Avoid inadvertently offending or alienating anyone by following six straightforward communication guidelines developed by a no-nonsense linguistic anthropologist and business consultant.

In today's fast-moving and combative culture, language can feel like a minefield. Terms around gender, disability, race, sexuality and more are constantly evolving. Words that used to be acceptable can now get you cancelled. People are afraid of making embarrassing mistakes. Or sounding outdated or out of touch. Or not being as respectful as they intended.

But it's not as complicated as it might seem. Linguistic anthropologist Suzanne Wertheim offers six easy-to-understand principles to guide any communication-written or spoken-with anyone:

• Reflect reality
• Show respect
• Draw people in
• Incorporate other perspectives
• Prevent erasure
• Recognize pain points

This guide clarifies the challenges-and the solutions-to using "they/them," and demonstrates why "you guys" isn't as inclusive as many people think. If you follow the principles, you'll know not to ask a female coworker with a wedding ring about her husband-because she might be married to a woman. And you'll avoid writing things like "America was discovered in 1492," because that's just when Europeans found it.

Filled with real-world examples, high-impact word substitutions, and exercises that boost new skills, this book builds a foundational toolkit so people can evaluate what is and isn't inclusive language on their own.

Avoid inadvertently offending or alienating anyone by following six straightforward communication guidelines developed by a no-nonsense linguistic anthropologist and business consultant.

In today's fast-moving and combative culture, language can feel like a minefield. Terms around gender, disability, race, sexuality and more are constantly evolving. Words that used to be acceptable can now get you “cancelled.” People are afraid of making embarrassing mistakes. Or sounding outdated or out of touch. Or not being as respectful as they intended.

But it's not as complicated as it might seem. Linguistic anthropologist Suzanne Wertheim offers six easy-to-understand principles to guide any communication-written or spoken-with anyone:

• Reflect reality
• Show respect
• Draw people in
• Incorporate other perspectives
• Prevent erasure
• Recognize pain points

This guide clarifies the challenges-and the solutions-to using "they/them," and demonstrates why "you guys" isn't as inclusive as many people think. If you follow the principles, you'll know not to ask a female coworker with a wedding ring about her husband-because she might be married to a woman. And you'll avoid writing things like "America was discovered in 1492," because that's just when Europeans found it.

Filled with real-world examples, high-impact word substitutions, and exercises that boost new skills, this book builds a foundational toolkit so people can evaluate what is and isn't inclusive language on their own.

OLD-SCHOOL top-down organizational behavior won't cut it anymore. Direct chain-of-command hierarchies are obsolete, fast giving way to networked, team-oriented organizations. To be successful, the ability to influence others-especially others over whom you have no direct control-is a must. You have to build alliances and persuade people, not boss them around.
The ability to influence people isn't something you're born with, it's a skill anyone can acquire. In his new book, The Influence Edge, experienced organizational consultant Alan Vengel teaches the influence skills needed to enlist the cooperation of others, inside and outside the organization, to achieve your professional goals.
Drawing on case studies and illustrative anecdotes from his consulting practice, Vengel introduces a powerful system of influence initiatives and strategic thinking that anyone can apply to almost any work situation. The Influence Edge details specific influence tactics that can lead to workplace success. It provides a nuts and bolts guide for planning for a real influence situation, and shows exactly how to map out a strategy. And The Influence Edge goes deeper into the influence realm to show how to build better long-term rapport, even with really difficult people.
An interactive self-study guide, The Influence Edge offers immediate hands-on applications. Its heavily tested, practical insights are embodied in a variety of exercises that help readers evaluate their progress, reflect deeply on what they've read, and build a personal strategy for increasing their influence edge.
Vengel equips readers to influence without authority, sell ideas, and build relationships. The Influence Edge is designed to be used again and again. It provides a complete toolkit for turning the often disorderly and seemingly impossible task of getting someone else to help you achieve your goal into an entirely viable process of analysis, preparation, and action.

Women hold over half of all professional jobs today, yet they represent just four percent of CEOs in the S&P 500. Even worse, that percentage has barely budged in a decade.
That's where The Influence Effect comes in. Based on recent research by the authors of the New York Times bestseller Break Your Own Rules, this book begins with the premise that when it comes to political savvy, what works for men at work won't work for women. Packed with the authors' coaching insights and their “Big Five” strategies designed specifically for female executives, this book guides women to break past political barriers and get right to what they really want—influence.

Authors Kathryn Heath, Jill Flynn, Mary Davis Holt, and Diana Faison make success far less complex, helping women overcome entrenched resistance to their ideas, create their own access points to power, and attract followers in a way that works for them. They present tools such as Influence Loops (to organically increase influence), Personal Scaffolding (to grow a groundswell of support), and Scenario Thinking (a savvy twist on strategic planning). These and other smart strategies finally allow women to succeed on their own terms.

Illustrated with dozens of engaging, real stories culled from the authors' many years of coaching experience, The Influence Effect moves women past the politics problem and offers a new path to power. Actually, it's more than a path—it's a runway—it frees women to take off in their careers on their own terms. The Influence Effect will work for women, not because gender barriers will no longer exist, but because they will no longer hold women back.

Women hold over half of all professional jobs today, yet they represent just four percent of CEOs in the S&P 500. Even worse, that percentage has barely budged in a decade.
That's where The Influence Effect comes in. Based on recent research by the authors of the New York Times bestseller Break Your Own Rules, this book begins with the premise that when it comes to political savvy, what works for men at work won't work for women. Packed with the authors' coaching insights and their “Big Five” strategies designed specifically for female executives, this book guides women to break past political barriers and get right to what they really want—influence.

Authors Kathryn Heath, Jill Flynn, Mary Davis Holt, and Diana Faison make success far less complex, helping women overcome entrenched resistance to their ideas, create their own access points to power, and attract followers in a way that works for them. They present tools such as Influence Loops (to organically increase influence), Personal Scaffolding (to grow a groundswell of support), and Scenario Thinking (a savvy twist on strategic planning). These and other smart strategies finally allow women to succeed on their own terms.

Illustrated with dozens of engaging, real stories culled from the authors' many years of coaching experience, The Influence Effect moves women past the politics problem and offers a new path to power. Actually, it's more than a path—it's a runway—it frees women to take off in their careers on their own terms. The Influence Effect will work for women, not because gender barriers will no longer exist, but because they will no longer hold women back.

Everything that we've been told about women succeeding in the workplace-from leaning in to throwing out the idea of being “nice girls”-misses the true key that puts women ahead: influence. Leadership experts Kathryn Heath, Jill Flynn, Mary Davis Holt, and Diana Faison create an airtight case for the importance of the influence effect.


It's pure myth that women need to be more aggressive to succeed. Since the time when Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In was first published in 2013, one thing has become strikingly clear: leaning in simply isn't enough to turn the tide. To the contrary, studies show that imitating male behavior doesn't translate to professional advancement for women. The distinctive missing link is influence.

In every industry, from private equity investing to network television, women are underrepresented at the top and underpaid across the board and throughout their careers. The gap in the literature about what puts women ahead is influence-the capacity to have an impact on agendas and outcomes. Influence is more important to the women we work with than power itself.

The Influence Effect focuses on building influence that will enable women to gain traction in their careers and to achieve the advancement they deserve. The tools in this book are geared to help women rise above the politics of business and succeed on their own terms by achieving greater influence. Women have goals they want to achieve and ideas they can champion through change, and influence is the currency they need to make that happen.

This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the core skills, activities, and behaviors that are required of product managers in modern technology companies.

Product management is one of the fastest growing and most sought-after roles by job seekers and companies alike. The availability of trained and experienced talent can barely keep up with the accelerating demand for new and improved technology products. People from nontechnical and technical backgrounds alike are eager to master this exciting new role.

The Influential Product Manager teaches product managers how to behave at each stage of the product life cycle to achieve the best outcome for the customer. Product managers are under pressure to drive spectacular results, often without wielding much direct power or authority. If you don't know how to influence people at all levels of the organization, how will you create the best possible product?

This comprehensive entry-level textbook distills over twenty years of hard-won field experience and industry knowledge into lessons that will empower new product managers to act like pros right out of the gate. With teaching experience both from UC Berkeley and Lynda.com, the author boils down the most complex topics into principles that are easy to memorize and apply.

This book methodically documents the tools product managers everywhere use to align their teams with market needs and organizational goals. From setting priorities to capturing requirements to navigating trade-offs, this book makes it easy. Not only will your product succeed, you'll succeed, too, when you read the final chapter on advancing your career. Let your product's success become your success!

This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the core skills, activities, and behaviors that are required of product managers in modern technology companies.

Product management is one of the fastest growing and most sought-after roles by job seekers and companies alike. The availability of trained and experienced talent can barely keep up with the accelerating demand for new and improved technology products. People from nontechnical and technical backgrounds alike are eager to master this exciting new role.

The Influential Product Manager teaches product managers how to behave at each stage of the product life cycle to achieve the best outcome for the customer. Product managers are under pressure to drive spectacular results, often without wielding much direct power or authority. If you don't know how to influence people at all levels of the organization, how will you create the best possible product?

This comprehensive entry-level textbook distills over twenty years of hard-won field experience and industry knowledge into lessons that will empower new product managers to act like pros right out of the gate. With teaching experience both from UC Berkeley and Lynda.com, the author boils down the most complex topics into principles that are easy to memorize and apply.

This book methodically documents the tools product managers everywhere use to align their teams with market needs and organizational goals. From setting priorities to capturing requirements to navigating trade-offs, this book makes it easy. Not only will your product succeed, you'll succeed, too, when you read the final chapter on advancing your career. Let your product's success become your success!

This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to the core skills, activities, and behaviors that are required of product managers in modern technology companies.

Product management is one of the fastest growing and most sought-after roles by both job-seekers and companies alike. The availability of trained and experienced product manager talent can barely keep up with the accelerating demand for new and improved technology products. Furthermore, the industry is standardizing what an effective product manager does, which makes it crucial for all product managers to learn and put into practice skills that are transferable across a wide range of organizations. After an initial introduction to the role and responsibilities of the product manager, the book maps to the product life cycle-starting with the PM's role in ideation and prioritization through requirement gathering and validation, building the product, and measuring success. People skills are also highlighted because technical and process knowledge is not enough. The final chapter focuses on interpersonal skills and the importance of leading through influence.

The Innovation Code
The Creative Power of Constructive Conflict

Harmony is sublime in music but deadly to innovation. The only way to create new, hybrid solutions is to clash. Innovation happens when we bring people with contrasting perspectives and complementary areas of expertise together in one room. We innovate best with people who challenge us, not people who agree with us.

It sounds like a recipe for chaos and confusion. But in The Innovation Code, Jeff DeGraff, dubbed the “Dean of Innovation,” and Staney DeGraff introduce a simple framework to explain the ways different kinds of thinkers and leaders can create constructive conflict in any organization. This positive tension produces ingenious solutions that go far beyond “the best of both worlds.”

Drawing on their work with nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies, the DeGraffs help you harness the creative energy that arises from opposing viewpoints. They identify four contrasting styles of innovator—the Artist, the Engineer, the Athlete, and the Sage—and include exercises and assessments for building, managing, and embracing the dynamic discord of a team that contains all four. You can also figure out where you fit on the continuum of innovator archetypes.

Using vivid examples, The Innovation Code offers four steps to normalize conflict and channel it to develop something completely new. By following these simple steps, you will get breakthrough innovations that are both good for you and your customers. This is a rigorous but highly accessible guide for achieving breakthrough solutions by utilizing the full—and seemingly contradictory—spectrum of innovative thinking.

The Innovation Code
The Creative Power of Constructive Conflict

Harmony is sublime in music but deadly to innovation. The only way to create new, hybrid solutions is to clash. Innovation happens when we bring people with contrasting perspectives and complementary areas of expertise together in one room. We innovate best with people who challenge us, not people who agree with us.

It sounds like a recipe for chaos and confusion. But in The Innovation Code, Jeff DeGraff, dubbed the “Dean of Innovation,” and Staney DeGraff introduce a simple framework to explain the ways different kinds of thinkers and leaders can create constructive conflict in any organization. This positive tension produces ingenious solutions that go far beyond “the best of both worlds.”

Drawing on their work with nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies, the DeGraffs help you harness the creative energy that arises from opposing viewpoints. They identify four contrasting styles of innovator—the Artist, the Engineer, the Athlete, and the Sage—and include exercises and assessments for building, managing, and embracing the dynamic discord of a team that contains all four. You can also figure out where you fit on the continuum of innovator archetypes.

Using vivid examples, The Innovation Code offers four steps to normalize conflict and channel it to develop something completely new. By following these simple steps, you will get breakthrough innovations that are both good for you and your customers. This is a rigorous but highly accessible guide for achieving breakthrough solutions by utilizing the full—and seemingly contradictory—spectrum of innovative thinking.

Innovation comes from creative tension, not harmonious interaction, says “Dean of Innovation” Jeff DeGraff. He identifies four basic approaches to innovation and shows how leaders can manage the inevitable conflicts between them to create brilliant, unexpected hybrid solutions.


From years of research and practical experience as a consultant, Jeff DeGraff has learned that when it comes to any innovation initiative, disharmony is crucial. We innovate when we disrupt, and we first have to disrupt each other.

DeGraff identifies four contrasting types of innovators. There's the wild experimentation of the Artist, the pragmatic caution of the Engineer, the urgent competitiveness of the Athlete, and the patient community building of the Sage. He includes exercises so readers can find where they fit into this framework and shows how to build, manage, and embrace the dynamic discord of a team that contains all four types. When you combine the visionary thinking of the Artist and the practical thinking of the Engineer, you get innovation that's both revolutionary and manageable, highly ambitious without high risk. When you combine the results-oriented attitude of the Athlete with the values-oriented attitude of the Sage, you get innovation that's both a good investment and good for the world. This is a profound but highly accessible guide for achieving breakthrough solutions by utilizing the full-and seemingly contradictory-spectrum of innovative thinking.

This companion game to The Innovation Code brings leadership training to life in a new way. Get your leaders and employees up and moving, discovering their strengths and passions in an interactive, fully immersive game.


The Competing Values Card Deck is a great, immersive experience for organizations. The card deck helps teams sort themselves into the quadrants of the Innovation Code model and then uses the included and ancillary materials so participants can learn more about their teams. Armed with this knowledge, teams will be able to leverage the concepts of competition and collaboration in their organizations. Get ready to get a whole room of people up, moving around, and talking to each other without resorting to questions about everyone's favorite ice cream flavor.

For more than twenty years, major innovations—the kind that transform industries and even societies—seem to have come almost exclusively from startups, despite massive efforts and millions of dollars spent by established companies. Tony Davila and Marc Epstein, authors of the bestselling Making Innovation Work, say the problem is that the very processes and structures responsible for established companies’ enduring success prevent them from developing breakthroughs. This is the innovation paradox. Most established companies succeed through incremental innovation—taking a product they’re known for and adding a feature here, cutting a cost there. Major breakthroughs are hard to achieve when everything about the way your organization is built and run is designed to reward making what already works work a little better. But incremental innovation can coexist with breakthrough thinking. Using examples from both scrappy startups and long-term innovators such as IBM, 3M, Apple, and Google, Davila and Epstein explain how corporate culture, leadership style, strategy, incentives, and management systems can be structured to encourage breakthroughs. Then they bring it all together in a new model called the Startup Corporation, which combines the philosophy of the startup with the experience, resources, and network of an established company. Breakthrough innovation no longer has to be the nearly exclusive province of the new kids on the block. With Davila and Epstein’s assistance, any company can develop paradigm-shifting products and services and maximize the ROI on its R&D.

For more than twenty years, major innovations—the kind that transform industries and even societies—seem to have come almost exclusively from startups. Established companies still dominate most markets, but despite massive efforts and millions of dollars, they can't seem to achieve the same kinds of foundational breakthroughs.

The problem, say Tony Davila and Marc Epstein, is that the very processes and structures responsible for established companies' enduring success prevent them from developing breakthroughs. This is the innovation paradox.

Most established companies succeed through incremental innovation—taking a product they're known for and adding a feature here, cutting a cost there. It's a solid recipe for growth, but major breakthroughs are hard to achieve when everything about the way your organization is built and run is designed to reward making what already works work a little better. But incremental innovation can coexist with breakthrough thinking.

Using examples from both scrappy startups and long-term innovators such as IBM, 3M, Apple, and Google, Davila and Epstein explain how corporate culture, leadership style, strategy, incentives, and management systems can be structured to encourage breakthroughs. Then they bring it all together in a new model called the Startup Corporation, which combines the philosophy of the startup with the experience, resources, and network of an established company. Startup corporations encourage visionary thinking at all levels—instead of depending on a single Steve Jobs, they have dozens, even thousands of them.

Breakthrough innovation no longer has to be the nearly exclusive province of the new kids on the block. With Davila and Epstein's assistance, any company can develop paradigm-shifting products and services and maximize the ROI on its R&D.

Unlock the Door to the Federal IT Marketplace
Here's your key to selling IT goods and services to the government. David Perera and Steve Charles present the ins and outs of successfully competing for—and winning—a share of the tens of billions of dollars the federal government spends each year on IT. Getting a piece of that business is not easy—it takes accurate knowledge of systems and procedures, as well as sharp insight into the structure and details of government procurement.
The Inside Guide to the Federal IT Market penetrates the haze of jargon and apparent complexity to reveal the inner workings of the IT contracting process. Whether you're just setting out or seek a bigger share, this comprehensive book provides valuable information you can put to immediate use. The Inside Guide to the Federal IT Market covers:
• Technology standards
• Basic contracting concepts
• Advanced contracting concepts, such as getting on and staying on the GSA schedules
• The effect of the federal budget process on the sales cycle
• What you need to know about ethics to earn business fairly, without avoidable delays and hassle
This book's focus on the IT market makes it a unique reference on federal procurement for private companies. Government procurement personnel will also find the depth and breadth of coverage useful in reviewing and evaluating IT offerings.

Unlock the Door to the Federal IT Marketplace
Here's your key to selling IT goods and services to the government. David Perera and Steve Charles present the ins and outs of successfully competing for—and winning—a share of the tens of billions of dollars the federal government spends each year on IT. Getting a piece of that business is not easy—it takes accurate knowledge of systems and procedures, as well as sharp insight into the structure and details of government procurement.
The Inside Guide to the Federal IT Market penetrates the haze of jargon and apparent complexity to reveal the inner workings of the IT contracting process. Whether you're just setting out or seek a bigger share, this comprehensive book provides valuable information you can put to immediate use. The Inside Guide to the Federal IT Market covers:
• Technology standards
• Basic contracting concepts
• Advanced contracting concepts, such as getting on and staying on the GSA schedules
• The effect of the federal budget process on the sales cycle
• What you need to know about ethics to earn business fairly, without avoidable delays and hassle
This book's focus on the IT market makes it a unique reference on federal procurement for private companies. Government procurement personnel will also find the depth and breadth of coverage useful in reviewing and evaluating IT offerings.