While they also have research backing up their claims, Davenport and Manville make this case through twelve case studies divided into 4 sections. Part One covers participative problem solving with cases from NASA to McKinsey & Co. Part Two considers the use of technology and analytics to aid decision making with cases EMC and the Charlotte-Mecklenberg School System. Part Three examines how organizational culture and power structures guide decision making with cases from EMC, Vanguard and ancient Athens. Part Four asserts the all leaders ought involve the entire organization with cases from Media General and the fascinating start-up TweezerMan.

We ultimately tend to rewrite organizational decisions as attributable to one man or woman. Judgment Calls argues that all decisions are made better by considering the knowledge present in the organization. In making that argument, they ensure that at least these twelve stories will not be rewritten.

The strategy book is divided into two main sections. The first is McKeown’s take on the important steps of strategy, starting with strategic thinking and moving forward to planning. The Strategy Book goes beyond simple planning models of picking a market position. While it covers this, there are also hat tips to emergent strategy thought leaders by warning organizations to stay flexible. The second half of the book offers a survey of strategy tools, starting with SWOT and including everything from Porter’s Five Forces to BCG’s growth share matrix.

It would be hyperbole to claim that McKeown’s The Strategy Book is the “know all, be all” of strategy. However, it’s not an understatement to claim that it may be the best starting point for learning to lead strategic.

Montgomery argues that strategy ought to be an act of leadership, and not the formulaic calculation it currently appears to be. She argues that sustainable strategy is a myth and that true strategists and leaders work on constantly shaping and cultivating their companies value proposition and purpose over a longer time frame. To add to her argument she brings in fascinating case studies such as Domenico De Sole’s incredible turnaround of Gucci and (yes it seems obligatory) Steve Jobs’ triumphant return, which left Apple better aligned with the direction of the consumer market.

Montgomery’s style is a beautiful blend of academic prose and practical lessons. At first glance, the book looks like dry, heavy stuff however it moves quickly and keeps you feeling positive and entertained. There are many books about strategy out there, and many more about leadership – however, The Strategist has done the body of literature a service by finally blending the two in a comprehensive, yet understandable manner.

This book encapsulates Millennials more than any other book I have read. It describes a typical Millennial’s life journey and overt desire to find our passion, no matter what that passion pays us. It is like an anthem of this generation. Not that all Millennials will work one job a week like Aiken did, but they will strive for meaning in what they do choose to do. Bruce Tulgan uses the term “tapestry” to describe the Millennials career paths, where they want to paint a picture, or create a beautiful work of art with their lives, rather than just climb a corporate ladder to nowhere. Aikens’s book describes that journey, but also previews an intriguing twist with the Millennials: they might actually inspire other generations to question “why” and give up pointless quests for status amidst the rat race as well.

From a leadership perspective, this book is a great reminder that the people I lead have dreams and ambitions. We easily lose sight of that as leaders. In a perfect world, those dreams coincide with their job. But many times, they don’t. Why should I be surprised if they leave my leadership if I don’t care about that meaning? Aiken also gives us numerous examples of how new employees often get treated by companies. If you are an HR leader, this is an especially great book to read to help you understand the mindset of a new employee starting at your company. The little things do matter.

Our followers will not be content with mundane and pointless jobs with no meaning or direction. They see life as being too short to put up with ridiculous demands by leaders. Those domineering leaders will eventually run out of followers willing to put up with them, and they will not be able to compensate for their leadership ineptitude by throwing money at people. 21st century followers will laugh and quit when that happens, rather than stay and be miserable. That will change our workplaces substantially.

I loved this book. Aiken’s writing style reminds me a lot of Donald Miller, and he does a great job of telling the story of his 52 week adventure. Through these stories, he becomes an inadvertent leadership philosopher. It may be a stretch to add it to your leadership bookshelf, but I loved it, and would highly recommend it to anyone feeling a bit restless in your current job. You will soon realize that you are not alone, and many people feel that restlessness. Few of us will create an adventure like Aiken did, but you might be inspired by Aiken’s adventure. As leaders, we might also inspire our followers to find their passion too.

Note: I have no connection to the author or publisher. I did hear Sean speak in person in March 2012. All attendees at this event were given a free copy of the book.

Tim Vanderpyl is a Certified Human Resource Professional (CHRP) with Canada’s largest catholic healthcare organization. He holds a Master of Arts in Leadership from Trinity Western University and is working toward a Doctorate in Strategic Leadership at Regent University.

Spoiler Alert: the three steps are “Improve Your Perception,” “Increase Your Visibility,” and “Exert Your Influence.” It’s not the three steps that are so valuable; it is the tactics for working those three steps. Through the book, Joel offers practical ways to get noticed more often at work. While a lot of research now is fascinated with the idea of introverts in leadership, much of it starts from the premise that extroverts are more likely to be noticed and that being noticed matters in organizations. While a discussion on that issue would have be helpful, We’ll save that debate for another post.

For now, if you’re want to move forward in the organization, then Garfinkle’s Getting Ahead, can offer you some solid advice on how to do just that.

Drawing inspiration from the human genome project, Kates asserts that leaders need to see their system less as a group of silos and more as a living organism, which DNA that can be broken down into six basic elements:

• Product and service innovation
• Customer impact
• Process design
• Talent and leadership
• Secret sauce
• Trendability

Innovating the organization, or finding the new direction, involves considering how these six elements combine to determine what must be done. Kates further refines her approach by providing numerous examples from real business using the ideas in the book. Although most of the examples are B2C companies, there are still insights for B2B organizations and non-profits. Whatever organization you lead, you’ve likely had periods of doubt regarding the next step to take. Kate’s Find Your Next can offer some guidance on just where your organization needs to evolve.

Each piece begins with practice advice for managers and then provides a little more detail on the evidence behind why the advice was given. Moreover, it’s relatively to find even more information on the HBR website that correlates to each days tips. I’d recommend following the Tip of the Day blog, buying the app or following the twitter feed…but sometimes you just want something hands on. If that’s the case, check out Management Tips: From Harvard Business Review.

He suggests that creativity killers come from six different potential constraints:

• Individual – you actually don’t have a good idea
• Group – your group doesn’t like the idea
• Organizational – your organizational bureaucracy smothers the idea
• Industry-wide – Competitors or customers kill the idea
• Societal – cultural norms or regulations hinder the idea
• Technological – current technology can’t leverage the idea

Within the framework of these six constraints, Owens outlines how we can determine what factors will be vital for the success of our potential innovations. He suggests that we look at these constraints as a path to innovation, for which steps must be taken in order and roadblocks removed until we can bring the idea to full implementation.

Equally useful is Owens’ Organizational Innovation Constraints Assessment, which can be found at the end of each chapter and on the book’s website. If you lead a company that is desperate for innovation or that kills creative ideas too often, then Creative People Must Be Stopped can help keep you from stopping your creative people.

Not Bob Frisch.

Frisch’s new book, Who’s in the Room, argues that this in-group, which he calls the kitchen cabinet, is not going away any time soon…and that it shouldn’t. Frisch believes that real problem isn’t the kitchen cabinet; it’s the myth that the kitchen cabinet doesn’t exist. This is a starkly contrarian view, one that I had a hard time acclimating too as I read Who’s in the Room. However, gradually Frisch began to sell me on the idea that top-level leaders need both a large senior management team and a kitchen cabinet of trusted advisors. Senior Management Teams, he offer, tend to have a yes-man culture where everything presented in meetings must be positive and in line with what the leader wants. Kitchen cabinets, on the other hand, have actually been given the informality to provide contrarian views and objections to the leader – which better prepares them to lead.

To be sure, both Frisch and our organizational scholars seem to agree that a senior management team should probably have that level or informality. However, Frisch argues that no team building off-site is going to accomplish that. As such, Who’s in the Room offers real-world strategies for making the best of how organizations just seem to work.

The book is broken down into short, digestible chapters, each of which covers a different stage in the challenge of learning how to management. In that light it opens with discussion on the job of a manager and how you likely found yourself there and moves toward topics such as hiring, performance management and culture. It ends with a brilliant section on advice for new managers. I say brilliant because David’s idea for writing the last section was to take a lesson from good managers everywhere and step into the background. Instead of his own ideas, which you’ve just spent 200 pages reading, David polls an assortment of managers from a variety of industries and asks them what advice they’d have for a new manager. (Literary Delphi experiment perhaps?)

As written above, Managing (Right) for the First Time does share any groundbreaking new research (which we biasly favor), but the insight it gives lines up fairly nicely with everything 100 years of management research has taught us. The subtitle says it best “A Field Guide for Doing it Well.”