HR manager Paul Knoch reviews the book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. The review counts this business fiction as a quick, informative read that would be of use to almost any HR practitioner who must work with a team of employees.

Have you ever wondered why your team of smart, competent, generally pleasant people can’t seem to come together as a cohesive, effective team? Building a strong team requires much more than simply having good people on board. Our natural tendencies often lean more towards dysfunction than cooperation. Turf wars, tension, and cynicism can erode a team’s ability to cooperate. Over time, this lack of cooperation will eventually lead to devastating results.

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Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling business books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, November 17, in the “Management and Leadership” category.

1. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb.
You probably don’t realize it, but life is a series of highly improbable yet earthshaking events. That’s the argument of The Black Swan, which in many ways is a re-do of the author’s 2001 best-seller, Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets. The highly entertaining new book, though, is longer, better-grounded, and with more advice about how to live in the presence of deep unpredictability. The core of The Black Swan argues that economists, journalists, and corporate planners behave as if they’re living in predictable “Mediocristan” when they’re really in “Extremistan.” It’s a richly enjoyable read with an important message.

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BusinessWeek ranks business books that are the most recent bestsellers and provides a short summary.

1. Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman. New York Times columnist Friedman offers an urgent plea to unleash U.S. creativity—and capitalism—on the challenges of energy, climate change, and world population growth. “I am convinced that the public is ready,” he writes—“they’re ahead of the politicians.”

2. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.

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HR practicioner Paul Knoch reviews the books Conspiracy Of Fools by Kurt Eichenwald and Disney War by James Stewart . The review examines both books’ tales of “corporate culture gone awry” and argues that they should be lessons to HR.

Both Conspiracy of Fools: A True Story by Kurt Eichenwald and Disney War by James Stewart are cautionary tales of corporate culture gone awry. If HR professionals are to be the “guardians” of an organization’s culture and identity, it may be instructive to consider these two examples of how greed and ego combined to effectively blind an organization to its own steady demise.

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The following is a list of the bestselling hardcover business books as ranked by the New York Times on November 3.

1. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. The life of Warren Buffett.

2. Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman. The author of The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century and New York Times columnist explores how a green revolution can renew America.

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Resources for Humans managing editor Celeste Blackburn reviews the book Recognizing Richard Rabbit: A Fable about Being True to Yourself by Peter Weddle. Review finds that while book may be useful in therapy setting, it doesn’t offer much for the HR professional.

In Recognizing Richard Rabbit: A Fable About Being True to Yourself, Peter Weddle separates each page turn: on the right side is the fable of Richard Rabbit and on the left is what he calls “a corresponding interview with yourself.” The fable follows Willie Wabbit’s transformation into his “true self” Richard Rabbit. Along the way, his friends offer support and try to help him find a good luck charm that will help him change his life. In the end, he realizes that he is his own good luck charm (he does, after all, come with an attached rabbit’s foot). This fairly clever fable does a good job of illustrating that we make our own luck and that we can’t just wish for things and hope that they will happen.

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Amazon.com updates its list of the bestselling business books every hour. Here is a snapshot of what is hot right now, this Monday morning, October 27, in the “Business and Investing” category.

1. The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as “The Oracle of Omaha.”

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Last October, we launched Resources for Humans: A Review of the Best Books for HR. So this week, we are taking a look back at the five most popular reviews. We hope you have enjoyed this first year and found many helpful books. We look forward to bringing you another year full of great reading.

— Resources for Humans Managing Editor Celeste Blackburn

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BusinessWeek ranks business books that are the most recent bestsellers and provides a short summary.

1. StrengthsFinder 2.0: A New and Upgraded Edition of the Online Test from Gallup’s Now, Discover Your Strengths by Tom Rath. Are you unsure where your true talents lie? Do you feel that you are both a person who gets things done and someone who offers penetrating analysis? Well, you can discover whether you are truly an “achiever” or an “analytical” by completing the online quiz. Then, the book will give you “ideas for action” and tips for how best you can work with others. More of a patiencetester than Strengthsfinder, the quiz/book is probably best for those who have lots of time on their hands.

2. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich by Timothy Ferriss. Ferriss isn’t shy about tooting his own horn: He says he “speaks six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations worldwide, and has been a world-record holder in tango, a national champion in kickboxing, and an actor in a hit television series in Hong Kong.” Is this the sort of person you really want to be taking advice from? Anyway, Ferris offers recommendations and resources for everything from eliminating wasted time to oursourcing your job and getting cheap airfare. Discover your dreams and live them!

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Resources for Humans managing editor Celeste Blackburn reviews the book The Levity Effect: Why It Pays to Lighten Up. Review summarizes book’s theory on how levity improves the workplace and ways to achieve levity.

These are serious times. As the stock market plunges and the government is bailing out banks, many employers are struggling to make payroll. Their employees are watching their retirements savings diminish all while feeling the toll of higher food, fuel, and energy prices. So now, more than ever, is the time for a little levity.

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