Sir Ken Robinson’s ideas have been popular on the web lately, mainly because of his fantastic talk at TED. After seeing that talk I decided to get his book from my local library. At first I was a little concerned because the book read a little like his presentation put into writing, but after I while I realized that there was a great deal of depth to his writing and ideas.
He has a clear history of why we teach the way we do in mainstream schools and concrete suggestions of how we can change. He also has a chapter on how companies can encourage creativity in employees (even if they have had a mainstream education).
There was one thing that was surprising for me: he did not mention Waldorf Education in the book, even though it addresses many of the shortcomings of mainstream education. I realize that his focus was primarily on public education but he did mention several alternative education forms including Montessori. I was left wondering whether he felt that Waldorf promotes creativity or not. Of course, since both of my kids are in Waldorf school, you can guess what my opinion is on that…

Boynton and Fischer’s book is about teams that excel above and beyond the capabilities of each individual team member. They draw stories from a wide range of subjects: the arts, science and industry. The teams they describe are all about creating massive change and they accomplish this by bringing together the absolute best people for each required function. These teams are not meant to work together amicably and produce consistent results over the long haul: they come together for a specific purpose (to drive massive change) and most often they dissolve after their task is complete. Example teams include Miles Davis’ bands, Thomas Edison’s workers and Norsk Hydro’s engineering team.
The book is great for giving perspective on how to bring teams like this together and how to handle them so that they are as effective as possible. The case studies are entertaining and informative and they gave me lots of ideas about how to make this work in a corporate setting.
The lessons you can draw from this book are invaluable: if you need to really change the direction of your business it definitely deserves a read.
I will say that the last chapter or two on how to apply this to your business are the weakest of the book: after reading that the critical factor in any Virtuoso Team is that you get the best possible people (not just the people available) it is a little of a let down to read that you can use the same techniques with your current team.
The section on “Deep Dives” also seems a bit out of place. Although this is an effective means of designing products and developing new ideas, it seemed somewhat disconnected from the ideas presented in the case studies. It was valuable information, but seemed like a topic for another book.

If you really want to understand where your food comes from, then Pollan’s book is a must-read. Whether you eat at McDonalds, Whole Foods or at your local Farmer’s Market this book will help you understand the impact that your food choices have on the world. I will never look at either industrial agriculture or organic agriculture in the same way. Highly recommended.

My Dad gave me this book and I am really enjoying it so far – timeless wisdom that is ignored time and time again.

An excellent and engaging history of Scotland and why so many great thinkers originated from such a remote and poor nation.

The impact of mobile internet will go beyond what most people consider. Rheingold has a vision of the possibilities and it balanced in his view of both the risks and the benefits of this new frontier.

How to lead in a crisis. I think this also relates to Level 5 Leadership as described in Good to Great.

Want to know how to make your company excel in the long term? Good to Great is a blueprint for the type of leadership and focus that it takes to succeed in the long term.

Wanna Enter the Matrix? Go to Snow Crash first.