This is the fourth in a year-long series where I share my top risk management reading recommendations. These are the books I review regularly regarding the discipline of risk management and related issues. Each of these gives you hints on how to recognize, prioritize and mobilize solutions for the risks you face in your organization.
I previously shared some tips for making notes and summarizing key points from the books I read, as well as some recommendations for other publications that will help you keep up with trends. Let me know what works for you and then check out my reading suggestions for April:
Careful: A User’s Guide to Our Injury-Prone Minds
By Steve Casner
This book is a great read – and filled with wonderful examples of how stupid we are with respect to avoiding injury and death. While we are getting so many new “toys” and “tech stuff” to help us live better, the human mind is still behind the curve and injuries and accidental deaths are on the rise. Steve Casner is obviously well versed on the “safety stuff” and shows very clearly that there is not a safety warning we won’t ignore or a foolproof device we can’t turn into a killing tool.
The M Factor: How the Millennial Generation is Rocking the Workplace
By Lynne Lancaster and David Stillman
When I look at the list of topics to be covered at various seminars around America I regularly see programs directed at how to address “the new generation” of employees that are now being hired. Many of these programs focus on the “problems” but this book is loaded with solutions on how to integrate this new generation into the workplace.
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
By Robert Putnam
Bowling is up, but organized bowling leagues are down. This simple statement sums up a lot of problems we face today. Many people are running “parallel” and not interacting with each other. I have a personal concern that we are not sharing knowledge and experience with each other – and as a result, we will continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. A great book with lots of interesting data inserted throughout the work.
How We Decide
By Jonah Lehrer
Another look at the processes involved in decision-making, why we do what we do and how others can “persuade” us to do things that will benefit them. Lots of fascinating stories about the early studies of the brain – and what we thought we knew a long time ago about how the brain works. The author ties this in nicely with the present – and how “modern” people (that would be you and me) think things through to make decisions.
That’s it for this month. Let me know what you think of these books and share your leadership and risk management reading recommendations. Email editor@police1.com.
