Discover the books that are making waves and transforming lives. Our Bestsellers collection features the most impactful, reader-loved titles across leadership, personal growth, workplace transformation, and social change. These standout books have resonated with audiences around the world—delivering timeless wisdom, actionable strategies, and bold ideas that spark real change. Whether you’re new to Berrett-Koehler or looking for your next great read, this is the perfect place to start.
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In a wonderfully readable and fun way, SEEING SYSTEMS (over 30,000 copies sold) presents a unique and innovative theory of power dynamics that provides the reader with a new way of looking at, understanding, surviving, and prospering in the many systems of which we are part.
Paul Polak, whose organization International Development Enterprises (IDE) has directly helped over 17 million people get out of poverty permanently, exposes the top 3 things we are doing wrong in our efforts to end the root causes of poverty. He then, through the story of a Nepali farmer, goes on to detail solutions for what actually works in ending poverty
Richard Leider and David Shapiro helped hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people discover the true purpose of their lives with their classic bestseller Repacking Your Bags. Now they focus their attention on the second half of life, showing readers how to claim their rightful place as new elders, men and women who, the authors write, "use the second half of life as an empty canvas, a blank page, a hunk of clay to be crafted on purpose."
Claiming Your Place at the Fire uses dozens of inspiring and surprising stories of new elders, as well as thought-provoking exercises like the Fireside Chats that conclude each chapter, to help readers address four key questions:
Who am I? How do I stoke the wisdom gained in the first half of my life to burn more brightly in the second half?
Where do I belong? What makes a place the right place for me in the second half?
What do I care about? Where do I want to use my gifts and talents in the second half? What is my purpose? How do I leave a legacy that has real meaning for myself and my loved ones?
What is my purpose? How do I leave a legacy that has real meaning for myself and my loved ones?
For the next 12 years, there will be 10,000 people a day in the U.S. alone turning 50. Never before have so many entered into the second half of life so vital, healthy, and free. And never before have so many had such a hunger for direction in how to live this stage of their lives in a purposeful way. Claiming Your Place at the Fire shows how to embrace the lessons that we learn as we age and share these lessons in a manner that is relevant and meaningful to ourselves and the people whose lives we touch.
Claiming Your Place at the Fire uses dozens of inspiring and surprising stories of new elders, as well as thought-provoking exercises like the Fireside Chats that conclude each chapter, to help readers address four key questions:
Who am I? How do I stoke the wisdom gained in the first half of my life to burn more brightly in the second half?
Where do I belong? What makes a place the right place for me in the second half?
What do I care about? Where do I want to use my gifts and talents in the second half? What is my purpose? How do I leave a legacy that has real meaning for myself and my loved ones?
What is my purpose? How do I leave a legacy that has real meaning for myself and my loved ones?
For the next 12 years, there will be 10,000 people a day in the U.S. alone turning 50. Never before have so many entered into the second half of life so vital, healthy, and free. And never before have so many had such a hunger for direction in how to live this stage of their lives in a purposeful way. Claiming Your Place at the Fire shows how to embrace the lessons that we learn as we age and share these lessons in a manner that is relevant and meaningful to ourselves and the people whose lives we touch.
If you influence change in the lives of those around you, then you are engaged in an act of leadership. Your Leadership Legacy is the sum total of the difference you make in people's lives, directly and indirectly, formally and informally. The challenge is how to live in a way that creates a legacy that will make a positive difference in the lives of those around you. Your Leadership Legacy shows you how to leave a meaningful legacy.
Most businesses spend far too much of their time and energy struggling to get new customers or hang on to existing ones-even customers who are ultimately more trouble than they're worth. Attracting Perfect Customers invites readers to move beyond the notions that "business is war" and winning market share means "beating" the other guy. The authors outline a simple strategic process for making businesses so highly attractive that perfect customers and clients are naturally drawn right to them.
Sound too good to be true? Hall and Brogniez have successfully shown clients how to do it for years, and now they share their secrets. They prove that it is no longer productive or profitable to conduct business using the war-like marketing techniques of targeting customers and outmaneuvering the competition. In fact, these techniques seem antiquated and labor-intensive when compared to the Strategic Attraction Planning process, which requires just five minutes each day and enables any business to easily attract customers that are a perfect fit for their organization-the kind of customers it is a pleasure to serve.
Attracting Perfect Customers takes you step by step through the entire strategic attraction process. The authors reveal the six success standards of strategic synchronicity and share simple, fun, and easy-to-follow exercises that can be applied to any organization. They walk you through the process of creating your own personalized Strategic Attraction Plan and provide 21 supportive tips for making any company more attractive to its perfect customers.
Attracting Perfect Customerswill take you to a place where there is an abundance of perfect customers and clients with whom you can build strong, satisfying, profitable, and lasting relationships.
Sound too good to be true? Hall and Brogniez have successfully shown clients how to do it for years, and now they share their secrets. They prove that it is no longer productive or profitable to conduct business using the war-like marketing techniques of targeting customers and outmaneuvering the competition. In fact, these techniques seem antiquated and labor-intensive when compared to the Strategic Attraction Planning process, which requires just five minutes each day and enables any business to easily attract customers that are a perfect fit for their organization-the kind of customers it is a pleasure to serve.
Attracting Perfect Customers takes you step by step through the entire strategic attraction process. The authors reveal the six success standards of strategic synchronicity and share simple, fun, and easy-to-follow exercises that can be applied to any organization. They walk you through the process of creating your own personalized Strategic Attraction Plan and provide 21 supportive tips for making any company more attractive to its perfect customers.
Attracting Perfect Customerswill take you to a place where there is an abundance of perfect customers and clients with whom you can build strong, satisfying, profitable, and lasting relationships.
This is not a book about starting your own business. Then again, it is. By now there is ample evidence that an "employed" attitude-believing that you work for an employer and acting as though by doing your work your job will be secure-is defunct. An employed attitude is the antithesis of what you need now to endure and prosper. In this revised edition of his prescient bestseller, Cliff Hakim shows how to replace your employed attitude with a self-employed attitude.
"We are all self-employed" is an empowering belief that you can steer your own direction and influence the quality of your life. You're the boss--a self-leader-- whether you work inside or outside of an organization. You are the decision-maker and ultimately, the onus is on you to imagine, plan, explore, and create the worklife that you want.
In We Are All Self-Employed Hakim presents and clarifies the minimum critical requirements needed to develop, deepen, and sustain a self-employed attitude. He takes you on a journey of assimilating and constructing this new, more empowered attitude toward work and life. Each chapter features checklists and exercises to deepen your understanding of what a self-employed attitude is and how you can cultivate and maintain it, as well as examples of the self-employed attitude in action. The book's lessons are summarized in an inspiring and energizing Worklife Creed for this exciting and challenging new world of work. We Are All Self-Employed will call out and nourish the self-leader in you so that you can create a successful and satisfying life.
"We are all self-employed" is an empowering belief that you can steer your own direction and influence the quality of your life. You're the boss--a self-leader-- whether you work inside or outside of an organization. You are the decision-maker and ultimately, the onus is on you to imagine, plan, explore, and create the worklife that you want.
In We Are All Self-Employed Hakim presents and clarifies the minimum critical requirements needed to develop, deepen, and sustain a self-employed attitude. He takes you on a journey of assimilating and constructing this new, more empowered attitude toward work and life. Each chapter features checklists and exercises to deepen your understanding of what a self-employed attitude is and how you can cultivate and maintain it, as well as examples of the self-employed attitude in action. The book's lessons are summarized in an inspiring and energizing Worklife Creed for this exciting and challenging new world of work. We Are All Self-Employed will call out and nourish the self-leader in you so that you can create a successful and satisfying life.
In this amazing account, Daniel Seddiqui tells of working fifty different jobs in fifty states in fifty weeks. Working as everything from a cheesemaker in Wisconsin to a border patrol agent in Arizona, he details his journey across the industries and cultures of the United States and offers lessons he learned along the way about perseverance, risk taking, adaptability, networking, and endurance.
Extensively revised and expanded, Future Search, which is the classic, definitive, bestselling book on one of most powerful methods for changing and improving all types of organizations and communities, includes a host of new tools, and three new chapters. If you want to do strategic planning, product innovation, quality improvement, organizational restructuring, or any other major change in a participative, whole system way, this book is your guide. Over 30,000 of the original edition sold.
Leaders have countless resources and books aimed at helping them discover their strengths–which is fantastic–but none of them address what happens when these strengths are inevitably overplayed and start to do more damage than good, or what to do to rectify that dilemma. Until now.
From one of America's most popular motivational speakers, comes a set of new and powerful rules for personal transformation that help you break through the invisible beliefs that are holding you back.
We all have times in our lives when the results of our behavior don't seem to be meeting our needs. These shortfalls may result in depression, anger, frustration, and relationship struggles, among a host of possible symptoms. It often seems difficult to see a clear path out of the problems.
In this new book Hyrum Smith does two things that are invaluable to people who wish to make their lives less painful. First, he reveals, through a clear and simple model, how we get to the place where our behaviors cause these kinds of problems. Then, with a simplicity that is impressive in itself, he describes the steps we must take to identify and rectify the beliefs leading to our painful behavior.
Through the use of the “Reality Model” and the concept of the “Belief Window,” illustrated through humorous anecdotes and a powerful experience at a high school, Hyrum not only lays out the intellectual framework of this model, he draws you in emotionally as well. When you are done, you will agree with him that the solution to our problems is simple. It's not easy, but it is simple.
The result is a powerful process for transforming your habits, relationships, and personal and career success.
We all have times in our lives when the results of our behavior don't seem to be meeting our needs. These shortfalls may result in depression, anger, frustration, and relationship struggles, among a host of possible symptoms. It often seems difficult to see a clear path out of the problems.
In this new book Hyrum Smith does two things that are invaluable to people who wish to make their lives less painful. First, he reveals, through a clear and simple model, how we get to the place where our behaviors cause these kinds of problems. Then, with a simplicity that is impressive in itself, he describes the steps we must take to identify and rectify the beliefs leading to our painful behavior.
Through the use of the “Reality Model” and the concept of the “Belief Window,” illustrated through humorous anecdotes and a powerful experience at a high school, Hyrum not only lays out the intellectual framework of this model, he draws you in emotionally as well. When you are done, you will agree with him that the solution to our problems is simple. It's not easy, but it is simple.
The result is a powerful process for transforming your habits, relationships, and personal and career success.
Bestselling author and motivational speaker John Izzo posits that happiness is not something to be sought but something we have natural access to-but sometimes have to fight to keep.
From bestselling author John Izzo comes this practical and inspirational guide to happiness-not finding happiness but protecting the innate sense of well-being that resides within each of us at every moment.
Dr. Izzo says that happiness and contentment are our natural states-and cites ancient spiritual traditions and modern neuroscience to back up his claim. On a sabbatical he took to find out why he lacked a sense of joy in his life, despite being a successful consultant, speaker, and author, he realized what the cause of much of our unhappiness is. Reflecting as he walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain and spent time in the deserts of Morocco and in the Andes of Peru, he saw that specific mental activities and attitudes take our happiness from us. He calls them the five thieves of happiness: the thief of control, the thief of conceit, the thief of coveting, the thief of consumption, and the thief of comfort. This is a thoughtful exploration of why we let these thieves in, how they steal our happiness from us, and what attitudes we can adopt and actions we can take to effectively lock them out.
From bestselling author John Izzo comes this practical and inspirational guide to happiness-not finding happiness but protecting the innate sense of well-being that resides within each of us at every moment.
Dr. Izzo says that happiness and contentment are our natural states-and cites ancient spiritual traditions and modern neuroscience to back up his claim. On a sabbatical he took to find out why he lacked a sense of joy in his life, despite being a successful consultant, speaker, and author, he realized what the cause of much of our unhappiness is. Reflecting as he walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain and spent time in the deserts of Morocco and in the Andes of Peru, he saw that specific mental activities and attitudes take our happiness from us. He calls them the five thieves of happiness: the thief of control, the thief of conceit, the thief of coveting, the thief of consumption, and the thief of comfort. This is a thoughtful exploration of why we let these thieves in, how they steal our happiness from us, and what attitudes we can adopt and actions we can take to effectively lock them out.
There is too much to do in too little time. But bestselling author Devora Zack says multitasking is a phony solution. It's stressful, inefficient, unnatural, and even dangerous. Through this book-which is the answer to many people's prayers-she shows how you can singletask your way to success and tranquility.
We have become a nation-one of many-addicted to the popular, enticing, and dangerously misleading drug of multitasking. Author Devora Zack was hooked once herself. We hope by doing several tasks at once we can accomplish more-but Zack marshals a host of neuroscientific research to show that the opposite is true. The fact is, your brain is simply not built to multitask. In any situation we're most efficient focusing on one task at a time. But with all the information and interruptions that bombard us, how is that possible?
Singletasking explains exactly how to clear and calm your mind, arrange your schedule and environment, and gently but firmly manage the expectations of people around you so that you can accomplish a succession of tasks, one at a time-and be infinitely more productive and effective. This book flies in the face of long-standing rhetoric glorifying multitasking. Elegantly simple methods are presented on how to tackle an insurmountable list of to-dos with less effort and greater ease. Only clowns should juggle. Singletasking is the key to success and sanity.
We have become a nation-one of many-addicted to the popular, enticing, and dangerously misleading drug of multitasking. Author Devora Zack was hooked once herself. We hope by doing several tasks at once we can accomplish more-but Zack marshals a host of neuroscientific research to show that the opposite is true. The fact is, your brain is simply not built to multitask. In any situation we're most efficient focusing on one task at a time. But with all the information and interruptions that bombard us, how is that possible?
Singletasking explains exactly how to clear and calm your mind, arrange your schedule and environment, and gently but firmly manage the expectations of people around you so that you can accomplish a succession of tasks, one at a time-and be infinitely more productive and effective. This book flies in the face of long-standing rhetoric glorifying multitasking. Elegantly simple methods are presented on how to tackle an insurmountable list of to-dos with less effort and greater ease. Only clowns should juggle. Singletasking is the key to success and sanity.
Bestselling author Margaret Wheatley (Leadership and the New Science, over 250,000 copies sold) proposes that we use the increasingly popular process of conversation and dialogue as the means to develop solutions for the societal changes that need to occur both locally and globally.
In this inspiring and beautifully illustrated book, bestselling author Margaret Wheatley offers guidance to people everywhere for how to persevere through challenges in their personal lives, families, workplaces, communities, and causes. She provides hope, wisdom, and perspective for learning the discipline of perseverance.
This is the first book on influencing others aimed squarely at introverts, who make up half of the U.S. population. Jennifer Kahnweiler, bestselling author of The Introverted Leader (20,000 copies sold) demonstrates precisely how introverts can be highly effective influencers when, instead of trying to act like extroverts, they make the most of their natural strengths.
Sales has always been a high burnout profession. These days, with the intense focus on quarterly earnings reports, there is more pressure on sales professionals than ever before. The relentless push for immediate results can leave salespeople exhausted, frustrated, and wondering why they ever got themselves into this business. And it can leave sales organizations with a serious turnover problem.
SPROUT! was written by two long-time sales veterans to help their fellow professionals rediscover enthusiasm for their chosen profession and to help sales organizations retain top talent. Vengel and Wright use a page-turning story to outline a new strategy for sales, one that will make salespeople better able to cope with the inevitable ups and downs and take a more effective, long-term approach.
As the book begins, Marsha Molloy has had it. Once a top pharmaceutical sales representative so crackerjack her nickname was Marsha Money, she's been laid low by a tough economy and just plain exhaustion. The once-hungry top producer has seemingly lost her touch and grown indifferent to a sales culture that appears to value faxes, emails, and cell phone chats instead of the relationship building that had been her forte. An avid gardener on a visit to her local nursery, Marsha runs into Bob Rawlings, the store's new owner and an ex-sales professional himself. They begin to chat, and Marsha mentions her career frustrations. Bob replies that he'd had the same problem, but found that the more he began treating his business like his garden, the better his business grew - and a happier, more relaxed salesman appeared. Marsha is intrigued but puzzled - how could sales be like gardening? Bob takes Marsha under his wing and, with the assistance of several other salespeople he's mentored, teaches her the secrets of his sales garden.
By using the authors' sales garden metaphor to change their whole way of thinking about sales, and by adhering to the easy, practical steps outlined in SPROUT! salespeople can beat the career blues, increase their sales, and sustain themselves for the long term.
SPROUT! was written by two long-time sales veterans to help their fellow professionals rediscover enthusiasm for their chosen profession and to help sales organizations retain top talent. Vengel and Wright use a page-turning story to outline a new strategy for sales, one that will make salespeople better able to cope with the inevitable ups and downs and take a more effective, long-term approach.
As the book begins, Marsha Molloy has had it. Once a top pharmaceutical sales representative so crackerjack her nickname was Marsha Money, she's been laid low by a tough economy and just plain exhaustion. The once-hungry top producer has seemingly lost her touch and grown indifferent to a sales culture that appears to value faxes, emails, and cell phone chats instead of the relationship building that had been her forte. An avid gardener on a visit to her local nursery, Marsha runs into Bob Rawlings, the store's new owner and an ex-sales professional himself. They begin to chat, and Marsha mentions her career frustrations. Bob replies that he'd had the same problem, but found that the more he began treating his business like his garden, the better his business grew - and a happier, more relaxed salesman appeared. Marsha is intrigued but puzzled - how could sales be like gardening? Bob takes Marsha under his wing and, with the assistance of several other salespeople he's mentored, teaches her the secrets of his sales garden.
By using the authors' sales garden metaphor to change their whole way of thinking about sales, and by adhering to the easy, practical steps outlined in SPROUT! salespeople can beat the career blues, increase their sales, and sustain themselves for the long term.