A well-written and informative guide to leading an equitable workplace.
A business book offers advice on leadership and equity in the workplace from a human resources veteran.
In this guide, Sever shares insights gained from years of work in human resources, both in-house and as a consultant, with a focus on issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The volume is aimed at managers, and the author opens by explaining what it takes to successfully supervise employees, from running meetings to evaluating performance. The book then moves to big-picture questions of missions, relationships, and behavior, advising readers who want to make sure their businesses are demonstrating the values they espouse. The following chapters explore how organizations—their HR departments, in particular—can take concrete actions to promote social justice in the workplace through hiring practices, compensation policies, and supportive environments. The narrative is interspersed with “Make It Your Own” sections, in which Sever asks questions designed to help readers apply the topics covered to their own workplaces (“What are structural changes within your organization that could make getting the work done and self-care both possible?”). The author is a thoughtful and methodical writer, and the volume covers a substantial amount of information without overwhelming readers. Proponents of social justice in the workplace will find concrete recommendations for taking action and creating a more equitable environment. Readers who are more skeptical about the topic should find Sever’s explanations of how an organization can take steps toward equity and why it benefits everyone involved both informative and persuasive. New managers are also likely to find the guide particularly useful, as the author explores the key elements of a supervisory role and how they can be implemented properly or badly. Readers without previous exposure to leadership or HR concepts will have no difficulty following along. The combination of theoretical explanations, hypotheticals, and anecdotes from Sever’s management career is an effective one, delivering plenty of nuance and a variety of ways of approaching a complex topic. The manual’s blend of idealistic goals and cleareyed assessments of corporate reality makes for an effective read.
A well-written and informative guide to leading an equitable workplace.Pub Date: Aug. 3, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64742-140-3
Page Count: 300
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.
The veteran actor, comedian, and banjo player teams up with the acclaimed illustrator to create a unique book of cartoons that communicates their personalities.
Martin, also a prolific author, has always been intrigued by the cartoons strewn throughout the pages of the New Yorker. So when he was presented with the opportunity to work with Bliss, who has been a staff cartoonist at the magazine since 1997, he seized the moment. “The idea of a one-panel image with or without a caption mystified me,” he writes. “I felt like, yeah, sometimes I’m funny, but there are these other weird freaks who are actually funny.” Once the duo agreed to work together, they established their creative process, which consisted of working forward and backward: “Forwards was me conceiving of several cartoon images and captions, and Harry would select his favorites; backwards was Harry sending me sketched or fully drawn cartoons for dialogue or banners.” Sometimes, he writes, “the perfect joke occurs two seconds before deadline.” There are several cartoons depicting this method, including a humorous multipanel piece highlighting their first meeting called “They Meet,” in which Martin thinks to himself, “He’ll never be able to translate my delicate and finely honed droll notions.” In the next panel, Bliss thinks, “I’m sure he won’t understand that the comic art form is way more subtle than his blunt-force humor.” The team collaborated for a year and created 150 cartoons featuring an array of topics, “from dogs and cats to outer space and art museums.” A witty creation of a bovine family sitting down to a gourmet meal and one of Dumbo getting his comeuppance highlight the duo’s comedic talent. What also makes this project successful is the team’s keen understanding of human behavior as viewed through their unconventional comedic minds.
A virtuoso performance and an ode to an undervalued medium created by two talented artists.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-26289-9
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Celadon Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2020
PERSPECTIVES
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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