The shelf our guests keep reaching for: leadership under chaos, judgment under uncertainty, and why big things succeed or fail.
Book · Habits
James Clear · recommended by Omer Iqbal
“This is definitely one of the good ones… If you think you’re stuck where you’re at, it’s most likely because you have stopped measuring yourself. Journaling and mentoring, these two things can transform anyone’s life.”Omer Iqbal, bonus episode
Why it’s on the shelfPairs with Omer’s core career advice: progress comes from small, measured systems, not from waiting to be noticed.
Hear it in“Being Right Isn’t Enough” (bonus) · listen · episode brief
Book · Judgment
Daniel Kahneman · recommended by Omer Iqbal · also recommended by Tarun Gohel
“Thinking, Fast and Slow is definitely one of the big ones.”Omer Iqbal, bonus episode
“If you want to read something about scientific stuff in terms of nature and human behaviors, Thinking, Fast and Slow is very, very popular.”Tarun Gohel, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfOmer’s whole episode is about judgment under imperfect information. Kahneman is the operating manual for the biases that judgment has to survive. Tarun shelves it for the same reason: a discipline built on judgment under uncertainty.
Hear it in“You Cannot Outsource Accountability” with Omer Iqbal · watch · episode brief · Also in “Inside Iraq’s $20 Billion West Qurna 2” with Tarun Gohel · listen · episode brief
Book · Career
Richard N. Bolles · recommended by Omer Iqbal
“Sometimes you’re stuck in your career and you don’t know what really moves you. That book walks you through what excites you, your intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, and helps you align that with real-life job titles and work environments. That’s how I ended up in board roles: I was looking for something bigger.”Omer Iqbal, bonus episode
Why it’s on the shelfThe rare career book with a testimonial attached: it’s the one Omer credits for redirecting his own path toward governance and community leadership.
Hear it in“Being Right Isn’t Enough” (bonus) · listen · episode brief
Book · Leadership
Brené Brown · recommended by Omer Iqbal
“Definitely Brené Brown’s Dare to Lead, that’s one on the list as well.”Omer Iqbal, bonus episode
Why it’s on the shelfOmer’s advice chapter is about courage in organizations: engaging stakeholders early, having the conversation instead of being quietly right. Brown’s book is the long-form version of that muscle.
Hear it in“Being Right Isn’t Enough” (bonus) · listen · episode brief
Book · Strategy
Richard Rumelt · recommended by Omer Iqbal
“The traditional books I have, Good Strategy and Bad Strategy by Richard Rumelt. That was a good one.”Omer Iqbal, bonus episode
Why it’s on the shelfPortfolio work is strategy work: deciding what not to fund. Rumelt’s “kernel” is the sharpest test for whether an investment story is strategy or wishful thinking.
Hear it in“You Cannot Outsource Accountability” with Omer Iqbal · watch · episode brief
Book · Megaprojects
Bent Flyvbjerg · recommended by Omer Iqbal · also recommended by James Wiseman & Akin Oni
“Why big projects fail, and what you should know about megaprojects: all of his books are good. He’s tapping into some real good case studies.”Omer Iqbal, bonus episode
“There are a lot of good books about major projects. How Big Things Get Done is kind of a cool book. It talks through a lot of project failures and why they failed, the prototyping you can do, and how to plan. But you really have to practice.”James Wiseman, on the show
“It summarized decades of the mega project research that he conducted.”Akin Oni, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe reference data on why megaprojects overrun: the base rates behind half the conversations on this show, and now named by three guests. Start with How Big Things Get Done; the academic work (Megaprojects and Risk) goes deeper.
Hear it in“Being Right Isn’t Enough” (bonus) · listen · episode brief · Also in “Energy and People” with James Wiseman · listen · episode brief · and “Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · Host pick
Dale Carnegie · raised by Orion Matthews
“He talks about someone who spent four hours every Sunday journaling everybody they met that week. That sounds like one of the best uses of time I’ve ever heard of, making a habit out of it. An atomic habit, even.”Orion Matthews, bonus episode with Omer
Why it’s on the shelfCame up alongside Omer’s journaling-and-mentoring advice: the hundred-year-old original on relationships as a deliberate practice.
Hear it in“Being Right Isn’t Enough” (bonus) · listen · episode brief
Book · Governance
Iwona Wilson & Austin Wilson · recommended by Iwona Wilson
“This is a very short book, and it was intentionally designed as a handbook for my course participants. If you look at the index, it’s basically aligned with the structure of my program. So if someone just wants a quick short version, this is a really good resource.”Iwona Wilson, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe practical guide to the early decisions the rest of a project inherits: framing, decision quality and governance before FID, with a foreword by David Skinner. A second edition with case studies is in planning, and Iwona explicitly asks readers to send disagreements.
Hear it in“The Hidden Reason Billion-Dollar Projects Overrun Even With Stage Gate” with Iwona Wilson · watch · episode brief
Book · Decision science
David C. Skinner · recommended by Iwona Wilson
“It gives you a real solid foundation to decision science, including opportunity framing, probabilities, how do we assess uncertainties. Those of you who are really into analysis and statistics are gonna have a ball just reading Decision Analysis by David Skinner.”Iwona Wilson, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfIwona’s one named book recommendation outside her own, from the founder of the Society of Decision Professionals, who wrote the foreword to her book. This is the technical floor under everything the episode discusses.
Hear it in“The Hidden Reason Billion-Dollar Projects Overrun Even With Stage Gate” with Iwona Wilson · watch · episode brief
Book · Facilitation
Sam Kaner · his research cited by Iwona Wilson
“I like to bring the expertise from Sam Kaner, and I often talk about his research around collaborative decision-making… He calls it the groan zone. It gets messy. People feel the disagreement, discomfort. And a lot of leaders don’t like sitting in that place.”Iwona Wilson, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe source of the “groan zone,” which is the load-bearing idea in Iwona’s case for opportunity framing workshops. She cites the research rather than a specific title; this is the standard reference for it.
Hear it in“The Hidden Reason Billion-Dollar Projects Overrun Even With Stage Gate” with Iwona Wilson · watch · episode brief
Book · Host pick
Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson · raised by Orion Matthews
“It talks about how one of the most powerful sales you can do to someone is to change their mindset, which is what you do when you’re talking about this stuff. So you’re offering people a change of perspective, which is super valuable.”Orion Matthews, on the show with Iwona
Why it’s on the shelfOrion’s frame for why teaching decision quality is a harder and better sell than running someone’s gate meeting: you have to reset how the buyer thinks about decisions before the service makes sense.
Hear it in“The Hidden Reason Billion-Dollar Projects Overrun Even With Stage Gate” with Iwona Wilson · watch · episode brief
Book · Host pick
Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic · raised by Orion Matthews
“It’s really eye-opening because it’s sort of a story of form over function: you can have all the data you want, but if you don’t have the storytelling ability with that data, it just falls apart.”Orion Matthews, on the show with Jovita
Why it’s on the shelfOrion’s case for why Jovita’s graphic-design team inside project controls was such an advantage: data only drives decisions when someone shapes it into a story.
Hear it in“Greening Riyadh” with Jovita Stander · listen · episode brief
Book · Leadership
Spirituality for Leadership & Success
Recommended by Tarun Gohel
“It connects the spirituality with the leadership… It talks a lot about understanding yourself before even doing anything, a balance between inner peace and outer success.”Tarun Gohel, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe leadership book on his desk right now, picked up on a trip to India, and his favorite of the bunch. Title as heard on air; the exact edition is unverified, so it stays unlinked for now.
Hear it in“Inside Iraq’s $20 Billion West Qurna 2” with Tarun Gohel · listen · episode brief
Book · Leadership
Deepak Chopra · recommended by Tarun Gohel
“One other one which I like is The Soul of Leadership, which is Deepak Chopra’s book. It’s pretty fascinating; it’s a very iconic book.”Tarun Gohel, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfHis second leadership pick, in the same inner-work-before-outer-success vein.
Hear it in“Inside Iraq’s $20 Billion West Qurna 2” with Tarun Gohel · listen · episode brief
Book · Money
Robert T. Kiyosaki · recommended by Tarun Gohel
“I read a lot of other books on money, Rich Dad Poor Dad, things like that… Unless you know how to manage your own money, how can you expect to manage somebody’s money?”Tarun Gohel, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfStands in for his whole finance shelf: a project controller is also managing money.
Hear it in“Inside Iraq’s $20 Billion West Qurna 2” with Tarun Gohel · listen · episode brief
Book · Leadership
Jim Collins · recommended by Tarun Gohel & Akin Oni
Why it’s on the shelfThe classic two guests reached for independently in one season: on Akin’s shelf of leadership standards, and among Tarun’s mentions on air.
Hear it in“Inside Iraq’s $20 Billion West Qurna 2” with Tarun Gohel · listen · episode brief · Also in “Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · AWP
Geoff Ryan · recommended by Geoff Ryan · his own AWP handbook
“Most people that have been in the project industry any length of time read the book and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I didn’t learn anything, but I have a holistic understanding of how things fit with each other.’ Which is really what we’re trying to achieve.”Geoff Ryan, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe definitive Advanced Work Packaging handbook (synchronizing engineering, procurement and construction), available as an audiobook and in Russian, Mandarin, Spanish and Portuguese.
Hear it in“Advanced Work Packaging” with Geoff Ryan · listen · episode brief
Book · WorkFace Planning
Geoff Ryan · recommended by Geoff Ryan
“What do you mean, schedule for sale? How can you buy a schedule? Well, you can buy a schedule. But you can’t buy it with money. You’ve gotta buy it with effort and time and process.”Geoff Ryan, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe 2009 original that codified WorkFace Planning so teams didn’t have to hire him to figure it out.
Hear it in“Advanced Work Packaging” with Geoff Ryan · listen · episode brief
Book · Host pick
Gruebl, Welch & Dobson · raised by Orion Matthews
“There has to be one person whose only interest is the project itself, and you are the project advocate, being able to say some of the things that you would never be able to say if your incentives aren’t aligned properly.”Orion Matthews, on the show with Geoff
Why it’s on the shelfOrion’s touchstone for the independent “project advocate”: the same dispassionate third party Geoff’s “true project management” calls for. Title recalled from memory on air; linked to the book matching his description.
Hear it in“Advanced Work Packaging” with Geoff Ryan · listen · episode brief
Book · Front-end planning
Paul Barshop · recommended by Roger Farish
“Even though it’s called Capital Projects, that book is all about the front-end planning of projects. It’s not very technical in nature; it talks about the support mechanism required to be successful in the front-end phases. It’s geared towards executives, but still very accessible to anybody interested in capital projects. I definitely highly recommend it.”Roger Farish, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe IPA-rooted executive playbook for the exact phase Roger lives in, and the episode’s only book pick.
Hear it in“Front-End Planning” with Roger Farish · listen · episode brief
Book · Megaprojects
Edward W. Merrow · recommended by Akin Oni
“It’s actually the cornerstone text of mega project performance and risk.”Akin Oni, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe reference work of the discipline, and the author who circulated Akin’s 2006 paper across IPA.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · Execution
Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan · recommended by Akin Oni
“I really like that book because it talks about the three processes (the strategy process, the people process, and the operations process), and the most important of those is people.”Akin Oni, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfA book of threes for a man of threes: strategy, people, operations.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · Effectiveness
Peter F. Drucker · recommended by Akin Oni
“The definitive guide on personal and managerial effectiveness. I’m a man of focusing on effectiveness first before efficiency: effectiveness means doing the right things; efficiency only means doing things right.”Akin Oni, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfUnderwrites his advice to leaders: ask whether you’re doing the right things at all.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · Discipline
Atul Gawande · recommended by Akin Oni · also raised by Orion Matthews
“He did a deep dive on checklists and it was really a great read for anyone that loves checklists… I am in love with checklists, and The Checklist Manifesto is an awesome read for those that wanna go a little deeper.”Orion Matthews, on the show with Leanne
Why it’s on the shelfDiscipline made simple, fitting for the man who brings simplicity to the chaos. Orion raised it again off the back of Leanne’s document-day survival kit: procedures that end in a literal checklist.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief · Also in “Docs, Chaos, and Control” with Leanne Allgaier · listen · episode brief
Book · History
Doris Kearns Goodwin · recommended by Akin Oni
Why it’s on the shelfHistory as leadership study, one of the unexpected sources he learns from.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · Generosity
Adam Grant · recommended by Akin Oni
Why it’s on the shelfGenerosity as strategy, from the guest who shares his tricks of the trade freely.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · Growth
Marshall Goldsmith · recommended by Akin Oni
“It is considered a modern classic on leadership behavior, personal growth, and the habits that hold successful people back from their next level. You want to go to the next level? Go and read that book; it will challenge you to leave the comfortable and go for what’s next.”Akin Oni, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe engine of his promotion-trap warning: good mechanical engineering won’t teach you project leadership.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · Host pick
Tom DeMarco & Timothy Lister · raised by Orion Matthews
“The point of the book was to tell developers, their engineers, that humans are not software.”Orion Matthews, on the show with Akin
Why it’s on the shelfOrion’s software-world bridge to Akin’s third truth: projects are built by people, not spreadsheets.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · From our guests
Megaproject Development and Decision Making
Akin Oni · recommended by Akin Oni · Business Expert Press, March 2026
“That book was written to change how leaders choose, shape and govern mega projects prior to FID, because most of these projects that failed actually failed before FID.”Akin Oni, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe guest’s forthcoming book this episode is built around. No retail page yet. The link lands here when it publishes.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · From our guests
The Mighty Warrior Way
Akin Oni · recommended by Akin Oni · arriving spring 2026
“Written to offer encouragement, grit and hope for anyone walking through fire, because if you desire to grow, you will experience fire.”Akin Oni, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfHis part-autobiography, part-leadership handbook, the second book of the 2026 trilogy. Unlinked until it publishes.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · From our guests
Functional Excellence
Akin Oni · recommended by Akin Oni · second half of 2026
“The goal of that book is really simple: to give organizations a practical playbook for successful high-stakes execution and operations.”Akin Oni, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe third book of the trilogy, for project and operations leaders alike. Unlinked until it publishes.
Hear it in“Mega Projects & Destiny” with Akin Oni · listen · episode brief
Book · Perspective
Paulo Coelho · recommended by Travis Arlitt
“The Alchemist is always a great read for people to kind of understand the journey; there’s a lot of wisdom within The Alchemist.”Travis Arlitt, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfHis first pick when Orion asks what shaped his thinking: the fable about trusting the journey, from a career steered by a note card.
Hear it in“Execution Realism” with Travis Arlitt · listen · episode brief
Book · Perspective
Ayn Rand · recommended by Travis Arlitt
“Hopefully I’m not a Peter Keating, and I wish I was more of a Howard Roark… when you read that, you get inspired to take a little more boldness and unique ideas. It’s a really good book, but it’s long: you gotta listen to it while you’re flying or driving.”Travis Arlitt, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfDiscovered via Mark Cuban naming it a most-influential book, fitting for a planner whose job is holding his own number against the room (“I’m a little more Howard Roark. I’m not a joiner”).
Hear it in“Execution Realism” with Travis Arlitt · listen · episode brief
Book · Mindset
Vadim Zeland · recommended by Travis Arlitt
“That’s the idea of the essence of where you want to go, and keeping that in your mind. It’s been really enlightening to me.”Travis Arlitt, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe mindset framework behind his morning stillness practice. He cites its “knocking at the door of heaven and listening to the stars” when explaining where the ideas AI can’t give you come from.
Hear it in“Execution Realism” with Travis Arlitt · listen · episode brief
Book · Performance
Todd Herman · recommended by Travis Arlitt
“If you find a project person or somebody that you really want to emulate, you can do what a lot of sports figures do and just have an alter ego that you channel into your work. It can create long-term benefits and kickstart your development.”Travis Arlitt, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe book he’d just finished at recording: performance psychology on stepping into the identity the moment requires.
Hear it in“Execution Realism” with Travis Arlitt · listen · episode brief
Book · Incentives
Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner · recommended by Travis Arlitt
“That book Freakonomics, you open the book and it says incentives are the cornerstone of modern society. And of course, it boils down to incentives.”Travis Arlitt, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfCited mid-episode as the frame for why schedules lie: every party in a megaproject has incentives not to look under the plan.
Hear it in“Execution Realism” with Travis Arlitt · listen · episode brief
Book · Career
Amanda Miller Littlejohn · recommended by Christina Robinson
“I’ve read that book about six times since I purchased it, probably more than that… It’s a constant reminder that you can do things differently: you don’t have to do things the way they’ve always been done. Your perspective does matter, and there’s an audience of people waiting to hear it.”Christina Robinson, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfThe personal-branding playbook Christina hands to anyone multi-talented who needs to carve their own path, at any stage of a career.
Hear it in“The Talent Crisis in Project Controls” with Christina Robinson · listen · episode brief
Book · Risk
Peter L. Bernstein · recommended by Matt Mitchell
“It talks about some of the early philosophers and how they loved to gamble because they understood what the odds were… It’s a fascinating book. It’s a great read, and it’s pretty cheap on Amazon.”Matt Mitchell, on the show
Why it’s on the shelfPeter L. Bernstein’s history of risk: the book behind Matt’s point that humans have managed risk for tens of thousands of years, animal sacrifice included.
Hear it in“Risk Management on Megaprojects” with Matt Mitchell · listen · watch · episode brief
