Scott J. Pearson

Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense Approach to a Continuous Improvement Strategy

By Scott J. Pearson | September 14, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

This book’s interesting title spawns from the Japanese language, which serves as the nomenclature for the essential concepts conveyed in this text. This book communicates the concept of management which grew out of Japan, was popularized in the 1980s, and served as the philosophy for companies like Toyota. Management texts like this and Deming’s famous fourteen points taught and continue to teach the international business community about running better businesses. The philosophy of this work…

Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great

By Scott J. Pearson | September 14, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Techniques called “agile” comprise a more iterative approach to developing software. In many ways, it treats software as an open text instead of a fixed product. Agile development is used in most leading software shops around the world. This book treats a specific element of agile development – the retrospective. After each iteration or release, the team is gathered to discuss the last period of time and to seek improvement for the next time. This…

Fiction-Stories Leadership Management-Business

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

By Scott J. Pearson | September 9, 2019September 24, 2024 by Scott J. Pearson

This work straddles the fence between a short novel and a book on business. It covers a helpful topic of five common dysfunctions of a team. Through reading it, I helped identify pits that teams I have participated in have fallen prey to. The story itself is relatively easygoing, if a bit short and superficial. A new CEO faces the scenario where her new form has more cash and more talented leaders, but is underperforming.…

Fiction-Stories

Sanctuary

By Scott J. Pearson | September 8, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

Sanctuary, one of Faulkner’s early novels, focuses on the dark side of Southern society in post-Civil-War America. It is one of Faulkner’s more readable works. It’s a more straightforward crime mystery that is still based on the convoluted Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. Like many (most/all?) of Faulkner’s characters, they appear aimless and uprooted from life. While in college, the daughter of a judge is raped and is kidnapped to Memphis. She eventually becomes a sex slave…

Biography-Memoir History

The Wright Brothers

By Scott J. Pearson | September 2, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

David McCullough is surely one of our country’s greatest writers of history, and he presents us with a jewel in his depiction of the Wright brothers’ great conquest of the air. As McCullough shares, the Wright brothers remained true to their project and true to themselves to the end. In so doing, they earned the praise of their hometown Dayton, Ohio, their nation, their sister-nation France, and the world. McCullough’s account is heavy on detail…

Fiction-Stories

As I Lay Dying

By Scott J. Pearson | August 30, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

This book is routinely ranked by critics as one of the best books of the 20th century. It is a tale told by 19 points of view via stream-of-consciousness storytelling. If the reader can follow through the arrangement of the plot, it keeps the final twist hanging until literally the last sentence. The story is set in Faulkner’s famed Yoknapatawpha county. Addie Bundren is the mother of a family in rural Mississippi. She dies in…

Biography-Memoir Healthcare Science

The Youngest Science: Notes of a Medicine-Watcher

By Scott J. Pearson | August 28, 2019April 1, 2020 by Scott J. Pearson

Lewis Thomas spent his life revolving around various aspects of medicine – apprenticeship, patients, research, administration, being a patient, and writing. In this memoir, he shares tales and insights from all of these experiences in an easy-to-digest and relatable format. I especially enjoyed his notes from his time as Dean of Yale’s medical school. Perhaps it’s because I work for an associate dean of medicine now. I appreciate his admonishments not to intervene too much…

Biography-Memoir History

41: A Portrait of My Father

By Scott J. Pearson | August 25, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

The notion of this book is very interesting. A Presidential biography written by a fellow President who is also a son. Parallels to the Adams family abound. George Bush the Elder, possessing a lifetime of experience in government, is like John Adams, also a one-term President. George W. Bush and John Quincy Adams are both sons who became President. Both sons had shortcomings which can be linked to their elite birth. Both sons knew how…

Fiction-Stories Management-Business

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement

By Scott J. Pearson | August 22, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

This book helped define the genre of management books told as narrative fiction. It teaches management principles while allowing the reader to see what real management looks like in practice. This particular work even introduces a love story to the mix. This story tells the common tale of a generic manufacturing plant and a marriage in crisis. It’s in the ilk of a coming-of-age tale in which the main character Alex learns how to take…

Biography-Memoir

One Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner

By Scott J. Pearson | August 19, 2019October 11, 2019 by Scott J. Pearson

The name William Faulkner evokes a great deal of respect (and perhaps fear) from readers. He is known for long sentences that span more than one page. He is inescapably deep – an abyss. He sees into the Southern American male experience as no other and draws out truths that apply to all of humanity. His allure extends from the South into New England, across the Atlantic to France and down the isthmus to Latin…