Too few organizations communicate who they are and what they stand for—much less cultivate an environment of vibrant productivity and creativity. It’s the stuff of Dilbert cartoons—and it’s all-too-often the stuff of everyday working life. That’s why, when you walk into an organization that is alive, vital, and exudes a unique personality, you get an immediate, visceral hit. That’s what Kursty Grove has managed to reproduce in what may be the first of its kind: a business coffee table book.

A top management team that seems out of touch with reality. A rank and file that works heroically to deliver amazing results. Sound familiar? In too many organizations, passion and creativity correlate positively with one’s distance from headquarters. Nicholas Kristof found this also seems to be true for the Catholic Church.

Entrepreneur Derek Sivers serves up a 3-minute TED talk on compelling leadership. His counterintuitive (and important) point: "leadership is vastly over glorified." We're all still mopping up from the parade of heroic leaders who trampled all over the brand of capitalism over the last decade. Sivers is talking about a very different model for a very different time: the leader capable of generating a following. As he puts it, “the first follower is what transforms a lone nut into a leader.”