Donald Officer

If the name Clifton rings a bell, it should. For three generations starting with Donald Clifton, this remarkable American family has been synonymous with surveys and the systematic study of…

The practical problem with emotional contagion is not just in spotting the outbreak. By then it might be too late to save either self or a contact community from ill effect. But are there strategic tools to spot ominous spreads from afar? If you or people close to you do catch an emotional infection, how should it be treated? Can this kind of wave be contained? This book explores detection, identification, and containment of emotional contagion..

Part 1 ended with a question about whether human beings are capable of holistic growth throughout their adult years. In Part 2, I contend that the passing of youth does not leave us confined to learning only very specific grownup skills for which a capacity is already in place. We can go beyond skill training to growth. Kegan and Lahey give us existence proofs, three very different corporate cultures where continuous personal growth is the norm. They call these existence proofs deliberately developmental organizations (DDOs).

What if a company created a culture in which everyone could overcome internal barriers to change and use errors and vulnerabilities as prime opportunities for personal and company growth? What does growth even mean in adulthood?

Seligman is the lead author of the 2016 book, Homo Prospectus, a work of interdisciplinary collaboration about the human ability to assess what we face in the future. Authorship is shared with philosopher Peter Railton, leading willpower researcher Roy Baumeister, and brain mechanism scientist Chandra Sripada. Together, they identify four distinct ways of thinking that guide us to purposeful choice.

Love Sense is indeed about romantic love as popularly defined. More specifically the book targets prospects for “happy ever after.” According to Johnson’s clinical experience, despite inevitable conflicts or setbacks, true long range love is no fairy tale. This book is also about the many other forms of strong attachment because the author believes the roots of all human affection are essentially the same.

Context is everything and those of us who seek to reenergize clients facing big changes need to follow the endlessly repeated advice from the Kenny Rogers song, “… know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em.” Eliminate some of the gamble and read Megan McArdle’s book on failing well, along with yesterday’s book on quitting.

In Mastering the Art of Quitting, Peg Streep and Alan Bernstein unpack systematically and skillfully what it means to quit from public myth to personal consequence. Nobody wants to be known as a quitter, yet we live in an unpredictable world where the capacity to move on with agility and minimal regret can be a huge advantage.?

In this book, Judy Umlas buttresses her largely anecdotal evidence with several well known gratitude and acknowledgment studies. Her own material is thoroughly documented, often in the words of her clients. To help consultants, managers, coaches and other professional practitioners, she has distilled her experiences into principles that even the gratitude averse can apply.