Transformational HR (2nd Edition)
Originally published in 2017 and voted one of the Top 100 Business Strategy Books of All Time in 2018. The second edition landed in 2021.
Buy here →About PTHR
A small, senior team building better ways to work.
PTHR — People & Transformational HR — was founded by Perry Timms in 2012 with a clear mission: better business for a better world. Fourteen years later, we're a Certified B Corporation, a WorldBlu™ Freedom-Centred Organisation, a RenDanHeYi-certified Top 50 Self-Managed Organisation, and a Gold-standard 4-day working week company.
We help organisations evolve how they work — through Organisation Design and Development, HR 3.0, culture, leadership and skills, and through the emerging organisational paradigm we call the Polymorphic Organisation.
We work the way we believe organisations can work.
PTHR is intentionally compact at its core — a team of three — connected to our Resident CPOs and a trusted network of exceptional experts, entrepreneurs and collaborative partners. We expand and reshape around the work, bringing in the right capability when needed — without building unnecessary hierarchy or overhead.
We've evolved this way through successive, version-controlled iterations: open, adaptive, participatory and self-managed by design. Long before we had a name for it, PTHR was becoming polymorphic.
We don't just design Polymorphic Organisations. We are one.
The founder & the specialist core
Perry Timms
Specialist core: Organisation Design, Operating Models, Systems, Agile and Organisational Effectiveness
Our founder & Chief Energy Officer. In the HR Most Influential Hall of Fame (inducted 2023) and No. 1 Most Influential HR Thinker in 2022. 2x TEDx speaker, LinkedIn Learning Instructor and author of Transformational HR, The Energized Workplace and The HR Operating Model. Creator of the Polymorphic Organisation.
Kirsten Buck
Specialist core — futures, agility and sustainability
Our Chief Futures Officer, leading the charge on sustainable enterprises where people — and planet — flourish. Agile, OD and progressive enterprise practice lead. Founder of ARC and our B Leader.
Katy Stanley
Specialist core — studio & operations
Our studio producer (tech and intelligence) and Chief Operating Officer. The infrastructure, governance, orchestration and project cadence that keeps our compact core delivering value at pace. Creator of our forthcoming Alchemy of Change product.
Recognition
Perry is in the HR Most Influential Hall of Fame.
Inducted in 2023 after being ranked the #1 Most Influential HR Thinker in 2022 by HR Magazine and Hult International Business School — the culmination of five prior appearances on the Most Influential list.
See the Hall of Fame on HR Magazine →Hall of Fame2023#1 in 2022
Academic practice
Visiting Fellow / Guest Professor at Cranfield School of Management, Hult International Business School and Ashridge, University of St Gallen (Swi) and Sheffield Hallam University Business School.
Cranfield School of Management
Hult International Business School- AshridgeAshridge Executive Education
University of St Gallen (Switzerland)
Sheffield Hallam University Business School
Guided by
Prosperity over Profit
Next stage organisations and conscious business approaches driven by more than profit, that care for people, communities and the planet.
Self-Determination
Autonomous, aligned, agile ways of working where people work out loud, collaborate, learn and flourish together in unifying self-management.
Justice & Belonging
Democratic, inclusive and kind leadership that is in service of the people that makes the organisation viable — colleagues, customers, communities, collaborators.
Design & Systems Thinking
Design and Systems Thinking methodologies that lead to more inclusive, shared and open accountability.
Energy & Wellbeing
A culture of wellbeing, care and respect for difference that creates regenerative energy for people in the workplace.
Applied Psychology
Organisational psychology practice that enables us to optimise and actualise peoples' contribution to their work.
Learning as Work
Learning as work; where people are defined by the work they do not the job they have, and continuous development is vital in the work we do.
Exploration & Curiosity
We let our imagination, intrigue and ignited interest lead to the discovery of what is beyond the boundaries of known practice and cultivate our pioneering approaches.
Perry's books
Published with Kogan Page.
Latest — 2025
Perry's latest book with Kogan Page is available now.
Perry's latest book with Kogan Page — a fresh blueprint for how HR becomes a true driver of business success. Practical guidance for designing people functions that are purpose-led, people-focused and performance-oriented, all while keeping energy, empathy and equity at the heart of the function.
Buy The HR Operating ModelSome of Perry's other books
The Energized Workplace
Designing organisations where people flourish. Shortlisted for Business Book of the Year in 2021.
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