HR Book Club

Six Words About Work from Smith Magazine

markcrail — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:41:09 GMT

Six Words About Work from Smith Magazine and Mercer, edited by Larry Smith (Smith Magazine). ISBN 978-0-9847350-0-6.

Between June and August 2011, visitors to the Smith Magazine website were asked to summarise their views about work in six words. Around 400 of these aphorisms have now been published in book format. The publishers apparently expect people to pay US$12.95 for a copy. It only takes four words to sum up a publishing venture like this: money for old rope.

Re: HR Book Club >> Welcome to all our new members!

HR_Cass — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:49:26 GMT

Hello,

Just joined, as I'm always on the lookout for new books to read on HRM, and recommendations are always welcome! Currently reading "The Modernisation of the Public Services and Employee Relations: Targeted Change" by S. Bach and I Kessler (Palgrave Macmillan 2012) as it's relevant to my sector. Looking forward to hearing about what everyone else is reading, and thinking about their reading! =D

- Cass

HR Book Club >> Welcome to all our new members!

MC1 — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:32:30 GMT

Thanks for joining the HR Book Club! If you have a moment, please say hello here, let us know what you're reading at the moment, and what you'd like to get out of the HR Book Club!

HR Book Club: Discussions on key HR books... or an HR book of the month club?

MC1 — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:43:18 GMT

We're interested in getting in-depth discussions about key HR books going here in the HR Book Club.

This could work by nominating titles for discussion on a fortnightly or monthly basis (e.g. as an HR book of the month club, of sorts!).

If you're interested in taking part in such discussions, please get in touch here, and let us know what would be your preferred approach. For example, members could nominate a book to be discussed in detail each month (or each fortnight, or even weekly), or alternatively one HR Book Club member could post a detailed critique of a particular work via the HR Book Club blog, with other members joining in the debate via the comments field.

Please let us know how you'd like to see this work!

What are you reading right now?

MC1 — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:34:14 GMT

This is the place to discuss what you're reading right now - it could be an HR book, it could be an entirely non-HR book, indeed, it might not even be a book at all - blog posts, newspaper articles, poems - anything you might want to share and discuss! Feel free to tell us about whatever you're currently reading or have just read, right here!

What's on your HR reading list for autumn 2011?

MC1 — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:23:55 GMT

Following on from our recent look at HR's summer reading list for 2011, it seems only timely to look for a seasonal update. So: What's on your HR reading list for autumn 2011?

All titles are welcome - whether it's a business or HR-related title, or something a work of fiction, or something with its feet firmly planted in the real world.

What do you think is the most influential HR book?

MC1 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:04:34 GMT

What do you think is the most influential HR book ever written?

And is it deserving of its reputation? If so, why? And if not, why not?

This thread is theh place to have your say...

Fancy reviewing an HR book for the HR Book Club?

MC1 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 12:01:51 GMT

Would you like to review an HR book (or books!) and share your views with other members of the HR Book Club?

All members of the HR Book Club are welcome to contribute reviews - whether it be of an all-time favourite HR book, something you've just read and want to recommend... or something that you want to warn others to avoid like the plague!

Please get in touch via this thread if you are interested in posting reviews. We also have a stockpile of books here at XpertHR Towers, just waiting to be reviewed, so we can also supply review copies to our budding review writers!

The focus here is primarily on HR books and titles relating to the world of work, but feel free to stray beyond these parameters if you like, and review anything you might fancy.

The gap in my bookshelf: What's the one HR book that you want to see written?

MC1 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:53:26 GMT

I'd imagine that most members of this HR Book Club will have a well-stocked HR library at their disposal. But is there something that is missing, some gap in the HR book marketplace that you feel needs to be filled?

Please share details of the one HR book that you'd like to see written here. You never know... it might spark someone off to get scrivening. Or, alternatively, the book you want to see might already exist, and some kind soul could be out there, just waiting to point you in the right direction!

What's your favourite quotation from an HR book?

MC1 — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:46:18 GMT

What is the most outstanding piece of HR wisdom that you've ever gleaned from an HR book? Have you ever come across a single sentence or paragraph that sums up your whole outlook on your work... or that might have caused you to re-appraise it?

Please feel free to post your favourite quotations from HR books here - they can be as long as short as you like, but please do include details of the book in which you found them (preferably with a page number, too).

And any additional notes as to just what the quotation means to you, and why it has had such an impact on you, would be of huge interest!

Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:16:33 GMT

Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management

Appreciative inquiry (AI) has made huge inroads into consultancy and coaching work since the millennium. It is based around conversational practice and is a particular approach to asking questions, building relationships and increasing an organisation's capacity for collaboration and change.

The authors make the valid comparison at the beginning of the book between organisations as machines and organisations as living human systems. AI works better in the latter.

This book sets out the foundations of appreciative inquiry, both in terms of its history, and where it can make a difference. For example, there is a role for AI, which is a tool for bringing diverse people together, in meeting global challenges.

It then gives plenty of advice and examples of how to make AI work, before moving on to case studies of large organisations, such as Nokia, which used AI to revitalise corporate values.

I was particularly impressed by the honesty of this book. It confronts some of the emerging concerns among AI fans about the appearance of what they call a "totalitarian monologue" – best described as a single all-encompassing view coming from the top. This is said to be overpowering the healthy perspective that organisations are "possibilities to be realised", and replacing it with the negative, and non-AI view that organisations are "problems to be solved".

This challenging book is a welcome insight into how to build an organisation around what works, rather than trying to fix what doesn't.

Authors: Sarah Lewis, Jonathan Passmore and Stefan Cantore
From: Kogan Page
Price: £29.99
ISBN: 9780749450717

This was originally published on the 19 February 2008 at 00:00. This article first appeared in Training and Coaching Today. Written by Stephanie Sparrow

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t

markcrail — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 13:09:20 GMT

Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
by Jim Collins (Random House Business, ISBN: 0712676090)

This is one of the best-selling business books of all time. Even today, a clear decade after publication, it was at the time of checking in Amazon UK’s top 1,000 books and number one in the bookseller’s business studies books. So what’s it all about – and does it stand the test of time?

After asking himself the question summarised in the title, US academic Jim Collins and has research team set out to identify the common factors that accounted for business success. After sifting through nearly 1,500 companies, they selected 11 who appeared to have undergone a transformation from poor performers to outstanding and looked more closely at what they had done in order to distil lessons for the rest of us to follow.

Collins identified seven key areas which his “great” companies had in common and which he said explained their greatness.

All had “Level 5” leaders – individuals who were both personally humble but professionally driven to create something which would outlast them.
Each adopted a “first who… then what” approach top team-building – selecting the right people before all else and giving good people good opportunities rather than all the problems to solve.
They were prepared to “confront the brutal facts” when reality didn’t accord with the company plan.
They based their plans on the “hedgehog concept” (a parable not really worth explaining), centred on the point where what they were passionate about, what they could make money from, and what they could be the best at.
They had a culture of discipline to go with their entrepreneurial spirit.
They used technology to do what they did better rather than embracing it for its own sake.
They were prepared to put in solid, steady work rather than expecting overnight success.

Many people cite Collins’ 2001 best=seller as a profound influence on them. Others are more sceptical. Their criticisms, in summary, are: that Collins’ measures of success are flawed; that by looking back to select winners he has introduced a selection bias so that the book actually looks at what great companies do rather than what makes great companies what they are; and that much of what is said amounts to little more than platitudes – descriptions so vague that any business reader may see a little of themselves in them.

Reviewed by Mark Crail, head of salary surveys for XpertHR

BUY NOW: Good To Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't

Springboard: Women's Development Workbook

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:59:31 GMT

Springboard: Women's Development Workbook

In the 1990s, I was privileged to attend one of the first Springboard courses, and I treasured the workbook, which I filled with notes reflecting the energy and enthusiasm of that day.

This is the sixth edition of a book, and the Springboard developers Liz Willis and Jenny Daisley are to be congratulated for keeping the brand fresh and relevant. I particularly enjoyed the new case studies. The self-questioning and planning sections of the book are clear and purposeful, and mean the book could be used by anyone working on their own or in a group.

Corporate buyers could also find a use for the book as part of coaching or mentoring programmes as it tackles areas such as goal-setting very well.

The new workbook generates as much light and energy as that first edition did almost 20 years ago.

Authors: Liz Willis and Jenny Daisley
Publisher: Hawthorn Press
ISBN : 1-903458-74-9
Price: £30

This was originally published on the 18 March 2008 at 00:00. This article first appeared in Training and Coaching Today. Written by Stephanie Sparrow

Psychometrics in Coaching

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:55:27 GMT

Psychometrics in Coaching

Using psychological and psychometric tools for development

The value of this book lies in how it de-mystifies the process of coaching and psychometric tests. This could lead to more informed purchasing decisions in the buyers’ minefield of coaching.

It also offers many different points of view. The book’s editor, Jonathan Passmore, is an executive coach who has assembled a contributing team from the who’s who of people development.

The book is divided into two parts. The first consists of two chapters that explain how to use psychometrics and gain feedback. The second, which occupies most of the book, is dedicated to individual instruments and how the coaching practitioner might use them.

Don’t be put off by the opening chapter: I found it rather dense, as it is an encyclopaedia of definitions. However, the second chapter is outstanding, as it dissects how great feedback can lead to effective learning. It identifies ineffective feedback and marks out the danger zones for a coaching sponsor, such as insufficiently specified goals.

Part two of the book wades in with an epic journey around individual instruments and their use. The reader is taken on a tour of all manner of instruments designed to identify stress, emotional resilience and leadership.

I do have a concern about bias in this section, as some of the authors are involved in the tools they describe. But each chapter is written to the same format, and so keeps bias at bay.

The book is rounded off with an excellent glossary, and overall is a helpful publication.

Editor: Jonathan Passmore (with contributed chapters)
Price: £24.95
ISBN: 978-0-7494-5080-9

This was originally published on the 18 March 2008 at 00:00. This article first appeared in Training and Coaching Today. Written by Stephanie Sparrow

Book of the week... Why Women Mean Business

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:50:33 GMT

Book of the week... Why Women Mean Business

This has an academic feel to it: you will recognise the 'further reading' lists from your student days. The authors have been meticulous in their research, with an impressive collection of up-to-date, relevant case studies and statistics. The concept of companies becoming 'bilingual' - with different ways of dealing with men and women - is compelling, and readers will appreciate the advice on how to achieve and implement it.

Author: Avivah Wittenberg-Cox and Alison Maitland
Price: £16.99
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Pages: 376
ISBN: 0470725087

Originally published on the 28 March 2008 at 17:45.

Relational Coaching

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:45:53 GMT

Relational Coaching

RELATIONAL COACHING
Journeys towards mastering one-to-one learning

Relational coaching concentrates on the quality of the coach-coachee relationship from the latter's perspective.

To uncover that, de Haan's masterful and impressive book gives a complete overview of the coaching profession, including its origins and the latest developments in coaching.

The second part of the book presents recent quantitative and qualitative research into the effects and experiences of coaching. Part three contains an introduction to the activities that make a good coach and the mechanisms used to verify coaches' understanding of their profession. Other topics covered include training, accreditation, supervision and recommended literature.

De Haan is to be congratulated for his honesty and perspicacity in getting to the heart of the coaching relationship. He is so honest that he provides a verbatim transcript of a coaching session, supplemented by a running commentary of his own thoughts and feelings. I was both impressed and moved by this soul baring.

The book would be helpful for professional coaches who want to broaden their outlook and for buyers of coaching who want to tune into the latest thinking (de Haan is also programme director of the Ashridge Masters in Executive Coaching). It would also be a useful tool for buyers and sponsors of coaching who want to quiz or assess potential coaches at interview.

Reading Relational Coaching is an intense experience, but it seems only fair that it requires the same level of commitment as that shown by its author.

Author: Erik de Haan
Price: £24.99
Publisher: Wiley
ISBN: 978 0 470 72428 6

This was originally published on the 15 April 2008 at 08:00. This article first appeared in Training and Coaching Today. This was written by
Stephanie Sparrow.

Quality Improvement in Adult Vocational Education and Training

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:37:50 GMT

Quality Improvement in Adult Vocational Education and Training

Transforming Skills for the Global Economy

This book comes with an excellent pedigree. David Sherlock retired as chief inspector of Adult Learning (ALI) for England in 2007, and Nicky Perry was director of inspection at the Training Standards Council and at ALI. Consequently, it is a goldmine of experienced, erudite observations on the state of the nation’s skills, its strategies and its mindset.

We are told that skills account for one fifth of the UK’s productivity deficit with the world’s top leaders. There are some pertinent insights into manufacturing and training throughout the world: in Italy, seven times more money is spent on pupils in technical high schools than on those taking an academic route.

The book is also strong on answers. It includes a method called the Transformational Diamond, which explains how to analyse the quality of existing training and enable good practice. Case studies show how the diamond can work in practice.

My only gripe is that perhaps the book is too nostalgic. Do we really need to know about the mechanics of the in-house newspaper, however good? But this is a minor moan, and the book has much to offer on the perennial arguments of the links between training and productivity. The cover price was a bit of a shock though.

Authors: Nick Perry and David Sherlock
From: Kogan Page
Price: £40
ISBN: 978-0-7494-5103-5

This was originally published on the May 2008 at 14:00. This article first appeared in Training and Coaching Today. Written by Stephanie Sparrow

Tribal Business School

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:30:59 GMT

Tribal Business School

This is a stunning book – the photos alone will lift your spirits. Its premise is that 'primitive' societies have survived centuries of hard conditions, and must therefore have something to teach modern businesses. Much of the advice is common sense – such as leading by example – but it's the kind of common sense that we've forgotten. An enjoyable read with thought-provoking tales from around the world.

Editor: Jo Owen
Price: £19.99
Publisher: Jossey-Bass
Pages: 140
ISBN: 0470727810

This was originally published on the 28 May 2008 at 16:00. Written by Tara Craig

Understanding emotional intelligence in 90 minutes

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:26:08 GMT

Understanding emotional intelligence in 90 minutes

Childs gets off to a good start by discussing why people are interested in emotional intelligence, setting the scene well for the following chapters. One of Childs' most engaging habits is that of anticipating reader questions - and providing the answers. This gives the book a particularly conversational, and accessible, tone. However, despite the tone, this isn't a book to dip into - readers will really need to concentrate, but it's worth the effort. By the end of the book, you'll have a good grounding in emotional intelligence and a much better understanding of your own behaviour.

Author: Jan Childs
Price: £9.99
Publisher: Management Books 2000
Pages: 126
ISBN: 1852525258

This was originally published on the 23 June 2008 at 00:00.

Book of the week: The Handbook for Exceptional People

Rob Moss — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 12:22:12 GMT

Book of the week: The Handbook for Exceptional People

This is an attractive book, designed and sized to make you want to carry it around with you. Author and personal coach Jez Cartwright believes that we are all exceptional, but that this may be shrouded in layers of information and past experiences. It's a case of two steps back, one step forward as he takes the reader through a series of tasks aimed at helping them break behavioural cycles and ultimately enabling them to move forward. If you're not a fan of coaching, you will look on this book with a sceptical eye, but there's plenty of thought-provoking content.

Author: Jez Cartwright
Price: £7.99
Publisher: Rodale International
Pages: 110
ISBN: 1905744129

This was originally posted on the 10 July 2008 at 17:25. Written by Tara Craig