Innovation Garden

Range (book by Epstein)

Range

David Epstein

Range

This is a book about the power of generalists. It starts with a comparison of Tiger Woods and Roger Federer. Both are generational talents, but they developed very differently. Tiger Woods was playing golf by age 2 and was in tournaments. All he did was golf and he was quite successful (and may not be done). Roger Federer played multiple sports and only began to focus on tennis when he was a teen. Woods father pushed him, but Federer’s parents did not; his mother was a tennis coach and she refused to coach him. Federer was still the world number one in his thirties and is currently (March 2020) ranked fourth at age 38. It is often thought that great skill requires early dedication and examples from music (piano, violin) and chess are often given.

Expert political judgment (book by Tetlock)

Expert Political Judgement

Philip Tetlock

Expert Political Judgment

This 2007 book made a splash when it was released because it tested the ability of experts to predict outcomes in various areas of finance, economics, and politics. Experts did very poorly, in fact they did worse than chance alone. Well-informed people actually did better than experts, though still worse than chance. This book describes, in great detail, how this conclusion was reached.

A curious mind (book by Glazer & Fishman)

A Curious Mind

Brain Glazer & Charles Fishman

A Curious Mind

Brain Glazer is a producer of movies and televisions shows. This book is the story of the role curiosity, in many forms, has been a force in his life. He did not set out to work in movies but a summer job taken before law school became the entryway to this career. Looking back, Glazer recognizes that he was always curious and this curiosity was fostered by his grandmother in particular. It is clear from reading this book that Glazer has a degree of adventurousness that he has used to satisfy his curiosity.

Learning agile (book by Stellman & Greene)

Learning Agile

Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene

Learning Agile

Agile working practices have become quite trendy over the last few years, but the application of the word agile to these practices dates back to 2001. A group of 17 people active in software development had a meeting and published what they called the “Agile Manifesto ”. This was a set of four values and 12 principles to guide software development. It is worth noting that agile practices were around much earlier than this. This creates some confusion about what is or is not agile, which sometimes misses the point.

Improv wisdom (book by Madson)

Improve wisdom

Patricia Ryan Madson

Improv wisdom

This book describes how the method and mindset of improvisational theory can be applied to everyday life and business. We all have some urge to control our lives and this often means that we can’t react to events. Improvisation is the unplanned response to events and is a skill that can be learned. Improvisation in comedy gets a lot of attention but improvisation has also been part of music, conventional theater and visual arts.

Rebels at work (book by Kelly & Medina)

Rebels at work

Lois Kelly and Carmen Medina

Rebels at Work

This book is intended to help people who think differently navigate their organizations. The authors describe a good rebel as a person who observes things that are not working and suggests ways to change. A bad rebel just complains. The authors observe that rebels are not always the right people to actually lead a change, but they are often the right people to instigate the change. People become rebels in many ways and times in their careers. Some start immediately in their career and some become rebels later in their careers. Some rebels are “created” by a problem and retire as rebels when that problem is addressed. Other rebels find one problem after another to solve.

It doesn’t have to be crazy at work (book by Fried & Hansson)

It doesn’t have to be crazy at work

Jason Fried and David Hansson

It doesn't need to be crazy

The two authors were the principle co-founders of a company called Basecamp. The company produces software that is used by (mostly small) businesses for project management. The company was founded in about 2000 and has been profitable for every year of its existence. The company has not gone public and is itself quite small (about 50 people). It sells access to their software by subscription and has over 100,000 client companies. By most measures this is a successful entrepreneurial start-up.

Team of teams (book by McChrystal et al)

Team of teams

Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, Chris Fussell

Team of teams

This book describes the kind of organization required to cope with a complex environment. The lead authors uses his experience leads the US Special Operation Group (USSOG) in the Iraq during the early-to-mid 2000s. Modern business and modern business both organized around reductionist specification of work combined with delivery of explicit directions for its completion. This works very well in highly predictable environments where initiative and innovation create no value. An increasing portion of business life does not belong to that predictable world and requires new ways of working. Though the specific context of this book is military, the application is not just military.

A more beautiful question (book by Berger)

A more beautiful question

Warren Berger

A more beautiful question

This book asserts that adults lose their most powerful learning tool when they lose the ability and inclination to ask questions. Questions are at the heart of innovation. Yet, organizations from schools to business do almost nothing to teach questioning and may take steps to suppress or eliminate questioning. The book describes a framework to think about questions and some approaches to teaching/practicing questioning.

The evolution of useful things (book by Petroski)

The evolution of useful things

Henry Petroski

The evolution of useful things

 

This book describes the history of development of a range of common items like forks, paper clips and beverage cans. In particular, the book is an extended refutation of the phrase “form follows function”. Instead, the book suggests that most common items evolve in response to perceived problems experienced by the user. If the circumstances of using something change, then “new” problems may cause designs to change even though the function is not changing.

Normal Accidents (book by Perrow)

Normal Accidents

Charles Perrow

Normal-Accidents

This is a book about complexity and how it leads to accidents. It was written in 1984, soon after the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident, and an additional section was written in 1999.  I became aware of this book in the week after the fire at Notre dame and the second crash of a Boeing 737 Max 8. An article (When making things better only makes them worse ) outlined how this book described the inevitability of such accidents. 

Red team (book by Zenko)

Red Team

Micah Zenko

Red Team

This book contains a series of examples of the use of red teams to do alternative or adversary analysis for a variety of organizations. Most of the examples are quite extensive and beyond the scope of summarization. The book does little to explain how red teams work, but more to explain the environment in which they work.

Seeing is forgetting the name of what you see (book by Weschler)

Seeing is forgetting the name of what you see

This is a biography of the American artist Robert Irwin. This is different from most book summaries that I write because it does not really deal with issues or processes that fill business life. What makes Irwin interesting is his focus and discipline in seeking the answers to questions that lay at the heart of ‘art’. I first read about Irwin in a book about creative people that I read almost 15 years ago which gave an amazing example of his approach. The example was astounding and I had to read more about him once I discovered this biography. What follows are this and a few other examples of his unique and powerful approach.

The surprising power of liberating structures (book by Lipmanowisc and McCandless)

The surprising power of liberating structures

Henri Lipmanowisc and Keith McCandless

Liberating Structures

This book is about making human interactions more productive. Most people complain about meetings, whether they are organizers or participants. The authors suggest that one reason is that we have a very limited “alphabet” for structuring meetings. A larger vocabulary would enable meetings to be structured in ways that were more satisfactory to both organizers and participants.

Red Teaming (book by Hoffman)

Red Teaming

Bryce Hoffman

Red teaming

This book describes some of the practices associated with so-called “Red Teams”. A red team is a group of people who set out to deliberately challenge a plan or decision as a way to insure better plans or decisions are made. They are designated devil’s advocates. The practice began to assume its modern form in the 1800s after the Prussian Army suffered defeats against Napoleon. A group of senior Army officers was appointed to a “General Staff” with the assignment to challenge the plans of Generals. Plans improved and the Prussian Army became quite potent. Since the Prussian Army’s colors were blue, the opposition team was called the red team.

Living with Complexity (book by Norman)

Living with Complexity

Donald Norman

Living with complexity

This book is about designing systems to cope with complexity. The real focus of the book is the idea that complexity can’t be removed or decreased, but it can be “moved” around. When we complain about complexity, we are really complaining about complicated and confusing situations which make it hard for us to do what we want to do. Complication can be eliminated; complexity can’t. The question that a designer faces is this: who must deal with the complexity?

Thinking in Bets (book by Duke)

Thinking in Bets

Annie Duke

Thinking in Bets

This is a book written about decision making based on what the author (a trained psychologist and professional gambler) learned playing poker. The book is not about poker or gambling. It is about dedication to an approach to making decisions based on rationality. Duke explains that many decisions are really bets. We are choosing to take an action that will deliver consequences in the future under conditions of uncertainty.

The half-life of facts (book by Arbesman)

The half-life of facts

Samuel Arbesman

Half life of facts

We tend to think of facts as absolute and timeless. This book discusses the observation that many things that we see as true and timeless change. For many categories of facts, there is a predictable rate of change. This concept seems to have two main applications. First, we must be careful about “fact-based” decisions because our facts may be out-of-date already or will change in a relevant time frame. Second, based on an understanding of the rate of change in a domain, you can predict when something in that domain might become a fact. The book also discusses how facts come into existence and spread; new facts can be created just as old facts are overturned.

How to fly a horse (book by Ashton)

How to fly a horse

Kevin Ashton

How to fly a horse

There are many books about creativity available. There are how-to manuals, books on famous creators, and books that books that suggest that it is all about motivation. This book is different than all of them. This book describes a very different perspective on creativity, of which the most radical is probably: there is no such thing as creative thinking – it is a myth.

Hunch (book by Jiwa)

Hunch

Bernadette Jiwa

Hunch

This is a supposed to be book about intuition expressed in the form of a hunch. A hunch is a combination of insight and foresight, brought about by understanding what is and questioning what could be.* According to the author, insight is derived from a combination of patterns and practice. Foresight arises from potential and predictions. The book consists of a series of anecdotes and short essays that describe different aspects and examples of hunches at play. But it is really a book about ideas and some of the people who have had them. The book is not highly structured, so this summary will include more interpretation and explanation than normal in an attempt to fill in gaps.

Can do (book by Tiggelaar)

Can Do

Ben Tiggelaar

Can Do 

This is a book about change, and specifically behavioral change. Behavioral change is a slow, sometimes hard process for adults, but it is also misunderstood. There is a common belief that making a change is simply a matter of willpower, so imposition of a change ought to be easy. If only people understood the benefits more or had better incentives, they would change more easily. This perspective is incomplete. We know that many behavior change efforts fail, both at the personal and organizational level. A better understanding of the real dynamics can help those seeking a change to obtain it. The book discusses the dynamics and a way to achieve the desired results.

Good strategy, bad strategy (book by Rumelt)

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Richard P. Rumelt

Good strategy Bad strategy

This is a book about the diagnosis and creation of business strategy, and takes the view that much of what passes for business strategy is not even strategy, and of that which is strategy – much is bad strategy. One of the delightful aspects of this book is that the author is direct and specific. In the author’s view, strategy is not ambition, vision, or being number one. The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors*. The challenge of strategy is not setting the target, but finding the path.

Contagious culture (book by Cavanaugh)

Contagious culture

Anese Cavanaugh

Contagious Culture

This book is for those who think that the culture of the organizations in which they work could be better. The author presents two basic ideas. First, you are an agent of culture change through the groups in which you participate. So, you are in a position to change the culture around you. Second, you can create a change through a combination of intention, showing up and maintaining a presence.

Immunity to change (book by Kagen & Laskow-Lahey)

Immunity to change

Robert Kagen & Lisa Laskow Lahey

Immunity to change

The main theme of this book is that people want to make changes but fail because they are unaware of beliefs and assumptions that push back on the change. These beliefs may be untested and false. To make the change you want, you must recognize and “neutralize” the beliefs that prevent change. Groups have the same problem, but can find it even more challenging to identify and neutralize the shared limiting assumptions. A process to uncover and neutralize these limiting assumptions is the main path to overcoming our resistance to change.

Emotional Agility (book by David)

Emotional Agility

Susan David

Emotional agility

Things do not always go the way we’d prefer. We may be sad, angry or depressed as a consequence – and this is not always helpful or good for us. Maintaining emotional agility, being flexible with your thoughts and feelings so that you can respond optimally to everyday situations…is key to well-being and success.* Emotional agility does not lead to constant happiness; that is an unreasonable expectation. It is not positive thinking or controlling your thoughts. It is essentially choosing how you respond to events.

Messy (book by Harford)

Messy

Tim Harford

Messy

There is a strong drive to get organized and efficient. The premise of this book is that disorganized mess has an important role in making us effective, and that in many cases organization does not even work as advertised. A number of examples shows that embracing the messy elements of life can increase the long-term potential for success.

Business Model Generation (Book by Osterwalder et al)

Business Model Generation

Alexander Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Alan Smith

Business Model Generation

This book describes a visualization approach to the creation of a business model. The visualization addresses all aspects of a basic business model and can be used to explain the model to others. The visualization is called a business model canvas and it can fit on a single standard piece of paper. Obviously, it is not very detailed; rather it is a distillation of the essential features of the business model.

Value Proposition Design (book by Osterwalder et al)

Value Proposition Design

Alex Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Greg Bernarda, Alan Smith, Trish Papadakos

Value Proposition Design

This book is one of a pair of books created to help people develop better business plans. The other book deals more with the overall structure of the business model and this book focuses on designing a value proposition. The terminology is deliberate in the sense that the book embraces the process of design as applied to the value proposition itself. The book really is not concerned with the actual product or service, but with how the product or service is conceived through the study of customer jobs.

Demand (book by Slywotsky)

Demand

Adrian Slywotzky

Demand

The subtitle of this book is “Creating what people love before they know they want it”; the book describes a number of perspectives on creating demand. One implication of the author’s approach is that latent demand is the most important kind of demand because this is where innovators can create a new offer of greater value – not expressed demand where everybody can and does already play. The author offers six overlapping perspectives on demand creation.

Ten Types of Innovation (book by Keeley et al).

Ten Types of Innovation

Larry Keeley, Ryan Pikkel, Brian Quinn, Helen Walters

10 types of innovation

The authors describe a perspective based on their study of innovation at companies over multiple decades and industries. Seeking a pattern in the successes and failures, they observed that most companies devote the majority of innovation attention to product or process innovation, but most distinctively innovative companies do more than this. Eventually, they identified 10 types of innovation that could be grouped into business configuration, offering and user experience. Many successful innovations involve elements of 3 or more areas. In fact, some industries tend to focus in a narrow set of types creating excess competition in those areas. Innovating in another type can create distinctive value.

The Founders Mentality (book by Zook and Allen)

The Founder’s Mentality

Chris Zook & James Allen

The Founders Mentality

This book is based on the proposition that the big difference between successful companies and companies that are doing poorly can be traced to use of a founder’s mentality. The founder’s mentality comprises (1) having an owner’s mindset, (2) an obsession with the front line, and (3) a sense of insurgency. Combined, this sets a focus and energy for the organization that makes it better at serving customers and better at outdoing potential competitors.

Misbehaving (book by Thaler)

Misbehaving

Richard Thaler

Misbehaving

This book is primarily a personal account of the creation of the field of behavior economics. Thaler was an economics graduate student, when he noticed a number of regular human behaviors that were contrary to the assumed economic behavior of people. Conventional economics was based on the idea that ordinary people make decisions to optimize their own interests (acquire the best value for the available money). They did this within a system that achieves equilibrium (in other words, supply equals demand with price moving to bring supply and demand together). As such, economic is the most rigorous of the social sciences with a well-developed mathematics.

Originals (book by Grant)

Originals

Adam Grant

Originals

This book is an examination of some of the traits of “original” people. Grant defines “originals” as creative people who have gone on to make their novel idea into reality. He makes clear that the creative part is important, but the realization part is more important. The book contains a wide range of stories about people and events that illustrate elements of Grant’s conclusions. Like many such books, it is less a scholarly exposition than a series of stories that can be used as inspiration.

The Strategy Paradox (book by Raynor)

The Strategy Paradox

Michael E. Raynor

Strategy Paradox

Business strategists observe that companies that significantly outperform the average company employ “pure” strategies. They are relentlessly focused on operational excellence (think Walmart) or product differentiation (think Apple). Average companies wanting to improve returns are encouraged to become more focused. The paradox is that many companies that fail also have pure strategies.

Deep work (book by Newport)

Deep Work

Cal Newport

Deep Work

Work is becoming more complex, which requires more focus and attention. At the same time, the variety and prevalence of distractions has been rising. This book advocates that success, where knowledge work is increasingly critical, requires people to create conditions for deep work and to minimize shallow work. This is a significant challenge in modern organizations.

Nonsense (book by Holmes)

Nonsense

Jamie Holmes

Nonsense

This is a book about our reaction to ambiguity and the potential negative and positive effects of “ambiguity setting” on our behavior. The title itself seems ambiguous and it took me some time to relate the title to the content. My understanding of the title is that we divide our experience into sense and nonsense (think non-sense as opposed to silliness), and we deal poorly with the nonsense. In fact, our brains work very hard to make sense of things with sometimes odd results. Ambiguity can lead to clearly undesirable outcomes or surprisingly positive ones. Understanding how we respond to ambiguity and how to “manage” it might result in more positive outcomes. As the book expresses it, “I’ll hope to convince you of a simple claim: In an increasingly complex, unpredictable world, what matters most isn’t IQ, willpower, or confidence in what we know. its how we deal with what we don’t understand.”*

Intelligent disobedience (book by Chaleff)

Intelligent Disobedience

Ira Chaleff

Intelligent Disobedience

The central theme of this book is that people need to have a strong capability to resist the orders they are given – under some circumstances. Society, and any organization, requires a considerable degree of compliance from its members, but trouble arises when the compliance becomes unthinking and automatic. Throughout the book, the metaphor of a guide dog is used. The guide dog must follow the instructions of its person, but must know when to disobey because obedience will lead to the person’s harm.

Perspective (book by Mirocha)

Perspective:

John Mirocha

Perspective

The success of a company depends on many things, but it is generally understood that a key purpose of a company is to harness the benefits of people working together (to reduce a variety of financial and non-financial transaction costs). This may sound like a trivial observation, but it was significant enough to win the Nobel Prize in economics for Ronald Coase. “People working together” is one description of culture, and leaders of organizations hoping to get better performance from their people need to develop some appreciation of the organization’s culture. The study of human societies and cultures is the domain of anthropology (in contrast, the study of individual people is psychology) and one of the big ideas in anthropology is that every culture must be understood from the inside-out. This book is devoted to explaining how anthropologists would approach the problem of understanding a culture by creating a perspective on the culture through observation.

Simplexity (book by Kluger)

Simplexity

Jeffrey Kluger

Simplexity

Two trends seem to dominate much thinking in business and society. One concern is excess simplification and the other is excess complexity. Not much thought is usually given to the conditions that characterize complexity. This book suggests that complexity arises between two states: chaos and rigidity – complexity is the combination of chaos and rigidity or maybe it is better described as partially chaotic and partial rigid. The following chart illustrates the core concept of the book. On the left is chaos dominated by random action and unpredictable behavior. The book uses a gas one example of a chaotic system. At the other extreme is a rigid system, like a crystal dominated by regular structure and complete predictability. In between are areas of varied complexity. The example used in the book is a guppy which is obviously quite complex. When confronted with complexity, there are two routes to simplification. One route is to formalize things and increase order. The other is to remove order and let things “take care of themselves”.

Filters against folly (book by Hardin)

Filters against Folly

Garrett Hardin

Filters against Folly

This book was written in the 1985 by an ecologist who was frustrated by the ways in which people were misled by information they were given. In particular, he was concern about the reactions of ordinary citizens to “expert” pronouncements – and the lack of productive debate on complex issues. While the book has a number of dated references, the underlying issue of unproductive debate and expert over-reach is even more relevant today than 30 years ago.

What customers want (book by Ulwick)

What customers want

Anthony Ulwick

What customers want

The big idea of this book is that the “voice of the customer” is a bad basis for customer-centric innovation. A much more productive basis for innovation is “outcome driven”; that is successful innovations create desired outcomes for the customer and customers really care about these outcomes. Another way to express outcome is in the form of the job the customer wants done – the Job-To-Be-Done (JTBD).

The obstacle is the way (book by Holiday)

The obstacle is the way

Ryan Holiday

The Obstacle in the Way

The book begins with a quote from the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, “Our actions may be impeded…but there can be no impeding our intentions and dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.” Most people, when faced with an obstacle, are frozen. We can find lots of reasons to not move forward and it is unimportant whether these reasons are valid. What matters is that we freeze in place. This book contains many examples of people who did not allow themselves to be frozen, but used the obstacle itself as a device to make progress towards their goal. These examples were fascinating, but will mostly be ignored in this summary because they require a lot of explanation (perhaps a reason for you to read the book). The book describes approaches to make progress; they are simple – but not easy. This is not a book about positive thinking or psychological tricks, but creating a disciplined approach to confronting problems (together with some inspiration to give these concepts a try).

How the weak win wars (book by Arreguin-Toft)

How the weak win wars

Ivan Arreguin-Toft

How Weak Win Wars

This is a book about asymmetric warfare, in other wars between a powerful and a weak actor. Normally, the more powerful actor wins these wars, but increasingly, since 1800, the force that would conventionally thought to be weaker wins disproportionately. Over this period, the weak actor has won about 28% of the time, despite being no more than 20% the strength of the more powerful actor. But the success of weak actors has been increasing as shown by the following chart.

The Discipline of Market Leaders (book by Treacy and Wiersema)

The Discipline of Market Leaders

Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema

Discipline of Market Leaders

This 1995 book proposes that many companies struggle to be competitive because they try to be all things to all people. Marketplace leaders are not all the same but do seem to fall into three groups. One type of leadership is based on operational excellence and competes based on creating the lowest total cost for their customers. A second type of leadership is based on product innovation leadership and offers its customers the best new features and benefits. The final type of leadership is based on customer intimacy and creates customized offers that are the best fit for the customers’ needs.

Six Simple Rules (book by Morieaux & Tollman)

Six Simple Rules

Y. Morieux & P. Tollman

Six Simple Rules

The premise of this book is that the hard (Theory X) and soft (Theory Y) approaches to management are no longer suitable in our increasingly complex business climate. The hard approach tries to manage complexity by controlling employees through policies, incentives and structures. This creates inflexibility, “complicatedness” and waste. The hard approach also assumes that people are the problem and need to be controlled. The soft approach assumes that people are the solution and simply need to develop the mindsets to obtain the desired outcomes. Managers often blend the two approaches by setting clear roles, structures and objectives while also spending time listening, hosting team building exercises, and encouraging engagement. In the end, the authors point out that these are just two different approaches to controlling employees in order to obtain the desired results.

The Misfit Economy (book by Clay & Phillips)

The Misfit Economy

Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips

Misfit Economy

The premise of this book is that changes in our society, economy and marketplace come from the edge of society. Often the instigators are misfits, and their original concept fails. But subsequently, other people will adapt it into something that will find success.

Misfit may not fully express the mindset and experience of some of these people. Pirates, con men and renegades are on the misfit spectrum, as are many misfits hiding inside of large conventional organization. The authors began with a large number of case studies of individuals challenging the status quo and narrowed this down to 30 for more intensive study. The book is primarily a set of stories about the people and situations.

Non Obvious (book by Bhargava)

Non Obvious

Rohit Bhargava

Non obvious

This is a book about trends and insight. A main thesis of the book is that discovering trends and developing insights from them is a style of thinking that can be learned. One metaphor for the approach is curation, in the sense that an art museum will arrange a set of works according to one or more themes. In this metaphor, one begins by gathering ideas and information then begin to identify themes. Subsequently, the curator creates a “story” about the content and then provides some validation that the theme is rational. The book describes an approach for uncovering and describing trends and then provides a set of trends for 2015.

The Laws of Subtraction (book by May)

The Laws of Subtraction

Matthew E. May

Laws of Subtraction

 The book was inspired by John Maeda’s book “The laws of simplicity” and is particularly Maeda’s tenth law, “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious, and adding the meaningful.” But it’s also inspired by a number of the author’s experiences where something was just too much. The world is more overwhelming than ever before…There is endless choice and feature overkill in all but the best experiences…The simple life is a thing of the past. Everywhere, there’s too much of the wrong stuff and not enough of the right*. The antidote is better design of products, processes and experiences in ways that simplify – and that mostly means by removing useless options. May identifies 6  laws related specifically to subtraction.

1.       What isn’t there can often trump what is.
2.        The simplest rules create the most effective experience.
3.        Limiting information engages the imagination.
4.        Creativity thrives under intelligent constraints.
5.        Break is the important part of breakthrough.
6.        Doing something isn’t always better than doing nothing.

The Laws of Simplicity (book by Maeda)

The Laws of Simplicity

John Maeda

Laws of Simplicity

 The author is a designer and digital media developer who became interested in principles related to simplicity and design. After some thinking, he chose 10 “laws” that he felt governed effective design. Like all man-made “laws” they do not exist in the absolute sense – to break them is no sin.* technology has helped life more complicated, and this is an attempt to decrease the complication and restore the “sanity”.

Give and Take (book by Grant)

Give and take

Adam Grant

Give and Take

 

This is a book about the role of reciprocity in our lives. Imagine that there are two kinds of people at work. One group is most concerned about helping others and does things to benefit them without worrying much about themselves. The second group gives to others because they expect to get much more back from them. Giving is only the means to get more for themselves. This is a world of givers and takers.