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The Power of Design:
a Force for Transforming Everything; Östberg
Library of Design Management, Greenway Communications.
LLC, a division of The Greenway Group, 2008
Whoever
Makes the Most Mistakes Wins: The Paradox of Innovation
(co-authored with Ralph Keyes). Free Press/Simon
and Schuster, 2002. (An article
based on this book won the McKinsey award for
the best Harvard Business Review article published
in 2002, the one "most likely to have a major
influence on managers worldwide.")
Management of the Absurd: Paradoxes in
Leadership; Simon and Schuster,
1996. Now published in eleven languages.
Birthrights: A Bill of Rights for Children;
Macmillan, 1974
The Future of the Family (co-authored
with Philip M. Hauser, Herbert Stroup, Anthony
J. Wiener); Family Service Association of America,
1969.
Science and Human Affairs (editor);
Science and Behavior Books, 1967
Praise for The Power
of Design: A Force for Transforming Everything
"This is Richard Farson’s
masterpiece – the one and only book that illuminates
the interdependence of design, organization, and
leadership."
—Warren Bennis, University
Professor, University of Southern California,
and Author
"This book is a must-read
not only for designers and their students but
for anyone concerned with our collective future.
A stunning and powerful book!"
—John Seely Brown, former
Chief Scientist of Xerox and Director of its Palo
Alto Research Center, and Co-author, The Social
Life of Information
"Please get your hands on
this book. Read it and ponder it. Perhaps read
it again. The Power of Design is simply
a great work. The world needs it."
—Carl N. Hodges, Chairman,
The Seawater Foundation, and Director Emeritus,
University of Arizona Environmental Research Laboratory
"As always, Richard Farson
is amazing in his insights and beautiful in the
challenge that he lays at our feet."
—RK Stewart, Associate
Principal, Perkins + Will, and former President,
American Institute of Architects
"For most of us, the
word design conjures up thoughts of making things
look good, look better, of styling, of fashion,
and of gussying up the world. For Farson, it’s
not that at all, not looking good but being good."
—Richard Saul Wurman, Founder
and Creative Director, Access Press, and Founder,
TED Conferences and the 19.20.21 Project
"The challenges that
he poses and approach that he’s taken with the
book are just fantastic."
—M. Arthur Gensler, Jr.,
Founder and Chairman, Gensler
"Richard Farson has done
it again! The Power of Design will open
your eyes to how design can make a real difference
in how we live our lives."
—Scott Simpson,
Principal and Managing Director, KlingStubbins,
and Co-author, How Firms Succeed and The
Next Architect
"If you seek a book that
will get you thinking in entirely new ways about
what it means to be a design professional, this
is it."
—Thomas Fisher, Professor
and Dean, College of Design, University of Minnesota,
and Former Editor, Progressive Architecture
Praise for Whoever Makes
the Most Mistakes Wins
"I’m furious with
Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes! They’ve written
the book I always wanted to write. Simply put,
nothing is more important or beneficial for individuals
or organizations than screwing up. The bigger
the better. The more the merrier. Especially in
these madcap times. This is the best management
book I’ve read since Richard’s last one; and doubtless
the best I’ll read until his next one. He is the
master. Move over Drucker."
—Tom Peters
"Farson and Keyes got
it right. A timely and compelling book."
—Warren Bennis, University
Professor, USC, and coauthor of the forthcoming
Geeks and Geezers: How Era, Values and Defining
Moments Shape Leaders
"This is a wonderful
book. The refreshing counter-intuitive observations
of Farson and Keyes add an important new dimension
to the management of creativity and the encouragement
of entrepreneurial initiatives."
—David McLaughlin, Chairman,
American Red Cross, former President, Toro Corp.,
former President, Dartmouth College, former President,
Aspen Institute, former Chairman, CBS.
"This book has many important
things to say about encouraging innovation and
risk-taking. I plan to use it in my own leadership
development workshops."
—Daniel Yankelovich, Chairman,
Viewpoint Learning and Public Agenda: Founder,
Yankelovich, Skelley and White; Author, The
Magic of Dialogue
"As a book and as a concept,
Whoever Makes the Most Mistakes Wins ought
to be highly visible in everyone’s office. Those
of us leading traditionally risk-averse large
national non-profit organizations can benefit
immensely from its wisdom. I intend to buy it
for my board and management team."
—Gloria Feldt, President,
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc.
"Richard Farson and Ralph
Keyes have written a compelling book on an important
subject. I especially liked the wealth of sport
stories it incorporates, along with business situations
and research findings. Their book’s message is
as much about living as it is about leading. It
illustrates a radically different way to regard
‘succeeding’ and ‘failing’—one that could deepen
the moral authority of any leader."
—Michael McCaskey, Chairman,
Chicago Bears Football Club
"It’s difficult to imagine
a subject more compelling to most human beings
than success and failure. Farson and Keyes present
a refreshingly original point of view on the subject
that illuminates a paradox and challenges our
assumptions about how to tell one from the other."
—Milton Glaser, President,
Milton Glaser, Inc.
"Truth always seems to
come in small paradoxical packages. This delightfully
readable package by Farson and Keyes brilliantly
fuzzes the frontier between success and failure,
and thus reveals the fusion of opposites as the
essence of truth."
—Harlan Cleveland, President
Emeritus of the World Academy of Art and Science,
former US Assistant Secretary of State, former
Ambassador to NATO, former President, University
of Hawaii.
"Whoever Makes the
Most Mistakes Wins promises to become a classic
in that genre of modern wisdom literature which
includes Eric Berne’s Games People Play
and Laurence J. Peter’s The Peter Principle.
Its unexpected turns, liberating humor, and shrewd
observations about social creativity and business
innovation have the flavor of Mark Twain mixed
with Zen and Taoist ribaldry. This is a wonderful
book!"
—Michael Murphy, Founder,
Esalen Institute: Author, Golf in the Kingdom
"As we move into the
21st century, an age of increasingly revolutionary
technological advances, the concepts of success
and failure must be reinterpreted and transcended
if we are to be truly innovative in our ideas
and discoveries. Richard Farson and Ralph Keyes
provide an insightful and original examination
of these concepts and of the critical need to
redefine them in the post-modern world."
—Richard C. Atkinson, President,
University of California
"Fabulous! I love this
book. It’s like a Zen koan: concise, wise,
inspiring and instructive. It is a modern
guidebook for how to embrace paradox and free
yourself from fear of failure. In a time
when we’re subjected to a host of irrelevant,
sappy, or overly simplistic self-help books, this
book provides intelligent, truly useful advice."
—Mary Boone, President, Boone
Associates; Author, Leadership and the Computer
and Managing Inter@actively
"As one who has led a
large Association with many employees, I wish
I had this book years ago. It is timely and something
every reader will find helpful at the personal,
interpersonal and managerial levels. This is a
rare "must read" book that is also easy
to read."
—Horace B. Deets, former Executive
Director AARP
"From my perspective
in the field of art and design, the ‘lucky mistake’
is often the uncredited key to any significant
breakthrough. In their new book, Farson and Keyes
introduce the business world to the designer’s
most secret ally."
—John Maeda, Associate Professor
of Design and Computation, MIT Media Laboratory
"Richard Farson and Ralph
Keyes have hit on something big with this book.
I say that as a man with a large and embarrassing
pile of mistakes littering the road behind him.
The fact is that some of those screw-ups hurt,
some even kicked off a crisis, but all of
them helped me in life. Failure is to success
as a second wing is to a bird. You need it and
so does he. It is unlikely either of you will
fly without it. Pick up this smart, influential
book and find out how those mistakes you’ve made,
the ones you thought crippled you, can work to
your advantage."
—Ambassador Richard Carlson,
former director-general of the Voice of America,
and former president and CEO of the Corporation
for Public Broadcasting
"This is a valuable
book for just about anyone in our competitive
world. The authors make a clear case for understanding
that failing precedes almost all great wins in
our society, and that tolerance, if not love,
of failing creates the most successful environment.
There are many interesting anecdotes and arguments
throughout this most persuasive book."
—Jane Alexander, actress,
author, former Chairman, National Endowment for
the Arts
"This book is a great
read--interesting and enjoyable. Its title can
be taken literally—whoever makes the most mistakes
will, in fact, win. I think most successful managers
reach the same conclusion, but late in their careers.
Farson and Keyes have finally explained this successful
style of management, one many of us have observed.
I certainly hope their message reaches the business
schools, so graduates can start off on the right
foot. Where were they when I needed this book?"
—Raymond Alden, former president,
Sprint
"This book is a welcome
antidote to the numbing conventional wisdom about
what constitutes corporate success and failure.
It shows how to make the business environment
both vital and humane."
—Richard Pollak, contributing
editor of The Nation and author of The
Creation of Dr. B: A Biography of Bruno Bettelheim
"In an age where everyone
is looking to win with simple formulas it is so
refreshing to have a more thoughtful and wise
discussion of what winning and losing
really mean, and how learning is
more important than either one."
--Edgar Schein, Sloan Fellows
Professor of Management Emeritus, MIT Sloan School
of Management
Selected Reviews of Management
of the Absurd: Paradoxes in Leadership
"Fabulous! This may be
the best book on leadership I’ve ever read. It
annoys, irritates, goads…and eventually leads
you to question things you should have questioned
decades before. ‘How to’ it isn’t. Instead it
is genuinely wise.
--Tom Peters
"If you are willing to
look at your life, your career, and your company
from an entirely fresh angle, this book may provide
more surprises and insights than you will find
in any ten other management tomes that appear
this year"
--Fortune
"Lively…compelling…perfectly
suited for a world bursting with absurdity and
paradox."
--Chicago Tribune
"A succinct and charming
book on the nuances of leadership. Stands out
from the usual homilies about how to be a manager—a
work of humanity and wisdom."
--Robert Kuttner, Economics
Columnist, Business Week
Every once in a while, someone
writes a management book that throws all current
thought on the subject out the window. Such is
the case with Management of the Absurd.
Well-written and easy to absorb."
--San Diego Union-Tribune
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