From the COVID pandemic to the challenges of AI, disruption is the only constant in today’s business world. In his book, consultant Vijay Pendakur discusses how leaders can ensure that companies not only survive but thrive on the shocks endemic to 21st century business.

The key, posits Pendakur, is to build companies that create wins for the individual, team, and overall organization. Companies take a major step toward doing this by assembling teams that are complex and diverse. Diverse teams can imagine unexpected solutions to problems—novel ideas their more homogenous counterparts could never fathom. However, he adds, merely throwing diverse people together isn’t enough. To thrive amid disruption, teams need an “alchemy,” a magic that leaders create by introducing into their teams three catalytic elements: psychological safety, belonging, and connection.

Pendakur dedicates a chapter to each of these three elements, each chapter beginning with an anecdote that shows how he confronted the element in his own work. He expands his analysis with a three-part structure: “knowing it,” “spotting it,” and “doing it” (defining the chapter’s key concept; showing leaders how to recognize it in their organization, and giving them steps to incorporate that element into the “Alchemy of Talent”). His final chapter discusses the personal qualities, such as humility and empathy, that enable leaders to apply the Alchemy of Talent to their organization.

Pendakur makes effective use of tables, matrices, and drawings that provide helpful detail on how to apply his concepts. He also has a remarkable ability to make complex ideas easy to understand, crafting an organized narrative that is well-researched but relatively free of academic jargon. With a warm, personable style, he draws readers into his practical text.

As disruptions and upheavals continue, the author has provided human resource leaders and other managers with a framework for turning friction into both heat and light that will power their organizations through an uncertain future.