Reading List
The Goal
The theory of constraints is explained in this colorful tale. While this book is dated for anyone in manufacturing or working in systems, it is well worth the entertaining need
Fundamentally Different
If you do not understand the power of a great culture, why culture for an organization is the most important element of a business; read this book. It will change your paradigm. Currently this is the most important book in my library that I reference weekly.
Leaders Eat Last
I believe our society is facing a leadership crisis. So does Simon Sinek. If you want to go down the path to become a true leader, a leader that truly cares for their people first and foremost; this book is a must read….again and again
Of note Simon has dedicated himself to creating better leaders figure out your why here: start with why
Deep Survival
A climbing partner from Tennessee gave this book to me and told me to read it before I lead our team on our next climb (which was to be the hardest and finest climbing we have done together to date.) For me the book cut to the core of extreme situations and made me understand what I needed to be prepared to do to survive. I have used this mind set in regular life. Coming to an understanding about what you need to do to succeed is profound, and a great gift to give yourself.
Six Pixels of Separation
Mitch Joel’s first book born out of his blog. In 2009 I picked up this book to refresh my thinking about digital. This book set me off in a new career direction. While the book represents a start of a new career arc for myself, I continue to follow Mitch Joel’s thought leadership through his blog and podcast. I highly recommend following Mitch’s work here: Mitch’s Blog
The five dysfunctions of a team
This book is a must for anyone that has been recently been placed into a leadership role. I personally have used many of the technics in the book ( and the companion workbook) many teams for a variety of teams I have been on from Boards to project teams to alpine teams. It is short and the audio version can be listened to in a week driving to and from your workplace.
12 Week Year
Being a lifelong student of Project Management, I found Brian’s system refreshing and easy to apply and teach; so much so that Flaman Group of Companies hired Brian to help us. The results that discipline with planning brings to an organization are transformative. To this day my teams, my business partners and myself use an adaptation of his system to help with our execution.
Barrow’s Boys
Fegus Fleming takes you on a romp through history with 2nd Secretary to the British Admiralty John Barrow. In 1816 he launched the most ambitious exploration program the world has ever seen in an effort to fill in the blanks on the atlases of the day. It is a book full of tales, some with extraordinary results others with horrific failure. In both cases I found the courage to enter into the unknown inspiring and the leadership required to succeed and in most cases to just survive clear lessons for me to use in my personal adventures (indoors and outdoors)
Great By Choice
Jim Collins is at it again, this time codifying how great results are received. The example of Amundson and Scott resonated with me profoundly as well as the concept of the 20 mile march.
Good to Great
This book sent me on a path first to seek out a level five leader to follow and in recent years to have the courage to embrace the quest to achieve level five leadership.
According to Jim Collin level five leadership has a simple formula: Humility + Will = Level 5. I am still on my quest. In addition to this path the book gave me hope. Hope that all companies can rise.
Steve Whittington is President of Roadmap Agency Inc. He has also served for over a decade as a member of the Executive Team of Flaman Group of Companies an award-winning organization and has over 25 years of executive experience. Steve’s current board work includes serving as; President of Glenora Child Care Society; and Co-Chair of the Marketing Program Advisory Committee for NAIT’s JR Shaw School of Business. Previous notable board work included, Chair of the board for Flaman Fitness Canada, a national retailer, a Director for a meal prep internet Startup Mealife and Chair of Lethbridge Housing authority, the third-largest Social housing NGO in Alberta.
Academically, Steve was an instructor of Project Management at Lethbridge College for seven years. Steve holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours degree; he is a Certified Sales Professional (CSP), Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Marketing Specialist (CMS) and (CCXP) Certified Customer Experience Professional.
Steve’s first book Thriving in the Customer Age – 8 Key Metrics to Transform your Business Results teaches about the customer journey and provides a guiding framework spanning all stages of the customer experience. The book explains how every metric impacts an organization and how leaders can best utilize each metric to provide a stellar customer experience. Everyone knows the customer is the most important part of a business. This book provides the tools to improve an organization’s customer experience and drastically transform business results.
Recently Steve’s Blog has been profiled as one of the Top 75 Customer Experience blogs
Topic: Reading List