Quiet Influence: The Introvert’s Guide to Making a Difference
Kahnweiler, Jennifer
San Francisco :  Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2013
Author’s website

I wrote about Susan Cain’s Quiet last month, “I loved everything about this book, but ended it still thinking, okay, so now what? … My interest right now is in self-advocacy.” Reading this book as a followup was absolutely the right thing to do.

It’s a straight-up genre self-help book, and that’s just fine. The format is pretty standard: six “strengths” (styles of executive function), each given its own chapter; each chapter organized into summary, anecdote, how the characteristic can be positively leveraged, how it can be detrimental through unfocused use, and suggestions for self-assessment and self-development. A couple of introduction and wrapup chapters and some resource lists in the back.

Someone determined to get through the material, with time to focus on it, could knock through this under-200-page book in a day, easily. I was reading two chapters a day, at a pace that was somewhere between careful reading and skimming, and that worked well; it gave me a little time to internalize the material between reading sessions.

Kahnweiler’s “six strengths” are:

Taking quiet time; preparation; engaged listening; focused conversations; writing; thoughtful use of social media.

I was particularly interested by her inclusion of social media; it’s one of the first times I’ve come across a thoughtful discussion of social media styles at an intersection with personality styles. The specific ways in which she separates “quiet time” from “preparation” is also very interesting. I did a lot of writing in college about the role of back-burner processing in the creative process, but I’ve also dished out a lot of pretty harsh self-criticism over the years over creative procrastination. The ideas in this book suggest directions for using solitary worktime/downtime more efficiently in line with the slow-but-deep learning style I know I have.

This is one I’ll likely buy an e-book or used paperback copy of, to flip through when feeling stuck or frustrated. Not a lot of truly revelatory material, but a lot of useful ideas and a whole lot of “wow, I wish someone had told me this stuff before I wasted all that time figuring it out on my own.”

Laurie Helgoe has a similarly-themed book published about the same time (Introvert Power: Why Your Inner Life Is Your Hidden Strength), which is going on the reading list, but not a top priority – I think I’m ready to give this theme a break. When I get to it, I’ll be particularly interested in the different perspective a self-identified introvert brings to the practical-application material. (Kahnweiler identifies as an extrovert.)

Next up to review: Ambient Findability. Managing my reading is partly dependent on juggling library due dates, so although I’m ridiculously excited starting Peter Morville’s new book, Intertwingled, which I bought as an e-book, I have a stack of other things to get through first. Next up: Interop: The Promise and Perils of Highly Interconnected Systems by John Palfrey and Urs Gasser.