                    |  Team Building, Human Resource Consulting (Chicago, IL - Indiana - Wisconsin)
Some of our favorite booksBased out of the Chicagoland area, TM Consulting Group Inc. offers human resources services, workforce training and development, and business process consulting to local businesses in the Chicagoland area (including Wisconsin and Indiana) as well as companies throughout the U.S.
We've included a list of our favorite books and quotes. And don't forget to check out our Reality Check Assessment to see if The Operating Values System would be useful for your business. Our favorite books:First, Break All the Rules — by Marcus Coffman & Curt Buckingham TMCG: For the first time there’s data and statistics that prove the value of the workforce and its value to the bottom line. It’s so awesome that there’s data to back up what those of us who have worked with people have known all along! Now, Discover Your Strength — by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton
StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover your Strength — by Tom Rath TMCG: An online assessment that provides great insights supported by long-term research. A great companion to Now, Discover Your Strengths. Take the assessment, it’s quick and fun! TMCG: If you’re a self-insight junkie like me, can you resist taking this??? What are you waiting for?? Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking — by Malcolm Gladwell TMCG: Makes you take a good hard look at why you say what you say, think what you think and do what you do. TMCG: For those of us who have always placed a lot of faith in our own “blink” moments, this book provides truly fascinating insights into what happens in those moments. Whether this concept has any direct business application for you or not, it’s really a fast and fun read. Outliers: The Story of Success— by Malcolm Gladwell TMCG: Fascinating read! I don’t look at leadership, entrepreneurship, success, luck or hard work the same way I did before reading this book. Nugget: People who are exceptional in their area of success spend over 10,000 hours doing what they love—the “10,000 rule” read about it! That alone is worth reading the book. What would you willingly and happily do for 10,000 hours? The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference — by Malcolm Gladwell TMCG: This made me realize I’d better pay more attention to the origins of patterns and possibilities. Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life — by Spencer Johnson TMCG: Though this was from a little while back and I already understood these concepts, I did think it is an excellent and light way to help people understand a most essential truth--that change is inevitable. So everybody start sniffing! TMCG: Will people roll their eyes if you ask them to read this? Probably. Will they make snarky comments about how “silly” it is for “grown ups”? Maybe. But if they sit down for the 10 minutes or so it takes to read it, they will immediately recognize themselves, whether they are willing to admit it or not. And the truth is, they’ll probably enjoy the read and the mice, but they almost certainly won’t admit that! The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable — by Patrick M. Lencioni TMCG: In addition to being an easy read, I loved it because it makes clear how critical it is for leaders to truly understand that individuals make a team and how those individuals fit together as a team. Makes it clear how critical it is to both make the tough choices as well as give people the freedom (and accountability) to make their own decisions. Creating Magic: 10 Common Sense Leadership Strategies from a Life at Disney — by Lee Cockerell TMCG: You can’t go wrong with Disney. Read it, apply it and learn from an organization that excels at people leadership. The Six Sigma Way Team Fieldbook: An Implementation Guide for Process Improvement Teams — by Peter S. Pande, Robert P. Neuman, and Roland R. Cavanagh TMCG: The best resource I’ve found for practical exercises to help people understand simple to the more advanced elements of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) principles. This is definitely my number one go-to book when providing training on this topic. TMCG: I’m not a Black Belt (and in fact I don’t own any belts at all), but this book makes the DMAIC concepts understandable and digestible and—dare I say it—even interesting! Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes are High — by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler TMCG: Helps create a pathway for good discussions leading to incredibly productive and successful results. Excellent resource for individuals, even better for teams. One nice bonus—if you get and apply the concepts, this can be equally helpful in personal relationships as professional. TMCG: As with all of these kinds of programs, some of the language is a bit contrived (anyone want to take a dip in the “pool of shared meaning”??). That said, the concepts and discipline suggested here are excellent. We all have been guilty of virtually all the passive-aggressive pitfalls this program covers. Therefore it’s hard to imagine anyone who couldn’t benefit by reading and applying these better behaviors even occasionally. Crucial Confrontations: Tools for talking about broken promises, violated expectations, and bad behavior — by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, and Al Switzler TMCG: Honestly, I’ve used the Crucial Conversations book/concepts more than this one. That said, I do think this book does a great job of making those difficult but sometimes necessary confrontations more likely to succeed. People Styles at Work: Making Bad Relationships Good and Good Relationships Better — by Robert Bolton and Dorothy Grover Bolton Type Talk at Work: How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job — by Otto Kroeger, Janet M. Thuesen, and Hile Rutledge Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team (A Field Guide for Leaders, Managers and Facilitators) — by Patrick Lencioni TMCG: Whether you’ve read The Five Dysfunctions or not, this book is great. Lots of good exercises. I just got this book and can’t wait to try some of them out! 101 Series — by John C. Maxwell:
TMCG: These are all quick reads and could be useful to rotate around team members. They can spark excellent discussions. Note: these books have a subtle faith-based foundation which may not appeal to all readers. |
