Field Notes from the Bookshelf
These are short practice notes on what a book helps us notice about power, facilitation, leadership, conflict, culture, change, belonging, and organizational life. Some books give us language. Some give us tools. Some interrupt our assumptions. Some help us ask better questions in the rooms we are invited to hold. Here, we share what we are reading, what we are sitting with, and why it matters for the work of gathering people, making decisions, navigating complexity, and building more human organizations.
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To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others
A practice note on persuasion, service, and moving people without losing your soul. Why this one made the shelf: Because “sales” has terrible PR, and Daniel Pink makes a convincing case that moving others is part of everyday human life. What it helps us notice: Pink argues that many of us spend our days trying […]
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Mapping Dialogue: Essential Tools for Social Change
A practice note on dialogue, social change, and designing conversations where the right voices are not just invited, but heard. Why this one made the shelf: Because dialogue is not the same as talking, and inclusion is not the same as putting more chairs in the room. What it helps us notice: Mapping Dialogue brings […]
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Transformational Strategy
A practice note on participatory strategy, real consensus, and plans people can actually carry. Why this one made the shelf: Because strategic planning should not be something done to people and then unveiled in a polished PDF. The people expected to carry the plan should have a real hand in shaping it. What it helps […]
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Kakuma Girls: Sharing Stories from Kakuma Refugee Camp
A practice note on voice, dignity, displacement, and the stories that make distance harder to ignore. Why this one made the shelf: Because stories can do what statistics often cannot: bring us close enough to care differently. What it helps us notice: Kakuma Girls shares stories from teenage girls living in Kakuma Refugee Camp in […]
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Amplifying Indigenous Voices in Business
A practice note on reconciliation, Indigenous leadership, and the difference between inclusion and transformation. Why this one made the shelf: Because reconciliation cannot live in a land acknowledgement alone. It has to change how organizations listen, decide, design, partner, plan, and do business. What it helps us notice: Omulo writes for organizations and allies who […]
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The Conversation
A practice note on truth-telling, racial justice, and what becomes possible when organizations stop performing comfort. Why this one made the shelf: Because every organization says it wants honest conversations about race — until the conversation gets honest. What it helps us notice: Livingston offers a science-informed roadmap for understanding and addressing racism at both […]
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Remote Not Distant
A practice note on hybrid work, intentional culture, and why distance is not the same as disconnection. Why this one made the shelf: Because the future of work was never really about where people sit. It was always about how people connect, collaborate, decide, belong, and do good work together. What it helps us notice: […]
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Navigating Beyond Crisis
A practice note on crisis, readiness, and finding your footing when the map stops working. Why this one made the shelf: Because crisis is not just a disruption to the plan. Sometimes crisis is the moment that reveals whether the plan, the culture, the communication, and the relationships were strong enough to begin with. What […]
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The Life and World of Al Capone
Whenever I speak with my professional network, they complain they don’t have time to read for leisure and entertainment because they’re busy reading books related to work. I say, why compromise? Let me provide an example: the biography of Al Capone is something I’d recommend to anyone interested in people, psychology and how to run […]
