current reads - pt. 1
I read because it helps me ask better questions and keep my busy mind in swirl.
The best books challenge my assumptions, sharpen my thinking, and help me see connections I might have otherwise missed. As Neighbor has taken shape, a few books have stayed on my desk, filled with notes and folded corners.
Each approaches community from a different perspective, yet together they've reinforced a belief that sits at the heart of my work —> healthier communities are built through connection, imagination, and civic patriotism.
Together — Vivek Murthy
One of the most powerful ideas in Together is that connection is essential infrastructure and the central driving force in public health.
Murthy reframes loneliness not simply as an individual experience, but as a public health challenge with profound implications for our workplaces, neighborhoods, and institutions. It highlights that healthy communities are built through relationships.
As I reflected on my own work, I realized the same is true for strategy. The strongest plans begin with understanding people - their lived experiences, aspirations, and relationships.
That realization is woven into Neighbor's core philosophy —> strategy without proximity is just theory.
Imagine Doing Better — Paul Fleming
This book is an invitation to think beyond surface improvements.
Fleming challenges leaders to stop asking, "How do we make this a little better?" and instead ask, "How can prevention thinking reshape our long-term future?"
That shift from short-term optimization to long-term imagination deeply resonates with me. In strategic planning, organization often default to solving today's problems without creating any space to envision tomorrow's possibilities. This is a core differentiator in my approach, and why I believe in the power of foresight-led planning.
At Neighbor, foresight isn't about predicting the future. - it is about expanding what's possible and helping organizations prepare for change before it arrives. This book reaffirmed that great strategy requires imagination.
Our Towns — James and Deborah Fallows
Reading Our Towns felt like traveling through communities filled with quiet optimism.
The Fallows tell stories of places that are not sitting back and waiting for someone else to solve their challenges. Instead, they highlight local leaders, nonprofits, businesses, educators, and residents who are choosing to build the future of their communities together. They call these individuals “civic patriots,” and that language really resonated with me.
The lesson in their book is not that every town has the same answers, or needs an outside savior - it is that every community already has assets worth building upon and “civic patriots” with the passion and ambition to be the drivers of positive change.
This idea is reshaping the way I work and my firmest beliefs. The organizations closest to their communities often hold the deepest understanding of what is needed. My role is never to arrive with answers, it is to bring research, strategy, and foresight alongside their lived experience to help create meaningful, lasting change.
The thread connecting all three
These books are about different subjects - connection, imagination, and civic renewal - but together they reinforce a simple belief…
The future of our communities depends on the strength of the organizations and people who care enough to build them.
This is why Neighbor exists —> to partner with organizations that are asking difficult questions, navigating complexity, and investing in the long-term health of the communities they serve.
I'd love to hear from you. What book has changed the way you think about your work - or your community?