Here is Part Two of the CSI Construction Pro reading list, including all of the most recent responses to this Community Page question, “What’s the one book you think every construction industry professional should read, and why?”
Click here to read Part One.
The Contractor’s Guide to Change Orders - How to Resolve Disputes and Get Paid by Andrew M. Civitello and William D. Locher. The title itself should make it pretty obvious why anybody in the design professions should read this.
Theodore Smith RA NCARB CCS
Is this a trick question? Why would it be anything other than the Project Delivery Practice Guide?!
Steven Groth CSI, CCS, CDT, AIA
This is outside of the construction box, but believe it makes me a better construction industry member. That said, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek is one of my favorite books of all time. It’s not what we do, it’s why we do it!
William Sundquist CSI
From the CSI perspective, the obvious choice is the CSI Project Delivery Practice Guide...for obvious reasons. It’s surprising to me how many members that I connect with that don't even know it exists, much less have read it.
From a ‘your future in the industry is going to change, so be ready for it’ standpoint, an absolute must read is Seth Godin’s This is Marketing. Most folks could read this book in an hour, but it will change the trajectory of your future if you read and grasp the contents.
Brent Williams CSI, CDT
I usually ask the students I am working with to read Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer (Pena/Parshall).
I don’t know if there could be a seminal work that would apply to all of the participants in the entire industry that would be a panacea for the problems that occur. The Project Delivery Practices Guide is as close as you could get. I also encourage students to take a class in formal logic, usually offered by the philosophy department.
Jeffrey Pilus CSI, CCCA, AIA Ass., USGBC, SCIP