Omniquest

Omniquest is a university-wide program, overlaying all other programs, in which a provocative and challenging book is selected each term. The theme of the book is adopted for discussion and analysis during the term on all campuses and within all programs, simultaneously.

The Power of Habit Book Cover

Our OMNIQUEST selections rotate across operating units, and next semester’s selection comes from my office. I am pleased to announce our Spring 2013 OMNIQUEST book is How Will You Measure Your Life? by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon.

Many of you are already familiar with Professor Christensen’s work on strategy including path-breaking books like The Innovator’s Dilemma, The Innovator’s Solution, and The Innovative University. A professor at Harvard Business School, Christensen was recognized by Thinkers50 as the world’s most influential business thinker. For this book, Christensen collaborated with a former student, James Allworth, and the former editor of the Harvard Business Review, Karen Dillon.

How Will You Measure Your Life? takes a holistic approach as evidenced by its three main sections: Finding Happiness in Your Career, Finding Happiness in Your Relationships, and a final section on living a life of integrity called Staying Out of Jail. Regardless of one’s stage in life, this book will resonate with students, faculty, and staff.

The review in Bloomberg Businessweek summarized: “The book encapsulates Christensen’s best advice to keep high achievers from being disrupted in their own lives….[P]rovocative but reassuring: Peter Drucker meets Mitch Albom.”

In the acknowledgements, he succinctly summarizes the premise of the book,

The paramount assertion of this book is that the theories that describe how management works also explain a lot about what causes success and happiness in families, marriages, and within ourselves – and what causes the opposite as well. This means that the theories…that enable us to envision what the future holds in store for companies, can help us see the predictable results that come from choices and priorities we might make in our personal lives.

I have had the good fortune of personally interacting with Clay Christensen on many occasions and can attest to the inspiration he provides to those around him. He has dealt with serious health issues over the past few years which makes this book even more timely and poignant. As one year ends and another begins, it’s a good time to take stock of how we will measure our lives. Please read this book and apply its many valuable lessons.

- Keith A. Pretty, J.D.

Current Academic Year: 2012-2013

Spring 2013

How Will You Measure Your Life?, by Clayton Christensen, James Allworth, and Karen Dillon

Past OMNIQUEST selections

2012-2013

The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg

2011-2012

Everyone Communicates, Few Connect, by John C. Maxwell
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, by Simon Sinek
Disciplined Dreaming: A Proven Strategy to Drive Breakthrough Creativity, by Josh Linkner

2010-2011

Make It in America - The Case for Re-Inventing the Economy, by Dr. Andrew N. Liveris
Winners Never Cheat - Even in Difficult Times, by Jon M. Huntsman with the Foreward by Glenn Beck (2009)
SWITCH: How to Change Things when Change is Hard, by Chip Heath and Dan Heath (2010)

2009-2010

How Capitalism Will Save Us by Steve Forbes and Elizabeth Ames
1000 Dollars and an Idea by Sam Wyly
Ten Powerful Phrases for Positive People by Rich DeVos

2008-2009

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
Capitalism At The Crossroads, 2nd Edition by Stuart L. Hart
Simply Success: How to Start, Build, and Grow a Multimillion-Dollar Business the Old Fashioned Way by Jack Miller

2007-2008

Where Have All The Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca
The Science of Success by Charles G. Koch
New Ideas from Dead CEO's by Todd Buchholz

2006-2007

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference by Malcolm Gladwell
An Army of Davids: How Markets and Technology Empower Ordinary People to Beat Big Media, Big Government, and Other Goliaths by Glenn Reynolds, 2006, Nelson Current, ISBN: 159555042

2005-2006

Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni
Cleaning Up by Barry Minkow
The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman

2004-2005

Good to Great by Jim Collins
The Commanding Heights by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw

2003-2004

Founding Brothers (The Revolutionary Generation) by Joseph J. Ellis
Homesick by Sela Ward
Sailing Alone & Around the Room by Billy Collins

2002-2003

Ben Franklin's 12 Rules of Management by Blaine McCormick
The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander
Make It BIG: 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success by Frank McKinney with Victoria St. George

2001-2002

Fish! by Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen
Living a Life That Matters by Harold S. Kushner
The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley

2000-2001

The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson
No Place for a Woman: A Life of Senator Margaret Chase Smith by Janann Sherman

1999-2000

Tuesdays With Morrie by Mitch Albom
How Now Shall We Live? by Charles Colson and Nancy Pearcey
Permission Marketing by Seth Godin

1998-1999

Leading with Soul by Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal
Don't Sweat the Small Stuff...and it's all small stuff by Richard Carlson
The Northwood Idea: People Helping People

1997-1998

In Search of Nature by Edward O. Wilson
Image by Design by Clive Chajet & Tom Shachtman
Nuts! Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success by Kevin and Jackie Freiberg

1996-1997

The Winner Within: A Life Plan for Team Players by Pat Riley
The Road Ahead by Bill Gates
The Death of Common Sense: How Law Is Suffocating America by Phillip K. Howard

1995-1996

Beyond Race and Gender: Unleashing the Power of Your Total Work Force by Managing Diversity by R. Roosevelt Thomas
Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy by Viktor Frankl
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge

1994-1995

Compassionate Capitalism: People Helping People Help Themselves by Rich DeVos
Beating the Street by Peter Lynch
The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protection by Russell D. Roberts

1993-1994

Breakpoint and Beyond: Mastering the Future - Today by George Land and Beth Jarman
The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
Principle-Centered Leadership by Stephen R. Covey

1992-1993

2020 Visions: Long View of a Changing World by Richard Carlson and Bruce Goldman
Changing Course: A Global Business Perspective on Development and the Environment by Stephan Schmidheiny
Recapturing the Spirit of Enterprise by George Gilder

1991-1992

Essentials of Business Ethics by Peter Madsen and Jay M. Shafritz, Eds.
The Content of Our Character: A New Vision of Race in America by Shelby Steele
The Man Who Discovered Quality: How W. Edwards Deming Brought the Quality Revolution to America - The Stories of Ford, Xerox, and GM by Andrea Gabor

1990-1991

The New Realities by Peter F. Drucker
Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition by Harvey Mackay
Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge by Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus