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PCA's Annual Staff Book Club

04.19.2017

Every year, the PCA staff conducts 3-4 PCA Book Club discussions before a staff-wide Q&A with the author of the book at their annual All-Staff meeting.

PCA Staff conducts and engages in this book club in the vein of continuous improvement. Our staff constantly looks for better ways to do established things and important new things that can further our mission. The books we've read have helped us in helping make better athletes, better people, as each book helps us reflect and improve upon both business practices and the way we train coaches, parents, athletes, and leaders. Over the years, here are the books that PCA Staff has read:

  • The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell
  • Self-Renewal, John Gardner
  • Good to Great, Jim Collins
  • Made to Stick, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  • Blink, Malcolm Gladwell
  • How Starbucks Saved My Life, Michael Gates Gill
  • Switch, Chip Heath and Dan Heath
  • Johnny Bunko: The Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need, Daniel Pink
  • Great by Choice, Jim Collins
  • Winning the Story Wars, Jonah Sachs
  • Scaling Up Excellence, Huggy Rao & Bob Sutton
  • Mindset, Carol Dweck
  • The Power Paradox, Dacher Keltner

This book club often features PCA National Advisory Board Members like John Gardner (in Memoriam), Chip Heath, Jonah Sachs, Huggy Rao, Carol Dweck, and Dacher Keltner.

PCA Chief Impact Officer Tina Syer most recently conducted a Q&A with Dacher Keltner in 2017.

As an example, PCA's discussion revolves around the following types of questions:

  • Think of a coach, teacher or manager in your life who was particularly good at reinforcing a Growth Mindset.  What did this person specifically do?  Have you experienced the opposite - someone who reinforced a Fixed Mindset?  What did this person do?

  • How does Dweck see a Fixed Mindset playing into people cheating or cutting corners for professional achievements?  (Page 25)

  • For those who read Carol Dweck's book, Mindset, what parallels did you draw between her concepts of growth and fixed mindsets and Keltner's Power Principle #16 that Power Leads to Narratives of Exceptionalism (pp. 130 - 135)?