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Well-intentioned diversity programs are failing to create true workplace equality; Martin Davidson provides a new model for the future that makes "leveraging difference" a critical business strategy, not just politically correct window dressing.

The idea for this book came to Martin Davidson during a disarmingly honest conversation with a CFO he worked with. “Look,” the executive said, clearly troubled. “I know we can get a diverse group of people around the table. But so what? What difference does it really make to getting bottom-line results?”

Answering the “so what?” led Davidson to explore the flaws in how companies typically manage diversity. They don't integrate diversity into their overall business strategy. They focus on differences that have little impact on their business. And often their diversity efforts end up hindering the professional development of the very people they were designed to help.

Davidson explains how what he calls Leveraging Difference™ turns persistent diversity problems into solutions that drive business results. Difference becomes a powerful source of sustainable competitive advantage instead of a distracting mandate handed down from HR.

To begin with, leaders must identify the differences most important to achieving organizational goals, even if the differences aren't the obvious ones. The second challenge is to help employees work together to understand the ways these differences matter to the business. Finally, leaders need to experiment with how to use these relevant differences to get things done. Davidson provides compelling examples of how organizations have tackled each of these challenges.

Ultimately this is a book about leadership. As with any other strategic imperative, leaders need to take an active role-drive rather than just delegate. Successfully leveraging difference can be what distinguishes an ordinary organization from an extraordinary one.

Business Analysts: Chart Your Path to Success with Creative Solutions to Complex Business Problems!
Business in the 21st century is rife with complexity. To leverage that complexity and guide an organization through these turbulent times, today's business analyst must transition from a tactical, project-focused role to a creative, innovative role.
The path to this transition—and the tools to accomplish it—are presented in this new book by acclaimed author Kathleen “Kitty“ Hass. Winner of PMI's David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award for her book Managing Complex Projects: A New Model, Hass has again written a book that will refocus a discipline.
Hass believes that only by confronting and capitalizing on change and complexity—the new “constants” in today's world—can organizations forge ahead. The enterprise business analyst is perfectly positioned to understand the needs of an organization, help it remain competitive, identify creative solutions to complex business problems, bring about innovation, and constantly add value for the customer and revenue to the bottom line.
The Enterprise Business Analyst: Developing Creative Solutions to Complex Business Problems offers:
• An overview of the current and emerging role of the business analyst
• New leadership models for the 21st century
• Methods for fostering team creativity
• Practices to spark innovation
• Strategies for communicating in a complex environment

Business Analysts: Chart Your Path to Success with Creative Solutions to Complex Business Problems!
Business in the 21st century is rife with complexity. To leverage that complexity and guide an organization through these turbulent times, today's business analyst must transition from a tactical, project-focused role to a creative, innovative role.
The path to this transition—and the tools to accomplish it—are presented in this new book by acclaimed author Kathleen “Kitty“ Hass. Winner of PMI's David I. Cleland Project Management Literature Award for her book Managing Complex Projects: A New Model, Hass has again written a book that will refocus a discipline.
Hass believes that only by confronting and capitalizing on change and complexity—the new “constants” in today's world—can organizations forge ahead. The enterprise business analyst is perfectly positioned to understand the needs of an organization, help it remain competitive, identify creative solutions to complex business problems, bring about innovation, and constantly add value for the customer and revenue to the bottom line.
The Enterprise Business Analyst: Developing Creative Solutions to Complex Business Problems offers:
• An overview of the current and emerging role of the business analyst
• New leadership models for the 21st century
• Methods for fostering team creativity
• Practices to spark innovation
• Strategies for communicating in a complex environment

Creating a Better Future

This book offers a concise, accessible guide to the key concepts and applications in Otto Scharmer's classic Theory U. Scharmer argues that our capacity to pay attention coshapes the world. What prevents us from attending to situations more effectively is that we aren't fully aware of that interior condition from which our attention and actions originate. Scharmer calls this lack of awareness our blind spot. He illuminates the blind spot in leadership today and offers hands-on methods to help change makers overcome it through the process, principles, and practices of Theory U. And he outlines a framework for updating the “operating systems” of our educational institutions, our economies, and our democracies. This book enables leaders and organizations in all industries and sectors to shift awareness, connect with the highest future possibilities, and strengthen the capacity to co-shape the future.

Creating a Better Future

This book offers a concise, accessible guide to the key concepts and applications in Otto Scharmer's classic Theory U. Scharmer argues that our capacity to pay attention coshapes the world. What prevents us from attending to situations more effectively is that we aren't fully aware of that interior condition from which our attention and actions originate. Scharmer calls this lack of awareness our blind spot. He illuminates the blind spot in leadership today and offers hands-on methods to help change makers overcome it through the process, principles, and practices of Theory U. And he outlines a framework for updating the “operating systems” of our educational institutions, our economies, and our democracies. This book enables leaders and organizations in all industries and sectors to shift awareness, connect with the highest future possibilities, and strengthen the capacity to co-shape the future.

A powerful pocket guide for practitioners that distills all of the research and materials found in Otto Scharmer's seminal texts Theory U and Leading from the Emerging Future.

Theory U has evolved into a movement in both academic and organizational development programs on a global scale, yet all of the available literature on the subject can only be found in pricier and lengthier (400+ pages) works - putting it beyond the reach of many. Here, for the first time, the movement's key founder presents the core premise and application of Theory U in a competitively priced paperback that runs just 168 pages. The new developments into a short handbook that focuses on three essential components; the core principles of Theory U, the give movements that makes the process of Theory U, and social applications. The work presents the basic principles of Theory U and its usage in a compact format to be used as a simple introductory work to the field of presencing.

We all fear selling out. Yet we all face situations that test our ideals and values with no clear right answer. In a world where compromise is an essential aspect of life, authors Lily Zheng and Inge Hansen make the bold claim that everyone sells out-and that the real challenge lies in doing so ethically.

Zheng and Hansen share stories from a diversity of people who have found their own answers to this dilemma and offer new ways to think about marginalization, privilege, and self-interest. From these stories, they pull out teachable skills for taking the step from selling out to selling out ethically. The Ethical Sellout is for all those committed to maintaining their integrity in a messy world.

We all fear selling out. Yet we all face situations that test our ideals and values with no clear right answer. In a world where compromise is an essential aspect of life, authors Lily Zheng and Inge Hansen make the bold claim that everyone sells out-and that the real challenge lies in doing so ethically.

Zheng and Hansen share stories from a diversity of people who have found their own answers to this dilemma and offer new ways to think about marginalization, privilege, and self-interest. From these stories, they pull out teachable skills for taking the step from selling out to selling out ethically. The Ethical Sellout is for all those committed to maintaining their integrity in a messy world.

In the age of identity politics, the fear of selling out is rampant-but Zheng and Hansen say there's nothing wrong with it and show how to do it without betraying your deepest values and beliefs.


What happens when you're a proud person of color, but you fall in love with a white person? What if you don't believe in working for megacorporations, but one offers you a six-figure salary, and you have a family to feed? Will you sell out, and is that wrong?

The truth is we're all sellouts. Our life circumstances change in ways we can't predict. Offering practical assessment scenarios and hard-hitting questions, Zheng and Hansen propose new ways of authentically thinking about marginalization, privilege, and self-interest, including five key components of ethically selling out:
• Lose the purity politics-you're a human being, not a model member of a group.
• Embrace your changing identities, roles, and expectations‑-see change as growth, not betrayal.
• Maintain a sense of meaning-hang on to your personal values as you navigate life's changes.
• Seek a chosen family and community-isolation only reinforces negative reactions to selling out.
• Constantly question your world-don't accept the status quo!

“This inspiring book belongs on the desk of every CEO and politician. With eye-opening case studies and recommended behaviors in every chapter, it's an indispensable user guide for servant leaders.”
—Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The New One Minute Manager and coeditor of
Servant Leadership in Action

On the most fundamental level, leaders must bring divergent groups together and forge a consensus on a path forward. But what makes that possible? Humility—a deep regard for the dignity of others—is the key, says distinguished leadership educator Marilyn Gist.

Leadership is a relationship, and humility is the foundation for all healthy relationships. Leader humility can increase engagement and retention. It inspires and motivates. Gist offers a model of leader humility derived from three questions people ask of their leaders: Who are you? Where are we going? Do you see me? She explores each of these questions in depth, as well as the six key qualities of leader humility: a balanced ego, integrity, a compelling vision, ethical strategies, generous inclusion, and a developmental focus.

Much of this book is based on Gist's interviews with a dozen distinguished leaders of organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, Costco, REI, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, and others. And the foreword and a guest chapter are written by Alan Mulally, the legendary leader who brought Ford back from the brink of bankruptcy after the 2008 financial collapse and whose work is an exemplar of leader humility.

“This inspiring book belongs on the desk of every CEO and politician. With eye-opening case studies and recommended behaviors in every chapter, it's an indispensable user guide for servant leaders.”
—Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The New One Minute Manager and coeditor of
Servant Leadership in Action

On the most fundamental level, leaders must bring divergent groups together and forge a consensus on a path forward. But what makes that possible? Humility—a deep regard for the dignity of others—is the key, says distinguished leadership educator Marilyn Gist.

Leadership is a relationship, and humility is the foundation for all healthy relationships. Leader humility can increase engagement and retention. It inspires and motivates. Gist offers a model of leader humility derived from three questions people ask of their leaders: Who are you? Where are we going? Do you see me? She explores each of these questions in depth, as well as the six key qualities of leader humility: a balanced ego, integrity, a compelling vision, ethical strategies, generous inclusion, and a developmental focus.

Much of this book is based on Gist's interviews with a dozen distinguished leaders of organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, Costco, REI, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, and others. And the foreword and a guest chapter are written by Alan Mulally, the legendary leader who brought Ford back from the brink of bankruptcy after the 2008 financial collapse and whose work is an exemplar of leader humility.

“This inspiring book belongs on the desk of every CEO and politician. With eye-opening case studies and recommended behaviors in every chapter, it's an indispensable user guide for servant leaders.”
-Ken Blanchard, coauthor of The New One Minute Manager and coeditor of
Servant Leadership in Action

On the most fundamental level, leaders must bring divergent groups together and forge consensus on a path forward. But what makes that possible? Leadership educator Marilyn Gist says what is most important is far too often overlooked: humility, which she defines as a deep regard for others' dignity.

Gist offers a model of leader humility derived from three questions people ask of their leaders: Who are you? Where are we going? Do you see me? She explores each of these questions in depth, as well as the six key qualities of leader humility: a balanced ego, integrity, a compelling vision, ethical strategies, generous inclusion, and a developmental focus. Much of this book is based on Gist's interviews with a dozen distinguished leaders of organizations such as the Mayo Clinic, Costco, REI, Alaska Airlines, Starbucks, and others. The foreword and a guest chapter are written by Alan Mulally, the legendary leader who brought Ford back from the brink of bankruptcy after the 2008 financial collapse and who Gist sees as an exemplar of leader humility.

Groundbreaking new insights from the author of The Female Advantage Redefines what women have to offer to the world Provides a fresh and actionable perspective for organizations seeking to leverage women’s best talents Women see the world through a distinctive lens. What they see is defined by what they notice, what they value and how they connect the dots. In this brilliant and strongly argued new book, Sally Helgesen and Julie Johnson demonstrate why the female vision constitutes women’s most powerful asset in the workplace and show how women and organizations can use it to strong advantage. The authors describe the three elements of the female vision and explore the specific benefits that each provides. Women’s capacity for broad-spectrum notice widens the scope of information available to organizations and provides vital clues about relationships, shifting markets and potential conflicts. Women’s focus on the quality of day-to-day experience rather than abstract measures of achievement provides a way to restore balance to a 24/7 workplace in which endemic stress has become routine. Women’s penchant for viewing work in a larger social context offers a powerful means for moving beyond sterile game metaphors to engage motivation at a profound and authentic level. The extraordinary power of the female vision has been overlooked because it is countercultural in most organizations and because its benefits have been difficult to measure. But as Helgesen and Johnson make clear, the advent of a team-based, service-oriented interconnected global business environment that seeks customized markets and must stir the passions of highly diverse employees requires precisely the skills that the female vision encompasses. The potential pay off to organizations in terms of creativity, strategic insight and the ability to engage and inspire diverse talents is undeniable. Drawing on multiple veins of research, including their own Satisfaction Profile survey, the authors offer a totally fresh and even startling perspective on the true value that women bring to work. The Female Vision lays out exactly what companies must do to engage, energize and support talented women, and shows women how to nurture and sustain this power.

The Female Vision shows why:

• What women see matters to organizations
• What women notice is what organizations need now
• What women value Will Define Organizational Excellence in The Future

Women often see the world from a different angle than men. But this fact has been overlooked in most organizations. In this brilliant and strongly argued new book, Sally Helgesen and Julie Johnson demonstrate why “the female vision”—what women notice, what they value, how they connect the dots—constitutes women's most powerful asset in the workplace. Drawing on multiple strands of research, including their own Satisfaction Profile Assessment, they show what companies must do to engage, energize, and support talented women. And they show women how to nurture and sustain their own greatest gifts.

Women see, understand, and value what goes on in their workplaces and organizations in dramatically different ways than do men. This book shows how women and organizations typically squander these female gifts. And it unlocks the keys to leveraging women's true potential so that they achieve success and satisfaction in their work and organizations.