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Better work together: How the power of community can transform your business
This is not a book of theory.
It’s a collection of real stories and tools from the front lines of the future of working together.
Learn to create radically collaborative, caring workplaces.
It’s a collection of real stories and tools from the front lines of the future of working together.
Learn to create radically collaborative, caring workplaces.
- GenresBusiness
289 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 4, 2019
I found this collection of stories, frameworks, and tools helpful in guiding me on my own path on how to better work together with others. For such a large and complex subject matter, I found the book quite easy to read and digest, and it was quite inspirational for my own work and how I choose to move about the world. Would highly recommend for those seeking ideas on how to think outside of the box as they approach work and life.
December 29, 2019
A very practical book for anyone willing to learn how to work together outside the classical structures of enterprises or NGOs. Outside a totally hierarchical system
August 22, 2025
This book found me at the right time—twice. First as a gift from someone who knew I was deep in cooperative development work, and more recently as a companion read while designing a cooperative cohort for Black-led startups. Better Work Together is more than just a book about Enspiral; it’s a window into what’s possible when we center community, purpose, and distributed leadership at the heart of our work.
What struck me immediately was the accessibility of the essays. Each chapter—whether it’s a theory, reflection, resource, or case study—is digestible, clear, and intentional. The multi-author approach creates a dynamic conversation between voices within the Enspiral ecosystem, sharing the lived experiment of building a networked, self-managing organization.
From Joshua Vial’s foundational reflections on “stuff that matters,” to Alanna Irving’s frameworks for distributed and full-circle leadership, to Anthony Cabral’s beautifully laid-out “Coffee, Beer, and Pizza” blueprint for sustainable community models—this book offers a wealth of thinking that is actionable without being prescriptive. It doesn’t demand replication of the Enspiral model but encourages adaptation rooted in values like shared power, transparent compensation, collective ownership, and relationship-building.
For those working in cooperative development, facilitation, organizational design, or philanthropy—especially if you’re at the edge of reimagining how we work together—this book can serve as both a mirror and a map. It helps you ask the right questions: Why are we trying to transition to self-management? Are we the right people to do it together? And perhaps more importantly: What can we only do together?
It’s not just theory—it’s lived practice. And for me, the stories and reflections here resonate because I’ve worked alongside some of these folks in other settings like Open Collective Foundation, Greaterthan, and Loomio. This book becomes part of a lineage of texts—from Reinventing Organizations to Lead Together—that ask us to dream of organizations as places of aliveness, care, and shared purpose.
Better Work Together is one of those rare books I return to, not just for inspiration but for recalibration. I recommend it without hesitation to anyone charting new paths in how we structure, relate, and grow together.
What struck me immediately was the accessibility of the essays. Each chapter—whether it’s a theory, reflection, resource, or case study—is digestible, clear, and intentional. The multi-author approach creates a dynamic conversation between voices within the Enspiral ecosystem, sharing the lived experiment of building a networked, self-managing organization.
From Joshua Vial’s foundational reflections on “stuff that matters,” to Alanna Irving’s frameworks for distributed and full-circle leadership, to Anthony Cabral’s beautifully laid-out “Coffee, Beer, and Pizza” blueprint for sustainable community models—this book offers a wealth of thinking that is actionable without being prescriptive. It doesn’t demand replication of the Enspiral model but encourages adaptation rooted in values like shared power, transparent compensation, collective ownership, and relationship-building.
For those working in cooperative development, facilitation, organizational design, or philanthropy—especially if you’re at the edge of reimagining how we work together—this book can serve as both a mirror and a map. It helps you ask the right questions: Why are we trying to transition to self-management? Are we the right people to do it together? And perhaps more importantly: What can we only do together?
It’s not just theory—it’s lived practice. And for me, the stories and reflections here resonate because I’ve worked alongside some of these folks in other settings like Open Collective Foundation, Greaterthan, and Loomio. This book becomes part of a lineage of texts—from Reinventing Organizations to Lead Together—that ask us to dream of organizations as places of aliveness, care, and shared purpose.
Better Work Together is one of those rare books I return to, not just for inspiration but for recalibration. I recommend it without hesitation to anyone charting new paths in how we structure, relate, and grow together.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews