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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Eternally fascinating, Julius Caesar was a leader ahead of his time whose grassroots, front lines leadership still has much to teach us 2000 years after his death.
History is littered with examples of tyrants, hopelessly out of touch with the plight of the commoners, ruthlessly pursuing their own ambitions or hedonistic whims. But Caesar was a different kind of leader. Despite some bad press, in fact he never saw himself as above the average Roman citizen. Although he certainly knew he was an extraordinary human being, he also regarded himself as fundamentally one of the people, and acted like it. In his life and in his career, he created a new paradigm of leadership, and along the way, created the path to success for any leader in a complex organization.
In a book that Doris Kearns Goodwin has called “brilliantly crafted to draw leadership lessons from history,” Philip Barlag uses dramatic and colorful incidents from Caesar's career to illustrate what modern leaders can learn from him. Central to Barlag's argument is the distinction between power and force. When leading his own organization, Caesar never used brute force to motivate his followers. Time and again he exercised a power rooted in his demonstrated personal integrity and his essentially egalitarian relationship with the Romans. People followed him because they wanted to, not because they were compelled to. Over 2000 years after Caesar's death this is still the kind of loyalty every leader wants to inspire. Barlag shows how anyone can lead like Caesar.
History is littered with examples of tyrants, hopelessly out of touch with the plight of the commoners, ruthlessly pursuing their own ambitions or hedonistic whims. But Caesar was a different kind of leader. Despite some bad press, in fact he never saw himself as above the average Roman citizen. Although he certainly knew he was an extraordinary human being, he also regarded himself as fundamentally one of the people, and acted like it. In his life and in his career, he created a new paradigm of leadership, and along the way, created the path to success for any leader in a complex organization.
In a book that Doris Kearns Goodwin has called “brilliantly crafted to draw leadership lessons from history,” Philip Barlag uses dramatic and colorful incidents from Caesar's career to illustrate what modern leaders can learn from him. Central to Barlag's argument is the distinction between power and force. When leading his own organization, Caesar never used brute force to motivate his followers. Time and again he exercised a power rooted in his demonstrated personal integrity and his essentially egalitarian relationship with the Romans. People followed him because they wanted to, not because they were compelled to. Over 2000 years after Caesar's death this is still the kind of loyalty every leader wants to inspire. Barlag shows how anyone can lead like Caesar.
“Jeff and Staney emphasize that small acts of creativity can have huge consequences and that ordinary people can do extraordinary things if they can see the opportunities in front of them.”
-Mitch Jacobson, Executive Director, Austin Technology Incubator, UT Blackstone LaunchPad, University of Texas at Austin
Nearly all of today's major innovation workshops and programs call on organizations to drive innovation. What they miss is that innovation comes from the personal creativity of individuals. And creativity doesn't require an advanced education or technical skills-all employees can be creative. Often, all they lack is a fitting mindset and the right tools.
The Creative Mindset brings how-to advice, tools, and techniques from two master innovators who have taught and worked with over half of all Fortune 500 companies. Jeff and Staney DeGraff introduce six essential creative-thinking skills that can be easily mastered with limited practice and remembered as the acronym CREATE: Concentrate, Replicate, Elaborate, Associate, Translate, and Evaluate. These six skills, sequenced as steps, simplify and summarize the most important research on creative thinking and draw on over thirty years of real-world application in some of the most innovative organizations in the world. It's time to rethink the way we make innovation happen. As the spirit of chef Gusteau proclaims in the Pixar classic Ratatouille, “Anyone can cook.”
-Mitch Jacobson, Executive Director, Austin Technology Incubator, UT Blackstone LaunchPad, University of Texas at Austin
Nearly all of today's major innovation workshops and programs call on organizations to drive innovation. What they miss is that innovation comes from the personal creativity of individuals. And creativity doesn't require an advanced education or technical skills-all employees can be creative. Often, all they lack is a fitting mindset and the right tools.
The Creative Mindset brings how-to advice, tools, and techniques from two master innovators who have taught and worked with over half of all Fortune 500 companies. Jeff and Staney DeGraff introduce six essential creative-thinking skills that can be easily mastered with limited practice and remembered as the acronym CREATE: Concentrate, Replicate, Elaborate, Associate, Translate, and Evaluate. These six skills, sequenced as steps, simplify and summarize the most important research on creative thinking and draw on over thirty years of real-world application in some of the most innovative organizations in the world. It's time to rethink the way we make innovation happen. As the spirit of chef Gusteau proclaims in the Pixar classic Ratatouille, “Anyone can cook.”
People may be out of your life, but they're still in your head. Learn how to control the ongoing psychological impact of all your relationships and achieve happiness, success, and fulfillment.
Who's in Your Room? is a metaphor and a method for understanding how our relationships, past and present, impact our lives.
Imagine that you live your entire life in one room. Inside are all the people with whom you have ever had a relationship. The room is infinitely large, and anyone you let in will be in your room for the rest of your life. Neurologists report that as far as your brain is concerned, the metaphor is real-memories and emotions continue to influence you, for better or worse, long after their external cause has disappeared. So who do you want in your room?
Stewart Emery, a pioneer of the human potential movement, and Ivan Misner, known as the father of modern business networking, present a highly effective process for determining who should be in your room, where in the room they should be (close to the door or off in a corner?), and how to shape your room to reflect your values and your life's purpose. This tool has unlimited usefulness for taking control of your life.
Who's in Your Room? is a metaphor and a method for understanding how our relationships, past and present, impact our lives.
Imagine that you live your entire life in one room. Inside are all the people with whom you have ever had a relationship. The room is infinitely large, and anyone you let in will be in your room for the rest of your life. Neurologists report that as far as your brain is concerned, the metaphor is real-memories and emotions continue to influence you, for better or worse, long after their external cause has disappeared. So who do you want in your room?
Stewart Emery, a pioneer of the human potential movement, and Ivan Misner, known as the father of modern business networking, present a highly effective process for determining who should be in your room, where in the room they should be (close to the door or off in a corner?), and how to shape your room to reflect your values and your life's purpose. This tool has unlimited usefulness for taking control of your life.
This new edition gives project managers practical methods and tools to make the right decisions while juggling multiple objectives, risks and uncertainties, and stakeholders.
This practical and pragmatic book will help you lead your company's IT professionals into alignment on supporting the real needs of your organization. Too often, IT projects are treated as entities isolated from larger corporate strategy-shiny new software replacing what is already there. In contrast, the goal of any technology project should be about changing the business to run differently and better. In this book, you will learn how to lead the culture change that can finally bring about a meaningful dialogue among business analysts and information technology professionals. Achieving this requires calling on seven critical disciplines: leadership, business design, technical architecture management, application development, organizational change management, implementation logistics, and project management.
Bob Lewis is an IT consultant and popular blogger, and Dave Kaiser brings years of experience as a chief information officer. Together they provide unique insight into the real-life challenges of IT functions and decision-making.
This practical and pragmatic book will help you lead your company's IT professionals into alignment on supporting the real needs of your organization. Too often, IT projects are treated as entities isolated from larger corporate strategy-shiny new software replacing what is already there. In contrast, the goal of any technology project should be about changing the business to run differently and better. In this book, you will learn how to lead the culture change that can finally bring about a meaningful dialogue among business analysts and information technology professionals. Achieving this requires calling on seven critical disciplines: leadership, business design, technical architecture management, application development, organizational change management, implementation logistics, and project management.
Bob Lewis is an IT consultant and popular blogger, and Dave Kaiser brings years of experience as a chief information officer. Together they provide unique insight into the real-life challenges of IT functions and decision-making.
The Least Retraumatizing Read on Childhood Sexual Abuse.
For Survivors, by a Survivor.
Healing Honestly is a candid, poignant, and often funny survivor-to-survivor guide to navigating the salty waters of untrue stories and victim-blaming narratives that survivors of child sex abuse hear every day.
Survivors of child sex abuse (CSA) are inundated with untrue stories of their abuse, the aftermath, and what their healing journey should look like. The truth is those stories are a bunch of hot garbage.
Healing Honestly is a guide for survivors, written by a survivor, helping to break through the negative self-talk and debunk the myths that impact victims of CSA, such as:
• There is a “real” survivor out there, and we are not it.
• It happened so long ago that we should be over it by now.
• We are having too much sex because of our trauma, and also, we are having too little sex because of our trauma.
With an approachable style that makes heavy topics not so damn scary, this book shows how trauma survivors can learn to identify these untrue stories that often come up in dating, in friendships, in families, at work, and more. Readers will discover strategies for turning down the volume on the bullshit so that they can hear their own wisdom and inner truth more clearly.
Full of wit and humor, Healing Honestly offers practical strategies for survivors of sex abuse to support themselves in living full and vibrant lives.
For Survivors, by a Survivor.
Healing Honestly is a candid, poignant, and often funny survivor-to-survivor guide to navigating the salty waters of untrue stories and victim-blaming narratives that survivors of child sex abuse hear every day.
Survivors of child sex abuse (CSA) are inundated with untrue stories of their abuse, the aftermath, and what their healing journey should look like. The truth is those stories are a bunch of hot garbage.
Healing Honestly is a guide for survivors, written by a survivor, helping to break through the negative self-talk and debunk the myths that impact victims of CSA, such as:
• There is a “real” survivor out there, and we are not it.
• It happened so long ago that we should be over it by now.
• We are having too much sex because of our trauma, and also, we are having too little sex because of our trauma.
With an approachable style that makes heavy topics not so damn scary, this book shows how trauma survivors can learn to identify these untrue stories that often come up in dating, in friendships, in families, at work, and more. Readers will discover strategies for turning down the volume on the bullshit so that they can hear their own wisdom and inner truth more clearly.
Full of wit and humor, Healing Honestly offers practical strategies for survivors of sex abuse to support themselves in living full and vibrant lives.
“A thoughtful, practical read about the future of the flexible office.”-Adam Grant
“Office shock” is an abrupt, unsettling change in where, when, how, and even why we work. In this visionary book, three prominent futurists argue that the office is both a place and a process-offices and officing-with a new range of choices, including what they call the emerging officeverse.
To see the possibilities with fresh eyes, we must use future-back thinking to ask, What is the purpose of your officing? What are the outcomes-especially regarding climate-you want to achieve? With whom do you want to office? How will you augment your intelligence? Where and when will you office? How will you create an agile office?
Traditional offices were often unfair, uncomfortable, uncreative, and unproductive. This book explores how to seize this great opportunity to transform office work.
“Office shock” is an abrupt, unsettling change in where, when, how, and even why we work. In this visionary book, three prominent futurists argue that the office is both a place and a process-offices and officing-with a new range of choices, including what they call the emerging officeverse.
To see the possibilities with fresh eyes, we must use future-back thinking to ask, What is the purpose of your officing? What are the outcomes-especially regarding climate-you want to achieve? With whom do you want to office? How will you augment your intelligence? Where and when will you office? How will you create an agile office?
Traditional offices were often unfair, uncomfortable, uncreative, and unproductive. This book explores how to seize this great opportunity to transform office work.
Grow old on purpose. This book invites readers to navigate a purposeful path from adulthood to elderhood with choice, curiosity, and courage.
None of us know for sure what will happen as we age. What Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro do know, however, is that a purposeful mindset is a fundamental component of a life well-lived. What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old? invites readers into the experience of two lifelong friends taking on the courageous conversation of aging well with honesty and purpose. In the first half of the book, readers are introduced to a framework for looking back over their lives and examining how they've arrived at the place they have. In the second half, readers are invited to look forward to purposeful aging with courage, compassion, and curiosity.
In their bestseller Repacking Your Bags, Leider and Shapiro defined the good life as “living in the place you belong, with people you love, doing the right work, on purpose.” This book argues that aging well can be similarly defined as “aging in the place you belong, with people you love, doing the right ‘work,' on purpose.”
None of us know for sure what will happen as we age. What Richard J. Leider and David A. Shapiro do know, however, is that a purposeful mindset is a fundamental component of a life well-lived. What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Old? invites readers into the experience of two lifelong friends taking on the courageous conversation of aging well with honesty and purpose. In the first half of the book, readers are introduced to a framework for looking back over their lives and examining how they've arrived at the place they have. In the second half, readers are invited to look forward to purposeful aging with courage, compassion, and curiosity.
In their bestseller Repacking Your Bags, Leider and Shapiro defined the good life as “living in the place you belong, with people you love, doing the right work, on purpose.” This book argues that aging well can be similarly defined as “aging in the place you belong, with people you love, doing the right ‘work,' on purpose.”
Employee engagement is shockingly low-but it's not an employee problem; it's a leadership problem. Bestselling author Mark Miller says it's up to leaders to create a workplace where their employees truly want to be-and he reveals four keys to doing it.
According to Gallup's 2017 report, only 33% of workers are engaged at work--and the numbers have been low for years. Leaders have tried and failed to address this critical problem. Based on Mark Miller's research, this book both simplifies and operationalizes the necessary behaviors to reverse this troubling trend. The missing link is realizing that the pandemic of low engagement is not a problem with the workers, it is a problem with the leaders.
In this charming fable, Blake, a young CEO, is convinced something is not quite right in his organization. Sales, profits, and customer satisfaction are barely improving, the competition is gaining on them and no one appears to care. And when he's honest with himself, he's lost his fire as well. He just can't put his finger on the problem. Blake seeks out his old friend and first mentor, Debbie Bruster. She sends Blake on a journey to discover the key to engaging leadership. By the end of his journey, Blake has discovered a powerful philosophy to guide his decisions in the future, and four drivers of engagement to implement today.
According to Gallup's 2017 report, only 33% of workers are engaged at work--and the numbers have been low for years. Leaders have tried and failed to address this critical problem. Based on Mark Miller's research, this book both simplifies and operationalizes the necessary behaviors to reverse this troubling trend. The missing link is realizing that the pandemic of low engagement is not a problem with the workers, it is a problem with the leaders.
In this charming fable, Blake, a young CEO, is convinced something is not quite right in his organization. Sales, profits, and customer satisfaction are barely improving, the competition is gaining on them and no one appears to care. And when he's honest with himself, he's lost his fire as well. He just can't put his finger on the problem. Blake seeks out his old friend and first mentor, Debbie Bruster. She sends Blake on a journey to discover the key to engaging leadership. By the end of his journey, Blake has discovered a powerful philosophy to guide his decisions in the future, and four drivers of engagement to implement today.
If you want to accomplish what's important to you, discipline and willpower won't get you where you need to go. In this iconoclastic new book, Susan Fowler reveals compelling insights and actions to help you master and maintain your motivation.
Susan Fowler makes the bold claim that not all motivation is created equal. Too often, workplaces, schools, and home environments set us up for suboptimal motivation-undermining our independence, relationships, and competence. In order to achieve optimal motivation, Fowler asks us to consider three simple scientific truths to help us achieve our goals and flourish:
1. Autonomy: we all need to perceive we have control over what happens in our lives
2. Relatedness: we all need to care about others and feel cared about without ulterior motives
3. Competence: we all need to feel we can meet everyday challenges and learn and grow each day
It's time we awakened to this truth: People don't want to be bored or disengaged. People appreciate meaningful challenges. People want to contribute, feel fulfilled, and grow and learn every day. No matter what our situation-or age-our basic nature is the desire to thrive. People long to experience the competence that comes from growing and learning every day. And now, thanks to the most groundbreaking research in the history of motivation, we know how to promote thriving.
Susan Fowler makes the bold claim that not all motivation is created equal. Too often, workplaces, schools, and home environments set us up for suboptimal motivation-undermining our independence, relationships, and competence. In order to achieve optimal motivation, Fowler asks us to consider three simple scientific truths to help us achieve our goals and flourish:
1. Autonomy: we all need to perceive we have control over what happens in our lives
2. Relatedness: we all need to care about others and feel cared about without ulterior motives
3. Competence: we all need to feel we can meet everyday challenges and learn and grow each day
It's time we awakened to this truth: People don't want to be bored or disengaged. People appreciate meaningful challenges. People want to contribute, feel fulfilled, and grow and learn every day. No matter what our situation-or age-our basic nature is the desire to thrive. People long to experience the competence that comes from growing and learning every day. And now, thanks to the most groundbreaking research in the history of motivation, we know how to promote thriving.
To help large and small businesses repair our broken talent pipeline, Ed Gordon offers counter-intuitive, bottom-up solutions through which corporations partner with NGOs, educational groups, local chambers of commerce and other stakeholders to rebuild the wellspring.
We're no longer conducting elections, we're holding auctions. Longtime activist and former political candidate Derek Cressman shows how we can return free speech to the people, not the biggest bankroll.
Now that the Supreme Court has equated money with speech and thrown out campaign spending limits, Americans want to know what they can do about it. Derek Cressman gives them the tools, both ideological and tactical, to fight back.
Cressman points out that there's nothing inherently unconstitutional in limiting speech. We do it all the time-for example, cities control when and where demonstrations can take place, or how long people can speak at council meetings. More importantly, he argues that while you choose to patronize Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal when they exercise their free speech rights, political advertising is forced upon you. It's paid speech-not at all what the Founders had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment.
Cressman looks at why attempts to limit paid political speech have failed so far, what a constitutional amendment limiting paid speech should say, and explains how citizens can use an overlooked political tool to help gain its passage. Seven times in our history we've passed constitutional amendments to overturn wrongheaded rulings by the Court-there's no reason we can't do it again.
Now that the Supreme Court has equated money with speech and thrown out campaign spending limits, Americans want to know what they can do about it. Derek Cressman gives them the tools, both ideological and tactical, to fight back.
Cressman points out that there's nothing inherently unconstitutional in limiting speech. We do it all the time-for example, cities control when and where demonstrations can take place, or how long people can speak at council meetings. More importantly, he argues that while you choose to patronize Fox News, MSNBC, The New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal when they exercise their free speech rights, political advertising is forced upon you. It's paid speech-not at all what the Founders had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment.
Cressman looks at why attempts to limit paid political speech have failed so far, what a constitutional amendment limiting paid speech should say, and explains how citizens can use an overlooked political tool to help gain its passage. Seven times in our history we've passed constitutional amendments to overturn wrongheaded rulings by the Court-there's no reason we can't do it again.
Why do teams settle for bad ideas or kill good ones? Popular consultant B. Kim Barnes's unique process of constructive debate shows how teams can create better ideas and outcomes by eliminating obstacles to honest discussion, creativity, and collaboration.
In too many organizations, great ideas and unusual solutions can be suppressed, ignored, or attacked. Departments defend their turf, and people choose what is safe over what is better. Honest opinions often show up in the “meeting after the meeting” because people fear conflict or repercussions. Bad ideas move forward and good ideas die, which can lead to disastrous results-financial or otherwise. Luckily, there is a workable path out of this dysfunction. Kim Barnes's process of Constructive Debate shows how to establish conditions that encourage the free exchange, discussion, and development of ideas and eliminate conditions that prevent potentially useful ideas from getting heard. By using this tested model, any company or team can improve outcomes and bring out everyone's best ideas.
In too many organizations, great ideas and unusual solutions can be suppressed, ignored, or attacked. Departments defend their turf, and people choose what is safe over what is better. Honest opinions often show up in the “meeting after the meeting” because people fear conflict or repercussions. Bad ideas move forward and good ideas die, which can lead to disastrous results-financial or otherwise. Luckily, there is a workable path out of this dysfunction. Kim Barnes's process of Constructive Debate shows how to establish conditions that encourage the free exchange, discussion, and development of ideas and eliminate conditions that prevent potentially useful ideas from getting heard. By using this tested model, any company or team can improve outcomes and bring out everyone's best ideas.