Best Organizational Change Books of 2025

The First 90 Days by Michael D. Watkins is a must-read for anyone who is transitioning into a new leadership role. Watkins offers proven strategies and practical tools to help conquer the challenges of transitions, no matter where you are in your career. He identifies the most common pitfalls new leaders encounter, provides the tools and strategies you need to avoid them, and teaches how to secure critical early wins. This updated and expanded version of the international bestseller is a trusted guide for anyone starting a new job or being promoted from within. Overall, it's a valuable resource for leaders who want to succeed in their new roles.

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.

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement - 30th Anniversary Edition, written by Eli Goldratt, is a must-read for managers in the industry. The book tells the story of Alex Rogo, a plant manager who has ninety days to save his failing factory from being closed down by corporate HQ. With the help of a former professor, Jonah, Alex breaks out of conventional ways of thinking and discovers the Theory of Constraints (TOC). The book's serious message for all managers in industry is to define their goals in terms of ongoing improvement. The book's 30th Anniversary Edition includes a graphic novel version and an article by Eli Goldratt on the rules of operations. Overall, this book is a compelling read that offers practical insights for anyone aiming for continuous improvement in their organization.

Beyond Disruption: Innovate and Achieve Growth without Displacing Industries, Companies, or Jobs by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne offers a new approach to innovation and growth that goes beyond disruption, which is often destructive. The authors introduce the concept of nondisruptive creation, which allows companies to grow while being a force for good. The book provides a practical guide for driving innovation and growth and is a must-read for the next generation of innovators in all sectors of the economy.

Our Iceberg Is Melting is a classic business fable that has helped millions of people worldwide to thrive during tough times. Based on John Kotter's pioneering research into the eight steps that can produce needed change in any group, the book offers a powerful framework for influencing your own team. The story of the emperor penguins' resistance to change and heroic action offers an inspiring model as we all struggle to adapt to new circumstances. The revised tenth anniversary edition includes new illustrations, a revised afterword, and a Q&A with the authors about the responses they've gotten over the past decade.

Team Topologies by Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais is a practical guide for organizational design and team interaction. The book presents a model that treats teams as the fundamental means of delivery, where team structures and communication pathways can evolve with technological and organizational maturity. The authors share secrets of successful team patterns and interactions to help readers choose and evolve the right team patterns for their organization. This well-defined way for teams to interact and interrelate can help make the resulting software architecture clearer and more sustainable. Overall, Team Topologies is an insightful book that offers a fresh perspective on organizational design for software teams.

The 25th anniversary edition of "Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change" by William Bridges is a timeless guide for individuals and managers to navigate the psychological transitions that accompany organizational changes. This expanded edition provides practical strategies for minimizing disruptions and successfully navigating uncertain times in today's ever-changing work environment. The book is a celebration of Bridges' original insights and practical guidance, and reintroduces his exceptional work to a new generation. This book is a must-read for anyone looking to embrace change and succeed in today's global workplaces.

An Elegant Puzzle by Will Larson is a must-read for anyone in engineering management. Larson draws from his experience at Digg, Uber, and Stripe to provide a thoughtful approach to solving complex management challenges, including sizing teams, handling technical debt, and performing succession planning. The book balances structured principles and human-centric thinking to help any leader create more effective and rewarding organizations for engineers to thrive in. An Elegant Puzzle provides concrete strategies for modern organizations while capturing the timeless spirit of creative problem-solving that draws us to software engineering. Overall, it's a masterful study of the challenges and demands of engineering management viewed through the prism of systems thinking.

The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes is a must-read for every CEO, manager, and business owner who wants to take their organization to the next level. The book offers practical tools, real-life examples, and proven strategies to help readers transform their organization into a high-performing, moneymaking force. With updated language and over 50 new pages of content, this revised edition is perfect for modern audiences. The book's focus on twelve key areas of improvement and pigheaded discipline make it stand out from other sales books. Overall, The Ultimate Sales Machine is a powerful and entertaining guide to achieving business success.

Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership - 2021, 7th Edition - Paperback is a comprehensive guide to organizational change and leadership. It explores the convergence of organizational structure and function, the dynamics at the intersection of people and organizations, competition, conflict, and the struggle for power and resources, and organizational culture. The book offers strategic insight for avoiding common pathologies and achieving the right fit in diverse organizations. The updated Seventh Edition includes new information on cross-sector collaboration, generational differences, virtual environments, globalization, cross-cultural communication, and more. This book is a valuable resource for anyone interested in organizational change and leadership.