More than 11,000 business books are published every year—an overwhelming choice for busy professionals. Therefore, in partnership with getAbstract, Training brings you August’s top three business books recommended to our readers.
“Stop Guessing. The 9 Behaviors of Great Problem Solvers” by Nat Greene (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2017, 145 pages, ISBN: 9781626569867; $19.95)
Consultant Nat Greene shows you how to address difficult issues and solve tough problems by using nine strategic problem-solving behaviors. He says you should stop guessing and learn how to “smell” problems. Other steps can help, such as acknowledging your ignorance and making sure you are defining the problem accurately. Greene urges delving into the science behind a problematic system, shooting for simple solutions, making choices based on solid factual evidence and staying on target until you unravel the knot. He provides many interesting, entertaining anecdotes to enliven his succinct guide. Greene offers the most help to those who lack an engineering background and who feel overly reliant on experts, but anyone trying to analyze an issue can benefit from his structured framework. getAbstract recommends his approach as a helping hand for those who want to adopt a specific problem-solving strategy.
Rating (out of 10): 7
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 7
Style: 7
“Victory Through Organization.Why the War for Talent Is Failing Your Company and What You Can Do About It” by Dave Ulrich, David Kryscynski, Wayne Brockbank, and Mike Ulrich (McGraw-Hill Education, 2017, 293 pages, ISBN: 9781259837647; $22.25)
As the title suggests, teams trump individuals. After analyzing more than 32,000 survey responses worldwide, authors Dave Ulrich, David Kryscynski, Wayne Brockbank, and Mike Ulrich present evidence that while great HR professionals matter, they quadruple their impact when they organize into effective HR departments. The latest in a trilogy based on the authors’ groundbreaking, three-decades-long “HR Competency Studies” (HRCS), this entry wraps up material in the series’ previous excellent books. Of course, few teams have contributed more to HR literature than Ulrich and Brockbank. getAbstract thinks that any leader or HR professional—especially those who haven’t read the first two volumes—will savor these insights from an incredible 30 years of original research.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 9
Innovation: 7
Style: 7
“It’s Who You Know. How a Network of 12 Key People Can Fast-Track Your Success” by Janine Garner (Wiley, 2017, 256 pages, ISBN: 9780730336846; $19.58)
In today’s hyper-connected world, success depends on smart networking. People must network with one another to get ahead. For most introverts, this is a big problem. They don’t know how to network effectively. Most extroverts like the idea of networking per se. However, like introverts, they often don’t know how to network efficiently. They think networking should be transactional, not transformational. This ultimately makes networking a shallow—and usually unproductive—undertaking. Janine Garner—founder of women’s networking community LBDGroup—teaches introverts and extroverts alike how to tackle networking. She explains why it is essential, how it benefits you, how to manage it, and what types of people you should recruit (and avoid). She shows you why your network hinges on four core members and 12 key people you must select carefully. getAbstract recommends Garner’s guide to business students, entrepreneurs, the self-employed, and anyone seeking to network effectively.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 9
Innovation: 7
Style: 8
For five-page summaries of these and more than 15,000 other titles, visit http://www.getabstract.com/affiliate/trainingmagazine
