For members of minorities who want to navigate the corporate jungle, this book is an essential guide.
A senior editor at Wired offers sound advice for overcoming workplace discrimination.
Henry previously worked at the New York Times, and although it was ideologically a “liberal bastion,” it was not a friendly environment for Black employees. Like many organizations, it confused the number of minority people it hired with giving them real opportunities. The author recounts the many aspects of petty racism he encountered, including microaggressions and patronizing comments. But his emphasis is always on finding solutions, and he provides useful suggestions to deal with this level of discrimination without turning the office into a war zone. Having to work twice as hard as others to gain even minimal recognition can be a psychological strain, so having a network of peers in similar situations is important. In the office hierarchy, marginalized people are often shuffled into “office housework” roles, which usually do not offer advancement opportunities. Instead of accepting this situation, Henry suggests that workers invest time in making strategic connections with more senior people, building a higher profile as you better understand corporate priorities. It is crucial to assess your own skills and link them to the “glamour” work, which means being able to demonstrate your productivity. Look for projects that you can put your name on, and do not be afraid to tout your successes. Discrimination is most blatant when it comes to compensation: “For every dollar that a white man makes, a Black man makes eighty-eight cents. Black women, instead of earning eighty-two cents like their white female peers do, make seventy-six cents.” Being able to cite comparative data, both within the company and across the industry, is the key to salary negotiations, although having a record of achievements is also critical. Henry sets out his points in a logical, clear manner, and the result is a solid, useful package.
For members of minorities who want to navigate the corporate jungle, this book is an essential guide.Pub Date: June 7, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-593-23335-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Rodale
Review Posted Online: May 4, 2022
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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A passionate and accessible guide to humanizing the workplace.
Helbig and Norman present a game plan for making leadership more responsively human.
In this expanded update to The Psychological Safety Playbook: Lead More Powerfully by Being More Human (2023), the authors provide “practical strategies for responding to resistance, sparking change, embodying the change we want to see, and moving forward deliberately,” specifically in a business setting. They suggest ways to encourage what they call “changemakers” through the use of five key “plays” from their playbook: Communicate Courageously, Master the Art of Listening, Manage Your Reactions (“shift from automatic reaction to conscious response to stay better connected to yourself and others”), Embrace Risk and Failure, and Design Inclusive Rituals. The goal is to ensure that organizational cultures promote psychological safety, guided by leaders who “walk the talk” by emphasizing their own humanity at every turn. (“We must be the first to share our own failures with our teams, which will start to make it possible for others to do the same.”) This call for example-setting is sounded throughout the book as Helbig and Norman urge their target audience (leaders and would-be leaders) to go beyond mere instruction and instead embody the qualities they want to see in their subordinates, such as continuous learning, active curiosity, and self-reflection. Each chapter includes a detailed “Recommended Reading” section and text with extensive numbered and bulleted points formatted to make the core concepts more immediately digestible. The authors effectively employ clear and empathetic prose to assure readers that psychological safety is slow to build and quick to break, observing that such safety requires steady attention and delivers outsize payoffs as a result. They refreshingly ground a great deal of the material in psychology and neuroscience, pointing out, for instance, that research has demonstrated that the parasympathetic nervous system responds to honest appreciation, which improves creative thinking. Some wistful readers might consider some of the authors’ suggestions beyond the reach of their own organizations, as when group facilitators are advised to “gently intervene when someone dominates the conversation,” but hope springs eternal.
A passionate and accessible guide to humanizing the workplace.Pub Date: May 19, 2026
ISBN: 9798993550503
Page Count: 170
Publisher: Crazy Idea Press
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2026
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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