Weekend Reading: July 2017

Weekend Reading: July 2017

It’s Friday! We’ve scoured the web for thought-provoking articles and essays for you to enjoy (and discuss!) over the weekend.

In the Harvard Business Review, novelist and advisor to technology entrepreneurs and investors Eliot Peper argues that business leaders should be reading science fiction and shows us why “companies like Google, Microsoft and Apple have brought in science fiction writers as consultants.” What makes a genre that we so often associate with futuristic worlds or spaceships so useful to someone in the C-suite?

“Exploring fictional futures frees our thinking from false constraints. It challenges us to wonder whether we’re even asking the right questions. It forces us to recognize that sometimes imagination is more important than analysis. So consider leaving the latest white papers, industry rundowns, and management hot takes at the office. For your summer reading, pick up a paperback in the Sci-Fi section.”

For more on science fiction in the workplace, read Professor Robin Zebrowski’s thoughtful interview on exploring the genre with a Books@Work group of engineers.

Elsewhere on the Internet:

Take a virtual tour through The Parthenon of Books, artist Marta Minujín’s brilliant new installation in Kassel, Germany built near the spot where Nazis burned more than 2,000 books in 1933.

The Harvard Business Review looks at new research on the stigma of discussing racial bias in the workplace and the feelings of alienation it causes for black, Hispanic and Asian workers.

Marcel Schwantes in Inc. reminds us that great leaders need great people skills – and that leadership means acknowledging and appreciating what makes an employee human.

Writer Matthew Zapruder defends poetry against its reputation for being difficult, reminding us that a poem is often just a simple celebration of language.

Ashley Stahl writes for Forbes on the importance of nurturing employees’ mental health, especially when 1 in 3 workers feel chronically stressed on the job.

The American Medical Association explores a recent study on patient safety threats and psychological safety. The conclusion? That “even in instances where a patient safety threat was observed, respondents were much less likely to speak up if the offender was an attending physician rather than a fellow resident.”

Image: Giacomo Balla, Science Against Obscurantism, 1920, [Public Domain] via WikiArt.org

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Maredith Sheridan

Maredith Sheridan

Maredith Sheridan is a Development Communications Associate at the Cleveland Orchestra and a part-time member of the Books@Work team. She continues to write posts for our blog.