These are books that sit on my own shelves, physical or digital, and that I have spent time with directly. Some are well-worn, others are revisited occasionally, but all have influenced my thinking in one way or another through reading, reflection, or use in my work. Those marked with a gold star are recommended.
Reading Lists
Books From My Own Collection
08 February, 2026Interthinking: Putting Talk to Work by Karen Littleton, Neil Mercer (2013)
08 February, 2026Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together by Neil Mercer (2000)
08 October, 2025Peak Human: What We Can Learn From History’s Greatest Civilizations by Johan Norberg (2025)
21 August, 2025Oracy: the Transformative Power of Finding Your Voice by Neil Mercer
15 December, 2024God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything Christopher Hitchens (2007)
20 November, 2024The Four Horsemen: the Discussion That Sparked an Atheist Revolution Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris , Daniel C. Dennett, Christopher Hitchens (2019)
09 November, 2024The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason Sam Harris (2006)
08 October, 2024The Coming Wave Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar (2024)
25 August, 2024Inheritance: the Evolutionary Origins of the Modern World by Harvey Whitehouse (2024)
27 December, 2023The Concept of Conversation: From Cicero’s Sermo to the Grand Siecle’s Conversation David Randall (2019)
01 October, 2023★ Recommended Future Minds: the Rise of Intelligence From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe by Richard Yonck
28 April, 2023Talking Cure: an Essay on the Civilizing Power of Conversation by Paula Marantz Cohen (2023)
18 April, 2023Confronting Our Freedom: Leading a Culture of Chosen Accountability and Belonging by Peter Block, Peter Koestenbaum (2023)
06 April, 2023Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein (2021)
05 April, 2023The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure by Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff (2018)
25 March, 2023★ Recommended The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt (2013)
02 December, 2022★ Recommended Creating Conversational Leadership by John Hovell
31 October, 2022★ Recommended Conversation: A History of a Declining Art Stephen Miller (2007)
23 October, 2022The Journey Beyond Fear: Leverage the Three Pillars of Positivity to Build Your Success John Hagel (2021)
14 August, 2022Open: How Collaboration and Curiosity Shaped Humankind Johan Norberg
19 July, 2022The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow (2022)
12 July, 2022Think Again: the Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant (2021)
01 May, 2022Guns Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years by Jared Diamond by Jared Diamond (1998)
01 May, 2022Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias by Pragya Agarwal (2021)
25 March, 2022The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion by John Hagel, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison (2010)
18 February, 2022The Printing Press as an Agent of Change by Elizabeth L. Eisenstein (1980)
10 January, 2022★ Recommended Beyond Knowledge: How Technology Is Driving an Age of Consciousness by William E. Halal (2021)
22 December, 2021★ Recommended The Fourth Economy: Inventing Western Civilization by Ron Davison (2011)
30 November, 2021Moral Courage Rushworth M. Kidder (2006)
05 November, 2021Hard to Be Human: Overcoming Our Five Cognitive Design Flaws by Ted Cadsby (2021)
28 October, 2021Leadership in Complexity and Change: for a World in Constant Motion by Sharon Varney (2021)
04 October, 2021Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters by Steven Pinker (2021)
26 September, 2021★ Recommended The Extended Mind: the Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul (2021)
03 September, 2021The Argument Culture: Stopping America’s War of Words by Deborah Tannen (1999)
02 September, 2021Red Teaming: How Your Business Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything by Bryce G. Hoffman (2017)
27 August, 2021Knowledge Café: Create an Environment for Successful Knowledge Management by Benjamin C. Anyacho
20 July, 2021Curious: the Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It by Ian Leslie (2014)
19 July, 2021Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together by Ian Leslie (2021)
15 June, 2021The Learning-driven Business: How to Develop an Organizational Learning Ecosystem Alaa Garad and Jeff Gold (2021)
28 May, 2021Future Search: an Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organizations and Communities by Marvin Weisbord
06 May, 2021★ Recommended The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding by Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercier (2018)
01 May, 2021Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Yuval Noah Harari (2017)
16 April, 2021Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t by Julia Galef (2021)
12 March, 2021The Empathic Civilization: the Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis Jeremy Rifkin (2010)
06 March, 2021Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, Our Economy, and Our Lives by Joseph Heath (2014)
11 February, 2021Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language by Robin Dunbar (1996)
03 February, 2021★ Recommended Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust That Society Needs to Thrive by Bruce Schneier (2012)
01 January, 2020Authentic Conversations: Moving From Manipulation to Truth and Commitment by James Showkeir
20 October, 2020Cynefin – Weaving Sense-making Into the Fabric of Our World by Dave Snowden & friends (2020)
12 October, 2020Connected: the Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis
22 September, 2020Sensemaking: What Makes Human Intelligence Essential in the Age of the Algorithm by Christian Madsbjerg
26 August, 2020Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg
08 August, 2020Dominion: the Making of the Western Mind Tom Holland
08 August, 2020Speak Up: Say What Needs to Be Said and Hear What Needs to Be Heard by Megan Reitz and John Higgins (2019)
14 July, 2020★ Recommended How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide by Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay (2019)
03 June, 2020Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth by David Korten (2010)
01 March, 2020The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray (2019)
24 January, 2020Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman (2012)
17 January, 2020Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari (2015)
01 January, 2020God: A Human History of Religion by Reza Aslan (2018)
12 December, 2019Rebel Ideas: the Power of Diverse Thinking by Matthew Syed (2019)
10 December, 2019Obliquity By John Kay (2010)
11 September, 2019Enlightenment Now: the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker (2019)
22 August, 2019★ Recommended Closing the Mind Gap: Making Smarter Decisions in a Hypercomplex World by Ted Cadsby (2014)
01 May, 2018★ Recommended Dialogic Organization Development: the Theory and Practice of Transformational Change by Gervase R. Bushe, Robert J. Marshak (2015)
25 April, 201812 Rules for Life: an Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B Peterson (2018)
02 September, 2016Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich (2000)
15 September, 2015★ Recommended Community: the Structure of Belonging by Peter Block (2018)
10 March, 2005The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-era Organizations Steve Denning (2000)
01 January, 2002Punished by Rewards: the Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn (1999)
13 July, 1999Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony De Mello (1992)
01 January, 1992Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
21 August, 1991Global Mind Change by Willis Harman (1990)
Image Credits: Gerhard Gellinger
In-person, 7–11 September 2026, Warbrook House, Hampshire, UK
We are living and working in conditions of uncertainty, complexity, and rapid change. Many leadership approaches still rely on control, expertise, and tools that no longer fit the realities people face.
This week-long immersive workshop brings people together to practise Conversational Leadership as a shared, lived experience. It is not a training course but a space to slow down, think together, and explore how leadership emerges through dialogue, responsibility, and real engagement.