“We often know what to do during change, but human nature just makes the right behaviors really hard”. This is how Amy began our interview about leading change in 2021. Since then, the award-winning Harvard Professor of Management has expanded her iconic research on Psychological Safety to reframe our relationship with failure as a source of power and innovation. Using three archetypes of failure – basic, complex, and intelligent – Edmondson guides us through how to minimize unproductive failure while maximizing learning from errors. She also debunks the overused “fail fast, fail often” mantra that pervades Silicon Valley, and defangs the “name & shame” attitude that so often accompanies failure, replacing it with a more measured, intelligent, and powerful way for leaders to think about innovation and risk taking. Not since Thomas Edison’s famous line “I haven’t failed. I’ve just found 10,000 light bulbs that won’t work” has there been such a fresh way to look at the unintended outcomes of our actions.
With a fresh take on the traditionally pessimistic topic of regret, Pink shows how to reframe them as important teachable moments in our lives. Using regrets to deepen our self-awareness, our ability to make meaning of events, and develop our sense of purpose, Pink draws on a vast data set from his unique World Regret Survey to help us understand how to transform regrets into a positive force for working smarter and living better.
“Ice melts from the edges”, Rita told me when we met at the Drucker Forum in Vienna a few years ago. What she meant was that the most important signals about change and disruption (as well as the biggest opportunities) happen at the periphery of business and leadership – and rarely in the C-suite Boardroom. Being attentive to these inflection points that are “around the corner” can generate new entrepreneurial opportunities or, if ignored, sink seemingly unsinkable companies. The key is to spot inflection points before they hit, based on the knowledge these are not random events but a culmination of weaker signals. McGrath is a Columbia Business School Professor and corporate consultant who shares a range of powerful cases and tools in this excellent book for top leaders.
Executive Coaching is sometimes dismissed as navel-gazing that has no place in the world of “real business”. Colonna adds a refreshingly hard-edged voice to the profession as he helps CEOs find focus, confidence, and tackle their blind spots. Classically, the patterns that help top performers succeed quickly become handicaps when overused. Blending spirituality, psychology and entrepreneurial straight talk, Colonna explores “radical self-inquiry” as the key to reshaping ourselves for professional success.
Award-winning Palaeobiologist Halliday takes us on a “journey into deep time, showing us the Earth as it used to exist”. Going backwards in chronology, we start with the Asian steppes and European cave paintings of 20,000 years ago and travel over 500 million years into the past. We witness the first landmasses taking shape and early life forms beginning to inhabit the oceans. Describing geological points in what are today Russia, Kenya, Italy, the US or China, Halliday reminds us of the arbitrariness of our own human borders. His descriptions of the tenacity of life over the millennia renews our faith in Nature’s ability to reinvent itself. But he also underlines the fragility of seemingly permanent ecosystems – a valuable reminder of the need to do more to preserve our own.
An early experiment in AI was the first novel “co-authored” by a human writer and ChatGPT. The well-known children’s book author Stanton wanted to test early claims that ChatGPT would “spell the end of creative industries forever by mimicking the spontaneity of human thought”. Many computer hours and hallucinations later, Benny the Blue Whale manages to mix entertainment, relevance, provocation and even philosophy. Reviews indicate the human/robot interface has created a surprisingly satisfying and profoundly human text. But as to the question of whether a “jumble of algorithms” will one day replace human authors like Stanton, the evidence still seems strong: human writers are safe (for now).
A Japanese word meaning “life purpose”, this slim volume looks at the practices and mindsets of the longest living communities in Japan. One of the so called “Blue Zones” where longevity outstrips global norms, the recipe for health and vitality boils down to simple principles of movement, social contact, laughter, and reflection. Easier said than done in our overloaded and digital lives, but a good place to start any New Year’s resolution mindfulness goal.
In the face of continued polarization, weaponization and culture wars, Malik provides a refreshing perspective on the advantages and drawbacks of different approaches to moral choices. His history of philosophical and intellectual developments around the world and through the ages offers a reframe for the divergent views and intolerance that dominate today’s narratives between nations, companies, groups, and families.
Author, TV Comedy Writer and erstwhile Philosophy student, Klein at age 73 filled his backpack with books from his student days and travelled from Boston to spend a month on the island of Hydra revisiting his studies in the hopes of uncovering the secrets of growing old gracefully. Klein concludes that a blend of Stoicism, Epicureanism, and a dash of Hedonism is one possible path to happiness. An uplifting and humorous take on how to survive and thrive as the years catch up with us.
Written for his children and grandchildren with great foresight just before the pandemic, Handy’s reflections seem more apt than ever as he questions the relevance of our current institutions, how we think about business, and how we shape our societies. I was fortunate enough to meet Handy on many occasions, and he always offered valuable advice on the challenges of our future identity, growth and prosperity. Now his words are made available to the next generation.
A meditative but still relevant set of reflections from one of the fathers of modern psychology, Jung explores the essence of what it is to be human in a complex world, the role of symbols and archetypes, and how we can tap into our own lived experiences to find new insights and make meaning of the world around us. A visit to meet his grandson who curates Junghaus museum in Kusnacht Switzerland reinforced my belief that Jung was one of the pre-eminent thinkers of the 19th Century.
The great British Philosopher Russell passed away in 1970, leaving some prescient insights about the issues of his time, many of which are still with us today. He wrote on the role of architecture in society, arguing for shared communal living spaces that presaged today’s environmental movement and circular economies. He favored a radical overhaul of education, foreshadowing today’s gig economy skills and digital and hybrid working lives. And he even argued for the value of idleness as an important practice to stay in touch with ourselves in an increasingly distracted world. An early proponent of the yet unnamed concept of mindfulness, Russell offers wise words for today’s always-on lifestyles.
My old friend and colleague Adi Ignatius has spent years as Editor in Chief of HBR guiding us through essential bi-monthly insights on leadership, business and society with characteristic clarity, humor, and journalistic flair.