Adam Grant: influences, peers and legacy

Every connection with its receipt

Adam Grant's work sits at the junction of rigorous organizational research and mass-market narrative nonfiction. This mix traces the Michigan mentors and behavioral-science titans behind his method, the Penn/Wharton ecosystem that surrounds him, and the readers and writers who carry the givers-vs-takers, think-again vocabulary forward.

The Kynda mix for Adam Grant

• Key Influence · Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini (1984). Cialdini set the template Grant works in: a tenured social psychologist translating peer-reviewed experiments into field-tested, plainly written principles for practitioners. Grant has repeatedly cited Cialdini's reciprocity research as background to the givers/takers/matchers framework of Give and Take, and his habit of anchoring each chapter in named studies rather than anecdote follows the Influence model of evidence-first popular science.
• Influencia Obscura · Energize Your Workplace: How to Create and Sustain High-Quality Connections at Work by Jane Dutton (2003). Dutton was Grant's doctoral mentor at the University of Michigan, where he earned his PhD in organizational psychology. Her research program on high-quality connections, compassion at work and job crafting — positive organizational scholarship — is the direct academic ancestor of Grant's interest in prosocial motivation and meaningful work. Few general readers know her name; nearly every idea in Give and Take grows from that soil.
• Local Roots · Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (2016). Duckworth is Grant's University of Pennsylvania colleague, frequent public interlocutor and co-founder of Character Lab; the two have appeared together on stage and podcasts for years and have publicly debated the limits of grit and the role of luck. Penn's psychology department and Wharton together form the single densest node in American behavioral-science publishing, and Grant and Duckworth are its twin public faces.
• Beyond the Medium · Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (2003). Lewis showed that statistical reasoning could carry a page-turning human story, and the Oakland A's as a case study in overlooked talent and resistance to rethinking recurs across Grant's writing and talks on hiring and scouting. The structure Grant uses — open on a vivid outsider, pivot to the research, close on the institutional lesson — is Lewis's narrative grammar applied to organizational psychology rather than finance or sport.
• Peer · Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (2009). Pink occupies the same shelf and the same lecture circuit as Grant, synthesizing self-determination research on autonomy, mastery and purpose for business audiences. The two have interviewed each other and blurbed into the same ecosystem of TED talks and corporate keynotes; Pink's intrinsic-motivation argument runs parallel to Grant's prosocial-motivation research showing that seeing beneficiaries of your work raises performance.
• From the Canon · Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant (2013). Grant's debut converted a decade of prosocial-motivation research — including his studies of call-center fundraisers who met scholarship recipients — into the givers, takers and matchers taxonomy. It established his signature move: a counterintuitive claim (the most generous people cluster at both the bottom and the top of success distributions) defended with field data, and it made him a fixture of the leadership-publishing world.
• Key Collaborator · Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (2013). Sandberg and Grant co-wrote Option B (2017) on resilience after her husband's sudden death, and co-authored a widely read series of New York Times columns on women at work. Lean In shows the other half of that partnership: the Facebook COO's own argument about ambition and gender, which Grant supported with organizational-psychology research and which led directly to their book-length collaboration on grief and recovery.
• Legacy · The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh (2018). Chugh, an NYU Stern management professor, writes in the mold Grant established: behavioral research on bias and moral self-image rendered as practical, forgiving guidance, with Grant an outspoken champion of the book. Her 'good-ish person' concept depends on the same willingness to be wrong that Think Again preaches, and she represents the cohort of business-school researchers who followed Grant into trade publishing.

What influenced Adam Grant

• The Social Psychology of Organizing by Karl E. Weick (1969). The Social Psychology of Organizing (Karl E. Weick) — ghost for Adam Grant (openlibrary.org)
• Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge by Karl Popper (1963). Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (Karl Popper) — culture for Adam Grant (wikidata.org)
• Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game by Michael Lewis (2003). Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (Michael Lewis) — culture for Adam Grant (wikidata.org)
• Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip Tetlock (2015). Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction (Philip Tetlock) — titan for Adam Grant (wikidata.org)
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman) — titan for Adam Grant (openlibrary.org)
• Hamilton. Hamilton (Lin-Manuel Miranda) — culture for Adam Grant (wikidata.org)
• Malcolm Gladwell. Give and Take (Adam Grant) — legacy for Malcolm Gladwell (via Give and Take) (openlibrary.org)
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini (1984). Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert Cialdini) — titan for Adam Grant
• Energize Your Workplace: How to Create and Sustain High-Quality Connections at Work by Jane Dutton (2003). Energize Your Workplace: How to Create and Sustain High-Quality Connections at Work (Jane Dutton) — ghost for Adam Grant

Peers and kindred spirits

• Sheryl Sandberg. The book listing credits Sheryl Sandberg alongside Grant on Option B. (also via Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead) “Sheryl is the best-selling author of three books: Lean In , Lean In for Graduates , and Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy , which she co-authored with Wharton professor Adam Grant.” (Lean In)
• EXILE Content. Grant chairs EXILE Content’s Creative Advisory board. “We are so proud to have Adam as the chair of our creative advisory board. Adam is an expert in the creative process and has studied for years how to foster the creation of ‘Originals’” (Deadline)
• LeanIn.Org. Grant serves on LeanIn.Org’s board. “Lean In Advisory Board Sheryl Sandberg Founder & Board Chair Tom Bernthal Board Member Lori Goler Board Member Adam Grant Board Member” (Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation)
• Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Grant joined the Wharton School as an associate professor. “Adam Grant teaches MBA and undergraduate courses in leadership and teamwork, negotiation, and organizational behavior.” (Wharton Management Department)
• The Gift Inside the Box by Allison Sweet Grant (2019). The Gift Inside the Box (Allison Sweet Grant) — collaborator for Adam Grant “The Gift Inside the Box By Adam Grant and Allison Sweet Grant Illustrated by Diana Schoenbrun Read by Adam Grant and Allison Sweet Grant” (Penguin Random House)
• Give and Take, Inc.. Grant co-founded Give and Take, Inc. “In 2017 Grant co-founded (along with University of Michigan professor Wayne Baker and entrepreneur Cheryl Baker) Give and Take, Inc., a company that offers services designed to help organizations implement the principles from his book Gi…” (Wikipedia)
• Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy by Sheryl Sandberg. Lean In identifies Grant as Sandberg’s co-author on Option B. “Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy , which she co-authored with Wharton professor Adam Grant.” (Lean In)
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Grant held an assistant professorship at the university. “Grant was hired by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to serve as an assistant professor of organizational behavior in 2007.” (Wikipedia)
• Dialog. The page identifies Grant as appearing on a membership list for Dialog. “Grant appears in a leaked list of members of Peter Thiel’s secret society, Dialog.” (Wikipedia)
• Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work by Francesca Gino (2018). Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work (Francesca Gino) — collaborator for Adam Grant “Francesca Gino is the best kind of rebel: the one who doesn’t just break the rules, but invents a better way. In this enthralling, carefully researched book, she shows you how to become one—and unleash the inner rebel in others too.” (Rebel Talent)
• Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (2013). Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (Sheryl Sandberg) — collaborator for Adam Grant “with Sheryl Sandberg (Knopf, 2017) ISBN 9781524732684 Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know (Penguin, 2021).” (en.wikipedia.org)
• Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation. The foundation lists Grant among its directors. “Board of Directors Sheryl Sandberg Board Chair Tom Bernthal Lori Goler Adam Grant Laura Cox Kaplan Kim Keating” (Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation)
• Angela Duckworth. Give and Take (Adam Grant) — geography for Angela Duckworth (via Give and Take, Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance) (openlibrary.org)
• Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being by Martin Seligman (2011). Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being (Martin Seligman) — geography for Adam Grant (wikidata.org)
• Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth (2016). Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (Angela Duckworth) — geography for Adam Grant (wikidata.org)
• Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink (2009). Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (Daniel Pink) — peer for Adam Grant (wikidata.org)
• Dare to Lead by Brené Brown (2018). Dare to Lead (Brené Brown) — peer for Adam Grant (openlibrary.org)
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain (2012). Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking (Susan Cain) — peer for Adam Grant
• How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman (2021). How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be (Katy Milkman) — geography for Adam Grant

Who Adam Grant influenced

• The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh (2018). The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias (Dolly Chugh) — legacy for Adam Grant “Dolly Chugh makes a convincing case that being an ally isn’t about being a good person—it’s about constantly striving to be a better person.” (Dolly Chugh)
• No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work by Liz Fosslien (2019). No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work (Liz Fosslien) — legacy for Adam Grant “If you’ve ever thought it’s best to check your emotions at the office door, this book will change your mind. It’s full of lively illustrations and practical examples to show how you can harness emotions to become more creative, collabora…” (Liz Fosslien)