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Coffee Press books / Borrowed Instinct

Leadership · Organization design · December 2026

Borrowed Instinct

Twelve mechanisms. What actually transfers.

Inji Borai Coffee Press

Most business books borrow biology's look. This one borrows its numbers, and for every chapter it tells you what evidence would prove it wrong.

Find your three: free quiz Buy the paperback · €18.99
Cover of Borrowed Instinct by Inji Borai: a flock of birds turning into a gold network, with the line Borrow the mechanism, not the animal.
Free · about three minutes

Find your three.

There are twelve laws. Your team probably needs two or three. Answer one question per law, right here, and see the three chapters to read first.

A short sample of the book's diagnostic, for a leadership team to talk through. It is not a validated instrument and makes no predictive claim. If a question splits your team, that disagreement is the result. Do not use it for hiring, firing, promotion, performance rating, pay or any decision bearing on safety.

Question 1 of 12

Pick an answer, or press 0 to 3

Paperback
€18.99£15.99 · $20.99
184 pages, 6 × 9 in, cream paper
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Kindle
€11.49£9.49 · $12.99
Kindle eBook, with clickable contents
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EPUB
€11.49£9.49 · $12.99
Apple Books, Kobo and Google Play
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Take it to work

The book tells you why each mechanism works and where it fails. These tools turn it into a plan your team can run on Monday.

Inside the Playbook · Chapter 11
Stopping
Speed Is the Ability to Stop · Cheetah kinematics
Diagnostic

Four questions for this law, starting with: is there a defined interval between signal and full halt?

The playbook

The three-initiative reconstruction, with thresholds for reading your stopping distance, then four moves from measuring it to treating a zero halt rate as a warning.

Each move

What to build · the instrument that shows it is working · a target to start from

The Playbook

Twelve playbooks and the full diagnostic

The free quiz asks one question per law. The Playbook asks four, then tells you what to do about your answers.

  • The full 48-question diagnostic. Four questions for each of the twelve laws, so your scores are sturdier than the free quiz.
  • A playbook for every chapter. Four moves per mechanism, each with what to build, the instrument that shows it is working and a target to start from.
  • Editable PDF and Word files. Adapt the questions and tables for your own team.
€10.49£8.99 · $11.49

Prices include VAT. Instant download after purchase.

Get the Playbook
Mechanism12cards
Scenario
Decision
Reflection
The Interaction Cards

A conversation game for stronger teams

The book's ideas as a game your team plays around a table, on your own situations.

  • 68 printable cards in four kinds: the twelve mechanisms, scenarios, decisions and reflections.
  • The rules and three pilot games, so you can run a session without preparing.
  • Built for 4 to 8 people and 45 to 60 minutes: an offsite, a team day or a long lunch.
  • Print-at-home PDF. Print as many sets as you need.
€10.49£8.99 · $11.49
Get the cards
The Interaction Canvas: twelve mechanism tiles and a table for your three The how-to guide: six steps for a one-hour session The Interaction Wheel: twelve mechanisms in four families
Free · Creative Commons

The Interaction Canvas, guide and wheel

The whole book on one A3 page, made for a one-hour meeting. Free to print, share and adapt.

  • The Interaction Canvas (A3). All twelve mechanisms to tick, then a table for your three: the number you will measure, the instrument, what it will cost, what would prove you wrong and how sure you are.
  • The how-to guide (A4). Six steps for a one-hour session: 10 minutes on quiz results, 20 on the tiles, 25 on the table, 5 to set owners.
  • The Interaction Wheel. The twelve mechanisms in their four families, with the evidence ladder underneath.
Open the canvasHow-to guideThe wheel

Twelve mechanisms

Each chapter says what the mechanism costs and where it fails, then hands you three questions to take to your next team meeting.

I · Decentralized execution

1The Six People Who Actually MatterMurmuration physics
2What Do You Have That They Can't Buy?Reef symbiosis
3Rules Don't Work. Rhythms Do.Termite ventilation

II · Momentum and energy

4Effort Doesn't Compound. Position Does.Pelagic drift
5Why Help Sometimes HurtsFormation flight
6Who's Actually in the Way?Ecological succession

III · Shock and adaptation

7Reading a Room You Can't SeeChromatophore logic
8What Your Company Reaches For FirstEpigenetic regulation
9How Long Until the Next One?Serotiny and the fire interval

IV · Defence and precision

10Someone Is Absorbing All of ItOsmotic filtration
11Speed Is the Ability to StopCheetah kinematics
12Make the Next Thing CheapConotoxin libraries
Facilitator certification

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