The Bookshelf Doth Mocketh

By Michelle Malay Carter on April 15, 2008 

uppingthedownside.jpgI’ve been tagged by Jim Stroup at Managing Leadership.

The Assignment
My assignment is to post sentences 6 – 8 on page 123 of a book that I am reading, list books yet to be read on my bookshelf, and pass the tag along.

Truth be told, I’m not currently reading any books as I am putting the finishing touches on a training course, Judging Candidate and Employee Capability, that I am teaching next week.? The books sit on the shelf, mocking me.

If I Were Reading a Book, What Would It Be?
But the highest one on my list is Upping the Downside: 64 Strategies for Creating Professional Resilience by Design by Mike R. Jay, executive business coach and entrepreneur.

Synchronicity
As synchronicity would have it, my last two blog posts, which I wrote before being tagged, are rooted in some of Mike Jay’s ideas. I’ve known for a while the our potential wasn’t limitless but having had the opportunity to work with Mike has enlightened me in the area of designing for resilience.

Here is an excerpt from page 123, which features an essay by John H. Richards. The excerpt is about Enneagram personality typology. Once again, I had not read this prior to writing the blog entry I posted last, it is eerily similar to what I wrote in my last post, Know Thyself.

Page 123, Sentences 6 – 8
“It was as if, when our lives were just beginning, each of us was led to a rack that held nine very different costumes. And we were told that putting on any one of these nine different costumes would give us what we wanted and needed – such as getting love and nurturing by our parents or caretakers. So we each selected and put on one of nine costumes, and then we totally forgot that we were not the costume.”

Great Books I’ve Partially Read and Plan to Get Back To

Books I Reference Repeatedly

Passing on the Tag
I am now tagging the following bloggers to play along:

Chris Young at Maximize Possibility

E. Forrest Christian at Requisite Writing

Tom Foster at Management Skills Blog

Judy McLeish at The Employee Factor

Amitai Givertz at Ami G’s Blogspot

Filed Under Corporate Values, Executive Leadership, Managerial Leadership, Organization Design, Requisite Organization, Strategy, Talent Management, Work Levels

Comments

7 Responses to “The Bookshelf Doth Mocketh”

  1. Jim Stroup on April 15th, 2008 9:01 am

    Hello Michelle,

    Thanks for participating so effectively – I love the “books I reference repeatedly” category.

    More new items for my own shelf – thanks!

  2. Jack Fallow on April 15th, 2008 1:09 pm

    Michelle,

    I always read your blog with interest, occasionally commenting. Today I read the ‘Know Thyself’ piece and then the Mocking Bookshelf. So I decided to frame a comment to deal with both, wondering how I could weave something together. I didn’t have to because, currently, I am reading, for the re-umpteenth time, The Mystery of Capital by Hernando De Soto.

    The ‘Know Thyself’ element appeared in sentence 9. To explain, I am a Scot, as were many of the land-grabbing squatting settlers in Pennsylvania, and I live a handful of miles from the village of Penn.

    Page 123 is in a chapter called the ‘The Missing Lessons of US History’ and the copy from sentences 6-8 is:

    ‘Indeed, from 1763 to 1768 the Pennsylvania Assembly tried to deter squatting with the penalty of ‘pain of death’, while Governor William Penn ordered soldiers to remove illegal settlers. Despite these measures, the number of squatters doubled. In response, according to one historian of the period, ‘the infuriated governor then proclaimed that those settling on Indian lands would be executed.’

    Sentence 9 : ‘But no judges could be found for such prisoners, or compliant juries and secure lockups.’

  3. Will Pearce on April 15th, 2008 1:53 pm

    Michelle,

    Thanks for sharing the book challenge–I just killed about three hours chasing down the links in both directions, reading blog samples and book lists/reviews. Whew!

    One result is that I decided to subscribe to the RSS feed of Eric Brown’s blog (“Aligning Technology, Strategy, People & Projects”). Thanks for that lead.

    I was particularly interested in the widely divergent opinions on The Strategy Paradox (on Amazon)–even the “helpfulness” ratings of the reviews seemed to attract controversy. I’ll be interested in hearing your take on this book once you’ve finished it.

  4. Michelle Malay Carter on April 15th, 2008 6:44 pm

    Jim,

    Thanks for tagging me. It was a hit!

    Michelle

  5. Michelle Malay Carter on April 15th, 2008 6:45 pm

    Jack and Will,

    Glad you liked the book challenge. It’s basically a chain letter for bloggers but seems to have some redeeming value.

    Thanks for sharing. Do I need to add the History of Capital to my office’s mocking section?

    Regards,

    Michelle

  6. Jack Fallow on April 16th, 2008 5:12 am

    Hi Michelle,

    The MYSTERY of Capital.- Hernando De Soto

    While many Elliott Jaques afficionados choose to focus on managerial leadership and accountability in hierarchical organisations, my interest is in using the ‘stage development- discontinuity theory- matrix of working relationships -levels of work – complexity attractor theory approaches’ ( or whatever else you want to call this stuff) to examine how society and institutions are progressively developed. Creation of and access to ‘Capital’ is a component of spreading power across communities.

    As we agree, systems drive the behaviour. Your books that you reference repeatedly are great foundations for understanding these links between systems and behaviour.

    So, to be specific, how are systems built that enable the creation of wealth and freedom of capital? The Mystery of Capital provides some strong clues about the economics and legal ingredients. It is particularly interesting about how the US emerged as a capital intensive community. If you are interested in this stuff, get yourself mocked by this worthy and readable tome.

    Regards,

    Jack

  7. The Bookshelf Mocketh Not the Poor on April 16th, 2008 9:43 am

    […] Michelle Malay Carter tagged me recently to participate in the book your reading meme. The assignment, since I decided to accept it, was to look at my reading pile, or those on deck, and put the list up. I do this regularly on my personal blog, so no big deal. […]