Get These 16 Books to Launch Your Startup’s Library
From strategy to productivity to team dynamics, these titles will equip your team with abundant advice, wisdom, and perspective
Building a library is a great opportunity for a startup (or any business, for that matter) to invest in personal and professional development, provide problem-solving references for their team, and demonstrate the company’s cultural values. Whether you’re the CEO or the most recent hire, consider picking up these titles and adding them to a shared library at work.
Design & Creativity
Creative Confidence
by Tom Kelley & David Kelley. An excellent introduction to many of the key mindsets and practices of design thinking and innovation. Lots of great tips & tricks for rapid prototyping and user testing. Also covers what it takes for an organization to actually embrace new modes of thought like design thinking & experimental innovation. Find it here.
Sprint
by Jake Knapp, with John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz. This one takes you through Google Ventures’ model for 5 day design sprints, complete with stories from their experience doing so with a variety of startups. A helpful resource for when you need to solve a big problem and you don’t have much time. Also shares some great tools for researching, prototyping, & testing. Find it here.
Lateral Thinking
by Edward de Bono. While it can be a bit dry (it’s more metacognitive), the lessons it has are too important to leave off this list. If you’re looking to build a culture that values outside-the-box thinking, alternative approaches to creative problem solving, and an openness to uncertainty, this book will help. Find it here.
Improv Wisdom
by Patricia Ryan Madson. What does improv have to do with startups? Aside from the fact that it’s a foundation for creative thought (a la “yes, and!”) and design thinking (e.g. having a bias toward action), more of our daily life is improv than we realize. This book explores the question, “What if we were to lean into that?” It’s a quick read full of valuable nuggets. Find it here.
Business, Management & Strategy
Good to Great
by Jim Collins. In this classic, Collins recounts research he and his team carried out comparing companies that made the jump from “good to great” to those that didn’t. They’ve boiled down their findings into a handful of key differentiators; if you’ve heard of the Hedgehog Concept, the Three Circles, or “First Who, Then What,” this is where they come from. Find it here.
The Lean Startup
by Eric Ries. One of the foundational texts of experimental innovation, this is a must-read for anyone wanting themselves or their team to become masterful at learning quickly and not wasting time or money when it comes to customer discovery or product definition and development. It will also help everyone on your team think like a startup CEO should think, which is a great way to build emergent mastery into your organization. Find it here.
The Hard Thing About Hard Things
by Ben Horowitz. This one is a no-nonsense account of all the tough things that will likely happen throughout the course of starting and growing a business. If you want to expose yourself and your team to what challenges might be around the corner (and tips on how to prepare for and handle those challenges), this one can help. Find it here.
Thinking in Systems
by Donella Meadows. This one isn’t your classic startup or business book, but it belongs on this list for a simple reason: your startup does not exist in a vacuum. It exists as part of a greater system, and it’s your responsibility to understand the influences and influencers within that system in order to find your place in the market. The same is true for your product and for your customer (or user or beneficiary) — they all exist in an interconnected system and understanding the various forces at play will help maximize your chance of success. One of the more important, perspective-shifting books in my library. Find it here.
Productivity & the Mindset of Execution
Essentialism
by Greg McKeown. Do you say “Yes” too much? Do you feel overwhelmed most of the time? Do you find it hard to focus sometimes because of the sheer number of things on your plate? Essentialism holds some answers for you. It emphasizes the importance of defining what’s most essential (whether we’re talking company purpose or to-do list) and forgetting about everything else (at least for now). Exploring “What’s truly essential, and what isn’t?” helps you streamline and optimize. Find it here.
The One Thing
by Gary Keller, with Jay Papasan. Similarly to Essentialism, this one helps focus your effort on the “one thing” that, if you were to accomplish it, would cause other things to fall away. It holds a number of other great ways to be more effective in addition to many other nuggets of great general advice. Find it here.
Deep Work
by Cal Newport. This one gets down to brass tacks about habits around focus, discipline, and what it takes to be productive in the world of constant notifications, open office layouts, and shrinking attention spans. Lots of great tips on maintaining focus, scheduling your time, and overcoming distractions. A good read for anyone in 2018, honestly. Find it here.
Extreme Ownership
by Jocko Willink & Leif Babin. In this one, two former Navy SEALs share stories from their time in the Middle East and the mindsets that helped them be successful. It’s laid out practically, with a story followed by the key takeaways and then an “application to business” section. The crux? How would we approach our work if we took total responsibility — or extreme ownership — of every task and decision, even if it’s not explicitly ours? I’ve found the concept to be useful (and immediately applicable, which is nice) in all areas of life. Find it here.
Collaboration & Interpersonal Dynamics
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team
by Patrick Lencioni. Told in the style of a fable, this book lays out the five things that lead to a team being dysfunctional — and then shares how to resolve them and bring your team back to healthy and happy (and effective). Assuming you’re leading a team that has to make tough decisions weighing many variables and there’s no clear answer, the lessons in here will help set you up for success. This is a must-read. Find it here.
The Four Agreements
by Don Miguel Ruiz. This short read contains four nuggets of wisdom that changed the way I approach myself, others, and the world at large. When I build out a team, this book will be in their welcome packets (as it was for me when I started at the Stanford d.school). If your team masters these four agreements, you’ll have an (even more) epic team (also, show me how you did it successfully). Find it here.
Nonviolent Communication
by Marshall B. Rosenberg, PhD. How we treat each other has a profound impact on we feel, on how productive we are as individuals and as teams, and frankly, on how we treat ourselves (and vice versa). This book holds invaluable wisdom and practical tools for resolving conflict, managing through internally or externally tough times, thinking & acting without judgment of others, and generally treating each other with kindness, respect, and compassion. Upon taking over as Microsoft CEO in 2014, Satya Nadella introduced the book in an effort to combat their notoriously combative culture. Find it here.
Daring Greatly
by Brené Brown. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of creativity and innovation.” Everyone should read this book. Brown, the legendary TED speaker and researcher shares her discoveries about the transformative power of vulnerability, how to combat feelings of shame, and what it looks and feels like to step into our worthiness and our “enoughness.” Guaranteed to open your team (and yourself) up to new levels of self-awareness and self-knowledge, this book can help deepen your team’s trust and connection to one another. Find it here.
I limited my list to 16 from a variety of perspectives and arenas, but I know there are many others that deserve a spot on this list. What’s in your library? What others do you think are essential for a startup?
More where this came from
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