Leap: How to Thrive in a World Where Everything Can Be Captured

Howard Yu

PublicAffairs, 288 pp., $28

"When they face the onslaught of new competition, what causes some pioneers to escape relatively unscathed while latecomers sweep others away?" asks Yu in his book's introduction. To him, neither of the simplest answers—that some industries require difficult-to-replicate skills or have insurmountable barriers to entry—suffice. After all, even advanced manufacturing has a long history making seemingly impossible jumps from country to country. The key, he says, is to "move across knowledge and disciplines, to leverage or create new knowledge on how a product is made or service is delivered." Leap provides five principles for achieving this goal, all of which the author gives life through his engaging writing style and compelling examples.

Peer Coaching at Work: Principles and Practices

Polly Parker, Douglas T. Hall, Kathy E. Kram, and Ilene C. Wasserman

Stanford Business Books, 216 pp., $27.95

When an organization adopts a culture of learning, the definition of learning expands far beyond picking up new information in a formal environment. It grows to include experiential learning, self-directed learning, and learning for peers. For talent development professionals who want to incorporate the latter into their organizations, pick up Peer Coaching at Work. It presents a three-step model for teaching others to practice peer coaching and spread it throughout a company. The process begins with setting ground rules for how peer coaching relationships should work. Next it moves to developing the skills needed for peer coaching to flourish, and then it encourages its followers to apply peer coaching in new areas across their lives.