Suggested Reading

Schedule 

By March 29th  Add your thoughts on the roles of skill and chance, or luck, in work, learning and life to the discussion board.

By April 9th  finish reading p 1-65  (A Prelude, Ante Up, The Birth of a Gamble and The Art of Losing) 

By April 16th finish reading p. 66-116 (The Mind of a Strategist &  A Man's World) 

By April 23rd, finish reading p. 117- 170 (No Bad Beats and Texting Your Way out of Millions & A Storytelling Business) 

By April 30th, finish reading pg. 171-226 (The Gambler and the Nerd, The Art of the Tell & Reading Myself) 

By May 7th, finish reading 227-288  (Full Tilt & Glory Days)

By May 14th finish reading 289 - end (The Heart of the Gambling Beast and The Ludic Fallacy) 

Week of May 17th - Live discussion of the book via Zoom  

For additional resources and discussion on this book with the broader TD community visit Talent and Development Professionals Book Club (pbc.guru)

Diversity and Inclusion is a big topic right now.  The chapter "A Man's World"  gets me thinking about our role as talent developers, whether we're training, designing instructions, coaching or supporting those in the workplace in some way.  How do we support those in the minority - whether its a minority gender, race, or cultural difference?   

There has been a lot of focus over the last 30 years or so on including women in traditionally male careers, I have been in the minority working as a sales rep for Schwan's, I would estimate its about 10% women.  When I achieved the Chairman's club status back in 2011 I was the only women in my region to be awarded.   I have also worked in the opposite situation working as an elementary school teacher, where the men were the minority.   Not all women are the same, and not all men are the same. We want to avoid stereotypes, but it's true there are tendencies  and cultural norms that are a reality.  How do we work to help everyone succeed?  

Another quote from this chapter "I'm just a novice, overwhelmed by emotion, who can't think clearly",  pg 113  also reminds me of the challenge of creating and executing good onboarding for new hires, who are often in this place of being overwhelmed by so many things that are new.  What have you found that is most effective for new hires? or something that helped you when you first started in a new job? 

Next week's ATD Chapter meeting is on Emotional Intelligence.  While this is gaining a much wider acceptance as a power intelligence, there is a temptation to  focus on the "hard" skills of facts, figures, memorization of tasks and test results, things more easily measured.    

In the chapter "Full Tilt" Maria deals with the emotional ups and downs of her dive into the world of poker and how her underlying feelings, experiences and past experience affect her playing, and even how her dogged struggle to achieve her goal to get to the WSOP in less than a year could get in the way of really achieving her original goal of learning about the balance of skill and chance. 

pg. 228 "Mastery is always a struggle for balance. How much time do you devote to the craft, and how much to yourself?'.... All your technical prowess will evaporate if your mind and emotional landscape aren't solid."