BK Interview with Fred & Judith

Fred & Judith were recently featured in the Berret-Koehler Author newsletter. Read the story about Fred & Judith’s interview below. Berrett-Koehler has published Fred & Judith’s four jointly authored books.

Share Your Story: Fred Miller and Judith Katz 

What is your BK book (or if more than one, which one are you most proud of)? What’s the gist of the book? 

We are proud of all four of our BK books from The Inclusion Breakthrough in 2002 to our new book—Safe Enough to Soar: Accelerating Trust, Inclusion and Collaboration in the Workplace (it’s kind of like asking which of your children do you like best?). Safe Enough to Soar centers on how to create a workplace in which people feel safe enough to speak up and share their ideas and thinking, even their half-baked ideas, which leads to people doing their best work, greater innovation, and higher performance.

Tell us how you came to be a BK Author Duo.

We have known of BK for years through having other colleagues, such as Bev Kaye and Ken Blanchard, who had written books with BK. When we were thinking of writing our first book together on inclusion we contacted Steve Piersanti. We wanted to work with BK because of the values that BK is built on that mirror our stance in the world—collaboration, partnership, inclusion.

How does the book fit into everything else you do? 

For over 30 years, we have worked with Fortune 100 companies, non-profits, small firms, and founder-led organizations to create a workplace in which people can be their best and do their best every day—where people feel a sense of belonging, can bring their differences and their voice to the organization to co-create together, and help the organization achieve its goals. Interaction safety is the foundation of creating an environment in which people can do just that. It is at the heart of creating cultures of inclusion that leverage people’s talents. So, it has become a cornerstone to our work on strategic culture change and alignment.

What motivates you these days?

For Judith, it’s working with good leaders and good organizations that want to get better. We are in this incredible moment of change—accelerating that change is critical for individual and organizational success. For Fred, it’s partnering with leaders to reinvent the relationship-partnership among all people in the organization, especially how leaders interact with others.

What’s something the BK Author community probably doesn’t know about you?

For Judith: I love to fish; being out on the water with a fishing rod in my hand brings peace and joy and catching a redfish, trout, or 40-inch striped bass is all the better. For Fred: I am an introvert, I love to be home; however, for the last 40 plus years I have been on the road with clients an average of 2 or more days a week for 10 months a year.