Next up in the blog series that is ‘Rally Reads’ is the awesome Damian O'Broin, a close friend of Rally and the founder of Ask Direct in Ireland. We love collaborating with Damian and Ask Direct.
Damian set up Ask Direct to inspire as many people as possible to take action for the causes they care about, because we’ll only get a better world if people give their time, money and voice to build it. And we’re thrilled to have him on the blog.
What is Rally Reads!? It’s a series of blog posts where we ask the people who’ve had the biggest impact on us to share the books, documentaries, articles or films that have had the biggest impact on their careers and their thinking. And to explain why.
Over to DOB, as only we are allowed to call him.
None of my books are about how to “do” fundraising, mobilisation or campaigning. But all of them have had a huge impact on my thinking over the last year. I think it’s vital that we take our inspiration not just from inside the sector or craft in which we work, but from the broadest possible canvas. Whether that’s speculative science fiction and fantasy, new thinking on how we relate to each other, or the latest Taylor Swift album.
Team of Rivals. The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin
My first book is the last one I read, and undoubtedly one of the best books I’ve ever read (well, listened to - audiobooks rock). Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin has been around for a while and on my long list to read for yonks. I finally downloaded all 41 hours of it last month and wow! This book (already the inspiration for the film Lincoln) deserves its own 24 part netflix drama. It tells the story of not just Lincoln’s political career, but that of three of his sometime rivals and later colleagues - William Henry Seward, Salmon Chase and Edward Bates. It is a masterpiece that everyone interested in political change should read. It is packed full of lessons in political campaigning and leadership and shows how brilliantly Lincoln led from what was essentially a radical centrist position to deliver change on a remarkable scale. If Twitter had existed in 1860, Abe would have been castigated and cancelled by the radicals for his caution and consensus building. Yet he won the presidency, won the war and ended slavery in the US. It is arguably the most relevant book on politics, political organising and leadership you can read today. And some of the parallels between US politics in the lead up to the Civil War and the last few years are chilling.
Explaining Humans , Dr Camilla Pang
I’m a science geek. I loved this book. At the age of 8, Camilla Pang (who is autistic, has ADHD and generalised anxiety disorder) asked her mum if there was an instruction manual for humans. When she was told there wasn’t, she decided she’d write her own. This is it. It’s a fantastic articulation of what it means to be neurodivergent in a neurotypical world. And it draws in ideas and learnings from many strands of science to try and make sense of how we all work and interact with each other - much as I’ve argued above for us to draw inspiration from the many strands of our own lives and experiences.
Conflicted, Ian Leslie
Any of us who spend time on social media can be very wary of conflict. We’ve all seen the performative arguments, personal attacks, straw men and tendency to seek traitors rather than converts. It’s very tempting to shy away from conflict entirely. But conflict - done right - is essential and inevitable. We will always disagree. And disagreement and conflict can make our organisations stronger. After all, if all your colleagues are yes-men and women, you’re going to end up in trouble. The key thing is to figure out how to do it right, without poisoning relationships and damaging morale. And that’s where Ian Leslie’s brilliant book comes in. In an entertaining and very readable way he provides us with his rules for productive argument. They should teach this stuff in schools. This is a manual for negotiating the fraught world we live in and it has never been more needed. Ian has a weekly newsletter which I’d highly recommend. You won’t always agree with him, but then that’s the point really, isn’t it?
Reinventing Organisations, Frederic Laloux
Most business books are shit. Reheated pop psychology, baseless boosterism or half-assed hagiography. Doesn’t stop me reading them, mind. There are exceptions of course - anything by Jim Collins, some of the proper academic stuff - to which I’d very definitely add Frederic Laloux’s Reinventing Organisations.
Why, if we’re out there trying to change the world for the better and create a bright new future, are so many of our organisations rooted in the practices and beliefs of the past. Laloux sums up the central question of his book like this: “We yearn for more, for radically better ways to be in organizations. But is that genuinely possible, or mere wishful thinking? If it turns out that it is possible to create organizations that draw out more of our human potential, then what do such organizations look like? How do we bring them to life?”
Can we create organisations that operate effectively through self-management, without the need for hierarchy or consensus? Can we build workplaces in which people can be their whole, true selves? And can we find the evolutionary purpose of our organisation, understanding what the organisation wants to become and what purpose it wants to serve?
Using tons of examples from many sectors and countries, from home nursing to tomato processing Laloux argues that we definitely can, using concepts and methods such as self management and the advice process and more complex organisational forms like holacracy.
This is radical stuff. And potentially transformative. Should you be able to set your own salary in your organisation? Perhaps. But we spend a huge proportion of our lives in our workplaces (real or virtual) - shouldn’t we be striving to make those workplaces the best, most rewarding, most enjoyable places that we can?
Laloux has created a phenomenal online resource for these ideas and concepts, which you can browse here.
Next on my list.
I’m halfway through Peak Mind, by Dr. Amishi Jha in which she explains how the regular practice of mindfulness effectively ‘tones’ your brain so that you can focus your attention better. It’s excellent. I’m looking forward to settling down with the latest volume of Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda’s Monstress. The story is epic and the art is extraordinary. Doireann Ní Ghríofa’s A Ghost in the Throat has reached the top of my to-read pile and should be up next. I’m completely hooked on N.K. Jemsin’s Broken Earth trilogy, so I’m going to have to read the final instalment of that. Science Fiction and Fantasy can be powerful vehicles for ideas, and that’s very much the case here. Jemisin deals with power, inclusion, oppression and climate change. So, you know, the really big ones. And speaking of climate change, John Doerr’s new book Speed and Scale - A Global Action Plan for Solving our Climate Crisis Now is on my desk and demanding to be read.
Huge thanks to DOB for sharing his reading list. We hope you found it useful and that you add some of these books to your reading list. And don't be surprised if we approach you and ask you to give us your recommended reading and share some of the books that inspire you.
Main photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash