New leadership book Hope at Work hope is a radical force for change.
In an era of financial crises, pandemic lockdowns, and political upheaval, hope is a radical force for change. New leadership book Hope at Work (Armin Lear Press) offers a timely insight into the importance of placing hope at the centre of a robust framework for organisational growth.
Leaders worldwide face mounting pressures: they must sustain organisational impact, meaning, and momentum, both internally and externally. When hope is already a driving force in other aspects of our lives, from philosophy to art, it follows that choosing to lead with hope in collective endeavours, as leaders of organisations, can also drastically alter business trajectories.
Understanding that leaders must envision new ways of working in the face of uncertainty, cultural anthropologist Barbara Perry, Ph.D. has partnered with leadership development professional Harry Hutson, Ph.D. to produce a vital leadership framework, positioning hope as a practical force for transformation.
Drawing on three decades of consulting and research, their new book, Hope at Work: 5 Principles to Breathe Life into Your Organization (Armin Lear Press), speaks directly to leaders navigating rising demands for meaning, trust, and performance at work.
Barbara Perry, Ph.D.,is a cultural anthropologist who has advised the tribes we call organizations for 50 years. Her work, rooted in the intersection of culture, organizational learning, and hope, has been applied to a wide variety of organizational challenges from innovation to large-scale systemic transformation.
Harry Hutson, Ph.D., is a leadership development professional who works with organizations worldwide, as a coach, consultant, and educator. Earlier in his career, he held senior human resources and organizational development roles at Cummins, Avery Dennison, Global Knowledge, and Devon Energy.
Hutson and Perry argue for hope as a catalyst for business strategy, sharing in-depth corporate, education, and non-profit leaders’ stories, and practical insights into how hope can enable progress. Hope at Work guides us through five core principles, Possibility, Agency, Worth, Openness, and Connection, that constitute a “scaffolding” of hope. Leaders are emboldened to be courageous and treat hope as an operational force for human worth and collective action.
Rather than arguing for holding complete certainty in your leadership practice, Hope at Work centres capacity. This entails the capacity to make small, repeatable, “hope-full” actions part of your everyday working until they gradually become part of the fabric of the organisation.
Grounded in real-world stories, Hope at Work offers a crucial buoy for leaders of all callings who want to establish trust, lead in more sustainable, connected, and fundamentally human ways, and create better business outcomes. Hope enables honest engagement with reality while keeping people moving forward – even under radical uncertainty and extraordinary pressure.
‘In a world being rapidly shaped by AI and uncertainty, Hope at Work offers the human grounding leaders desperately need to build organizations where people can still see – and shape – a better future.’
– John Winsor, Open Assembly and Harvard Business School