotes innovation in organizations.

Kretzmann, John, and John McKnight. Building Communities from the Inside Out. Chicago: ACTA Publications, 1993. This is a useful guide for helping communities define strengths and assets through collaboration.

Lipnack, Jessica and Jeffrey Stamps. The Team Net Factor: Bringing the Power of Boundary Crossing Into the Heart of Your Business. Essex Junction, VI: Oliver Wight Publications Inc., 1993. This book shows in practical terms how to manage networks of people belonging to teams that cross traditional organization boundaries.

Mattessich, Paul W., Marta Murray-Close, and Barbara Monsey. Collaboration: What Makes It Work, 2nd ed. Saint Paul, MN: Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, 2001. This book is a review of research literature on twenty factors influencing successful collaborations. This includes the Wilder Collaboration Factors Inventory.

Moore, Geoffrey A., Inside the Tornado. New York: Harper Business, 1995. This insightful book shows how organizations that market technology-based products can survive ongoing rapid and sudden change by understanding the risks of the technology adoption life cycle from early adopters to mass markets. This book’s approach to business strategy is useful to non-high-tech businesses, also.

Moore, James. F. The Death of Competition. New York: HarperCollins, 1996. This classic book explores the importance of understanding business eco-systems in developing business and collaboration strategies.

Ray, Karen. The Nimble Collaboration: Fine-tuning Your Collaboration for Lasting Success. St. Paul, Minnesota: Wilder, 2002. This is a simple, practical guide to help existing partnerships become more effective.

Wilbur, Ken. A Theory of Everything, an Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Science and Spirituality. Boston: Shambhala Publications Inc., 2000. The title says it all. You will love this book or hate it.

Winer, Michael and Karen Ray. Collaboration Handbook: Creating, Sustaining, and Enjoying the Journey. St. Paul, Minnesota: Wilder, 1994.This is a simple, practical guide to putting together collaborations that works.