Workplace Books From An Internal Communicator's Library

Perspectives and tips on the current state of the U. S. workplace and the people in it:

American Mania: When More Is Not Enough

Peter Whybrow MD

Norton, 2005

(The author links psychiatry, anthropology, economics, neurobiology and genetics to explain the root of increasing incidents of depression, obesity and addictions in our ever-faster-paced American society. Possibly this is the dark side of “hard fun”…)

Contagious Success: Spreading High Performance Throughout Your Organization

Susan Lucia Annunzio

Portfolio, 2004

(New global research that supports the idea that high performance (the ideal organizational form of “hard fun”) depends on the same things no matter where you are.)

Getting to the seventh person first

Paula Bartholome

http://www.parallax-perspectives.com/newsletters/summer2004.html

(Lead article in my enewsletter about the positive culture of an organization doing a mundane job, web hosting, and how they have “hard fun” doing it. Includes tips on creating such an environment.)

Story Power for Teams

Paula Bartholome and Evelyn Clark

http://www.parallax-perspectives.com/images/Story_Power.pdf

(A brief article on how communicating with stories can facilitate moving a team through the stages of development and on to “hard fun”.)  

Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool’s Guide to Surviving with Grace

Gordon MacKenzie

Viking, 1998

(A joyously fun read! All about maintaining creativity in bureaucratic environments.)

The impact of incivility on employees and workplaces

http://www.civilityworks.com/resources.html

(Several articles [research and anecdotal evidence] on the corrosive impact of uncivil behavior in workplaces. It’s difficult to imagine anyone being able to have “hard fun” in such places…)