The Books I Recommend - Jiří Benedikt

Hi everyone,

these books are the best I know. Both on the topics I train, and on things that simply interest me:

P.S. There is also a Czech version of this page.

🚀 Innovation in companies

Switch – Dan Heath & Chip Heath: An amazing book about how you, as an individual without formal authority, can make big changes. Reads nicely. (Czech version)

Made to Stick – Dan Heath & Chip Heath: A fascinating book about how to communicate things so that people listen to them and remember them. Absolutely recommend! (Czech version)

No Rules Rules – Reed Hastings & Erin Meyer: A behind-the-scenes look at Netflix, which may owe its success to an unconventional, performance-focused culture. Inspiring for companies. (Czech version)

It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy at Work – Jason Fried & David Heinemeier Hansson: A behind-the-scenes look at the company behind Basecamp, where they have no meetings, no emails, no overtime, no KPIs. This one can inspire you too. (Czech version)

The Invincible Company – Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur: A great strategic take on corporate innovation from Strategyzer, the creators of the Business Model Canvas. Recommended for all innovation managers and leaders.

The Culture Map – Erin Meyer: A book full of stories that help you understand how and why people from different cultures behave in business. Great when you work with Americans, Germans, Japanese, etc…

Check out also my innovation skills training or follow my blog category innovation and technology.

🙋‍♀️ Lean

2-Second Lean – Paul A. Akers: A fascinating book about building a Lean culture with a mix of American and Japanese input. It will show you how easy it is to introduce Lean and get people in your company excited about innovation. The book is short and the ebook is free to download.

Lean Six Sigma & Minitab – Quentin Brook: Bestseller. A practical manual, I’ve used it for more than 10 years on every project. Great checklists of what not to forget, and well described methods. Good even if you don’t use Minitab.

The Goal – Eliyahu M. Goldratt: A short novel(!) written as material to help you understand Lean principles. (Czech version)

Zlepšování podnikových procesů – Alena Svozilová: The only more extensive Czech-language book on Lean Six Sigma. Not as detailed, but not bad either.

Lean Six Sigma for Dummies – John Morgan & Martin Brenig-Jones: A simple textbook on the topic. Good for understanding the whole concept.

P.S. Trust my recommendation. Most books about Lean Six Sigma have beautiful covers, but otherwise are often pretty bad, abstract, superficial or outdated. The ones above are ok.

🤔 Prefer videos or podcasts? Check out my page Lean Six Sigma Materials. Or read my Introduction to Lean Six Sigma.

🦾 Artificial intelligence

This is a topic that becomes outdated quickly, but I think these books are timeless:

Mýty a naděje digitálního světa – Patrik Zandl: An engaging, well-read take on the digital world. It was published before the rise of ChatGPT, though.

Life 3.0 – Max Tegmark: The best book on artificial intelligence I’ve read so far. It starts with a gripping story and continues by explaining how AI could affect our lives. It was published in 2017, but it’s still relevant.

👉 If you want some concrete guides, check out my page Artificial Intelligence: Free Resources.

💡 Design Thinking

Sprint – Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky & Braden Kowitz: A very practical book from Google about how they innovate a product or service using Design Thinking in just five days.

Creative Confidence – Tom Kelley & David Kelley: An amazing book by the founders of IDEO about how to trust yourself more in creative activities and bring more creativity into innovation projects. Easy to digest.

Testing Business Ideas – David J. Bland & Alexander Osterwalder: A comprehensive handbook from Strategyzer that shows in detail how to run dozens of different tests to validate your innovation ideas.

Design. Think. Make. Break. Repeat. – Martin Tomitsch et al.: A handbook containing a whole range of Design Thinking methods. Practical, especially for advanced practitioners.

Designing Your Life – Bill Burnett & Dave Evans: How to apply Design Thinking to your own life. A great guide if you’re figuring out where to steer your life. (Czech version)

🤔 Prefer videos or podcasts? Check out also my page Design Thinking Materials or read my Introduction to Design Thinking.

👨‍💻 Time management, notes and organization

Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals – Oliver Burkeman: An amazing book about how to enjoy life and not go crazy from toxic productivity. (Czech version)

Slow Productivity – Cal Newport: A brand new anti-time-management system, where the goal isn’t to do more and push for performance. (Czech version)

Building a Second Brain – Tiago Forte: A great book about how to organize your notes and your whole digital life, and find some peace. (Czech version)

Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives – Tim Harford: A book that argues you can be productive even without crazy organization and elaborate systems.

Deep Work – Cal Newport: A really good book about how to focus, overcome distractions, and get things done at work. (Czech version)

The Subtle Art of not Giving a F*ck – Mark Manson: An unconventional book for the younger generation. Pretty good, though even better than the book is this video summary straight from the author. (Czech version)

👉 Prefer videos, podcasts, or app tips? I have an extensive list of resources here: Time management materials.

🤔 Critical thinking

Think Again – Adam Grant: An engaging book that teaches you to think critically, develop your worldview, and how to change other people’s minds. (Czech version)

How to Make the World Add Up – Tim Harford: A fantastic book that teaches you, in a simple and fun way, to understand numbers and statistics and helps you avoid being fooled. (Czech version)

Factfulness – Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling & Anna Rosling Rönnlund: A great book that teaches you to think critically and also shares plenty of surprising facts about the world, for instance that it’s already much more developed than you think. (Czech version)

How to Avoid a Climate Disaster – Bill Gates: This book takes a pragmatic, numbers-based look at this huge topic and outlines technologies that could help us in the future. (Czech version)

🧠 Also read my blog articles from the category How the Brain Works.

👩‍💻 Freelancing and entrepreneurship

Show Your Work! – Austin Kleon: A short, funny but very practical book about letting the world know what you’re working on. It influenced and taught me a lot. (Czech version)

100 Dollar Startup – Chris Guillebeau: A practical book that helped me start my business. Recommended for all future entrepreneurs! (Czech version)

The 4-Hour Workweek – Tim Ferriss: After reading this book I quit my job and started freelancing. This book is inspiring, crazy, shocking, though a bit dated in places. Recommended. (Czech version)

Never Eat Alone – Keith Ferrazzi: This book taught me how to network. An amazingly practical book about building relationships and selling without selling. Recommended for all entrepreneurs, freelancers and salespeople. (Czech version)

The Freelance Way – Robert Vlach: Probably the best Czech book ever published about freelancing. If you want to get started, this is a must-read! (Czech version)

👉 I don’t write about entrepreneurship as much anymore, but you can find my older articles in the blog category Business and startups.

🎈 How to live

Awareness – Anthony de Mello: An Indian Jesuit tells Buddhist fables and stories. This book significantly changed how I look at my life and removed a huge amount of stress for me. (Czech version)

How to live – Derek Sivers: An incredibly packed book. Short chapters and unconventional life advice that will move you forward.

The Ickabog – J. K. Rowling: A story that incredibly illustrates how easily a free and prosperous kingdom can be turned, through the spread of lies and hatred, into a cruel dictatorship. Pretty topical. Recommended for adults and kids around 10+. (Czech version)

Atomic Habits – James Clear: A great and incredibly popular book on how to easily improve your life through small steps. (Czech version)

🙏 On my blog I touch a bit on these topics in the category Calm and Joy at Work.

🪴 Healthy life and longevity

Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity – Peter Attia: A complete guide to health in an engaging and easy-to-understand form. The only health book you must read. If you’re over 30, it’s mandatory reading. If you’re younger, give it to your parents. (Czech version)

Genius Foods – Max Lugavere: A great, unconventional, modern and accessible guide on how to eat a bit healthier and support not just your body but also your brain. (Czech version)

The Stress Prescription – Elissa Epel: A book about how to reduce your stress. It helped me incredibly to learn how to manage stress and have a somewhat calmer mind. (Czech version)

Do you have a tip for me? Write to me!