Carleton’s Regional Carls Program

The Carleton Business Book Club

Wednesday, June 8, 2011
5:30 to 6:30 p.m.

Offices of Jenner & Block
353 North Clark Street, Ste 4500
(downtown Chicago)

The CBBC has been meeting monthly in Evanston for the past two years (taking summers off) to provide an incentive for people to read new business books and discuss their meaning to the world of work.  We read a new book for each meeting.  Some selections deal directly with business events (The New New Thing, All the Devils Are Here) and some take a more philosophical approach (Flip, Sway, Flash Foresight, The Speed of Trust).  As Carleton grads, our discussions tend to be "liberal arts" in nature!  We're always looking for new participants or to help others who wish to form their own group.

In order to get other Carls into the discussion, we've decided to move the June meeting from Evanston to downtown!  What better opportunity to catch up on your business reading?

June 8th Topic: When the going gets tough, who gets going – and how?

Book Selection: Solving Tough Problems, Adam Kahane (2008)

Tough problems usually don't get solved peacefully.  They either don't get solved at all, or they get solved by force.  These frustrating, sometimes frightening outcomes occur all the time.  Organizations keep returning to a familiar crisis, or a boss decrees a new strategy.  Communities split over a controversial issue, or a politician dictates the answer.  Either the people involved in a problem can't agree on what the solution is, or the people with power impose their solution on everyone else.  When we fall into the trap of telling and not listening, we close ourselves off from being changed by the world, and we limit ourselves to being able to change the world only by force. But when we talk and listen with an open mind, we bring forth our better selves and a better world.

FROM THE REVIEWS
“This is not another 'how-to' book.  Instead, Kahane provides us with the very personal story of how he grew from a young expert convinced of the need to provide the 'correct' answers, to an effective facilitator of positive change by learning how to create environments that enable new ideas and creative solutions to emerge.”

“Companies and individuals . . . will find thought-provoking (occasionally verging on spiritual) discourse on handling difficult situations gracefully, productively and calmly.”

Join the Carleton Business Book Club to explore a better process for problem solving.

You are welcome to invite friends to read the book and participate in the conversation, Carleton alums or not.

RSVP so that specific directions to the meeting room can be sent to you.  We would like to move to a nearby pub after the meeting for informal food and drink.

RSVP by June 1 to Don Rawitsch ’72 – dgrawitsch3@aol.com