The following books reflect a wide variety of topics and perspectives related to community-building, civic engagement and community leadership.

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The Answer to How Is Yes: Acting on What Matters, Peter Block, Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc. 2001. Shows that many standard solutions and improvement efforts are reinforced by most of the literature and yet they keep people paralyzed. The author puts the “how to” craze into perspective and promotes ways to “know” based on positive values including self-mentoring, investing in relationships, accepting the unpredictability of life and believing that the individual prospers only when the community prospers.

The Argument Culture: Stopping America's War of Words, Deborah Tannen, Ballentine Books, 1998. Recommended by Professor Ernest Stromberg from CSUMB (one of our past presenters). Gives some great strategies for improving discussions and the ability to really listen.

Bowling Alone : The Collapse and Revival of American Community, Robert D. Putnam, Simon & Shuster, 2000. Addresses the collapse and revival of American community. With a great deal of research, Putnam shows how the US has lost much of the “social glue” that once held our society together, and that in becoming a nation of strangers we are losing the connection needed to promote healthy and stable communities. Putnam suggests ways to change all that to encourage the growth of social capital and civic engagement.

Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community's Assets, John P. Kretzmann; John L. McKnight, ACTA Publications, 1997. This guide summarizes lessons learned by studying successful community-building in hundreds of neighborhoods across the US. It outlines what local communities can do to journey down the path of asset-based development.

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials), James C. Collins & Jerry Porras, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. 1994. This book is based on a six-year research project from Stanford University School of Business and highlights the visionary differences between great companies and the others.

The Cathedral Within: Transforming Your Life by Giving Something Back, Bill Shore, Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2001. Shore talks about transforming your life by giving something back. He focuses on a central theme that social science is far too narrow a discipline with which to address social problems. He quotes the President of the Enterprise Foundation who says, “we are frequently asked what it will take to change conditions in the inner city. The answer to that question depends on how we answer another, more deeply rooted quandary: “What are our obligations to each other in this, one of the greatest, democratic, free-enterprise systems the world has ever seen?” Shore believes that the aspiration to be part of something bigger and more lasting than ourselves is universal in human nature—just as the builders of great cathedrals worked their whole lives to build something that would not be completed in their lifetime.

Civic Revolutionaries: Igniting the Passion for Change in America's Communities, Douglas Henton, John Melville & Kimberly Walesh, Jossey-Bass Inc., 2003. Adopts the concept of civic stewardship advocated by John Gardner (founder of Common Cause, the Independent Sector and former US Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare). The concept underlines principles that forge linkages among local governments, businesses and the nonprofit sector. Each chapter addresses competing but positive values such as the individual and community, economy and society, change and continuity. Those leaders able to balance such values are civic “revolutionaries”.

Collaborative Leadership: How Citizens and Civic Leaders Can Make a Difference (Jossey Bass Nonprofit & Public Management Series), David D. Chrislip & Carl E. Larson, Jossey-Bass, 1994. Using case studies and extensive research, the authors provide insight and answers to the major challenges facing communities today. They describe how to design, initiate, and sustain a constructive, collaborative process and the specific leadership strategies needed to make it all happen.

Conceptual Blockbusting Second Edition, James L. Adams, W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 1980. This guide to better ideas has been used successfully for many years in business, nonprofit and government sectors. Adams identifies the mental walls that keep us from correctly perceiving a problem or conceiving its solution, then offers techniques that allow us to overcome or sidestep obstacles and open up our thinking processes. Still one of the best!

Cooperative Argumentation: A Model for Deliberative Community, Josina M. Makan & Debian L. Marty, Waveland Press, Inc., 2001. Recommended by Professor Ernest Stromberg from CSUMB. Offers approaches to improving a group’s ability to agree to disagree and hear opposing viewpoints.

Doing Well While Doing Good: The Marketing Link Between Business & Nonprofit Causes, L. Lawrence Embley, Prentice Hall, 1993. Describes and shapes the marketing link between business and nonprofit causes. The author shows how the private sector can capitalize on cause-related marketing to make money and simultaneously fashion a better society.

The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, Peter M. Senge, Doubleday & Co., 1990. Groundbreaking ideas on building organizations through five disciplines based on spiritual wisdom, psychology, the cutting edge of management thought and the author’s corporations that employ his methods.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, Jim Collins, HarperCollins Publishers, Inc, 2001. Peter Drucker says this book should enable competence to become excellence.Good to Great and the Social Sectors: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great

Grassroots Leaders for a New Economy: How Civic Entrepreneurs Are Building Prosperous Communities (Jossey Bass Nonprofit & Public Management Series), Douglas Henton, John Melville & Kimberly Walesh, Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1997. The authors offer a powerful new concept of civic entrepreneurship with practical, proven strategies that community leaders across the country can employ to foster local economic development and renewal. Emphasis on the unique leadership qualities that set civic entrepreneurs apart and illustrate how these leaders can emerge from all levels of public, private, social and civic organizations to forge powerful collaborative advantages for economic success in all our communities.

Integrity Matters, James F. Bracher & Daniel Halloran, Torchlight Press, 2004. A proposal for dealing with the moral decline in this country that has afflicted all of us, including institutions such as government, church and business. The authors believe the cause is a decline in integrity. They propose eight attributes necessary to restore integrity that they believe is the bedrock of our political and economic lives. Jim is the founder of Leadership Monterey Peninsula.

The Leadership Challenge, 3rd Edition, James Kouzes & Barry Posner, Jossey-Bass, Inc., 1987. Case studies and extensive research to dispel the myth that there is something mysterious about leadership and that it eludes all but a gifted few. The authors propose five basic practices that form the basis for effective leadership: challenge the process; inspire a shared vision; enable others to act; model the way; and encourage the heart. In 2002, Jim Kouzes spoke at a national convention of community leadership programs where he stated that he still believes the five basic practices are at the core of being any kind of an effective leader.

Leadership for Dummies, Marshall Loeb & Stephen Kindel, IDG Books Worldwide, Inc. 1999. Build and flex your leadership muscles to be able to see opportunity amid change or crisis. This is a very down to earth approach with utilitarian strategies and surefire tips for developing your own leadership style in everyday professional, personal and community roles.

Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit, New & Revised, Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal, Jossey-Bass, 2001. An effort to reconnect work and spirit. Presents insights into the spiritual dimensions of leadership and work.

Listen... It Will Change Your Life!, Charles Page, Park Place Publications, Pacific Grove, 2002. Basis for the Advanced Communication Workshop LMP presented in January 2005. Offers practical, down to earth ideas on how to really listen and be more effective in your interpersonal, work and other communication situations. Charlie is a past presenter.

Making A Living While Making A Difference, Melissa Everett, Bantam Books, 1995. A clear roadmap for where and how to get the work that matters to you and to the world.

Making Stories: A Practical Guide for Organizational Leaders and Human Resource Specialists, Terrence L. Gargiulo, Quorum Books, 2002. Stories help us understand business processes, create and modify corporate culture, manage change, and facilitate the management of knowledge and its transfer. They also help develop, coach, and mentor others, improve training, and help us behave and interact with others in the organization proactively. Story-making and telling are skills that can be learned and this book shows you how to do it. Written by the husband of LMP graduate, Cindy Brodsky, Class of 2004.

Nobody in Charge: Essays on the Future of Leadership, Harlan Cleveland, Jossey-Bass, 2002. Cleveland believes that with everything getting more complicated, nobody can possibly know enough to be in general charge of anything really interesting or important. This means everyone has a chance to be partly in charge; but since most people won’t reach for the brass ring, those who do will be leaders, mostly self-selected.

On Leadership, John W. Gardner, MacMillian, Inc., 1990. Gardner uses a five-year field study of organizations and leaders to provide a searching examination of leadership and how it is practiced, or malpracticed in America today. He believes that leaders must revitalize our shared values and beliefs in order to accomplish effective group action. He also convinces us that at all levels of government, in corporations, businesses and nonprofit groups, there are “unawakened” leaders who need to be motivated and made aware of their own potential.

On Mission and Leadership: A Leader to Leader Guide, Edited by Frances Hesselbein & Rob Johnston, Jossey-Bass Inc., 2002. Explores the vital role of mission in defining and sustaining leadership. Series of articles by a variety of thought leaders to offer guidance and insight for those who seek to lead their organizations with a strong sense of purpose.

Politics for People: FINDING A RESPONSIBLE PUBLIC VOICE, David Mathews, University of Illinois Press, 1999. Argues that professional partisan politics must be leavened with public dialogue. The author explores how individuals and communities can create a politics relevant to their everyday life through research of the practical experience of a wide variety of civic groups.

The Power of Partnership: Seven Relationships That Will Change Your Life, Riane Eisler, New World Library, 2002. Based on research that brought the author international recognition, this book offers a new paradigm for seeing the world and living in it through a partnership model of mutual respect. This model would replace our present model of domination that allows individuals and groups to oppress various groups, wage war, terrorize and subjugate others. Riane is a local author.

Principle Centered Leadership, Stephen R. Covey, Summit Books, 1991. Offers timeless principles of natural laws and governing values that are universally valid. Leadership is the ability to apply these principles to problems, resulting in quality, productivity, profitability and win-win relationships. He is also the author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Revolution Of Heart, Bill Shore, Riverhead Books, 1995. Shore proposes a two-part strategy to help meet the challenges in our complex society today. First, he calls on the nonprofit sector to become self-sustaining by creating new wealth with the same aggressive financial acumen essential to any business. Second, he calls on us as citizens to assume responsibility for the next generation by becoming personally involved with those in need—not through the donation of our own “leftover wealth”, but through the contribution of skills, talent, and time. Shore has addressed both of these through his revolutionary organization called Share Our Strength.

The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, Richard Florida, Basic Books, 2002. Offers a new way to think about why we live as we do today and where we might be headed. Storytelling and substantial research trace the fundamental theme that runs through a host of seemingly unrelated changes in American society: the growing role of creativity in our economy.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey, Simon & Schuster, 1990. Still considered very solid ideas. The author presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centered approach for solving personal and professional problems. See also his newest book, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness.

Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self-Interest, Peter Block, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1996. The concept of stewardship means choosing service over self-interest in order to improve organizational governance and management. The author suggests redesigning leadership and management roles to reflect a spirit of partnership and service in order to increase productivity and economic success.

Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, Margaret J. Wheatley, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2001. The author believes we can change the world if we start talking to one another again. Badly needed changes won’t come from governments or corporations, but from the ageless process of coming together in conversation. Part One addresses the power of conversation and the conditions of simplicity, personal courage, and real listening that support it. Part Two provides conversation starters that lead people to share their beliefs, fears and hopes.

Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life, Spencer Johnson, MD, Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1998. Fast, easy reading about an approach to dealing with change in our work and in our personal lives as well.