Why am I passionate about this?

I'm a bestselling business author, top-rated leadership speaker, and unconsultant who helps individuals and organizations think more critically, lead more effectively, and make better decisions. Prior to writing American Icon, I spent 20 years as a business reporter, covering the high-tech, biotech, and automotive industries for newspapers in California and Michigan. After that, I quit my job in order to help CEOs understand and implement the game-changing leadership I described in it. In 2017, I published my second book, Red Teaming: How Your Business Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything and started my own company, Red Team Thinking, to train organizations in this revolutionary approach to decision-making because I believe that who thinks wins.


I wrote

Book cover of American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company

What is my book about?

American Icon tells the inspiring story of one of the greatest turnarounds in business history. In 2006, as Ford careened…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations

Bryce G. Hoffman Why I love this book

The Logic of Failure explores why leaders make bad decisions – and how to make better ones. Whenever I am asked for a book recommendation, this is always the first one I mention because I have learned so much from it, and what I have learned has helped me make better decisions every single day. This is an amazing, evidence-based effort to understand the root causes of failure and the pathways to success. It will help you understand how your plans can fail so that you can ensure they succeed.

By Dietrich Dorner ,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked The Logic of Failure as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Why do we make mistakes? Are there certain errors common to failure, whether in a complex enterprise or daily life? In this truly indispensable book, Dietrich Doerner identifies what he calls the logic of failure",certain tendencies in our patterns of thought that, while appropriate to an older, simpler world, prove disastrous for the complex world we live in now. Working with imaginative and often hilarious computer simulations, he analyzes the roots of catastrophe, showing city planners in the very act of creating gridlock and disaster, or public health authorities setting the scene for starvation. The Logic of Failure is a…


Book cover of Thinking, Fast and Slow

Bryce G. Hoffman Why I love this book

Thinking, Fast and Slow is a master class on how the brain works – and how it doesn’t. I have found no better introduction to the field of cognitive science and human decision-making. Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman will teach you how we make decisions and how you can make better ones. You will gain an awareness of the many cognitive biases and mental heuristics that skew our thinking so that you can identify them and overcome them in yourself.

By Daniel Kahneman ,

Why should I read it?

48 authors picked Thinking, Fast and Slow as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The phenomenal international bestseller - 2 million copies sold - that will change the way you make decisions

'A lifetime's worth of wisdom' Steven D. Levitt, co-author of Freakonomics
'There have been many good books on human rationality and irrationality, but only one masterpiece. That masterpiece is Thinking, Fast and Slow' Financial Times

Why is there more chance we'll believe something if it's in a bold type face? Why are judges more likely to deny parole before lunch? Why do we assume a good-looking person will be more competent? The answer lies in the two ways we make choices: fast,…


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Book cover of Eclipse Chasers

Eclipse Chasers by Nick Lomb,

Forthcoming eclipses coming up in Australia include that of 22 July 2028, which will cross Australia from the Northern Territory to Sydney, home of the internationally famous sights of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Eclipse Chasers will act as a guidebook for both locals and international visitors, giving…

Book cover of The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

Bryce G. Hoffman Why I love this book

This book is chock-full of valuable ideas and insights that you can use as a leader to create a learning organization, better understand why you think the way you do, and learn how to think more critically and deeply about the challenges and opportunities you face. This book opened my eyes to the mental models we construct – consciously or unconsciously – and how these frame our thinking. It also contains one of my favorite maxims: The easy way out usually leads back in.

By Peter M. Senge ,

Why should I read it?

5 authors picked The Fifth Discipline as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

One of the seminal management books of the past 75 years, The Fifth Discipline is an international multi-million-copy bestseller. Written in an engaging and accessible way, with diagrams and illustrations, it will change the way you think and therefore way you and your team grows and develop. In the long run, the only sustainable source of competitive advantage is your organisation's ability to learn faster than its competitors....

'Senge explains why the learning organization matters, provides an unvarnished summary of his management principals, offers some basic tools for practicing it, and shows what it's like to operate under this system.…


Book cover of Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions

Bryce G. Hoffman Why I love this book

This is another great book that will help you understand how we make decisions and how we can make better ones. Klein and Kahneman are famous frenemies, with Klein giving far more credit to our ability to make good snap decisions. This work was the inspiration for Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink, but Klein’s book offers much better examples and much deeper insights for those who want to learn to make better decisions, particularly in high-stress, time-constrained situations.

By Gary A. Klein ,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Sources of Power as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A modern classic about how people really make decisions: drawing on prior experience, using a combination of intuition and analysis.

Since its publication twenty years ago, Sources of Power has been enormously influential. The book has sold more than 50,000 copies, has been translated into six languages, has been cited in professional journals that range from Journal of Marketing Research to Journal of Nursing, and is mentioned by Malcolm Gladwell in Blink. Author Gary Klein has collaborated with Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and served on a team that redesigned the White House Situation Room to support more effective decision making.…


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Book cover of The Customer-Funded Business

The Customer-Funded Business by John Mullins,

Why is it that most fast-growing companies never take any venture capital? Simple. As entrepreneurs like Michael Dell, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk have figured out, the best and most hospitable source of funding is your customers - not investors!

In The Customer-Funded Business, John Mullins identifies the five…

Book cover of Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future

Bryce G. Hoffman Why I love this book

If you read one book on AI, make sure it is this one. Machine, Platform, Crowd cuts through the hype and science fiction that surrounds the artificial intelligence revolution to uncover the real opportunities created by this rapidly evolving technology. This book has shaped my own thinking about AI, which I now see as a force multiplier for human decision-makers, rather than as a replacement for them. It will help you better understand the challenges and opportunities this creates for you and your organization as well.

By Andrew McAfee , Erik Brynjolfsson ,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Machine, Platform, Crowd as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

We live in strange times. A machine plays the strategy game Go better than any human; upstarts like Apple and Google destroy industry stalwarts such as Nokia; ideas from the crowd are repeatedly more innovative than those from corporate research laboratories.

Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson know what it takes to master this digital-powered shift: we must rethink the integration of minds and machines, of products and platforms, and of the core and the crowd. The balance now favours the second element of the pair, with massive implications for how we run our companies and live our lives. McAfee and…


Explore my book 😀

Book cover of American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company

What is my book about?

American Icon tells the inspiring story of one of the greatest turnarounds in business history. In 2006, as Ford careened towards bankruptcy, Bill Ford stepped aside as CEO and brought in Boeing President Alan Mulally to save his company. Mulally used his outsider’s perspective and unconventional management style to uncover the roots of Ford’s problems, rally his team, and save the company against the backdrop of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. As the other American automakers went bankrupt and were bailed out by taxpayers, Ford saved itself.

This book offers a new model of leadership that has already saved not one, but two, iconic corporations. It has become a manual for CEOs and other leaders around the world who want to build a winning culture.

Book cover of The Logic of Failure: Recognizing and Avoiding Error in Complex Situations
Book cover of Thinking, Fast and Slow
Book cover of The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

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The scenario we are facing is scary: within a few decades, sea levels around the world may well rise by a metre or more as glaciers and ice caps melt due to climate change. Large parts of our coastal cities will be flooded, the basic outline of our world will…

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