Not capitalism for the few and privileged, but capitalism for all. Not the capitalism of unbridled greed, human mechanization, and economic violence, but the capitalism of opportunity, creative enterprise, and personal aspirations.

Kudos to all who call attention to and stand against the rapacious greed and economic violence of some of our wealthy and powerful.

We are left, though, with the problem of defining what is a good and just economic/political order. We are left with the problem of how to proceed. It is awkwardly easier to point out what is wrong than propose what would be better.

The absence of oppression is not the presence of freedom. The absence of greed is not the presence of magnanimity. The absence of privilege is not the presence of justice.

Two Must-Reads for Moving Forward

I suggest two reads for those passionate about the Occupy movement that would constructively resource our thinking as we consider next steps.

The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism by Michael Novak

From the publisher:

“Novak challenges the almost universal assumption that capitalism—because of the prosperity it brings—is without the moral and spiritual underpinnings of socialism. Novak argues convincingly that, in fact, by virtue of its distinctive spirit, democratic capitalism is not only pragmatically superior but morally more sound than any other system of political economy known to man. That spirit, says Novak, consists of a novel trinity—a political democracy, a market incentive economy, and a liberal, pluralistic culture—that, based as it is on respect for individual freedom, provides a broader vision of human possibility than that offered by any other societal alternative.”

Profit for Life: How Capitalism Excels by Joseph Bragdon

From the publisher:

“Two fundamentally different models of capitalism are operating in the business world today. One is self-destructive and increasingly corrupt. The other is emergent, flourishing, and inspirational. Firms that aim to Profit for Life must respect life. For them, profit is not a primary goal but a means to higher ends of service. They think and behave in ways that continually affirm life—from their corporate missions, visions, and values to the ways they are organized and managed. Their operating leverage resides in their capacity to inspire. Profit for Life explains why these exemplars attract the most loyal employees, strategic partners, customers, and investors.”

Protest and call attention to all who prosper by means of the diminishment, marginalization, and exploitation of others. Definitely. Thank you.

If the sun is to set on the era of economic violence, what then shall we build when the sun rises next morn?

- Karl Edwards

It can feel daunting trying to catch up with what is happening in social media before it has morphed into something else again.

And how many of the experts on the topic are little more than early and lucky entrants? All their “how-to’s” are no longer applicable because we are no longer early in the process nor is everyone lucky.

Then comes Barry Libert, who in his collaborative work, Social Nation, gives us a great overview of best practices, primary perspectives, and strategic keys.

Seven Principles for Building Your Social Nation

If you are new to social networking, then you will love this book. Libert lays out a wonderful frame of reference for thinking about the skills, processes and purposes of social networking as a component of one’s business strategy.

Those already interacting heavily on the web might find much of the content pedestrian. If, however, your efforts have not been getting you results, you will find the outline structure of the book helpful as a resource for reviewing what of your efforts might be missing or use some improvement.

He lays out the basics of social-nation building into seven broad principles for our consideration and application. Enough to be thorough and clear, but not so many as to be overwhelming or confusing.

Your Social Quotient

Far and away the best part of the book for me was the concept of Social Quotient.

He offers eight competencies that, “are the key social characteristics that can drive connections and improve business results.” (p. 49)

I find all of the characteristics helpful, insightful, interesting, and challenging:

1. Adaptor
2. Architect
3. Collaborator
4. Connector
5. Creative thinker
6. Transparent individual
7. Risk taker
8. Visionary

Libert offers a free online assessment test resulting in the identification of your top three social skills. (Click here.) Chapter 3 of the book and the assessment tool both offer insights into the strengths and weaknesses of each of the traits that do a great job of highlighting key strengths you bring to the social working world.

My top three social skills are Architect, Collaborator, and Transparent Individual.

I found it helpful to integrate my ability to see the big picture and build things (Architect) with my love for and confidence in working with people in teams (Collaborator), as well as my personal style of being open, straight-forward and real with others (Transparent Individual).

The point is not to pigeon-hole people into rigid categories, but to help us direct our own efforts into the areas of our most natural strengths.

Social Nation is a must-read if you are considering engaging, interacting, and working with your customers, vendors, constituents, employees, and other stakeholders online.

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

Now Nick McCormick has captured a wonderful collection of the childish things people do at work. Or… I should say… the clever and common things people do at work, which are, in fact, quite childish.

It’s called, Acting Up Brings Everyone Down: The Impacts of Childish Behavior in the Workplace.

From the introduction”

“The purpose of this book is to point out the silliness that we engage in at work in hopes that readers will acknowledge their actions, realize there are better and more constructive ways to act, and make the necessary changes to improve the work environment.”

It takes a great sense of humor to get us insecure leader-types to let down our guards and see our imperfections without feeling attacked.

McCormick, though, instead of attacking us for our petty and counter-productive behaviors, laughs at them with us.

He takes on maddening workplace dynamics like making excuses, blaming others, withdrawing support, exaggerating problems, getting away with substandard work, and taking what is not yours.

We could try to clamp down on these practices. But the most common response to an attack is to get defensive. Once defensive, people stop thinking critically and go into a self-protective mode.

But when laughing, deep truths slip past our defenses, and we can see ourselves in these stories without feeling judged or attacked.

We are free to think about McCormick’s insights and reconsider our own methods and practices.

Nick McCormick has given us a great gift in this humorous and practical look at childish behavior in the workplace. He is creating a safe space for us to create a healthier workplace culture for ourselves.

Consider reading it as a team at your firm. Discuss one chapter at a time at your weekly planning meeting. Laugh together. Discuss creative alternatives without pointing fingers.

You’ll have a great time learning to work together more constructively, more humanly, and more productively.

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

The assumption Alan Fine’s title makes, You Already Know How to be Great, catches me off guard. And again I ask, “I do?” Because right now there’s a big disconnect between what I’m being told I know and what is actually true of my experience.

Then comes the subtitle, “A Simple Way to Remove Interference and Unlock Your Greatest Potential.” Ah, so there is something blocking the way that needs removing, and there’s something locked away that needs releasing. Now I’m interested.

Thus we find our way into a wonderful new resource by Alan Fine and Rebecca Merrill.

Those of you who know me know I have little patience for coaches and “experts” who claim to have the formula for success. The line of thinking goes something like this, “If only you were different than you are, then you would be successful. We can help you become this entirely other person than you actually are.”

Even if no consultant is so crass to verbalize it that way, that is the message nonetheless. “You are not enough, and you need our help to become someone else.”

Enter Fine and Merrill who assert that you are indeed enough. In fact, the way forward has nothing to do with learning to be other than you are, but to be more naturally, simply and effortlessly who you already are.

They draw our attention to what is interfering with our performance. Interference. It’s not that I am not enough. It is that I’ve got beliefs, messages, behaviors and practices that interfere with my ability to show up, engage and perform as I am capable.

Fine continually provides meaningful and practical hooks on which to organize my thinking. He observes how top performers share three key characteristics, faith, fire and focus. He provides a process for moving forward using the acronym GROW: goal, reality, options and way forward.

His tips on coaching provide an almost completely discrete coaching manual within the book.

On every front I found this book insightful, encouraging, and practical.

Why are you spending a fortune on consultants telling you that you don’t yet have what it takes, when you can invest in this book and begin a process of removing what is blocking your way and unlocking what is already inside of you?

As always, I am available to come alongside your efforts as a safe and objective sounding board.

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

While much of the audience wanted to cling to a romantic definition of “clutch” that was significantly different than Sullivan’s, I thought he did a great job of carving out a specific angle that both set the stage for his research into extraordinary performers as well as make “clutch” performance attainable for anyone.

Specifically, he is examining how some people can continue to do what they are capable of doing on an ordinary basis under pressure. The key being, “do what they are capable of doing on an ordinary basis.” This is not a book on heroics, luck or extraordinary achievements.

I’ve already purchased my copy and am considering using Clutch for my next “Thought Leaders Unpacked” series so that we can think through Sullivans observations together.

He works his way through five characteristics of “clutch” performers.

1. Focus
2. Discipline
3. Adaptability
4. Being Present
5. Fear and Desire

He also offers three reason why others do not perform well under pressure.

1. Failure to take responsibility
2. Overthinking decisions
3. Overconfidence

Keep your eyes and ears open for my decision about the next book we study together in “Thought Leaders Unpacked.” Clutch looks like an interesting, practical, and encouraging option.

If you are in Los Angeles and not attending the Milken Institute’s free forums, you are missing out on a great resource. They invite extremely interesting people to introduce their latest books in the context of an open forum. There is time for Q & A and always a book signing.

“Thought Leaders Unpacked” is a regular column on this blog where we read a key book together, and I post my reflections on one chapter each week. My reflections are my own and are intended to generate conversation, catalyze additional thinking and encourage mutual learning.

Content with a data-defying strategy of squeezing as much work as possible out of their teams for as little compensation as possible, these self-congratulating fools close their eyes to the facts and resort to childish name-calling (e.g. “soft”) to anyone who dares suggest that human physiology and psychology are important factors in workplace productivity.

What if there were facts, though, about how people work that could multiply your productivity with only incremental additional costs?

I’m excited to come across a kindred spirit in Tony Schwartz in his new book, The Way We’re Working Isn’t Working.

I’ve long advocated that people are an amazing, if complex, asset into which we should invest not a faceless, annoying expense that we should minimize.

Schwartz provides invaluable insights into how the human beings function and provides the practical means to transform these insights into a more energetic, renewing, and yes, productive workplace.

Specifically he looks at human physiology, emotions, our minds, and our spirituality. Far from hyping the latest feel-good fad, Schwartz methodically supports his case with data. If you look at the facts, certain things are true about what makes people thrive, commit, care, and work hard. On the downside, certain factors cause people to wear down, avoid risk, blame others and otherwise distance themselves from their work.

Far from being “soft,” it is those leaders who have the courage, honesty and wisdom to face what I describe as “the hard facts about working with people” who have the mettle it takes to face the complex issues facing business going forward.

Gone are the days where people can be reduced to inter-changeable commodities to be discarded at the first sign of trouble.

Tony Schwartz is a must-read resource for any leader hoping to work effectively with people going forward.

On your side,

- Karl Edwards

Anyone with a personal spirituality will love Angry Conversations with God.

Anyone who’s sworn never to have a personal spirituality will love Angry Conversations with God.

Creativity kudos for taking God to couples therapy! It’s about time too. (I wouldn’t be surprised if an entirely new genre of therapy emerges out of this.)

I’m not usually attracted to memoirs (i.e. listening in on someone else’s story.) But Isaacs does such a great job telling her story that I was able to both “feel her pain,” so to speak, on the one hand, as well as connect deeply to my own relationship with God on the other.

This book is both hilarious and touching. Authentic to her private experience as well as profoundly insightful about what we all experience.

If you want a good laugh while brushing up against some of life’s most intimate, turbulent, and significant issues, then sit down with Susan Isaacs. You might end up taking God to couples therapy too!

Few writers are as profoundly insightful, authentically sensitive or refreshingly honest as Marcus Goodyear is.

I am captivated by his new collection of poems, Barbies at Communion.

From the introduction:

“Poetry is waiting for us just around the corner, in a book on the coffee table, in a phrase from the pulpit, in the wag of a dog’s tail, in Barbie dolls and quantum physics and vacations and rituals and work and play.

“Wherever we go, poetry is playing hide-and-seek with us. Whenever we sit still enough and quiet enough, we can hear poetry shuffling in its hiding place, trying not to make too much noise.”

If you even remotely enjoy poetry, then you will love these poems that peek and poke and play without ever needing to pontificate or preach.

Goodyear’s verse repeatedly catches me off-guard as he makes me chuckle, challenges my assumptions and gives me occasion to pause and reflect.

Barbies at Communion belongs squarely at the top of your “Must Read” list.

- Karl Edwards

It wasn’t until I got it home that I realized it’s not a new work at all. It’s a collection of his New Yorker articles. The best in his view.

After I recovered from this brief moment of disappointment (not a big fan of the recompiling for a second round at the till marketing strategy)(I’d probably be singing a different tune if I ever experienced a first round at the till), I realized that the only part of the New Yorker I’ve ever read are the cartoons. So I’m sitting here with all “new” material.

I love this guy’s work. The preface alone has me fully engaged. Understanding what’s going on in someone else’s head.

There are three main themes/sections:

1. Obsessives, Pioneers, and Other Varieties of Minor Genius
2. Theories, Predictions, and Diagnoses
3. Personality, Character, and Intelligence

Of course I can’t read something so fun by myself. This is the stuff of incredulity and hilarity, insights and further reflection.

So read with me. We’ll take it a chapter at a time. We’ll meet here and share impressions, reactions and our own takes.

I’ve got Amazon links scattered throughout this post. Grab your copy now. We’re going to begin right away.

Each Friday I post my reflections from one chapter of What the Dog Saw by Malcolm Gladwell. If you are just joining the discussion now, welcome! Catch up on the entire series here.

But here I am. Again.

I feel like I’ve been wrestling with this book, Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality, since it first came out in 2006. It seems that when learning needs to go deeper than simply acquiring new competencies, that time (read years) and practice (read many mistakes) are involved.

Hence the rationale for working through this challenging piece together here on “Thought Leaders Unpacked.”

For many of us there is an unnoticed disconnect between our job performance and our self-understanding. When we think about work, we think about the tasks, responsibilities, goals, processes, and deadlines involved. We don’t have tools for considering how we ourselves might be a part of the problems we are trying to address.

When thinking about ways to help our employees work harder and smarter, we seldom include our own behavior in the mix of factors contributing to their shortcomings, challenges, or motivation levels.

A mirror and a map. Where can we find a mirror that will help us take a look at ourselves? What maps are available to help us navigate a more centered, realistic approach to developing our own character at work?

Join me in conversation each week as I post my reflections on one chapter of Integrity. There is no learning like learning from each other.

Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality

• Introduction: Why Integrity Matters
• Character Dimension 1: Establishing Trust
• Character Dimension 2: Oriented Toward Truth
• Character Dimension 3: Getting Results
• Character Dimension 4: Embracing the Negative
• Character Dimension 5: Oriented toward Increase
• Character Dimension 6: Oriented Toward Transcendence

Forward this post to someone you think would benefit from our discussion. Every voice matters.

Each Friday I post my reflections from one chapter of Integrity: The Courage to Meet the Demands of Reality by Henry Cloud.