With thanks.

Nothing we do starts from nothing. Our programmes, Avanti Academy and our instruments are written in our own words, from more than twenty-five years of practice. But the thinking behind them owes a great deal to others: scholars and practitioners whose ideas we have learned from, argued with and put to work in councils, boards and teams. This page is our thanks to them, in one place.

Naming them here is our acknowledgement, not a claim that any of them endorse Avanti. Every Avanti Academy module also carries its own reading list.

Our first debt

Professors Andrew Kakabadse and Nada Kakabadse

For decades of research on top teams, boards and governance, at Cranfield and Henley. Their work on how senior teams think, talk and decide together shaped Jon's doctoral research at Cranfield, which adapts the Kakabadse Top Team Framework, and runs through our top team, board and governance work today.

Thinkers who shaped our practice

Sherry Arnstein

Whose “Ladder of Citizen Participation” (1969) asks whether power is genuinely shared. It is the foundation of Amanda's doctoral research on community engagement, and of how we think about voice and co-production.

Professor Jonathan Rosenhead

For problem structuring methods and robustness analysis at the London School of Economics: ways of helping groups act wisely when a problem is messy and the future uncertain.

Professor Lawrence (Larry) Phillips

For decision conferencing and requisite decision modelling at the LSE: helping groups reach a shared, well-founded decision in the room.

Lord (Meghnad) Desai

Economist at the London School of Economics, whose teaching on economics, policy and global governance shaped how we connect leadership to the wider forces that organisations work within.

Professor Michio Morishima

Economist at the London School of Economics and founding chair of its Suntory-Toyota International Centres (STICERD), whose work on economic theory and on Japan's development showed how values and institutions shape economic life.

Sir Philip Hampton

Whose 2005 review of regulation and inspection set out the principles of proportionate, risk-based regulation that inform our work on regulation, assurance and compliance.

Elliott Jaques

For his work on requisite organisation and the time-span of discretion, and as a founder of the Tavistock tradition, on how organisations can defend against anxiety. Both inform how we think about roles, levels and structure.

Dr Charles Margerison and Dr Dick McCann

For their work on team roles and work preferences, which informs how we help people understand the contribution they bring to a team.

Voices across Avanti Academy

Grouped by theme, to keep the page readable. These are the authors our Avanti Academy modules draw on most often.

Leadership and change

Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky (adaptive leadership); John Kotter (leading change); William Bridges (transitions); Keith Grint (wicked problems and leadership); Daniel Goleman (emotional intelligence)

Teams and groups

Amy Edmondson (psychological safety, our most cited author); J. Richard Hackman (team effectiveness); Bruce Tuckman (team development); Patrick Lencioni (team dysfunctions); Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith (high-performing teams); Irving Janis (groupthink); Wilfred Bion and Isabel Menzies Lyth (group relations and the Tavistock tradition)

Culture and organisation

Edgar Schein (organisational culture); Geert Hofstede (culture as spectrums); Henry Mintzberg (strategy and structure); Peter Drucker (management); Chris Argyris and Donald Schön (organisational learning); Arlie Hochschild (emotional labour)

Decisions, complexity and systems

Karl Weick (sensemaking); Daniel Kahneman (judgement and bias); Nassim Nicholas Taleb (uncertainty and fragility); Richard Rumelt (good strategy); Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber (wicked problems); Dave Snowden (the Cynefin framework); Peter Senge and Donella Meadows (systems thinking); Peter Checkland (soft systems); John Seddon (systems thinking in public services)

Voice, participation and public service

Albert O. Hirschman (exit, voice and loyalty); Mark Moore (public value); Michael Lipsky (street-level bureaucracy); Elinor Ostrom (governing the commons)

Coaching, wellbeing and growth

David Clutterbuck (mentoring and coaching); Sir John Whitmore (coaching); Martin Seligman (positive psychology); Christina Maslach (burnout); Eric Berne (transactional analysis)