Agreements: Your Choice

Available in PRINT (Amazon.com, also available via Amazon in each country)

An Invitation

You have your own Yes!  It guides you in doing what is yours to do.  Sometimes that is easy for you, and sometimes it is hard.  And it is yours to do.  On the path of everyday life, you have consciously or unconsciously accepted many situations where you are not in your Yes!; you are in your No!  It is not yours to do - not because it is hard or easy, but because it is not yours.  You know this deeply in how it feels, what it invites of you, and what you give to it. 

This book guides you through a globally-tested, 3-step process that you can apply in all aspects of your life. It is easy in that the tools are intuitive, and it is about your life.  It is hard in that you will uncover often unquestioned agreements that you have unconsciously accepted, and aligning your unique contribution in your interactions means consciously choosing the agreements that impact your life.  This guide is informed by the global “agreements health” survey from 126 countries of over 196,000 people describing their experience of their interactions in a group, as well as the author’s work with thousands of organizations in hundreds of initiatives across 59 countries over the past 30+ years. 

James L. Ritchie-Dunham, PhD is a clinical associate professor of strategy in the University of Texas at Austin’s Rosenthal Department of Management in the McCombs School of Business, president of the Institute for Strategic Clarity, a lead author in the Harvard-Baylor-Gallup Global Flourishing Study, and department associate in the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences through the Center for Work, Health, & Well-being.

Agreements helps small to medium enterprises (SME) to change unconscious assumptions into conscious agreements, aligning the team's energy towards operationalizing a shared strategy. It equips SME leaders with practical methods for driving sustainable growth and effectiveness.

— Paulien Olde Bijvank-Brekveld, Project Lead, Living Lab for Human Flourishing, Saxion University of Applied Sciences

“What determines the quality of outcomes that result from human interactions?  James Ritchie-Dunham has a provocative answer: “It all starts with the initial conditions.”  Have we generated healthy agreements to guide the way we relate, how we deploy resources, share power, invite each other to show up fully, and surface a deeper shared purpose in the service of a future we love?  If so, we are in our Yes!  And yet, many groups dwell in their No! with disastrous consequences.  Why would groups do that?  What can be done to change this?  This book makes a powerful case that moving from No! to Yes! is a choice that we are all empowered to make, right now.  Read the book and discover how.  Highly recommended!”

— Matthew T. Lee, Director of the Flourishing Network at Harvard and Professor at Baylor