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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All team leaders worry and wonder about improving team performance. Using his experience leading the precision Thunderbirds aerobatic team, Venable shows that "closing the gaps" is the job of leaders and followers alike.
As a pilot, commander, and demonstration leader for the Thunderbirds, JV Venable gained key insights into team performance. Organizations need leaders who will minimize emotional friction and the gaps in alignment that slow teams down. But leaders can't do it all. To illustrate this, JV borrows a phenomenon common to racing and aerobatic teams alike: "drafting." When teams of bikes, cars, or jets are aligned and move in perfect formation, everyone shares the load of breaking resistance. But if the team is misaligned, or gaps between members grow by mere inches, the draft falters and the load falls back on the leader. Everybody loses.
JV's book gives teams and team leaders new tools for improving alignment and fostering closeness through commitment, loyalty, and trust. When trust is complete, team members move quickly to "close the gaps" and take on more of the load. This allows leaders to focus less on giving orders, and more on the road ahead.
Thunderbird pilots operate on a level of trust that allows them to sustain 18 inches between jets, which is all the more remarkable as the team experiences 50% turnover every year. JV's experience leading one of the most celebrated teams in the world makes for an unforgettable handbook. Can your team fly higher?
As a pilot, commander, and demonstration leader for the Thunderbirds, JV Venable gained key insights into team performance. Organizations need leaders who will minimize emotional friction and the gaps in alignment that slow teams down. But leaders can't do it all. To illustrate this, JV borrows a phenomenon common to racing and aerobatic teams alike: "drafting." When teams of bikes, cars, or jets are aligned and move in perfect formation, everyone shares the load of breaking resistance. But if the team is misaligned, or gaps between members grow by mere inches, the draft falters and the load falls back on the leader. Everybody loses.
JV's book gives teams and team leaders new tools for improving alignment and fostering closeness through commitment, loyalty, and trust. When trust is complete, team members move quickly to "close the gaps" and take on more of the load. This allows leaders to focus less on giving orders, and more on the road ahead.
Thunderbird pilots operate on a level of trust that allows them to sustain 18 inches between jets, which is all the more remarkable as the team experiences 50% turnover every year. JV's experience leading one of the most celebrated teams in the world makes for an unforgettable handbook. Can your team fly higher?
Who are some of the most confident, fabulous people on the planet? Drag queens-and Jackie Huba wants to teach you how to channel the courage and confidence of drag in your personal and professional lives.
We all want to be fabulous. But too often we let self-doubt derail us from pursuing our passions and accomplishing our biggest goals. This was the situation Jackie Huba found herself in. At the lowest point in her life she serendipitously stumbled upon the wonderful world of drag queens, and to her surprise, she found them inspiring and energizing. They were supremely confident, utterly fearless, strong, powerful, and unabashedly and completely themselves-no apologies, no compromises. So she immersed herself in the world of drag, eventually becoming a female drag queen herself aka Lady Trinity.
Fiercely You is a creative, playful approach to the serious problems that women face regarding confidence and risk-taking. Drawing on her own experiences and interviews with the world's top drag queens, Huba offers five keys to the Queendom that will help readers ignore criticism and live life more fearlessly. This is not a guide to drag, it's a guide to life-but in a sense, all life is drag. As RuPaul, the most famous drag queen in the world, herself says, “We're born naked, and the rest is drag.” Huba and her coauthor Shelly Stewart Kronbergs-who explains the psychology research that supports each of Huba's keys-help readers become the amazing person they see inside their heads and feel in their hearts.
We all want to be fabulous. But too often we let self-doubt derail us from pursuing our passions and accomplishing our biggest goals. This was the situation Jackie Huba found herself in. At the lowest point in her life she serendipitously stumbled upon the wonderful world of drag queens, and to her surprise, she found them inspiring and energizing. They were supremely confident, utterly fearless, strong, powerful, and unabashedly and completely themselves-no apologies, no compromises. So she immersed herself in the world of drag, eventually becoming a female drag queen herself aka Lady Trinity.
Fiercely You is a creative, playful approach to the serious problems that women face regarding confidence and risk-taking. Drawing on her own experiences and interviews with the world's top drag queens, Huba offers five keys to the Queendom that will help readers ignore criticism and live life more fearlessly. This is not a guide to drag, it's a guide to life-but in a sense, all life is drag. As RuPaul, the most famous drag queen in the world, herself says, “We're born naked, and the rest is drag.” Huba and her coauthor Shelly Stewart Kronbergs-who explains the psychology research that supports each of Huba's keys-help readers become the amazing person they see inside their heads and feel in their hearts.
Our economy is designed by the 1 percent, for the 1 percent. This book offers a compelling vision of an equitable, ecologically sustainable alternative that meets the essential needs of all people.
Seventy-one percent of the American people say the economy is rigged against them, and they're right. Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard describe the current economic system as the Extractive Economy-it enables the financial elite to extract maximum gain for themselves, heedless of any damage to people or planet. As an alternative, they offer the Democratic Economy, which is responsive to the concerns of ordinary people and balances human consumption with the regenerative capacity of the earth.
Kelly and Howard lay out seven principles of a Democratic Economy: Community, Inclusion, Place (keeping wealth local), Good Work (putting labor before capital), Democratized Ownership, Ethical Finance, and Sustainability. The book pairs each principle with a portrait of a place where it is being put into practice, from Pine Ridge to Portland to Cleveland to Preston, England, and more. This is a powerful, coherent, and achievable vision of an economy that serves the many, not the few.
Seventy-one percent of the American people say the economy is rigged against them, and they're right. Marjorie Kelly and Ted Howard describe the current economic system as the Extractive Economy-it enables the financial elite to extract maximum gain for themselves, heedless of any damage to people or planet. As an alternative, they offer the Democratic Economy, which is responsive to the concerns of ordinary people and balances human consumption with the regenerative capacity of the earth.
Kelly and Howard lay out seven principles of a Democratic Economy: Community, Inclusion, Place (keeping wealth local), Good Work (putting labor before capital), Democratized Ownership, Ethical Finance, and Sustainability. The book pairs each principle with a portrait of a place where it is being put into practice, from Pine Ridge to Portland to Cleveland to Preston, England, and more. This is a powerful, coherent, and achievable vision of an economy that serves the many, not the few.
Based on the bestselling A Complaint Is a Gift (over 275,000 copies sold), this accompanying workbook offers actionable tools that help individuals and organizations transform even the most extreme complaints into gifts that drive their business forward.
A Complaint Is a Gift introduced the revolutionary notion that customer complaints are not annoyances to be dodged, denied, or buried but are instead valuable pieces of feedback-not to mention your best bargain in market research. Complaints provide a feedback mechanism that can help organizations rapidly and inexpensively strengthen products, service style, and market focus. Most importantly, complaints that are well received create customer loyalty.
Built to be interactive and immersive, the workbook teaches a set of practices, approaches, and tools that anyone can use to navigate fraught customer-facing interactions. It allows readers to practice Janelle Barlow's updated, more efficient three-step formula and enables employees to handle complaints with increased emotional resilience rather than taking them as personal attacks.
A Complaint Is a Gift Workbook is packed with the necessary tools to view and treat complaints as a source of innovative ideas that can transform your business.
A Complaint Is a Gift introduced the revolutionary notion that customer complaints are not annoyances to be dodged, denied, or buried but are instead valuable pieces of feedback-not to mention your best bargain in market research. Complaints provide a feedback mechanism that can help organizations rapidly and inexpensively strengthen products, service style, and market focus. Most importantly, complaints that are well received create customer loyalty.
Built to be interactive and immersive, the workbook teaches a set of practices, approaches, and tools that anyone can use to navigate fraught customer-facing interactions. It allows readers to practice Janelle Barlow's updated, more efficient three-step formula and enables employees to handle complaints with increased emotional resilience rather than taking them as personal attacks.
A Complaint Is a Gift Workbook is packed with the necessary tools to view and treat complaints as a source of innovative ideas that can transform your business.
This book takes a systematic approach to learning that has been long revered in the education field (approximately 75,000 educators take the Kolb Learning Style Inventory each year) and makes it accessible to any reader who wants to be a lifelong learner.
Being a lifelong learner is one of the secrets to happiness, success, and personal fulfillment. This book awakens and enhances the power of learning that lies within us. David Kolb originated the concept of Experiential Learning-a systematic approach to understanding how we learn-and in this book he and Kay Peterson take what has up until now been a powerful professional development tool and make it accessible to a popular audience.
Peterson and Kolb offer deep, research-based insights into how we learn, what Kolb calls the Experiential Learning Cycle. Then they identify nine specific learning styles and guide you in identifying your dominant style. This will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses as a learner, but they emphasize that flexibility is the key to lifelong learning. So they suggest ways you can expand your repertoire of learning styles. This book is an eye-opening read for anyone who wants to continue to grow and meet life challenges in a transformative way.
Being a lifelong learner is one of the secrets to happiness, success, and personal fulfillment. This book awakens and enhances the power of learning that lies within us. David Kolb originated the concept of Experiential Learning-a systematic approach to understanding how we learn-and in this book he and Kay Peterson take what has up until now been a powerful professional development tool and make it accessible to a popular audience.
Peterson and Kolb offer deep, research-based insights into how we learn, what Kolb calls the Experiential Learning Cycle. Then they identify nine specific learning styles and guide you in identifying your dominant style. This will help you understand your strengths and weaknesses as a learner, but they emphasize that flexibility is the key to lifelong learning. So they suggest ways you can expand your repertoire of learning styles. This book is an eye-opening read for anyone who wants to continue to grow and meet life challenges in a transformative way.
Two experienced and visionary authors show how institutions and individuals can go beyond conventional and sustainable investing to address complex problems such as income inequality and climate change on a deep, systemic level.
Our financial markets can no longer grapple adequately with the pressing challenges of our times-such as climate change, income inequality, diversity, and the health of our oceans.
Sustainable investment helps investors to manage environmental, social, and governance considerations in their portfolios, but this piecemeal approach stops short of addressing the larger systemic challenges that underlie them, thereby running the risk of missing the forest for the trees. Concerned about climate change, sustainable investors might invest in a portfolio of solar power companies. System-level investors would invest in a portfolio of solar and wind power, batteries, energy efficient and sustainable forest products, regenerative agriculture, and similar resources from companies that provide a holistic vision of what an alternative world could be.
William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg have pioneered this approach through their work at the Investment Integration Project. In this book they provide a guide for investors-both concerned individuals and financial professionals as well as investment advisors-explaining why this investment approach is critical today and how it can be put into practice.
Our financial markets can no longer grapple adequately with the pressing challenges of our times-such as climate change, income inequality, diversity, and the health of our oceans.
Sustainable investment helps investors to manage environmental, social, and governance considerations in their portfolios, but this piecemeal approach stops short of addressing the larger systemic challenges that underlie them, thereby running the risk of missing the forest for the trees. Concerned about climate change, sustainable investors might invest in a portfolio of solar power companies. System-level investors would invest in a portfolio of solar and wind power, batteries, energy efficient and sustainable forest products, regenerative agriculture, and similar resources from companies that provide a holistic vision of what an alternative world could be.
William Burckart and Steve Lydenberg have pioneered this approach through their work at the Investment Integration Project. In this book they provide a guide for investors-both concerned individuals and financial professionals as well as investment advisors-explaining why this investment approach is critical today and how it can be put into practice.
Change is difficult but essential-Esther Derby offers seven guidelines for change by attraction, an approach that draws people into the process so that instead of resisting change, they embrace it.
Organizational change efforts often fail because they focus on top-down methods that rely on coercion, rewards, or positional authority. Well-meaning leaders talk about driving change, as though employees are cattle or cars. At best, this results in compliance--not engagement or commitment. And at worst it simply doesn't work.
Drawing from her experience working with some of today's most successful companies, Esther Derby argues for what she calls change by attraction: giving space and support for people to feel the loss that comes with change and help them see what is valuable about the future you propose. Resistance fades because people feel there is nothing to resist--there is only something they want to move toward. In this book Derby outlines her seven rules for change by attraction: Strive for Congruence; Honor the Past; Assess What Is; Pay Attention to Networks; Experiment; Guide, Don't Standardize; and Use Your Self.
Organizational change efforts often fail because they focus on top-down methods that rely on coercion, rewards, or positional authority. Well-meaning leaders talk about driving change, as though employees are cattle or cars. At best, this results in compliance--not engagement or commitment. And at worst it simply doesn't work.
Drawing from her experience working with some of today's most successful companies, Esther Derby argues for what she calls change by attraction: giving space and support for people to feel the loss that comes with change and help them see what is valuable about the future you propose. Resistance fades because people feel there is nothing to resist--there is only something they want to move toward. In this book Derby outlines her seven rules for change by attraction: Strive for Congruence; Honor the Past; Assess What Is; Pay Attention to Networks; Experiment; Guide, Don't Standardize; and Use Your Self.
In their much-anticipated sequel to the bestseller Ideas Are Free (over 50,000 copies sold), Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder explain that employee ideas are no longer a “nice-to-have” but rather the very lifeblood of competitiveness, culture, and strategy. Their new book shows how to align every part of the organization around generating and implementing ideas at the front line.
Is leadership a question of character or competence? Most leadership training separates these two factors, but Clark shows that anyone at any level can be a superior leader by balancing these dimensions.
Our leadership development programs teach necessary skills, yet we often train individuals who do not have the character to lead, which is a weakness because a leader with skills but no character can be dangerous. But a leader with character but no skills is useless. In this book, author, consultant, and entrepreneur Tim Clark shows how anyone can develop both character and competence.
Clark lays out his model of the “core” (character) and the “crust” (competence) to explain how we can rethink leadership. Most importantly, this model makes no allowance for job title, formal authority, or position. Almost anyone with the right character can learn competence, but Clark makes clear that the formula rarely works the other way around. For each aspect of leadership, he shares a series of mini lessons taken from his research and experience. Clark's book will be a key personal growth tool for anyone anywhere ready to step up, regardless of external labels or job description.
Our leadership development programs teach necessary skills, yet we often train individuals who do not have the character to lead, which is a weakness because a leader with skills but no character can be dangerous. But a leader with character but no skills is useless. In this book, author, consultant, and entrepreneur Tim Clark shows how anyone can develop both character and competence.
Clark lays out his model of the “core” (character) and the “crust” (competence) to explain how we can rethink leadership. Most importantly, this model makes no allowance for job title, formal authority, or position. Almost anyone with the right character can learn competence, but Clark makes clear that the formula rarely works the other way around. For each aspect of leadership, he shares a series of mini lessons taken from his research and experience. Clark's book will be a key personal growth tool for anyone anywhere ready to step up, regardless of external labels or job description.
How can people best develop their leadership skills to match their personality, to amplify their strengths, and to compensate for their weaknesses? This is the first book to answer this question with the latest version of the DiSC model of human behavior, which is one of the most widely used, most scientifically based, and most effective approaches to assessing and improving leadership styles and skills.
You don't have to betray yourself or your values to close stellar sales. This book introduces a simple formula for a personalized approach to building connections through alignment and problem-solving.
So many salespeople “sell out” themselves and the products they represent because they are thrust far out of their comfort zone. Taking uncomfortable risks can produce anxiety, especially for women, which in turn affects the self-esteem and confidence that pushes them to achieve their goals.
Studies reveal that while men generally rely on improving and driving outcomes to close sales, women tend to emphasize building connections, shaping solutions, and collaborating. Stacey Hall's alignment marketing formula combines both skillsets in an easy-to-follow process for gently expanding women's comfort zone so they can stay flexible and resilient in the face of problems and objections that all salespeople encounter along the way.
Selling from Your Comfort Zone shifts away from “pushy” and “spammy” sales tactics and facilitates the gradual growth of people's comfort zone by helping them find alignment with their calling, personality traits, and core values.
So many salespeople “sell out” themselves and the products they represent because they are thrust far out of their comfort zone. Taking uncomfortable risks can produce anxiety, especially for women, which in turn affects the self-esteem and confidence that pushes them to achieve their goals.
Studies reveal that while men generally rely on improving and driving outcomes to close sales, women tend to emphasize building connections, shaping solutions, and collaborating. Stacey Hall's alignment marketing formula combines both skillsets in an easy-to-follow process for gently expanding women's comfort zone so they can stay flexible and resilient in the face of problems and objections that all salespeople encounter along the way.
Selling from Your Comfort Zone shifts away from “pushy” and “spammy” sales tactics and facilitates the gradual growth of people's comfort zone by helping them find alignment with their calling, personality traits, and core values.
In FLIGHT PLAN, bestselling author Brian Tracy (author of Eat That Frog, over half a million copies sold) explains the real secret to success in business and personal life. Using the metaphor of an airplane trip from coast to coast, Tracy reveals the key ingredients that go into accomplishing any long-term, meaningful success.
Making progress on complex, problematic situations requires a new approach to working together: transformative facilitation, a structured and creative process for removing the obstacles to fluid forward movement.
People today face increasing complexity and decreasing control. They need to work with more people across more divides. But the traditional ways of advancing-subsuming individual interests to the good of the whole, or providing total autonomy for all stakeholders to work out their own solution-aren't adequate to resolving these difficult situations.
Drawing on his experiences working with Black people and white people in post-apartheid in South Africa, First Nations people and the government in Canada, multiple stakeholders in war-torn Columbia, and many more, Kahane describes what he calls transformative facilitation. It combines the two approaches, cycling back and forth between them. The facilitator pays careful attention to what is going on in the group and decides which approach will work best at any given moment.
Adam Kahane describes precisely what the facilitator needs to watch for and how to manage the delicate balance between a focus on the collective and a focus on specific stakeholder needs. This book is for anyone who helps people collaborate in any setting. Not only does it offer a way to facilitate breakthroughs, it is a breakthrough in itself.
People today face increasing complexity and decreasing control. They need to work with more people across more divides. But the traditional ways of advancing-subsuming individual interests to the good of the whole, or providing total autonomy for all stakeholders to work out their own solution-aren't adequate to resolving these difficult situations.
Drawing on his experiences working with Black people and white people in post-apartheid in South Africa, First Nations people and the government in Canada, multiple stakeholders in war-torn Columbia, and many more, Kahane describes what he calls transformative facilitation. It combines the two approaches, cycling back and forth between them. The facilitator pays careful attention to what is going on in the group and decides which approach will work best at any given moment.
Adam Kahane describes precisely what the facilitator needs to watch for and how to manage the delicate balance between a focus on the collective and a focus on specific stakeholder needs. This book is for anyone who helps people collaborate in any setting. Not only does it offer a way to facilitate breakthroughs, it is a breakthrough in itself.
An authentic brand community is more than just people buying your product or working alongside one another. This book articulates the critical roles of mutual concern, common values, and shared experiences in creating fiercely loyal customer and collaborator relationships.
Smart organizations know that creating communities is the key to unlocking unprecedented outcomes. But too many mistakenly rely on superficial transactional relationships as a foundation for community, when really people want something deeper. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl argue that in an authentic and enriching community, members have mutual concern for one another, share personal values, and join together in meaningful shared experiences, whether online or off. On the deepest level, brands must help members grow into who they want to be.
Jones and Vogl present practices used by global brands like Yelp, Etsy, Twitch, Harley Davidson, Salesforce, Airbnb, Sephora, and others to connect in a meaningful way with the people critical for their success. They articulate how authentic communities can serve organizational goals in seven different areas: innovation, talent recruitment, customer retention, marketing, customer service, building transformational movements, and creating community forums. They also reveal principles to grow a new brand community to critical mass. This is the first comprehensive guide to a crucial differentiator that gives organizations access to untapped enthusiasm and engagement.
Smart organizations know that creating communities is the key to unlocking unprecedented outcomes. But too many mistakenly rely on superficial transactional relationships as a foundation for community, when really people want something deeper. Carrie Melissa Jones and Charles Vogl argue that in an authentic and enriching community, members have mutual concern for one another, share personal values, and join together in meaningful shared experiences, whether online or off. On the deepest level, brands must help members grow into who they want to be.
Jones and Vogl present practices used by global brands like Yelp, Etsy, Twitch, Harley Davidson, Salesforce, Airbnb, Sephora, and others to connect in a meaningful way with the people critical for their success. They articulate how authentic communities can serve organizational goals in seven different areas: innovation, talent recruitment, customer retention, marketing, customer service, building transformational movements, and creating community forums. They also reveal principles to grow a new brand community to critical mass. This is the first comprehensive guide to a crucial differentiator that gives organizations access to untapped enthusiasm and engagement.