Book Review: Leading from the Roots by Kathleen Allen

Book Title: Leading by the Roots
Book Author: Kathleen Allen
Format: PaperbackRating: 5 out of 5 stars (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐) 

In Leading by the Roots, Dr. Kathleen Allen addresses the complexity of leadership and its practices through a unique correlation to nature. During the current season of uncertainty for organizations, which stems from the COVID-19 pandemic, I believe that Allen’s text is a must-read. 

Right now, the leadership teams within an organization is key to the survival of the organization and collaboration among colleagues. This text not only supports this belief, but it provides concrete evidence that this is true, as well as illuminates ways that an organization can transform by implementation of specific practices.

Now more than ever, the role(s) of leaders in an organization is immensely important to its productivity and morale among colleagues. According to Allen, cooperation is important to leadership with an organization. Thus, Allen promotes the identification of interdependency among leadership teams and colleagues. An example of an exercise to identify the interdependency is included in Chapter 5. Through this identification of how each member of the team is interdependent, a shared purposed can be established.

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I was intrigued by how the text identifies an aspect of nature and its correlation to successful leadership. The evidence-based descriptions of the correlation are very clear. Allen encourages the examination of nature principles to successfully transform organizations to be more efficient and productive. 

In each chapter of the book, Allen presents important concepts, lessons, and suggestions to address different aspects of organizational culture that can negatively impact its success. For example, Chapter 5, Nature Rewards Cooperation, suggests the articulation of a shared organizational purpose, the building of integrative power, and the enhancing of intrinsic responsibility through the creation of systems and policies. Additionally, this chapter encourages the development of trust and trustworthiness for cooperation within the organization. 

Since COVID-19 has surprisingly transformed organizational culture in every aspect, reading this text can help leadership teams tread through the unfamiliar and uncertain waters to continue leading their teams. I believe everyone in any organization should read this text. Readers will not be disappointed. This book contains a wealth of knowledge that can be implemented. I know that I plan to use this text to teach my graduate students in the Rural Public Policy and Planning program.

About the Book

Leadership Lessons Inspired by Nature

NEW YORK—SEPTEMBER 4, 2018—Morgan James’s new release, Leading from the Roots: Nature-Inspired Leadership Lessons for Today’s World by Dr. Kathleen E. Allen, is a primer for applying the laws of nature to business practices, taking organizations and leaders to higher performance levels and more meaningful missions.

The concepts presented by Dr. Allen in Leading from the Roots map nature’s underlying design and principles across organizational contexts. The author carefully explains how to use nature as a model, mentor and muse to rethink how leadership is practiced today. Leading from the Roots will help any organization find a new way of leading and designing workplace structure by applying the generous framework found in mature ecologies to human organizations.

“As I furthered my study of nature and biomimicry I came to the understanding that organizations are not inert objects as the more traditional mindset would have us believe. They are living systems with the capacity to evolve and learn just as nature has always done,” says Dr. Allen. “I wrote this book in the hope that others too could realize how organizations can become more generous by operating with a living system mindset. After all, the best business leaders understand that the ultimate goal is not just to contribute to the bottom line but to give back to our communities and the world in a meaningful, sustainable way.”

Dr. Allen introduces the “living system mindset” as an alternative to a traditional, top-down leadership paradigm. She helps shift assumptions, practices, structures and processes of organizations to become more resilient and nourishing for everyone, and demonstrates how to apply the laws of nature to business, helping leaders “design” their way out of workplace dysfunction and unnecessary drama.

To begin, Dr. Allen takes readers through the definition of living systems and generous organizations, making a compelling case for the need to shift traditional leadership practices toward those that are healthier for the organization, for the human beings working there, for our communities and for our world. Each chapter within Leading from the Roots delivers an absorbing dive into the laws of nature that help it thrive, from discussions on diversity and self-organization, to the ways in which nature adapts and fits form into function in a successful, thriving ecosystem.

Leading from the Roots demonstrates to the reader how to apply the primary lessons of nature to build stronger leadership skills for the 21st century. Dr. Allen’s gift for storytelling creates a captivating look at how organisms reduce waste and increase efficiencies, and the ways in which creative, forward-thinking leaders and managers can use these concepts.  The author clearly provides compelling proof that adopting a new, nature-inspired leadership mindset can create organizations that are more innovative, have greater productivity, and more importantly, help leaders pursue a healthy, sustainable, mission-driven purpose for the entire organization.

About the Author: President of Kathleen Allen and Associates, Dr. Kathleen Allen specializes in leadership coaching and organizational change in human service non-profit organizations, foundations, businesses, health care and collaborative networks. She is a prolific writer and speaker on topics related to leadership, human development, and organizational development. Dr. Allen holds a Doctorate in Leadership from the University of San Diego. For more information visit KathleenAllen.net

More About This Title:
Leading from the Roots: Nature-Inspired Leadership Lessons for Today’s World by Dr. Kathleen E. Allen, will be released by Morgan James Publishing on September 4, 2018. Leading from the Roots—ISBN 978-1683508496—has 204 pages and is being sold as a trade paperback for $19.95.

About Morgan James Publishing:
Morgan James publishes trade quality titles designed to educate, encourage, inspire, or entertain readers with current, consistent, relevant topics that are available everywhere books are sold.
(www.morganjamespublishing.com/)

4 Books that Make You Think

I am addicted to books that challenge me and often present complex thoughts and ideas. With COVID-19 forcing all of us to challenge how we view what our normal lives are, I thought that I would share a list of books that resonated with me long after I finished reading the very last word.

1. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. I gave this text  ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5 stars on Goodreads). My book review on Americanah explains why I was so pleased with this text. I devoured it as I read each page. This text is very thought-provoking and will keep you engaged until the last page. 

2. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. I rated this text ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5 stars on Goodreads). This book is one that I can read several times and still discover something new. The Alchemist is laced with so many life lessons that I can use to transform my personal and professional lives. I think that teenagers should be required to read this text because it can help them focus more on how they want to shape the trajectory of their lives.

3. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. I was first introduced to this book by my oldest son, who was assigned to read it by his high school English teacher. I believe every African American male should read this text. My copy is signed by the Honorable John Lewis. I met him at the Atlanta airport, and I grabbed the first thing I could to get his signature. The only thing I had was this text, which is very precious to me. When I finished this book, I rated it ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐(5 stars on Goodreads).

4. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I rated this text ⭐⭐⭐⭐(4 stars on Goodreads). I think this book is a perfect read while we are dealing with COVID-19. The premise of this book revolves around the idea that watching television is more important and essential than reading literature. REading was taboo and almost extinct in the world that Ray Bradbury creates. This book reminded of the Denzel Washington movie, The Book of Eli. If books were banned, I don't know how I would survive.

Have you read any of these books? What am I missing from this list? Leave me a comment.

*This post contains some affiliate links so you can easily find the books that I recommend.

my currently-reading shelf:

2018 Mississippi Book Festival: Miss Titta Nurse Chloe by Regena Hoye

Regena Hoye

Last year, I attended the Mississippi Book Festival for the first time. I met the author, Regena Hoye, who wrote the book, Miss Titta Nurse Chloe.  Ms. Hoye was extremely nice and shared her book with me. I didn't get to stay long because of the heat, and having to pick up my children from the library. However, Ms. Hoye was the highlight.

Here is the excerpt from her book:

Miss Titta is a southern mystery. Miss Titta, a widow, is a graceful woman, of medium height and caramel skin, with brown eyes that wisely appraised. In the 1950’s, she applied her hands on the southern community of Lena that had faith in, and depended on her healing powers. Miss Titta is the midwife, the healer, and the comforter and a mentor to thirteen-year-old Chloe Harris. The southern country town’s daily life was familiar, but among the familiar came the unexpected.When Chloe’s father is involved in a terrible accident while on the job at the turpentine plant and all the plant workers find themselves being dangerously compromised, Miss Titta intervenes to seek justice.Then another cruel tragedy happens to Chloe’s family that caused Miss Titta to risk her life to investigate the cause and to bring justice so that the perpetrator of the horrific crime is punished.
Will you join Miss Titta as she risk her life for justice and to expose the truth?

I would highly recommend that you check out her book. Her book is truly a "southern gem." Learn more about Regena Hoye on her website.

Book Review: Under Water by Jessie Wilson

Book Title: Under Water
Book Author: Jessie Wilson
Format: Paper Back
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐⭐)

When was the last time you read a book that forced you to greedily devour it? For me, the answer is this week. Today, I finished Under Water by Jessie Wilson, and this book was amazing.

Under Water is a thrilling novel that engulfed me until the very end. Throughout this text, the main character struggles with navigating teenage life, including academics and social engagement. She has an awful time with math. Her engagement with her peers is awkward. She has no friends. An incident in her childhood taught her the valuable cost of making friends.

My heart ached for the main character for so many reasons. The narrator had no real place of solace, not with her father, mother,  brother nor with her peers. Her peace and contentment were derived from reading a book. When she read, she could escape her troubles. She was a true bibliophile. She craved a mother or mother figure. She desperately desired to leave the grasp of her father's abuse and power.

Dealing with a narcissistic father, who abused her psychologically, physically, mentally, and even financially, the narrator's transition to a new school at the demands of her older brother Cal gave me new hope for her future. Wilson's illustration of how a person victim feels powerless and hopeless, even when they are not in direct contact with their abuser, is amazingly portrayed in this narrative.

The irony of the narrator living on a boat and being the doctor of a fisherman turned smuggler and being aquaphobic is just one example of how well-written Under Water is.

Wilson uses an educator as the "savior" for the narrator. I liked how Wilson conclusively demonstrates the significance that a teacher or coach can unknowingly have in a student's life. Even though I was upset that the narrator was forced to conquer her fear of water and to become a swimmer, I ultimately appreciated how these actions contributed to changing the trajectory of her entire life.

Also, I enjoyed how Wilson highlighted the cringe-worthy victim-blaming culture of other women through the character, Kelly, the narrator's roommate. Kelly turned into a protagonist like a narrator's father, quickly.

Ultimately, I loved the ending of Under Water. The complexity of this book definitely intrigued me. I highly recommend this YA book. You will not be disappointed.

Trigger Warning: This book includes references to domestic violence, sexual abuse, rape, and child abuse. 

If you or someone you know are dealing with domestic violence or sexual abuse, here are two hotlines that can assist you. The National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). The National Sexual Assault Hotline number is 1-800-656 HOPE (4673).

About Under Water

For the daughter of a fisherman-turned-smuggler, keeping secrets equals survival. When she is sent away from their boat-home for one year to a nearby boarding school, it’s with her father's threat hanging over her head: You talk about things that shouldn’t be talked about, I’ll kill you. But a boarding school with a student body of eight is a perilous place to be when you have a headful of secrets, particularly with a headmaster who seems to be able to read minds. When the headmaster discovers the aquaphobia born out of her fearful childhood, he compels her to join the school swim team, headed by a tough coach who has his own dark history with the water. As she sheds her fear and discovers a hidden talent for distance swimming, she crafts a plan to escape the boat she’s doomed to return to at the end of the school year. But when her plans begin to unravel, she finds something sinister that has stood between her and escape all along: the secrets she’s kept from herself.

Book Review: Perfect City by Joe Berridge

Book Title: Perfect City
Book Author: Joe Berridge
Format: PDF File
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐)

In The Perfect City, Joe Berridge provides a vivid description of his journey as an "urban fixer." Throughout the introductory chapter, Berridge presents the case of the city and the city planner in terms of a machine and a mechanic. This unique metaphor sets the tone for the rest of the text. In my opinion, Berridge wants the reader to recognize how the city planners work as a mechanic to fine-tune the intricacies and workings of a city. 

I was intrigued by Perfect City because my doctoral program, Public Policy, and Administration, works closely with the Urban and Regional Planning Program at Jackson State University. Many of my friends and colleagues are trained urban planners, so I was curious as to how Perfect City would inform me about the discipline. Surprisingly, this text does not read like an academic textbook, but it flows like an autobiography that has embedded within the lines, which can be used in the urban planning classroom. Several chapters are dedicated to individual cities, which Berridge uses to highlight pertinent information that can be used in transforming cities into models of urban perfection.

Berridge did an excellent job of detailing how cities can grow and improve while providing examples of how cities are hindering their transformation. I believe that everyone would enjoy Perfect City, especially residents in urban areas. Individuals who work in urban areas or who are urban planners would enjoy this text, which can be used as a guidebook to improve urban communities.

Let me know if you order the text. I would love to learn your thoughts on Perfect City.

About the Book

There is no such thing as a perfect city, but all great cities have moments of perfection — perfect streets or buildings, perfect places to raise a family or to relax with a coffee — and all strive for perfection when they undertake grand civic projects revitalizing their downtowns or waterfronts, or building innovation hubs, airports, and arenas, or reforming their governance systems, or integrating streams of new immigrants. Cities, more than ever, are the engines of our economies and the ecosystems in which our lives play out, which makes questions about the perfectibility of urban life all the more urgent. Joe Berridge, one of the world’s leading urban planners, takes us on an insider’s tour of some of the world’s largest and most diverse cities, from New York to London, Shanghai to Singapore, Toronto to Sydney, Manchester to Belfast, to scrutinize what is working and what is not, what is promising and what needs to be fixed in the contemporary megalopolis. We meet the people, politicians, and thinkers at the cutting edge of global city making, and share their struggles and successes as they balance the competing priorities of growing their economies, upgrading the urban machinery that keeps a city humming, and protecting, serving, and delighting their citizens. We visit a succession of great urban innovations, stop to eat in many of Joe’s favorite places, and leave with a startling view of the magical urban future that awaits us all.

About the Author

Joe Berridge, a partner at Urban Strategies, is an urban planner and city builder who has had an integral role in the development of complex urban planning and regeneration projects in Canada, the U.S., the U.K., Europe and Asia. He has been strategic advisor for the development of the city centres of Manchester, Belfast and Cardiff and for the waterfronts of Toronto, Singapore, Sydney, Cork, London and Governors Island in New York City. He has prepared campus master plans for the Universities of Manchester, Waterloo, Queen’s and Western and is now advising on the new hub for Toronto Pearson International Airport. Joe teaches at the University of Toronto and is a Senior Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy.

Quote of the Day - Nikki Giovanni

Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts.  

-Nikki Giovanni

Order books by Nikki Giovanni

Book Review: River Queens by Alexander Watson

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Book Title: River Queens
Book Author: Alexander Watson
Format: Manuscript Copy
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars (⭐⭐⭐⭐)
Source: Author

I am excited that I am getting back on track with my book reviews that are long overdue. I just finished reading River Queens by Alexander Watson. River Queens is about the journey of two men and their dog in the once unfamiliar world of boating. When these men go from being owners of an antique and renovation building to randomly transforming a wooden boat from looking like a nightmare gone wrong to a dream yacht named Betty Jane, I knew that this book would probably be like none that I have ever read.

It is said that a true river man searches the earth until he finds his very own river. A search that is as personal as it is for a mate.”- page 222 in River Queens

Even though I was lost with the boating terms sprinkled throughout River Queens, I appreciated the dose of reality about relationships with family, your significant other, and random people, whom you meet. The back of the River Queens contains a dictionary to understand the boating world terms that Watson’s use to further illustrate his point. The boating terms sometimes distracts and confuses the reader. So, readers can definitely appreciate this feature.

Throughout River Queens, Watson presents the rawness of life, especially from the viewpoint of a homosexual couple. With this text, Watson shows the normalcy surrounding people not accepting his relationship with his partner, Dale, as romantic and not just friends, while illuminating the beauty of a wonderful relationship with man’s best friend, a Dalmatian dog named Doris Faye. I like how Watson does not give an illusion that the relationship that he has with Dale is dreamy and perfect. Watson lets the reader know how decisions impacting the well-being of both must be discussed and addressed. I like how Watson shows the good, the bad, and ugly when you are embarking on a new and unfamiliar adventure, while in a relationship.

The reader learns so much about Watson and Dale in River Queens. Watson and Dale’s desire to renovate Betty Jane and trek across the rivers of the United States illuminates the importance of resilience, determination, and discipline. The time, effort, and commitment that Dale and Watson have to renovate Betty Jane amazed me, and I think it is truly remarkable and commendable. Watson does not focus primarily on sharing the wonderful aspects of the trek on the rivers, but he highlights in River Queens many instances of doubt, regret, physical and mental turmoil, and so much more. I think that everyone can benefit from reading this text because there are so many life lessons.

About  River Queens

Two men who have absolutely no business buying a boat, do; have the forty-five foot cruiser hauled to the Arkansas River; and plan to cruise down the Arkansas, up the Mississippi, and up to Ohio to re-settle in Cincinnati. But re-rigging the boat in the remotest part of eastern Oklahoma takes more time than they thought; the Mississippi isn't necessarily a river savvy boaters push up; and well, life, with its responsibilities and obligations, keeps poking its nose in. The summer vacation jaunt becomes an odyssey of epic proportions.

About the Author

Alexander Watson is an entrepreneur, an adventurer, and author. He has salvaged his families from bankruptcy, renovated derelict rental properties into Class A apartments; and restored a vintage motor yacht to its factory-new shine. In 2008, he sold it all to pursue a chance at life on the river.

Alexander's grandparents are responsible for his writing ability and his wanderlust. His grandfather who, as pioneering air-conditioning engineer, tamed the summer heat from the Sonora, across the Caribbean, to the Negev and beyond; he journaled obsessively. His Nan sent postcards and letters. But to get, Watson had to reciprocate. He still sends cards & letters whenever away from home. Watson’s book, River Queens: Saucy boat, stout mates, spotted dog, America tells of the extraordinary people found only on our nation’s rivers. Watson now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his partner and his dog, a black standard poodle named Kohl.

Links:

Author's Website: https://www.riverqueens.us
Sample read: https://www.riverqueens.us/sample-chapter-page
Goodreads Book Page:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42086062-river-queens
Goodreads Author Profile: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2942092.Alexander_Watson