My name is Rajiv Mehta, and I am the author of Camaraderie: A Modern Leader’s Guide to Building Joyful, High-Performing Cultures. This book is an exploration of camaraderie, and a way to achieve it that is accessible to all. Camaraderie implies a deep commitment to a common purpose, group success, and each other’s wellbeing. Critical to this is self-knowledge and knowledge of others on your team. This is not a luxury but the very foundation of team success. My book shows you how you can do this, using innovations in mutual understanding and tapping into skills you already have.

Engage in the book’s ideas right away and join others working to improve our world by participating in this presale for Camaraderie

Camaraderie: A Modern Leader’s Guide to Building Joyful, High-Performing Cultures is the result of two decades of exploration. It began with efforts to not only understand how people care for themselves and their families, but also what would help them to do much better. This led to the development of personal science (methods anyone could use to better understand their own lives) and the design of collective self-reflection (experiences of doing such self-exploration in the company of others). I discovered that combining these ideas—an approach called Mapping Ourselves—deepens bonds amongst those involved. This impact has been proven over and over with very different types of groups (Admirals, executives, housecleaners, students, and more).

In a world where people are hungry for a sense of connection and belonging, my book will inspire you. In a world where leaders find achieving camaraderie harder than ever, my book will give you the confidence to build a joyful and high-performing team culture.

You will love this book if any of these describe you:

• You value and are trying to foster a culture in which people are engaged, collaborative, working towards a common purpose, in a vibrant, joyful atmosphere.
• You want to fully tap into your and your team’s existing skills and capacity to connect and be in better control of your day-to-day lives.
• You love reading stories about innovative people, and their powerful new ideas; in this case personal science, collective self-reflection, and Mapping Ourselves.

The book in four parts

1. Camaraderie in Human Affairs

The first section addresses what camaraderie is, and how it is distinct from community, connection, and belonging. I share examples of where camaraderie is strong, what its absence looks and feels like, and why common attempts to build camaraderie fall short.

2. My Explorations

I describe my journey, as a pioneer of personal science and explorer of human care, of becoming an expert on building camaraderie. Some may need to read this to have confidence in the ideas presented later in the book. This all seems to make sense, but I’ve never heard it before … Where’s the proof? Where’s the science?! I’m also certain many will enjoy this section for the story itself. How did a nerdy, aerospace engineer end up talking about community, about love and joy?! 

3. The Core Ideas: Mapping Ourselves, Personal Science, and Collective Self-Reflection

This section is full of stories, from artists and Olympic athletes, scientists and school children, military officers and housecleaners. It explores the new field of personal science, highlighting stories and lessons-learned from a pioneering, global community of people exploring their own lives, and new developments in visualizing human-scale data. You’ll learn how to do this yourself, with a collection of tools (the Mapping Ourselves starter-kit ) for exploring key aspects of your day-to-day life. And you’ll read about the powerful impact of collective self-reflection.

4. Taking Action

The final section of the book focuses on how you can use these ideas to foster camaraderie in the teams and organizations you lead: how to get started, and how to get others involved. There’s also lots of advice and tips on developing your own tools, and tapping into your capacity to explore anything in your day-to-day life you find interesting. The book concludes by sharing an easy way to remember the key ideas in the book, and inspiring you to create more joy, more connection and belonging in your life, and a culture of sustained high-performance at work.

My Publishing Journey: Where Your Support Goes

I’m publishing Camaraderie with the support of Manuscripts Press, an innovative publisher that provides me with a full publishing team to bring this book to life. This summer, I’m working closely with:

• A revisions editor, copy editor, and proofreader to refine and elevate every story in the book
• A marketing strategist to help me connect with new audiences and make the book’s message reach those who need it most.
• A cover artist and layout editor who will ensure the final product is visually stunning and professionally produced.

Other Ways to Support

Even if you can’t contribute, you can still be a huge part of this journey:

• Please share the pre-sale campaign on social media with your friends, family and network. Please use #CamaraderieBook and tag me as well as my publisher, Manuscripts Press, so we can help amplify your efforts.
• Please recommend my book to five (5) friends, family, or co-workers who you think would enjoy it.

Thank you so much for all of your love and support!

Warmly,

Rajiv Mehta

About the Author

Speaker, consultant, and personal science pioneer, Rajiv Mehta’s early career was in technology and business. He studied aerospace engineering at Princeton and Stanford, was a NASA scientist, got an MBA at Columbia, and then led innovation at Apple and other Silicon Valley companies.

Over the past two decades, Rajiv has focused on teaching leaders and teams how to use the Mapping Ourselves approach (analog, observational tools and conversation) to transform culture and boost performance.

In addition, Rajiv has served on the boards and advisory panels of numerous family caregiving and health nonprofits, community and government organizations, tech startups and academic research programs.

When not exploring care in human affairs, Rajiv reads widely (though perhaps too many mysteries), practices photography, and maintains a minimal daily requirement of TV viewing.