The Book
Club Guide.
You did not read this book just to feel motivated. You read it because something in you knows you are capable of more. This turns that into conversation, and conversation into change. Use it with a team, a group of friends, your family, or on your own.
What you
actually need.
Time
Thirty to forty five minutes a session. Ten sessions, plus a final gathering worth protecting.
People
Four to twelve. Small enough that everyone speaks, which is the entire point of this format.
The Book
Everyone needs a copy. One chapter read before each session.
A Leader
Anyone willing to ask the questions and go first. No expertise required, and it can rotate.
One Ground Rule
Seek truth, not praise. This only works if people are honest. The goal is not to impress each other, it is to grow. Make it safe to be real, listen without fixing, and let the hard answers be the ones that matter most.
The right people do not flatter you. They sharpen you.
Three parts,
forty minutes.
Short on Time?
Pair the chapters into five sessions, one and two, three and four, five and six, seven and eight, nine and ten. Then pick the questions that land most for your group. Not every question has to be answered out loud.
Jump to
any session.
Own It. Every Day.
Chapter One
The moment you take ownership is the moment your life becomes yours again.
Discuss
- When something goes wrong, where does your mind go first, a reason or a way forward?
- Chris asks what could I have done differently after being let go. Where in your life is that the harder, better question?
- Where have you been waiting for a circumstance or a person to change before you act?
Go deeper
Name one situation you have been explaining instead of owning. What would full ownership look like there?
This week’s group challenge
Pick one area you have been blaming on circumstances. This week, take one action that is fully within your control, and report back.
Time Is Your Edge
Chapter Two
You do not need more time. You need to stop assuming you have it.
Discuss
- Where are you being present versus merely available with the people who matter most?
- What are you telling yourself you will do later, and what would change if later were gone?
- What is one ordinary moment you would give anything to have back?
Go deeper
Where is your time actually going right now, and is it moving you toward the person you want to become?
This week’s group challenge
Be fully present for one hour with someone who matters. Phone away, fully there. Notice what changes.
The Comfort Ceiling
Chapter Three
You did not hit your limit. You just found where it used to be.
Discuss
- Where have you mistaken comfort for a strategy, staying busy or safe instead of growing?
- Comfort, fear, learning, growth. Which stage do you tend to retreat at, and why that one?
- What is a conversation, risk, or step you have been avoiding because it feels uncomfortable?
Go deeper
Where in your life is there more space above the ceiling than you have let yourself believe?
This week’s group challenge
Do one thing this week that lives just past your comfort ceiling. The thing you would normally talk yourself out of.
Train Your Inner Voice
Chapter Four
The doubt may still have a voice, but it no longer gets a vote.
Discuss
- What does your inner voice say in the moment right before you hesitate?
- What I am label have you been repeating that may be a pattern rather than a permanent truth?
- Awareness, challenge, replacement, action. Which step is hardest for you?
Go deeper
Name one belief about yourself you have accepted as fact. What evidence actually argues against it?
This week’s group challenge
Catch your inner voice once this week in real time. Pause, challenge it, and act anyway. Bring the story back to the group.
Relentless Improvement
Chapter Five
The past is for lessons, not residence. Visit it. Learn from it. Just do not move in.
Discuss
- Where is the line for you between reflecting on something and reliving it?
- Where have you treated one setback or missed day as proof you have failed completely?
- What does coming back faster, the guardrail rather than perfection, look like in your life?
Go deeper
Think of a recent setback. What is the lesson in it, and what is one adjustment you can make from it?
This week’s group challenge
Choose one area where you have drifted. Make the small correction this week instead of waiting until you are in the ditch.
Seek Truth. Not Praise.
Chapter Six
You can protect your ego, or you can improve your performance. You do not get both.
Discuss
- Who in your life tells you the truth, and are you actually listening?
- Where might you be choosing validation over feedback that would help you grow?
- What is a blind spot someone once named for you that you did not want to hear?
Go deeper
Is there feedback you have been avoiding because it might be true? What is it?
This week’s group challenge
Ask one person you trust a question you have been hesitant to ask. Listen without defending. Share what you heard.
Unlock Your Hidden Gear
Chapter Seven
The hidden gear is not another level of talent. It is another level of honesty.
Discuss
- Where have you been coasting, giving what is convenient instead of your best?
- Describe a time you stayed in it a little longer than you wanted to. What did you discover?
- What is an excuse that sounds reasonable but you know is comfort asking for the decision back?
Go deeper
Where do you already know you have more to give but have not been asking it of yourself?
This week’s group challenge
The next time you want to stop this week, stay in it just a little longer. Notice what was still there.
Lead Before You Are Asked
Chapter Eight
Confidence is not built in big moments. It is built in kept promises.
Discuss
- Where are you leading well elsewhere but not leading yourself?
- What is something you have known you should do but keep waiting to feel ready for?
- How is self-trust built or broken by the small promises you keep, or do not keep, to yourself?
Go deeper
What standard do you need to hold yourself to so you become someone you can fully trust?
This week’s group challenge
Make one promise to yourself this week and keep it, no matter how small. Tell the group what it was.
Finish What You Start
Chapter Nine
Most people do not fail. They leave too early.
Discuss
- What have you started but not finished, and where exactly did the energy fade?
- The stonecutter’s rock looks unchanged until it splits. Where might unseen progress be happening for you?
- What is the difference, for you, between motivation and ownership?
Go deeper
What is one thing worth finishing right now, and are you willing to stay with it after the excitement is gone?
This week’s group challenge
Take the next concrete step on something you have left unfinished. Just the next step. Report it back.
Leave People Better
Chapter Ten
Success is what you achieve. Significance is who is better because of you.
Discuss
- Who made you better, and what specifically did they do?
- Where could you be more present, more honest, or more encouraging with the people around you?
- What is the difference between the success you have chased and the significance you want to leave?
Go deeper
If someone described your impact on them a year from now, what would you want them to say?
This week’s group challenge
Ask of one interaction this week what would great look like for this person. Then do that. Share what happened.
The final
gathering.
Do not end on session ten. This last conversation is not about reviewing the book, it is about deciding what happens now that it is over, and groups that skip it lose most of what they built.
Reflect together
- Which of the ten concepts hit you hardest, and why that one?
- What is different about how you are showing up now versus when the group started?
- Where have you seen someone else in this group grow? Tell them.
One commitment going forward
Do not try to change everything at once. Name one concept, one habit, one commitment you will carry beyond this group. Write it down, say it out loud, and set a date to check in on each other in ninety days before anyone leaves.
You have already survived one hundred percent of your hardest days. The question is not whether there is more in you. It is what you will do with it now.
What actually
goes wrong.
Week four is where groups die
Not because the material gets worse, but because the novelty wears off, which is exactly what chapter nine is about. Name it out loud in session three and the group tends to push through it themselves.
Nobody read the chapter
It happens. Do not cancel and do not shame anyone. The anchor and the questions still work without it. Send a reminder two days out rather than the morning of.
One person answers everything
Thank them, then ask to hear from someone who has not spoken yet, and wait. The silence feels long to you and normal to everyone else.
It gets more personal than expected
That is a good sign, not a problem. Do not fix anything. Thank them, hold the room steady, and move on when it is time. The ground rule covers this, which is why you say it in session one.
What every
member needs.
All free. Copy them, print them, hand them out.
The Book Club Workbook
Twenty five pages, two per session. Every question with lines to write on, plus the final gathering and the commitment page. Print one per person.
Download PDF →The Leader’s Guide
The original one page per session version, useful if you are running it and want the questions in front of you without the writing space.
Download PDF →The Comfort Ceiling Assessment
Run it in session one and again at the final gathering. The change in the number is the clearest measure your group will get.
Download PDF →The Framework
All ten concepts on one page with the four arcs. Good to hand out in session one so people can see where it is going.
Download PDF →Go
further.
The 10-Week Program
The same ten concepts with teaching notes, deeper reflection, and a weekly action people report back on out loud.
Open the Guide →The Boot Camp
A full day or two half days. Your group leaves with a written plan rather than a set of notes.
Open the Guide →The Lunch and Learn
One hour, all ten concepts, nobody needs to have read the book. Useful for introducing this to another group.
Open the Guide →Bring Chris In
Plenty of groups run this themselves and invite him to the final gathering. That is a good use of one hour.
Start a Conversation →Never run one before? How to run a book club at work covers the setup this guide assumes: group size, paid time, rotating leaders, and what to do the month nobody read the chapter.
Run it with your people.
The same ten concepts at five different levels of commitment. Every guide is written so the person running it takes part rather than instructs, and nothing is gated, licensed or paid.
The Lunch and Learn
All ten concepts at five minutes each, with a full run of show. Nobody needs to have read the book.
Open the Guide → 60 to 90 minutesThe Workshop
One concept worked properly. A question, silence, tables of four, and a commitment from every person.
Open the Guide → Ten x 45 minutesThe Book Club Guide
One session per concept, built to be run by anyone in the group. Everyone needs a copy.
Download It → One dayThe Boot Camp
All ten condensed into a day, or two half days. The group leaves with a written plan.
Open the Guide → Ten weeksThe 10-Week Program
One concept a week with real life in between. The version that changes how a group operates.
Open the Guide →Seventeen free guides for managers, sorted by the problem — first 90 days, feedback, hard conversations, retention, onboarding, meetings, retreats and change. Browse the guides, or pick the concepts your people need and get a session order back.
Choose Your SessionsSeen On
Chris has taken this material onto morning television across the country, and writes for Forbes and Inc.
When I’ve got something worth sending.
Just a story or an idea I picked up that I think will help you.
Sometimes that’s twice in a month. Sometimes it’s not for a while.