Book Review: Three Cups of Tea

(Note: I finished this book just a day before the controversy noted below broke - this review is based on the pre-controversy reading - some notes follow)

This book is listed on the 2011 Chief of Staff of the US Air Force Professional Reading Program

“Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time”, Greg Mortenson, David Relin, Penguin Books, ISBN-10: 0143038252, 2007

One person can make a difference. Greg Mortenson shows us how he made a difference to the children of Northern Pakistan. He doesn’t sugar coat this as an easy effort, numerous disappointments and difficulties are along his winding journal to build schools in the Baltistan region. I’m not qualified to comment on the literary style, but Greg’s story is sufficient compelling to pull me through the book.

The portion of the book that most spoke to me was Greg’s humble style in learning the Balti culture and providing what they need, not what he thought they needed. By becoming family with the chief elder of the village of Korphe, Haji Ali, Greg learned that Haji Ali’s greatest desire for his community was a school. Their goals were not so much to explicitly give a specific capability to people, but to transform the lives of everyone. Transformational action is at the core of systemic leadership; perceive the societal, structural need, and provide a solution that enables the society to grow and improve itself. That is the core of systemic thinking.

Another thing to note is how completely the pursuit of this goal consumed Greg’s life. He doesn’t describe his pursuit of the goal as a “labor” or a “job”, but as his passion. The book starts with Greg’s failed assault on K-2, and him committing to providing schools. Quickly, we see Greg switch from mountain climbing to school building; later in the book he notes how out of shape he feels, since he hadn’t been climbing. We could debate if Greg’s efforts were an obsession or a passion. I think that a reader should note that Greg’s level of commitment was necessary to achieve the goal he chose. While this is an inspiring example, people can and should remember that many levels of service can be valuable and transform the lives of others – but commit a sufficient level of effort to achieve the goal.

Overall, I recommend this book for the positive inspiration and example of systemic leadership portrayed.

Recent controversy: http://www.cnn.com/2011/SHOWBIZ/04/17/three.cups.of.tea.controversy/index.html

From reading the article at CNN, I feel my review still stands, regardless of the outcome of the main claims that the books is more idealized than reality. Used as an example of systemic leadership, the story works. Further, the observations of effort/commitment to achieve a goal of this isze are likely to hold and do not seem to be at the heart of the controversy. Ultimately, objective truth about anyone who is portrayed as a hero is hard to achieve. My recommendation for people to read the book isn't for the factual information on a would-be hero, but instead I recommend the book, as I stated, as an example of systemic leadership - changing people by changing the system, in this case by offering schools. Read More......