This is the full collection of books referenced on the site. It brings together works on conversation, dialogue, leadership, knowledge, complexity, and related fields. Taken as a whole, the list reflects the range of thinking that informs and shapes Conversational Leadership practice.
Reading Lists
There are 176 books in the list below.
All Books
25 April, 201812 Rules for Life: an Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B Peterson (2018)
A Leaders Guide to Storytelling: Mastering the Art and Discipline of Business Narrative by Steve Denning (2005)
A More Beautiful Question: the Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas by Warren Berger (2016)
03 June, 2020Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth by David Korten (2010)
An Intimate History of Humanity by Theodore Zeldin (1995)
01 January, 2020Authentic Conversations: Moving From Manipulation to Truth and Commitment by James Showkeir
03 June, 1999Awareness: The Perils and Opportunities of Reality by Anthony De Mello (1992)
10 January, 2022★ Recommended Beyond Knowledge: How Technology Is Driving an Age of Consciousness by William E. Halal (2021)
Changing Consciousness by David Bohm & Mark Edwards (1991)
Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change by Patricia Shaw (2002)
Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds by Wendy Sullivan, Judy Rees (2008)
22 August, 2019★ Recommended Closing the Mind Gap: Making Smarter Decisions in a Hypercomplex World by Ted Cadsby (2014)
Cognitive Surplus: How Technology Makes Consumers Into Collaborators Clay Shirky (2010)
15 September, 2015★ Recommended Community: the Structure of Belonging by Peter Block (2018)
Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: Learning and Knowledge Creation by Ralph Stacey (2001)
19 July, 2021Conflicted: Why Arguments Are Tearing Us Apart and How They Can Bring Us Together by Ian Leslie (2021)
18 April, 2023Confronting Our Freedom: Leading a Culture of Chosen Accountability and Belonging by Peter Block, Peter Koestenbaum (2023)
12 October, 2020Connected: the Amazing Power of Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives by Nicholas A. Christakis
Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization by Lee Sproull, Sara Kiesler (1992)
Content-area Conversations: How to Plan Discussion-based Lessons for Diverse Language Learners by Douglas Fisher, Nancy Frey, Carol Rothenberg
31 October, 2022★ Recommended Conversation: A History of a Declining Art Stephen Miller (2007)
★ Recommended Conversation: How Talk Can Change Our Lives by Theodore Zeldin (2000)
Conversational Intelligence: How Great Leaders Build Trust and Get Extraordinary Results by Judith E. Glaser
Conversational Learning: an Experiential Approach to Knowledge Creation by Ann C. Baker, Patricia J. Jensen, David A. Kolb (2002)
Conversational Wisdom: Strengthening Human Connection Through the Power of Conversation Emily Cosgrove and Sara Hope (2023)
02 December, 2022★ Recommended Creating Conversational Leadership by John Hovell
Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High by Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler (2011)
20 July, 2021Curious: the Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It by Ian Leslie (2014)
20 October, 2020Cynefin – Weaving Sense-making Into the Fabric of Our World by Dave Snowden & friends (2020)
02 September, 2016Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich (2000)
Dialogic Education and Technology: Expanding the Space of Learning by Rupert Wegerif (2010)
01 May, 2018★ Recommended Dialogic Organization Development: the Theory and Practice of Transformational Change by Gervase R. Bushe, Robert J. Marshak (2015)
Dialogic: Education for the Internet Age: Education for the Internet Age by Rupert Wegerif (2012)
Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together: A Pioneering Approach to Communicating in Business and in Life by William Isaacs
Dialogue: Rediscover the Transforming Power of Conversation by Linda Ellinor, Glenna Gerard
Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton , Sheila Heen (1999)
08 August, 2020Dominion: the Making of the Western Mind Tom Holland
Embracing Complexity: Strategic Perspectives for an Age of Turbulence by Jean G. Boulton, Peter M. Allen, Cliff Bowman (2015)
Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ by Daniel Goleman (2005)
06 March, 2021Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, Our Economy, and Our Lives by Joseph Heath (2014)
11 September, 2019Enlightenment Now: the Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress by Steven Pinker (2019)
Evolutionaries: Unlocking the Spiritual and Cultural Potential of Science’s Greatest Idea Carter Phipps (2012)
Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work & in Life, One Conversation at a Time by Susan Scott (2002)
From Debate to Dialogue: Using the Understanding Process to Transform Our Conversations by Deborah L. Flick (1998)
01 October, 2023★ Recommended Future Minds: the Rise of Intelligence From the Big Bang to the End of the Universe by Richard Yonck
28 May, 2021Future Search: an Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organizations and Communities by Marvin Weisbord
21 August, 1991Global Mind Change by Willis Harman (1990)
15 December, 2024God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything Christopher Hitchens (2007)
01 January, 2020God: A Human History of Religion by Reza Aslan (2018)
Good Talk: How to Design Conversations That Matter by Daniel Stillman (2020)
11 February, 2021Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language by Robin Dunbar (1996)
01 May, 2022Guns Germs and Steel: A Short History of Everybody for the Last 13,000 Years by Jared Diamond by Jared Diamond (1998)
05 November, 2021Hard to Be Human: Overcoming Our Five Cognitive Design Flaws by Ted Cadsby (2021)
01 May, 2021Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow Yuval Noah Harari (2017)
How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work: Seven Languages for Transformation by Robert Kegan (2002)
14 July, 2020★ Recommended How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide by Peter Boghossian and James Lindsay (2019)
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Humble Inquiry: the Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling by Edgar H. Schein (2013)
★ Recommended Humble Leadership: the Power of Relationships, Openness and Trust by Edgar H. Schein, Peter A. Schein (2018)
25 August, 2024Inheritance: the Evolutionary Origins of the Modern World by Harvey Whitehouse (2024)
08 February, 2026Interthinking: Putting Talk to Work by Karen Littleton, Neil Mercer (2013)
Just Listen: Discover the Secret to Getting Through to Absolutely Anyone by Mark Goulston (2015)
27 August, 2021Knowledge Café: Create an Environment for Successful Knowledge Management by Benjamin C. Anyacho
Leadership Conversations: Challenging High Potential Managers to Become Great Leaders by Alan S. Berson, Richard G. Stieglitz
28 October, 2021Leadership in Complexity and Change: for a World in Constant Motion by Sharon Varney (2021)
Leadership-as-practice: Theory and Application by Joseph A. Raelin
Leading Issues in Social Knowledge Management by David Gurteen (2012)
Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: the Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults by Jane Kathryn Vella
Learning Together and Alone: Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Learning by David W. Johnson, Roger T. Johnson
Let the People Think by Bertrand Russell
03 February, 2021★ Recommended Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust That Society Needs to Thrive by Bruce Schneier (2012)
Life-changing Conversations: 7 Strategies for Talking About What Matters Most by Sarah Rozenthuler
Listening to the Volcano: Conversations That Open Our Minds to New Possibilities by David Hutchens (2005)
Listening: the Forgotten Skill by Madelyn Burley-All
Love Your Enemies: How Decent People Can Save America From Our Culture of Contempt: Arthur C. Brooks (2019)
Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl (1946)
Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change by Chris Ertel, Lisa Kay Solomon (2014)
30 November, 2021Moral Courage Rushworth M. Kidder (2006)
New Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy for a Common World By Marina Garcés (2024)
Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI Yuval Noah Harari (2024)
06 April, 2023Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment by Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, Cass R. Sunstein (2021)
26 August, 2020Nonviolent Communication: A Language of Life by Marshall B. Rosenberg
10 December, 2019Obliquity By John Kay (2010)
★ Recommended On Dialogue by David Bohm (2004)
On Dialogue – an Essay in Free Thought by Robert Grudin (1996)
On Relationality: Lessons From Martin Buber on Living in Relation with Self, Others, the World, and Life Itself by Alexander Carabi (2023)
14 August, 2022Open: How Collaboration and Curiosity Shaped Humankind Johan Norberg
21 August, 2025Oracy: the Transformative Power of Finding Your Voice by Neil Mercer
Organizing Conversations: Preparing Groups to Take on Adaptive Challenges By Mike Burrows (2024)
Overcoming Hate Through Dialogue: Confronting Prejudice, Racism, and Bigotry with Conversation―and Coffee By Özlem Cekic (2020)
08 October, 2025Peak Human: What We Can Learn From History’s Greatest Civilizations by Johan Norberg (2025)
Proactive Reviews: How to Make Your Organisation Learn From Experience by Ditte Kolbæk (2012)
Psychogeography by Merlin Coverley
01 January, 2002Punished by Rewards: the Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn (1999)
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott (2017)
04 October, 2021Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters by Steven Pinker (2021)
Rebalancing Society: Radical Renewal Beyond Left, Right, and Center by Henry Mintzberg (2015)
12 December, 2019Rebel Ideas: the Power of Diverse Thinking by Matthew Syed (2019)
Reclaiming Conversation: the Power of Talk in a Digital Age by Sherry Turkle (2015)
02 September, 2021Red Teaming: How Your Business Can Conquer the Competition by Challenging Everything by Bryce G. Hoffman (2017)
Rethinking Educational Theory: Education as Expanding Dialogue by Rupert Wegerif (2025)
Rising Out of Hatred: the Awakening of a Former White Nationalist By Eli Saslow (2018)
17 January, 2020Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind Yuval Noah Harari (2015)
Science Order & Creativity by David Bohm, David Peat
16 April, 2021Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t by Julia Galef (2021)
Sense-making Methodology Reader: Selected Writings of Brenda Dervin by Brenda Dervin (2003)
22 September, 2020Sensemaking: What Makes Human Intelligence Essential in the Age of the Algorithm by Christian Madsbjerg
Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono
Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect by Matthew D. Lieberman
08 August, 2020Speak Up: Say What Needs to Be Said and Hear What Needs to Be Heard by Megan Reitz and John Higgins (2019)
Steps to an Ecology of Mind: Collected Essays in Anthropology, Psychiatry, Evolution, and Epistemology Gregory Bateson (2000)
Storytelling in Organizations by Steve Denning, John Seely Brown, Katalina Groh and Larry Prusak (2004)
★ Recommended Strategic Conversations: Creating and Directing the Entrepreneurial Workforce by J.-C. Spender, Bruce A. Strong (2014)
Strategy: A History by Lawrence Freedman (2013)
01 May, 2022Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias by Pragya Agarwal (2021)
Talk Is Not! Cheap: the Art of Conversation Leadership by Jim McCann (2014)
★ Recommended Talk, Inc.: How Trusted Leaders Use Conversation to Power Their Organizations by Boris Groysberg, Michael Slind (2012)
Talk: the Science of Conversation By Elizabeth Stokoe (2018)
Talk: The Science of Conversation and the Art of Being Ourselves by Alison Wood Brooks (2025)
28 April, 2023Talking Cure: an Essay on the Civilizing Power of Conversation by Paula Marantz Cohen (2023)
03 September, 2021The Argument Culture: Stopping America’s War of Words by Deborah Tannen (1999)
The Art of Conversation by Catherine Blyth (2008)
The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters by Priya Parker (2018)
The Art of Listening by Erich Fromm (1998)
The Cluetrain Manifesto: the End of Business as Usual by David Weinberger, Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls (2000)
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)
08 October, 2024The Coming Wave Mustafa Suleyman and Michael Bhaskar (2024)
27 December, 2023The Concept of Conversation: From Cicero’s Sermo to the Grand Siecle’s Conversation David Randall (2019)
The Conversational Enlightenment: the Reconception of Rhetoric in Eighteenth-century Thought David Randall (2020)
The Conversational Firm: Rethinking Bureaucracy in the Age of Social Media By Catherine Turco (2018)
19 July, 2022The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow (2022)
The De-voicing of Society: Why We Don’t Talk to Each Other Anymore by John L. Locke
The Discussion Book: 50 Great Ways to Get People Talking by Stephen D. Brookfield and Stephen Preskill (2016)
12 March, 2021The Empathic Civilization: the Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis Jeremy Rifkin (2010)
09 November, 2024The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason Sam Harris (2006)
06 May, 2021★ Recommended The Enigma of Reason: A New Theory of Human Understanding by Dan Sperber and Hugo Mercier (2018)
26 September, 2021★ Recommended The Extended Mind: the Power of Thinking Outside the Brain by Annie Murphy Paul (2021)
The Fable of the Bees: or Private Vices, Publick Benefits Bernard Mandeville (1714)
The Fifth Discipline: the Art & Practice of the Learning Organization by Peter Senge (2006)
20 November, 2024The Four Horsemen: the Discussion That Sparked an Atheist Revolution Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris , Daniel C. Dennett, Christopher Hitchens (2019)
22 December, 2021★ Recommended The Fourth Economy: Inventing Western Civilization by Ron Davison (2011)
The Great Unheard at Work: Understanding Voice and Silence in Organisations Mark Cole and John Higgins (2023)
The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall by Mark W. Moffett (2019)
23 October, 2022The Journey Beyond Fear: Leverage the Three Pillars of Positivity to Build Your Success John Hagel (2021)
The Knowledge Illusion: Why We Never Think Alone by Steven Sloman and Philip Fernbach (2018)
15 June, 2021The Learning-driven Business: How to Develop an Organizational Learning Ecosystem Alaa Garad and Jeff Gold (2021)
The Living Company: Growth, Learning and Longevity in Business by Arie de Geus
01 March, 2020The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity by Douglas Murray (2019)
The Magic of Dialogue: Transforming Conflict Into Cooperation by Daniel Yankelovich
The New Enlightenment and the Fight to Free Knowledge By Peter B. Kaufman (2021)
The Power of Mindful Learning by Ellen J. Langer
The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems by Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, Monique Sternin
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)
The Power of Strangers: the Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World Joe Keohane (2021)
The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World by Ronald Heifetz, Marty Linsky and Alexander Grashow
18 February, 2022The Printing Press as an Agent of Change by Elizabeth L. Eisenstein (1980)
The Pursuit of Attention: Power and Ego in Everyday Life by Charles Derber (2000)
25 March, 2023★ Recommended The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt (2013)
The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck (1978)
The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic by Stephen R. Covey (1990)
The SPEED of Trust: the One Thing That Changes Everything By Stephen M. R. Covey (2006)
10 March, 2005The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-era Organizations Steve Denning (2000)
The Talking Revolution: How Creative Conversation Can Change the World by Peter Osborn, Eddy Canfor-Dumas (2018)
The Village Effect: How Face-to-face Contact Can Make Us Healthier, Happier, and Smarter by Susan Pinker
The World Café: Shaping Our Futures Through Conversations That Matter by Juanita Brown, David Isaacs (2005)
12 July, 2022Think Again: the Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know by Adam Grant (2021)
24 January, 2020Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman (2012)
Time to Think: Listening to Ignite the Human Mind by Nancy Kline
Treading Lightly: the Hidden Wisdom of the World’s Oldest People by Karl-Erik Sveiby (2007)
Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future by Margaret J. Wheatley (2002)
Value(s): Building a Better World for All Mark Carney (2021)
Walden, or Life in the Woods Henry David Thoreau (1854)
Where Good Ideas Come From: the Natural History of Innovation Steven Johnson (2010)
08 February, 2026Words and Minds: How We Use Language to Think Together by Neil Mercer (2000)
Worldview Dynamics and the Well-being of Nations Richard Barrett (2020)
01 January, 1992Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: an Inquiry Into Values by Robert M. Pirsig
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.