Reading is a big deal

Reading is a big deal

I learned at a young age that reading was important. From Green Eggs and Ham and Sergeant Fury and His Howling Commandos to Tarzan of the Apes and the Foundation trilogy, I read as much as I could as often as I could. Along the way, I also learned that all that reading made me a better writer, a deeper thinker, and a more polished speaker. All good by-products of a lifelong passion for reading.

I like to consider myself an avid professional reader, and surround myself with a wide variety of books. It’s impossible to step into my office and not notice the books, which I freely share with others. The inevitable question? “What do you recommend?” That list could be long, but it’s not. In fact, it’s surprisingly short. Ten books. Ten books that will spark curiosity. Ten books that will capture your attention. Ten books.

The first book on my list was also the first book I read in the School of Advanced Military Studies: Norman MacLean’s Young Men and Fire. Most of us remember MacLean for “A River Runs through It”, not for the story he spent 40 years of his life putting together. “Young Men and Fire” is a cautionary tale of planning for success against a dangerously agile enemy, of the strength of experience and intuition, of learning and adapting. In other words, the kind of book that touches on the very issues we are struggling with today.

Next on the hit parade is Stephen Covey’s The Speed of Trust, a book recommended to me by one of my mentors, Lt. Gen. Bob Caslen, the Superintendent of West Point. Why trust? Trust is the bedrock of our profession, it is the basis for mission command, and it underpins the success of any organization. To build trust, to engender trust, you have to first understand trust. This book will get you started.

How we think and communicate is at the heart of Iconoclast, by Gregory Berns. The book is an exploration of iconoclastic leadership that proves equally revealing in our own military culture. He describes the three qualities that define an iconoclast: the ability to perceive the world differently than others; the strength to overcome the inherent fear of failure or rejection; and unrivaled social intelligence. Why is this important to us? Because “Iconoclast” teaches us how to build consensus and support for our ideas, and how to put them into action. Kind of important these days.

For most of us, we’ll toil away our careers in cubicle farms on a staff somewhere. For that reason alone, Influence without Authority by Allan Cohen and David Bradford joins the “must read” list. There are three key takeaways with “Influence without Authority” that are essential to success in a military bureaucracy: one, leading people who don’t work for you; two, building networks that support your efforts; and three, influencing decision-makers to act on your behalf. Like “Iconoclast”, this book drives home the point that social intelligence is the key. If you don’t have it, your great ideas will die with you.

In that same vein is Chip and Dan Heath’s “Made to Stick.” What makes your idea better than the next guy’s? Why do some new programs “stick” while others don’t? The Heaths are digital-age thinkers who have thrived in an environment where good ideas are generated as fast as someone can draft a White House #hashtag, and “Made to Stick” is a how-to guide to crafting ideas that are made to stick from the outset. Again, a very important concept to grasp in a highly-competitive workplace where fresh, new ideas are rare. Yours has to make a difference.

Two books from Malcolm Gladwell make the short list: Tipping Point and Blink. “Tipping Point” is a veritable primer for understanding the operational environment; “Blink” explains how we hinge off that understanding to make sound decisions “in the blink of an eye.” This is the essence of coup d’oeil, the instinctive ability to make decisions “at a glance” that has long been attributed to Napoleon’s successes (as opposed to his failures). As military leaders, our ability to make decisions is fundamental to our profession, and Gladwell’s writing gets to the heart of the understand-visualize-describe-direct construct at the core of mission command.

Dietrich Dörner’s The Logic of Failure is another indispensable volume in my library. Understanding decision-making only gets you so far; you also have to know why we make mistakes, and learn to recognize the tendencies and thought patterns that inevitably lead to failure. In an increasingly complex world, the difference between success and failure can come down to one seemingly minor decision that cascades into a sequence of disastrous consequences. In everyday military parlance, “The Logic of Failure” is a necessary first step in avoiding Murphy’s Law.

No reading list would be complete without the military theorist’s magnum opus, Carl von Clausewitz’s On War. As most of us already know, Clausewitz is one of the least read, most quoted works in our professional body of knowledge. “On War” is not exactly an easy read, but it’s essential to gaining an understanding of the role of complexity in the conduct of warfare. If Dörner gives you an appreciation of how the little things matter, Clausewitz slams the point home: “Everything in war is simple, but the simplest thing is difficult.” For the uninitiated, reading Clausewitz is not unlike reading the Old Testament. It’s all about the metaphors. In other words, expand your thinking or it will be a very long read.

Finally, we come to the last book on our list: Band of Brothers, by Stephen Ambrose. First and foremost, Ambrose was a storyteller. He could weave a compelling narrative like few other writers, drawing readers into a sort of “fireside chat” that brought his subjects to life. I have an entire bookshelf dedicated to Ambrose, but “Band of Brothers” represents what I consider his best story. Skip the HBO miniseries (as good as it is) and sit down over a glass of scotch and bury yourself in this masterpiece.

Ten books. That’s it.

From the Doctrine Man blog