More than 11,000 business books are published every year—an overwhelming choice for busy professionals. Therefore, in partnership with getAbstract, Training brings you June’s top three business books recommended to our readers.
“Team Genius. The New Science of High-Performing Organizations” by Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone (Copyright 2015 by Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone; published by arrangement with HarperBusiness, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015, 282 pages, ISBN: 9780062302540; $19.12)
Business journalists Rich Karlgaard and Michael S. Malone discuss the new science behind effective teams and why team size matters. They cover how diversity affects teams, why too much or too little conformity kills a team, and how to identify and deal with destructive team members. Karlgaard and Malone emphasize having the right number of people on your team, yet they report that cohesion matters more than head count. Their chapters on “pairs” and “trios” are especially fascinating. Pairs generally endure, but adding a third member often causes chaos. Groups of four or more tend to be stable. Still-larger groups have their own special parameters. getAbstract recommends this intriguing, revealing study to teambuilders, team leaders, professors, coaches, parents, entrepreneurs, and investors.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 7
Innovation: 10
Style: 8
“Bridging the Soft Skills Gap. How to Teach the Missing Basics to Today’s Young Talent” by Bruce Tulgan (Jossey-Bass, 2015, 288 pages, ISBN: 9781118725641; $17.69)
Many managers complain that generation Z employees (born between 1990 and1999) “arrive late, leave early, dress inappropriately, and spend too much time on social media.” While acknowledging that it never serves to paint an entire generation with too broad a brush, Bruce Tulgan reports that supervisors often find younger staff members lacking in “workplace citizenship.” He provides easy-to-follow, short-but-detailed lesson plans to help managers train Gen Zers in soft skills, such as collegiality, “professionalism, critical thinking, and followership.” If you want your 20-something staffers to get along with people, develop self-awareness, and focus on others, you may need to teach them how. getAbstract recommends Tulgan’s pragmatic counsel to managers who supervise Gen Z employees and to young employees and job applicants, as well.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 8
Innovation: 8
Style: 9
“The Only Woman in the Room. Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club” by Eileen Pollack (Beacon Press, 2015, 288 pages, ISBN: 9780807046579; $23.36)
Despite being one of the first two women to graduate with a BS in physics from Yale, Eileen Pollack became a writer instead of pursuing a career in physics. As a child, she wanted to learn math and science, but teachers discouraged her because of her gender. Pollack examines her education as a case history to understand why women abandon science careers. Weaving her experiences and interviews with women in science, Pollack discusses why women leave science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) careers and explores how to prevent their exodus. getAbstract recommends Pollack’s insights to STEM teachers, professors, HR executives and practitioners, and women aspiring to study and work in the hard sciences.
Rating (out of 10): 8
Applicability: 7
Innovation: 8
Style: 8
For five-page summaries of these and more than 15,000 other titles, visit http://www.getabstract.com/affiliate/trainingmagazine
