Every book in the Berrett-Koehler catalog, in one place. Browse our full collection of titles spanning leadership, management, workplace culture, social change, and beyond.
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We are living in a time when dishonesty and duplicity are common in our public institutions, our workplaces, and even in our personal relationships. But by recognizing and resisting the small, seemingly inconsequential ways we make moral compromises in our own lives, we can repair the tear in our social and moral fabric.
Most people believe that integrity is something you “just have” and as “good people,” we think we are naturally doing “the right thing.” We are certain we act with integrity when it counts, even as we breach integrity every day in ways we dismiss as “small.” The Law of Small Things depicts these and other illusions we deploy to appear to act with integrity without actually doing so.
The Law of Small Things exposes how our culture encourages the breach of integrity through an array of “permitted promise-breaking,” a language of clichés that equates self-interest with duty, and the “illusion of inconsequence” that excuses small breaches with the breezy confidence that we can fulfill integrity when it counts. Ultimately, Brody challenges the prevailing notion that integrity is a possession you hold permanently. No one “has integrity” and no one is perfect in practicing it. What we have is the opportunity to uphold promises and fulfill duties in each situation that faces us, large and small. Developing skill in the practice of integrity relies on missing the mark as much as hitting it. The practice of integrity is our roadmap across unknown terrain on a pathway beyond our limitations and toward personal authenticity; toward knowledge of who we are-not in the way the culture defines us, but in the way we truly know ourselves to be.
Most people believe that integrity is something you “just have” and as “good people,” we think we are naturally doing “the right thing.” We are certain we act with integrity when it counts, even as we breach integrity every day in ways we dismiss as “small.” The Law of Small Things depicts these and other illusions we deploy to appear to act with integrity without actually doing so.
The Law of Small Things exposes how our culture encourages the breach of integrity through an array of “permitted promise-breaking,” a language of clichés that equates self-interest with duty, and the “illusion of inconsequence” that excuses small breaches with the breezy confidence that we can fulfill integrity when it counts. Ultimately, Brody challenges the prevailing notion that integrity is a possession you hold permanently. No one “has integrity” and no one is perfect in practicing it. What we have is the opportunity to uphold promises and fulfill duties in each situation that faces us, large and small. Developing skill in the practice of integrity relies on missing the mark as much as hitting it. The practice of integrity is our roadmap across unknown terrain on a pathway beyond our limitations and toward personal authenticity; toward knowledge of who we are-not in the way the culture defines us, but in the way we truly know ourselves to be.
Drive through just about any low-income neighborhood and you're sure to see streets lined with pawnshops, check cashers, rent-to-own stores, payday and tax refund lenders, auto title pawns, and buy-here-pay-here used car lots. We're awash in "alternative financial services" directed at the poor and those with credit problems. Howard Karger describes this world as an economic Wild West, where just about any financial scheme that's not patently illegal is tolerated.
Taking a hard look at this fringe economy, Karger shows that what seem to be small, independent storefront operations are actually part of a fully-formed parallel economy dominated by a handful of well-financed corporations, subject to little or no oversight, with increasingly strong ties to mainstream financial institutions. "It is a hidden world," Karger writes, "where a customer's economic fate is sealed with a handshake, a smile, and a stack of fine print documents that would befuddle many attorneys."
Filled with heartbreaking stories of real people trapped in perpetual debt, Shortchanged exposes the deceptive practices that allow these businesses to prey on people when they are most vulnerable. Karger reveals the many ways this industry has run amok, ruining countless people's lives, and shows that it's not just the poor but, more and more, maxed-out middle class consumers who fall prey to these devious schemes.
Balancing compassion with a realistic awareness of the risks any business faces in working with an economically distressed clientele, Karger details hard headed, practical recommendations for reforming this predatory industry.
Taking a hard look at this fringe economy, Karger shows that what seem to be small, independent storefront operations are actually part of a fully-formed parallel economy dominated by a handful of well-financed corporations, subject to little or no oversight, with increasingly strong ties to mainstream financial institutions. "It is a hidden world," Karger writes, "where a customer's economic fate is sealed with a handshake, a smile, and a stack of fine print documents that would befuddle many attorneys."
Filled with heartbreaking stories of real people trapped in perpetual debt, Shortchanged exposes the deceptive practices that allow these businesses to prey on people when they are most vulnerable. Karger reveals the many ways this industry has run amok, ruining countless people's lives, and shows that it's not just the poor but, more and more, maxed-out middle class consumers who fall prey to these devious schemes.
Balancing compassion with a realistic awareness of the risks any business faces in working with an economically distressed clientele, Karger details hard headed, practical recommendations for reforming this predatory industry.
This deeply lyrical book offers perspective for those struggling to hear the quiet voice of the soul over the din of the contemporary workplace. Alan Briskin shows how the modern organization has gradually increased its demands on us-beginning with our bodies, then our minds, and now our souls. But through the moving personal stories of people fighting to reclaim their souls, he also sends a message that encourages individuals to keep their spiritual integrity and values alive.
In The Stirring of Soul In the Workplace, Briskin weaves together lessons from history, psychology, and management theory, with numerous real-life examples, to tell the story of how the modern workplace has evolved to value technology and productivity over soulfulness and relationship. From the Industrial Revolution's marriage of mechanization and efficiency to the management theories of the early 20th century, Briskin traces the emergence of the quest for efficiency and control in the workplace. He questions the corporate concept of "individual personality" that asks us to check our emotions, fantasies, imaginations, and souls at the door. He describes the history of the soul as a dynamic force that continues to influence our behavior, and shows how excluding it from our work life actually flattens our potential and dampens our creativity.
Rather than solve the conventional question organizations have been asking for years-how can we change people?-Alan Briskin examines how organizations can better reflect personal and human values in the workplace. For organizations that too often have sacrificed the well-being of the individual for the goals of the organization, the author suggests a more active way of taking up our work roles that can bring more of our experience and imagination into play. He points out that meaning cannot come from corporate mission statements or reengineering programs. Instead, it needs to be nurtured through dialogue and reflection, the courage to ask troubling questions, and a willingness to face the consequences of our collective and individual actions. When we learn to honor the contradictions, uncertainties, and interconnections inherent in the workplace, the energies of the soul will begin to stir with revitalizing results.
In The Stirring of Soul In the Workplace, Briskin weaves together lessons from history, psychology, and management theory, with numerous real-life examples, to tell the story of how the modern workplace has evolved to value technology and productivity over soulfulness and relationship. From the Industrial Revolution's marriage of mechanization and efficiency to the management theories of the early 20th century, Briskin traces the emergence of the quest for efficiency and control in the workplace. He questions the corporate concept of "individual personality" that asks us to check our emotions, fantasies, imaginations, and souls at the door. He describes the history of the soul as a dynamic force that continues to influence our behavior, and shows how excluding it from our work life actually flattens our potential and dampens our creativity.
Rather than solve the conventional question organizations have been asking for years-how can we change people?-Alan Briskin examines how organizations can better reflect personal and human values in the workplace. For organizations that too often have sacrificed the well-being of the individual for the goals of the organization, the author suggests a more active way of taking up our work roles that can bring more of our experience and imagination into play. He points out that meaning cannot come from corporate mission statements or reengineering programs. Instead, it needs to be nurtured through dialogue and reflection, the courage to ask troubling questions, and a willingness to face the consequences of our collective and individual actions. When we learn to honor the contradictions, uncertainties, and interconnections inherent in the workplace, the energies of the soul will begin to stir with revitalizing results.
Bestselling author Bill George (True North 150,000 copies sold) and longtime corporate executive Doug Baker have participated for decades in a unique small group of peers dedicated to personal growth and leadership development. In this book they provide the first practical guide - including detailed instructions, rules, and resources - for anyone to start and manage such a group on their own.
Most leaders assume they're good communicators. What they're actually doing—most of the time—is telling. And telling, even when well-intentioned, is a subtle power move that shuts people down, withholds critical information, and quietly erodes trust.
Humble Inquiry makes the case for a different approach: asking questions you genuinely don't know the answers to, from a posture of curiosity rather than authority.
What you'll find inside this fully updated third edition:
Best for: managers, leaders, coaches, healthcare professionals, and anyone navigating complex, interdependent teams. This is a mindset shift, not a script.
Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier. Based on Edgar H. Schein's fifty years of research at MIT. Over 300,000 copies sold.
Humble Inquiry makes the case for a different approach: asking questions you genuinely don't know the answers to, from a posture of curiosity rather than authority.
What you'll find inside this fully updated third edition:
- The ORJI cycle—why conversations go wrong in a split second, and how to interrupt the pattern
- A levels-of-relationship model to diagnose where your team is—and how to move toward real openness and trust
- Why hierarchy and “tell” culture actively undermine psychological safety—and what to do about it
- A new chapter on humble inquiry in remote and hybrid work (spoiler: it works—and may work better)
- Reader exercises, twelve mini case studies, and a discussion guide for teams
Best for: managers, leaders, coaches, healthcare professionals, and anyone navigating complex, interdependent teams. This is a mindset shift, not a script.
Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier. Based on Edgar H. Schein's fifty years of research at MIT. Over 300,000 copies sold.
The updated edition of the Arbinger Institute's international bestseller—a practical guide to the one mindset shift that improves performance, strengthens relationships, and transforms organizational culture.
Most conflict and disengagement share a common root: an inward mindset. When people focus primarily on their own goals—often without realizing it—they see others as obstacles rather than as people with real needs. The Outward Mindset shows what becomes possible when that changes.
Drawing on real stories from corporations, law enforcement, military units, and families, the Arbinger Institute provides a clear framework and practical tools for making the shift—at the individual, team, and organizational level.
What's inside:
Most leadership books focus on behavior. The Outward Mindset works at the level beneath behavior—the way we see people—because that's the only change that lasts.
Widely used as a team read and leadership development text. Pairs with Arbinger's Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace but works as a complete standalone.
Most conflict and disengagement share a common root: an inward mindset. When people focus primarily on their own goals—often without realizing it—they see others as obstacles rather than as people with real needs. The Outward Mindset shows what becomes possible when that changes.
Drawing on real stories from corporations, law enforcement, military units, and families, the Arbinger Institute provides a clear framework and practical tools for making the shift—at the individual, team, and organizational level.
What's inside:
- A framework for diagnosing inward versus outward mindset in yourself and your team
- Real case studies from high-stakes environments
- Tools for making the shift durable, not just momentary
- A new preface, updated case studies, and Arbinger's latest research
Most leadership books focus on behavior. The Outward Mindset works at the level beneath behavior—the way we see people—because that's the only change that lasts.
Widely used as a team read and leadership development text. Pairs with Arbinger's Leadership and Self-Deception and The Anatomy of Peace but works as a complete standalone.
Facilitation expert Larry Dressler's Consensus Through Conversation is a guide for the effective facilitation and practice of one of business's most popular - but most widely misunderstood - decision-making models: consensus.
Featuring contributions by more than 50 of Berrett-Koehler's most renowned authors, Positively M.A.D. is a collection of stories about real people making real changes, large and small, in their organizations and communities. The founder of an adoption agency specialzing in placing "unadoptable" children. A former big-city mayor, the son of a convict, who now works with the children of convicts. A psychiatrist who was able to take his severely ill patients to their first Chicago Bears game by unexpectedly tapping into the kindness of the fans. An office worker who transforms a malcontent colleague with the gift of a chocolate cake. A woman who salvages used computers and donates them to Africa.
These engaging, optimistic, "can do" vignettes-organized around twelve different "lessons" that provide the chapter headings-are designed to inspire people to resolve their disillusionment by getting off the couch and doing something.
As editor Bill Treasurer writes, "Regardless of our station in life, each of us is entitled, and perhaps obliged, to etch our initials onto the tree of humanity. Despite the complexity of the world's problems and inadequacies, and despite our own frustration with the current state of affairs, we can indeed Make A Difference."
These engaging, optimistic, "can do" vignettes-organized around twelve different "lessons" that provide the chapter headings-are designed to inspire people to resolve their disillusionment by getting off the couch and doing something.
As editor Bill Treasurer writes, "Regardless of our station in life, each of us is entitled, and perhaps obliged, to etch our initials onto the tree of humanity. Despite the complexity of the world's problems and inadequacies, and despite our own frustration with the current state of affairs, we can indeed Make A Difference."
Presenting to senior decision makers can be a terrifying "through the looking glass" moment. The stakes are high-one presentation can make or break a career-but the rules are utterly unclear. This book is an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to thrive, not just survive, in a top-level meeting.
Knowing how to work effectively in and through groups may be the single most important skill anyone can develop in today's collaborative, team-based workplace. Unfortunately, all of the resources available on teamwork put the emphasis on group process and ignore the role of-and benefits to-the individual. But effective teamwork isn't only a group skill set; it's an individual skill set as well. Teamwork Is an Individual Skill shows readers how to develop the skills to thrive on any team, under any circumstances. No longer will readers find themselves complaining, "I got assigned to a bad team." Instead, they'll know what to do to make any team work for them.
Drawing on over twenty years of experience successfully developing professional teams in product development, R&D, and high-tech environments, Christopher Avery and his coauthors use brief thought-provoking essays, personal and teambuilding exercises, case studies, and insights from business leaders to teach readers how to build responsible and productive relationships at work. The authors show how and why your ability to assume personal responsibility-for your own work on a team and for the team's collective work-is the most important factor in ensuring a productive team experience.
Teambuilding, the authors point out, is essentially a series of conversations between people who share responsibility to get something done. Teamwork Is an Individual Skill describes the way these conversations typically progress, and shows the reader how to predict and direct these conversations so that they can maximize the benefits to both themselves and to their team.
Designed for easy access and for use by both individuals and groups, Teamwork Is an Individual Skill will equip readers with the mental skills and behaviors that will help them achieve personal goals while contributing to their team's success.
Drawing on over twenty years of experience successfully developing professional teams in product development, R&D, and high-tech environments, Christopher Avery and his coauthors use brief thought-provoking essays, personal and teambuilding exercises, case studies, and insights from business leaders to teach readers how to build responsible and productive relationships at work. The authors show how and why your ability to assume personal responsibility-for your own work on a team and for the team's collective work-is the most important factor in ensuring a productive team experience.
Teambuilding, the authors point out, is essentially a series of conversations between people who share responsibility to get something done. Teamwork Is an Individual Skill describes the way these conversations typically progress, and shows the reader how to predict and direct these conversations so that they can maximize the benefits to both themselves and to their team.
Designed for easy access and for use by both individuals and groups, Teamwork Is an Individual Skill will equip readers with the mental skills and behaviors that will help them achieve personal goals while contributing to their team's success.
Positive psychology and organizational guru Larry Senn shows readers how allowing room for your mood swings rather than suppressing them can lead you to be more successful and happy.
Mood swings are a common, almost universal experience-especially in a world as full of unpredictable, uncontrollable changes and chances as ours. People know they have good and bad moods, but most have never thought of them as an emotional elevator they ride and can have influence over. Perhaps they've even tried to suppress their moods and refuse to acknowledge the ride at all.
Larry Senn implores us to take our changing moods seriously and ride the mood elevator, which can help us all be more effective leaders and greatly impact our personal lives. At the top floors, we find ourselves to be grateful, wise, creative, resourceful, and hopeful. At the bottom, we can be depressed, angry, stressed, judgmental, and defensive. The Mood Elevator provides a framework and a series of simple pointers and illustrative stories that help us see that without taking the full ride, we can't access the top floor moods without remembering that we have to build up from the bottom.
The Mood Elevator shows us that we create our own moods through our own thinking and, in the end, have control over the direction we head. The book provides simple steps for readers to quickly change their thinking to create better emotional states based on their environments.
Mood swings are a common, almost universal experience-especially in a world as full of unpredictable, uncontrollable changes and chances as ours. People know they have good and bad moods, but most have never thought of them as an emotional elevator they ride and can have influence over. Perhaps they've even tried to suppress their moods and refuse to acknowledge the ride at all.
Larry Senn implores us to take our changing moods seriously and ride the mood elevator, which can help us all be more effective leaders and greatly impact our personal lives. At the top floors, we find ourselves to be grateful, wise, creative, resourceful, and hopeful. At the bottom, we can be depressed, angry, stressed, judgmental, and defensive. The Mood Elevator provides a framework and a series of simple pointers and illustrative stories that help us see that without taking the full ride, we can't access the top floor moods without remembering that we have to build up from the bottom.
The Mood Elevator shows us that we create our own moods through our own thinking and, in the end, have control over the direction we head. The book provides simple steps for readers to quickly change their thinking to create better emotional states based on their environments.
What if some of the most powerful words in your organization were “I'm not sure,” “I need help,” and “I have a new idea”? Imagine the potential for innovation, connection, and results if your employees felt courageous enough to say anything to you.
What if people could simply communicate what they are really thinking without fear of having a bad idea? When you are in a leadership position, your people should feel comfortable to learn from and brainstorm with you. It is your responsibility to create an authentic environment characterized by honesty and trust that encourages everyone to share ideas. When your people don't speak up, it's not their problem-it's yours.
Building a culture in which people are able to say anything opens up pathways to innovation that would otherwise not exist. Ultimately, this book is a letter to leaders-filled with experience, research, and practicality. Peering inside a vast array of organizations for the past decade, the authors have seen time and again that leaders are failing to draw out ideas from their introverts and, at the same time, shutting up their extroverts. Inhibitors in organizations make candid communication unsafe. As a leader, you must recognize and acknowledge these complex dynamics and then work tirelessly to inspire your team to speak freely.
What if people could simply communicate what they are really thinking without fear of having a bad idea? When you are in a leadership position, your people should feel comfortable to learn from and brainstorm with you. It is your responsibility to create an authentic environment characterized by honesty and trust that encourages everyone to share ideas. When your people don't speak up, it's not their problem-it's yours.
Building a culture in which people are able to say anything opens up pathways to innovation that would otherwise not exist. Ultimately, this book is a letter to leaders-filled with experience, research, and practicality. Peering inside a vast array of organizations for the past decade, the authors have seen time and again that leaders are failing to draw out ideas from their introverts and, at the same time, shutting up their extroverts. Inhibitors in organizations make candid communication unsafe. As a leader, you must recognize and acknowledge these complex dynamics and then work tirelessly to inspire your team to speak freely.
Many people set out to achieve a dream-starting a business or learning to play the piano or publishing a book-but they don't succeed, and the dream fizzles away. In many cases, these people have lots of skills and expertise, such as deep knowledge of the business or career they are interested in, so why don't they succeed? Paul Levesque and Art McNeil have discovered that making a dream come true requires cultivating skills of a higher order-macroskills-that inevitably spell the difference between success and failure no matter what the specifics of a person's dreams are. These are the skills Dreamcrafting outlines in detail.
There is a growing epidemic afflicting people working in social change that is rarely talked about - burnout. Laura van Dernoot Lipsky, bestselling author of Trauma Stewardship, offers The Age of Overwhelm as the salve for healing.
Burnout is affecting people working towards social change and is a major obstacle slowing our potential for progress. The Age of Overwhelm reveals effective applications for self-care that ensures how readers can continue to show up to tackle systemic problems. A way to show up more effectively is to think small. The challenge to showing up is that everything is built into a big issue or obstacle that drains energy and becomes an insurmountable task, which fosters frustration and anxiety. The tools in this book are based on the general operating principle that less is more. Doing less of what we usually do and instead focusing on a "smaller" aspect results in more impact in general while also preserving our physical and mental well-being. The Age of Overwhelm distills four key elements that allow readers to continue contributing to causes without suffering burnout. Lipsky teaches readers how to work towards focused and achievable goals, release pain with self-care, and be open to continual learning while letting go of what can't be controlled. Particularly in times of political turmoil and increased isolation, there is a critical need for self-care for people who are working towards long-term equality.
Burnout is affecting people working towards social change and is a major obstacle slowing our potential for progress. The Age of Overwhelm reveals effective applications for self-care that ensures how readers can continue to show up to tackle systemic problems. A way to show up more effectively is to think small. The challenge to showing up is that everything is built into a big issue or obstacle that drains energy and becomes an insurmountable task, which fosters frustration and anxiety. The tools in this book are based on the general operating principle that less is more. Doing less of what we usually do and instead focusing on a "smaller" aspect results in more impact in general while also preserving our physical and mental well-being. The Age of Overwhelm distills four key elements that allow readers to continue contributing to causes without suffering burnout. Lipsky teaches readers how to work towards focused and achievable goals, release pain with self-care, and be open to continual learning while letting go of what can't be controlled. Particularly in times of political turmoil and increased isolation, there is a critical need for self-care for people who are working towards long-term equality.
New edition of a classic text on structured on-the-job training (S-OJT)-completely revised throughout with four additional chapters
Offers a comprehensive approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating S-OJT programs
Based on 20 years of research and development in a range of organizations
This revised and expanded edition of a classic text provides a comprehensive guide to understanding, developing, and using structured on-the-job training in a variety of training situations and organizational contexts. Jacobs defines S-OJT and provides a rationale based on the need to develop high levels of employee competence, or expertise, in the workplace. He then describes a six-step process used to design and implement S-OJT programs. The emphasis here is how S-OJT can be used for managerial training, technical training, and awareness training. The chapters in the final section describe how S-OJT has been used to achieve organizational and societal goals. Included in this section are discussions regarding S-OJT as an organizational change strategy, quality management, cross-cultural aspects, and workforce development.
Offers a comprehensive approach to designing, implementing, and evaluating S-OJT programs
Based on 20 years of research and development in a range of organizations
This revised and expanded edition of a classic text provides a comprehensive guide to understanding, developing, and using structured on-the-job training in a variety of training situations and organizational contexts. Jacobs defines S-OJT and provides a rationale based on the need to develop high levels of employee competence, or expertise, in the workplace. He then describes a six-step process used to design and implement S-OJT programs. The emphasis here is how S-OJT can be used for managerial training, technical training, and awareness training. The chapters in the final section describe how S-OJT has been used to achieve organizational and societal goals. Included in this section are discussions regarding S-OJT as an organizational change strategy, quality management, cross-cultural aspects, and workforce development.
As Ken Blanchard, John Carlos, and Alan Randolph clearly demonstrated in their previous bestseller, Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, empowerment is not a goal that can be achieved in a minute. Empowerment is a process that requires ongoing effort, awareness, and commitment to transforming the hierarchy. This essential guide offers managers detailed, hands-on answers to their real-life questions about how, exactly, they can navigate the journey to empowerment.
Written in an easily accessible Q&A format, the book closely examines and expands on the three keys to empowerment originally presented in Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute-sharing information, creating autonomy through boundaries, and replacing the hierarchy with teams. It clearly outlines the promises and challenges of each stage of the journey, providing managers with thought-provoking questions, clear advice, effective activities, and action tools that will help them create a culture of empowerment. Wherever they are in the journey, managers will find a clear roadmap in this user-friendly action guide.
Written in an easily accessible Q&A format, the book closely examines and expands on the three keys to empowerment originally presented in Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute-sharing information, creating autonomy through boundaries, and replacing the hierarchy with teams. It clearly outlines the promises and challenges of each stage of the journey, providing managers with thought-provoking questions, clear advice, effective activities, and action tools that will help them create a culture of empowerment. Wherever they are in the journey, managers will find a clear roadmap in this user-friendly action guide.
In this inspiring and practical guide for achieving better decision-making and management, Linda Tarr-Whelan shows how having women account for at least 30% of representation at decision-making tables marks the tipping point for positive organizational and societal change, and she offers readers concrete tools and resources for reaching that target.
In this fable of organizational transformation, bestselling authors of The Serving Leader John Stahl-Wert and Ken Jennings providzqe a clear and actionable model for addressing one of the most pressing challenges every leader faces: how to move employees from compliance to engagement.