# 1. Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
Recommend by: Andrew Ferguson, Technology Transformation Practice Consultant
A brief synopsis of the book: Data is fundamental to much of our modern world, but embedded in that data are assumptions. Invisible Women discusses how much of the data we consume fails to take gender into account by treating men as default and women as atypical, and how that basic assumption means women pay tremendous costs in time, money, and health.
Why I picked it up: It won the Royal Society Science book prize, as well as the Financial Times and McKinsey Book of the Year.
Why it’s engaging: It is an accessible book written with deep research and sparkling wit that will change the way you look at the world forever.
Why Andrew recommends it: It is to date the most comprehensive book I’ve read showing the power assumptions can have in decision-making.
# 2. Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? Leading a Great Enterprise Through Dramatic Change by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
Recommended by: John Mullen, Director
A brief synopsis of the book: Lou Gerstner shares how he turned around IBM in the early 90s — starting with his decision to take on the role of CEO.
Why I picked it up: It was assigned to me to read in a business school capstone course focused on leadership.
Why it’s engaging: The story is very well-structured and easy to digest. It includes business strategy elements with his decision-making approach and process for shaping and leading IBM’s strategy, but he also opens up about moments of self-doubt and his emotions which helped humanize corporate leadership and kept me wanting to turn the page.
Why John recommends it: Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance is a quick read with tons of lessons from identifying when to take a principled stand to how to enact culture change to managing skepticism around your decisions as a leader — all while applying an analytic approach and keeping a level head. It’s especially useful to anyone interfacing with the C-suite because it humanized senior corporate leadership for me, making it more approachable and helping me understand C-suite considerations in modern corporate America.
# 3. "Thinking in Bets" by Annie Duke
Recommended By: Bryan Rogers, Vice President of Growth
A brief synopsis of the book: Poker champion turned business consultant Annie Duke teaches you how to get comfortable with uncertainty and make better decisions as a result.
Why I picked it up: Sometimes we make decisions, and the outcome is great. Other times, the outcomes aren’t great, and we mistakenly assume we made a “bad” decision. Thinking in bets helps unravel that assumption.
Why it’s engaging: The book helps add a perspective that there is a lot happening around us that is completely out of our control. While we should always strive to manage the risks around us, use the best available information, and think five steps ahead, there is no way to “control” everything and so we must keep that in mind as well when decisions we make don’t work out how we intended them.
Why Bryan recommends it: There is a lot of luck in decision-making, just like gambling, and Annie Duke helps explain how we can be better decision-makers in life and business.
# 4. AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley and the New World Order by Kai-Fu Lee
Recommended by: Kristopher Jordan, Consultant
A brief synopsis of the book: This book delineates the relevant cases for and against China or the US achieving AI dominance. While discussing the impact of AI on blue-collar jobs, Lee also makes the case for why AI will affect white-collar jobs, how some jobs can be enhanced with AI, and most importantly, how it can provide solutions to some of the most profound changes in human history that are coming.
Why I picked it up: I read this book a few years ago to learn more about AI, and as a long-term resident of China, I wanted to gain more insight into the advances made in technology broadly and in AI particularly.
Why it’s engaging: Lee’s writing is both conversational and technical. He talks about complex concepts and structures in plain, everyday language. He also uses a variety of stories to explain why the Chinese and American systems are the way they are.
Why Kris recommends it: In addition to being engaging and informative, I found this book to be a wonderful time capsule. As it was written before COVID-19, the perspective was based on China ramping up out of the 13th National People’s Congress. The world today is different and so are China and the United States. That said, Lee’s matrix of the types of jobs that will be affected and by how much is exceptionally insightful.
# 5. Humble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster by Edgar H. Schein
Recommended by: Jenny Niec, People & Change Practice Consultant
A brief synopsis of the book: Organizations today face challenges too complex for simple fixes. Schein shares how consultants need to pivot from the past idea of keeping a professional distance and instead work with clients in a more personal, empathetic, and curious way.
Why I picked it up: I’m in an Organization Development book club that meets quarterly and this was a book chosen earlier this year.
Why it’s engaging: Schein uses a lot of examples from his personal experience in consulting. He writes it in a conversational, story-forward tone, that makes it useful and interesting. It reminds me so much of the way we do work at Propeller. And there are lots of case studies!
Why Jenny recommends it: It builds on a lot of the foundational consulting principles and skills and enhances them for the modern landscape. Schein has been writing about consulting and organizational culture for decades and makes fresh and relevant recommendations for how we can best serve today.
# 6. "Uncommon Service" by Frances Frei and Anne Morriss
Recommended By: Annie Lyons, Consultant Manager
Brief Synopsis of Book: In Uncommon Service, Frances Frei and Anne Morriss show how, in a volatile economy where the old rules of strategic advantage no longer hold true, service must become a competitive weapon, not a damage-control function. That means weaving service tightly into every core decision your company makes.
Why I Picked It Up: It's actually an "old" book (written in 2012) about a concept that has since been written about a lot - the strategic advantage of customer service/experience.
Why It’s Engaging: I was immediately hooked to uncommon service because of the approach - the authors really focused on encouraging organizations to understand and define how they both differentiate themselves in business and how that drives their bottom line.
Why Annie Recommends it: It is a foundational thought-starter for Experience Design work. Uncommon Service advises you to start by knowing what makes you successful before looking for ways to enhance the service or experience. For me, this is a huge revelation as we explore client challenges. If they don't first understand what they do well and how it makes their business successful, as we start to implement change, we risk messing up that secret sauce.
# 7 "Strategy Safari: A Guided Tour Through The Wilds of Strategic Management" by Henry Mintzberg, Joseph Lampel, Bruce W. Ahlstrand
Recommended By: Chels Watkins, Propeller Alum
A brief synopsis of the book: Offers a comprehensive overview of strategic management (a field that often seems to make no sense) by categorizing it into ten distinct schools of though. This book uses really effective visuals and explanations to break down each strategy school.
Why I picked it up: I've encountered leaders who struggle with understanding and implementing strategic frameworks and wanted to deepen my understanding to more effectively support leaders in their strategic planning efforts.
Why it's engaging: It's the only strategy book I've read that really acknowledges and discusses how abstract strategy is. It also does a tremendous job at explaining the various schools of thought in strategy making. To quote the Amazon description, "No other book synthesizes the entire history and evolution of strategic management in so lively and entertaining a fashion."
Why Chels recommends it: I've found that many leaders don't know or don't consider the ways in which they're creating and executing strategy, or they think they do but they're not acknowledging aspects of their process that deeply influence strategic outcomes. This book has helped me develop the language and mental model to help leaders recognize how their orgs are creating strategy, which in turn has helped me help them (and their broader teams) become more effective strategists.
