What We’re Reading

Not Everyone Gets A TrophyHow to Manage Generation Y

By Bruce Tulgan

If author and business advisor Bruce Tulgan is to be believed, you’re getting bad advice on how to manage Gen Y. After ten years of researching those born between 1978 and 1990, Tulgan finds that while it’s true that this may be the most high-maintenance generation in history, it also has the potential to be the most high performing. To manage them well, the key is to think “less Google, more U.S. Army.” A fun office isn’t nearly as important as strong, highly engaged leadership. Jossey-Bass, 2009, $24.95 Why Feedback Doesn’t Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science

By Charles S. Jacobs

Never mind managing Gen-Y. “It turns out most of what we thought we knew about management is probably wrong,” writes Jacobs, a management consultant. He cites recent neuroscience research to argue that improving performance requires engaging employees’ emotions more than it does setting measurable goals. And he explains why traditional approaches to rewarding employees (such as pay raises) might not motivate them the way you think. Portfolio, 2009, $25.95 PageTutor.com?

Hear enough talk about the economic stimulus plan and you can easily forget how much money is involved. We freshened our perspective at PageTutor.com, a site popular for its HTML and JavaScript tutorials. They used Google Sketchup to depict just what one trillion dollars actually looks like—sobering to say the least.?

Stealing MySpace?The Battle to Control the Most Popular Website in America

By Julia Angwin

MySpace may seem like small potatoes these days with Facebook and Twitter stealing all the headlines. (Except, of course, for the news that MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe resigned.) But Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Julia Angwin (of the Wall Street Journal) unveils the story behind its creation, the backroom deals that lead to Rupert Murdoch owning it and why the sordid tale might end up defining the digital era.?Random House, 2009, $27Department of the Navy CIO Blog?

Want to know what keeps a military CIO up at night? Rob Carey, CIO for the Department of the Navy, shares what’s on his mind as he weighs IT decisions for his department including how best to give the Obama administration the collaboration tools it demands.?

Jeff Immelt and the New GE Way?Innovation, Transformation and Winning in the 21st Century

By David Magee

It’s been almost nine years since Jeff Immelt replaced departing CEO Jack Welch in the C-suite of GE, and the skepticism over whether he could ever fill Welch’s shoes has been replaced with a resounding “yes,” says Magee. With Immelt at the helm, GE doubled its profits and solidified its status as a world leader in technological innovation.  McGraw Hill, 2009, $25.95