Okay, so this is a bit of a departure for me. This is not a book that really fits my own learning style--but I'm trying to break out of my own boxes and look at the world occasionally through other people's frame of reference. If you're the sort of person who likes to learn from parables. It's softer, thinner, and far less in-depth than many of the books I've reviewed in this column, and some may find its lessons simplistic--but for others, the message may be far more accessible than that of a book like "Co-opetition."

What's most interesting to me in this volume is that the co-authors join the worlds of high-powered corporate executives (Jennings) with faith-based community organizing and local improvement (Stahl-Wert). This is exactly the sort of synthesis I'm try ing to achieve through the Business Ethics Pledge campaign, so I'm very glad to see this kind of cooperation in a mainstream business book, blessed by Ken Blanchard (of One-Minute Manager fame) and published by a respected house.

Told through the eyes of a fictional consultant brought in by his dying father to work with urban social change communities--and rebuild his distant relationship with the famous dad, the book boils down some pretty good wisdom into a series of aphorisms. A simplistic formula, but one that can be quite effective, as Blanchard and others have proven.

Some of the nuggets I took away:

* Get your ego out of the way

* Expect high accomplishments from everyone, and more often than not, they will rise to your expectations--especially if you...

* Let people play to their strengths rather than their weaknesses (complement them by creating teams whose strengths and weaknesses balance each other)

* Multiply excellence by training a few super-achievers, and letting their knowledge, skills, and wisdom spread virally to new communities as they train others

* Those whom you help need to participate actively in their own improvement

* Greatness requires community; there's no such thing as greatness in isolation--and cross-fertilization among business, government, and nonprofits, as well as those impacted, can create both the community and the greatness

* Be driven by a higher purpose

* And finally, the single most applicable to my situation with the pledge: strive to do the impossible.

(Speaking of which--I've put an essay up at Contact ID: A2ZSEMSARZIGKT about why I started the Pledge--and I intend to put another one up shortly about the advantages to businesses or organizations in signing the Pledge.)

Shel Horowitz's award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, demonstrates how to build a business around ethics, environmental sustainability, and cooperative practices--and how to develop marketing that highlights those advantages.

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