One genre of storytelling book that I find quite interesting is the fable told to illustrate business principles. Examples include Steve Denning’s Squirrel Inc., and Spencer Johnson’s long-time best-seller, Who Moved My Cheese? I am excited about the latest offer because it specifically focuses on career, which is at the core of my interests. It is written by Peter Weddle who operates Weddles, a site with many parallels to Quintessential Careers, the parent site of A Storied Career.
Disclaimer: I haven’t read Weddle’s book. Like Denning’s fable, which features squirrels, and Johnson’s, in which mice play the leading roles, Weddle’s book spotlights animal characters, in this case, a rabbit and other forest animals. Like both of those also, Weddle’s book is rather short (107 pages). Here’s more about the book, taken mostly from press-release material:
In one of the most difficult economic environments on record, American workers are struggling to achieve career success with half their brain tied behind their backs. That’s the provocative claim by Peter Weddle, the author of an innovative, new business fable entitled Recognizing Richard Rabbit.
“It’s astonishing just how effective American workers have been, given that most are not using all of the talent with which they’ve been endowed,” said Weddle. “If they’re creative, they rely on the right hemisphere of their brain and ignore the left. If they’re analytical, they turn to the left hemisphere of their brain and forget about the right. It’s a natural propensity, but one with especially serious implications today.”
“In effect, America’s working men and women are confronting the most challenging workplace and the most difficult job market in several generations,” he added, “and doing so with just half of the insight and wisdom they possess.”
Weddle’s new book, Recognizing Richard Rabbit (ISBN 978192873444-4, $11.95), is designed to correct that shortcoming. It’s a fable, like the bestselling book Who Moved My Cheese?, but while that story focused on organizational effectiveness, Weddle’s fable explores the secret to personal effectiveness. It’s a tale about some forest animals that learn just what it takes to find “the You of your dreams,” the authentic person who represents the best of you that you can be.Unlike traditional fables, however, Recognizing Richard Rabbit empowers readers to acquire this self-knowledge by using all of their brain:
- On the right-hand page of the book, they can read the fable. A simple story with a gentle message, it encourages readers to use the right hemisphere of their brain to tap their imagination and discover their own true self.
- On the left-hand page of the book is a self-interview that parallels the fable. A probing series of interlocking questions, it asks readers to use their logic to identify and overcome the impediments to being faithful to themselves.
Together, these two pathways – one in fiction, the other in nonfiction – bring readers to a more complete and wholesome recognition of their best self so that they can be the masters of their career, rather than the victims.