What CSR and Nonprofit Leaders Are Reading - Part II

Want to know which business leader is reading Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? and who's reading The Iliad? See Part I. Let's see what some other leaders in business, CSR, and nonprofits have been reading this summer.

Dominique Conseil, President, Aveda: "This summer I decided to re-read a few of my favorites, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization, by Peter M. Senge, and Lessons From Private Equity Any Company Can Use, by Orit Gadiesh and Hugh MacArthur. Retrospectively, I think I subconsciously chose these simultaneously because they are diametrically opposed in their approach to business and how to achieve results. In The Fifth Discipline, Senge teaches about focusing on the systems thinking approach, which aims to build organizations based on the idea of a group of learners; a philosophy I believe is paramount to organizational success at Aveda in our pursuit of corporate social responsibility."

Richard R. Buery, Jr., President & Chief Executive Officer, The Children's Aid Society:"The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable, by Peter Lencioni. This story about a fictional Silicon Alley company with a new CEO is--above all--a great read. His story makes insightful points both about the central importance of developing effective teams in the workplace as well as the dysfunctions that make it so difficult for managers to do so.

"For fun, I am in a science fiction mood right now. Three novels I recently completed are Kraken and Un Lun Dun by China Mieville and Tongues of Serpents by Naomi Novik. Kraken, like much of Mievelle's work, is difficult to describe--it begins when a preserved giant squid disappears from a London Museum. That's the most straightforward thing that happens in this exquisite novel. Un Lun Dun follows a young heroine who finds herself in an alternative version of London where she must save the world from sentient pollution. It's like a cross between Alice in Wonderland and An Inconvenient Truth. Tongues of Serpents is the latest volume in the Temeraire series, which imagines the Napoleonic Wars fought with an Air Corps of domesticated dragons. It will definitely take your mind off of the Great Recession."

Jonathan Korngold, Managing Director, General Atlantic; Board Member, 92nd Street Y, Central Park Conservancy, KIDS, and the Harvard Business School Club of NYC: "Lone Survivor: The Eye Witness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10, by Marcus Luttrell. A very interesting read into the life of a Navy SEAL and his firsthand account of a valiant stand he and 3 colleagues made under ambush by 200 Taliban fighters in Afghanistan. Very exciting and gave me a newfound respect and appreciation for the brave men and women on the front lines for our country."

Keep reading the Fast Company article here....

Korngold Consulting LLC assists corporations in building fully integrated, high-impact CSR strategies, including leadership development through nonprofit board service.  Korngold Consulting trains and places business executives on nonprofit boards, and consults to nonprofit boards and leaders to strengthen governance for financial and strategic success.

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