Where to Start with Adam Grant: A Reading Guide

Adam Grant (born 1981) is the American organisational psychologist, Wharton professor, and bestselling author who — beginning with Give and Take (2013) — established himself as the foremost popular writer on the psychology of work, creativity, and interpersonal dynamics in professional environments. His books translate academic research in organisational behaviour and psychology into accessible arguments for general readers, and he has been recognised as one of the world’s most influential management thinkers. He also hosts the WorkLife with Adam Grant podcast and writes frequently for the New York Times.

Where to Start: Think Again (2021)

The most immediately useful Grant — and his most clearly argued book. The central premise: the ability to reconsider your existing beliefs is more important than the ability to think of new ones, and most people’s psychological orientation makes reconsideration feel like a threat rather than a skill. Grant identifies three modes that prevent rethinking: the preacher (who defends sacred beliefs), the prosecutor (who attacks others’ beliefs), and the politician (who calculates what beliefs are advantageous). The alternative is the scientist mode: treating your beliefs as hypotheses, designing your experience to test them, updating them when evidence contradicts them.

Grant illustrates this through case studies from aviation safety (why crews that challenge captains have better safety records), medicine (why diagnostic errors cluster around confident doctors), and business (why BlackBerry’s leadership couldn’t update their model of the smartphone market). The interpersonal section — on how to change other people’s minds through motivational interviewing rather than argument — is one of the most practically applicable passages in contemporary business literature. The collective section, on building cultures and communities that support rethinking, is less developed but genuinely useful.

Give and Take (2013)

Grant’s debut major work — and his most cited in the business literature. The argument: most people operate as either givers (contributing more than they receive), takers (receiving more than they contribute), or matchers (maintaining even exchanges). The unexpected finding: givers are simultaneously the most and least successful people in organisations, depending on whether they protect themselves from exploitation. The best-performing givers are not selfless; they are other-focused in ways that are also personally sustainable. One of the most practically applicable frameworks in Grant’s work.

Originals (2016)

Grant’s study of creativity in professional contexts — challenging assumptions about what creative and entrepreneurial success actually requires. Counter-intuitive findings throughout: most successful originals maintain the ‘day job’ that protects them from catastrophic failure; procrastination is often associated with creative quality rather than inversely related to it; the best idea pitches acknowledge the pitch’s weaknesses, because doing so establishes credibility. Particularly useful for creative professionals who feel their approach is somehow wrong.

Hidden Potential (2023)

Grant’s most optimistic book — an argument that potential is not fixed, that skills can be developed significantly more than most people believe, and that the obstacles to learning that feel like failures are often the conditions that enable development. More focused on educational and individual development contexts than his earlier work.

Reading Adam Grant

Grant’s books are united by a consistent approach: start with an academic research finding that challenges conventional wisdom, extend it through case studies and interviews, and extract practical implications. Begin with Think Again for the most immediately useful argument; read Give and Take for the most widely applied framework.