We are all retired professors – from four different universities – though we were at very different points along the retirement journey during this collaboration. One of us retired 20 years ago, three retired within the past ten years, and one retired just as this book was being published. We call ourselves the “decade babies” – born in the “aughts” of 1930, 1940 and 1950.

We have all worked in organizational settings, consulting and conducting research, though we have been based in universities for most of our careers. Collectively, our areas of expertise include the fields of social psychology, organizational psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, and adult development.

It most certainly takes a village to write a book! With Teresa as our principal investigator, we benefited tremendously from the different areas of expertise and the different personal perspectives each of the five of us brought to this work. Throughout the decade of this massive project, we were blessed with several “generations” of amazing research associates and support staff at Harvard Business School, where our research project was based. Because each of us has a wonderful network of colleagues and friends, and because we all have multi-generational families, both our retirement experiences and our work on this project have involved partnering, navigating, and negotiating with many good souls along the way!