Workplace Behavior

From award-winning columnist and journalist Gillian Tett comes a brilliant examination of how our tendency to create functional departments - silos - hinders our work and how some people and organizations can break those silos down to unleash innovation.

In this conversational, humorous, and relatable book, Battah acts as a virtual mentor, drawing on his decades-long experience as advisor to large and small organizations. Through colorful and entertaining case studies ranging from fish-packing plants to financial institutions, Battah illustrates what it means to lead with humanity.

Everyone has secrets, and everyone is living a double life to some degree. The world is held up by lies; if everyone's secrets were to all be revealed tomorrow morning, civilization might collapse. To ascend the social hierarchies and achieve great power, you need to optimize and strategize rather than slogging and "working hard" every day of your life. This is counterproductive since it does not guarantee any beneficial results in the end. Nobody can succeed by following rules in the first place.

Let's be honest: Your coworkers can drive you crazy sometimes. You spend your days navigating a minefield of passive-aggressive emails, pointless meetings, and downright “less than smart” behavior. You dream of a workplace where you can say what you really think... without getting fired. HR Approved Ways to Say (Almost) Anything to Coworkers is your secret sauce. This book will show you how to tame the chaos, conquer difficult people, and reclaim your sanity—all while keeping your HR record squeaky clean.

At the height of the roaring 20s, Swedish émigré Ivar Kreuger made a fortune raising money in America and loaning it to Europe in exchange for matchstick monopolies. His enterprise was a rare success story throughout the Great Depression. Yet after Kreuger's suicide in 1932, the true nature of his empire emerged.

Friendship expert Shasta Nelson unpacks the distinct ways we can make work relationships the healthiest they can be, both for the sake of the employee and the mission of the company. She inspires listeners to see why friendship is crucial to our health and our careers, and teaches us exactly how to develop the supportive and meaningful connections we need.

If you cut off a spider's leg, it's crippled; if you cut off its head, it dies. But if you cut off a starfish's leg it grows a new one, and the old leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. The Starfish and the Spider argues that organizations fall into two categories: "spiders", which have a rigid hierarchy, and "starfish", which rely on the power of peer relationships.

Market volatility. Sustainability demands. Hybrid working. Opportunities and hazards of fast-changing technology and regulations. Companies and nonprofits face more daunting challenges than ever. How can we collaborate in our organizations—and with outside partners—to solve problems, innovate, and succeed? This indispensable new book lays out a pragmatic action plan blending rich stories, new empirical research, and loads of practical advice to help companies thrive by collaborating more effectively.

In Systems of Survival, Jane Jacobs identifies two distinct moral syndromes—one governing commerce, the other politics—and explores what happens when these two syndromes collide. She looks at business fraud and criminal enterprise, government’s overextended subsidies to agriculture, and transit police who abuse the system the are supposed to enforce, and asks us to consider instances in which snobbery is a virtue and industry a vice.

According to time management expert Laura Vanderkam, mornings hold the key to taking control of our schedules. If we use them wisely, we can build habits that will allow us to lead happier, more productive lives. Drawing on real-life anecdotes and scientific research that shows why the early hours of the day are so important, Vanderkam reveals how successful people use mornings to help them accomplish things that are often impossible to take care of later in the day.

Building a Strong Team Culture: 10 Essential Management Tips by Liora Quade is a timely and powerful guide for any leader who understands that the foundation of lasting success is not just strategy or productivity—it’s culture. In today's competitive workplace, perks and benefits can no longer compensate for a lack of connection, trust, or psychological safety. Culture is the unseen force that shapes how teams collaborate, innovate, and thrive—or how they fall apart.

Hybrid work is here to stay - but what will it look like at your company? Organizations that mandate rigid, pre-pandemic policies of five days a week at the traditional, co-located office may risk a mass exodus of talent. But designing a hybrid office that furthers your business goals while staying true to your culture will require experimentation and rigorous planning.

Expanding on the principles, insights and wisdom that made Getting to Yes a worldwide best seller, Roger Fisher and Scott Brown offer a straightforward approach to creating relationships that can deal with difficulties as they arise. Getting Together takes you step-by-step through initiating, negotiating, and sustaining enduring relationships - in business, in government, between friends and in the family.

Running with Purpose is a highly engaging listen with insights, inspirational stories, and tangible takeaways for current and aspiring leaders, entrepreneurs, Berkshire Hathaway enthusiasts, and especially the 150+ million runners worldwide and those in the broader running community who continually invest in themselves and put positive energy into the world.

In this updated edition of Dare to Serve, former Popeyes CEO Cheryl Bachelder shows that leading by serving is a rigorous and tough-minded approach that yields the best results. The second edition of this best-selling book includes Bachelder's post-Popeyes observations and new examples of how you can switch your leadership from self to serve. Ever engaging and inspirational, Bachelder takes you firsthand through the transformation of Popeyes and shows how anyone at any level can become a Dare-to-Serve leader.

After a period of tremendous upheaval, it is necessary for organizations to transform alongside their employees and welcome new ways of working. While it is impossible to predict which changes will be successful, it is crucial for leaders to now ask: what should work look like to achieve productive, healthy, and safe organizations? In Brave New Workplace, Julian Barling argues that we should focus on creating environments in which employees can flourish, rather than relying on the resiliency of workers to withstand difficult working conditions.

Leaders love to say that any company is only as good as its people but tend to evaluate candidates and employees more by their measurable accomplishments than by their "softer" qualities, like integrity, compassion, and other values. Best-selling author Anthony Tjan is leading a movement to change the way we think about goodness so that we can become better judges of people and create more goodness in ourselves, in others, and in our organizations.

The latest edition of this Wall Street Journal best-seller offers 26 simple strategies - from A to Z - that managers can use to address their employees' real concerns and keep them engaged. The fifth edition has been revised and updated throughout and includes many more international examples, reflecting the fact that Love 'Em or Lose 'Em is available in 22 languages, from Albanian and Arabic to Thai and Turkish. Its message is truly one that spans continents and cultures.

It’s not your imagination: We’re living in a time of moral decline. Publicly, we’re bombarded with reports of government leaders acting against the welfare of their constituents; companies prioritizing profits over health, safety, and our best interests; and technology posing risks to society with few or no repercussions for those responsible. Personally, we may be conflicted about how much privacy to afford our children on the internet; how to make informed choices about our purchases and the companies we buy from; or how to handle misconduct we witness at home and at work.

Today, not only is everything digital getting faster, cheaper, and smaller at an exponential rate, we also have the Internet. When these two revolutions - one in technology and the other in communications - joined, an explosive force was unleashed that changed the very nature of innovation. And with any change, we have seen many strategic blunders and extraordinary learning curves along the way.