Tag: library resources

McKinsey on Books : Author talks (4)

Linda

Global management consultancy McKinsey and Company offers a regular online series called Author Talks in which they present interviews with authors of newly published business books.

Through these interviews readers are able to gain more insight into the author’s experiences and knowledge on their topics.

In today’s blog we continue our series of linking some of these interviews with the books available in the Wellington City Libraries collection.

To access the previous Author talks blog click here

The friction project : how smart leaders make the right things easier and the wrong things harder / Sutton, Robert I
“Every organization is plagued by destructive friction-the forces that make it harder, more complicated, or downright impossible to get anything done. Yet some forms of friction are incredibly useful, and leaders who attempt to improve workplace efficiency often make things even worse. Drawing from seven years of hands-on research, The Friction Project by bestselling authors Robert I. Sutton and Huggy Rao teaches readers how to become “friction fixers,” so that teams and organizations don’t squander the zeal, damage the health, and throttle the creativity and productivity of good people-or burn through cash and other precious resources. “– Provided by publisher.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Author Talks: Got friction? Stanford’s Robert I. Sutton shares what you can do about it
Are you making the right things effortless and the wrong things hard? To remove friction in your organization, you may want to start thinking like a friction fixer.

Big bets : how large-scale change really happens / Shah, Rajiv Janardan
“Rajiv J. Shah, president of the Rockefeller Foundation and former administrator of President Barack Obama’s United States Agency for International Development, shares a dynamic new model for creating large scale change, inspired by his own involvements with some of the largest humanitarian projects of our time”– Provided by publisher.” (Catalogue) 

Author Talks: Why big gambles can lead to even bigger payoffs
Dr. Rajiv J. Shah explains why building a global community is key to unlocking solutions to the world’s greatest problems.

The battle for your brain : defending the right to think freely in the age of neurotechnology / Farahany, Nita A.
“A rock star academic explores the final frontier of personal privacy: your mind. Imagine a world where your brain can be interrogated to learn your political beliefs, thought crimes are punishable by law, and your own feelings can be used against you. Where perfumers create customized fragrances to perfectly suit your emotions, and social media titans bypass your conscious mind to hook you to their products. A world where people who suffer from epilepsy receive alerts moments before a seizure, and the average person can peer into their own mind to eliminate painful memories or cure addictions. Neuroscience has already made all of the above possible today, and neurotechnology will soon become the “universal controller” for all of our interactions with technology. This can benefit humanity immensely, but without safeguards, it can severely threaten our fundamental human rights to privacy, freedom of thought, and self-determination… The Battle for Your Brain dives deeply into the promises and perils of the coming dawn of brain access and alteration. Written by one of the world’s foremost experts on neuroscience as it intersects with law and ethics, this highly original book offers a pathway forward to navigate the complex ethical dilemmas that neurotechnology presents, which will fundamentally impact our freedom to understand, shape, and define ourselves”– Provided by publisher.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Author Talks: Can you use your ‘brainpower’ to defend cognitive liberty?
Duke professor Nita Farahany examines the promise and perils of neurotechnology developments and their impact on the last bastion of freedom.

You are what you watch : how movies and TV affect everything / Hickey, Walt
“In You Are What You Watch, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and data expert Walt Hickey explains the power of entertainment to change our biology, our beliefs, how we see ourselves, and how nations gain power through entertainment. Virtually anyone who has ever watched a profound movie, a powerful TV show, or read a moving novel understands that entertainment can and does affect us in surprising and significant ways. But did you know that our most popular forms of entertainment can have a direct physical effect on us, a measurable impact on society, geopolitics, the economy, and even the future itself? In You Are What You Watch, Walter Hickey, Pulitzer Prize winner and former chief culture writer at acclaimed data site FiveThirtyEight.com, proves how exactly how what we watch (and read and listen to) has a far greater effect on us and the world at large than we imagine. Employing a mix of research, deep reporting, and 100 data visualizations, Hickey presents the true power of entertainment and culture… In You Are What You Watch, readers will be given a nerdy, and sobering, celebration of popular entertainment and its surprising power to change the world”– Provided by publisher.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Author Talks: Walt Hickey explains how what we watch influences what we do
You may be surprised at how much film and TV have shaped society. Pulitzer Prize winner and data expert Walt Hickey reveals why.

Warriors, rebels & saints : the art of leadership from Machiavelli to Malcolm X / Temkin, Moshik
“We live in a period of leadership in crisis. At home, we sense that unqualified and irresponsible individuals are being elevated to positions of power, while across the globe, strong men leaders consolidate their hold on governance. How have we arrived at this point? And how can we correct our course? For the past decade, Moshik Temkin has challenged his students at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government to grapple with the nature of leadership throughout history as part of his wildly popular course “On Leaders and Leadership.” Now, in Warriors, Rebels and Saints, Temkin refashions the classroom for a wider audience. Using art and literature to illustrate the drama of the past, Temkin considers how leaders have made decisions in the most difficult circumstances-from the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and the anticolonial wars of the 20th century to the civil rights movement and the horrors of the Vietnam War-and how we can evaluate those decisions and draw lessons for today”– Provided by publisher.” (Catalogue)

Author Talks: Moshik Temkin on power, purpose, and the public good
Today’s changing world calls for bold leadership. Moshik Temkin explores the traits of dynamic leaders in history and how they worked with power—or in opposition to it—to meet the moment.

The geek way : the radical mindset that drives extraordinary results / McAfee, Andrew
“We’re living in a time of amazing innovation, but we’re not paying enough attention to one of the most important of all: the innovation to the company itself. Now, bestselling author of The Second Machine Age, Andrew McAfee, explains how engineers and geeks are changing the world of business – with extraordinary results. A new model is being pioneered by geeks; a radical new mindset that has shifted the paradigm entirely on what a business can – and should – be. They do not follow the rules of the Industrial era, with their hierarchies and bureaucratic ways of thinking. They do not follow the principles preached in business schools since the dawn of time. They have all dedicated themselves to approaching business as a geek would: through trial and error, egalitarianism, evidence and stress-testing ideas in a group setting – rather than relying on the boss’s instincts. By investigating and surveying the contemporary research in psychology, economics and the behavioural sciences, as well as first-hand accounts from the ‘geek’ leaders of today, McAfee’s groundbreaking exploration of this emerging phenomenon gets to the heart of the tectonic shifts taking place all over the business world. (Adapted from Catalogue)  Also available in EBook Libby format

Author Talks: Andrew McAfee on how a ‘geek’ mindset can transform your business
Too often, business initiatives get mired in bureaucracy, overconfidence, and lack of ownership. Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Andrew McAfee explores reasons for the dysfunction—and how to fix it.

Read Write Own: Building the Next Era of the Internet / Dixon, Chris
“In Read Write Own, Dixon argues that blockchains have the potential to transform how we use the web. He reveals how they will liberate social networks from big tech, transform how we buy and sell online, and create a new age of ‘collaborative storytelling’ in the arts.” (Catalogue)

Author Talks: Chris Dixon on how to reshape the digital landscape
Tired of running into paywalls, walled-off spaces and the broken promise of an open internet? Hunch cofounder Chris Dixon shares why a return to the decentralized internet is key to protecting businesses and consumers.

If you need more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library.  We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources.  All enquiries are treated in confidence.

 

McKinsey on Books : Author talks (3)

Linda

Global management consultancy McKinsey and Company offers a regular online series called Author Talks in which they present interviews with authors of newly published business books.

Through these interviews readers are able to gain more insight into the author’s experiences and knowledge on their topics.

In today’s blog we continue our series of linking some of these interviews with the books available in the Wellington City Libraries collection.

Click on these links to access earlier blogs : Author talks (1) and Author talks (2)

The inclusive organization : real solutions, impactful change, and meaningful diversity / Jenkins, Netta
“DEI is an 8-billion dollar industry that is not yet accessing its full potential through real solutions and results. However, through a powerful formula of policies and practices that motivate employees to be more socially and self-aware, The Inclusive Organization provides a revolutionary yet practical resource for individuals at any stage of their career. Employees across all levels and organizations are looking to drive actionable impact, but unfortunately lack the knowledge and support in doing so. This book will help any organization improve their DEI initiatives and create the sustainable and scalable change employees want to see within their workplace. Readers will be able to utilize worksheet examples and toolkits out of this book to build their own customized DEI roadmap. The Inclusive Organization is a must-read for any workplace committed to real and lasting change.”– Provided by publisher.” (Catalogue)

Author Talks: Is there a seat at the table?
Aerodei CEO Netta Jenkins explains why shortfalls in inclusion efforts can impact your company’s bottom line, and what you can do to create a more inclusive workplace.

Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot / Abrahams, Matt
“Stanford lecturer and host of the #1 business podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart, Matt Abrahams, reveals the secrets to finding the right words when it counts. Communication is crucial to success in life and business. However, it is not just big speeches that matter: it is also those critical, spur-of-the-moment situations for which we cannot prepare.” (Catalogue)   Also available as Ebook Libby

 

Read more : Author Talks: How to speak confidently when you’re put on the spot
If you dread public speaking, small talk, or delivering feedback, you’re not alone. Matt Abrahams shares tips for mastering communication in spontaneous situations.

The case for good jobs : how great companies bring dignity, pay & meaning to everyone’s work / Ton, Zeynep
“Imagine you are a leader in a large company, and you volunteer at a local soup kitchen, helping the needy who can’t afford warm meals. On your way out, the director stops you and says, “I just need you to know that many of the people visiting our services are actually your employees.” This really happened. The leader was shocked. He assumed that because the company paid market rate, the company was doing right by its employees. But market rate isn’t a living wage. Market rate doesn’t make good jobs. Many leaders want to provide good jobs. They want to pay more, provide dignity and meaning in people’s work, and give them opportunities for growth. But they don’t know how to start, or they don’t think it can be done without hurting the bottom line. Most want to win with customers but are hobbled by a host of service and operational problems largely driven by high employee turnover–and that is partly driven by the low pay. It is indeed a vicious cycle, and Zeynep Ton is here to show the way out: why good jobs combined with strong operations always lead to good outcomes for the business. And why, more than ever in a post-pandemic world, failing to provide good jobs will catch up with you and threaten your business. Ton, the preeminent voice of the good jobs strategy, lays out plainly what most companies and leaders are doing wrong–and how to get it right. She shows that by choosing good jobs, companies are positioning themselves for future success. Practical, prescriptive, and often provocative, Leading with Good Jobs is essential reading for leaders of any company that wants to-needs to-choose excellence”– Provided by publisher.” (Catalogue)

Read more: Author Talks: Empower employees, reduce turnover
Zeynep Ton, professor at MIT Sloan, highlights an operating model that improves customer and employee retention, fosters resilience, and drives purpose.

Scaling people : tactics for management and company building / Johnson, Claire Hughes
“A leader at both Google and Stripe from their early days, Claire Hughes Johnson has worked with founders and company builders to try to replicate their success. The most common questions she’s asked are not about business strategy—they’re about how to scale the operating structures and people systems of a rapidly growing startup. Scaling People is a practical and empathetic guide to being an effective leader and manager in a high-growth environment. The tactical information it puts forward—including guidance on crafting foundational documents, strategic and financial planning, hiring and team development, and feedback and performance mechanisms—can be applied to companies of any size, in any industry. Scaling People includes dozens of pages of worksheets, templates, exercises, and example documents to help founders, leaders, and company builders create scalable operating systems and lightweight processes that really work. Implementing effective leadership and management practices takes effort and discipline, but the reward is a sustainable, scalable company that’s set up for long-term success. Scaling People is a detailed roadmap for company builders to put the right operating systems and structures in place to scale the most important resource a company has: its people.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

Read more: Author Talks: Scale your people, not just your company
A corporate officer explains the role that self-awareness and partnership play in driving performance.

Next! : the power of reinvention in life and work / Lipman, Joanne
“The profound disruptions of recent years have sparked a collective reckoning. We reprioritized our lives, and reordered how we envisioned the future. Businesses were forced to pivot, while leaders scrambled to rethink their roles. There has been an unprecedented global reset. But in truth, almost everyone goes through this kind of reappraisal at least once in their life—and probably more often than that. Whatever the catalyst, it prompts in us the urgent need to pivot, to ask the question: What’s next—and how do I get there? In Next!, bestselling author and journalist Joanne Lipman distills hundreds of personal interviews along with the latest scientific research to answer just this question. Through irresistible storytelling, she takes us inside successful career reinventions (ad executive to bestselling novelist; stay-at-home mom to CEO) and astonishing business transformations (wait until you hear what Play-Doh and Viagra have in common). From the laboratories of neuroscientists to the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies, to the frontlines of the social justice movement, Lipman explores how and why these transformations succeed. At its heart, Next! offers a thrilling argument: by harnessing the science and understanding the process, we can better understand how to reinvent that new career, change the direction of our lives, or inspire innovation in our organizations. This book provides a toolkit that shows how to make meaningful transitions—large or small—and to figure out for ourselves what’s Next!” (Catalogue)
Available as EBook Libby and EAudiobook Libby

Read more: Author Talks: Create your ‘reinvention road map’ in four easy steps
In her latest book, Joanne Lipman dispels the myth of abrupt transformations and outlines a concrete path to reinvention.

The Art of Explanation: How To Communicate With Clarity And Confidence / Atkins, Ros
“Whether at work, school, university or home, we all benefit from being able to articulate ourselves clearly. Filled with practical examples, The Art of Explanation is a must-read for anyone who wants to sharpen their communication skills.” (Catalogue)

 

Read more:  Author Talks: Am I making myself clear?
Feeling misunderstood? A BBC journalist shares the communication blunders that keep you from getting your point across and what you can do to avoid them.

If you would like further information please contact the Prosearch team at the library. We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources. All enquiries are treated in confidence.

 

Becoming a more effective leader at work

Linda

via GIPHY

A headline in an email newsletter caught my eye recently :

These Books Can Help You Become a More Effective Leader at Work
Congrats on the promotion. Now it’s time to face everything you don’t know (yet).

The article then lists what it calls The best books on leadership recommending a list of eight titles to help readers get to grips with being a manager and leader.

Some months back we produced a blog piece called Stepping up : a guide for the new manager that provided a compilation of some of the many library resources we have to support your transition into a new, senior, role.

We can’t list everything the library holds relevant to a blog topic so this blog supplements the first.   All the recommended items on the list are to be found in the Wellington City Libraries collections. 

Whether you are new to a leadership role or struggling with making progress in a role you have been in for a while here’s the listing as outlined in the article and links to each item in the collection. 

Read on …

The making of a manager : what to do when everyone looks to you / Zhuo, Julie
“Leading a team for the first time is a daunting endeavour. When Julie Zhuo became a new manager at the age of twenty-five, she stared at a long list of logistics and faced a thousand questions and uncertainties. Now, having managed teams spanning tens to hundreds of people, Julie knows the most important lesson of all: great managers are made, not born. This guide is packed with everyday examples and insights that will help readers get the respect and results needed in managerial roles.” (Catalogue) 

Surrounded by idiots : the four types of human behavior and how to effectively communicate with each in business (and in life) / Erikson, Thomas
“Erikson explains that there are four key behavior types that define how we interact with and perceive the people around us. Reds are dominant and commanding, Yellows are social and optimistic, Greens are laid back and friendly, and Blues are analytical and precise. Understanding someone’s pattern of behavior is the key to successful communication. Erikson provides practical advice for interacting with people based on their color profiles. — adapted from jacket” (Catalogue)  Also available as EAudiobook Libby and as EBook Libby

How to lead when you’re not in charge : leveraging influence when you lack authority / Scroggins, Clay
In How to Lead When You’re Not in Charge, author and pastor Clay Scroggins explains what is needed to be a great leader—even when you answer to someone else. Drawing from biblical principles and his experience as a megachurch pastor, Clay will help you nurture your vision and cultivate influence, even when you lack authority in your organization. Every leader, young or old, resonates with the dead-end feeling of not being in charge. Too often the lack of authority paralyzes leaders, leaving them believing they must wait to be in charge until they can lead. One of the greatest myths of leadership is that you must be in charge in order to lead. Great leaders don’t buy it. Great leaders lead with or without the authority to lead. Because every road of leadership forks at the intersection of authority and influence, learning to cultivate influence without authority is foundational to navigating culture today.” (Catalogue) Note only available through EAudiobook Libby.

Dare to lead : brave work, tough conversations, whole hearts / Brown, Brené
“Leadership is not about titles, status, and wielding power. A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for recognizing the potential in people and ideas, and has the courage to develop that potential. When we dare to lead, we don’t pretend to have the right answers. We stay curious and ask the right questions. We don’t see power as finite and hoard it. We know that power becomes infinite when we share it with others. We don’t avoid difficult conversations and situations. We lean into vulnerability when it’s necessary to do good work. But daring leadership in a culture defined by scarcity, fear, and uncertainty requires skill-building around traits that are deeply and uniquely human. The irony is that we’re choosing not to invest in developing the hearts and minds of leaders at the exact same time as we’re scrambling to figure out what we have to offer that machines and artificial intelligence can’t do better and faster. What can we do better? Empathy, connection, and courage, to start. Brené Brown has spent the past two decades studying the emotions and experiences that give meaning to our lives, and the past seven years working with transformative leaders and teams spanning the globe. She found that leaders in organizations ranging from small entrepreneurial startups and family-owned businesses to nonprofits, civic organizations, and Fortune 50 companies all ask the same question: How do you cultivate braver, more daring leaders, and how do you embed the value of courage in your culture?” (Catalogue)  Also available as EBook Libby and EAudiobook Libby

Do the work! : overcome resistance and get out of your own way / Pressfield, Steven
Could you be getting in your way of producing great work? Have you started a project but never finished? Would you like to do work that matters, but don’t know where to start? The answer is Do the Work, a manifesto by bestselling author Steven Pressfield, that will show you that it’s not about better ideas, it’s about actually doing the work. Do the Work is a weapon against Resistance–a tool that will help you take action and successfully ship projects out the door. Picking up where The War of Art and Turning Pro left off, Do the Work takes the reader from the start to the finish of any long-form project–novel, screenplay, album, software piece, you name it. Do the Work identifies the predictable Resistance Points along the way and walks you through each of them.  No, you are not crazy. No, you are not alone. No, you are not the first person to “hit the wall” in Act Two. Do the Work charts the territory. It’s the stage-by-stage road map for taking your project from Page One to THE END.” (Catalogue)

Think again : the power of knowing what you don’t know / Grant, Adam M.
Intelligence is usually seen as the ability to think and learn, but in a rapidly changing world, the most crucial skill may be the ability to rethink and unlearn. Recent global and political changes have forced many of us to re-evaluate our opinions and decisions. Yet we often still favour the comfort of conviction over the discomfort of doubt, and prefer opinions that make us feel good, instead of ideas that make us think hard. Intelligence is no cure, and can even be a curse. The brighter we are, the blinder we can become to our own limitations. Adam Grant offers bold ideas and rigorous evidence to show how we can embrace the joy of being wrong, encourage others to rethink topics as wide-ranging as abortion and climate change, and build schools, workplaces, and communities of lifelong learners. You’ll learn how an international debate champion wins arguments, a Black musician persuades white supremacists to abandon hate, and how a vaccine whisperer convinces anti-vaxxers to immunize their children. Think Again is an invitation to let go of stale opinions and prize mental flexibility, humility, and curiosity over foolish consistency. If knowledge is power, knowing what you don’t know is wisdom.” (Adapted from Catalogue) Available as EAudiobook Borrowbox and also EBook Libby

Great at work : how top performers do less, work better, and achieve more / Hansen, Morten T
“Why do some people perform better at work than others? This deceptively simple question continues to confound professionals in all sectors of the workforce. Now, after a unique, five-year study of more than 5,000 managers and employees, Morten Hansen reveals the answers in his “Seven Work Smarter Practices” that can be applied by anyone looking to maximize their time and performance. Each of Hansen’s seven practices is highlighted by inspiring stories from individuals in his comprehensive study… Each chapter contains questions and key insights to allow you to assess your own performance and figure out your work strengths, as well as your weaknesses. Once you understand your individual style, there are mini-quizzes, questionnaires, and clear tips to assist you focus on a strategy to become a more productive worker. Extensive, accessible, and friendly, Great at Work will help you achieve more by working less, backed by unprecedented statistical analysis” — From Amazon.” (Adapted from Catalogue)

What got you here won’t get you there : how successful people become even more successful / Goldsmith, Marshall
“What’s holding you back? Your hard work is paying off, you are doing well–but there is something standing between you and the next level of achievement. Perhaps one small flaw–a behavior you barely even recognize–is the only thing that’s keeping you from where you want to be. Here, executive coach Goldsmith discusses not only the key beliefs of successful leaders, but also the behaviors that hold them back. He addresses the fundamental problems that often come with success, and offers ways to attack them. He outlines twenty habits commonly found in the corporate environment and provides a systematic approach to helping you achieve a positive change in behavior.–From publisher description.” (Catalogue)

If you need more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library.  We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources.  All enquiries are treated in confidence.

 

Accessing the Harvard Business Review

Linda

The Harvard Business Review (HBR) has long been a popular business magazine.

Wellington City Libraries offers HBR in both hard copy (magazine) format and online via our databases.

In this blog we will show you how to access both.  All you need is a current Wellington City Libraries registration.

HBR as a hard copy magazine

Magazines (published bi-monthly) are held at the Te Awe Brandon Street branch of Wellington City Libraries and displayed with the magazines on the ground floor.

 

Only copies for the current year are held in the library but the last ten years of magazines are held in our storage facililty.  To request an older issue not held at Te Awe all you need to do is bring up the record for the HBR record on the catalogue and then click on the red [Place Reserve] button. Log in using your library card number and password, then click which issues you would like to see.  

 

Click on the issues you would like to see and select the branch most convenient for you to pick up from.  Submit your request and your chosen items will then be dispatched.  An email will be sent to tell you when they have arrived (usually within 48 hours).  There is no charge for this service but a 50c charge for each magazine borrowed and the loan period is for a week.  

HBR online

The Harvard Business Review is available fulltext online via Business Source Premier.

Business Source Premier is a business research database offering information in nearly every area of business including management, economics, finance, accounting and international business.

It can be accessed here.

Sign in with your library card number and pin.  You will then see a page that looks like :


 

You can then proceed to search in several different ways.

1.  Along the top menu is an option for Publications.  This provides a full list of all the publications indexed in this database.  Enter Harvard Business Review into the search box and you will get a screen that looks like : 


 

Select the Harvard Business Review option and you will then be taken to a screen that breaks down the entries into years.  Make your selection for a particular issue from the listing on the right hand side.

 

A full listing of all the articles will appear with the option to open as HTML full text (plain) or pdf (as it appears in the magazine).  You can also select and email articles to yourself.

 

2.  The second way to search is if you know a title of an article or are looking for works by a particular author.

Return to the first search screen.

If you are looking for HBR articles on burnout, for example, enter burnout into the first box and select “Title” from the dropdown menu.  In the second box enter “Harvard Business Review” and then select Source from the drop down menu.  This will then give you a list of article published in the HBR with burnout in the title.  You can use other features on this screen to narrow or expand your search.


 

 

From here you can either read selected article from the list or add them to a folder to email to yourself.

 

You can also keep up to date with new content at Harvard Business Review – Ideas and Advice for Leaders (hbr.org)  

The HBR site offers a range of newsletters that can be freely subscribed to.  This will draw attention to new content.  Social media options are also available.

If you would like further information please contact the Prosearch team at the library. We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources. All enquiries are treated in confidence.

 

Time Management

Linda
Image of a clock held in a person's hand

A couple of weeks ago Radio NZ’s Sunday featured an interview with Oliver Burkeman, author of the newly published, and obviously very popular, Four thousand weeks : time management for mortals. 

Across the library network there are multiple hard copies of this title, plus e-book and audio-book copies.  However there is also a wait list of more than 80 for hard copies.

So let’s consider some alternatives by Burkeman and also on time management.

The antidote : happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking / Burkeman, Oliver
“In an approach that turns decades of self-help advice on its head, Oliver Burkeman explains why positive thinking serves only to make us more miserable, and why ‘getting motivated’ can exacerbate procrastination. And it’s our constant efforts to eliminate the negative that cause us to feel so anxious, insecure and unhappy.” (Catalogue)
Available also as an e-book  

Also available in e-book format is:
Help! how to be slightly happier, slightly more successful and get a bit more done / Burkeman, Oliver
“How do you solve the problem of human happiness? It’s a subject that has occupied some of the greatest philosophers of all time, from Aristotle to Paul McKenna but how do we sort the good ideas from the terrible ones? Over the past few years, Oliver Burkeman has travelled to some of the strangest outposts of the ‘happiness industry’ in an attempt to find out. In Help!, the first collection of his popular Guardian columns, Burkeman resents his findings. It’s a witty and thought-provoking exploration that punctures many of self-help’s most common myths, while also offering clear-headed, practical and of ten counter-intuitive advice on a range of topics from stress, procrastination and insomnia to wealth, laughter, time management and creativity. It doesn’t claim to have solved the problem of human happiness. But it might just bring us one step closer.” (Catalogue)

In audio-book format you can access : 

The power of negative thinking : and how it can be a powerful route to joy, success and satisfaction / Burkeman, Oliver
“Oliver Burkeman explores the virtues of negativity and shows how it can be a surprisingly powerful route to joy, success and satisfaction” (Catalogue)

Why are we so angry? / Burkeman, Oliver
“Why is everyone so angry nowadays, and what is it doing to the world? In the developed world we live in a blessed epoch, a time and a place where life has never been better. Infant mortality has been all but abolished, we have greater personal choice than ever before, we have access to technology that would have been seen as the stuff of science fiction little more than a decade ago. We are safer and wealthier than at any time in human history. So why are we so damn angry about everything? Online, in the street, in the ballot box, anger is the most dominant public emotion of our age. So what are we so angry about, and how is our anger shaping our world? We know the issues that people seem to be angry about – the iniquities of globalisation, diversity, democratic disconnect – but why has anger become our default emotion when responding to the state of the world – and what is anger doing to the world we live in?” (Catalogue)

There’s a wide range of time management material across different formats.

Some of the more recent additions to the library collection are : 

Time : your journey to a slower, richer, more fulfilling way of life / Rowan, Tiddy
“Time is the one thing that is shared by all of humanity, irrespective of wealth, health, race or credo and one of the things that makes us individual is how we choose to spend it. It is one of the commodities over which we have most control, yet it is the asset we value the least. Isn’t it time we took control over how we spend it, while we still can? Time will reward readers of lifestyle quests who seek a better, richer, slower, more fulfilling way of life. For anyone who has ever pondered the paradoxes of time and who is interested in looking at their world from a fresh perspective. Whether you want the encouragement to take time out on a life-scale or simply adjust your life to accommodate a timetable that suits you, this book will have plenty of inspiration, suggestions and tips to help you get the most out of your time.” (Catalogue)

Grip : the art of working smart (and getting to what matters most) / Pastoor, Rick
“We’re all familiar with the signs that things are getting out of hand. The week has barely started and already you’re playing catch-up. At the end of another busy day, your to-do list is longer than it was that morning, your inbox overflowing with other people’s asks. At times like those, no matter how hard we work, it can feel like we’re spinning our wheels. Enter GRIP: The Art of Working Smart, by Dutch entrepreneur and bestselling author Rick Pastoor. GRIP is a fresh and forgiving guide that helps you get things done and free up time for what’s important to you. In the space of one year, Rick went from being a 25-year-old engineering hire to leading a team of 30 at Blendle, the New York Times-backed journalism startup. It was clear he needed a new way of working. And fast. So, Rick started experimenting. He’d keep what worked, ditch what didn’t, and share with coworkers what he learned along the way. The result is GRIP: a flexible collection of tools and insights that helped the team do their best work. Now it can do the same for you. An overnight sensation in Holland, this bestseller has helped thousands find clarity amid the chaos of our demanding times. Now available in English, for everyone who’s looking to reclaim their sanity and add direction to even the most hectic days and week Rick’s friendly, no-nonsense approach makes it easy to dive in. The book’s pick-and-choose structure, complete with cheat sheets for each section, means you can start applying what you need straightaway.” (Catalogue)

 

I didn’t do the thing today / Dore, Madeleine
“Explores the concept of productivity guilt, which includes comparison to others, striving for perfection, and too great expectations, and explains instead how to find value in each day, rather than dwell on what the individual did or didn’t complete.” (Catalogue)

 

Value : what money can’t buy : a handbook for practical hedonism / Bayley, Stephen
“Since the industrial revolution, when everything ran by clockwork, people have understood how important it is to live in the moment. But over time our world has grown increasingly busy, and we’ve lost our ability to truly savour each unique experience and the simple pleasures the world has to offer. Cultural commentator and critic Stephen Bayley seeks to explain what real value is: it’s about taking the time and making the effort to appreciate things, of understanding the permanent charm of modest daily rituals performed with care and feeling. Of caring about appearances and meaning. Of being bold in matters of taste. Of fully understanding the source of lasting pleasure. Of making every encounter with an object or person meaningful. Value is an elegiac account of what’s recently been lost in the digital apocalypse. But also an enthusiastic anticipation of what we can regain in a post-viral, more analogue and more thoughtful world.” (Catalogue)

If you need more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library.  We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources.  All enquiries are treated in confidence.

Want access to NZ wide (and international) newspapers?

Linda



WCL’s PressReader database provides same day access to full-page replicas of newspapers & magazines from NZ and around the world in 60+ languages.

How do I access PressReader?

To read PressReader newspapers, you will need your library barcode number and your PIN.

In the browser:

  1. Open your browser and visit the PressReader website
  2. You’ll need to log in with your library card details so it can create your PressReader account:
    1. Click ‘Sign in’ in the top right-hand corner
    2. Click on the ‘Library and Group’ button
    3. In the ‘Select Library’ box that pops up, search for ‘Wellington City Libraries’ > Click on our Library logo to select this as your library
    4. Enter your Library card number, and your ‘PIN’, and click the ‘Sign in’ button
    5. When prompted to set up an account, enter your details so that you can save favourite newspapers and magazines. Alternatively you can choose “No Thanks” and not set up an account.

If you need more information please contact the Prosearch team at the library.  We can help you find information across a range of perspectives and resources.  All enquiries are treated in confidence