About Berrett-Koehler

A Special Acknowledgement by Praveen:

Early in my bookselling days, I was fortunate to get involved with a remarkable book publisher: Berrett-Koehler. I ended up serving on Berrett-Koehler’s board from 2009-2020, including two years as their first board chair. My association with Berrett-Koehler started as a casual date and soon turned into a torrid love affair that has transformed my views about the future of independent bookstores and my own role in that transformation.

Berrett-Koehler’s books and authors have led the world in developing and popularizing new change methodologies that transform the traditional, dominant ways of changing groups, organizations, communities, and societies. These new methods are inclusive, participatory, whole-system, real-time, dynamic, and effective. Their impact around the world has been huge. You can read about Berrett-Koehler’s mission, their work, and more in this article written by their founder Steve Piersanti.

Berrett-Koehler’s intellectual capital has been critical to Kepler’s transformation. Now, I hope it will help many other bookstores and our industry in our quest for sustainability and deeper impact. The Reimagining Bookstores gathering is being made possible because of the volunteer contributions of BK community members: Peggy Holman, Sandra Janoff, Paul Wright and many others.

Below you will find a curated list of Berrett-Koehler books and other resources that have particularly significant relevance for independent bookstores.

Online Course:

Berrett-Koehler’s From Self to Systems training course, featuring Edgar Villanueva, Jennifer Brown, Tiffany Jana, and Lily Zheng

Books:

Peter Barnes, Capitalism 3.0

Peter Block, Stewardship

Juanita Brown, David Isaacs, The World Café

Denise Collazo, Thriving in the Fight

David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, Appreciative Inquiry

Gerald Harris, The Art of Quantum Planning

Ryan Honeyman, Tiffany Jana, The B Corp Handbook

Marjorie Kelly, Owning Our Future

David Korten, When Corporations Rule the World