Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin has been one of my favorite books on leadership as a manager of people. What it taught me about accountability and the section on “decentralized command” helped change the way I led my team. 

I highly recommend the book to anyone that leads a team. It’s a super quick read and something I felt was very actionable!

Hidden Potential by Adam Grant was an awesome read. It focuses on shifting your mindset away from how hard you’re working to how well you learn. Essentially prioritizes character growth and new skill development rather than simply working until you burn out which is something I’ve struggled with in the past.

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone that has been climbing the corporate ladder and has ever felt stuck, burnt out or like they’re just stuck in the mud!

I’ll be adding these books to my shopping cart @Alex Dias and @chris.herdman! Thank you for sharing! 

I’d love to hear more book recommendations from the community and how the insights from these pages have helped you create and innovate! Share a book that has inspired you for a chance to win this limited edition Miro Mug–– the perfect companion to your favorite book !

‘Creativity, Inc.’ by Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace, Pixar founders sharing their experiences from starting to delivering the worlds best animated features.

Reading this over the festive break this year has driven a few changes in my approaches when conducting work. There are great insights into the tension between creative and operational outcome delivery, building and managing ways of working, and interpersonal relationship development.

A senior leader at my company has shared that it is required reading for their division!

Highly recommend.

Atomic habits by James Clear. All the progresses we can make is based on the smaller positive changes we do with our habits. This helps to improve as an individual as well as a team.

MY ULTIMATE FAVORITE (more abstract)
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin: In "The Creative Act: A Way of Being," Rick Rubin lays out the essence of creativity across various disciplines. Rubin, a legendary music producer, dives into the mental and environmental factors that nurture creativity. This book reshaped my approach to creative projects by emphasizing the importance of simplicity and listening deeply within and outside of oneself. It's a transformative read that encourages breaking free from conventional patterns to truly innovate and rediscover one’s creative instincts.

MY +1 (more concrete) 
Japanese Layout Design by Wu Dongyang: "Japanese Layout Design" by Wu Dongyang offers a fascinating exploration into the design principles of Japanese aesthetics. This book has significantly influenced my approach to design thinking and spatial organization in my work. Wu’s insights into balance, harmony, and functional beauty, derived from centuries of Japanese tradition, provide invaluable lessons on how to enhance visual communication and create impactful, serene environments. This is an essential guide for anyone looking to infuse elegance and efficiency into their design practice.

Additional comment on Wu’s book. It is 75% visual and 25% written. Reaaally one of those read less and practice more books. (Buy hard-cover edition) 

Couldn’t post just 1  Going to lengths for that mug 🤌
Blessings

There is such a great balance and dance between the creative and operational, @Mark Tyas! Thank you for recommending this book — I can’t wait to dive in.

@Arunkumar Sekar Atomic Habits is one of my faves! I think this book will turn into a classic on productivity and habit-forming; I read it for the time years ago, and actually decided to the listen the audiobook this week! I forgot about the traumatic experience the author opens with, but then is able to provide so much hope and practical advice for all on the power of small but consistent habits. Thank you for sharing!

@vprds The Creative Act is such a gem of a book. I have it perpetually sitting out on my desk at home, and whenever I need a breather I’ll read a page or two (or a whole chapter since they’re relatively short). It’s on the brink of poetic and practical, and agree that it’s truly a transformative read that encourages us to shake up old patterns and think in new ways. Thank you for recommending this!

I do the same thing with the Creative Act! I sometimes read one page a week with a mug of tea  and a journal to jot down my thoughts. One of my favorite quotes from this past week: 

“As artist, we seek to restore our childlike perception: a more innocent state of wonder and appreciation not tethered to utility or survival”  

Such gold! I’m really inspired to create more space for curiosity, wonder and appreciation 

Bringing the Rick Rubin energy into the workspace is almost mystical, you just have to watch his interviews, you know his book is a banger

That is my favorite way to read (specially these type of books)! You just have it there looking at you and whenever intuition or creative block kicks in just open it and let it fill you with fresh, in the moment ideas. Love itttt 

I present to the Miroverse:

Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág.

Hear me out.

Millions of Cats is a children’s book about an elderly man who wants to bring home a cat for his wife. However, this task proves difficult as the man happens upon–spoiler alert–millions of cats, all adorable and adoptable in their own ways. What’s a guy to do? 

In its own right, this is a wonderful little book. The author, Wanda Gág, illustrated and hand-lettered the book herself (we love a multi-faceted queen), and I just think the style of her artwork is wonderful. I can say with confidence that her work had a huge influence on me as a child, materializing both in my gravitation to simple black & white graphics, and in my lifelong love for large volumes of tiny cats.

If you don’t believe me that this book is excellent...it is one of the only picture books to have won the Newbery Honor, and is the only American picture book to still be printed today. Objectively, a great book! 

With that said, this book holds a lot of meaning for me. My late maternal grandparents kept this book at their home, and read it to me often. It is the first book that I have any memory of hearing, and as I got older I would return to it to read it myself. Perhaps coincidentally, I had a lot of kittens in my life growing up (Bob Barker would have shamed my parents, and rightfully so), and the presence of & responsibility for these little creatures was a formative aspect of my young life. This book grants me pure nostalgia, and it was a great joy for me to adopt my own copy for my young son.

Here is a great little read-aloud/flip-along version from Brightly Storytime: 

I present to the Miroverse:

Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág.

 

 

Hear me out.

 

Millions of Cats is a children’s book about an elderly man who wants to bring home a cat for his wife. However, this task proves difficult as the man happens upon–spoiler alert–millions of cats, all adorable and adoptable in their own ways. What’s a guy to do? 

 

In its own right, this is a wonderful little book. The author, Wanda Gág, illustrated and hand-lettered the book herself (we love a multi-faceted queen), and I just think the style of her artwork is wonderful. I can say with confidence that her work had a huge influence on me as a child, materializing both in my gravitation to simple black & white graphics, and in my lifelong love for large volumes of tiny cats.

 

If you don’t believe me that this book is excellent...it is one of the only picture books to have won the Newbery Honor, and is the only American picture book to still be printed today. Objectively, a great book! 

 

With that said, this book holds a lot of meaning for me. My late maternal grandparents kept this book at their home, and read it to me often. It is the first book that I have any memory of hearing, and as I got older I would return to it to read it myself. Perhaps coincidentally, I had a lot of kittens in my life growing up (Bob Barker would have shamed my parents, and rightfully so), and the presence of & responsibility for these little creatures was a formative aspect of my young life. This book grants me pure nostalgia, and it was a great joy for me to adopt my own copy for my young son.

 

Here is a great little read-aloud/flip-along version from Brightly Storytime: 

 

@Brooke Foti Gemmell You have been heard! What a heartwarming homage to “Millions of Cats”! Your connection to the book and its roots to your cherished memories with your grandparents adds so much depth to this picture book. Also a Newbery Honor? Who would of known! Thank you for sharing 

Adaptive Enterprise by Stephan Haeckel taught me how to think of a business as an open system. IN 1999, Steve set forth the foundations of Reason for Being, Principles, Roles and Accountabilities, and more. All tools that help the people in an enterprise steer it successfully. Adaptive Enterprise: Haeckel, Stephan H: 9781523631469: Amazon.com: Books

There’s so many books now, but I’ll pick the one that got me going into the direction that I’m still in:

Personal Kanban by Jim Benson and Tonianne DeMaria.

https://www.personalkanban.com/

It started me with kanban which pulled me into the agile and lean parts of work and I’ve been in this domain ever since.

Hi @Mike Wittenstein 

This looks super interesting! Will definitely look this up for some leadership and business-thinking tips. :)

Hi @Jimmy Sjolund 

Huh. Never thought to look up a book on Kanban but this is super intriguing, for sure. 

After @chris.herdman already added one of my favorite books. (By the way have you read The Dichotomy of Leadership, Chris? I found it multiplied the value of extrem ownership for me) 

My favorite book that changed most for me is never split the difference by Chris Voss it taught me so much about strategic communication and negotiation. 

To keep it simple

A picture can say more than thousands words , so here you go 

When applying to Google many years ago, they recommended a few books to read.

One of them was The Design of Everyday Things

It opened up my mind into how amazing the world of design is and how great product (could) be made or how difficult and unintuitive they could be. 

Recommended to everyone, in any field. 

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? by Seth Godin. It changed how I approached work by making me realize that, no matter where you are or what you do, doing your best and doing it in the way you believe that it should be done is what matters.

Really appreciate the book Move Fast and Fix Things: The Trusted Leader’s Guide to Solving Hard Problems.
It’s an antidote to some of the individual-focused books running through Silicon Valley, and instead focuses on radical change through building trust and a strong community of high performers. Written by two amazing women, it is a more collective approach than I’ve seen in many leadership / team productivity books. 

You either know it or you don't.

If you know it, enough said.

For me ’The Goal’ (which I’ve in three different versions (uk original version, nl version and in pdf) was for me 20+ years ago a ‘game changer’ and although I never worked in engineering nor a factory it remains, for me, the most clear metaphor.

In the past decade two derivatives/ spin offs have been published ’the phoenix game’ and ‘the unicorn project’ which aligns more close with ICT and development than the original one.

However, I still use the ’boy scout’ on an almost weekly basis to elaborate and educate on workflow management and agile way of working.