Gabriel’s Reading List

Back in 1997…

Sooner or later, whether on our own initiative or imposed by some external agent (in my case it was a high-performance program at the Escuela Bancaria y Comercial) we are forced to start a personal project of continuous improvement whose final goal is to become a better version of ourselves.

Twenty eight years ago, in 1997, I took a course on the subject and my instructor, Gabriel, gave us a basic bibliography of four titles that at the time constituted the cornerstone of the process.

The books are:

1) The Goal (Eliyahu Goldratt): Gabriel came from the Goldratt Institute and the Theory of Constraints was then, and probably still is, very much in vogue. Needless to say, for the business world, industrial engineering and anyone interested in applying the concepts of continuous improvement to organizational processes, The Goal is the starting point: a novel that narrates the adventures of Alex Rogo, a Plant Manager who suddenly finds himself faced with the prospect of his factory being closed down and discovers, in the course of the plot, the basic concepts of the Theory of Constraints while trying to answer the question: “What is the goal of the business?” Later on, more complex subjects can be tackled, such as my recent interest in the metrics of Throughput Accounting (28 years later, I still haven’t found a satisfactory translation into Spanish of this little term used extensively in The Goal and in Theory of Constraints).

2) The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Stephen Covey): I think that 28 years ago Covey was not as famous or as widely read as he is now. His seminal work, based on the concept of reconstructing the “ethics of character”, is still a valid philosophy of life for combating the pragmatist, materialist and utilitarian scales of values that tend to condition us culturally in our postmodern society. Gabriel’s recommendation is essential for anyone who decides to take the book seriously: until you have mastered the first habit, do not continue with the other six.

3) The Celestine Prophecy (James Redfield): A work that for many touches on the plane of “New Age” culture. Celestine Prophecy is a story that tells of nine revelations that humanity will receive in the next millennium, in the framework of a fantastic story about a mysterious manuscript in the Aramaic language found in the Mayan area. The three essential values that I find in this book as part of the process of continuous improvement are the following:

– Broken or damaged relationships: in view of the postmodern perspective of the limited success of marriages and relationships, the recommendations that emanate from Redfield’s characters should not be ignored.

– The History of the Second Millennium: this is the most “New Age” part, but Redfield’s map of human history and the perspective that, after half a millennium of Renaissance, Rationalism and Positivism, we are once again approaching an era in which the mystical and sacred nature of existence and the cosmic dimension are appreciated is in order.

– Dramas of Control: this is an essential topic that Gabriel was referring to. How do you steal energy from others? By being intimidating? Inquisitive? Hermetic? A victim?

4) The Alchemist (Paulo Coelho): Twenty eight years ago Coelho was neither as famous nor as omnipresent in everyday conversation. Personally, my favorite book by Coelho is Diary of a Magus, which I had already read in 1997 and treasured as a favorite in my own library. However, The Alchemist, a short story in which obvious parallels with Diary of a Magician can be discerned, is a very suitable catalyst for ideas of personalized continuous improvement, especially at the point where the re-encounter with spiritual life and the search for the transcendent meaning of existence become part of the equation. In addition, the beginning of the story with the helpful but always forceful phrase: “the boy’s name was Santiago” is the beginning of a framework for many epic narratives (The Odyssey or The Lord of the Rings come to mind). We are in a “there and back again” situation.