Our Best Work

Break Free from the 24 Invisible Norms That Limit Us

By: Nilofer Merchant

Narrated by: Nilofer Merchant

How can we fix what we can't see? The norms crushing innovation—and our joy—are finally made visible. All 24 of them.

In Our Best Work, Nilofer Merchant names the 24 invisible norms—born of hierarchy, control, and a worn-out model of capitalism—that limit us all. Along the way, she dismantles some of management’s most beloved ideas:

• Servant Leadership
• Personal Branding
• Speaking Up
• Performance Reviews
• Move Fast and Break Things

These aren’t just ideas that fall short—they are daily routines that trap us in the past. Merchant exposes how and why they fail us. But it’s not enough to know the problem, we must also know how to move forward. She lights the path to the future by providing the 24 leading indicators that bring out the best of us and the best of us. Each chapter closes with a concrete practice, so teams can turn insight into action.

Ranked among the world’s most influential management thinkers by Thinkers50, Merchant brings an unmatched range of experience: from her start as an administrative assistant to shaping strategy at Apple and early-stage startups to serving on corporate boards. She has experienced the realities of power from every seat at the table, across industries, and around the globe. Her ideas have already reshaped companies—and their futures. With this incisive take, Merchant offers a clear and collective path to do our best work, including:

• Unlocking the essential source of innovation: new and novel ideas
• Replacing competition with trust
• Creating the solutions of tomorrow, not just today’s profits

If you’ve tired of self-help fixes or the latest fads, Our Best Work offers another way: by changing the rules of work itself.

A Profound Assessment of How We Work

Our Best Work is a deeply thoughtful exploration of how organizations can unlock meaningful contribution at every level.

Nilofer Merchant gives language to structural dynamics that many of us intuitively recognize from experience, but rarely see discussed so clearly.

What makes this book powerful is not just that it diagnoses what holds organizations back; it reframes what “our best work” actually requires: courage, redistribution of voice, and a redesign of how contribution is recognized.

Insightful, well-argued, and highly relevant for anyone working inside complex organizations.

For leaders willing to look honestly at how systems shape outcomes, this book is both affirming and challenging in the best way.

Highly recommend.