Library and Recommended Readings
Social Responsibility: Failure Mode Effects and Analysis
CRC Press 2016
Duckworth & Moore
Seminal to Six Sigma being adapted to drive sustainability and social responsibility. First Six Sigma Quality tool (FMEA) adapted to a new framework for ISO 26000, the International Standard for Social Responsibility.
A Six Sigma Approach to Sustainability: Continual Improvement for Social Responsibility
CRC Press 2016
Duckworth & Hoffmeier
Seminal to CISR Methodology & SOFAIR Method, for organizations to integrate ISO 26000, the International Standard for Social Responsibility, into their operations.
Influencer: The Power to Change Anything
2008 Edition McGraw Hill (see description for reason to access the original version)
Grenny, et. al.
There is a 2013 Second Edition this perennial business classic, subtitled The New Science of Leading Change, but SHERPA Institute encourages all readers to use the first edition. The newer version leaves out some profound sections, such as “The Serenity Trap”, and the Six Sources of Influence have less hard-hitting labels. For example, the motivational social source of influence is reframed from the provocative “Harness Peer Pressure” to “Provide Encouragement”. The original “Design Rewards and Demand Accountability” becomes “Change Their Economy”. The original version is clear, actionable and does not create a new language in your organization. We also approach the framework of Six Sources of Influence with the last first and take a different route around the framework. This means that we begin with Structural Ability. After all, if your organization does not have the structures in place, how can you begin to enable vital behaviors? Reading the book in the order presented is fine; wee simply have an inverted approach to how we lead organizations through its application.
Happy at Any Cost: The Revolutionary Vision and Fatal Quest of Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh
2022 Simon and Schuster
Grind and Sayre
If there is any doubt that our assertion that Stage Five, lauded in Tribal Leadership, is a better viewed as a period of momentary achievement, this book settles our argument. Tony Hsieh pursued this dangerous enigma, having become addicted to the euphoria of Stage Five. From the inside dust jacket, this book “is about our culture’s intense need to find “happiness” at all costs, our misguided worship of entrepreneurs, the stigmas still surrounding mental health … In turn, it reveals how we conceptualize success—and define happiness—in our modern age.
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard
2010 Crown Publishing – Penguin Random House, LLC
Heath & Heath
This book takes us on a journey about how to harness the emotional side of decision-making (the “Elephant), and engage the rational side (the “Rider).
If you have any doubt that this book will change how you approach change, you’ll be hooked within the first chapter. There is a legendary example of how businessman Jon Stegner demonstrated the waste in purchasing by dumping a collection of 424 different types of gloves on a conference room table, surrounded by senior executives.
These gloves had been tagged with prices from $5 to $17; this was the result of factories purchasing gloves from a variety of different suppliers. In fact, the same types of gloves costing $3.22 versus $10.55 were compared in the pile. The impact was profound and tangible.
The mountain of gloves appealed to both the emotions (the “Elephant”) and the rational minds of executives digging through the tangible evidence of waste (the “Rider”). Heath and Heath provide clear direction and a framework that stands the test of time.
Confessions of a Radical Industrialist: Profits, People, Purpose - Doing Business by Respecting the Earth
2009 St. Martin’s Press
Ray C. Anderson
We recommend both the printed version and audiobook (Blackstone Audio, Inc.), narrated by Ray himself. He passed in 2011, leaving us a tremendous gift of his story in his voice. SHERPA Institute has worked extensively with Interface, and Ray names professionals with whom we’ve collaborated.
We cannot improve on the audiobook summary. “His story is now legend. In 1994, after reading The Ecology of Commerce by Paul Hawken, Ray Anderson felt a "spear in the chest." The founder of Interface, Inc., a billion-dollar carpeting manufacturer, realized that his company was plundering the environment and he needed to steer it on a new course. Since then, Interface has cut its greenhouse gas emissions by eighty-two percent, with a goal to reach a zero environmental footprint by 2020. Thoughtful and winning, Confessions of a Radical Industrialist shows how Anderson revolutionized his company--improving quality, bringing costs down, and driving up profits--making it one of Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For. He challenges all industries to share his ambitious goal: to take nothing from the earth that can't be replaced by the earth.”
Three simple statements by Ray about waste hold true today:
- the greenest kilowatt-hour is the one you don’t use;
- the greenest gallon of gas, diesel, heating oil, or ton of coal is the one you don’t burn;
- the greenest Dumpster is the one you never fill.
This book belongs in every collection of anyone serious about learning the true story of a man who made an indelible mark on the industrial sustainability movement.
The Ecology of Commerce: A Declaration of Sustainability
Collins Business Essentials) Paperback 2010 - Paul Hawken.
HarperCollins – originally published 1993 (edition read by Ray Anderson, resulting in his “spear in the chest”)
The Ecology of Commerce Revised Edition: A Declaration of Sustainability
(Collins Business Essentials) Paperback 2010 - Paul Hawken.
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—and Why Things are Better Than You Think
Flatiron Books 2018
Hans Rosling
We recommend both the printed version and audiobook (Blackstone Audio, Inc.),
7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Stephen Covey
We recommend this book.
Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us
Seth Godin
We recommend both the printed version and audiobook (Blackstone Audio, Inc.),
Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build Thriving Organizations
2008 Harper Business
Logan, et. al.
While two decades have passed since the A few caveats: we do not believe in Stage Five. As evidenced by the downfall and tragic death of the book’s Forward writer, Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Stage Five as a permanent state is not sustainable. The high is addictive. Leaders must focus on achieving a stable Stage Four culture of “We’re Great”, with periodic big wins that grasp into Stage Five euphoria. But our advice is to celebrate the win, then have a plan to return to the typical business at hand.
Stage One “rock bottom” is also a state of mind that is largely glossed over, and we see too many organizations with people internally or whom they serve are in this lowest state, in these times. These might be stakeholders in your internal workforce, supply chain, community, or customers. What to do as a leader in these situations? Dig more into addressing the despair of Stage One, by engaging qualified mental health professionals. This stage is given a drop of water in an age when the dam has broken on many in our society “on the verge of a meltdown”. Take it seriously. Interestingly, the pursuit of Stage Five “Life is Great” is likely what led to Tony Hsieh’s demise, and his tumbling into Stage One, given that his life virtually did melt down.
The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success - and How You Can Too
Andrew Savitz
Why we recommend