Building teams that thrive and leaders who influence: January's essential reads for L&D Professionals.
Welcome to 2026 and our first Beyond the Book session of the year! Last week, our People Untapped associates explored two resources that tackle fundamental workplace challenges: how to build effective teams and how to navigate organisational hierarchies with confidence.
Our Beyond the Book series is the People Untapped associate book club, where we recommend and discuss L&D resources that have proved useful in programme design, coaching, and facilitating. Each month, we dig into resources that help us serve our clients better and push our thinking as learning professionals.
This Month’s Exploration: January brought us two complementary perspectives on workplace effectiveness:
📘 ’90 Days to Level up your Teamwork’ by Amy Edmondson, presented by Lita Currie.
📙 ‘Managing Up: How to get what you need from the people in charge’ by Melody Wilding, presented by Jennifer Mintzer.
Together, these books form a toolkit for anyone designing learning experiences around collaboration, influence, and professional effectiveness.
90 Days to Level up your Teamwork.
Amy Edmondson, the Harvard professor who pioneered the concept of psychological safety, offers a practical 12-week framework for developing teamwork skills. Her 90-day plan progresses through three phases: getting ready to learn and compete (days 1-30), teaming fearlessly with psychological safety (days 31-60), and innovating with teaming (days 61-90).
Core concepts:
- Psychological safety as foundation. Leaders must create environments where everyone has a voice, making it safe to take risks and admit mistakes. Power dynamics and fear are major barriers, people worry about being perceived as ignorant, incompetent, negative or disruptive.
- Frame the work for learning. Adopt ‘situational humility’ by asking ‘What are we missing?’ Embrace blameless reporting and celebrate intelligent failures that lead to innovation, while distinguishing them from basic failures that require accountability.
- Silence is the invisible killer. 85% of people don’t speak up even when they feel strongly about a situation. We unconsciously manage our image at work, and you don’t know when people are NOT speaking up.
Key Takeaway: Lita emphasised that ‘teaming’ is a verb, the skill of reciprocal interdependence that must be done deliberately. Leaders need facilitation skills to create psychological safety, which is difficult and not always intuitive. Innovation is a structured process accessible to any team, not just naturally creative individuals.
Application to Learning Design.
This resource has immediate applications across multiple contexts:
- Team formation programmes. The 90-day structure can be adapted into cohort-based learning journeys.
- Leadership development. First-time managers gain frameworks for building psychological safety and driving performance.
- Post-project reviews. Activities like identifying the top 5 things to repeat and top 5 to change next time help teams share learning.
Managing Up.
Melody Wilding tackles how to effectively work with those who have power over your career. This isn’t about manipulation or people-pleasing, its strategic self-advocacy, influence, clarity and communication. The book centres on 10 core conversations covering alignment, styles, ownership, boundaries, feedback, networking, visibility, advancement, money and quitting.
The 4C Communication Styles Framework.
A standout tool is Wilding’s 4C framework for decoding stakeholder behaviour. People like people who are like themselves, so understanding your boss or stakeholder’s communication style is crucial:
- The Commander (High Dominance • Low Sociability) – Direct, decisive, results-focused. Lead with headlines, bring options with recommendations, match their pace and confidence, name risks early.
- The Cheerleader (High Dominance • High Sociability) – Enthusiastic, visionary, energetic. Connect ideas to mission and impact, match their energy, help prioritise, follow up with written clarity.
- The Controller (Low Dominance • Low Sociability) – Analytical, process-oriented, perfectionistic. Provide data and documentation, use lists and timelines, avoid surprises, give them time to review.
- The Caretaker (Low Dominance • High Sociability) – Supportive, harmony-oriented, warm. Use a relational tone, give them time, lead with empathy, position clarity as support.
Practical Micro Tools.
The book provides immediately actionable ‘micro tools’ for managing up:
- The Clarity Ask: “What does success look like?” to clarify expectations instantly.
- The Prioritisation Ask: “Which is the top priority?” to reduce overwhelm and focus.
- The Recommendation Sandwich: Share what you’re seeing → Impact → Recommendation for fast decisions.
- The Feedback Invite: “What’s one thing I can adjust next time?” for safe, actionable feedback.
Key Takeaway.
Influence doesn’t require a title change. Through stakeholder mapping (understanding their style, behaviours, perspective and connection strategy), intentional relationship-building, and these practical tools, you can shape how senior leaders perceive your contributions and secure the resources you need.
Application to Learning Design.
- Mid-level leadership programmes. Professionals with responsibility but limited authority can multiply their impact.
- Stakeholder management training. The 4C framework and micro tools are immediately applicable in workshops.
- Executive Presence workshops. Learn to adapt communication style to different senior audiences.
The Bigger Picture.
These books share a common thread: success isn’t just about what you know, it’s about how effectively you navigate relationships. Edmondson shows us how to build horizontal relationships that make teams thrive. Wilding shows us how to navigate vertical relationships that determine whether we get support and resources.
Together, they form a comprehensive view of relational intelligence. For L&D professionals, they remind us that technical skills are only part of the equation. We must also help people develop interpersonal capabilities for effective collaboration and confident organisational navigation.
Over to You.
These are the conversations that energise us at People Untapped, exploring ideas that challenge conventional wisdom and offer practical pathways to more human-centred, effective L&D.
What resources are currently informing your practice? What books, research, or frameworks are shaping how you think about learning, development and human thriving at work?
We’d love to continue the conversation. Connect with us: info@peopleuntapped.com