Good Soil

How the Right Organizational Culture Helps People Grow, Teams Flourish, and Companies Thrive

By: Marcus Collins

The bestselling author of For the Culture reveals how organizational culture really works—and how you can harness its power to lead your team to success.

Do you wonder why your organization can’t seem to realize its full potential? Why impressive new hires fail to thrive? Or why your thoughtful corporate mission statement has zero impact on your bottom line? To solve these mysteries and more, you first need to understand your organization’s culture. More than personnel, resources, or strategy, it’s culture that determines whether an organization succeeds or fails. But most leaders have a superficial or incomplete understanding of what organizational culture actually is and how it works—and few know how to activate it to supercharge their teams.

In this groundbreaking book, bestselling scholar Marcus Collins reveals how to decode and optimize organizational culture. Organizational culture, he argues, is the backstage of a company that allows its front-stage to flourish. Drawing on his academic expertise and decades of corporate experience, Collins shows leaders how to fine-tune their organization’s culture to help their teams grow and their employees flourish.

Filled with advice on everything from making the right hires to navigating organizational transformation, Good Soil is the essential guide to fostering a thriving culture—and leading a winning organization.

Critic reviews

“In Good Soil, Marcus Collins offers a compelling and deeply human account of what makes organizations flourish. His central insight is both simple and profound: talent alone is never enough. People do their best work when they are rooted in a culture of shared belief, trust, and meaning. Drawing on research, stories, and lived experience, he shows us how to move beyond slogans and superficial fixes to create the conditions in which people, teams, and organizations can genuinely grow. This is an important, timely, and highly readable book for anyone who cares about culture and the future of work.”—Lynda Gratton, Professor of Management Practice, London Business School, and author of Living the 100-Year Life