In a wonderfully readable and fun way, SEEING SYSTEMS (over 30,000 copies sold) presents a unique and innovative theory of power dynamics that provides the reader with a new way of looking at, understanding, surviving, and prospering in the many systems of which we are part.In this extensively revised and updated edition of his classic book, Barry Oshry shows how we can transform “system blindness” into “system sight,” enabling us to live and work together in productive partnership. Based on more than thirty years of research and packed with illustrative cases and solid systems theory on human interaction, Seeing Systems provides a penetrating look at the dynamics of systems and a unique foundation for revolutionizing our understanding of system life. This new edition features an extensive new section on having the wisdom and courage to face and work with the reality of uncertainty, and a new epilogue describing how Oshry is currently using theater, blogs, and podcasts to extend his multi-pronged revolution aimed at transforming system blindness into system sight.

• New edition of a classic, revised and updated throughout, with a new section and a new epilogue

• Explains why so many efforts at creating satisfying and productive systems end in disappointment

• Offers an approach to improving organizational life that removes the personal biases that stymie so many change efforts 

Through a beautifully written and engaging story about two people struggling to create visions—both for the company where they work and for their own lives—Ken Blanchard and Jesse Lyn Stoner detail the essential elements of creating a successful vision.
 
In Full Steam Ahead! you'll learn:
• How to use the power of vision to get focused, get energized, and get great results
• How to create a vision that touches the hearts and spirits of everyone in your organization
• How to create a vision for your own life that provides meaning and direction
 
This new edition is thoroughly revised, with a new chapter on sustaining your vision, updated examples, more information on creating vision for teams, and a new section that includes a vision assessment and a game plan for creating a shared vision.­

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Today's business world is characterized by increasing change-technological, cultural, social, economic, and personal-the net effect of which is increasing anxiety, insecurity, and more pressure than perhaps ever before on today's employees, managers, and business owners. Managing By Values provides a practical, proven new solution for addressing these issues. Ken Blanchard and Michael O'Connor provide a framework for stability, continuity, and growth in the midst of these challenges.

Managing By Values describes a new measure and level of organizational success-beyond that of "Fortune 500" organizations. Blanchard and O'Connor show how organizations can commit to a way of doing business that enables all stakeholders-owners/shareholders, employees, customers, and others-to win. By committing to a common purpose and set of values, any organization can join the ranks of the "Fortunate 500." This list is defined, not by size or volume or profits, but by the quality of service available to customers and the quality of life accessible to employees.

Numerous books written over the last decade have stated both the need for, and power of, an organizational culture whose strategies, processes, and people are managed by a common vision, purpose, and set of values. Managing By Values goes beyond merely lobbying for such a management approach. Blanchard and O'Connor provide readers with a practical game plan that clarifies, communicates, and aligns the organization's practices at all levels and in all areas, with a defined, functional set of guiding values adopted throughout the organization. Many previous books have addressed the importance of values, but Managing By Values provides a clear methodology for defining and implementing such values to achieve organizational, group, team, and individual objectives.

Written in the simple, direct story format that has become a trademark of Ken Blanchard's previous books, Managing By Values builds on the mass of diverse research, experiences, and literature on organizational, group, and individual performance and satisfaction. Based on the authors' research and applied real-world experience with client organizations, Managing By Values provides a practical, proven approach for how to give your organization the gift of a promising future while also discovering a way for all of its stakeholders to be satisfied in the process.

• From the coauthor of The One Minute Manager, one of the bestselling business books of all time (over 9 million copies sold), and Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute (a 1996 BusinessWeek bestseller)
• Provides a concise game plan for designing and implementing a set of guiding values to achieve organizational, group, team, and individual objectives

“What brought you the greatest joy? What do you wish you had learned sooner? What ultimately mattered and what didn't?” asks Dr. John Izzo. Based on a highly acclaimed public television series, this book takes the reader on a heartwarming and profound journey to find lasting happiness.
 
Imagine for a moment that you are about to take a foreign vacation to an exotic destination. You have saved your entire life to travel there. It is a destination with almost unlimited choices of how to spend your time and you know you will not have enough time to explore every opportunity. You are fairly certain that you will never get to take a second trip to this destination; this will be your one opportunity.
 
Now imagine that someone informs you that there are several people in your neighborhood who have been to that country, explored every corner. Some of them enjoyed the journey and have few regrets, but others wish they could take the trip again knowing what they know now. Would you not invite them over for dinner, ask them to bring their photographs, listen to their stories, and hear their advice?
 
This is precisely the journey explored in this book. Dr. John Izzo and his colleagues interviewed over 200 people, ages 60-106, who were identified by friends and acquaintances as “the one person they knew who had found happiness and meaning.” From town barbers to Holocaust survivors, from aboriginal chiefs to CEOs, these people had over 18,000 years of life experience between them. He asked them questions like, “What brought you the greatest joy? What do you wish you had learned sooner? What ultimately mattered and what didn't?”
 
Here Izzo shares their stories—funny, moving, and thought-provoking—and the Five Secrets he learned from listening to them. This book will make you laugh, bring you to tears, and inspire you to discover what matters long before you die.

Many significant failures—from FEMA's response to Hurricane Katrina to the recent economic collapse—could have been prevented or mitigated if those lower in the hierarchy were successful at communicating to leaders the risks they saw in the system. Ira Chaleff's Courageous Follower model has facilitated healthy upward information flow in organizations for over 15 years. The Harvard Business Review called Chaleff a pioneer in the emerging field of followership—this new edition shares his latest thinking on an increasingly vital topic.
The updated third edition includes a new chapter, “The Courage to Speak to the Hierarchy.” Much of Chaleff's model is based on followers having access to the leader. But today, followers can be handed questionable policies and orders that come from many levels above them—even from the other side of the world. Chaleff explores how they can respond effectively, particularly using the power now available through advances in communications technology.
Everyone is a follower at least some of the time. Chaleff strips away the passive connotations of that role and provides tools to help followers effectively partner with leaders. He provides rich guidance to leaders and boards on fostering a climate that encourages courageous followership. The results include increased support for leaders, reduced cynicism and organizations saved from serious missteps.

For years, Margaret Wheatley has written eloquently about humanizing our organizations and helping people to work together more effectively and compassionately. She has shown how breakthroughs in chaos theory and quantum physics can enable organizations to function more like responsive, self-organizing living systems, rather than cold mechanisms of control. And she has gradually expanded these ideas into the wider arena of human society.

In short, Margaret Wheatley is one of the most innovative and influential organizational thinkers of our time, and Finding Our Way brings together her shorter writings for the first time, touching on all the topics she has addressed throughout her career, showing how she has applied the ideas in her books s in many different situations. “The pieces presented here”, she writes, “represent ten years of work, of how I took the ideas in my books and applied them in practice in many different situations. However, this is not a collection of articles. I updated, revised, or substantially added to the original content of each one. In this way, everything written here represents my current views on the subjects I write about.”

Provocative, challenging, at times poetic, and often deeply moving, Finding Our Way sums up Wheatley's thinking on a diverse scope of topics from leadership and management to education and raising children in turbulent times; from societal commentary to specific organizational techniques and more.

• By the author of the bestsellers Leadership and the New Science (over 300,000 copies sold) and Turning to One Another, and the coauthor of A Simpler Way
• Wheatley is one of the most innovative and influential organizational thinkers of our time, and this is the first collection of her articles and essays--completely revised and rewritten for this volume
• Covers a wide and diverse scope of topics--leadership, management, education, parenting, social commentary, creativity, spirituality, and more