Living in More Than One World

Jennifer Schuessler’s super-interesting New York Times post, David Foster Wallace, Self-Help Reader inspired several reading journeys based on the work, life and death of the author who committed suicide in 2008. I wrote briefly about Wallace in 2009, wondering about whether I had unknowingly walked by him at Pomona College, in Claremont, California, where he was a professor, when I was in town to research my book.
The self-help angle was what drew me into the NYT post. When I clicked on the link to Inside David Foster Wallace’s Private Self-Help Library, by Maria Bustillos, at The Awl, I expected perhaps a list of some of the self-help books he read. But what I found is a penetrating, extended essay about Wallace’s life, as illuminated by the (annotated and color-highlighted) self-help books in his private collection, which Bustillos examined in their current home, the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. I found what she wrote completely absorbing and well worth the time it takes to read it. And looking at the catalog of the books from his library now at the Ransom Center makes for compulsive browsing, especially discovering those with notations in Wallace’s hand. It also makes you wonder what he – or any writer whose private book collection becomes available for public study – would think, if he could, about people reading notes he scribbled in the margins of those books. Schuessler’s post also led me to Wallace’s 2004 NYT review of a biography of Jorge Luis Borges, Edwin Williamson’s Borges: A Life. In the review, Wallace reveals a lot about the mind of one first-rate writer studying the work of another. Describing Borges’ short stories, he writes: “His stories are inbent and hermetic, with the oblique terror of a game whose rules are unknown and its stakes everything.”

The publication of the new book by Joseph A. Maciariello and Karen E. Linkletter, Drucker’s Lost Art of Management: Peter Drucker’s Timeless Vision For Building Effective Organizations marks a major event in Drucker studies. Maciariello was a longtime professor/colleague and friend of Peter Drucker’s at the Drucker-Ito School. He also coauthored the last three Drucker books: Management: Revised Edition, The Effective Executive in Action and The Daily Drucker. Linkletter was the first archivist at the Drucker Institute (where Maciariello is Director of Research and Academic Director), and is a historian who teaches American Studies at California State University at Fullerton. Although I haven’t finished reading the 456 page book, what I have read is fascinating. The authors explore in detail the roots of Drucker’s thinking that led to his idea of “management as a liberal art,” and his development as a dominant force in modern management.

Considerable added value is provided by their explanations of the people and ideas that influenced Drucker, and then synthesizing many of these ideas to demonstrate their importance in Drucker’s work as a writer, teacher and consultant. So we get, for instance, mini-biographies of Drucker influences such as the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, Thorstein Veblen (“The Theory of the Leisure Class”) and many others. There is even a 41 page section on Abraham Lincoln as a case study in leadership in relation to Drucker’s principles.

What I find particularly fascinating about the book is the wealth of material about Drucker in regard to faith, spirituality and religion, and how these areas influenced his work and thinking. Drucker’s books are filled with references to these topics, though as the authors point out, he generally did not make his own religious views a prominent part of his writing or teaching. See in particular their examination of Drucker’s highly personal 1949 essay “The Unfashionable Kierkegaard,” and their background material on Kierkegaard. Although I have not met Linkletter, I have known Maciariello since 2002, when he was the first person I interviewed for my book. For more on his work and relationship with Drucker, see this 2009 interview with Alistair Craven.

I’m always interested in finding out what makes successful people tick. The recent Fast Company feature Leadership Hall of Fame: Richard Florida, Author of “The Rise of the Creative Class” makes for fascinating reading, on a number of levels. Richard Florida has had a zooming career as an author and professor, built on his profession of urban planning. He is also a blogger with a devoted following. Mediabistro reported recently that he will add to his workload as a Senior Editor at The Atlantic, one of his blogging homes. What particularly struck me in the Fast Company interview is his revelation that two of the biggest influences on his work have been Peter Drucker and Jane Jacobs, the author of the classic The Death and Life of Great American Cities, who was from my home town, Scranton, Pa. “My work hopes to be a synthesis of Jacobs and Drucker,” Florida says. Last year, I blogged about my return to Scranton to speak about my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. I noted the Drucker connection to the city, his commencement address to the University of Scranton in 1964. Jacobs, who graduated — albeit many years before — from my high school, Scranton Central, died in 2006 at 89. Her work as a critic of cities, neighborhoods and urban planning was successful despite having no academic background in urban planning. Like Drucker, she remained relevant and influential throughout a long life. And similar to him, books continue to be published about her, including one released yesterday, a collection of essays published by the American Planning Association, Reconsidering Jane Jacobs. Another wonderful thing about her legacy is Jane’s Walk USA, including one to be held in Scranton on May 7. The final years of her life were lived in Toronto, where Florida teaches at the Rotman School of Management. In Drucker and Jacobs, he has chosen his professional role models well. Aiming to do work that will live beyond our lifetime is a noble goal.

In these destabilizing times, we need constant help to think in different, more creative ways. The advertising world has long excelled at delivering concise, catchy information in multiple formats. Paul Arden, the longtime executive creative director of the British agency Saatchi & Saatchi, was a master of the art. I was saddened to discover recently that he died in 2008. I reviewed one of his books, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want to Be: The world’s best-selling book by Paul Arden, for USA TODAY in 2003. After the review ran, I received a gracious handwritten note in the mail from him, thanking me for what I had written. That book and its 2006 follow-up Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite are both stimulating sources of disruptive thinking that can help us get unstuck inside and outside the workplace. They are especially relevant if you are working in or aspire to work in fields that require daily creativity. Both are small-format paperbacks, beautifully designed and reminiscent both in word and image of some of Marshall McLuhan’s classic work. You really have to see the layout and typography to get the full effect, but here are some Arden-isms to consider…  From It’s Not How Good: “Don’t Look for the Next Opportunity. The One You Have in Hand is the Opportunity.” “If You Get Stuck, Draw With a Different Pen.” “When It Can’t Be Done, Do It. If You Don’t Do It, It Doesn’t Exist.” From Whatever You Think: “It’s Not Always Good to Have Ideas.” “Mum! I’ve Failed My Exams. Disaster? It’s An Achievement.” A particularly relevant example of opposite thinking appears on pages 10-11. People told Allen Lane, who founded Penguin Books (the publisher of Whatever You Think) in the mid-1930s, that a high-quality, low-priced paperback publishing venture would not work. Arden says that practically the whole world of publishing and retailing was against Lane and his idea, yet he prevailed and Penguin became a huge, trendsetting success. In that spirit, carve out some time this weekend for opposite thinking, and follow where it leads.

In his February 24 opinion piece for CIO.com, Why New Technology Demands New Business Models, Jack Bergstrand writes that CIOs (Chief Information Officers) are in a perfect spot to identify and lead significant innovation in their organizations. Yet the from-all-corners and at-all-times demands of their jobs make this a difficult proposition.

The solution, Bergstrand believes, is to apply Peter Drucker’s work on innovation to the technology issues that were barely in existence when Drucker was writing, such as social media and cloud computing. “He had brilliant insights about innovation,” Bergstrand writes, “that can help CIOs take the right risks on new technologies and avoid the failures that ultimately sank so many dotcom companies.”

Bergstrand is founder and CEO of the consulting company Brand Velocity. He was a longtime Coca-Cola Company executive, including being its CIO. And he is quite knowledgeable about Drucker, whose ideas on knowledge work and knowledge worker productivity form the backbone of Bergstrand’s book Reinvent Your Enterprise Through Better Knowledge Work. I met Jack last November when we were both panelists for the Drucker Authors Festival on Drucker Centennial Day 2010, in Claremont, Cal. In talking to him and reading his book, I was impressed that he (like Drucker) was able to draw from many different sources to convey information in a serious, yet accessible way. Besides business and technology, Bergstrand also applies such areas as chess, cybernetics, sports and particularly psychology.

Drucker’s major work on innovation is the 1985 book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a classic that is not as dated as you might think a 26 year old book would be on these topics. The reason is that its principles can still be applied today, which gets back to Bergstrand’s argument. His CIO.com look at innovation and its problems is also applicable beyond the concerns of CIOs. How can we best innovate as people and within organizations, while making sure our daily work is done the best it can be? How can we discriminate among the countless technological tools that will not only enable but improve our life’s work? The people, and organizations, that find the right answers will help define the future in our uncertain world.

The most valuable books for personal transformation are often short, practical and to-the-point. That is an apt description of Laura Goodrich’s just-released Seeing Red Cars: Driving Yourself, Your Team, and Your Organization to a Positive Future. Laura is the co-owner of On Impact Productions; and also a consultant, radio/TV/film host and a fellow Berrett-Koehler author. You can read a free excerpt from her book and see her new promotional video at her page on the B-K website. I met Laura last June at the B-K Authors Cooperative Marketing Workshop. I wasn’t surprised that her book is full of solid, actionable advice, because in one of the exercises during the workshop, we were in the same “co-consulting” group to briefly discuss areas in our professional lives that we wanted to work on. I found her to be genuinely thoughtful and interesting/interested, while helping me to think about new ways to approach problems. That’s a big premise of her book: how we think about what we want in life determines not only how we act – or don’t act – but also what we create and receive, personally and professionally. We get more of what we focus on, and for many of us, we focus on what we don’t want, rather than what we do want. She covers both the personal and organizational levels, with exercises to help you determine your passions, interests, goals and values. What particularly interests me is her material on being well-rounded. Her added focus on family and friends, health/fitness, personal finance, spirituality/faith, volunteerism and other areas provides a strong added dimension beyond the workplace. Dr. Ellen Weber, a brain researcher who is interviewed in the book, also has an interesting post about it in her new Forbes blog, Mind Makeover. One final note: the company you keep has an effect on how you think and view the world. Remember this Goodrich suggestion from Seeing Red Cars this weekend and beyond: “Hang around with people who have very positive thinking.”

Many of us sense a gap between where we are now, and where we’d like to be, personally and professionally. If you’re in that category, the January 31 post from Tony Schwartz, The Exhilarating Power of Purpose, makes for inspirational reading. In a mini-biography, Schwartz details his journey from frustration to fulfillment. His earlier career was totally based on writing. Now, he still writes — The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working was a bestseller last year – and he is also the CEO of  his own company, The Energy Project. I don’t know him personally, but I still treasure my inscribed copy of his book What Really Matters: Searching for Wisdom in America. I went to a talk he gave in April, 1996 at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City, where the pastor for 52 years was Norman Vincent Peale, author of the classic The Power of Positive Thinking. The paperback of Schwartz’s book had just been published, and the talk was given in a sort of annex/church basement, for a weeknight lecture series. He interviewed and profiled many people for What Really Matters in a highly personal cross-country odyssey to learn more about personal growth, human potential and mind-body work; including Ram Dass, Betty Edwards, Michael Murphy, Helen Palmer and Ken Wilber. Another interviewee was the pioneering sports psychologist Jim Loehr. Years later, Schwartz became a business partner in Loehr’s company, Human Performance Institute, and a co-author with Loehr of the bestseller The Power of Full Engagement, in 2003. (I reviewed Loehr’s Stress for Success for USA TODAY in 1997.) Eventually, Schwartz made the leap to starting The Energy Project. In his post, he says that the joy and satisfaction he gets from running the business reinvigorated his writing, which somewhat surprisingly, he had come to dread. In the inscription to me when I bought a copy of What Really Matters at his talk 15 years ago, Schwartz wrote “To Bruce-Hoping this serves your journey! Warmly, Tony Schwartz.” Thanks, Tony; it did, and it still does.

Many of us are pursuing goals, aspirations or resolutions for the current year, and probably on an ongoing basis. We need all the inner tools and resources we can get; techniques and methods that cut across boundaries and can be applied in different areas of life. Several recent articles and posts about mindfulness remind us that it can be a helpful tool for personal development, if applied well. They also demonstrate that it comes in many different forms: meditation, as part of therapy and as a way of approaching life. Mindfulness meditation is covered by Mark Vernon’s post in the Guardian, How to meditate: An introduction. Be sure to see the sidebar, How to meditate in 10 easy steps, which combines brief text and great graphics. The mindfulness in therapy angle, complete with reports of encouraging scientific studies, is covered in Dave McGinn’s Stressed out? Try mindfulness meditation, in the Globe and Mail, Melinda Beck’s Conquering Fear in the Wall Street Journal and Chris Woolston’s Mindfulness therapy is no fad, experts say in the Los Angeles Times. Nomi Morris’ story from the same source last October, Fully experiencing the present: a practice for everyone, religious or not, is an interview with the super-articulate Jon Kabat-Zinn, a major authority on mindfulness, and author of the classic Wherever You Go, There You Are. In 1998, I took a helpful and memorable day-long, interactive introduction to mindfulness and yoga workshop, with hundreds of other people, led by Kabat-Zinn, who gave a lecture the night before. Finally, and especially for business people and leaders, I recommend a book I reviewed in 2005 for USA TODAY, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee’s Resonant Leadership: Renewing Yourself and Connecting with Others Through Mindfulness, Hope and Compassion. Mindfulness is not the only focus, but it gives succinct descriptions, such as this: “Living mindfully means,” the authors write, “that we are constantly and consciously in tune with ourselves – listening carefully to our bodies, minds, hearts and spirits. The best among us consciously develop the capacity for deep self-awareness, noting and building on our understanding of our inner experiences.” In that sense, mindful living looks like a worthy aspiration on its own.

I have been intently reading an advance copy of My Life in Leadership: The Journey and Lessons Learned Along the Way, the powerful new memoir by Frances Hesselbein, President and CEO of the Leader to Leader Institute. The book details the life of an initially reluctant leader from Johnstown, Pa., who rose through the ranks of the local leadership of the Girl Scouts of the USA to eventually serving as the national organization’s CEO. During those years, Frances worked with Peter Drucker, who did considerable pro bono work for the Girl Scouts after the two met for the first time in 1981. His followers will particularly enjoy the chapter “My Journey with Peter Drucker.” Frances relates how he helped transform the organization, urging it to view itself “life size.” (This is sound advice for all us, personally or organizationally.) After retiring as CEO, she became one of the co-founders of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, now the Leader to Leader Institute. The story of that organization is well-told here. However, it is her leadership of the Girl Scouts, and the personal self-development that it produced in her, going back to her days as a Troop Leader, that remains the moral center of the book. Yet her many years of work with that organization, and with Drucker, are still only part of the book’s message. There is a lot about her family and her work with the U.S. Army and other organizations. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, wrote the compelling foreword, and Frances also discusses nearly 30 years of working with Marshall Goldsmith, long before he became a best-selling author. I am really honored that in 2009, Frances wrote the foreword to my book, Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life. As with Peter, she has been a longtime, worldwide agent of inspiration and transformation. The two also represent something else: contributing mightily to the world long beyond traditional retirement age. My Life in Leadership is a great vehicle for sharing in her learning, lessons and experience.

If I lived in or near London, I know where I would be tomorrow: attending the four hour (and now sold out) Self-Help Summit. The event will look at the state of the self-help industry from a variety of perspectives, including seeking to determine its relation to happiness. The pursuit of the latter has become a booming industry on its own, complete with social science research, books and blogs. The panelists will include several people I have blogged about in the past, including Alain de Botton, Mark Vernon and Oliver Burkeman. The latter has a new book, HELP!: How to Become Slightly Happier and Get a Bit More Done, a compilation of his columns from the Guardian. The title reflects the tone of many of the columns, which balance being studious, respectful and skeptical to self-help ideas and concepts. The focus on the practical/doable side plays out in his recent article, The 10 best self-help gurus. I compared the list to the selections from Tom Butler-Bowdon’s 50 Self-Help Classics and found the following people on both lists: Richard Carlson (whom I blogged about recently), Tony Robbins, David Burns, Susan Jeffers and Eckhart Tolle (though he appears in Butler-Bowdon’s 50 Spiritual Classics). I recently interviewed Butler-Bowdon for the 300 Words With…feature on my blog. The emphasis on Burkeman’s list is on contemporary names; of the ten, only two are no longer alive (Carlson and Seneca the Stoic). The major happiness guru included is Sonja Lyubomirsky, author of The How of Happiness. I doubt that Burkeman meant the list to be scientific or particularly definitive, and many people will have their own favorites that are not included. Self-help has always struck me as mix-and-match among authors and ideas. It would be difficult to follow just one person or school of thought. If you are attending the Self-Help Summit, that might provide a good spark for questions and answers. And if you do attend, your impressions as comments on this post would be appreciated!