Books that Change Mindset

 

You can't solve collaboration breakdowns, departmental silos, or leadership dysfunction when the people creating those problems can't see how they're contributing to them. Arbinger's books reveal the self-deception and inward mindset that make smart people perpetuate the very problems they think they're solving.

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Leadership-and-Self-Deception

Leadership & Self-Deception

Discover the Hidden Lies That Sabotage Results and Relationships
Leaders know what needs to happen. They see the dysfunction, the lack of accountability, and the poor collaboration. They implement solutions, hold people accountable, and drive initiatives. And nothing fundamentally changes. Why? Because they're blind to how their own behavior invites the very problems they're trying to fix.

What You'll Discover:
Told through an engaging story, this book reveals the ways we blind ourselves to our true motivations and unwittingly sabotage our efforts to achieve success and rebuild broken relationships. You'll discover the persistent lies at the heart of people-related dysfunction—the self-deception that makes you see others as obstacles instead of people with objectives you should support.

Significantly revised throughout, this edition includes:

  • Updated stories that reflect modern workplace challenges
  • Brand new content addressing remote work and distributed teams
  • A practical group discussion guide for teams and book clubs
  • Tools to identify when you've turned people into objects
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The-Outward-Mindset-1

The Outward Mindset

Make the One Change That Transforms Performance, Collaboration, and Innovation
You can have the right strategy, the right people, and the right processes—but if your organization operates with an inward mindset, those advantages disappear into territorial behavior, resource hoarding, and departmental warfare. Performance plateaus not because of skill gaps but because people focus on their own objectives at the expense of collective results.

What You'll Discover:
Building on Arbinger's work, this book shares true and compelling stories of individual leaders and organizations that made dramatic performance improvements by making one fundamental shift: from an inward mindset to an outward mindset.

You'll learn:

  • Why focusing on behavior change without addressing mindset creates initiative fatigue
  • How inward mindset leaders unwittingly invite the very behavior they're trying to eliminate
  • The practical tools that enable individuals to see and support others' objectives
  • How to design systems that invite outward mindset instead of undermining it
  • Real examples from organizations that achieved breakthrough results through this shift
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AOP Cover_5th Edition_Front Cover

The Anatomy of Peace

Transform Personal, Professional, and Global Conflicts by Addressing Their True Cause
What if, in our conflicts with others, there's something we want more than solutions? What if we systematically misunderstand the causes of our conflicts? And what if we unwittingly perpetuate the very problems we think we're trying to solve?

What You'll Discover:
This international bestseller instills hope and inspires reconciliation by revealing why our conflicts persist despite our best efforts to resolve them. Through a moving story of parents struggling with their own children and problems that have consumed their lives, we learn from once-bitter enemies the way to transform conflicts.

You'll discover:

  • Why conflicts persist even when both parties want resolution
  • The difference between boxes (the justifications we carry into conflict) and the issues we think we're fighting about
  • How we invite the very behavior we're complaining about
  • The path from seeing others as objects to seeing them as people—even when they've hurt us
  • How mindset determines whether interventions help or escalate dysfunction

The Transformation

This book doesn't offer conflict resolution techniques. It addresses why techniques fail. It reveals the self-deception that makes us blame others for problems we're actively creating. It shows how to get out of the box—the mental and emotional prison that keeps conflicts alive.

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Additional Arbinger Books for purchase

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Oxford-Papers
Oxford Papers

Educated in philosophy at Yale, Dr. C. Terry Warner has devoted a lifetime to the study of self-deception. In a steady stream of lectures, papers, and seminars over nearly three decades, Dr. Warner presented the results of his academic inquiry into the foundations of human behavior. The papers that make up this collection have been assembled for the use of the serious student of Arbinger’s rich and robust philosophical underpinnings.
Angels-Among-Us
Angels Among Us

This short but compelling book tells the true and inspiring story of a woman who was abandoned by her family and raised in an orphanage. Her story is at once tragic and uplifting, illuminating the foundational principles that govern any effort to work with those who are in need.
The-Choice-in-Education
The Choice in Teaching and Education

The art and structure of both teaching and learning are widely misunderstood. They happen at a level much deeper than typical educational efforts suppose. Understanding this deeper level reveals a new way to learn, teach, and administrate educational institutions.
The-Choice-in-Intervention
The Choice in Intervention

This book shows how resistance, in all its subtle forms, creeps into and undermines intervention efforts. When others resist our help, there is a way to preserve a deep awareness of their humanity. This book is written to help the general reader improve their intervention efforts, whether at home, at school, in a formal treatment program, or within the context of informal relationships.
Choose-Well
Choose Well

Moment to moment we make a choice that determines our entire experience: we choose how we see and respond to the people around us. Depending on how we choose, we either blind ourselves to reality and make our own and others’ lives worse or obtain a clarity that equips us to make everything better. This book is about understanding the nature and consequences of this choice. It is about learning to choose well.
Self-Betrayal
Self-Betrayal and the Crisis of Self-Misunderstanding

This book outlines in a robust and persuasive way the logic of self-betrayal--the issue at the heart of the problem of self-deception. Understanding self-betrayal--and the self-misunderstanding that comes in its wake--enables the thoughtful observer to identify and overcome its damaging effects both individually and interpersonally.

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Organizations implementing Arbinger's work often purchase books for all leaders or team members.

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