The books behind the guides.

Effectiveness—doing the right things well—is not an inborn trait but a learnable set of habits that any knowledge worker can master to convert intelligence, knowledge, and ability into results.

A practicing CEO teaches managers that their true output is the output of their team, and shows how applying production principles, leverage, and motivation systematically raises that output.

Emotional intelligence, not IQ or technical expertise, is the most crucial factor for achieving star performance and leadership success in any job.

A venture capitalist's guide to Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), the collaborative goal-setting system that helped Intel, Google, the Gates Foundation, and Bono's ONE Campaign achieve breakthrough results.

A comparative sociological study of how American (white and Black) and French working-class men construct their self-worth and social boundaries, primarily through morality, in the face of economic decline and social change.

A failing plant manager, guided by a Socratic physicist named Jonah, discovers that the goal of any manufacturing organization is to make money, and learns to manage by identifying and exploiting system constraints rather than chasing local efficiencies.

To improve our relationships and accelerate personal growth, we must shift our focus from giving better feedback to becoming better receivers by understanding and managing the three triggers—Truth, Relationship, and Identity—that block our ability to learn.

An ethnographic study of Mexican immigrants in Silicon Valley reveals how the precarious lives of janitors, street vendors, and their families are shaped by the high-tech economy, and how they respond with resilience, complex survival strategies, and powerful forms of collective political action.

Some ideas survive and thrive while others die, and the difference lies in six learnable principles that make ideas 'sticky'—understood, remembered, and capable of changing behavior.

Work in America became worse for millions not because of impersonal globalization but because lead companies deliberately shed direct employment to networks of subordinate businesses while retaining tight control through standards—and public policy must rebalance responsibility to mend this 'fissured workplace.'

Emotional intelligence—the ability to understand and manage our own emotions and those of others—is a more powerful predictor of life success than IQ and can be learned and improved by all.

This book provides a framework and actionable techniques for transforming emotionally-charged, difficult conversations into productive learning conversations by deconstructing them into their three core components: what happened, feelings, and identity.

To thrive in a complex world, we must stop getting 'hooked' by our difficult thoughts and emotions, and instead develop emotional agility—the flexibility to face our inner world with courage and compassion, and live more intentionally in alignment with our core values.

Drawing on the new science of social neuroscience, this book reveals that humans are biologically wired for connection, and that our relationships continuously and profoundly shape our brains, our bodies, and our overall well-being.

A former FBI lead international kidnapping negotiator distills field-tested, emotion-driven tactics into a practical system for winning any negotiation while preserving the relationship.

A practical, science-grounded guide to implementing Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) that actually work by detangling goals from compensation and running disciplined short cycles from mission down to metrics.

Successful change—individual, organizational, or societal—follows a repeatable three-part pattern: direct the rational mind, motivate the emotional mind, and shape the surrounding environment.

A comprehensive methodology for managing commitments, information, and tasks to achieve a state of relaxed control and stress-free productivity in life and work.

A Yale emotion scientist argues that giving ourselves and others permission to feel—and learning five concrete emotion skills—transforms our health, relationships, learning, and success.

A comprehensive overview of foundational principles and modern methodologies for planning, managing, and executing work to efficiently achieve personal and organizational goals.

Self-awareness—the ability to see ourselves clearly and understand how others see us—is the foundational meta-skill for success and happiness in the 21st century, and this book provides a research-backed framework for developing it.

Society's 'good people' delegate morally compromised but necessary work to an invisible class of disadvantaged 'dirty workers,' perpetuating a system of profound moral and economic inequality.

A disciplined, systematic approach for discerning what is absolutely essential, eliminating everything else, and making execution of the vital few almost effortless so you can make your highest possible contribution.

Emotional intelligence (EQ), a set of fifteen learnable skills, is a far greater predictor of life and work success than cognitive intelligence (IQ), and this book provides a practical guide to assessing and improving it.

To be a great boss you must combine caring personally about your people with challenging them directly, and then operationalize that stance to build relationships, give guidance, motivate people, and drive results.

This book provides a comprehensive guide to turfgrass science and management, covering plant biology, environmental factors, and cultural practices to establish and sustain high-quality turf.

Through nine years of matched-pair research on companies that thrived in extreme uncertainty, Collins and Hansen show that greatness in chaos is a matter of disciplined choice, not circumstance or luck.

A field-tested operating system—the 4 Disciplines of Execution—for reliably achieving your most critical goals amid the daily chaos of business as usual.

The fundamental task of a leader is to create a positive emotional climate, or resonance, by leveraging emotional intelligence, which inspires followers and drives organizational performance.

Scrum is a lightweight, team-based framework—derived from Toyota's lean manufacturing, combat aviation's OODA loop, and studies of high-performing teams—that lets organizations deliver twice the work in half the time by embracing iteration, transparency, and continuous improvement.

In a distraction-saturated economy, the ability to focus without distraction on cognitively demanding tasks—deep work—is becoming both rare and increasingly valuable, and this book teaches you to cultivate it systematically.

Society's 'good people' delegate morally compromised but necessary work to an invisible class of disadvantaged 'dirty workers,' perpetuating a system of profound moral and economic inequality.

A practical method for negotiating agreements that satisfy both parties by focusing on interests and objective merits rather than haggling over positions.

A practical guide to adopting the OKR (Objectives and Key Results) framework to set ambitious goals, align teams, and lead an engaged, high-performing workforce.

When stakes are high, opinions vary, and emotions run strong, mastering the skills of dialogue lets you speak honestly and safely about almost anything and turn tough moments into better results and relationships.

The definitive, lightweight framework of roles, events, artifacts, and rules that enables people to address complex adaptive problems while delivering products of the highest possible value.