Overtreated by Shannon Brownlee

The subtiutle of this book is "Why too much medicine is making us sicker and poorer". This book was quite shocking. I know there is a lot of what goes on in healthcare that is unnecessary yet to find a huge amount of detail and information in one place really put the issue into perspective. It is focused mainly on the USA though there are many parallels with other health systems.

Throughout the book, the author provides stories and examples to illustrate the data and statistics that without the stories would appear cold and less shocking.

As I read through the book, particularly in the early chapters I found myself going "I know him/her"! Shannon Brownlee hooks a fair amount of the debate onto the actions of some of the current health leaders in the USA (you might like to read the book to see if you are mentioned...!) There is an excellent chapter on the VA Healthcare systems, how it has improved and in many cases how it is an example of how healthcare in the USA could look and feel.

Chapters include:

• Too much medicine: complelling arguments as to why population based healthcare would be a real improvement
• The most dangerous place: beware the hospital and what might happen
• Your local hospital: how uncoordinated care and overtreatment results in poor outcomes
• Broken hearts: how the latest fad takes root, based on economics
• The desperate cure: an argument for evidence based care if there ever was one
• The limits of seeing: an expose on the limits to radiology tests
• The persuaders: mmm who is influencing whom, and why?
• Money, drugs and lies: why not to believe everything published in journals
• The doctor isn't in: all about managed care
• When less is more: some ideas to cope with over-capacity and overtreatment in the USA

This book is a must for every health care improver who believes their own project is making a difference... The strategic and tactical issues raised in it really provide a new perspective.

There is a website for the book, with extracts at http://www.overtreated.com/the_book.html

The Art of Changing the Brain by James Zull

I was recommended this book by Paul Batalden and he was right - it is excellent.

The subtitle is "Enriching the practice of teaching by exploring the biology of the brain". The author manages to integrate biology and neuroscience with educational and learning tactics. For me the book brought to light the process of learning in the sense of how the structure of the brain influences the process.

Zull explains the natural relationship between the structure of the brain and learning, how brain connections change data into knowledge, the way that evolution of the brain is linked to how we are motivated in our learning, and the importance of emotions in the learning process.

While the book covers some breadth of biology at no time was it too complex to follow for someone like me who has limited knowledge of the subject. I think, if you did know more about biology, then you would possibly get more out of the book than me.

Parts I really like was when Zull got practical and linked the discussion to how teacher can then use this knowledge to provide better learning experiences. Having made the links to brain structure it really made sense. I have been testing out some of the ideas and techniques and they do seem to work for me and for those with whom I work.

If you're a fan of PDSA cycles then on reading this you will probably have a major "Aha" moment as you figure out just how they work!

Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff

The authors define a groundswell as “…a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions”. mmm that sounds like an important thing to know about if you think you're a traditional institution, or if you think you're breaking new ground, or if you're a consumer wondering why you're starting to feel left out the loop.

What I liked about the book was the examples and case studies. Usually I skip these, however, I foudn these ones riveting reading. Who needs thriller novels when the business world presents us with such chaotic and roller coaster events. Fabulous.

I also found the way the book was constructed and organised to be very helpful, especially when faced with a disconcerting topic. Far from being disorganised, the underlying structure helped get the message through.

Read this book and it will move you on from thinking about "all we need to do is have the odd blog and a fancy web 2.0 website" and get you into strategising about your social media presence. I have always been convinced that social media is not just for the youngesters and this book has all the examples and conceptuals models to help you create some of your own thinking for your business to prove it is for everyone.

The book has, as you would expect, a great website. http://www.forrester.com/Groundswell/index.html It is good to see them practising what they preach. They have a blog and there is also a social media profiling tool you can download and use.

I'm not one for giving 5 stars to a book, but this one deserves it. I might just read it a second time.

New Age of Innovation; Prahalad & Krishnan

If you're interested in large scale change and innovation then you'll find this book fascinating. On the one hand it felt like there was nothing startlingly new to me yet on the other it was neatly put together in a readable way that made sense.

A key premise is the current trend of personalisation and how value is based on the unique experience we all want. The authors refer to this as N=1. Current technology drives this, social networking, web 2.0 etc. How can we co-create value with our users and consumers? What are the challenges with managing who owns the knowledge? All good questions. They also suggest we need to make the most of collaborative networks, electronic and face-to-face, be flexible and ensure scalability. I liked the section on scalability and in my mind there is more in here than what they covered. This is a key element and is also linked to their second premise.

The 2nd key premise is the one that resources need to be global and they use another little formaula: R=G. Here they suggest the issue is that access to resources is more importnat than providing products; namely it is the solutions that matter rather than the kit or pieces. I think I agree with this. Again, scalability comes up.

They mention social movements and how they figure int he process as well as organisational transformation. There was nothing much new in the organisational process other than the context of the infomrational technology infrastructure - well, that is rather new and for some people rather perplexing.

If you've not yet engaged with Web 2.0 and new technology then this is definitely worth a read.

The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki

It's quite annoying to find out that groups make better decisions than you can as an individual - but a very powerful thought. However, the groups need to be diverse, independent and decentralised (so that may exclude a few crowds I can think of...)

We are essentially cooperative beings and meld our behaviour around that of others. One of the examples in the book is how crowds flow in shopping centres, how we move on staircases etc. We do all this even when there are no explicit rules. Mind you, as someone who regularly travels to the US from the UK I know what it is like to accidently move against this flow when I forget to walk on the "right". So maybe there are more socialised rules and logic than the author makes explicit.

One theme in the book which did appeal to me was the notion of the difference making a difference. While it seems inefficient, having a diversity of ideas seems to allow meaningful differences of ideas, especially at the early stages of decision making - and this is important. Groups also need to be able to distinguish good ideas from bad ideas and having more to choose from helps.

There is some helpful work about distinguishing the difference between situations which are easily defined by a single answer, such as the weight of an ox, and those which are more co-ordination problems, such as traffic manageemnt. Co-ordination problems come when all individuals want to go their own way. Here the wisdom of the crowd sound a lot like complexity science and simple rules and I wasn't totally convinced of all of his arguments. However, they were interesting.

A thought provoking book which much more to say that the few bits I have mentioned here.

The book's website is here http://www.randomhouse.com/features/wisdomofcrowds/ where there is a lot of detail and audio to download.

NO! How one simple word can transform your life, by Jana Kemp

This makes a change from all the "Yes, you can" books! It's basically about getting over the fear of saying now and taking control of any circumstance without negative consequences. A critical aspect as you might imagine is tone of voice and the author words hard to ensure we understand that it's critical we get this right - not too fast, too harsh and to make sure we choos the right words when we do mean it. It is also key to stick to your decision when you've make it.

Kemp has a model called the POWER of No which has an acronym from POWER: Purpose, options, when, emotional ties and rights/responsibilities. She suggests that using this acronym will help us to make a yes / no decision based on the right issues at the time. For me I find it a lot to think about when considering a yes/ no response online, though I suppose you get better at it with practice.

In essence the decision prcess goes like this
- think about the purpose and context of the decision
- what option do you have? What resources are available?
- when is it due? What is the deadline and can you meet it?
- be realistic about the emotional ties
- consider your rights and responsibilities

I'll be trying out some "No's"....

Time Traps by Todd Duncan

You can't manage time but you can manage your thoughts, actions and tasks - that is the underlying premise of this powerful book. I read the book a couple of years ago and in a rare moment, I decided to read it again as I found I was often using the mantra of its premise and was seeking to find more ways to satisfy my desire to get a grip on the slippery slope of the balance between time and tasks.

The book is written with sales in mind though I didn't find this detracted at all from my personal context and I expect anyone who deals with many interactions with others will find it helpful.

The author talkes the reader through a number of traps. The first is the identity trap. This is how when time is monopolised by our work we become our work - and thus how important it is to rethink time, to rebalance as part of regaining our personal identity. Secondly there is the organisation trap where the author suggests that most sales people are disorganised, out of control and say they lack the time to catch up. Well, that sound like a lot of the stories I hear from many people! And what I say sometimes as well!!! He suggests learning to stop all unnecessary tasks before they steal time, admit legitimate tasks onto your list of things to do, and make sure you know the difference between necessary and productive tasks. Then take action and assess how you're doing.

He also talks about the Yes trap, and then how to say No, or sacrifice more sales for the benefit of others. He has some interesting things to describe on the value of saying no. Then there is the Control Trap and the issues of letting go and learning to delegate. The technology trap should be familiar to those caught by their email, and for sale people he discusses the Quota trap. And if you're not trapped out yet, there is also the Failure Trap and the Party Trap.

I know this book changed how I felt about time and the management of it the first time I read it and certainly, the second time around, I was reminded to take some more detailed action steps.

Go to here http://www.timetrapsbook.com/ to download a chapter or to carry out the self assessment on the eight traps.

Crucial Conversations by Patterson, Grenny, Mcmillan & Switzler

This book has the subtitle "Tools for talking when the stakes are high" and I found there was not a single page that disappointed me. Part way reading through the book I thought this is all common sense, and of course a lot of it is. However, the authors are showing and telling in an extremely compelling manner that you just can't help going "aha", oh-yes", "of course" every few minutes. My copy is full of notes, highlighter marks and pages turned over.

So what's the meat in the book?

At its heart is a dialogue model which is about me and the other and how we each act, feel, tell a story and see/hear. In our dialgue we are aiming to create a pool of shared meaning and there are a number of factors that impact this, such as safety, and silence (withdrawing, avoiding, masking) and violence (controlling, attacking, labelling). All this sounds cold in this description, what brings this book alive is the way the authors develop the model with the use of various tools and stories. It's impossible to read it anot feel connected yet at the same time feel empowered to do something about your next high stakes conversation.


You can download book chapters and sample MP3 audio from http://www.vitalsmarts.com/books_more.aspx . There is also the stress test to discover your style under stress.


If you want to page through some of the book check it out here http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Gzjj9mSPAGEC&dq=crucial+conversations+review&pg=PP1&ots=Aj4jGSI6IL&sig=euh96h7xAwU8GJ3PkqiAlDFXfvU&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.co.uk/search%3Fsourceid%3Dnavclient%26ie%3DUTF-8%26rls%3DGFRD,GFRD:2008-06,GFRD:en%26q%3Dcrucial%2Bconversations%2Breview&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail