Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/124472
bookshelf TH E ORG AUTHORS: Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan PUBLISHER: Twelve, US$26.99 Entrepreneurs and company insiders have great expectations about their enterprises: "We're going to be awesome and get stuff done!" Observers and frustrated employees deal with a different reality: "I can't believe this place gets anything done!" Why the disconnect? Fisman of Columbia Business School and Sullivan of the Harvard Business Review Press explain it as a kind of functioning dysfunction. Given all the tradeoffs that must be made as any venture grows from a oneperson proprietor to a global behemoth, organizations are doing the best they can. For instance, tradeoffs in production: Robots are more efficient than humans, but only humans can innovate. Tradeoffs in incentives: If cops are rewarded for making arrests, they'll go after the easy traffic violator instead of the more difficult drug dealer. Full of insights, examples, and humor, the book sheds a powerful light on the mysterious workings of the organization. CR EATIVE CON S PI RACY AUTHOR: Leigh Thompson PUBLISHER: Harvard Business Review Press, US$30 Despite the fact that almost all organizations are team endeavors, Thompson of Northwestern University notes that "decades of research evidence clearly reveals that groups are inferior to individuals when it comes to creativity!" Her solution to the paradox is to dispel myths that surround creative collaboration and replace them with evidencebased data that will improve performance. For instance, many people believe that, when groups are brainstorming, "striving for quality is better than striving for quantity," but the reverse is true. When the goal is quality, participants selfcensor, so fewer ideas are proposed; fewer ideas mean fewer chances for a great one to be among them. Another myth is that teams should work together in open floor plans, 68 May/June 2013 BizEd but it turns out people are more creative when they can retreat to their own spaces. Thompson advocates the hybrid "cave-and-commons" workplace, which offers spaces for both solitary and group work. Her book provides solid guidelines for any organization that relies on teamwork to get things done. CONVE RG E AUTHORS: Bob Lord and Ray Velez PUBLISHER: Wiley, US$29.95 Technological innovations and the rise of the Internet have irrevocably changed business, and Lord and Velez want to explore how. They focus on convergence, or "the coming together of three irresistible forces—media, technology, and creativity—to meet an immovable object: the enterprise." The authors, both principals in the tech and marketing firm Razorfish, are eager to tear down barriers between functional departments, between rival firms, even between industries. In fact, as they say early on, "The villain throughout this book is the silo." Gone are the days when companies controlled their media message, when the chief information officer and the chief technology officer didn't speak the same language, and when creativity "was the exclusive province of marketing and creative departments." Now companies must crowdsource their ideas, turn over brand marketing to consumers, and use social media to stay connected to customers around the clock and around the world. Lord and Velez guide them through the convergence. TH E BAN KE R S' N EW CLOTH E S AUTHORS: Anat Admati and Martin Hellwig PUBLISHER: Princeton University Press, US$29.95 "Do not believe those who tell you that things are better now than they had been prior to the financial crisis of 2007–2009 and that we have a safer system that is getting even better as reforms are put in place," write Admati of Stanford