This is the text I wrote for an announcement e-mail for the next Urban Engagement Book Club, which meets on December 1, here in Dallas (at the Highland Park Methodist Church, next door to SMU).  I decided to share it here.

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We are enamored with the new.  We want the new, new thing.  We want the new product, the new approach, the new company.  We want to be “hip,” “with it,” “up-to-date.”  We want to be “new” ourselves.

But sometimes the old is worth a more careful look.  In fact, any organization that truly endures is deserving of a very careful look.  What can we learn from the not-so-new – the old, the enduring?

Thus, our book selection for the December 1 Urban Engagement Book Club.  Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World by Chris Lowney.

Form the page on Amazon:
What can a 16th-century priest tell a 21st-century business executive about leadership? Plenty, believes this author, who points out that from a 10-man “company” founded by St. Ignatius Loyola in 1540, the Jesuits are now the world’s largest religious order, with 21,000 professionals. In this absorbing, lucid book, Lowney, who left a seven-year stint as a Jesuit seminarian to become a managing director at J.P. Morgan, explores how the Jesuits have successfully grappled with challenges that test great companies-forging seamless multinational teams, motivating performance, being open to change and staying adaptable. As he takes the reader on an engaging romp through slices of Jesuit history, Lowney references four Jesuit pillars of success: self-awareness (reflection), ingenuity (embracing change), love (positive attitudes toward others) and heroism (energizing ambitions).
Leaders make great companies, but few of us truly understand how to turn ourselves and others into great leaders. The Jesuits pioneered a unique formula for molding leaders. In the process, the Jesuits built one of history’s most successful companies.
To put it simply, the Urban Engagement Book Club is trying to change the conversation a little in Dallas.  We are what we think about, and we think about what we talk about.  This book will help us look past our current fixation on the new, new thing, and learn a little from a truly enduring serving organization.  It is a conversation worth having.

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So, in the next two weeks, I will finish preparing three new book synopsis presentations:

For the Urban Engagement Book Club:
Heroic Leadership: Best Practices from a 450-Year-Old Company That Changed the World by Chris Lowney.

For the First Friday Book Synopsis:
Blah Blah Blah: What To Do When Words Don’t Work by Dan Roam.
and
Demand: Creating What People Love Before They Know They Want It by Adrian Slywotzky and Karl Weber.

If you are in the DFW area, come join us at these gatherings.  Just follow the links for details/more information.