Best Business & Organizational Learning Books of 2025

Traction: Get a Grip on Your Business by Gino Wickman is a practical guide that offers a solution to the common frustrations faced by entrepreneurs and business leaders. The Entrepreneurial Operating System® (EOS) outlined in the book helps to strengthen the six key components of a business, providing simple yet powerful ways to run a company with more focus, growth, and enjoyment. With over 1 million copies sold, the book has received positive reviews from readers who have implemented the EOS method and seen significant improvements in their business productivity and operations. Overall, Traction is a must-read for anyone seeking practical solutions to achieve business success.

Scaling People: Tactics for Management and Company Building by Claire Hughes Johnson is a practical guide to building and scaling a company's most important resource: its people. The book offers tactical information on crafting foundational documents, strategic planning, hiring, team development, and feedback mechanisms, all of which can be applied to companies of any size and industry. The author provides dozens of pages of worksheets, templates, exercises, and example documents to help company builders create scalable operating systems and lightweight processes. Overall, Scaling People is a detailed roadmap for creating sustainable and scalable companies that are set up for long-term success.

#1 New York Times Bestseller “Significant...The book is both instructive and surprisingly moving.” —The New York Times Ray Dalio, one of the world’s most successful investors and entrepreneurs, shares the unconventional principles that he’s developed, refined, and used over the past forty years to create unique results in both life and business—and which any person or organization can adopt to help achieve their goals.In 1975, Ray Dalio founded an investment firm, Bridgewater Associates, out of his two-bedroom apartment in New York City. Forty years later, Bridgewater has made more money for its clients than any other hedge fund in history and grown into the fifth most important private company in the United States, according to Fortune magazine. Dalio himself has been named to Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. Along the way, Dalio discovered a set of unique principles that have led to Bridgewater’s exceptionally effective culture, which he describes as “an idea meritocracy that strives to achieve meaningful work and meaningful relationships through radical transparency.” It is these principles, and not anything special about Dalio—who grew up an ordinary kid in a middle-class Long Island neighborhood—that he believes are the reason behind his success. In Principles, Dalio shares what he’s learned over the course of his remarkable career. He argues that life, management, economics, and investing can all be systemized into rules and understood like machines. The book’s hundreds of practical lessons, which are built around his cornerstones of “radical truth” and “radical transparency,” include Dalio laying out the most effective ways for individuals and organizations to make decisions, approach challenges, and build strong teams. He also describes the innovative tools the firm uses to bring an idea meritocracy to life, such as creating “baseball cards” for all employees that distill their strengths and weaknesses, and employing computerized decision-making systems to make believability-weighted decisions. While the book brims with novel ideas for organizations and institutions, Principles also offers a clear, straightforward approach to decision-making that Dalio believes anyone can apply, no matter what they’re seeking to achieve. Here, from a man who has been called both “the Steve Jobs of investing” and “the philosopher king of the financial universe” (CIO magazine), is a rare opportunity to gain proven advice unlike anything you’ll find in the conventional business press.

Has your company struggled to roll EOS out to all levels of your organization?  Do your employees understand why EOS is important or even what it is? . What the Heck is EOS? is for the millions of employees in companies running their businesses on EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).  An easy and fast read, this book answers the questions many employees have about EOS and their company: .    • What is an operating system?    • What is EOS and why is my company using it?    • What are the EOS foundational tools and how do they impact me?    • What's in it for me?  . Designed to engage employees in the EOS process and tools, What the Heck is EOS? uses simple, straightforward language and  provides questions about each tool for managers and employees to discuss creating more ownership and buy-in at the staff level. After reading this book,  employees will not only have a better understanding of EOS but they will be more engaged, taking an active role in helping achieve your company's vision. .

How to Grow Your Small Business by Donald Miller is a must-read for any entrepreneur who wants to take their business to the next level. Miller, a bestselling author, provides a 6-step plan that helps business owners grow their businesses with dependable and predictable results. The book covers key areas such as leadership, marketing, sales, and more. Miller's proven frameworks will help optimize your business and give you the freedom and flexibility to live life on your terms. With Miller's experience in growing his own business, readers can trust that the strategies presented in this book work. This book is highly recommended for anyone looking to grow their small business.

There is a competitive advantage out there, arguably more powerful than any other. Is it superior strategy? Faster innovation? Smarter employees? No, New York Times best-selling author, Patrick Lencioni, argues that the seminal difference between successful companies and mediocre ones has little to do with what they know and how smart they are and more to do with how healthy they are. In this book, Lencioni brings together his vast experience and many of the themes cultivated in his other best-selling books and delivers a first: a cohesive and comprehensive exploration of the unique advantage organizational health provides. Simply put, an organization is healthy when it is whole, consistent and complete, when its management, operations and culture are unified.  Healthy organizations outperform their counterparts, are free of politics and confusion and provide an environment where star performers never want to leave. Lencioni’s first non-fiction book provides leaders with a groundbreaking, approachable model for achieving organizational health―complete with stories, tips and anecdotes from his experiences consulting to some of the nation’s leading organizations. In this age of informational ubiquity and nano-second change, it is no longer enough to build a competitive advantage based on intelligence alone. The Advantage provides a foundational construct for conducting business in a new way―one that maximizes human potential and aligns the organization around a common set of principles.

The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington is a practical guide for individuals and organizations seeking to achieve their goals in a shorter time frame. The book introduces the concept of a 12-week year, which creates a sense of urgency and focus to accomplish more in less time. The authors explain how to leverage the power of a 12-week year to drive improved results in any area of life. The book is based on real-life experience and is backed by proven disciplines and principles of effective execution. Overall, The 12 Week Year is a valuable tool for anyone looking to increase productivity and achieve their goals more efficiently.

Better Small Talk is an essential read for anyone looking to improve their conversational skills. In this book, Patrick King provides actionable tips and tricks to help readers make a memorable impression, connect with others, and build real rapport. From simple warm-up exercises to specific dialogues and questions, this book covers it all. King draws from scientific research, academic experience, coaching, and real-life experience to provide a comprehensive guide to better small talk. Overall, this book is a must-read for anyone looking to improve their social skills and become more likable and charismatic.

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand how to foster creativity in business and leadership. As a co-founder of Pixar Animation Studios, Catmull shares his insights into the company's unique environment that has produced some of the most successful films in history. The book provides an inside look into Pixar's meetings, postmortems, and "Braintrust" sessions, revealing the ideals and techniques that have made it so widely admired and profitable. Overall, Creativity, Inc. is an insightful and inspiring read that offers valuable lessons for anyone looking to unleash their creativity and achieve success.