'If you are in a position of real power and authority, it's the dialogue with yourself that defines your capacity to run an organization.'

Dr Pippa Malmgren - economist, entrepreneur, innovator and advisor - returns to the podcast on the publication of The Infinite Leader to talk about how leadership is evolving, and about how her own and her writing partner Chris Lewis's approach to writing has evolved too. This is a masterclass in reader-centred writing, in fusing creative, philosophical thinking with practical application, and in ego-free collaboration. 

In some ways every week on the Extraordinary Business Book Club we're talking about the results of a book-writing experiment - and many books are themselves the results of fascinating experiments in business and life. In this Best Bits episode we don our white coats and safety glasses and head fearlessly into the laboratory to watch the magic happen in the company of some of our most recent researchers... 

• Anne Janzer on how her marketing career proved the lab in which she refined her writing experiments
• Zoë Routh on starting early and the endocrinology of writing in flow
• Rob Hatch on the research findings of a long-term newsletter experiment
• Elvin Turner on introducing user experience research into writing for explosive results
• Cath Bishop on narrative fusion - bringing together different strands of experience in the white-hot heat of the writing lab
• Rita Clifton on distilling ideas, the Wall of Content and the application of the seat of the pants to the chair
• Gayle Mann on the importance of finding your own best way to conduct your writing experiment
• Shuhrat Ashurov on the alchemy of stories and a lifetime of experimenting with storytelling. 

Cath Bishop has performed at the highest standard in three very different fields: sport, international negotiation, and business coaching. An Olympic medallist and world champion herself, she has seen first hand the intense highs and lows of competition - how it serves us as humans, and how it doesn't. 

We are as a culture obsessed with winning. The word has seeped through our language across sport, politics, business, education... we accept without question that to come first, to beat the competition, is the outcome we celebrate. It's not working out too well for us, even for the winners themselves. In The Long Win, Cath explores a different way of looking  at success: how could we reimagine 'winning' to work better for us as people, as a society, and as inhabitants of the planet?

Fascinating insights too into the hard work of shaping such a complex, wide-ranging argument, and tips on keeping your focus as you write. 

"We are bombarded every single day by buzzes and dings and notifications... I wanted to help people find some simple ways to reclaim the power of their decisions instead of reacting all the time, to take a breath or to set up some simple rules and systems that they could use to make better decisions for their life, for their business."

Rob Hatch had been training to write a book for nine years without knowing it, as he built up not only a loyal readership for his weekly newsletter (all now poised to buy his book on launch day) but also his own writing practice.

In this conversation we talk about making technology work for us rather than against us, finding your people, seeking out critical feedback and some super-practical tips to help you regain control of your most precious resource of all - your attention.