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This powerful guide draws on strategies from Black resistance movements and merges historical wisdom with modern technology to combat the DEI backlash and build sustainable workplace equity in today’s hostile climate.
As the unprecedented backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion intensifies—with corporations dismantling initiatives, lawmakers passing anti-DEI legislation, and post–George Floyd promises abandoned—this tactical handbook arms advocates with revolutionary resistance strategies drawn from Black historical movements.
Dr. Janice Gassam Asare transforms centuries of Black resistance wisdom—from Underground Railroad networks to civil rights organizing tactics—into modern resistance plans, wielding ethical AI as a force multiplier to create sustainable change that outlasts corporate whims and political cycles.
Each chapter grounds modern workplace tactics in revolutionary approaches of more than twenty prominent Black historical figures, including the following:
This isn’t just about surviving the backlash. It’s about reimagining workplaces where everyone thrives.
As the unprecedented backlash against diversity, equity, and inclusion intensifies—with corporations dismantling initiatives, lawmakers passing anti-DEI legislation, and post–George Floyd promises abandoned—this tactical handbook arms advocates with revolutionary resistance strategies drawn from Black historical movements.
Dr. Janice Gassam Asare transforms centuries of Black resistance wisdom—from Underground Railroad networks to civil rights organizing tactics—into modern resistance plans, wielding ethical AI as a force multiplier to create sustainable change that outlasts corporate whims and political cycles.
Each chapter grounds modern workplace tactics in revolutionary approaches of more than twenty prominent Black historical figures, including the following:
- Ida B. Wells—Documentation techniques for workplace injustice inspired by her work
- Ella Baker and Fred Hampton—Coalition-building methods from the American civil rights movement
- Toni Morrison and Angela Davis—Narrative control strategies drawn from their celebrated writing
This isn’t just about surviving the backlash. It’s about reimagining workplaces where everyone thrives.
This essential guidebook—created by the founder of Cancer Kids First, the world’s largest youth-led cancer nonprofit—gives young changemakers the exact blueprint they need to turn big ideas into real-world impact.
Young people are driving social change like never before—but many passionate activists lack the roadmap to turn their ideas into sustainable organizations. In this guide, Olivia Zhang, who launched Cancer Kids First at age fourteen after losing two loved ones to cancer, delivers the comprehensive nonprofit playbook she wishes she’d had when first starting out. Now a student at Harvard University and a recent inductee into the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Social Impact (she was the youngest honoree in her category in 2025), Zhang shares her journey of scaling a youth-led charity to reach over 10,000 patients across twenty-two countries.
Readers will receive the following:
Young people are driving social change like never before—but many passionate activists lack the roadmap to turn their ideas into sustainable organizations. In this guide, Olivia Zhang, who launched Cancer Kids First at age fourteen after losing two loved ones to cancer, delivers the comprehensive nonprofit playbook she wishes she’d had when first starting out. Now a student at Harvard University and a recent inductee into the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Social Impact (she was the youngest honoree in her category in 2025), Zhang shares her journey of scaling a youth-led charity to reach over 10,000 patients across twenty-two countries.
Readers will receive the following:
- Step-by-step instructions on legal filing, branding, teambuilding, and fundraising
- Practical worksheets, checklists, and actionable exercises
- A Gen-Z–friendly format with emojis and approachable language
- Proven strategies from Zhang’s journey of scaling Cancer Kids First globally
In a world where businesses often create more harm than healing, this transformative guide shows leaders how to heal themselves first—because only whole leaders can build truly healthy organizations.
Leadership shouldn’t cost us our souls, yet too many leaders find themselves spiritually and emotionally exhausted, leading organizations that drain rather than nurture human potential. This book offers a different path—one where personal transformation becomes the foundation for positive organizational change.
Written by conscious business pioneer Raj Sisodia and personal transformation expert Nilima Bhat, this book guides readers through seven essential steps of inner healing that ripple out to create healthier organizations:
Leadership shouldn’t cost us our souls, yet too many leaders find themselves spiritually and emotionally exhausted, leading organizations that drain rather than nurture human potential. This book offers a different path—one where personal transformation becomes the foundation for positive organizational change.
Written by conscious business pioneer Raj Sisodia and personal transformation expert Nilima Bhat, this book guides readers through seven essential steps of inner healing that ripple out to create healthier organizations:
- Know Yourself—Strip away the masks you wear as a leader to discover who you truly are.
- Love Yourself—Learn to embrace all parts of yourself, even the shadows you try to hide.
- Be Yourself—Find the courage to lead authentically, not just effectively.
- Choose Yourself—Take back authorship of your leadership story.
- Express Yourself—Channel your unique gifts into meaningful impact.
- Complete Yourself—Bring together all parts of yourself into wholeness.
- Heal Yourself—Transform your wounds into wisdom that serves others.
The next evolution of DEI is here. Discover how to shape a workplace that puts everyone ahead through the groundbreaking FAIR framework.
Over 80 percent of Americans agree that the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important in workplaces and society. Yet, research shows that a mere 20 percent feel they’ve directly benefited from workplace DEI programs. As traditional DEI efforts in the workplace face disengagement, backlash, and stagnation, it’s time to reimagine this work.
Drawing on historical case studies, deep research, and a decade of the author’s consulting experience with organizations of all sizes, this book reveals the four tenets that will shape the next evolution of workplace DEI:
Over 80 percent of Americans agree that the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are important in workplaces and society. Yet, research shows that a mere 20 percent feel they’ve directly benefited from workplace DEI programs. As traditional DEI efforts in the workplace face disengagement, backlash, and stagnation, it’s time to reimagine this work.
Drawing on historical case studies, deep research, and a decade of the author’s consulting experience with organizations of all sizes, this book reveals the four tenets that will shape the next evolution of workplace DEI:
- Outcomes over Intentions: Don’t chase trends. Do what it takes to measurably achieve greater fairness, access, inclusion, and representation for all.
- Systems over Self-Help: Don’t fixate on individual biases. Solve the root causes of discrimination by shaping workplace norms, culture, processes, and practices.
- Coalitions over Cliques: Don’t just preach to the choir. Build bridges and movements that engage everyone as part of the solution.
- Win-Win over Zero-Sum: Don’t give in to “us versus them.” Create and relentlessly communicate a vision for a better status quo for everyone.
Master the essential actions that create lasting trust in any relationship, from the world's leading experts in workplace trust.
Trust is essential to all relationships, but knowing how to build and maintain it remains elusive. Drawing from three decades of research and consulting, trust experts Dennis and Michelle Reina provide a comprehensive roadmap for creating lasting trust in any relationship.
Through actionable frameworks, tools, and stories, readers will learn:
- Essential behaviors that build trust in character, communication, and capability
- How to foster an environment of openness where people feel heard and valued
- Ways to rebuild trust after breaches or betrayals
- Techniques for strengthening self-trust as the foundation for trusting others
- The role of gratitude in nurturing reciprocal trust
With the groundbreaking Reina Individual Trust Scale Assessment and concrete strategies for implementation, this essential guide equips readers to forge powerful bonds of trust that endure through uncertainty and change.
Trust is essential to all relationships, but knowing how to build and maintain it remains elusive. Drawing from three decades of research and consulting, trust experts Dennis and Michelle Reina provide a comprehensive roadmap for creating lasting trust in any relationship.
Through actionable frameworks, tools, and stories, readers will learn:
- Essential behaviors that build trust in character, communication, and capability
- How to foster an environment of openness where people feel heard and valued
- Ways to rebuild trust after breaches or betrayals
- Techniques for strengthening self-trust as the foundation for trusting others
- The role of gratitude in nurturing reciprocal trust
With the groundbreaking Reina Individual Trust Scale Assessment and concrete strategies for implementation, this essential guide equips readers to forge powerful bonds of trust that endure through uncertainty and change.
This updated bestseller shows leaders how to transform fragmentation into authentic community with new workplace applications and proven strategies for today’s divided world.
With increasing violence, widening ideological divides, and growing economic inequality, a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. Yet typical ways of engaging people civically and organizationally remain unchanged. In Community, Peter Block explores how authentic community can emerge from fragmentation and offers practical steps to foster transformation.
This updated third edition draws on decades of implementing Block’s ideas and includes the following:
With increasing violence, widening ideological divides, and growing economic inequality, a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. Yet typical ways of engaging people civically and organizationally remain unchanged. In Community, Peter Block explores how authentic community can emerge from fragmentation and offers practical steps to foster transformation.
This updated third edition draws on decades of implementing Block’s ideas and includes the following:
- New stories and examples demonstrating community building as a more powerful approach to social problems than traditional policies and programs
- Expanded resources and a discussion guide designed for classroom and training program use
- A new closing chapter covering broader implications of the book’s ideas for organizational transformation
- Fresh content exploring the creative economy’s relationship to belonging and social capital’s role in authentic engagement
- Updated examples showing how community principles apply to today’s workplace and virtual world challenges
These leadership lessons work for leaders at every level when everything goes wrong, from the doctor who saved lives after the 9/11 attacks, in war-torn Ukraine, and on the NFL sidelines.
Dr. Thom Mayer doesn’t just talk about leadership: he lives it in the world’s most high-stakes situations. From commanding the 9/11 Pentagon rescue operation to rushing onto NFL fields during medical emergencies to training doctors in war-torn Ukraine, Mayer has learned that leadership isn’t about titles or positions. It’s about action.
In this practical guide, Mayer reveals eleven provocative principles that flip conventional leadership wisdom: “Leadership is worthless . . . but leading is priceless.” “Power is worthless . . . but influence is priceless.” “Success is worthless . . . but failure is priceless.” Through gripping stories from the Pentagon’s smoking corridors, NFL sidelines, and Ukrainian hospitals, he shows how real leaders emerge not from corner offices but from moments of crisis when someone must step up and act.
Whether readers are managing a team, raising a family, or facing a crossroads, Mayer’s hard-won insights will transform how readers think about influence, teamwork, and making decisions under pressure. This isn’t theoretical leadership. Mayer offers battle-tested wisdom from someone who has led when lives hung in the balance.
Now in paperback with a new discussion guide for leadership development programs.
Dr. Thom Mayer doesn’t just talk about leadership: he lives it in the world’s most high-stakes situations. From commanding the 9/11 Pentagon rescue operation to rushing onto NFL fields during medical emergencies to training doctors in war-torn Ukraine, Mayer has learned that leadership isn’t about titles or positions. It’s about action.
In this practical guide, Mayer reveals eleven provocative principles that flip conventional leadership wisdom: “Leadership is worthless . . . but leading is priceless.” “Power is worthless . . . but influence is priceless.” “Success is worthless . . . but failure is priceless.” Through gripping stories from the Pentagon’s smoking corridors, NFL sidelines, and Ukrainian hospitals, he shows how real leaders emerge not from corner offices but from moments of crisis when someone must step up and act.
Whether readers are managing a team, raising a family, or facing a crossroads, Mayer’s hard-won insights will transform how readers think about influence, teamwork, and making decisions under pressure. This isn’t theoretical leadership. Mayer offers battle-tested wisdom from someone who has led when lives hung in the balance.
Now in paperback with a new discussion guide for leadership development programs.
The international bestseller that’s changed more than half a million lives is back—refreshed for today’s world.
What if one simple shift could transform your results at work and in life? With Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, it can.
In this updated fifth edition, Dr. Marilee Adams shows how to break free from the Judger mindset of blame and stress and move into the Learner mindset of curiosity, solutions, and growth. Using the proven Choice Map, you’ll see exactly how the questions you ask shape your decisions, relationships, and success.
What’s new in this edition?
What if one simple shift could transform your results at work and in life? With Change Your Questions, Change Your Life, it can.
In this updated fifth edition, Dr. Marilee Adams shows how to break free from the Judger mindset of blame and stress and move into the Learner mindset of curiosity, solutions, and growth. Using the proven Choice Map, you’ll see exactly how the questions you ask shape your decisions, relationships, and success.
What’s new in this edition?
- Fresh updates throughout to reflect today’s workplaces and challenges
- One brand-new exercise to help you apply Question Thinking immediately
- Modern insights to keep these timeless tools relevant and practical
Master creative thinking in the AI age with practical tools that blend imagination and discipline for better innovation in this updated, award-winning business bestseller.
Now updated with 20 percent new content, this Porchlight Business Book of the Year returns with all-new case studies and a groundbreaking chapter on creative partnerships with AI and emerging technologies. Natalie Nixon demonstrates that humans are hardwired for creativity—a competency anyone can develop by balancing wonder (awe, audacity, and curiosity) with rigor (discipline, skill-building, and attention to detail).
Drawing on interviews with professionals across diverse industries—from farming to medicine to technology—Nixon reveals how inquiry, improvisation, and intuition enhance creative capacity in every kind of work. This second edition features fresh success stories from resourceful businesses that have mastered the delicate dance between human imagination and artificial intelligence in a rapidly changing world.
Combining practical creativity tools with illuminating stories of innovative people and organizations, this book serves as a provocation, an inspiration, and an invitation to unleash the innate creativity within each of us. Nixon offers a dynamic approach to adaptation and innovation that allows the freedom to access our full human potential—even as technology continues to reshape how we work. This essential guide helps anyone cultivate the creative thinking needed to thrive in today's complex business landscape.
Now updated with 20 percent new content, this Porchlight Business Book of the Year returns with all-new case studies and a groundbreaking chapter on creative partnerships with AI and emerging technologies. Natalie Nixon demonstrates that humans are hardwired for creativity—a competency anyone can develop by balancing wonder (awe, audacity, and curiosity) with rigor (discipline, skill-building, and attention to detail).
Drawing on interviews with professionals across diverse industries—from farming to medicine to technology—Nixon reveals how inquiry, improvisation, and intuition enhance creative capacity in every kind of work. This second edition features fresh success stories from resourceful businesses that have mastered the delicate dance between human imagination and artificial intelligence in a rapidly changing world.
Combining practical creativity tools with illuminating stories of innovative people and organizations, this book serves as a provocation, an inspiration, and an invitation to unleash the innate creativity within each of us. Nixon offers a dynamic approach to adaptation and innovation that allows the freedom to access our full human potential—even as technology continues to reshape how we work. This essential guide helps anyone cultivate the creative thinking needed to thrive in today's complex business landscape.
In a world where 82 percent of managers struggle to lead effectively, this international bestseller reveals the one secret that separates great leaders from the rest.
“What do I need to do to be a great leader?” Every person in authority wonders this question sooner or later. Ken Blanchard, whose books have sold over 25 million copies, and Mark Miller, who rose from line worker to Chick-fil-A vice president, uncover the secret great leaders already know in this international bestseller.
Using a classic business fable, newly promoted executive Debbie Brewster asks her mentor the crucial question: “What is the secret of great leaders?” His reply-“Great leaders serve”-confuses her, but he reveals five fundamental ways leaders succeed through service. Debbie discovers why great leaders focus on the future, how teams determine success or failure, what three arenas need continuous improvement, why leadership success has two essential components, and how to strengthen-or destroy-credibility.
This fourth edition includes the proven SERVE model plus breakthrough content on leadership's most critical element-a leader's heart. Discover these new features:
• Revised chapters
• New chapter with five HEART habits that form the foundation for great leadership
• Comprehensive facilitator's guide for groups and teams
• Expanded resources for teams and organizations
Translated into twenty-nine languages with over 700,000 copies sold, The Secret delivers proven wisdom in an unforgettable story that anyone can understand and apply immediately.
“What do I need to do to be a great leader?” Every person in authority wonders this question sooner or later. Ken Blanchard, whose books have sold over 25 million copies, and Mark Miller, who rose from line worker to Chick-fil-A vice president, uncover the secret great leaders already know in this international bestseller.
Using a classic business fable, newly promoted executive Debbie Brewster asks her mentor the crucial question: “What is the secret of great leaders?” His reply-“Great leaders serve”-confuses her, but he reveals five fundamental ways leaders succeed through service. Debbie discovers why great leaders focus on the future, how teams determine success or failure, what three arenas need continuous improvement, why leadership success has two essential components, and how to strengthen-or destroy-credibility.
This fourth edition includes the proven SERVE model plus breakthrough content on leadership's most critical element-a leader's heart. Discover these new features:
• Revised chapters
• New chapter with five HEART habits that form the foundation for great leadership
• Comprehensive facilitator's guide for groups and teams
• Expanded resources for teams and organizations
Translated into twenty-nine languages with over 700,000 copies sold, The Secret delivers proven wisdom in an unforgettable story that anyone can understand and apply immediately.
Management icon Henry Mintzberg dismantles twenty dangerous business myths in this essential guide for thoughtful leaders.
Henry Mintzberg, legendary management thinker and recipient of the Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent decades challenging conventional wisdom about how organizations work. In this powerful distillation of his life's work, Mintzberg tackles the most persistent and damaging myths in business—from “if you can't measure it, you can't manage it” to the blind worship of “strategic planning.”
With characteristic wit and clarity, Mintzberg offers refreshing alternatives that will transform how you think about leadership, structure, and organizational effectiveness. He replaces tired maxims like “managing is controlling” with more nuanced approaches that embrace “controlled disorder” and suggests that “ordinary creativity” often matters more than exceptional genius.
Drawing from his extensive body of work across sixty years, Mintzberg provides a masterclass in critical thinking for anyone who leads teams or organizations. His irreverent style makes complex ideas accessible without sacrificing depth, making this book as intellectually stimulating as it is practically valuable.
Whether you're a seasoned executive, an aspiring manager, or a student of organizational behavior, this concise volume will challenge your assumptions and provide a clear-eyed framework for more effective, humane management.
Henry Mintzberg, legendary management thinker and recipient of the Thinkers50 Lifetime Achievement Award, has spent decades challenging conventional wisdom about how organizations work. In this powerful distillation of his life's work, Mintzberg tackles the most persistent and damaging myths in business—from “if you can't measure it, you can't manage it” to the blind worship of “strategic planning.”
With characteristic wit and clarity, Mintzberg offers refreshing alternatives that will transform how you think about leadership, structure, and organizational effectiveness. He replaces tired maxims like “managing is controlling” with more nuanced approaches that embrace “controlled disorder” and suggests that “ordinary creativity” often matters more than exceptional genius.
Drawing from his extensive body of work across sixty years, Mintzberg provides a masterclass in critical thinking for anyone who leads teams or organizations. His irreverent style makes complex ideas accessible without sacrificing depth, making this book as intellectually stimulating as it is practically valuable.
Whether you're a seasoned executive, an aspiring manager, or a student of organizational behavior, this concise volume will challenge your assumptions and provide a clear-eyed framework for more effective, humane management.
The pioneering book that exposed the intergenerational health impacts of systemic racism is back—with 50 percent new content to meet the demands of our post-2020 reality.
This updated edition delivers urgent tools for survival, including four new chapters, updated research, case studies, and real-world examples.
Black people are exhausted. The toll of living within systems designed to exclude them devastates minds, bodies, and spirits. Award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion leader Mary-Frances Winters—now joined by Mareisha Winters Reese—addresses this ongoing crisis with an urgent update to her bestselling book.
Winters and Reese incorporate new data, fresh case studies, and expanded tools to reflect today’s realities. This edition, with 50 percent new content, includes the following:
This updated edition delivers urgent tools for survival, including four new chapters, updated research, case studies, and real-world examples.
Black people are exhausted. The toll of living within systems designed to exclude them devastates minds, bodies, and spirits. Award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion leader Mary-Frances Winters—now joined by Mareisha Winters Reese—addresses this ongoing crisis with an urgent update to her bestselling book.
Winters and Reese incorporate new data, fresh case studies, and expanded tools to reflect today’s realities. This edition, with 50 percent new content, includes the following:
- Four new chapters on current challenges facing Black communities
- Updated research on racism’s health impacts in a post-COVID world
- New stories and case studies that illuminate lived experience
- Updated models reflecting today’s most relevant findings
For coaches who want to transform lives, this updated bestselling guide reveals how reflective inquiry—not just asking questions—creates breakthrough moments that AI can never replicate.
In this powerful second edition, ICF global past president Marcia Reynolds shows why reflecting clients’ thoughts creates deeper transformation than questioning alone. With AI coaching tools emerging, Reynolds demonstrates how human connection remains irreplaceable for genuine breakthroughs.
“Coaches rely far too much on asking open-ended questions,” says Reynolds. When clients hear their thoughts spoken by someone else, they critically examine their thinking. Drawing from brain science and decades of coaching experience, Reynolds provides specific techniques for transformational conversations.
This expanded edition is 20 percent new content including the following:
In this powerful second edition, ICF global past president Marcia Reynolds shows why reflecting clients’ thoughts creates deeper transformation than questioning alone. With AI coaching tools emerging, Reynolds demonstrates how human connection remains irreplaceable for genuine breakthroughs.
“Coaches rely far too much on asking open-ended questions,” says Reynolds. When clients hear their thoughts spoken by someone else, they critically examine their thinking. Drawing from brain science and decades of coaching experience, Reynolds provides specific techniques for transformational conversations.
This expanded edition is 20 percent new content including the following:
- Fresh research on identity formation
- New coaching examples
- Guidance on differentiating human coaching from AI
Burnout rising. Systems cracking. Talent leaving.
The solution: design for human dignity and full-person diversity—with this award-winning guide.
The Canary Code reorganizes work for thriving—starting with those first impacted by faulty systems, like canaries first sensing toxic air in coal mines. Neurodivergent talent (members of ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, and learning-differences communities, and others who think and experience life differently) offer unique skills and exceptional work ethics, yet face employment barriers. Their unique abilities and perspectives are excluded, and their canary warnings about bullying, broken workflows, or ethical drift are ignored.
This practical guide helps CEOs, managers, HR leaders, and changemakers improve work for all. Drawing on science and lived experience, 2025 Thinkers50 Talent Award winner and internationally renowned management expert Ludmila Praslova shows how embracing neurodiversity creates healthier, more innovative systems. A neurodivergent organizational psychologist with over twenty-five years of global practice and research on inclusive organizations, she offers the following:
The solution: design for human dignity and full-person diversity—with this award-winning guide.
The Canary Code reorganizes work for thriving—starting with those first impacted by faulty systems, like canaries first sensing toxic air in coal mines. Neurodivergent talent (members of ADHD, autism, Tourette’s syndrome, and learning-differences communities, and others who think and experience life differently) offer unique skills and exceptional work ethics, yet face employment barriers. Their unique abilities and perspectives are excluded, and their canary warnings about bullying, broken workflows, or ethical drift are ignored.
This practical guide helps CEOs, managers, HR leaders, and changemakers improve work for all. Drawing on science and lived experience, 2025 Thinkers50 Talent Award winner and internationally renowned management expert Ludmila Praslova shows how embracing neurodiversity creates healthier, more innovative systems. A neurodivergent organizational psychologist with over twenty-five years of global practice and research on inclusive organizations, she offers the following:
- A holistic framework of human differences (social, cognitive, emotional, physical)
- An intersectional, whole-person approach to neuroinclusion
- Dignity-based talent practices, from hiring to leadership development
- Global perspectives celebrating diverse neurodivergent voices
- Actionable strategies for change at any organizational level
Build organizations where employees feel truly safe to learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo.
The proven practical guide to psychological safety is now expanded with updated research and powerful new frameworks and tools.
Psychological safety—the belief that you can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation—is crucial for high-performing teams and innovative organizations. This revised and expanded edition of Timothy Clark's groundbreaking framework provides leaders with a research-backed roadmap through four distinct stages that enable individuals to feel safe, valued, and empowered.
The four stages build progressively:
Leaders will learn to banish fear, create performance-based accountability, and build environments where people thrive beyond expectations.
The proven practical guide to psychological safety is now expanded with updated research and powerful new frameworks and tools.
Psychological safety—the belief that you can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation—is crucial for high-performing teams and innovative organizations. This revised and expanded edition of Timothy Clark's groundbreaking framework provides leaders with a research-backed roadmap through four distinct stages that enable individuals to feel safe, valued, and empowered.
The four stages build progressively:
- Inclusion Safety (feeling included and accepted),
- Learner Safety (feeling safe to learn and ask questions),
- Contributor Safety (feeling safe to contribute and participate), and
- Challenger Safety (feeling safe to challenge the status quo and speak truth to power).
Leaders will learn to banish fear, create performance-based accountability, and build environments where people thrive beyond expectations.
Stop running toward someone else’s definition of success, and start intentionally shaping your own. This prequel to Aesop’s famous tortoise and hare fable shows exhausted professionals how to shift from chasing external validation to creating internal meaning and alignment.
Stop chasing visibility. Start creating meaning.
In today’s high-pressure workplace, professionals are depleted from constantly proving themselves to others—yet struggling to find genuine satisfaction in their work. What if the breakthrough isn’t working harder within the system but instead reimagining what success means to you?
Stop Chasing, Start Creating reveals the untold story of Tano the tortoise before his famous race with the hare. In this prequel to the beloved Aesop’s fable, we discover that Tano wasn’t always the steady, purposeful creature we know. He once chased visibility, approval, and validation just like the rest of us—until a moment of awakening changed everything.
Through Tano’s journey from external pressure to internal clarity, readers discover the crucial difference between chasing meaning and creating it. Grounded in motivation science, this framework shifts professionals from extrinsic motivation (external rewards, recognition, and belonging) to intrinsic motivation (purpose, contribution, and alignment).
Perfect for burned-out professionals in healthcare, education, nonprofit management, and other purpose-driven fields, this story-first approach offers the metaphor-rich reflection modern workers crave without feeling like another productivity manual.
Stop chasing visibility. Start creating meaning.
In today’s high-pressure workplace, professionals are depleted from constantly proving themselves to others—yet struggling to find genuine satisfaction in their work. What if the breakthrough isn’t working harder within the system but instead reimagining what success means to you?
Stop Chasing, Start Creating reveals the untold story of Tano the tortoise before his famous race with the hare. In this prequel to the beloved Aesop’s fable, we discover that Tano wasn’t always the steady, purposeful creature we know. He once chased visibility, approval, and validation just like the rest of us—until a moment of awakening changed everything.
Through Tano’s journey from external pressure to internal clarity, readers discover the crucial difference between chasing meaning and creating it. Grounded in motivation science, this framework shifts professionals from extrinsic motivation (external rewards, recognition, and belonging) to intrinsic motivation (purpose, contribution, and alignment).
Perfect for burned-out professionals in healthcare, education, nonprofit management, and other purpose-driven fields, this story-first approach offers the metaphor-rich reflection modern workers crave without feeling like another productivity manual.
This manager's guide shows how to recognize and eliminate the leadership behaviors that kill morale, crush productivity, and drive top talent away.
The workplace is broken—and managers are the problem. Through coaching hundreds of frustrated employees, Tanya Uyigue has identified the toxic management patterns driving people to quit. Employees are exhausted by leaders who micromanage their every move, disappear for months without check-ins, or create environments where speaking up feels dangerous.
The truth is, your team isn't telling you what's actually wrong because they're afraid of being retaliated against, dismissed, or labeled as “difficult.” But their silence is costing you talent, productivity, and profitability.
What Your Team Won't Tell You exposes the seven destructive manager archetypes that poison workplace culture, and each chapter provides specific, actionable strategies to transform these toxic patterns into leadership strengths. When you create an environment where employees feel heard, valued, and empowered, retention soars, productivity increases, and engagement becomes authentic-not forced.
The workplace is broken—and managers are the problem. Through coaching hundreds of frustrated employees, Tanya Uyigue has identified the toxic management patterns driving people to quit. Employees are exhausted by leaders who micromanage their every move, disappear for months without check-ins, or create environments where speaking up feels dangerous.
The truth is, your team isn't telling you what's actually wrong because they're afraid of being retaliated against, dismissed, or labeled as “difficult.” But their silence is costing you talent, productivity, and profitability.
What Your Team Won't Tell You exposes the seven destructive manager archetypes that poison workplace culture, and each chapter provides specific, actionable strategies to transform these toxic patterns into leadership strengths. When you create an environment where employees feel heard, valued, and empowered, retention soars, productivity increases, and engagement becomes authentic-not forced.
This book-the first to treat workplace culture like a garden instead of a construction project-offers the proven framework that transforms toxic environments into thriving ecosystems where all talent flourishes.
Organizations fail when they treat culture like a construction project. But they thrive when they treat it like a garden, cultivating conditions for growth rather than engineering behavior through rigid blueprints.
Award-winning consultant Abi Adamson introduces the SERN framework-Soil, Exposure, Roots, Nourishment-to guide leaders toward sustainable cultural transformation. Through compelling stories from her work redesigning cultures at Spotify, Sony Music, and the Gates Foundation, Adamson shows how to make the following positive changes:
• Detoxify organizational foundations
• Ensure that diverse perspectives get real influence
• Create authentic belonging
• Distribute resources equitably
Organizations using this approach report dramatic improvements in psychological safety, authentic engagement, and the ability to retain diverse talent pools. Unlike traditional culture initiatives focused on compliance and conformity, this framework helps leaders identify toxic environmental conditions, move beyond demographic headcounts to actual inclusion, enable people to contribute authentically, and recognize that equal treatment in unequal systems produces unequal outcomes.
Set during a pivotal moment when workplace culture programs are being dismantled or reimagined, this practical guide offers leaders a sustainable alternative-treating culture as a living ecosystem that requires ongoing cultivation rather than a one-time structural fix.
Organizations fail when they treat culture like a construction project. But they thrive when they treat it like a garden, cultivating conditions for growth rather than engineering behavior through rigid blueprints.
Award-winning consultant Abi Adamson introduces the SERN framework-Soil, Exposure, Roots, Nourishment-to guide leaders toward sustainable cultural transformation. Through compelling stories from her work redesigning cultures at Spotify, Sony Music, and the Gates Foundation, Adamson shows how to make the following positive changes:
• Detoxify organizational foundations
• Ensure that diverse perspectives get real influence
• Create authentic belonging
• Distribute resources equitably
Organizations using this approach report dramatic improvements in psychological safety, authentic engagement, and the ability to retain diverse talent pools. Unlike traditional culture initiatives focused on compliance and conformity, this framework helps leaders identify toxic environmental conditions, move beyond demographic headcounts to actual inclusion, enable people to contribute authentically, and recognize that equal treatment in unequal systems produces unequal outcomes.
Set during a pivotal moment when workplace culture programs are being dismantled or reimagined, this practical guide offers leaders a sustainable alternative-treating culture as a living ecosystem that requires ongoing cultivation rather than a one-time structural fix.