* Basically for those who want to slow down, and still keep up the momentum

Web Editor | 绿帽献妻

Knowledge acquisition experts have said that this year, perhaps more than ever, we need to take time away from our laptops and videoconferences and try to clear our minds, especially in view of the 鈥楴ew Normal鈥� regime forcefully impressed on economies and the entire humanity by the outbreak of the novel and disruptive Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

There are a number of suggestions for recent business reads in 2020, that can help you to slow down and still keep up with the most compelling new ideas and insights, as strategy+business鈥� (s+b) has recommended. Such volumes include:

1. The Power of Experiments: Decision-Making in a Data Driven World by Michael Luca and Max H. Bazerman (MIT Press, 2020)

Experiments have been around for thousands of years, but they鈥檝e now spread far beyond the boundaries of science labs and medical trials.

Business professors Luca and Bazerman write that we are living in 鈥渢he early days of the age of experiments.鈥�

Big tech companies run tens of thousands of experiments each year to bolster the quality of their decisions.

Business executives across industries can learn how to follow their lead.

2. American Business History: A Very Short Introduction by Walter A. Friedman (Oxford University Press, 2020)

In his very brief new book, historian Friedman provides a summary of the trends and forces that propelled the United States (US) economy into the world鈥檚 leader.

These include the nation鈥檚 entrepreneurial culture, openness to newcomers, mobility and adaptability, and eagerness to democratise as well as innovate 鈥攅ven during the Great Depression, when innovation boomed.

Besides, the government has played a powerful, and perhaps counterintuitive, role in forging new industries.

3. Overload: How Good Jobs Went Bad and What We Can Do About It by Erin L. Kelly and Phyllis Moen (Princeton University Press, 2020)

In their recounting of a five-year field experiment conducted within a Fortune 500 company, two professors show how dual-agenda work redesign can reduce the high levels of chronic stress and ill health, feelings of powerlessness, work鈥揻amily conflict, and burnout that attend employee overload 鈥� without negatively affecting corporate productivity or performance.

4. Don鈥檛 Fall for It: A Short History of Financial Scams by Ben Carlson (Wiley, 2020) Top American author Carlson delves into the psychology of why some people commit fraud 鈥� and why others become victims of it.

In addition to having what appears to be enormous fun telling stories of impressive bravura and amorality, the author also has some fascinating 鈹�and occasionally counterintuitive鈹� insights into the problems of becoming rich and staying so.

5. The Simplicity Principle: Six Steps Towards Clarity in a Complex World by Julia Hobsbawm (Kogan Page, 2020)

The business cost of complexity is huge, in both financial and emotional terms. Hobsbawm explains how leaders can use the number six and the hexagon to help in reorganising a complex world.

鈥淜eep it simple鈥� and 鈥渓earn from nature鈥� are powerful maxims to help people to live and work better.

6. The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the Twenty-First Century by Adam Davidson (Alfred A. Knopf, 2020)

Journalist Davidson uncovers stories of small businesses that thrive in niches. Whether in the case of an Amish toolmaker or an accountant, marrying passions to the opportunities inherent in the global economy can allow minnows to thrive in this era of great sharks.

7. Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe by Hugo Mercier (Princeton University Press, 2020)

Most people, this book finds, are immune to conspiracy theories and other toxic falsehoods, or hold onto them as a sort of abstract theology that has little concrete effect. To the extent that people do embrace false beliefs, it鈥檚 usually as a convenient pretext for views they already hold, actions they already intend, or because a particular falsehood is useful or at least harmless.

8. Agility: How to Navigate the Unknown and Seize Opportunity in a World of Disruption by Leo M. Tilman and Charles Jacoby (Missionday, 2019)

In s+b鈥檚 adaptation from this book, the focus is on what the Allied invasion of Normandy has to teach us about the power and utility of organisational agility.

General Dwight Eisenhower, the Allied supreme commander, famously observed that 鈥減lans are worthless, but planning is everything.鈥�

The planning of the D-Day operation was of extraordinary scope and detail. A crystal-clear purpose was accompanied by disciplined initiative at all levels, which led to both strategic and tactical agility.