Realistic Optimism: the book
Realistic optimism is the most effective way I know to get things done, at work and in life. Not toxic positivity. Not wishful thinking. And not the fashionable cynicism that sounds clever and builds nothing.
What it is
Most books on optimism fall into one of two traps. They either tell you to think positive and manifest your way to success, which the evidence flatly contradicts, or they're so busy being rigorous and gloomy that they forget to leave you anywhere to stand.
This one is different. It treats optimism as a skill rather than a personality: something you can learn, practise and get measurably better at. It's grounded in behavioural science, brought to life with real stories, and full of tools you can use the same afternoon you read them. And it works at three levels: leading yourself, leading a team, and leading an organisation through change.
The shape of the argument
I'm writing this one in the open, so the spine of it is already here to read. Five essays: the idea itself, then the four lenses the whole book runs through. Start at the top and work down, and you'll have the argument in miniature.
The idea. About seven years ago I decided the secret sauce to getting things done, however you define success, is radical optimism. This essay makes the case. → Read: Radical Optimism Redux
Believe: what you think is possible. A project stalls and, before you've had a chance to think it through, your brain has already told you a story about why. Learn to hear that story and you can start to change it. → Read: The cost of your explanatory style
See: what you choose to notice. You can run a whole retrospective without naming a single thing that went well. What you pay attention to isn't neutral, and it shapes what your team comes to believe is possible. → Read: What you see (and what you're choosing not to see)
Expect: what you expect of people. One of behavioural science's most replicated findings is that people tend to rise or fall to what you expect of them. So it's worth knowing what your expectations are teaching the people around you. → Read: What you expect of people is what you get
Do: turning belief into action. Realistic optimism without action is just a nice attitude, and nice attitudes don't ship anything. This is where the belief becomes a plan.→ Read: Putting this into practice
Four levers. Each one learnable. Each one scales from you, to your team, to your whole organisation.
Help write the book
I'm writing it for a simple, slightly selfish reason: it's the book I need to read. I need the optimism. I need the tools, the reminders, the evidence that it's worth trying. I'm fairly sure I'm not the only one.
So here's a chance to help write the book you need to read too. You'll get drafts before anyone else, and a say in which tools earn their place in the final cut. When an idea lands with enough of you, it makes it in. You won't just read this book when it's done. You'll have helped build it.