Book A Week -Recommended Reads – Week 27 onwards
I love reading, learning and exploring new idea’s. It may be obvious by the background, and it is to those who know me. I am often quoting books or recommended reads to those I network with and mentor.
Picking up on a suggestion a couple of months ago, via WUN, I am sharing some of my most favourite reads, and why I think they are great and useful or helpful. It was difficult to curate a short list, so it a long one… 52! A book a week for the year ahead ☺️ Hayley Monks, WUN Co-Founder & Director.
– For clarity – having been asked this (by someone who is trying to keep pace!) I am not reading a book a week! I have read these books over the years and these are my favourites… some of them I am re-reading….
Recommended reads Week 1-15 can be found here & Week 16-26 here
Reads 27 onwards below include:
Will it make the boat go faster?
What I wish people knew about dementia
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
Visual Collaboration
I Love books 📚 (27 of 52)
Will it make the boat go faster? by Ben Hun Davis & Harriet Beverage. Such a great title and ethos when helping to drive commitment and focus towards a common goal.
My book, signed by Ben, who wrote inside ‘ How will you make your boat go faster’ was given to me after he his finished a talk with a bunch of leaders from Centrica.
Events and opportunities like this was one of the added benefits of working for such a large organisation.
If you haven’t read it – and many have.. there are many simple lessons.
The book tells the sorty of the Mens Rowing Eight who won Olympic Gold at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and how a absolute ruthless focus on the goals and daily, weekly and monthly actions taken to work towards those goals.
Shall we go to the pub? Will that make the boat go faster? No! No pub then… 🤔
It was also the first time I came across the word ‘Bouncebackability’ which I love and identify with. Sh!t happens.. accept, reflect, learn, plan, get up and get back on it… until the next time 🙂
So using Ben’s words, whatever your focus / goal is.. “How will you make your boat go faster?”
I Love books 📚 (28 of 52)
When I first put my list together in June’25 I almost didn’t put this one on the list. Not because it’s not a brilliant read or listen, but because it’s a difficult one to talk about.🫤
But all my shared books are about some form of learning and personal growth and this one deserves a mention
This one was formative and sadly a necessity for me to understand more.
What I wish people knew about dementia by Wendy Mitchell.
Recommend by Alzheimer’s Society is a beautiful book
Wendy shines a light on the impact dementia has on basic day to day life and her constant challenge to ‘outwit dementia ‘
Missing the simple pleasure of a cup of Yorkshire Tea and then not – ´It’s difficult to miss what you can’t remember’ are memorable elements of the book (no pun intended)
I found the book difficult to read as this disease is consuming my mum, but listening to Wendy narrate her journey in a peaceful chatty style was an easy way for me to improve my understanding
It brings the basic challenges of life with dementia to life and a must read for anyone in this situation or curious about how they may help
I love books 📚 (29 of 52)
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lenciono
Told as a story, making it and easy read Lencioni’s lead character reveals the five dysfunctions which go to the very heart of why teams (even great ones) can struggle.
The story highlights key characteristics, that I am sure all managers & leaders will recognise, even if they don’t all admit having behaved in some of those ways, at some point.
Key thing is, these things are about how we be and now who we are. they don’t define us, so can change with focus, effort, support and environment.
As the story unfolds the book outlines a powerful & memorable model plus actionable steps that can be used to overcome these common hurdles and build a happy, effective and cohesive team. 💙
I love books 📚 (30 of 52)
I often describe myself as a visual person. I think in pictures, often drawing things out to make sense of them.
Being able to distill complex problems, process or issues into understandable simple visuals that can achieve collective understanding quickly is a skill I admire.
I read this book in early 2020 as COVID was almost upon us and lockdown imminent.
Looking for help & transformational inspiration to enable us to continue delivering collaborative workshops – virtually
Visual Collaboration became an essential part of our toolkit.
Combine this knowledge with a smart digital whiteboard board or canvas and you have the tools for highly engaging virtual workshops.