Members of the Health Care Forum share their recommendations regarding resources (books and video lectures) that have been of great value to them:
Wellness/Health/Spirituality
Outlive (Peter Attia) A best-selling and challenging statement about existing and new models of aging and longevity, with a holistic (and family-practice oriented) perspective on health and wellness.
Fractured (Ted Epperly) A study of the America’s HealthCare System. Epperly has some really good insights about how resistant the broken system is to change and where the points of resistance are. (sort of a Complex Adaptive Systems analysis without the label)
Jeffers SL, Nelson ME, Barnet V, Brannigan MC. The Essential Guide to Religious Traditions and Spirituality for Health Care Providers. Radcliffe Publishing Ltd., London, New York. (2013) This book functions as a comprehensive Physicians’ Desk Reference (PDR) about religious traditions from Anglicans to Zoroastrians. The detailed descriptions of the belief systems of different religions by their own clergy/leaders provides a rich context for how religion affects decision-making and responding to change in the lives of individuals, communities and organizations.
Mind-Body Medicine (Jason Satterfield) An excellent introduction to Biopsychosocial perspectives on wellness. Video lecture series: The Teaching Company
Behave [Robert Sapolsky] This substantial book provides recent research (mostly neurobiological) regarding the determinations of human behavior from the cell to the social system.
Stress and Your Body (Robert Sapolsky) Sapolsky is a leading figure in the study of stress. Video lecture series: The Teaching Company
Intervention/Change
Compassionomics: The Revolutionary Scientific Evidence That Caring Makes a Difference (Stephen Trzeciak and Anthony Mazzarelli) (2019) Two physician leaders doing research on compassion who felt, well it’s the right thing to do as it’s been mentioned forever….but they did not believe there was any “science” to prove such. Eventually after several years, to their surprise, they published legit research showing the “science” of compassion as one of the biggest determinants to meet the triple (quadruple actually) aim. Makes us reflect on what “science” is there behind the variety of innovative ideas being considered. Economics and Medicine have both suffered from a derp and mistaken belief that we humans make rational decisions based on summation of facts.
Science, however, continues to prove that we humans make emotional-social-intuitive and relational decisions….based on bias, heuristics, beliefs, and narratives etc.
Motivational Interviewing (Miller and Rolinich) An important set of strategies for motivating change.
Behavioral Economics (Scott Huettel). An excellent introduction to the powerful strategies and tools involved in changing the perspectives and behaviors. Video lecture series: The Teaching Company
coachbook (Bergquist and Mura) Modestly, this is an excellent guidebook for conducting a wide range of coaching services.
consultbook (Bergquist and Mura) As in the case of coachbook, this volume identifies many strategies and tools for effective consultation with organizations regarding their operations.
Reasoning and Problem-Solving
Thinking Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) The critical text in understanding the new science of thinking and reasoning.
Noise (Kahneman, Sibony and Sunstein) An interesting analysis of the ways in which noise (diverse perspectives) and bias (uniform but inaccurate perspectives) influence decision-making processes.
Predictably Irrational (Dan Ariely) One of first and still most influential analyses of the way in which most people “actually” think and behavior.
The Reflective Practitioner (Donald Schon) An excellent guide to the processes of higher-order thinking and reflection upon one’s actions.
Action Science (Chris Argyris) A long-time partner of Don Schon, Chris Argyris writes about the ways in which one can critically reflect on assumptions and test out alternative ways in which to view and interpret reality.
Leadership
Good to Great (Jim Collins) Really speaks to getting to the ‘early adopter’ and spreading the change in a large corporate environment.
Leading Change (John Kotter) The importance of establishing and maintaining a sense of Urgency. (Of course, Walter Issacson’s book ‘Elon’ gives a somewhat darker picture of managing disruptive change). In fairness to Elon, his rules of efficient management and disruption, though harsh, are pretty well thought out.
The Ark of Leadership (Bergquist, Sandstrom and Mura) A comprehensive and integrative presentation of leadership competencies, styles and situationally based strategies.
Leadership Without Easy Answers (Ron Heifetz) As the title suggests this is a book about complex leadership challenges.
Culture
Malachi O’Connor and Barry Dornfield. “The Moment You Can’t Ignore”. Public Affairs, New York. (2014) This book is a series of case studies on how culture drives change in individuals and organizations. It is built on the aphorism “culture eats strategy for lunch.” Understanding the culture of a situation, and identifying the “elephant in the room”, provides a context for driving effective change. Malachi is a friend who has an educational background in folklore, so his insights on culture run deep and make his writing engaging.
Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn. (2011) Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. A major, definitive study of and categorization of organizational culture. Associated with a major assessment tool regarding culture.
Systems Thinking
Thinking in Systems (Donella Meadows) This is the best introduction to system dynamics written by a leading figure in the field.
Understanding Complexity (Scott Page) This cutting-edge thinker offers a clear and insightful portrait of complex systems and the way in which to work within and on these systems. Video lecture series: The Teaching Company
Complex Adaptive systems (Miller and Page) A wonderful complement (in written form) to Page’s video lecture series. “Landscapes” of the present day are described that are rugged — and often dancing.