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Bookshelf Inventors are odd people, but not just because they wear big glasses and plastic pocket protectors and spend all day tinkering in their basements. No, inventors are odd because their minds are constantly teasing at problems. In Juice, Evan I. Schwartz picks through the brains of dozens of inventors, from famous ones like Alexander Graham Bell to lesser-known individ- uals like Jay Walker, who came up with Priceline.com. Inventors are driven by a Jungian instinct to play—an almost irre- sistible desire to take things apart and put them together in a new way—and yet their inventions will be meaningless unless they focus on problems that actually need solu- tions in markets that can bear inno- vation. While inventors are a special breed, it's not just mad geniuses who can come up with great ideas. "Invention is a set of strategic think- ing tools that you can teach, learn, and practice," writes Schwartz. Modern-day inventors have largely been subsumed into R&D depart- ments, Schwartz notes. "In 1940, the U.S. Census Bureau actually eliminated 'inventor' as a separate job category." But more than a few individuals know that the position still exists. (Harvard Business School Press, $24.95) "Treating people well makes money," says Susan Lucia Annunzio in Contagious Success. She's not the first person to think so, but she might be one of the first to have empirical proof. Drawing results from a survey of thou- 54 BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2005 sands of elite employees at companies around the world, Annun - zio describes the ideal workplace for high-performing work groups: one that values people, optimizes critical thinking, and is open to seizing opportunities. These high-caliber workers perform best in a specific environment in which a high pay- check is not the most important fac- tor to employee happiness; in fact, it's ranked fifth after satisfaction with the company's values, teamwork, people, and planning. Annunzio offers case studies of work groups that have performed at high levels, as well as detailed information about her survey. Any team leader should pay heed. (Sentinel, $24.95) Stephen R. Covey, author of the best-selling book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, is back with an addendum: The 8th Habit. Taking a hard look at the knowledge economy, and the paradigm shift necessary to harness the full productivity of the modern employee, he offers a treatise that is alternately thoughtful, inspirational, and uncompromising. "The Knowledge Worker Age will eventu- ally bring about a downsizing of up to 90 percent of the Industrial Age workforce," Covey predicts. But nei- ther management nor the workforce has yet figured out the best way to engage that knowl- edge worker, who wants a job that will satisfy his body, mind, heart, and spirit. Covey's eighth habit is really an exhortation to every individual: Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs. That habit, whether developed at home, in the office, or in any other setting, will create a passionate worker com- mitted to a full life—and extraordi- nary productivity. (Free Press, $26) Everyone has an opinion about the forces shaping higher education, but Frank Newman, Lara Couturier, and Jamie Scurry are more quali- fied than most to offer theirs. They are all involved with the Futures Project: Policy for Higher Education in a Changing World, a think tank based at Brown University. In The Future of Higher Education, they lay out some of the mar- ket forces shaping the university sys- tem, from privatization to globaliza- tion to sweeping technological inno- vations. The biggest factor, however, is the gradual shift to a market mindset for colleges and universities, as they compete for students, rank- ings, and prestige. The result is that both schools and state governments will need to rethink their policies about education and how it is offered. State leaders need control of two factors, the authors write: "mis- sion and a range of workable means of assessing institutional perform- ance." According to them, "What institutional leaders need is greater autonomy in the operation of the institution to fulfill the agreed-upon mission." Many of the ideas will be familiar to anyone anxious about the state of higher education, but that does not make them any less force- ful. (Jossey-Bass, $33)