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Momentum, by Allison H. Fine

Just as with my online resources and software reviews, I generally confine myself to reviewing books from my own perspective. But every now and then, I have to take a slightly broader perspective in order to do a book justice. Such is the case with Allison Fine's Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age. This book is meant for a broad audience and toward that end it succeeds admirably. I have some very small quibbles: Fine makes some small mistakes here and there that will bother the experienced reader, such as her definition of "free software" as that which is freely distributed or her description of the origins of Craigslist as a "site". She uses the term "activism" so broadly that it applies to anything we might otherwise call "civil society". She may also be a little too sanguine about the digital divide. In a time of rapid growth of the foundation sector, she asserts that their era is coming to a close. And in one place, she uses the phrase "war on terror" unironically and uncritically. I mention some of these only by way of putting them aside. The book avoided every one of the major traps into which I feared it would fall. The book hits pretty much every important point that needs to be made in order to orient the interested newcomer to the field of activism in the age of networks, including many that are of particular interest to me. Here are my favorites: (1) Networks reward organizational authenticity by enriching conversations and human connection. (2) The idea that there are "too many organizations" is really a reflection of funders' desires for fewer choices; people are not overserviced, they are oversolicited. (3) Organizations lack institutional memory first and foremost because they are terrible listeners. (4) Pushing power to the edges doesn't reduce the power of organizations. (5) Understanding our connections is the first step in any communication technology initiative. I recommend the book in two ways: If you are just starting to look at how the world of networks will affect your organization, then it will give you a superb overview. If your perspective is already fairly sophisticated, but you need to bring some people along (like your board), then you would do well to consider some assigned reading. Posted: 6/18/07; 6:18:35 PM #

Living Well, Working Smart, by Sue Mackey & Laura Tonkin

Sue Mackey and Laura Tonkin's book Living Well, Working Smart is a work I would love to see developed as a weblog. The book, whose subtitle is Soft Skills for Success, is packed with high level ideas in forty-one different fields of activity, ranging from Problem Solving and Stress to Optimism and Time Management. It would probably take a couple of years to give each idea a day or two of online exploration. Although this made the book a little hard to read straight through - I felt myself dealing with the reading equivalent of museum fatigue (too much good stuff) - in some ways this density of big ideas is the strength and point of the book. Just like a good museum, it's meant to be returned to and sampled over time so that, in the end, each reader's experience will be their own. There are five highlights I want to share: (1) In addition to positive suggestions, each topic has a series of Mistakes to Avoid. Considering how common they are, I suspect these will be useful and accessible. (2) I couldn't help but be pleased that they recommend that everyone develop a reading habit. (3) Sprinkled throughout the book are suggestions that you might find too vague or even flat out wrong headed. (For example, I don't share their mainstream perspective on "retirement".) I think this diversity is part of the character of the book. It's a compendium, not a unified philosophy. (4) I was very pleased that one of their sections was devoted to the topic of grief and loss. We go to great lengths to avoid these feelings and that avoidance wreaks havok on our lives and work. Posted: 6/18/07; 6:18:23 PM #

The Cash Flow Solution, by Richard & Anna Linzer

I don't tend to review books about the nuts and bolts issues of nonprofit accounting, but having served on more than thirty boards of directors and having had to report to roughly a dozen of them at one point or another, I decided I had to make an exception for The Cash Flow Solution, by Richard & Anna Linzer. Although I am a firm believer that any organization (even a small one) that carries receivables or payables should use accrual accounting, I have often been frustrated by how much important governance information is missing from the most common reports, such as income statements and balance sheets. This book is a powerful guide to cash flow analysis, which is arguably the single greatest complement to those reports. The near constant context of cash shortage in which most civil society organizations operate has profound strategic impacts. Fundraising, program priorities, project management, amd morale are all affected. Although there are critical external factors at work that create this environment (funder policies and organizational isolation are two that come to mind), I also believe that systematic internal avoidance is a key ongoing enabler. Following the notion that "that which gets measured, gets done", I can see a great many organizations benefiting from the application of the simple methods in this book. Posted: 6/18/07; 6:18:13 PM #

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