Easier INC

• A book that created a wave of fresh interest in how different organisation might be and how much more effective that could make them.
• Explores real-world examples of organisations (large and small) that have embraced radically different ways of working with great success.
• An inspiring read and perhaps especially useful for those interested in the role of purpose, wholeness or self-management in the workplace.

• Hailed as "the management book of the year" (2019) by Seth Godin.
• An insight into how different work could be which offers practical insights and approaches that could help you get there.
• Useful for those interested in eliminating red tape, making the most of collective intelligence or rethinking long-held traditions that may no longer make sense.

• What happens when the boss resolves to stop making decisions and focus on helping others to make them?
• Workers make decisions previously made by their bosses.
• Managerial staff set their own salaries and bonuses.
• Everyone has access to the company books.
• No formality - a minimum of meetings, memos and approval.
• Internal walls torn down.
• Shopfloor workers set their own productivity targets and schedules.
• The international bestseller that tells how Semler tore up the rule books to create an organisation that continues to outperform its competition.

• Forget the warm words and flannel that is spoken about 'leadership at every level'. This is how (and why) to do it for real.
• Tells the story of Marquet's remarkable transformation to life aboard a military submarine - the USS Sante Fe.
• Useful for anyone interested in how to create a culture of responsibility (and for anyone interested in how conventional leadership disables that).

• What if you could combine the agility, adaptability and cohesion of a small team with the power and resources of a giant organisation?
• McChrystal provides an essential guide to moving from hierachical to networked decision-making that is faster, flatter and more flexible.
• Includes compelling examples that demonstrate how this 'team of teams' approach can transform organisations large and small in any sector.

• If you have ever wondered what an alternative to the classic pyramid-type org chart might be then this is the book for you.
• It studiously avoids vague or easy answers in search of clarity and offers systematic methods, for example, about how to make decisions without resorting to hierarchy or descending into chaos.

• An indisputable classic.
• Deming describes how conventional management practices systematically undermine performance while supposing they do the opposite.
• His (now famous) "14 Points for Management"  articulate a prescription that any organisation would do well to follow.

See also...

• A collection of Ackoff's most lasting, thought-provoking and witty writings on an array of topics.
• From managing teams, maximizing the effectiveness of information systems and problem solving, to creativity, crime and the role of the corporation in a democratic society.
• Anchored in his groundbreaking exploration of systems theory and its effect on business.

• 80+ uncomfortable (and often amusing) truths about how organisations really work.
• Exploring what's wrong with the way we design and manage organisation and how we can make them work better.
• All in a format that is easy to read in short bursts and full of great one-liners.

Known as a founder of the field of Organisational Learning, if you’ve heard of any of the following fundamental concepts in organisational learning, reasoning and behaviour then you’ve been learning from Argyris’ legacy:

• Action science or action research.
• The ladder of inference.
• Double-loop learning.
• Espoused theory vs theory-in-use.
• High advocacy/high inquiry dialogue.
• Actionable knowledge.

Argyris' books can be heavy going though so we recommend starting with some of his most notable articles first, such as...

• Interpersonal Barriers to Decision Making
• Double-Loop Learning in Organizations
• Teaching Smart People How to Learn
• Good Communication That Blocks Learning
• Empowerment: the Emperor’s New Clothes

• A remarkable book that draws on science, spiritual values, psychology and cutting edge management theory and practice to create a blueprint for how organsiations can learn to be more than the sum of their parts.
• The updated edition (shown) contains more than 100 pages of new material about how companies are actually using and benefiting from Fifth Discipline practices, as well as a new foreword from Peter Senge about his work with the Fifth Discipline over the last 15 years. Worth finding over the original.
• Useful for anyone interested in what it means and what it takes to create human(e) learning organisations.

See also...

• A landmark psychological critique of using incentives to affect behavior.
• Much more profound than the pop-culture understanding of why incentives don't work, it exposes the deep seated logical flaws that lie behind praise and reward.
• Useful for anyone who believes in using feedback, positive reinforcement or incentives but is prepared to be challenged on all three.

See also...

Kohn has a fantastic website full of blogs, articles and other resources that you can check out here.

A couple of our favourite articles in his long list are:

• The "Mindset" Mindset; a robust argument against focusing on individual attitudes and a helpful counter-point to Carol Dwek's thesis on 'fixed' and 'growth' mindsets.
• Five Reasons to Stop Saying "Good Job!"; a bite-sized insight that serves as an excellent introduction to Kohn's overall perspective.

• Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast, intuitive thinking, and slow, rational thinking.
• This book reveals how our minds are tripped up by error and prejudice (even when we think we are being logical), and gives you practical techniques for slower, smarter thinking.
• It will enable to you make better decisions at work, at home, and in everything you do.

• What if a company did everything in its power to create a culture in which everyone - not just select "high potentials" - could overcome their own internal barriers to change and use errors and vulnerabilities as prime opportunities for personal and company growth.
• An Everyone Culture dives deep into three leading companies that embody this approach, revealing the design principles, concrete practices, and underlying science at the heart of becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organisation.

• To create cultures of responsibility and agency for action we need to move from ‘transmit’ to ‘discover’. In this seminal work, Schein reveals how Humble Inquiry enables this by building relationships based on curiosity and interest in the other person.
• Useful for any human that doesn’t live alone in a cave!

• Egan lays out a simple three step model for helping others to make sense of their world, uncover their blind spots and find their energy to act. 
• Elegantly simple (rather than naively so) the model turns helping people into a skill that can be learned, practiced and improved at.
• Especially useful for those seeking to establish adult-to-adult, collaborative relationships with those they’re helping and so another great framework for unlocking responsibility and agency in others.

• When people are the focus for improvement we risk our good intent to invest in our colleagues being misconstrued as a sly criticism or a show of no confidence.
• Deftly avoiding this trap, “The Leaders Handbook” provides activities and exercises to get people acting on the system of work that surrounds them, simultaneously improving their environment and unlocking their agency, energy and motivation.
• Useful for anyone who wants a simple, practical way into discovering what it means to ‘act on the system’.

• Psychological safety is essential to creating organisations where the real risks are understood and where innovation can flourish. Without it, important things become undiscussable then that fact becomes undiscussable too!
• It can feel like a delicate balance though, between creating a culture where people speak freely vs creating one that is unhelpfully - dangerously - cosy and permissive.
• Using succinct and informative scenario-based explanations Edmonson offers a step-by-step framework for establishing psychological safety in your team or organisation.

• Do you sometimes sabotage your own happiness and success or struggle to make sense of yourself? Do your emotions sometimes dictate your life? Do you sometimes see the same happening in others?
• The Chimp Paradox is an incredibly powerful mind management model that can help you become a happy, confident, healthier and more successful person.
• And it can help you to help others do the same too.

• Taking systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world, Meadows shows readers how to develop the systems-thinking skills that will help them to understand the interconnected nature of things without lapsing into overwhelm and helplessness.
• Sage in it’s ability to emphasise the pragmatic and to keep the reader connected to what’s important - not just what’s quantifiable.
• Useful for anyone that recognises the need to wrestle with complexity and maintain the ability to still see through the fog.

• A short but seminal article providing a straightforward way into understanding the different contexts in which leaders operate and in which decisions need to be made.
• Enables adaptive leadership and more skilled use of other frameworks by providing a means to self-diagnose what’s happening, why and what this may require of us in response.

Find It Here

• A book about complexity and work - and about how to deal productively with both.
• Dissects classic management theory in a well-humored manner and while offering coherent alternatives.
• Beautifully straightforward; perfect for those who want to ‘get it’ but can’t face reading another weighty tome of tortured, technical language.

• Required reading for anyone interested in the Theory of Constraints and the place where that all started.
• Equips readers with the fundamentals of identifying and solving the problems created by constraints so that they can achieve quantum leaps in productivity and quality.
• Useful for anchoring insights from systems theory and complexity science into an action oriented approach.

• The military may seem like an unusual place to look for an alternative to command-and-control management but Bungay finds it in the approach known as 'mission command’.
• Providing a framework for connecting clear intent with dynamic, initiative driven deployment, "The Art of Action" reveals a way to work that reads like the common sense that isn’t commonly practiced.

• Widely regarded as one of the most important business books ever written, “Good to Great “ is full of vital ideas, delivered at a rare pace.
• Describes and evidences the underlying variables that enable any type of organisation to make the leap from good to great - and that explain why some never do.

• It’s been called 'The Bible of business and personal productivity' (Lifehack) and it outlines simple strategies for getting things done.
• For the most part, these deceptively simple approaches are easy to implement, don’t rely on the permission of others and have immediate and lasting benefits.
• Useful for anyone who wants to move from a head full of clutter and a diary full of juggling activities to something more productive and liberating.

• It may now feel like the fad that faded but the ‘Lean’ movement brought with it invaluable insights about how to understand and optimise the flow of work and how to do so in ways that restore pride in work and respect for people.
• Rooted in the study of how real organisations have achieved real benefits at incredible scale and using explicit, systematic methodologies and approaches - there’s much to learn here.
• A useful anchor point to the socio-technical nature of work when perhaps today’s trend is to veer mostly towards the social?

• A treasure trove of nearly 100 tools and techniques, grouped by purpose and use, from DMAIC and Pull Systems to Control Charts and Pareto Charts. 
• Detailed explanations of each tool to help you know how, when, and why to use it.
• Sections for each tool explaining how to create it, how to interpret what you find, and expert tips.
• Useful for people who want to learn much of the science of Quality Improvement without trawling through the whole library.

• If you are used to a world of RAG ratings, scorecards, league tables and knee-jerk reactions to the last data point then be ready to learn a (much) better way to construct, understand and act on your data.
• Accessible too! Not a book of “techie” explanations that requires a statician’s knowledge.
• Useful for anyone who wants to escape politicking and opinion to embrace approaches where, rather than obfuscate and divide, numbers help people to make shared sense of the world around them.

• If you’ve ever felt disquiet at the way numbers can be used to bamboozle or to tell a story but not necessarily tell the whole story then this is the book for you.
• Outlining a few simple principles, Blastland and Dilnot show how one can quickly see when maths, statistics and numbers are being abused to play tricks - or create policies - which can waste millions of pounds.
• More positively framed, these same principles also provide a conscience for anyone who is constructing, interpreting and using data, helping them to avoid the statistical short cuts that can leave us drawing the wrong conclusions or kidding ourselves on.