Reading List

For ease of use, click on the links below to jump to the preferred section.

 

Consulting
Culture
Interpersonal skills
Leadership
Mind
Organisation development
Personal development

 

The comments are intended to provide a brief glimpse into the book’s purpose and contents. Some reviews are included that have been published by Consortium members

 

Dutch-language titles (where available, and known to us) are provided.

 

CONSULTING

Fearless Consulting
Erik de Haan, John Wiley & Sons, 2006. ISBN 0-470-02695-2

The director of Ashridge’s Centre for Coaching, Erik de Haan, is a prolific and thought provoking writer. This is his fourth major contribution to the profession in three years, and in style, has much in common with The Consulting Process as Drama in taking inspiration from a diverse range of sources from philosophy to psychoanalysis, from Greek history to Zen Buddhism to explore some of the dilemmas and responsibilities of the consultant. A really important book for anyone who is a serious consultant to help address the paradoxes, dilemmas, risks and responsibilities of the role.

– For a fuller review by Geof Cox published in TJ magazine, click here

Coaching Skills: a handbook
Jenny Rogers, Open University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-335-21330-8

Jenny Rogers is well qualified to write a handbook on coaching skills – she has been coaching for as long as it has been a recognised management development tool. She is also a great writer – her book Adults Learning is been the leading text on how adults learn for more than thirty years. With such a wealth of experience to call on, it might have been pitched too far away from the general reader to be of use as a handbook. But it is a very practical and readable book that will be of immense use to aspiring coaches and experts alike. It also lives up to its ‘handbook’ title by being comprehensive enough to cover areas that even an experienced coach may not ever across in their practice and thus be a reference that will always be of use. In sum, this is a valuable addition to any bookshelf and likely to join Adults Learning as a standard text on the subject.

– For a fuller review by Geof Cox published in Organisations & People, click here

Learning with Colleagues,
Erik de Haan, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 1 4039-4287-0

Coaching with Colleagues,
Erik de Haan and Yvonne Burger. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 1 4039-4323-0
Professionals today, in whatever field, have an increasing need for life-long learning. Many professional bodies insist on continuing professional development as a pre-requisite to maintaining professional qualifications and much of this professional development takes place through interaction with peers and colleagues. These two new books by Erik de Haan and his collaborators are texts about the development of our professional skills and abilities. In the case of Learning with Colleagues it is an action guide to peer consultation, and for Coaching with Colleagues, an action guide for one-to-one learning.
– For a fuller review by Geof Cox published in Organisations and People, click here 

Flawless Consulting (Second Edition),
Peter Block. Jossey-Bass Pfeiffer, ISBN: 0-7879-4803-9

The best book around for both internal and external consultants, this is one we have recommended or distributed to participants during in-company consulting skills workshops. The conceptual foundations mesh perfectly with that of Focus on Influence, and the checklists and concrete tips and suggestions are invaluable.

NL: Feilloos Adviseren, Block. Academic Service, 1996. ISBN: 90 5261 205 6

Consultant’s Journey: A Professional and Personal Odyssey,
Roger Harrison. McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1995. ISBN: 0-07-709089-6

During one phase in his life Roger was co-developer of the world’s first powerful interpersonal skills training program, a forerunner of Focus on Influence. But Roger went through many phases in his professional life, each one reflecting a different phase in his personal development. In Consultant’s Journey this leading international consultant reflects on each such phase with warmth, insight and remarkable modesty.

What makes Consultant’s Journey such a compelling read is Harrison’s sharing of his hard won principles and practices of consultancy, management education, and organization change, placing them in the context of a life dedicated to the unremitting search for personal integrity, professional growth and spiritual awakening.

The Consulting Process as Drama: Learning from King Lear,
Erik de Haan. Karnac Books, 2004. ISBN 1 85575 986 1

Translated from the original Dutch by Learning Consortium member Nico Swaan, This short book is packed with insights and challenges for the experienced consultant, and the contrasting of the consulting process with the text of King Lear is not only unique, but also surprisingly helpful. Although it is as famous as Macbeth and Hamlet, King Lear is not one of Shakespeare’s most familiar tragedies, however, you do not need to be a Shakespearean scholar or even know the story in order to follow the metaphor, as De Haan skilfully intertwines the story with the consideration of the consulting process.

This is a book which imparts wisdom rather than knowledge about consulting, and it is a measure of the importance of the book that several names from the Hall of Fame of consulting – Roger Harrison (who comments ‘I have never read such an elegantly literate exposition of the nuances of the consulting process’), Bill Critchley, Peter Hawkins, David Armstrong and Lawrence J Gould – have all contributed forewords.

NL: King Lear voor adviseurs en managers: Het adviesproces als drama. Scriptum Management, 1997. ISBN 90 5594 093 3

For a longer review published in Organisations & People. click here

Process consultation,
Edgar H. Schein. ISBN: 0-201-06744-7 (1987)

This book reaffirms the concept of process consultation as a viable model of how to work with human systems. Included are such topics as cultural rules of interaction; initiating and managing change; intervention strategy; tactics and style; and emerging issues in process consultation.

The Fifth Discipline,
Peter M. Senge. ISBN: 0-385-26094-6 (1990)

Peter Senge presents a system of thinking and acting that, if followed correctly, can be the basis for reducing the ‘learning disabilities’ in any organization. His five core disciplines: system thinking, personal mastery, mental models, shared vision and team learning are well explained.

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook,
Peter M. Senge et al. ISBN 1-85788-060-9 (1994)

The Fieldbook is an intensely pragmatic guide. It shows how to create an organization of learners. It shows how to create an organization of learners where memories are brought to life, where collaboration is the lifeblood of every endeavor, and where the tough questions are fearlessly asked.

 



 

CULTURE

Werken met andere culturen: Vloeiend communiceren en onderhandelen door bestaande patronen te doorbreken.
Frank Garten, Van Duuren Management, 2011. ISBN: 978-90-8965-073-3

Working with Different Cultures: communicating and negotiating fluently by breaking existing patterns – reviewed by Nico Swaan: “My only regret is therefore that it is currently available only in Dutch, though the intention is to publish an English-language version late in 2011 or early in 2012. Many new readers will then welcome it, as have Dutch readers already: it was in the top 100 of Dutch management books within three weeks of publication.”  Read more of the review

The Geography of Thought: How Asians and Westerners Think Differently.and Why.
Richard E. Nisbett. The Free Press, 2003. ISBN 0-7432-1646-6

Many of us are aware of important cultural differences between East and West, whether through personal experience or through reading. What makes Nisbett’s compact (230 pages) work important and interesting is his examination of the origins of these differences in the economics, philosophy and social practices of Eastern and Western civilizations. At the same time, as a psychologist, he describes numerous impressive experiments conducted by his American as well as his Chinese, Korean and Japanese colleagues, for the most part with college students East and West, which confirm and illustrate different patterns of perception and thought.

Many of us have relationships with East Asian colleagues who have lived in the West or worked in Western organisations for a number of years. The author reports studies on the impact of years of experience of Western social, educational and organisational practice on individuals of Eastern origin, and identifies where changes do and do not take place in habits of thought and perception. Nisbett’s book seeks (successfully) to deepen understanding rather than to provide ‘new knowledge’.

Cultures and Organisation – Software of the Mind: Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival,
Geert Hofstede. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0 07 029307 4

Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding diversity in global business,
Fons Trompenaars. McGraw-Hill. ISBN 0 7863 1125 8

These two books are the ‘must-haves’ for understanding the dimensions of culture in nations and corporations, and how to use these in a positive way.

Talking from 9 to 5. Women and men at work: Language, sex and power,
Deborah Tannen. Virago. ISBN 1 86049 200 2

Anyone (male or female) who does not understand the differences between male and female communication needs to read this book. Written by the best-selling author of ‘You Just Don’t Understand’ this book deals with the conversational style of men and women in the workplace, and how the differences can lead to major misunderstanding

 


 

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS

Overtuigen op het Werk: ruimte nemen, geven, delen
Erik Boers + Nico Swaan. Academic Service, Den Haag, 2011. ISBN 978 90 5261 849 4

Learning Consortium partners Erik and Nico have finally completed a book based on the background and theory underlying “Focus on Influence”. At the moment the book has only been published in Dutch, but the authors are determined that an English-language version will follow as soon as possible.

In the book they describe and illustrate the 3-dimensional behavioural model, and devote chapters to the four levels of communication as well as the intricacies of non-verbal communication: all familiar material for former programme participants, and therefore excellent as a solid review. In addition, the first chapter examines the necessity of ‘talking’, of being heard by and listening to others in the work environment. Also new is an extensive chapter on Trust: what it is, how it can be created and how it can be restored if damaged. Erik and Nico argue that trust is an absolutely essential cornerstone of any strong working relationship and, indeed, any possibility of influencing others effectively.

To order this book from managementboek.nl, click here 

Getting Results Without Authority: The new rules of organisational influence
Geof Cox. BookShaker, 2010. ISBN 978 1 907498 30 5

The latest book by Learning Consortium member Geof Cox, this book is aimed at anyone working in situations where their success depends on the outputs and co-operation of people over whom they have no direct authority – those working in project or matrix structures, contracted or outsourced operations. This book will help you to develop approaches to get what you want whilst simultaneously building, or at least maintaining, a positive working relationship.

To read some reviews or to order this book at a special web price of £10.00 including p&p in Europe, click here

 

Conversation: A history of a Declining Art
Stephen Miller. Yale University Press, 2006. ISBN: 978-0-300-12365-4.
Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives
Theodore Zeldin, HiddenSpring, 1998. ISBN: 1-58768-000-9

Two books on the art of conversation. Miller is pessimistic about the future of conversation in the modern world. Though published in 2006, when current social media, smartphones, iPods, iPads and all manner of what he calls “conversation avoidance devices” were still in their infancy, he sees individuals increasingly wrapped into their own personal worlds. .

Zeldin’s book is very concise, being based on a series of six radio broadcasts prepared for the BBC, and was conceived before the advent of modern “conversation avoidance devices.” But it is an eloquent plea for engaging in conversation, in love, within the family, at work and indeed across the cultures and religions, which increasingly appear to divide our world.

Read more about these two books in a review by Nico Swaan

Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious

Timothy D. Wilson. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2002. ISBN 0-674-01382-4

Who has not at some point done something so stupid that it left you wondering, “Whatever got into me? I don’t know what I could have been thinking!” If we push ourselves we may come up with an ‘explanation’ which is, however, really no more than a rationalization: “I must have been tired,” or “I haven’t been myself lately,” or “The weather must be getting me down.”

Psychologists and psychotherapists have long urged that we seek greater self-knowledge by introspection or reflection. Timothy Wilson argues convincingly and engagingly that we will never, indeed can never, know why we do everything we do.  Read more…

Discussing the Undiscussable: A Guide to Overcoming Defensive Routines in the Workplace
William R. Noonan, Jossey-Bass. 2007. ISBN 978-0-7879-8632

Few individuals are able to deny that they have witnessed or indeed been party to highly unproductive discussions. When personally caught up in such situations, it is difficult to avoid the feeling that the other person is being unreasonable, is working from some form of personal agenda or is simply wrong.

Bill Noonan has written an extremely readable book intended to help individuals avoid getting caught up in a cycle of ‘defensive routines’: unproductive yet often highly predictable patterns of behaviour which can and often do damage personal relationships or the relationships between teams and entire departments within organisations. Read more…

Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Compassion,
Marshall B. Rosenberg. PuddleDancer Press, 2000. ISBN: 1-892005-02-6
This is a book we wish we had written ourselves! Its emphasis on identifying and expressing feelings, on listening empathically and on the direct and honest communication of our wishes and needs fits seamlessly into the approach which lies at the heart of Focus on Influence.
NL: Geweldloze Communicatie, Rosenberg. Lemniscaat, 1999. ISBN: 90 5637 121 5

The Tao of Coaching,
Max Landsberg. Harper Collins Business, 1997. ISBN: 0-00-838811-6

This brief and highly readable little book (two or three hours should be plenty to get through it) nevertheless highlights all the basic coaching skills required of modern managers. Highly recommended!
NL: De Tao van het Coachen, Landsberg. Academic Service, 1998. ISBN: 90 5261 255 2

Getting Past No: Negotiating your way from confrontation to cooperation,
William Ury. Bantam Books, 1993. ISBN: 0-533-37131-2

This is a book we like to give participants during a negotiation skills workshop. The conceptual framework works so well with the influence model on which Focus on Influence is based. Readable, enlightening and practical.
NL: Onderhandelen met Lastige Mensen, Ury. Contact, 1993. ISBN: 90 254 0159 7

Getting to yes: negotiating agreement without giving in,
Roger Fisher. ISBN 0-395-31757-6 (1981)

Principled negotiation offers an approach to achieving a successful agreement in which the parties gain that to which they have a legitimate claim without needing to get nasty. The book shows how it is possible to remain reasonable, and how to cope with those who think their objectives best served by ‘dirty tricks’ and hard-nosed tactics. ‘Getting to Yes’ is a highly readable and practical primer on the fundamentals of negotiation and conflict resolution.
NL: Excellent onderhandelen, Fisher. ISBN 90-204-1650-2 (1983)

Pragmatics of human communications,
Paul Watzlawick et al. ISBN 0-3930-1009-0 (1967)

A classic study into the effects of interpersonal communication on behaviour. Watzlawick and his co-authors shed new light on fundamental characteristics of communication. They examine interaction patterns, paradoxical communication and double-bind situations.

NL: De pragmatische aspecten van de menselijke communicatie, Watzlawick. ISBN 90-6001-218-6 (1970)

 


 

LEADERSHIP

Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders, 
John Baldoni, McGraw-Hill, 2003. ISBN 0-07-141496-7

Great Motivation Secrets of Great Leaders,
John Baldoni, McGraw-Hill, 2005. ISBN 0-07-144774-1

Two books by American leadership expert John Baldoni confirm the old adage “never judge a book by its cover”. The titles suggest a collection of eulogies to the ability of great names or their spin doctors. Far from doing this, what Baldoni does is to set out the basic concepts of success, and then illustrate how these ideas have been put into practice by leaders who clearly ‘walk the talk’. A useful and accessible approach, allowing the reader to apply the principles without being overawed or turned off by the example.
For a fuller review by Geof Cox published in TJ magazine, click here

The seven habits of highly effective people, 
Stephen R. Covey. ISBN 0-671-66398-4 (1989)

Leadership has nothing to do with ‘position’, but is based on the inner strengths of an individual. The leader of the future has en eye for issues such as justice, integrity, human dignity, service and quality.
NL: De zeven eigenschappen van effectief leiderschap, Covey. ISBN 90-01-7863-X (1993)

Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership,
Joseph Jaworski. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 1998. ISBN: 1-57675-031-0

We know of no one whom this book has left unmoved. It is a very personal account of a process of inner transformation while at the same time presenting an inspiring vision of ‘servant leadership.’
NL: Synchroniciteit: De innerlijke weg naar leiderschap, Jaworski. Indigo, 2000: ISBN: 90 6038 462 8

Imaginazation: new mind sets for seeing, organizing, and managing,
Gareth Morgan. ISBN 0-7619-1269-X (pbk) (1997)

‘Imaginazation’ is a way of thinking and organizing. It is a key managerial skill that will help you understand and develop your own creative potential, and find innovative solutions to difficult problems. It answers the call for more creative forms of organization and management and shows how we can find new roles in a changing, uncertain world.

Action learning: a practical guide,
Krystyna Weinstein. ISBN 0-566-08097-4 (1998)

If you want to understand the benefits of being part of an AL program, or would like to set one up but need to know more, then this popular guide is an ideal place to start.

Leadership and the New Science,
Margaret J. Wheatley. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 1992. ISBN: 1-881052-44-3

We work in a number of high-tech organizations; in this book the worlds of the ‘new science’ on which so much progress in the hi-tech world is based, and organisation and management theory meet. Margaret Wheatley shows how the new science provides powerful insights for transforming how we organize work, people, and life. Written in an inviting style for a general readership, this pioneering book offers new light on issues that trouble people in organizations most: order and change, autonomy and control, structure and flexibility, planning and innovation. ‘Inspiration and guidance to begin your own journey of discovery in using new science ideas to forever change your understanding of leadership, organizations, and life.’ [quoted from back cover]

The Tao of Leadership: Lao Tzu’s Tao Te Ching adapted for a new age,
John Heider. Humanics New Age. ISBN 0 7863 1125 8

‘John Heider’s Tao of Leadership provides the simplest and clearest advice on how to be the very best kind of leader: be faithful, trust the process, pay attention and inspire other persons to become their own leaders. Its application is universal – for politicians, teachers, parents, clergy, business persons, all of us.’ (Quote from the book cover)

The Leadership Mystique.
Manfred Kets de Vries. Pearson Education Limited, 2001. ISBN 0 273 65620 1

The author uses his psychoanalytical background to probe the many layers of complexity that underlie effective leadership, and his experience as a management guru and consultant to formulate concrete lessons for practicing and would-be leaders.

Leadership now requires very different behaviour from the leadership tradition we are used to. It requires leaders who speak to the collective imagination of their people; leaders who are able to motivate people to full commitment. It’s all about human behaviour. It’s about understanding the way people and organizations behave, about creating relationships, about building commitment, and about adapting behaviour to lead in a creative and motivating way.

Ready-Aim-Fire Problem Solving: A Strategic Approach to Innovative Decision Making,
Geof Cox. Oak Tree Press, Dublin, 2000. ISBN 1 86076 172 0

Written by a member of Learning Consortium, this easy-to-read book gives a simple and useful overview of Personality Types (Myers-Briggs), Team Roles (Belbin) and how the knowledge of these models helps teams to review and re-plan their approach to decision making, what makes people and teams ‘tick’, and how to put all this knowledge into action. Walt Hopkins: ‘The best thing about this book is that once you have discovered your strengths within the Ready-Aim-Fire sequence – and thus discovered your weaknesses – Geof gives you specific techniques to fill in those gaps.’

For furher information and to order this book by Learning Consortium member Geof Cox click here

 


 

MIND

The Brain Book,
Peter Russell. Routledge & Kegan Paul. ISBN 0 415 03455 8

In all the learning we go through, the brain is involved in a non-refutable way! This book gives lots of background, tips, and general information on how the brain works and how we can use that knowledge to understand and use the brain better. There are also lots of examples of mind-maps and other well-known tools. A must for people who want to know ‘themselves’ better.

 


 

ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT

Free Space: Philosophy in Organisations
Jos Kessels, Erik Boers & Peter Mostert. Boom-Amsterdam, 2004. ISBN 90-8506-047-8

In ancient Greece ‘philosophy’ played an integral and guiding role in the counsels and deliberations of politicians and business people. The authors, including Learning Consortium’s Erik Boers, have taken philosophy out of the academic setting in which it is usually found nowadays.

Drawing on their many years of experience as consultants and trainers, introducing the rigours of philosophical practice into board rooms and management teams, they have written a practical essay on the modern application of the original ‘liberal arts’: dialectics, the art or skill of conducting dialogue; rhetoric, the art of persuasion; and grammar, the art of crafting written messages to achieve maximum impact.

The book is practical in tone, and it invites – and challenges – the modern reader to think anew, and to think differently, about how he conducts himself. A final chapter (“Tools and Tips”) provides accessible and useful exercises designed to enhance the quality of thinking and communicating in the organisational setting.
NL: Vrije Ruimte: Filosoferen in Organisaties. Boom, 2002. ISBN 90-5352-827-X

For furher information and to order this book by Learning Consortium member Erik Boers click here

On Organizational Learning
Chris Argyris. ISBN 0-6312-1309-0 (1992)

Through our own behaviour when in conversation with others (and because of our underlying assumptions) we shut out or miss relevant data, make achieving commitment more difficult and generate distrust during the implementation of decisions. This is a very concise summary of that which Chris Argyris describes in the many articles in this book. He looks at why it is that bright individuals in particular have such a difficult time learning, and at how easily defensive behaviour in organisations is generated.
NL: Leren in en door organisaties, Chris Argyris, ISBN 90-5594-008-9 (1996)

The collected papers of Roger Harrison,
Roger Harrison. ISBN 0-07-709090-x (1995)

Organizational development, the discipline, and Roger Harrison, the man, have been virtually synonymous for over 30 years. This book is a collection of his ground-breaking papers on role negotiation, organization culture, principles of intervention, self-directed learning and many other subjects.

Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change.
Patricia Shaw. Routledge, 2002. ISBN 0 415 24914 7

This book questions the way much thinking about organizational change suggests that we can choose and design new futures for our organizations in the way we often hope. The book encourages the reader to live with the immediate paradoxes and complexities of organizational life, where we must act with intention into the unknowable. It sets out to make sense of the experience of being in the midst of change. Shaw focuses on the essential uncertainty of participating in evolving events as they happen and enquires into the creative possibilities of such participation.

Deep Change,
Robert E. Quinn. Jossey-bass Inc. San Francisco, 1996.

This book is a story about excellence and leadership. It confronts us with deep change within ourselves as a source to understand organisational changes. It deals with the different phases in the change process and with the need for vision, risk taking and trust.

Robert tells us a very practical story with a lot of examples and case studies. Each chapter closes with a short questionnaire to check on your own understanding and attitude towards change and leadership.

The force of the book is that it is very personal and yet practical. It is rather easy to read and a good addition to the more instrumental books on organisational change.
NL: Diepgaande Verandering, Quinn. Academic Service, 1996. ISBN: 90 5261 2285

Performance Consulting: moving beyond training,
Dana Gaines Robinson. ISBN 1-881052-84-2 (1995)

Performance consulting is filled with proven tools on performance improvement. The Robinsons provide both a conceptual frame work and practical guidelines for success as a performance consultant.

Sensemaking in organizations,
Karl E. Weick. ISBN 0-8039-7176-1 (1995)

Sensemaking in organizations highlights how the ‘sensemaking’ process – the creation of reality as an ongoing accomplishment that takes form when people make retrospective sense of the situations in which they find themselves – shapes organizational structure and behavior

 


 

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Sex, Money, Happiness, and Death: The Quest for Authenticity
Manfred Kets de Vries, INSEAD Business Press/Palgrave MacMillan, 2009.  ISBN 978-0-230-57792-3

The author is long-time Professor of Leadership Development at INSEAD Business School near Paris, and a trained psychotherapist. He has written numerous books about leadership and organisational design/transformation as well as over 300 scientific papers. This book probably belongs in the psychology section of the bookshop, however. It addresses the personal and existential issues which lie beneath the business issues which CEO’s usually address, and which are no doubt familiar to a great many people outside the top levels of the corporate world.

During his encounters with executives from around the world Kets de Vries discovered, not surprisingly, that what they all had in common is that they were human beings. As such, once they finished discussing finances and organisational strategies, they were just as concerned as anyone else about the personal issues facing everyone…  Read more…

How The Way We Talk Can Change The Way We Work.
Robert Kegan and Lisa Laskow Lahey. Jossey-Bass, 2001. ISBN: 0-7879-6378-X

Underlying and informing the way we talk (to ourselves and others) is the way we think. The authors offer convincing evidence that the ways we think fundamentally block attempts to achieve lasting change in the way we talk with and relate to others.

Their basic thesis is that it is very difficult, indeed perhaps impossible, to sustain significant changes in behaviour without striving for significant changes in the underlying meanings that give rise to behaviour.

Building on the influential work of their esteemed Harvard colleague, Chris Argyris, the authors provide a practical, step-by-step approach uncovering our own meaning-making processes, thereby facilitating the achievement of real and enduring learning and change.

The authors invite the reader to rethink the language they use, offering seven alternative languages which make it more likely that conversations will be open and productive. They describe shifts:

  1. from the language of complaint to the language of commitment;
  2. from the language of blame to the language of personal responsibility;
  3. from the language of New Years resolutions to the language of competing commitment;
  4. from the language of Big assumption that hold us to the language of assumptions we hold ourselves;
  5. from the language of prizes and praising to the language of ongoing reward;
  6. from the language of rules and politics to the language of public agreement; and
  7. from the language of constructive criticism to the language of deconstructive criticism.

The book urges the reader’s active participation, and is written in an accessible style full of useful and specific examples.

What color is your parachute?,
Richard N. Bolles. ISBN 1-58008-541-5 (2004)

This practical self-help book, written for those in search of a new job or career, is also a useful guide and resource for any individual who can use structure and systematic approaches to facilitate looking at issues of life and career design.
NL: Welke kleur heeft jouw parachute, Bolles. ISBN 90-5712-02-X (1996)

When Nietzsche Wept,
Irvin D. Yalom. Harper Perennial, 1992. ISBN 0 06 097550 4

Sometimes we recommend a thought-provoking novel as a good place to start for individuals who are wrestling with their demons or trying to develop a (renewed) sense of direction in their lives. Friedrich Nietzsche, one of Europe’s greatest philosophers, and Josef Breuer, one of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis, are the main characters in an unforgettable saga of an imagined relationship between an extraordinary patient and a gifted healer. Each, in his own way, is ‘lost’; each helps the other to rediscover his destiny.
NL: Nietzsche’s Tranen