' I really like to read other people's ideas and then add my own ideas... you start with the brainstorming together and say, so what could be in here?'

Petra Molthan-Hill is a professor of Sustainable Management and Education for Sustainable Development at Nottingham Business School, and a prolific academic writer. But when it came to The Handbook of Carbon Management - which was named Change & Sustainability Book of the Year at the Business Book Awards 2024 - she knew she wanted to take a different approach.

She knew this had to be a practical book for anyone, at any level of the organization, and in any size of organization, wanting to make more sustainable decisions. It had to contain not just evidence-based theories, but pragmatic, easy-to-implement solutions grounded in research and real-world impact. And it needed to get out there quickly and start making a difference, because this is a crisis that demands a response and there is literally no time to lose. 

So Petra turned to a trusted group of her peers, and between them they created something that is more than the sum of its parts. 

In this week's episode Petra tells me about their collaborative, creative writing process, and the way in which reading and writing more generally can provide some of the most satisfying conversations you'll ever have, even when there's noone else in the room.  

'I have learned to have a different relationship with resistance... when we're actually really on track with things, resistance comes up.'

Sarah Rozenthuler is no stranger to the art of conversation at work. With over two decades of experience as a business psychologist, she's seen both how energizing high-quality conversation can be, and also how most people, most of the time, would do almost anything to avoid difficult topics (or difficult people). 

Her latest book, Now We're Talking, addresses the deep-rooted reasons for this - the fear of our own and the other person's emotions, the challenge to our fragile self-image, the risk of the bad outcome, and more - and also the transformative power of leaning into the resistance and engaging with each other more effectively.

And we discover along the way that sitting down to write a book involves much of the same fear and resistance. Sarah's own journey as a writer, the false starts and the slow burn, is as relatable as it is inspiring. So here's a nudge to lean into the discomfort - in writing, in conversation and in life - because it's a sign that we're doing the work that matters. 

'How do you make a strategy a story? The best leaders and the best communicators do that. They turn something that's functional and rational into something that's a story.'

John Dore, head of London Business School's Senior Executive Program and founder of Wave Your Arms, wants you to reimagine your idea of 'glue': as the magic ingredient that holds organizations together. Creating glue, he argues, is a core leadership capability: building real connection, delivering not just strategies but stories that resonate, that are galvanizing and engaging. 

Storytelling is a key ingredient in glue, and as you might expect from someone with a side hustle in screenwriting, John is a genius at telling stories. You can see it in his book, Glue: Transforming leadership in a hybrid world, which was the winner of the 2024 Business Books Award Leadership Category. 

In this week's conversation, we get stuck in to the idea of glue in organizations, and also how as a writer you can create a different kind of glue, the kind that keeps a reader engaged with your book, and makes your ideas stick in their minds. 

If you know anything at all about coaching, you know that it's all about asking questions, right? Well, yes, and also: that's not the full story. 

Claire Pedrick and Lucia Baldelli sat down together to write a book on how to move from 'really good' to 'even better' coach, but they quickly realised that mastery is less about what the coach does or says, and much more about how they are in the coaching conversation. It's about noticing and responding, being the person that can facilitate the coachee's own work, being a little less certain, being a little more human, in fact. 

And that approach spills into Claire's approach to writing, too: it's about noticing, iterating, being curious, and being unafraid to let the ideas evolve and develop. Which is how The Human Behind the Coach came about, and why it was named Specialist Business Book of the Year at the Business Book Awards. 

(Although I don't THINK she uses scissors quite so regularly in her coaching work as she does in her writing process...)

If you care about coaching, writing or thinking - or just about being human in a world that's increasingly inhuman - make tea, sit down, listen up.