As we enter this new year, at Brink we have taken a moment to look back on how our work and practice changed over the previous 12 months; and to think about the books, podcasts and articles that have really influenced us.
Below are a selection of ideas and resources that truly ‘changed our minds’ in 2024. We hope they will fuel your creativity and fresh thinking as we head into 2025.
Chosen by Lil
For me, 2024 has been a year of exploring frameworks to aid creativity, and this book absolutely tops the list.
The concept of Agile Comms challenged me to consider what it means to 'learn out loud', take people on a journey, build stories as you go and let go of preconceived ideas about what it means to be a writer.
This little guide packed an outsized punch, as it helped me create space for ease and flow in a world where often people think only 'perfection' will cut through the noise and where (as Giles says) "everyone is already too busy, most of the time."
Chosen by Kelley
This book delves into the science of collective intelligence, illustrating how interconnected thinking can address complex global challenges. Critchlow presents compelling examples of successful group endeavours, emphasising that our brains are wired for collaboration. The exploration of how technology and AI can enhance collective problem-solving offers a totally fresh perspective on teamwork and innovation.
Reading this in 2024 inspired me to value collaborative efforts more deeply and to consider how diverse perspectives can lead to more effective solutions.
Chosen by Rob
The Uncontrollability of the World is a pretty short and relatively accessible book, which takes a look at the very modern obsession with manipulating the world around us in order to make it more predictable and more controlled. In other words: “We want more of everything, and we want to control it all.”
Rosa argues that this drive for control is depriving us of life’s “unexpected gifts,” and making us all increasingly alienated. But what I really took away from it was Rosa’s concept of ‘resonance’ as a way out of this trap, and as a route to simply letting life happen, “to listen to it and then respond to it spontaneously and creatively.”
Chosen by Bryony
This Guardian article by writer and feminist activist Rebecca Solnit shocked me into thinking much more critically about how and why I'm engaging with my phone.
We use Slack at Brink and I've had my notifications off for years but that doesn't mean I'm immune to going looking to my phone for a bit of a dopamine hit now and again.
This article didn’t just make me think about my personal relationship with notifications and alerts, it kickstarted me into thinking about how I can create intentional and collective spaces and agreements away from screens.
Chosen by Flic
This year, I noticed I was experiencing increasing levels of eco-anxiety and this book was the perfect antidote. Richie has helped me to change my mindset by presenting a vast amount of data to tell a different narrative, one that focuses on the amount of progress we have made in recent history and quite have far we've come.
Ritchie doesn't diminish the scale of the climate crisis, and isn't suggesting that we've solved all the problems, but what she does do is equip the reader with statistics that challenge the idea that we are all doomed. I've noticed a shift in how I enter climate related conversations with friends, family and colleagues since reading this.
Chosen by Clare
Yes, this is an honest, funny and heartwarming insight into what it's really like to be a therapist, but there’s also a huge amount in here that you can take if you’re working in any kind of helping role.
There’s a lot in here about how to show empathy and how to truly listen to people; as well as plenty of examples that will make you go ‘Oh, it's not just me then!’.
I’d recommend it to anyone who works with people or is curious about supporting mental health.
Chosen by Abi
Chouinard writes so simply and emphatically about how business impacts the world around us, including our climate. Now he has over 50 years of experience running Patagonia and has seen global and environmental shifts, so I was very interested to hear what he has to say.
The book really changed my mind on scale and how you can still keep an eye on integrity and values when you get to global corporation scale. (And it was very validating in many ways to put words against things I have intuitively known about business from building Brink).
Chosen by Johannes
San Rock Art is a very slim version of Lewis-Williams' more famous book, Deciphering Ancient Minds. It summarises how the author and his collaborators broke down the colonial Anglo-Dutch interpretation of the San peoples' rock art by rediscovering the original accounts of then-living descendants of the artists, and, most importantly, choosing to take them seriously without the entrenched bias of seeing them as a 'primitive race' who couldn't quite describe what they meant.
For me this opened up a really wonderful mind-to-mind channel across centuries and cultures. It reaffirmed my stance on appreciating that people are 'experts in their own lives', but changed my mind that this isn't quite enough on its own. Even taking this stance, I'm not inherently neutral but need to constantly examine my own biases and thus, interpretations.
Chosen by Hamza
Sometimes it’s too easy feel hopeless in the face of the challenges created by human systems, especially when you’re inextricably connected to so many of those systems in your everyday life.
However this TEDx talk by Sierra Leonean-German activist, philanthropist, and social entrepreneur Mallence Bart-Williams, was an important reminder for me that, even at the smallest scale, storytelling can be an incredibly powerful and empowering tool for driving change.
Chosen by Pritika
TechSafari is a newsletter by the writer and investor Caleb Maru. His perspective on the tech and startup ecosystem in Africa has been invaluable for me over the last year, especially his bitesized histories of the problems African startups face and the innovations that can help solve for them.
A good introduction issue is this one from August, which looks at how Africa’s lack of addresses makes it difficult for entrepreneurs to serve their customers.
Chosen by Alice
This book is an absolutely vital look at the role of consultancies in stifling public sector innovation. Its argument for a new system in which public and private sectors work together for the common good is incredibly compelling
Reading this has massively impacted how I think about Brink, our role, and (maybe most importantly) our attempts to do things differently.
