Book Club

The DSA Professional Development Committee is proud to announce the next Book Club educational opportunity. Please review the information below, and if interested, RSVP by Monday, June 3rd, 2013.

Book Club Goals

  • Inclusive professional development opportunity
  • Low cost professional development opportunity
  • Usable, relevant, and purposeful material
  • Relationship building/networking opportunity
  • Voluntary

You are invited to join us for the next professional development book club selection:

Howard’s Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life’s Work
by Eric Sinoway with Merrill Meadow

  • Session 1 (Chapters 1-6)
    Dates: June 19, 2013
    Times: 12pm to 2pm
    Location: Campus Recreation Rotunda Classroom

  • Session 2 (Chapters 7-13)
    Dates: June 26, 2013
    Times: 12pm to 2pm
    Location: Campus Recreation Rotunda Classroom

Amazon.com Book Description

Release date: October 2, 2012
“This work offers wonderful wisdom for navigating the inflection points in our lives.” -- Mehmet Oz, MD
An iconic teacher. A warm friend. A generous mentor.
For more than 40 years, Howard Stevenson has been a towering figure at Harvard Business School: the man who literally defined entrepreneurship and taught thousands of the world’s most successful professionals.
Now – spurred by Stevenson’s heart-stopping brush with death – his student, colleague, and dear friend Eric Sinoway shares the man’s wisdom and inspiration. Through warm and engaging conversations, we hear Howard’s timeless and practical lessons on pursuing both success and fulfillment, beginning with:

  • Create a vision of your own legacy through a process called “business planning for life.”
  • Be entrepreneurial in driving your career ahead (even if you’re not an entrepreneur).
  • Exploit the inflection points in your life – whether “friend,” “foe,” or “silent.”
  • Cut risk in tough career and life decisions by shining the “light of predictability” on them.
  • Plan for the ripples, not just the splash from your actions and choices.

Reading Howard’s Gift is like having a wise, caring friend sit down and say, “Let’s figure all this out together.”
And the deeply personal perspectives from guest contributors – such as CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien, Teach for America Founder Wendy Kopp, two-time Super Bowl Champion Carl Banks, and legendary MTV Founder Bob Pittman – reinforce the practical lessons in this clear-sighted book that will help readers “define success in their own terms,” and “live a life with no regrets.” 

This Book Club Selection Format

Participants sign up to participate and agree to read the selected book and attend the two book club interactive learning workshops.

Individual departments may choose to purchase books for their staff however some departments may not be able to do this and so individuals may need to obtain a copy of the book on their own.

Reading Timeline

May 13, 2013

  • Begin or finish reading chapters 1 through 3
    • Key Focuses
      • Determining your life’s work
      • Inflection points
      • Legacy vision

May 20, 2013

  • Begin or finish reading chapters 4 through 6
    • Key focuses
      • Allotment of time we are given
      • Dimensions of your “self”
      • Cheating at solitaire

May 27, 2013

  • Begin or finish reading chapters 7 through 9
    • Key focuses
      • “Levels” of employment structure
      • Creating “clones” vs.  role modeling
      • Be the catalyst for others

June 3, 2013

  • Begin or finish reading chapters 10 through 12
    • Key focuses
      • Individual Board of Directors
      • Culture adaptation
      • Taking risk vs. knowing risk

June 10, 2013

  • Begin or finish reading chapters 13 through 14
    • Key focuses
      • Failing forward
      • Ripples in the water

Facilitator

Brian N. Mills; M.S. Ed
Assistant Director – Intramural Sports
Department of Campus Recreation

RSVP