2024 Director's Reading List

The Art Of The Call: A "Service the Journey" Guide for 9-1-1 Dispatchers
by Stephen Gower

156 pages
The Five Mega Keepers of Perception As Discussed within This Book! Your microphone is always on!

We do not have the same starting points, nor run at the same pace! We do not speak the same language, even if we all speak English. Perception is driven by the perceiver—from underneath a “Thatch Hut.” What is insignificant to you can be extremely significant to someone else!

Dispatcher Stress: 50 Lessons on Beating the Burnout
by Adam Timm, Joe Serio

148 pages
To master anything, one must first master themselves–one’s emotions, one’s thoughts, one’s actions. Eisenhower famously said that freedom is really the opportunity to practice self-discipline. Cicero called the virtue of temperance the polish of life. Without boundaries and restraint, we risk not only failing to meet our full potential and jeopardizing what we have achieved, but we ensure misery and shame. In a world of temptation and excess, this ancient idea is more urgent than ever.

People Driven Leadership: How the Best 9-1-1 Centers Inspire Positive Change
by Adam Timm

235 pages
This book, based on dozens of interviews with managers, directors and supervisors from centers across the United States, offers an accessible blueprint for any center looking to make a positive change. The problems are universal, and so are the solutions.

Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
by William Bridges

144 pages
The business world is constantly transforming. When restructures, mergers, bankruptcies, and layoffs hit the workplace, employees and managers naturally find the resulting situational shifts to be challenging. But the psychological transitions that accompany them are even more stressful. Organizational transitions affect people; it is always people, rather than a company, who have to embrace a new situation and carry out the corresponding change.

Clear Thinking: Turning Ordinary Moments into Extraordinary Results
by Shane Parrish

288 pages
You might believe you’re thinking clearly in the moments that matter most. But in all likelihood, when the pressure is on, you won’t be thinking at all. And your subsequent actions will inevitably move you further from the results you ultimately seek—love, belonging, success, wealth, victory. According to Farnam Street founder Shane Parrish, we must get better at recognizing these opportunities for what they are, and deploying our cognitive ability in order to achieve the life we want.