‘I believe in an innovative creative culture, recognizing that a team's environment is crucial to personal and family success,’ Bruce Piasecki, Founder, AHC Group and CEO, Creative Force Foundation Inc.

Effective leadership—and articulate power–mix to form the driving forces behind Bruce Piasecki’s leadership workshops, his corporate organization and his award granting Foundation.

In what Bruce Piasecki coins as today’s globalized “swift and severe” (World Inc, 2007) business landscape, it is more crucial than ever to learn to understand what he calls this S Frontier, the mix of severity, swiftness and incoherent mind-numbing market and news driven turbulence. In fact, Piasecki asserts that rising onto the top half of the S Frontier helps achieve your firm’s balance in this age of capital and carbon constraints. This takes loyalty, knowledge in aligning money, people and rules, and artful frugality. See more at www.brucepiasecki.com.

In his last six books on team loyalty, coherence and identity formation, Piasecki stands on the shoulders of those mentors he learned first from Ben Franklin, Abe Lincoln, Winston Churchill and the late great Tom Wolfe, who became a mentor after Piasecki’s Doing More with Less became a bestseller on the New York Times and USA Today book lists. Back earlier this century, Tom Wolfe invited Piasecki to join his mid- town Manhattan Lotos Club. Thus, by his Memoir Doing More with One Life, read the strange mix of frugality, style, and competitive grace behind the books, work and workshops.

For a sportive career summary cartoon, see www.thedoingmorewithlessguy.com

In this article, The Fortuner Hub will delve into the world of modern leadership skills thru the storytelling and main themes of Bruce Piasecki Here we will discover what sets him apart as a leader and how his approach might be applied to our own professional journeys.

From Cornell University to Earning in 18 Distinct Currencies

Piasecki has been trained by legends at Cornell University, including the renown poet Archie Ammons and the profound scholar M. H. Abrams, who instilled in him the values of an applied humanist—decency, civility mixed with personal and focused drive. He has spent decades working on the tools and needs of climate competitiveness, which has prepared him to think beyond the normal environmental advocacy positions. (see more at www.wealthandclimatecompetitiveness.net)

Piasecki’s Style Stated in Smart Brevity, Bursts of What is Needed Next in Group Settings

He draws a compelling analogy between managing a leadership team and nurturing a garden.

Just as a master gardener provides the right conditions for plants to flourish—ensuring they receive adequate sunlight, water, and nutrients—Piasecki understands that every productive person in his teams require support, resources, and encouragement to reach their full potential. In this garden metaphor, Piasecki emphasizes the importance of cultivating a positive atmosphere where creativity and collaboration can thrive. He believes that by creating a safe space for team members to share ideas, take risks, and experiment, he can inspire innovation and drive progress. “It comes together each week like a vivid dream”, when you are lucky and persistent he notes. This summer Piasecki pursued this theme in a new parable for young adults called Back to Basics.

The right conditions for team play also involve not only celebrating successes but also embracing failures as learning opportunities, which ultimately contributes to a culture of continuous improvement. Piasecki did this for 42 years each Wednesday morning in global team talks.

However, Piasecki also acknowledges that, like any garden, a leadership team can be susceptible to weeds—negative influences or toxic behaviors that can hinder growth and productivity. He recognizes the necessity of identifying and addressing these detrimental elements promptly. By the end of each week, as the lead executive, he transacted the new required alignment of money, people, and rules. “Quarterly decisions are far too slow in this swift and severe world of weekly globalized competition.”

This might involve difficult conversations, restructuring team dynamics, even removing individuals who consistently undermine the collective effort. By doing so, he ensures that the overall health of the team is maintained, allowing the remaining members to flourish. His book Doing More with Teams features direct lessons from interviews with Michael Jordan, Navy Seals, and some of the 18 CEOs his firm served over complex change management assignments from Merck, Toyota and bp to Walgreens and Warren Buffett’s Shaw Industries.

With this emphasis on collaboration and teamwork, you can see why Piasecki cherishes reading weekly about Churchill, Lincoln, and related greats covered in the biographies by Taylor Branch, William Manchester and Jay Parini. He believes that no one individual can achieve great things alone, but that together, teams can accomplish amazing things. “Teamwork is the high octane fuel of the better angels of humanity”, is a recent coinage to fellow workshop attendees like his partner attorneys in Washington Ira Feldman and Chris Carr, who now organize and orchestrate his twice a year 2 day leadership workshops at www.achievingresults25.com.

Piasecki’s Two New 2024 Books on Wealth, Innovation, and His Memoir

In his 2024 book, “Wealth and Climate Competitiveness: the New Narrative on Business and Society”, presents a compelling narrative thru 28 short-related passages, like in Thoreau’s Walden, for harmonizing wealth creation with climate action. Through case studies of companies like bp and Trane Technologies, Piasecki offers a thought-provoking roadmap for businesses and leaders to navigate the complexities of the 21st century. Look at the dozen five star reviews on Amazon since release: This book is not just a call to action, but a recognized guide for companies and leaders seeking to drive wealth creation, innovation, and progress this century.

PBS is now producing a 2025 show on his work called “Doing More with Less: the Ben Franklin Way”. They already interviewed a dozen CEOs on his books, and are now pursuing the literary greats who recognize his contributions like Jay Parini and Scot Paltrow, the business reporter. Piasecki’s two books will serve as donation gifts to the new PBS fundraiser, “if all things go well” Piasecki notes edging age 70 after open heart surgery for a genetic Aorta Valve replacement. These gift titles form a comprehensive book set that explores the intersection of what Piasecki coins Business and Society books. His foundation awards many other authors exploring this growing space.

In Piasecki’s other new 2024 book, “Doing More with One Life: A Memoir” he shares his personal journey and professional insights, drawing parallels with his admired mentors that shaped him in vignettes. Through this dramatic memoir, readers are encouraged to reflect on their own lives and the impact they wish to have on the world. Both of these new 2024 books highlight Piasecki’s conviction that combining personal growth with purposeful action can lead to transformative change. Others are being rereleased thru his agency, www.socttmeredith.com.

Reviewers have praised Piasecki’s book for its thought-provoking insights into the intersection of wealth and climate change. Lt. Colonel Robin Philips, Pentagon, writes: “Piasecki’s books to many, both wealthy and those many in need of wealth. As someone with a national security background, I view wealth inequality and climate change through the lens of international security. I found this book insightful. More importantly, the ideas in it can offer a better and more secure future.”

Ira Feldman, Attorney/Founder of Adaptation Leader and co-chair, of The Achieving Results Corporate Affiliates Workshop Series, adds: “Why can’t we leverage private sector wealth in a way that not only promotes financial security for the companies involved but also benefits society in addressing the climate crisis era in which we now live?’ This forms his must-read for all who are about developing pragmatic and defective responses to the climate change crisis.”