In times of stress, we have a choice: we can retreat further into our isolated silos, or we can commit to “going higher together.”

When external pressures are mounting, and employees are working from far-flung locations across the globe, says bestselling author Keith Ferrazzi, we can no longer afford to waste time navigating the complex chains of command or bureaucratic bottlenecks present in most companies. But when we choose the bold new methodology of co-elevation as our operating model, we unlock the potential to boost productivity, deepen commitment and engagement, and create a level of trust, mutual accountability, and purpose that exceeds what could have been accomplished under the status quo.

And you don’t need any formal authority to do it. You simply have to marshal a commitment to a shared mission and care about the success and development of others as much as you care about your own. Regardless of your title, position, or where or how you work, the ability to lead without authority is an essential workplace competency.

So often in life, we get stuck in a cycle of response. We put out fires. We deal with emergencies. We stay downstream, handling one problem after another, but we never make our way upstream to fix the systems that caused the problems. Cops chase robbers, doctors treat patients with chronic illnesses, and call-center reps address customer complaints. But many crimes, chronic illnesses, and customer complaints are preventable. So why do our efforts skew so heavily toward reaction rather than prevention?

Upstream probes the psychological forces that push us downstream—including “problem blindness,” which can leave us oblivious to serious problems in our midst. And Heath introduces us to the thinkers who have overcome these obstacles and scored massive victories by switching to an upstream mindset. One online travel website prevented twenty million customer service calls every year by making some simple tweaks to its booking system. A major urban school district cut its dropout rate in half after it figured out that it could predict which students would drop out—as early as the ninth grade. A European nation almost eliminated teenage alcohol and drug abuse by deliberately changing the nation’s culture.

Several million years ago, natural selection equipped us with binary, black-and-white brains. Though the world was arguably simpler back then, it was in many ways much more dangerous. Not coincidentally, the binary brain was highly adept at detecting risk: the ability to analyze threats and respond to changes in the sensory environment—a drop in temperature, the crack of a branch—was essential to our survival as a species.

Since then, the world has evolved—but we, for the most part, haven’t. Confronted with a panoply of shades of gray, our brains have a tendency to “force quit:” to sort the things we see, hear, and experience into manageable but simplistic categories. We stereotype, pigeon-hole, and, above all, draw lines where in reality there are none. In our modern, interconnected world, it might seem like we are ill-equipped to deal with the challenges we face—that living with a binary brain is like trying to navigate a teeming city center with a map that shows only highways.

In Black-and-White Thinking, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton pulls back the curtains of the mind to reveal a new way of thinking about a problem as old as humanity itself. While our instinct for categorization often leads us astray, encouraging polarization, rigid thinking, and sometimes outright denialism, it is an essential component of the mental machinery we use to make sense of the world. Simply put, unless we perceived our environment as a chessboard, our brains wouldn’t be able to play the game.

Using the latest advances in psychology, neuroscience, and evolutionary biology, Dutton shows how we can optimize our tendency to categorize and fine-tune our minds to avoid the pitfalls of too little, and too much, complexity. He reveals the enduring importance of three “super categories”—fight or flight, us versus them, and right or wrong—and argues that they remain essential to not only convincing others to change their minds but to changing the world for the better.

While human lives are endlessly variable, our most memorable positive moments are dominated by four elements: elevation, insight, pride, and connection. If we embrace these elements, we can conjure more moments that matter. What if a teacher could design a lesson that he knew his students would remember twenty years later? What if a manager knew how to create an experience that would delight customers? What if you had a better sense of how to create memories that matter for your children?

This book delves into some fascinating mysteries of experience: Why we tend to remember the best or worst moment of an experience, as well as the last moment, and forget the rest. Why “we feel most comfortable when things are certain, but we feel most alive when they’re not.” And why our most cherished memories are clustered into a brief period during our youth.

Readers discover how brief experiences can change lives, such as the experiment in which two strangers meet in a room, and forty-five minutes later, they leave as best friends. (What happens in that time?) Or the tale of the world’s youngest female billionaire, who credits her resilience to something her father asked the family at the dinner table. (What was that simple question?)

Careers are changing; they are no longer linear and there’s no such thing as a ‘job for life’. Squiggly careers, where people jump constantly between roles, industries and locations, are becoming the new normal.

Squiggly careers are filled with opportunity and excitement, but they can also be ambiguous and overwhelming if we don’t know how to make the most of them.

In The Squiggly Career, personal development experts Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis reveal 5 skills you need to master and teach you how to:

· Identify your Values
· Play to your Super Strengths
· Address your Confidence gremlins
· Design your support solar systems (Networks)
· Explore your Future Possibilities

Packed with insights about the changing-face of work, exercises to aid your growth, and tips and inspiration from highly successful people, this book will help you be happier, and ultimately more successful in your career.

In Future-Proof Your Business, applied futurist Tom Cheesewright will reveal industry techniques and tools to help you:

Are you struggling to juggle multiple projects? Do you often lose control of your budget? Does communicating your progress to the rest of your team cause you undue stress?

From the host of the award-winning MarieTV and The Marie Forleo Podcast, an indispensable handbook for becoming the creative force of your own life.

While most self-help books offer quick fixes, Everything is Figureoutable will retrain your brain to think more creatively and positively in the face of setbacks. In the words of Cheryl Strayed, it’s “a must-read for anyone who wants to face their fears, fulfill their dreams, and find a better way forward.”

There’s no such thing as a ‘free’ market
Globalization isn’t making the world richer
We don’t live in a digital world – the washing machine has changed lives more than the internet
Poor countries are more entrepreneurial than rich ones
Higher paid managers don’t produce better results

We don’t have to accept things as they are any longer. Ha-Joon Chang is here to show us there’s a better way.

From the author of The Blind Side and Moneyball, The Big Short tells the story of four outsiders in the world of high-finance who predict the credit and housing bubble collapse before anyone else. The film adaptation by Adam McKay (Anchorman I and II, The Other Guys) features Academy Award® winners Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, Melissa Leo and Marisa Tomei; Academy Award® nominees Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling.

This book is a masterclass in the craft of writing and poetry from one of Britain’s most celebrated poets and educators, T.S. Eliot Prize nominee Anthony Anaxagorou.

Taking readers on a personal journey through his early life and school years, through to his relationship with literature, education poetry and writing, this book is filled with tips, anecdotes and publishing advice for anyone interested in getting their work seen. From Anthony’s first slam win to the evolving British poetry scene, this book will provoke readers into thinking about their writing more carefully – be it a poem, short story or novel – and help them finally get their book out into the world.

This book is essential reading for taking your work to the next level, and is introduced with an inspirational foreword by Sunday Times bestselling author, Candice Carty-Williams.
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Designed to inspire and encourage readers to unlock their potential and provoke change, the How To series offers a new model in publishing, helping to break down knowledge barriers and uplift the next generation.

Is it possible to create real change? How can we as individuals help to solve some of the biggest issues of today? How can we overcome injustice and inequality wherever we are? Where does power sit, and how can we get it?

In a world where everyone is trying to monetise their side hustle and the five-to-nine is as valuable as the nine-to-five, building your brand is a necessity. But how can you work out what your brand is? How can you make it relevant, and how can you give it real longevity?

This indispensable, step-by-step guide will help you understand all the key considerations as you build solid foundations for your brand to thrive and grow. Complete with creative tasks and shared personal insight from two creative strategists who have worked with some of the world’s most renowned brands, How to Build It will set you on the road from nowhere to everywhere.

Introducing the new How To series from #Merky Books: unlock your potential with our short, practical guides.

Designed to inspire and encourage listeners to unlock their potential and provoke change, the How To series offers a new model in publishing, helping to break down knowledge barriers and uplift the next generation.

Amazon is the fastest company ever to reach $100 billion in sales and they didn’t reach that landmark by staying in their comfort zone. Risk taking is the key that unlocked the door to growth at Amazon, but those risks were (and are) intentional, calculated, and strategic. Thomas Edison believed, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” and Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, has always linked experimentation and failure with growth and success.

But “risk taking” can be costly (even disastrous) if you don’t know how to use it to your advantage. Fortunately, Bezos has provided every business owner a “hidden in plain sight” roadmap for how he grew Amazon through his Letter to Shareholders (or as he named them, share owners) that he has written annually for the past 20 years.

For the first time, Technology and Risk expert Steve Anderson has analyzed and distilled these letters to reveal the key 14 Growth Principles that unlock the lessons, mindset, and steps Bezos has used to make Amazon the massive success it is today.

80/20 YOUR LIFE shows how working out the few things that are really important, and the few methods that will give you those things, leads to increased happiness and greater success. When you read this book, you’ll discover why ‘less is more’ isn’t just a saying, but a sure-fire method to achieve your goals and live your best life.

You don’t need a big title or a business degree in order to lead with impact. What you need is practical wisdom: the insight, judgment, and strength of character that all great leaders have, but that most business schools and corporate workshops don’t teach. The Greats on Leadership gets you there.

Jocelyn Davis takes you on an in-depth tour of the best leadership ideas of the past 25 centuries, featuring classic authors from Plato to Winston Churchill, Shakespeare to Jane Austen, C.G. Jung to Peter Drucker, and many more. In a style both thought provoking and entertaining, she shows how -history’s great writers have always been, and still are, the real leadership gurus.

Davis spells out the behaviors that distinguish true leaders from misleaders and covers 20 specific leadership topics, including:
Leadership Traps (Shakespeare)
Change (Machiavelli)
Power (Sophocles)
Dilemmas (Madison, Hamilton)
Communication (Lincoln, Pericles)
Personality Types (Jung)
Motivation (Frankl)
Judgment (Maupassant, Melville, Austen, Shaw)
Character (Churchill, Plutarch, Shelley, Joyce)

Each chapter begins with a synopsis of a great work by the author and then draws out the key leadership insights, weaving them together with business examples, the best contemporary research, and tools to help put it all into practice. In the last two chapters Davis presents a new way to think about leadership levels, framing them in terms of the impact you have rather than the title on your business card.