MSIM Reading Seminar and
Community Books

... the gift that is not used will be lost, while the one that is passed along remains abundant*

Image of four women reading in the woods, suggesting a reading group.

Reading together is a gift.

In the MSIM Reading Seminar, you will have an opportunity to read and discuss a text on leadership, organizations, and work in the future, and to participate in a community of readers. You can take the reading seminar for two credits or simply participate, for no credits.

Current Book: Facilitator Sign-up

Upcoming and Recent Books
“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that"

Book cover		Seminar Information
		Winter 2026 Thursday 5:30 – 7:20 PM Pacific Zoom: TBD Heather Whiteman Suzman, J. (2020). Work: A Deep History, From the Stone Age to the Age of Robots. New York: Penguin Books. Work defines who we are. It determines our status, and dictates how, where, and with whom we spend most of our time. It mediates our self-worth and molds our values. But are we hard-wired to work as hard as we do? Did our Stone Age ancestors also live to work and work to live? And what might a world where work plays a far less important role look like? To answer these questions, James Suzman charts a grand history of "work" from the origins of life on Earth to our ever more automated present, challenging some of our deepest assumptions about who we are. Drawing insights from anthropology, archaeology, evolutionary biology, zoology, physics, and economics, he shows that while we have evolved to find joy meaning and purpose in work, for most of human history our ancestors worked far less and thought very differently about work than we do now. He demonstrates how our contemporary culture of work has its roots in the agricultural revolution ten thousand years ago. Our sense of what it is to be human was transformed by the transition from foraging to food production, and, later, our migration to cities. Since then, our relationships with one another and with our environments, and even our sense of the passage of time, have not been the same. Arguing that we are in the midst of a similarly transformative point in history, Suzman shows how automation might revolutionize our relationship with work and in doing so usher in a more sustainable and equitable future for our world and ourselves.
		Autumn 2025 Thursday 5:30 – 7:20 PM Pacific Dempsey Hall 124 First class meeting: Thursday, September 25, 2025 Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/95491767579 (in-person preferred, if possible) David Hendry (dhendry@uw.edu) (Seattle) (he/him) (kindness \| dignity \| outdoors) Zuboff, S. (2019). The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the new Frontier of Power. New York: Public Affairs. [978-1610395694] [About $20.00 at the usual places] [UW Library] Shoshana Zuboff develops seven different definitions of “surveillance capitalism,” the first being “a new economic order that claims human experience as free raw material for hidden commercial practices of extraction, prediction, and sales.” In this reading seminar, we will study this and the other six definitions and explore the implications for democracy, organizations, professionals in information management, and our children and grandchildren. Syllabus
		Summer 2025 (Session A, June 23 – July 23) Monday/Wednesday, 5:50 - 8:00 PM 5:30 - 7:20 PM Mary Gates Hall (MGH) 085 First class meeting: June 23, 2025 Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/95491767579 (in-person preferred, if possible) David Hendry (dhendry@uw.edu) (Seattle) (he/him) (kindness \| dignity \| outdoors) Simon, H. A. (1997). Administrative Behavior (4th edition). New York: Free Press. [978-0684835822] [About $16.00 at the usual places] NOTE: PLEASE GET THE 4^th EDITION. Herbert Simon won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1979 for pioneering research into decision-making. The Nobel Prize Committee wrote: “In his epoch-making book, Administrative Behavior (1947), and in a number of subsequent works, he described the company as an adaptive system of physical, personal and social components that are held together by a network of intercommunications and by the willingness of its members to cooperate and to strive towards a common goal” (Nobel Prize Outreach. [2025, April 23]. Nobel Prize Press Release 1978. Link.). In this reading seminar we will study and discuss this seminal book and Simon’s insights into how organizations work and how they can be designed to work well. Syllabus
		Spring 2025 Wednesday 5:30 - 7:20 PM Mary Gates Hall (MGH) 085 First class meeting: April 2, 2025 Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/95491767579 (in-person preferred, if possible) David Hendry (dhendry@uw.edu) (Seattle) (he/him) (kindness \| dignity \| outdoors) Blackwell, A. (2024). Moral Codes: Designing Alternatives to AI. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [ISBN-13: 978-0-262-54871-7] [About $35.00 at the usual places \| UW Library] Alan Blackwell makes the case that to benefit from artificial intelligence we need to develop better tools, including programming languages. In this reading seminar, we'll read Moral Codes slowly, and explore how tools augment human intellect and expand human creativity. And, we'll gain perspective on the possibilities for artificial intelligence. Syllabus
		Winter 2025 Tuesday 4:00 - 5:20 PM Clark Hall (CLK) 219 First class meeting: January 7, 2025 Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/95491767579 (in-person preferred, if possible) David Hendry (dhendry@uw.edu) (Seattle) (he/him) (kindness \| dignity \| outdoors) Kane, G. C., Phillips, A. N., Copulsky, J. R., and Andrus, G. R. (2019). The Technology Fallacy: How People are the Real Key to Digital Transformation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. [ISBN-13: 978-0262039680] [About $20.00 at the usual places \| UW Library] The Technology Fallacy outlines how digital technologies are disrupting organizations of every size and kind. Based on four years of research, the book argues that the “best way to respond to digital disruption is by changing the company culture to be more agile, risk tolerant, and experimental.” In this reading seminar, we will examine this thesis and its consequences for information management. Syllabus
		Autumn 2024 Tuesday 4:30 - 6:00 PM Pacific Mary Gates Hall 372 Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/95491767579 (in-person preferred, if possible) Sinek, Simon. Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Penguin Books, New York, 2011. [ISBN-13: 978-1591846444] [About $15.00 at the usual places \| UW Library] Simon Sinek offers a framework for leadership: why-how-what. In this reading seminar, we’ll explore Sinek’s framework and how his influential ideas about leadership might be taken up and used. You may or may not find them influential - in either case you develop your own position and your own insights. Syllabus
		Summer 2024 (A Term) Tuesday 4:00 – 5:20 PM Pacific Mary Gates Hall 372 Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/99950795552 (in-person preferred, if possible) Pinker, Steven. Enlightenment now: The case for reason, science, humanism, and progress. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2018. [ISBN 978-0143111382] [About $15.00 at the usual places \| UW Library] Steven Pinker gives an optimistic view of the future. He does so by following the data and making commitments to rationality, to human flourishing, and to progress. He asks us to dare to understand. In this reading seminar, we’ll explore the ideals of the Enlightenment for our age and how they relate to “data-driven, socially conscious information leaders.” Syllabus
		Spring 2024 Tuesday 4:00 – 5:20 PM Pacific Mary Gates Hall 372 Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/94326893090 (in-person preferred, if possible) - OR - Thursday 4:00 – 5:20 PM Pacific Mary Gates Hall 372 Zoom: https://washington.zoom.us/j/94326893090 (in-person preferred, if possible) David Hendry (dhendry@uw.edu) Office Hours: By appointment Graeber, D. (2018). Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. New York: Simon & Schuster. [ISBN: 978-1-5011-4331-1] [About $15.00 at the usual places \| UW Library] While the book title is annoying, the topic is serious, and of huge importance to organizations and society at large. Simply put, organizations and bureaucracies frequently create jobs that are a waste of time; jobs that are not socially valuable; jobs that undermine our human capacities to be creative, to be in meaningful connection with each other, and to learn and grow. Perhaps not all organizations create BS jobs, but according to Graeber, many do. What are pointless jobs? Why do they exist? What harms do they cause? What can we do about organizational BS? David Graeber – known as a provocative, original, and influential thinker – was an anthropologist who asked these questions and more. The resulting book, an international best seller, will have insights into how we can be socially conscious leaders as we strive to develop our capacities to design good organizations, good strategy, and good information tools. We are likely to find important implications for our use of Artificial Intelligence and for designing businesses processes that automate human decision-making. Most of all, we will explore the idea of meaningful work and how we value our work and the work of others. syllabus

		Winter 2024 Thursday 4:00 – 5:20 PM Pacific Mary Gates Hall 372 (in-person preferred, if possible) David Hendry (dhendry@uw.edu) Office Hours: By appointment Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. New York: Random House. [ISBN-13: 978-0399592522] [About $15.00 at the usual places] "A leader is anyone who takes responsibility for finding the potential in people and processes and has the courage to develop that potential." In this reading seminar, we will examine this influential view of leadership, and explore how we can develop our leadership skills each and every day. For an introduction to the author, Brené Brown, see Dare to Lead Hub. Syllabus

Notes:

"... the gift that is not used will be lost, while the one that is passed along remains abundant...." Quotation is from The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World, by Lewis Hyde, 1983, p. 26.
“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that." Quotation from John Stuart Mill (1806–73), quoted in Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now. New York: Basic Books, 2018, 373; see also John Stuart Mill, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Image credit, showing a reading group, in Nature: Washington Post