• We are proud to present two new book titles for our parent, community, and staff this year(2019-2020). Please take this opportunity to read and discuss these intriguing titles!

    Title One: Book Study Date is November 6 at CCHS Library. Disussion will begin at 6:30pm. 

    The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life Cover Image

    Please review the following for Description, About the Author, and Reviews:

    The Happiness Advantage: How a Positive Brain Fuels Success in Work and Life (Paperback) Changing Hands Bookstore: 

    Description


    Our most commonly held formula for success is broken.
     
    Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, thenwe’ll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. 

    When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn’t just an empty mantra. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigorous research in psychology and neuroscience, management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe. 
                
    In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, who spent over a decade living, researching, and lecturing at Harvard University, draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS and KPMG—to fix this broken formula. Using stories and case studies from his work with thousands of Fortune 500 executives in 42 countries, Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive edge at work. 
                
    Isolating seven practical, actionable principles that have been tried and tested everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms, stretching from Argentina to Zimbabwe, he shows us how we can capitalize on the Happiness Advantage to improve our performance and maximize our potential. Among the principles he outlines: 
     
    • The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility, so we can see—and seize—opportunities wherever we look.
    • The Zorro Circle: how to channel our efforts on small, manageable goals, to gain the leverage to gradually conquer bigger and bigger ones.
    • Social Investment: how to reap the dividends of investing in one of the greatest predictors of success and happiness—our social support network
     
    A must-read for everyone trying to excel in a world of increasing workloads, stress, and negativity, The Happiness Advantage isn’t only about how to become happier at work. It’s about how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.

    About the Author


    Shawn Achor is one of the world’s leading experts on happiness, success, and potential. His research has graced the cover of Harvard Business Review, and his TED Talk is one of the most popular of all time, with more than 15 million views. Shawn spent twelve years at Harvard before bringing this research to nearly half the Fortune 100, as well as places like the Pentagon, impoverished schools in Africa, and the White House. His research has also been published in top psychology journals and featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street JournalForbes, and Fortune. His interview with Oprah Winfrey and his PBS program have been seen by millions. He now serves on the World Happiness Council and continues his research.

    Praise For…


    “Achor transports us to his virtual classroom, a journey along which we glean the seven secrets of happiness. The Happiness Advantage reveals the most important discoveries coming out of modern psychology.”
    —Rom Brafman, bestselling co-author of Sway and Click

    "Shawn Achor is funny, self-deprecating, and devastating to my notions of what his field is all about…. I'm butter to his knife."
    The Boston Globe           

    "Achor bases his training on a burgeoning body of research on the positive psychology movement, which emphasizes instilling resiliency and positive attitudes…."
    —Wall Street Journal

     

    Title Two:  Book Study Date is TBD. 

    Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World Cover Image 

    Please review the following for Description, About the Author, and Reviews: Originals: How Non-Conformists Move the World  Changing Hand Book Store:

    Description


    The #1 New York Times bestseller that examines how people can champion new ideas—and how leaders can fight groupthink, from the author of Give and Take and co-author of Option B

    “Reading Originals made me feel like I was seated across from Adam Grant at a dinner party, as one of my favorite thinkers thrilled me with his insights and his wonderfully new take on the world.” —Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers and The Tipping Point

    Originals is one of the most important and captivating books I have ever read, full of surprising and powerful ideas. It will not only change the way you see the world; it might just change the way you live your life. And it could very well inspire you to change your world.” —Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and author of Lean In

    With Give and Take, Adam Grant not only introduced a landmark new paradigm for success but also established himself as one of his generation’s most compelling and provocative thought leaders. In Originals he again addresses the challenge of improving the world, but now from the perspective of becoming original: choosing to champion novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battle conformity, and buck outdated traditions. How can we originate new ideas, policies, and practices without risking it all?
     
    Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt; how parents and teachers can nurture originality in children; and how leaders can build cultures that welcome dissent. Learn from an entrepreneur who pitches his start-ups by highlighting the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who overturned the rule of secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees for failing to criticize him, and a TV executive who didn’t even work in comedy but saved Seinfeld from the cutting-room floor. The payoff is a set of groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and improving the status quo.

    About the Author


    Adam Grant is Wharton’s top-rated teacher. He has been recognized as one of HR’s most influential international thinkers, BusinessWeek’s favorite professor, one of the world’s forty best business professors under forty. Grant was tenured at Wharton while still in his twenties and has been honored with the Excellence in Teaching Award for every class he has taught. His first book, Give and Take, was a New York Times bestseller translated into twenty-seven languages and named one of the best books of 2013 by Amazon, Apple, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal—as well as one of Oprah’s riveting reads, Fortune’s must-read business books, Harvard Business Review’s ideas that shaped management, and the Washington Post’s books every leader should read. His speaking and consulting clients include Google, the NFL, Merck, Goldman Sachs, Disney Pixar, the United Nations, and the U.S. Army and Navy. He serves as a contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times and was profiled in a cover story by its magazine. Coauthor of the new book Option B with Facebook COO and Lean In author Sheryl Sandberg, Grant earned his Ph.D. in organizational psychology from the University of Michigan and his B.A. from Harvard College.

    Praise For…


    “Part of the fun of Grant’s book is that he redeems behaviors we typically regard with puritan disdain. . . . Thought-provoking.”
    —The New York Times Book Review
     
    “Fresh research, counter-intuitive insights, lively writing, practical calls to action . . . Grant has a deserved reputation as an original thinker.”
    The Financial Times
     
    “Grant’s latest looks set to join the required reading lists of many companies across America.”
    —Wired.com
     
    “[Grant] examines what successful non-conformists . . . have in common, all in an effort to help the rest of us learn how to do things like bust myths, speak truth to power, and avoid groupthink without getting sidelined.”
    —The Washington Post
     
    “Adam Grant is a serious social scientist, master storyteller and infectious optimist. . . . Originals is filled with fresh insights on a broad array of topics that are important to our personal and professional lives. Mr. Grant has an uncanny ability to infuse a familiar topic with deeper meaning and leave the reader feeling hopeful and a little exhilarated.”
    —The New York Times DealBook

    “This extraordinary, wildly entertaining book sheds new light on the Age of Disruption. What does it take to make a meaningful difference? And how can you apply this insight to your own life? By debunking myths of success stories, challenging long-held beliefs of process, and finding commonality among those who are agents of profound change, Adam Grant gives us a powerful new perspective on not just our place in the world, but our potential to shake it up entirely.”
    —JJ Abrams, director of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, co-creator and executive producer of Lost, and cofounder of Bad Robot

    “After launching hundreds of businesses—from airlines to trains, music to mobile, and now a spaceline—my biggest challenges and successes have come from convincing other people to see the world differently. Originals reveals how that can be done and will help you inspire creativity and change.”
    —Sir Richard Branson, founder of The Virgin Group

    Originals is a fascinating, eye-opening read that will help you not just recognize your own unique gifts, but find the strength to challenge conventional wisdom to bring them to life. Using surprising studies and riveting stories, Adam Grant brilliantly shows us how to champion new ideas, bust persistent myths that hold us back and change not only our lives, but our world.”
    —Arianna Huffington, cofounder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, and author of Thrive

    “It can sometimes seem as if one must learn everything old before one can try anything new. Adam Grant does a masterful job showing that is not the case; we are lucky to have him as a guide.”
    —Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal and Palantir, and author of Zero to One

    “An urgent must read, a seminal work that will surprise you on every single page. Adam Grant has reset our expectations for what it means to be creative and what's required to make a difference. Share it with someone you care about.”
    —Seth Godin, author of Linchpin

    Praise for Give and Take

     
    “As brilliant as it is wise, this is not just a book—it’s a new and shining worldview. Adam Grant is one of the great social scientists of our time, and Give and Take is brimming with life-changing insights.”
    —Susan Cain, author of Quiet
     
    Give and Take is a truly exhilarating book—the rare work that will shatter your assumptions about how the world works and keep your brain firing for weeks after you’ve turned the last page.”
    —Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell Is Human
     
    “I love Give and Take, which shows that givers get ahead and nice guys don’t finish last.”
    —Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive and president of the Huffington Post Media Group
     
    “Now shaking up the business world: science that may change the way the world does business.”
    —Willie Geist, Today show 
     
    “Adam Grant’s Give and Take is an excellent book. Hard work, luck, and talent are important, but giving makes the difference.”
    —Alex Stubb, prime minister of Finland
     
    Give and Take is like a fundamental outline as to how to be successful. . . . Highly recommended read.”
    —Ashton Kutcher, actor, director, and technology investor
     
    Give and Take is a very interesting book. . . . I can’t put it down.”
    —Ryan Seacrest, host of American Idol
     
    Give and Take just might be the most important book of this young century. As insightful and entertaining as Malcolm Gladwell at his best, this book has profound implications for how we manage our careers, deal with our friends and relatives, raise our children, and design our institutions. This gem is a joy to read, and it shatters the myth that greed is the path to success.”
    —Robert Sutton, author of The No *sshole Rule and Good Boss, Bad Boss

    So how do you order titles and become a part of this book study?

    We collaborated with our favorite local book store, Changing Hands, to establish an easy link to order titles.  If you wish to join, you may use the link to order one or both titles.  We will be notified of your order and pick up the books once all orders have been filled.  We will distribute all books accordingly.  *Please be aware of deadlines when ordering! 

    *ORDER HERE LINK:  https://www.changinghands.com/CCHS2019

     

    Please look for additional links in the coming weeks: Discussion Questions and/or Videos will be included to assist our discussion of these titles.  

    For any additional information, please contact Jayson Phillips (CCHS Principal) or Amy Welch (CCHS History teacher) at welch.amy@cusd80.com  

    We are looking forward to the discussions!