The best books for creating and sustaining knowledge at work

What will the future of work look like, and how can we prepare to navigate it successfully? This book is at the top of the list for understanding the profound shift that we are living through. The authors follow up their excellent Capitalism without Capital by continuing to describe a workplace based on intangibles. The economy today is driven by forces that place a premium on innovation, knowledge, ideas, and brand, and these intangibles are increasingly vital for growth and success. An outstanding book that provides a framework for the future of work.

The Journey Beyond Fear is an outstanding work that provides both an understanding and a framework for creating a workplace that is productive and positive. Hagel continues his lifelong research with an entrepreneurial perspective that offers strategic advice for teams and organizations. He lays out a framework that emphasizes the need for productivity and positive human emotions. He underscores that fear-based work is counterproductive, and he illustrates the importance of positive emotion by sharing applicable behaviors and outlining specific ways of creating value from narratives, passion, and platforms.

Thinking Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman’s distillation of a lifetime’s work into a highly readable volume for general audiences. Kahneman and his late collaborator Amos Tversky, both psychologists, shared the Nobel Prize in Economics for their groundbreaking work that helped establish the field of behavioral economics. In Thinking Fast and Slow, Kahneman tells the story of how we make decisions, and how our reliance on cognitive shortcuts leads to predictable errors. He manages to convey complex ideas in common language without talking down to his readers. It's a must-read for anyone who wants to examine their decision-making principles and practices.

These are volatile and tumultuous times, which makes it difficult if not impossible to make decisions with any assurance of accuracy. Kay and King, in this very substantial and learned book, have written what we think is one of the best guides to making these decisions with the best tools and insights we have. The authors have the advantage of being very seasoned practitioners in several domains as well as extremely well-read in the subjects that impact decision-making under these conditions. Their emphasis is on the limits of current mathematical tools, and they advise that we use the more pragmatic and grounded understanding we have from history, philosophy, and our own experiences.

Peter Drucker remains the finest thinker and writer on management and the forces that influence management in recent times. He was prescient about so many things, but especially on the role of knowledge and knowledge work. He had a great influence on my own career in knowledge, and his books continue to be read and cited. Post-Capitalist Society is a great summation of his ideas as to how the economy and business is evolving.