Change The World 9 to 5
We Are What We Do.

Change The World 9 to 5 is a bright, fun book. It contains 50 ways in which you can change, and thereby make your place of work a better place. Not only your work though, this book wants to make the entire world a better place. The book come from the people who created the website WeAreWhatWeDo.org - on their site you learn more about how this non-profile organisation aims to help with big issues by using small ideas. The preface to the book sets out their simple formula: small changes x lots of people = BIG change.

The first tip in the book is numbered 51, as this books follows on from the book Change the World for a Fiver, on their website you can find other versions for many other countries too. From tip #51 you will be immediately grabbed by the approach this book takes. Each tip is given a two page spread, with a colourful graphic or photograph as the background. The text for each tip is short, witty and informative. A lot of the tips have a FYI included, which knocks you over with a killer statistic; try tip #55 for how many biro pens are sold worldwide each day.

The book is not aimed particularly at environmental issues, but they are scattered very regularly throughout. The nature of the book means you move around lots of different areas, from thinking about the world, to thinking about others, to thinking about looking after yourself. The energy the book gives makes you want to keep reading, and can give you a useful new perspective on something. It is definitely the kind of book you would want to pass on to other people after you have finishing reading it. In fact, tip #65 says if you get twenty people to read the book and sign the form you will get a new copy of the book! That not great for the sales, but it shows where the heart of this book is.

Change The World 9 to 5 is not aimed at telling you how to manage a paper reduction project, but it fits in incredibly well with creating a Greener approach to work. If this book was left in a canteen, kitchen area or reception it would be picked up. The end of the book provides you with a tick list of all 50 tips in the book, just so you can see how well you are getting. As well as that there is a list of all the useful websites mentioned in the book. I do not think anyone could manage to read this book without taking some of the tips on board, and for doing that you can have a gold star from tip #59 (no, there really are sticky, gold stars attached to that tip).