Resources

More about the ideas and principles behind liminal thinking.

Read the Liminal Thinking book summary by Actionable Books.

Videos
Books
Articles

Check out our book snippets, suitable for sharing!

Tools

Johari Window exercise and toolkit.

Videos

Fun 3-minute introductory video by Jacob Sanders

20-minute overview

Liminal Thinking author Dave Gray interviewed by the Australian Industry Group

Dave Gray interviewed people from a diverse set of fields to understand the art of creating change. He spoke to business executives, coaches, software developers, therapists, firefighters, soldiers, humanitarian aid workers, mountain climbers and many more. Many of the interviews were shared publicly, and you can watch them online.

Books

Against Method, by Paul Feyerabend, is a great critical take on the scientific method. Mind-bending and worth reading.

Brain Rules (Updated and Expanded): 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School by John Medina is a very down-to-earth, practical guide that will help you understand how the brain understands things and how to apply that knowledge in your life and work.

Change: Principles of Problem Formation and Problem Resolution by Paul Watzlawick, who studied under Bateson, tells the fascinating story of the early days of brief therapy and the role of paradox in change.

Coaching with the Brain in Mind: Foundations for Practice, also by David Rock, is a wonderful, comprehensive overview of leadership coaching, and a great thinking tool for anyone involved in any kind of culture or change initiative.

The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings (1867-1893) and Pragmatism and Other Writings (Penguin Classics) will give you a good picture of the core elements of Pragmatist philosophy.

Flawed Advice and the Management Trap: How Managers Can Know When They’re Getting Good Advice and When They’re Not by Chris Argyris exposes the main problem with most management advice: It simply can’t be implemented in most organizations due to organizational belief bubbles, especially in top management. He provides many examples and demonstrates why the advice of most of his Harvard colleagues is unlikely to cause any meaningful change.

Liminality and the Modern: Living Through the In-Between, by Bjørn Thomassen, is an academic, comprehensive history of the concept of liminality, emphasizing its importance in modern times and providing a framework for thinking about liminality and change (it’s good, but pricey!).

Mind and Nature: A Necessary Unity (Advances in Systems Theory, Complexity, and the Human Sciences) by Gregory Bateson, one of the early pioneers of systems thinking, is a beautiful and thoughtful book about the nature of the human mind and its potential.

Nothing is Written is a beautiful, short (and free!) ebook on mindful facilitation.

Overcoming Organizational Defenses: Facilitating Organizational Learning, also by Argyris, explains why smart people fail at change , how organizational culture conceals information and distorts reality, and offers some practical advice about what can be done.

The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckart Tolle is an inspiring introduction to mindfulness and personal growth.

Prometheus Rising, by science-fiction writer Robert Anton Wilson, is a wonderful, thoughtful, idiosyncratic book about re-wiring your brain to see and think differently. Liminal Thinking par excellence. You might see it as a more accessible version of Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics.

Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics by Alfred Korzybski, is a dense and difficult, but fascinating book about the mind, its limitations and its potential. Written by a brilliant Polish-American engineer and scientist, it might best be described as a non-Aristotelian logic, a way of thinking about thinking that I see as a radical evolution of Pragmatist thought.

Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard is a very accessible book about how psychological research findings can be applied to behavior change.

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman is a great read on how we think. The bottom line is that thinking takes a lot of effort, so whenever we can get away with it (which is most of the time) we use cognitive shortcuts that can greatly distort our perceptions and reasoning.

Unflattening, by Nick Sousanis, is a delightful and though-provoking graphic novel that uses visual thinking to explain liminal thinking. A real treasure!

Walking the Talk: Building a Culture for Success, by Carolyn Taylor, is a detailed and specific guide for creating meaningful organizational culture change.

Working with Stories in Your Community Or Organization: Participatory Narrative Inquiry, by Cynthia Kurtz, is the most comprehensive and practical book on how to make stories work that I have ever seen.

You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment by the Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hahn, is a clear, simple, and practical introduction to the essence of Buddhist thought and practice.

Your Brain at Work: Strategies for Overcoming Distraction, Regaining Focus, and Working Smarter All Day Long, by David Rock of the NeuroLeadership Institute, is a great introduction to how brain research can be applied to make yourself more effective at work.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values, by Robert M. Persig, is a personal and philosophical investigation into the art of life.

Articles

The Brain’s Dark Energy, by Marcus E. Raichle. A pioneering researcher into the brain’s default mode network explains his work.

The Brain’s Default Mode Network, by Randy L. Buckner, Jessica R. Andrews-Hanna, and Daniel L. Schacter. A brief history and description of research into what was previously considered “random background actitivy” of the brain and is now known as “default mode.”

The data shows that using science in an argument just makes people more partisan, by Dan Kopf, Quartz Magazine, Dec. 23, 2016. A brief summary of work by Yale behavioral economist Dan Kahan demonstrating that reason does not reduce partisan beliefs, but rather, aggravates them.

Design thinking for non-designers, by Cait Smith, PointSource. Liminal thinking and design thinking for leaders.

How to Make Our Ideas Clear, by Charles Sanders Pierce. A classic essay on thinking clearly.

Identity, Belief, and Bias, by Geoffrey L. Cohen. A summary of research related to identity, belief and bias, including the authors, which relates not only to bias but interventions that can reduce bias and increase positive results.

Liminal thinking, principle 6, and liminal coaching, by Mike Parker, Sysparatem.

Liminal thinking: The key to unlocking your unconscious mind, by Annie Grace, Sivana East.

The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses, by T.C. Chamberlain. A treatise on the importance of using multiple hypotheses to triangulate in theory development.

Organizational Innovation: It starts with you, by Daniel Rose, The Moment. An overview and description of liminal coaching with an executive team and its impact.

Pragmatic Theory of Truth, by William James. A clear lecture on pragmatism by one of its founders.

Q&A with Dave Gray about liminal thinking for organizational change, by Ben Linders of InfoQ. Interview with Liminal Thinking author Dave Gray.

The roots of liminal thinking, by Dave Gray. A summary and overview of the foundations of the discipline.

Strong Inference, By John R. Platt. A plea for systematic inquiry in scientific investigation.

The Unconscious Mind And Alcohol Addiction: Part 1: Liminal Thinking by Annie Grace, This Naked Mind.

If you have suggestions for additional books or articles please let me know.

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