"This Is Water:" My Favorite Reading & Listening

Photo by Hiroko Yoshii on Unsplash

Greetings -

"There are years that ask questions, and years that answer." Zora Neale Hurston

I have been returning to Hurston's words as a source of hope and inspiration. Reflecting on my personal and professional evolution, I am reminded of how this profound, yet elegantly simple statement encapsulates my (and potentially, for many of you too) 2021 journey.

This led me to further consider other meaningful words and ideas in the diverse array of articles, books and talks that have influenced and shaped me. Last year, I compiled an initial list, re-assessed the perspectives - inspiring new levels of awareness, insights, and questions to consider - and published a year-end greatest hits of sorts.

This year, I have done the same. I am pleased to share with you my updated and expanded range of favorite reading and listening (last year's material is included here for ease of reference). All offer varied and thoughtful points of view on a range of topics. I hope you find them as helpful and engaging as I did.

As always, happy reading and listening! And please stay safe and look out for your families and your community.

My best,

-kj

Articles

Harvard Business Review: How Will You Measure Your Life? "I think that’s the way it will work for us all. Don’t worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success."

The New Yorker: Failure and Rescue. "But the only failure is the failure to rescue something...So you will take risks, and you will have failures. But it’s what happens afterward that is defining. A failure often does not have to be a failure at all. However, you have to be ready for it—will you admit when things go wrong? Will you take steps to set them right?—because the difference between triumph and defeat, you’ll find, isn’t about willingness to take risks. It’s about mastery of rescue."

Medium.com: The Crossroads of Should and Must. "This is a story about two roads — Should and Must. It’s a pep talk for anyone who’s chosen Should for far too long — months, years, maybe a lifetime — and feels like it’s about time they gave Must a shot."

Occam's Razor: This I Believe: A Manifesto for a Magnificent Career. "I've developed an overall macro-philosophy that guides my career choices. I've also collected a cluster of personal philosophies and core values that guide my day-to-day work. My hope is that you'll find my lessons to be of value as you think about your own professional career, both from a macro context, in terms of what you are solving for, and in a micro context, in your day-to-day work."

Harvard Business Review: "Why Are We Here? Purpose is the key to motivation—and motivated employees are the key to realizing your purpose. Get this symbiotic relationship right, and your organization will thrive."

Harvard Business Review: How to Reframe What Work Means to You. "Applying this very human sense of purpose to work changes how we approach it and therefore how much we engage in it...A personal sense of purpose is not in and of itself the only thing that fires people up at work. But being able to connect what we do every day with a bigger sense of why we do it helps infuse us humans with energy, drive, and direction."

Harvard Business Review: Managing Yourself: Turn the Job You Have into the Job You Want. "Job crafting is a simple visual framework that can help you make meaningful and lasting changes in your job—in good economies and bad. But it all has to start with taking a step back from the daily grind and realizing that you actually have the ability to reconfigure the elements of your work."

Harvard Business Review: The Making of a Corporate Athlete. "In a corporate environment that is changing at warp speed, performing consistently at high levels is more difficult and more necessary than ever...On the playing field or in the boardroom, high performance depends as much on how people renew and recover energy as on how they expend it, on how they manage their lives as much as on how they manage their work. When people feel strong and re-silent—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually—they perform better, with more passion, for longer. They win, their families win, and the corporations that employ them win."

Harvard Business Review: Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time. "...We envision a new and explicit contract that benefits all parties: Organizations invest in their people across all dimensions of their lives to help them build and sustain their value. Individuals respond by bringing all their multidimensional energy wholeheartedly to work every day. Both grow in value as a result."

Harvard Business Review: Level 5 Leadership: The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Resolve. "...The most powerfully transformative executives possess a paradoxical mixture of personal humility and professional will. They are timid and ferocious. Shy and fearless. They are rare—and unstoppable."

Harvard Business Review: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life. "...By providing a blueprint for how you can be real, be whole, and be innovative as a leader in all parts of your life, this program helps you perform better according to the standards of the most important people in your life; feel better in all the domains of your life; and foster greater harmony among the domains by increasing the resources available to you to fit all the parts of your life together."

Harvard Business Review: Be a Better Ally. "How can white men be effective allies to those employees? First, by taking responsibility for their own behaviors, educating themselves about racism and privilege, and getting and accepting feedback from people in underrepresented groups. They can also become confidants to and sponsors of women and people of color and insist on diverse hiring pools and practices. They can vigilantly watch out for bias at work, intervening decisively if they discover it. Last, they can work to build a community of other allies against racism and sexism."

Harvard Business Review: “Dear White Boss…” "We asked Caver and Livers, faculty and coaches at the Center for Creative Leadership, to write a fictional letter from a black manager to a white boss describing the miasma and what it’s like to be different in the workplace...Their letter portrays the nature of corporate life once black managers are established—the feeling that they leave some part of their identity at home and the sometimes subtle and often systemic racial biases that inhibit and alienate African-Americans."

Harvard Business Review: Men Get More Actionable Feedback Than Women. "Developmental feedback (provided either informally or via official management processes) is a significant yet often-overlooked driver of professional growth...Our research demonstrates how differences in developmental feedback can direct women along different — and less effective — leadership pathways than men, creating long-lasting gender inequities."

Harvard Business Review: The Hazards of a “Nice” Company Culture. "Martin Luther King Jr. said in his famous Letter from Birmingham Jail '…there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.' Don’t cover that up in your efforts to be nice. Channel and manage the tension. That’s real kindness."

Harvard Business Review: What Happens When Your Career Becomes Your Whole Identity. "While identifying closely with your career isn’t necessarily bad, it makes you vulnerable to a painful identity crisis if you burn out, get laid off, or retire. Individuals in these situations frequently suffer anxiety, depression, and despair. By claiming back some time for yourself and diversifying your activities and relationships, you can build a more balanced and robust identity in line with your values."

The Atlantic: Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think: Here’s how to make the most of it. "The secret to bearing my [professional] decline—to enjoying it—is to become more conscious of the roots linking me to others. If I have properly developed the bonds of love among my family and friends, my own withering will be more than offset by blooming in others."

The Atlantic: ‘What If the Thing You’re Waiting for Never Arrives?’ "Waiting for Godot is a classic that feels like it was written for the Delta era of the pandemic."

Books

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman. "A poignant, charming novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined...Humorous, compassionate, and wise, Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious of times."

It's Showtime! Richard Butterfield's Power of Persuasion, by Richard Butterfield. "The playbook for professionals who understand that effective communication is the key to success...This indispensable guide combines Richard's dual experience as an actor and as the man behind the curtain for high-profile leaders across the globe. His tactics for the spoken word apply to every facet of the organization, from the ultra-concise elevator speech to the magnificent keynote address. He punctuates his lessons with anecdotes borrowed from sessions with clients like Linked In, Microsoft and the Cleveland Clinic, and then provides exercises to help you inject key concepts into your own public speaking engagements."

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain. "In Quiet, Susan Cain argues that we dramatically undervalue introverts and shows how much we lose in doing so. She charts the rise of the Extrovert Ideal throughout the twentieth century and explores how deeply it has come to permeate our culture. She also introduces us to successful introverts—from a witty, high-octane public speaker who recharges in solitude after his talks, to a record-breaking salesman who quietly taps into the power of questions. Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with indelible stories of real people, Quiet has the power to permanently change how we see introverts and, equally important, how they see themselves."

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups, by Daniel Coyle. "An essential book that unlocks the secrets of highly successful groups and provides readers with a toolkit for building a cohesive, innovative culture."

Dedicated: The Case for Commitment in an Age of Infinite Browsing, by Pete Davis. "A profoundly inspiring and transformative argument that purposeful commitment can be a powerful force in our age of restlessness and indecision."

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know, by Adam Grant. "Think Again is a book about the benefit of doubt, and about how we can get better at embracing the unknown and the joy of being wrong. Evidence has shown that creative geniuses are not attached to one identity, but constantly willing to rethink their stances and that leaders who admit they don't know something and seek critical feedback lead more productive and innovative teams...In the end, learning to rethink may be the secret skill to give you the edge in a world changing faster than ever." [I intentionally read this book in tandem with The Culture Code as I suspected they (and they did!) would reinforce each other and collectively provide an array of great ideas re: culture, teams, approaches to perspectives, etc.]

The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Greene. "The Anthropocene is the current geological age, in which human activity has profoundly shaped the planet and its biodiversity. In this remarkable symphony of essays adapted and expanded from his ground-breaking, critically acclaimed podcast, John Green reviews different facets of the human-centered planet - from the QWERTY keyboard and Halley's Comet to Penguins of Madagascar - on a five-star scale."

Choosing Leadership: A Workbook, by Linda Grinzel. "Choosing Leadership is a new take on executive development that gives everyone the tools to develop their leadership skills. In this workbook, Dr. Linda Ginzel, a clinical professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business and a social psychologist, debunks common myths about leaders and encourages you to follow a personalized path to decide when to manage and when to lead. Thoughtful exercises and activities help you mine your own experiences, learn to recognize behavior patterns, and make better choices so that you can create better futures." [From her immensely pragmatic workbook to her considered and well-researched insights, I learned much that is informing my perspective on leadership and how we can and should approach it more thoughtfully.]

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy. "Enter the world of Charlie's four unlikely friends, discover their story and their most important life lessons...Here, you will find them together in this book of Charlie's most-loved drawings, adventuring into the Wild and exploring the thoughts and feelings that unite us all." [A slender, gem of a beautifully illustrated book that, as Charlie says, resonates whether you are eight or eighty.]

Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help, by Edgar H. Schein. "In this seminal book on helping, corporate culture and organizational development guru Ed Schein analyzes the dynamics of helping relationships, explains why help is often not helpful, and shows what any would-be-helper must do to insure that help is actually provided...Schein exposes and shows how to resolve the inequities and role ambiguities of helping relationships, describes the different roles that helpers can take once the relationship is balanced, and explains how to build a balanced relationship and how to intervene as that relationship develops."

Your Music and People: Creative and Considerate Fame, by Derek Sivers. "A philosophy of getting your work to the world by being creative, considerate, resourceful, and connected." [An excellent sliver of a book - clear, concise and cogent, with a universal message as well as specific insights into the world of music.]

The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter, by Michael Watkins. "In this updated and expanded version of the international bestseller The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of transitions—no matter where you are in your career. Watkins, a noted expert on leadership transitions and adviser to senior leaders in all types of organizations, also addresses today’s increasingly demanding professional landscape, where managers face not only more frequent transitions but also steeper expectations once they step into their new jobs."

Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter, by Liz Wiseman. "A revised and updated edition of the acclaimed Wall Street Journal bestseller that explores why some leaders drain capability and intelligence from their teams while others amplify it to produce better results...In this engaging and highly practical book, leadership expert Liz Wiseman explores these two leadership styles, persuasively showing how Multipliers can have a resoundingly positive and profitable effect on organizations—getting more done with fewer resources, developing and attracting talent, and cultivating new ideas and energy to drive organizational change and innovation."

The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life, by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander. "Discover the twelve breakthrough practices for bringing creativity and a sense of possibility into all of your endeavors."

TED Talks/Podcasts

Graduate Speaker Pete Davis | Harvard Commencement 2018. "Have you ever found yourself scrolling mindlessly through Netflix unsure of what to watch? While infinitely browsing, you stumble upon half-watched TV shows you were peer-pressured into trying and leftover documentaries you never got around to…This is what Harvard law student Pete Davis calls ‘the defining characteristic of our generation’. This inspiring speech will change the way you view life."

TED 2017: Tim Ferriss - Fear-Setting: The Most Valuable Exercise I Do Every Month. "Fear-setting has produced my biggest business and personal successes, as well as repeatedly helped me to avoid catastrophic mistakes."

TED 2019: Marc Bamuthi Joseph - "You Have the Rite." "In a breathtaking, jazz-inflected spoken-word performance, TED Fellow Marc Bamuthi Joseph shares a Black father's tender and wrenching internal reflection on the pride and terror of seeing his son enter adulthood."

In the Bubble: From the Frontlines - How to Lead During a Crisis (with Sully Sullenberger). "Dr. Bob talks about the importance of leadership, whether it's during a pandemic or a flight that's lost all engine power, with Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger. The parallels between the two might not seem obvious, but Sully points out that the basic elements of good leadership can be applied in any situation."

On Being with Krista Tippett: “What does a good day look like?” "That question — when asked of both terminally-ill and healthy people — has transformed Atul Gawande's practice of medicine. A citizen physician and writer, Gawande is on the frontiers of human agency and meaning in light of what modern medicine makes possible. For the millions of people who have read his book 'Being Mortal,' he’s also opened new conversations about the ancient human question of death and what it might have to do with life."

This Is Water: David Foster Wallace's commencement speech to the 2005 graduating class of Kenyon College. A thoughtful and thought-provoking meditation on the power of learning, presence and what it can mean to live more consciously in our always-on society.

Blog Posts

Tim Ferriss: Forget New Year's Resolutions and Conduct a 'Past Year Review' Instead. "I’m often asked about how I approach New Year’s resolutions. The truth is that I no longer approach them at all, even though I did for decades. Why the change? I have found 'past year reviews' (PYR) more informed, valuable, and actionable than half-blindly looking forward with broad resolutions."

Seth Godin: Justice and dignity, too often in short supply. "But today, value isn’t created by filling a slot, it’s created by connection. By the combinations created by people. By the magic that comes from diversity of opinion, background and motivation. Connection leads to ideas, to solutions, to breakthroughs."

Seth's Blog: Two ways to challenge the status quo: slowly or all at once. "The culture is changing far more rapidly than it ever has before. And yet, it still changes slowly enough for us to grow impatient when important ideas and practices around health, justice and community are ignored. And yet it changes. Persistent and consistent effort with focus is our only way forward."

Paul Graham: Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule. "...Maybe eventually, if the conflict between the manager's schedule and the maker's schedule starts to be more widely understood, it will become less of a problem."

Paul Graham: Early Work. "One of the biggest things holding people back from doing great work is the fear of making something lame. And this fear is not an irrational one. Many great projects go through a stage early on where they don't seem very impressive, even to their creators. You have to push through this stage to reach the great work that lies beyond. But many people don't. Most people don't even reach the stage of making something they're embarrassed by, let alone continue past it. They're too frightened even to start. Imagine if we could turn off the fear of making something lame. Imagine how much more we'd do."

Ryan Holiday: Every Situation Has Two Handles. Which One Will You Grab? "How are you going to look at things? Will you choose to be miserable or awed? Will you choose to sit around and wait for things to get back to normal or make the most of every second of every day?...Will you choose to step back and look at all the things you still have and still can do?"

Ryan Holiday: Meditations on strategy and life. "That’s going to mean getting comfortable with saying “No.” It’s going to be mean cutting fat from your life, maybe even hurting some feelings. But that’s OK. You’ll soon realize: When you say no to something, you’re saying yes to something else. And conversely, when you think you’re saying yes to one thing, you have to understand all the things you’re saying no to in the same breath. So you might make some people upset by saying no, but you’ll make other people a lot happier too."

Ryan Holiday @ The Daily Stoic: Do you make others better? "...Leadership is a process, not a position. It’s the work of a lifetime. It’s about working to get a little bit better today than you were yesterday. Because when you do, the people around you do. And that is a leader’s only job."

Farnam Street: Personal Renewal. “Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you."