But to paraphrase James Baldwin, to be aware of what is happening in this world is to be in an almost perpetual state of rage. Everyone should be angry about injustice, not just those experiencing it.  And we can’t afford to shy away from anger. 

What I do have is a deep desire to move the conversation about solidarity and the feminist movement in a direction that recognizes that an intersectional approach to feminism is key to improving relationships between communities of women, so that some measure of true solidarity can happen. Erasure is not equality, least of all in a movement that draws much of its strength from the claim that it represents over half of the world’s population.  

Sometimes being a good ally is about opening the door for someone instead of insisting that your voice is the only one that matters.  

Hunger is painful even in the short term. And yet we rarely speak of it as something for feminism to combat, much less as something that is uniquely devastating for women.

Poverty can mean turning to everything from sex work to selling drugs in order to survive, because you can’t “lean in” when you can’t earn a legal living wage and you still need to feed yourself and those who depend on you.  

We could stop acting like food insecurity is a sin or a shame for any individual and treat it rightfully like an indictment of our society.  

To quote Gwendolyn Brooks, “We are each other’s harvest; we are each other’s business; we are each other’s magnitude and bond.” But if we believe that only some people deserve safety, that the right to your own body has to be earned through adhering to arbitrary rules, then are we really seeing each other as equals? As human beings at all?

There’s nothing feminist about having so many resources at your fingertips and choosing to be ignorant. Nothing empowering or enlightening in deciding that intent trumps impact. Especially when the consequences aren’t going to be experienced by you, but will instead be experienced by someone from a marginalized community.

Feminism is the work that you do, and the people you do it for who matter more than anything else.  

No problem like racism, misogynoir, or homophobia ever went away because everyone ignored it.

Mikki Kendall, Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot

——————–

I am a no-longer-young white guy.  I was raised in my earliest years in the segregated, Jim Crow world of Jacksonville, Florida.  This book was…eye-opening.

I presented my synopsis of Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall at the March Urban Engagement Book Club, sponsored by CitySquare.  This book club focuses on books dealing with issues of social justice:  poverty, problems facing the unhoused, racism, education issues…  This book was quite a fit!

Before I launch into this, let me comment that Hood Feminism is readable; engaging. And it is definitely worth reading!

I begin my synopses by asking What is the point? of this book.  Here is the point of this book: Black women may deal with different issues than white women deal with; but their real-world struggles are the struggles of real women. And all feminists must join up.  The hood needs feminists and accomplices…

And I ask Why is this book worth our time? – Why does this book matter?  Here are my three reasons for this book:

#1 – This book is an eye-opening reality check about the lives of Black women; especially poor Black women.

#2 – This book helps all understand that the anger, and rage, are…justified. And understandable.

#3 – This book absolutely reveals that the struggle is not going to be over anytime soon.

I always include Quotes and Excerpts from the book – the “best of” Randy’s highlighted Passages. Her eare a number of the bist of the best ofm rhtis book:

Being skeptical of those who promise they care but do nothing to help those who are marginalized is a life skill that can serve you well when your identity makes you a target. There’s no magic shield in being middle class that can completely insulate you from the consequences of being in a body that’s already been criminalized for existing. 

My feminism doesn’t center on those who are comfortable with the status quo because ultimately that road can never lead to equity for girls like me. 

We all have to engage with the world as it is, not as we might wish it to be, and that makes the idealized feminism that focuses on the concerns of those with the most the province of the privileged.  

Feminism in the hood is for everyone, because everyone needs it.  …For example, when we talk about rape culture the focus is often on potential date rape of suburban teens, not the higher rates of sexual assault and abuse faced by Indigenous American and Alaskan women.   

While white feminism can lean in, can prioritize the CEO level at work, it fails to show up when Black women are not being hired because of their names or fired for hairstyles. 

Respectability narratives discourage us from addressing the needs of sex workers, incarcerated women, or anyone else who has had to face hard life choices. No woman has to be respectable to be valuable. 

Affirmative action complaints (including those filed by white women) hinge on the idea that people of color are getting the most benefit when the reality is that white women benefit the most from affirmative action policies. The sad reality is that while white women are an oppressed group, they still wield more power than any other group of women—including the power to oppress both men and women of color. 

When white feminism ignores history, ignores that the tears of white women have the power to get Black people killed while insisting that all women are on the same side, it doesn’t solve anything. Look at Carolyn Bryant, who lied about Emmett Till whistling at her in 1955.

When building solidarity, there is no room for savior myths.

Although the hashtag #solidarityisforwhitewomen rose out of a particular problem within the online feminist community at that moment, it addresses the much larger problem of what it means to stand in solidarity as a movement meant to encompass all women when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others. It’s rhetorical shorthand for the reality that white women can oppress women of color, straight women can oppress lesbian women, cis women can oppress trans women, and so on.   

The anger now bubbling up in hashtags, blog posts, and meetings is shorthand for women of color declaring to white women, “I’m not here to clean up your mess, carry your spear, hold your hand, or cheer you on while I suffer in silence. I’m not here to raise your children, assuage your guilt, build your platforms, or fight your battles. I’m here for my community because no one else will stand up for us but us.” 

Untold numbers of women of color were and are still fighting to get paid at all. 

What compounds the problem of violence in the hood is the long history of isolated Black communities in America not being able to trust law enforcement as, over time, they have proven themselves to be largely indifferent to violence against marginalized people.   

We’ve taken war weapons to the streets and homes of civilians with no idea what harm these weapons can do, or that escalation is never a solution.   

Hypervigilance and anxiety are part of how you stay alive in communities where gun violence is a constant, and it took a long time for me to recognize that these traits were my response to trauma.   

In 2016, the Violence Policy Center documented that Black women experience the highest rates of gun homicide out of any group of women, and much of that can be attributed to instances of intimate partner violence.   

When annoying a new neighbor carries the risk of being shot, the question isn’t whether gun violence is a feminist issue; the question is why mainstream feminism isn’t doing more to address the problem. 

It’s time to treat domestic violence and hate speech as the neon red flags that they are and take the necessary steps to reduce the risks instead of hoping that they’ll go away. 

It’s time to treat domestic violence and hate speech as the neon red flags that they are and take the necessary steps to reduce the risks instead of hoping that they’ll go away.  

We point to the suits and ties and dresses worn during the civil rights movement and ignore that the people in them were still beaten, still arrested, still lynched. 

We need to let go of respectability politics and understand that whiteness as a construct will never approve of us, and that the approval of white supremacy is nothing that we or any community should be seeking.   

This is not an argument that white women don’t care about others so much as it is that in many cases, they simply don’t care enough. The problem is that while they can see the danger in voting in support of building walls, discriminating against Muslims, and candidates accused of sexual assault, as long as they don’t feel directly threatened, they are less likely to confront or bring about any social consequences for the family members who do. They don’t realize how much their decisions will harm others… …for those who will definitely be negatively impacted by white supremacy, they can’t afford to coddle the feelings of white women who are invested in not being held accountable. …So white feminism is going to have to get comfortable with the idea that until they challenge their racist aunts, parents, cousins, and so on, it is definitely all white women who are responsible. 

Feminism that encompasses all the issues that impact women, from poverty to criminal justice reform to living wages to better protections for immigrants to LGBTQIA issues, is feminism that ensures voting rights for all as a foundational issue.   

But what gets obscured is that consistent access to quality health care is something everyone needs at every stage of their life. And that for many, when things go awry, the first step isn’t a lawsuit; it is survival.  

Persistent racist beliefs in medicine and otherwise are at the root of ongoing racial disparities in treatment and patient outcomes; this represents a challenge not only for twenty-first-century medical providers, but for those who fight for the access of marginalized communities to quality health care.

Reproductive justice means not just fighting to defend Planned Parenthood or the Title X family planning program. It also means protecting nutrition programs such as the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).  

It is never the privileged outsider who gets to decide when they’re a good ally. …A common problem is that when allies are challenged, they often insist that there is no way they could be part of the problem. …Identifying yourself as an ally is a convenient way to give yourself a pass for dismissing the words or experiences of people with less privilege and power than you.

My rage is sometimes eloquent and often effective, and it occasionally feels eviscerating in its intensity. I believe in rage, believe in aiming it when I unleash it because I know it can be so powerful.

And then, in my synopses, I include key points, and principles, and my own lessons and takeawasy from the book.  Here is much of what I included in my synopsis.  (Portions in italics are direct excerpts from the book):

• About the author:
• grew up poor, Black, under multiple “threats” — Army veteran
• two college degrees; Masters in Writing and Publishing, DePaul University
• The hood is my home, and always will be, but I am deeply aware of the way that my privilege in being able to code-switch and to see and mimic middle-class manners has given me access.
• This veneer of respectability that came from getting more education and being able to write professionally is nice. I like knowing that people will listen to what I have to say, but I’m always aware that people don’t usually listen to the Black girls like me, and that even now some will carve out a space for me that is separate from the other people like me.
• I’m a feminist. Mostly. I’m an asshole. Mostly. …the fact that I am not nice is often brought up. And it’s true: I’m not really a nice person. I am (at times) a kind person. But nice? Nope. … But niceness is more than helping; it is stopping to listen, to connect, to be gentle with your words. …I reserve nice for people who are nice to me or for those who I know need it because of their circumstances. …But my lane is different. I’m the feminist people call when being sweet isn’t enough, when saying things kindly, repeatedly, is not working. I’m the feminist who walks into a meeting and says, “Hey, you’re fucking up and here’s how,” and nice feminists feign shock at my harsh words.

{• Let’s start with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs, and how white feminists and Black feminists might be at different places on the hierarchy…

• Self-actualization
• Self-esteem
• Love/Belonging
• Safety
• Physiological}

• Instead of a framework that focuses on helping women get basic needs met, all too often the focus is not on survival but on increasing privilege. For a movement that is meant to represent all women, it often centers on those who already have most of their needs met.
• This book will explain how poor women struggling to put food on the table, people in inner cities fighting to keep schools open, and rural populations fighting for the most basic of choices about their bodies are feminist concerns…
• While the problems facing marginalized women have only increased in intensity, somehow food insecurity, education, and health care—beyond the most basic of reproductive needs—are rarely touted as feminist issues. It is past time to make the conversation a nuanced, inclusive, and intersectional one that reflects the concerns of all women, not just a privileged few.

• The most vulnerable:
• Black women
• Black LGBTQ people; especially women; especially trans women…
• Trans women are often derided or erased, while prominent feminist voices parrot the words of conservative bigots, framing womanhood as biological and determined at birth instead of as a fluid and often arbitrary social construct. …Trans women of color, who are among the most likely targets of violence, see statistics that reflect their reality co-opted to bolster the idea that all women are facing the same level of danger. …support from mainstream white feminists for the issues that directly impact trans women has been at best minimal, and often nonexistent.

• Some of the “problems”
• food; physical safety; sexual safety; mental health safety; shelter; discrimination; bullying by white people; by teachers); police “brutality”
• Food insecurity and access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues.

• The angry Black woman; angry for legitimate reasons…

• Gun Violence:
• many women, especially those from lower-income communities, face gun violence every day. The presence of a gun in a domestic violence situation makes it five times more likely that a woman will be killed. Women get killed by these guns because they are available, because their partners are violent, because an accident with a gun is more likely to be fatal, because of a dozen mundane reasons made worse by the availability of weapons.
• Girls drop out of school at nearly the same rate as boys in an effort to avoid having to pass through places where shootings are common—that is, in an effort to survive.
• A twelve-year-old girl was shot on her porch a few blocks from my house while I was writing this chapter.
• It’s a public epidemic that we ignore. Every state, every city, and every income level has been impacted by gun violence.
• Gun-related deaths are now the second-leading cause of death for American children, who are fourteen times more likely to be killed with guns before age fifteen than children in other high-income countries.

• Impossible demands…
• Code-switching elders teach us to make calls with our best “white girl” voice, but for those who can’t manage to mimic that speech pattern, or who can’t maintain it, that accent means the loss of opportunities.
• The emotional labor required to be respectable, to never ruffle anyone’s feathers, to not get angry enough to challenge much less confront those who might have harmed you, is incredibly onerous precisely because it is so dehumanizing. 

• The intersectional approach to feminism:
• Intersectionality isn’t a convenient buzzword that can be co-opted into erasing Professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, who coined the term to describe the way race and gender impact Black women in the justice system. An intersectional approach to feminism requires understanding that too often mainstream feminism ignores that Black women and other women of color are the proverbial canaries in the coal mine of hate. 

• Be a feminist. And…Be an accomplice.
• Being an accomplice means that white feminism will devote its platforms and resources to supporting those in marginalized communities doing feminist work.

And here are my Five Lessons and Takeaways:

#1 – Real world worries, about safety, and hunger, and poverty, are concerns for every feminist to adopt.

#2 – Black women are the ones who should determine what Black women feminists should be concerned about and focused on.  Only Black women!

#3 – White supremacy and white nationalism are real, and dangerous, to Black people; especially Black women.

#4 – Black women, at times, have to make “unacceptable” choices, out of necessity.  Have more empathy, and a lot more understanding.

#5 – A reminder:  read more books that teach you in new ways, while taking you outside your comfort zone.

I have a strong opinion:  I think we should all read books from people coming at life from places different from our own.  I think we need to expand our understandings; we need to stretch in our own thinking.

This book did all that, and more, for me.  I highly recommend it for your reading stack.

——————- 

Note:  these book club sessions are always on the Third Thursday, each month, at 12:30 PM, Central Time, on Zoom.  (We also meet in person; a hybrid meeting).  Join us! Click here for all details.

299 sessions.

597 books.

25 years. – The First Friday Book Synopsis hits 25; and much more to come!

On April 7, we will begin year 26 of preparing and delivering synopses of good, useful, best-selling business books. 

We have met every month but one since April, 1998.  (One month, an ice storm shut us down).

We have presented synopses of two books every month we have met except for one month, where only one book was presented.  (This was our transition to Zoom for the pandemic, and I presented only one synopsis that first month).

So:

25 years; 299 meetings; 2 books every month, except for that one month with just one book = 597 books.

The list of books we have presented is really overwhelming.  All of the big best-sellers are here.  Books like:

Good to Great; Lean In; Mindset; Atomic Habits; Great by Choice; Outliers; Knowing Your Value; Extreme Ownership; Moneyball, The Big Short; Freakonomics; Blue Ocean Strategy; Rise of the Robots; Grit; Radical Candor; Factfulness; Invisible Women; True North; Chip War… …And so, so many more.

And we have presented books by so many well-known and respected authors, from:

Peter Drucker to Tom Peters to Thomas Friedman to Clayton Christensen to Jim Collins to Malcolm Gladwell to Daniel Pink to Daniel Kahneman to Kouzes and Posner to Sheryl Sandberg to Mika Brzezinski to Barbara Ehrenreich to David Allen to Ram Charan to John Kotter to Jocko Willink to Michael Lewis to Peter Senge to Kenneth Blanchard to Seth Godin to John Wooden to Phil Jackson to Marcus Buckingham to Susan Cain to Nassim Nicholas Taleb to Daniel Goleman to Stephen Covey and Steven Covey to Gary Hamel to Timothy Ferris to Katty Kay and Claire Shipman to Rosabeth Moss Kanter to Chip Heath and Dan Heath to Atul Gawande to Joe Nocera to Guy Kawasaki to Walter Isaacson to Charles Duhigg to Peter Diamandis to Simon Sinek to Marshall Goldsmith to General Stanley McChrystal to Adam Grant to Timothy Ferris to Kim Scott to Ryan Holiday to Ray Dalio to Brené Brown to Jim Mattis to Robert Iger to Tony Faddell to…  well, you get the point. 

These are a lot of good, influential business-book authors!

One regular participant recently told me that she has saved 187 of the synopsis handouts, and refers to them regularly.

Many have told me that they refer back to the synopsis handouts regularly.

And, plenty of times, those who have read the book have told me that they got more out of my synopses than they did from reading the books themselves.

I read the books, I present the books, and I refer back to my synopsis handouts constantly. And, I have learned so very much!

In other words, I feel like the First Friday Book Synopsis is THE Place, with THE approach, for an on-going, keep-you-current, business education.

My thanks to my former colleague, Karl Krayer, who presented one book each month until his stroke a few years back.

And my deepest thanks and gratitude to all the participants, who attend our events, learn, and help spread the word.

So many books… …so much learning!!!

And; we ain’t learned nothin’ yet!  Many, many, many more books, and lessons, and takeaways await!

Happy 25th, I say!

—————

just a few of the books I have presented

Here are a few ways to purchase our past synopses. Each comes with two files; the pdf of the synopsis handout, plus the audio recording of the presentation of the synopsis.

I provide bundles of three/four synopses by category here:  FOR THE LIFELONG LEARNER IN ALL OF US – Announcing The First Friday Book Synopsis Academy of Lifelong Learning.

You can always check out our most recent synopses by clicking here.

Purchase individual synopses by searching by book title by clicking here.

Or, purchase a subscription, and gain access to all of the synopsis by clicking here.

Please note: We are easing back to an in-person schedule. We will continue to offer the session on Zoom also, though Randy will now be on Zoom from the CitySquare Opportunity Center.

AND: look for signs to find the room for our gathering. (Or call me/Randy at 214-577-8025, if you can’t find us).

In-person details:

Where: CitySquare Opportunity Center,

1610 S Malcolm X Blvd, Bldg. 350,

Dallas TX 75226

When: Thursday, March 16, Noon

Note this detail: BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH!

(Note: park in the parking lot, look for the signs).

—–

AND…

You are invited – on Zoom, Thursday!

A special encouragement to attend 

the Urban Engagement Book Club, 

Thursday, March 16, over Zoom, 12:30 pm

You are invited to attend Thursday’s session, January 19, 2023, on Zoom.

Thursday’s book, 

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

Please join us. All details below.

Click on image to download the synopsis handout

————

If you have an open lunch time window Thursday, March 16, 12:30 pm (CST), I am presenting my synopsis of:

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot by Mikki Kendall

I encourage you to download my synopsis handout, print it out, and follow along.

Come join us on Zoom.

Urban Engagement Book Club
Thursday, March 16, 2023 – 12:30 pm (CST)

Synopsis presented by Randy Mayeux
We conclude shortly after 1:30.
(This event is free).

Here is the lineup of upcoming books, and a look back to the books of 2022.  

And, here is the Zoom link to join our gathering. 

Randy Mayeux is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83866241986?pwd=WGNyWklhWFYvdDE4QmZ5MUtIUjNWUT09

Meeting ID: 838 6624 1986

Passcode: 663247

———————

Click on image to download the synopsis handout

Here is the more complete Zoom info.

Randy Mayeux is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Urban Engagement Book Club, 2023

Time: March 16, 2023 12:30 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83866241986?pwd=WGNyWklhWFYvdDE4QmZ5MUtIUjNWUT09

Meeting ID: 838 6624 1986

Passcode: 663247

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25 Years – and Counting!

At our April 7 First Friday Book Synopsis, we will begin Year 26.

We have met every month since April, 1998 (except for one cancellation because of an ice storm), and by my count, we have presented synopses of just under 600 books.

The “we” is Karl Krayer, my co-founder, and me.  Karl would present one book, and I the second, each month.  We did have a few guest presenters through the years, when one of us had to be absent.

And, I have been presenting both books each month since Karl suffered a stroke in the Fall of 2017.

As we prepare to celebrate our full 25 years, and as I reflect back on the many, many books we presented, the task of choosing the best, most important books feels like a truly impossible task.

When people ask me what is the best, or most important book, I have ever read, I do have a ready answer.  It is Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl.  Mr. Frankl survived the Nazi death camps, and wrote his masterpiece shortly after the second world war.  I presented my synopsis of this book at a special lunch presentation, back in September, 2017. We called that luncheon “The Great Books,” and I presented Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. (originally published, 1946), and Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari.

(Our First Friday Book Synopsis focuses on business books.  This luncheon let me branch out a little…).

The BIG IDEA of Man’s Search for Meaning:  There are three primary messages:

Message #1 – One must discover meaning to keep living.  — The will to meaning instead of the will to pleasure and instead of the will to power.

Message #2 – One has little control over what might happen – but the individual has the freedom to choose how he/she will respond to the situation. – (“to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”)

And, Message #3 — The truth; that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which man can aspire.

That was the only time we held this “extra” session.  (Maybe I should hold a few more of these).

From our regular sessions on business books,  I tried to think about key books that seem to have really stood the test of time.  I came up with a list of five from the many we have presented. 

• Book #1 — Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck. Ballantine Books; Updated edition (2007).  I presented this book well after it was published, at our April, 2018 session.

The BIG IDEA of Mindset:  There are two primary mindsets:

The Fixed Mindset – “carved in stone” – you can go only so far, because there is a limit to your capability.

The Growth Mindset – “just the starting point for development” – you always have more room to grow, to learn, to change for the better.

For lifelong learning, having a growth mindset is essential.  For leaders, it is essential that you believe your people can continue to grow and develop.  You have to view each person as capable of learning more! 

• Book #2 — Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.  (2011).  Karl Krayer presented this book at our April, 2012 session. 

This book, written by Daniel Kahneman, Noble Prize winner in Economics, is possibly the most oft-quoted book that we have ever presented.  I see Kahneman quoted in book after book after book. 

The BIG IDEA of Thinking, Fast and Slow:  There are two primary “systems” of thinking:

System 1 operates automatically and quickly, with little or no effort and no sense of voluntary control.

System 2 allocates attention to the effortful mental activities that demand it, including complex computations. The operations of System 2 are often associated with the subjective experience of agency, choice, and concentration.

In other words, System 1 is not much thinking at all.  System 2 requires work, serious research, and thoughtful pondering.  Books such as Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant make more sense after understanding Kahneman’s work. 

My selection for best business book of the year, 2019

• Book #3 — Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. Riverhead Books. (2019). I presented this book at our July, 2019 session.

A few years ago, I started picking out my own “best business book of the year.”  This was my selection for 2019.

The BIG IDEA of Range is right there in the subtitle:  generalists may be what we need more than specialists. So: train broadly; learn slowly… 

I especially like what Mr. Epstein does with “learning environments”:

• kind-learning environments need experts with narrow expertise — “kind” learning environments. Patterns repeat over and over, and feedback is extremely accurate and usually very rapid. — That is the very definition of deliberate practice.

• wicked-learning environments need much broader input; narrow expertise actually hurts the outcomes…

• Do not treat the wicked world as kind; it is not kind! – Chris Argyris, who helped create the Yale School of Management, noted the danger of treating the wicked world as if it is kind.

• Book #4 — Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott. St. Martin’s Press. (2017). I presented this book at our May, 2017 session.

The BIG IDEA of Radical Candor is in her formula — leaders must:

Care Personally

AND

Challenge Directly.

Yep!

• Book #5 — The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande. Metropolitan Books (2009). I presented this book at our April, 2010 session.

The BIG IDEA of The Checklist Manifesto is that we all should carefully develop our checklists, and then follow them just as carefully, to get things done without anything falling through the cracks.

There are, of course, other books that reinforce some of these notions:  Getting Things Done by David Allen, and the recent Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte.  But maybe the book to read first in this category is Gawande’s modern day masterpiece on the value of checklists.

To choose just five books from 25 years is …just a drop in the bucket.  There are so, so many very good books I left out:  Extreme Ownership; The World is Flat; The Second Machine Age; Digital Transformation; Willful Blindness; Lean In… So many others… the list is long!

And, if I were to write this blog post on a different day, I might make other choices.

So, it is a good time to remind you that there is always the next good book to read.  And, in our 26^th year of the First Friday Book Synopsis, I fully expect to present a synopsis or 24 books that will stretch us, teach us, and help us continue on the growth-mindset-path that we all are beckoned to follow.

——————–

so many books; so little time

You can purchase our synopses presentations from the buy synopses tab at the top of this page.  On that page, you can search by book title. And click here for our newest additions.

Each synopsis comes with my comprehensive, multi-page synopsis handout, plus the audio recording of my presentation delivered at the First Friday Book Synopsis in Dallas.

• Here’s a question:

What if we live in such a short brevity world that it is hurting our capacity to think deeply?

• Background:

Last Friday, I presented my synopsis of the book Smart Brevity.  (Read my “short” blog post here).  I liked the book.  I agreed with it.

And then…and yet…

But, today, I read this article by Ross Douthat in the New York Times: I’m What’s Wrong with the Humanities.

In it, Mr. Douthat refers to another article dealing with the same issue – an article he admits he did not read thoroughly, at first, which is part of the problem – and then, he acknowledged that he does not read the great novels like he should; like he once did.

• My thinking:

Though my academic work, and my personal reading, have never included enough time in the great novels, I have read nonfiction, philosophy and rhetoric pretty seriously.

For 25 years, I have presented synopses of business books, and books on issues of social justice.

I read these books quite thoroughly.  And, my synopses are not brief.  My synopsis for the book Smart Brevity was not brief:  it lasted just over 30 minutes.  (I record them; and see the actual time).

• So…

Maybe I am simply trying to justify my long presentations, my use of what some would consider way too many words.  But…

For my synopses, I prepare multi-page, comprehensive synopsis handouts.  They are 9-12 pages.  They include quite a few pages of the “best of Randy’s highlighted passages” from the books.  When I make my presentation, I read extensively, directly, from the handout (every participant has a copy; a physical copy).  I read a number of the highlighted passages, almost like a book reading.  Then I present from the rest of my prepared synopsis handout.

People tell me that they really do get the essence of the books I present.  Even when they have read the book on their own, they thank me for what they learned in my synopsis presentation; what they had not quite grasped in their own reading.

If you attend my First Friday Book Synopsis event, you will hear two full synopsis presentations; each about 25 minutes, or so.  In other words, a pretty deep dive in a smart brevity world.

• Deep dive; read a book in its entirety!

Now, I may be fooling myself.  But I might say to Mr. Douthat that the need is not to read the great novels thoroughly, though that would be a good thing indeed.  Maybe the need is to read any kind of book thoroughly.  To read with a deep dive; to focus your thinking; to learn from and argue with the book – the entire book; the book in its entirety – in the way that only a thorough reading makes possible.

Of course my synopses are not as good as reading the book for yourself; not as thorough, not as deep…  But, they are not nothing.  Our monthly sessions provide a rare concentrated moment of something close to depth in our too-busy, too-distracted, too-brief world.

Maybe we all need to take a deep dive in a smart brevity era.

Read more books!

• What are you doing to tackle such a need?

(Note from Randy:  I presented my synopsis of Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies at the March First Friday Book Synopsis. I will write my “normal-length” blog post about this book later this week.  But, here’s my short version).

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Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies by Marjorie Ingall and Susan McCarthy

• What is the point? — Our entire culture is starved for apologies; sincere, good, well-worded apologies.  Learning to make a good apology is part of the calling of being fully human.

• Why present a book on apologies in a business book gathering?
• hospitals need to apologize
• Businesses, like health-care systems, have to create an environment that makes it safe for employees to admit errors and then work collaboratively to fix them.
• airlines need to apologize
• companies need to apologize.
• people need to apologize to other people they work with.Until they do, the work will be…harmed…

• SIX SIMPLE STEPS TO GETTING IT RIGHT (from the book)

 1)  Say you’re sorry. — FIRST, say “I apologize” or “I’m sorry.” Say it. Say those words.

2) For what you did. — Say what the something was. Specify! This is important. This is something that gets bungled a lot. Name it. Say it simply. …Remember, apologize for what you did. Not for how the other person felt about it. You are apologizing for your actions, not how the other person responded to them.

3) Show you understand why it was bad.

4) Only explain if you need to; don’t make excuses. — Focus hard on not letting explanations drift into excuses. Keep in mind that “I didn’t mean to!” is an excuse. It is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.

5)  Say why it won’t happen again.

6) Offer to make up for it.

6) 6½: Six and a half. Listen. — Make sure the person you’ve apologized to can have their say. Listen. Do not interrupt; do not protest. Just listen.

• Clearly, not every step is needed in every apology. But never ever skip one and two—always say you’re sorry and what you’re sorry for.

• And here are my Five Lessons and Takeaways:

#1 – You will do wrong; you will commit wrongs that hurt other people. Try to do wrong less often.

#2 – When you do wrong to another person, apologize; say you are sorry.

#3 – When you apologize, apologize.  Don’t explain, justify, excuse, blame, or ask for anything.  Apologize.

#4 – If you lead a team, group, company, be on the lookout for hurt between people.  Learn to help people apologize to each other.  Company success, group success, team success all depend on this.

#5 – Apologize with no expectation.  Apologize because it is the right thing to do.