Products

Intelligence professionals are commonly viewed as solo operators. But these days intelligence work is mostly about collaboration. Interdisciplinary and even inter-organizational teams are necessary to solve the really hard problems intelligence professionals face. Tragically, these teams often devolve into wheel-spinning, contentious assemblies that get nothing done. Or members may disengage from a team if they find its work frustrating, trivial, or a waste of their time. Even teams with a spirit of camaraderie may take actions that are flat-out wrong. But there is also good news. This book draws on recent research findings as well as Harvard Professor Richard Hackman’s own experience as an intelligence community researcher and advisor to show how leaders can create an environment where teamwork flourishes. Hackman identifies six enabling conditions – such as establishing clear norms of conduct and providing well-timed team coaching – that increase the likelihood that teams will be effective in any setting or type of organization.. Although written explicitly for intelligence, defense, crisis management, and law enforcement professionals it will also be valuable for improving team success in all kinds of leadership, management, service, and production teams in business, government, and nonprofit enterprises.

In far too many organizational meetings, equal speaking opportunity seldom results in equal say. Factors such as race, class, and personal history too often inhibit open dialogue within and among groups, which can lead to a sense of disenfranchisement within the organization, and subsequently, disillusionment with the movement. Collective Visioning is the first visioning method to address these hurdles in the organizing process and to fully enable members to share their opinions without hesitation. Linda Stout uses her background and her own personal experience of marginalization within the organizing community to show how trainers can be more mindful of the diversity of their members as they strive toward a common goal. The book features a clear, actionable, step-by-step process to set up and create a welcoming space for activist leaders to collaborate for positive change. Stout details ways in which trainers should reach out to different groups, listen to and understand needs and concerns of the group, create a welcoming space for all voices, foster agreements, ensure the visibility of all members.

It's an unfortunate fact of social organizing that, despite even the best intentions, groups convened to effect positive change often fail to empower people from all backgrounds to speak up or to tap into a positive and inspiring collective vision. Longtime social justice crusader Linda Stout details a practical process that enables everyone—even those commonly marginalized—to work together with honesty, passion, commitment, and joy to create a positive, energizing, and sustainable vision and to make that vision a reality.

Stout shows, in practical terms, how to bring a group together, build trust, ensure that each and every voice is heard, create a positive vision, and develop an action plan that leverages everyone's abilities to bring that vision to fruition. Used successfully by more than 120 organizations—and illustrated here by dozens of practical examples and exercises—this process creates hope for change, even among those who've stopped believing that change is possible. This comprehensive guide will serve as a template for anyone seeking to create a better, more just tomorrow.

Drawing on Linda Stout's thirty years of experience training organizers, advocates, activists, and coalition groups, "Collective Visioning” provides a revolutionary guide to collaboration within and across diverse organizations.

Draw Them In, Don't Drive Them Away!


People often get promoted to leadership positions without knowing how to communicate an inspiring strategic vision to the people who report to them. So they focus on what they know: tactics, not strategy. As a result, they become stuck in micromanagement mode.

Dianna Booher wants to prevent micromanagement before it happens by providing you with the right leadership communication skills. Grounded in extensive research, this book offers practical guidelines to help professionals think, coach, converse, speak, write, meet, and negotiate strategically to deliver results. In thirty-six brief chapters, Booher shows you how to communicate effectively to audiences up and down the organization so you can fulfill your most essential responsibilities as a leader.

Draw Them In, Don't Drive Them Away!


People often get promoted to leadership positions without knowing how to communicate an inspiring strategic vision to the people who report to them. So they focus on what they know: tactics, not strategy. As a result, they become stuck in micromanagement mode.

Dianna Booher wants to prevent micromanagement before it happens by providing you with the right leadership communication skills. Grounded in extensive research, this book offers practical guidelines to help professionals think, coach, converse, speak, write, meet, and negotiate strategically to deliver results. In thirty-six brief chapters, Booher shows you how to communicate effectively to audiences up and down the organization so you can fulfill your most essential responsibilities as a leader.

When it comes to leading, there is a critical difference between communicating as a boss and communicating as a bully. Celebrated communicator Dianna Booher explains why a leader's success depends on knowing how to communicate strategically with audiences in an organization at their level of interest and relevancy.


“People don't leave an organization; they leave a boss” has become a truism in the workplace for good reason. The most common issue is that employees who get promoted from supervisor to manager or from manager to senior executive don't have adequate leadership communication skills for the job. As a result, they are stuck in micromanagement mode.

This book addresses this micromanagement problem by providing principles to help professionals think, coach, converse, speak, write, and meet strategically to deliver results. Booher guides readers through the transition from being a tactical thinker conducting day-to-day administrative work to being a strategic thinker dealing with critical problem analysis, generating innovative ideas, and aiming at a targeted solution. While strategic thinking is the first step to standing out, if you are unable to communicate your strategic thinking, you will remain stuck. Booher's research-based practice of strategic communication gives managers the training they desperately need as they move into leadership positions.

The ability to translate their knowledge, experience, and judgment for different groups and different levels in an organization transforms leaders from ordinary to extraordinary.

Life becomes less complicated as we grow as communicators. There’s often more we can do to improve our interactions than we realize.

We don’t have to live with regret about what we could have said or how we should have listened. This timely, timeless bravery manual teaches which risks to take and how to engage in ways that don’t cost us our personal peace.

Michelle’s tips read like a heartfelt conversation with a trusted friend—one who happens to have decades of experience coaching people from all walks of life. When we fall into sneaky, fear-based patterns, we’re robbed of the joy of communicating skillfully and confidently. Readers of Communicate with Courage learn how to overcome four hidden challenges:

• Hiding: Avoiding risks we need to take to realize our potential
• Defining: Needing to be right rather than approachable and open
• Rationalizing: Shielding ourselves from honest feedback, conflict, apologizing, asking for help, negotiating, and other scary but potentially rewarding Pro Moves
• Settling: Accepting "good enough" instead of stretching toward better outcomes

Through riveting real-life stories and practical exercises, Gladieux’s compassionate guidance builds self- and other-awareness in a wide variety of settings. This transformative approach has garnered national acclaim, earning the book eleven literary awards, including the following:

• Best Book Nonfiction, Outstanding Education – Independent Author Network
• Nonfiction 1st Place and Best Book Nonfiction – PenCraft Book Awards
• Nonfiction in Leadership/Think Differently Winner – Goody Book Awards
• Bronze Nonfiction Award – Readers’ Favorite Awards
• Communications Nonfiction Gold Prize – Global eBook Awards
• Nonfiction Book of the Year, Grand Prize – Independent Author Network

Whether you aim to improve work relationships or experience deeper personal connections, Communicate with Courage offers tools to make interactions easier and more enjoyable.

“Communicate with Courage is life-changing. Gladieux’s extraordinary empathy shines through with relatable examples from diverse worlds, from music to business to sports. You’ll read this book more than once. It will transform your relationship with yourself and other people.”
—Dr. Jillian Ihsanullah, leadership researcher

Life becomes less complicated as we grow as communicators. There’s often more we can do to improve our interactions than we realize.

We don’t have to live with regret about what we could have said or how we should have listened. This timely, timeless bravery manual teaches which risks to take and how to engage in ways that don’t cost us our personal peace.

Michelle’s tips read like a heartfelt conversation with a trusted friend—one who happens to have decades of experience coaching people from all walks of life. When we fall into sneaky, fear-based patterns, we’re robbed of the joy of communicating skillfully and confidently. Readers of Communicate with Courage learn how to overcome four hidden challenges:

• Hiding: Avoiding risks we need to take to realize our potential
• Defining: Needing to be right rather than approachable and open
• Rationalizing: Shielding ourselves from honest feedback, conflict, apologizing, asking for help, negotiating, and other scary but potentially rewarding Pro Moves
• Settling: Accepting "good enough" instead of stretching toward better outcomes

Through riveting real-life stories and practical exercises, Gladieux’s compassionate guidance builds self- and other-awareness in a wide variety of settings. This transformative approach has garnered national acclaim, earning the book eleven literary awards, including the following:

• Best Book Nonfiction, Outstanding Education – Independent Author Network
• Nonfiction 1st Place and Best Book Nonfiction – PenCraft Book Awards
• Nonfiction in Leadership/Think Differently Winner – Goody Book Awards
• Bronze Nonfiction Award – Readers’ Favorite Awards
• Communications Nonfiction Gold Prize – Global eBook Awards
• Nonfiction Book of the Year, Grand Prize – Independent Author Network

Whether you aim to improve work relationships or experience deeper personal connections, Communicate with Courage offers tools to make interactions easier and more enjoyable.

“Communicate with Courage is life-changing. Gladieux’s extraordinary empathy shines through with relatable examples from diverse worlds, from music to business to sports. You’ll read this book more than once. It will transform your relationship with yourself and other people.”
—Dr. Jillian Ihsanullah, leadership researcher

Confront the psychological blocks that are holding you back-and become a fearless and peerless communicator.

Life becomes less complicated as we grow as communicators. There's often more we can do to improve our interactions than we realize. We don't have to live with regret about what we could have said or how we should have listened. This timely, timeless bravery manual teaches which risks to take and how to engage in ways that don't cost us our personal peace.

Michelle's tips read like a heartfelt conversation with a trusted friend-one who happens to have decades of experience coaching people from all walks of life. When we fall into sneaky, fear-based patterns, we're robbed of the joy of communicating skillfully and confidently. Readers of Communicate with Courage learn how to overcome four hidden challenges:

• Hiding: Avoiding risks we need to take to realize our potential
• Defining: Needing to be right rather than approachable and open
• Rationalizing: Shielding ourselves from honest feedback, conflict, apologizing, asking for help, negotiating, and other scary but potentially rewarding Pro Moves
• Settling: Accepting "good enough" instead of stretching toward better outcomes

Through riveting real-life stories and practical exercises, Gladieux's compassionate
guidance builds self- and other-awareness in a wide variety of settings. This transformative approach has garnered national acclaim, earning the book eleven literary awards, including the following:

• Best Book Nonfiction, Outstanding Education – Independent Author Network
• Nonfiction 1st Place and Best Book Nonfiction – PenCraft Book Awards
• Nonfiction in Leadership/Think Differently Winner – Goody Book Awards
• Bronze Nonfiction Award – Readers' Favorite Awards
• Communications Nonfiction Gold Prize – Global eBook Awards
• Nonfiction Book of the Year, Grand Prize – Independent Author Network

Whether you aim to improve work relationships or experience deeper personal connections, Communicate with Courage offers tools to make interactions easier and more enjoyable.

“Communicate with Courage is life-changing. Gladieux's extraordinary empathy shines through with relatable examples from diverse worlds, from music to business to sports. You'll read this book more than once. It will transform your relationship with yourself and other people.”
-Dr. Jillian Ihsanullah, leadership researcher

This updated bestseller shows leaders how to transform fragmentation into authentic community with new workplace applications and proven strategies for today’s divided world.

With increasing violence, widening ideological divides, and growing economic inequality, a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. Yet typical ways of engaging people civically and organizationally remain unchanged. In Community, Peter Block explores how authentic community can emerge from fragmentation and offers practical steps to foster transformation.

This updated third edition draws on decades of implementing Block’s ideas and includes the following:

• New stories and examples demonstrating community building as a more powerful approach to social problems than traditional policies and programs
• Expanded resources and a discussion guide designed for classroom and training program use
• A new closing chapter covering broader implications of the book’s ideas for organizational transformation
• Fresh content exploring the creative economy’s relationship to belonging and social capital’s role in authentic engagement
• Updated examples showing how community principles apply to today’s workplace and virtual world challenges

From neighborhood councils transforming local engagement to organizations shifting from competitive to cooperative cultures, Block demonstrates how simple positive change can be once we decide it’s essential. Whether readers are community leaders, organizational consultants, or concerned citizens, this book provides the framework and tools to move from fragmentation to connection, from isolation to belonging.

This updated bestseller shows leaders how to transform fragmentation into authentic community with new workplace applications and proven strategies for today’s divided world.

With increasing violence, widening ideological divides, and growing economic inequality, a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. Yet typical ways of engaging people civically and organizationally remain unchanged. In Community, Peter Block explores how authentic community can emerge from fragmentation and offers practical steps to foster transformation.

This updated third edition draws on decades of implementing Block’s ideas and includes the following:

• New stories and examples demonstrating community building as a more powerful approach to social problems than traditional policies and programs
• Expanded resources and a discussion guide designed for classroom and training program use
• A new closing chapter covering broader implications of the book’s ideas for organizational transformation
• Fresh content exploring the creative economy’s relationship to belonging and social capital’s role in authentic engagement
• Updated examples showing how community principles apply to today’s workplace and virtual world challenges

From neighborhood councils transforming local engagement to organizations shifting from competitive to cooperative cultures, Block demonstrates how simple positive change can be once we decide it’s essential. Whether readers are community leaders, organizational consultants, or concerned citizens, this book provides the framework and tools to move from fragmentation to connection, from isolation to belonging.

This updated bestseller shows leaders how to transform fragmentation into authentic community with new workplace applications and proven strategies for today’s divided world.

With increasing violence, widening ideological divides, and growing economic inequality, a deeper sense of community is desperately needed. Yet typical ways of engaging people civically and organizationally remain unchanged. In Community, Peter Block explores how authentic community can emerge from fragmentation and offers practical steps to foster transformation.

This updated third edition draws on decades of implementing Block’s ideas and includes the following:

• New stories and examples demonstrating community building as a more powerful approach to social problems than traditional policies and programs
• Expanded resources and a discussion guide designed for classroom and training program use
• A new closing chapter covering broader implications of the book’s ideas for organizational transformation
• Fresh content exploring the creative economy’s relationship to belonging and social capital’s role in authentic engagement
• Updated examples showing how community principles apply to today’s workplace and virtual world challenges

From neighborhood councils transforming local engagement to organizations shifting from competitive to cooperative cultures, Block demonstrates how simple positive change can be once we decide it’s essential. Whether readers are community leaders, organizational consultants, or concerned citizens, this book provides the framework and tools to move from fragmentation to connection, from isolation to belonging.

An Independent Press Awards Nonfiction Winner.

A compass for leaders lost in the paradoxical space between attention to people and attention to results—with Compassionate Accountability, you don't have to choose!

Sadly, compassion and accountability are too often in tension-leaders feel they have to pick one or the other. But solely prioritizing accountability can create toxic work environments that drive away good talent. On the other end of the spectrum, being too nice can compromise performance and productivity.

Finding harmony between compassion and accountability is the ultimate catalyst for improved results and a thriving workplace.

The solution is recognizing that compassion and accountability are not opposites. In fact, accountability is an element of compassion. Compassionate Accountability is the process of building connection while getting results. This book shows how this foundational mindset, philosophy, and way of living can lead to a thriving organizational culture. It covers such topics as these:

• Why you can't practice compassion without accountability
• How to turn on the three switches of the compassion mindset—and the predictable damaging consequences when they're turned off
• The key role Compassionate Accountability plays in a healthy leadership culture
• Six areas to focus on to start building your culture of Compassionate Accountability
• Five common barriers to compassion for leaders—and how to overcome them

Plus, readers will find real case examples of how organizations have adopted Compassionate Accountability, along with quizzes and self-assessments to help them learn and apply the concepts.

Leaders seeking a renewed sense of fulfillment in their roles and increased leadership impact will find inspiration, guidance, and a road map for cultural transformation.

An Independent Press Awards Nonfiction Winner.

A compass for leaders lost in the paradoxical space between attention to people and attention to results—with Compassionate Accountability, you don't have to choose!

Sadly, compassion and accountability are too often in tension-leaders feel they have to pick one or the other. But solely prioritizing accountability can create toxic work environments that drive away good talent. On the other end of the spectrum, being too nice can compromise performance and productivity.

Finding harmony between compassion and accountability is the ultimate catalyst for improved results and a thriving workplace.

The solution is recognizing that compassion and accountability are not opposites. In fact, accountability is an element of compassion. Compassionate Accountability is the process of building connection while getting results. This book shows how this foundational mindset, philosophy, and way of living can lead to a thriving organizational culture. It covers such topics as these:

• Why you can't practice compassion without accountability
• How to turn on the three switches of the compassion mindset—and the predictable damaging consequences when they're turned off
• The key role Compassionate Accountability plays in a healthy leadership culture
• Six areas to focus on to start building your culture of Compassionate Accountability
• Five common barriers to compassion for leaders—and how to overcome them

Plus, readers will find real case examples of how organizations have adopted Compassionate Accountability, along with quizzes and self-assessments to help them learn and apply the concepts.

Leaders seeking a renewed sense of fulfillment in their roles and increased leadership impact will find inspiration, guidance, and a road map for cultural transformation.

An Independent Press Awards Nonfiction Winner.

A compass for leaders lost in the paradoxical space between attention to people and attention to results-with Compassionate Accountability, you don't have to choose!

Sadly, compassion and accountability are too often in tension-leaders feel they have to pick one or the other. But solely prioritizing accountability can create toxic work environments that drive away good talent. On the other end of the spectrum, being too nice can compromise performance and productivity.

Finding harmony between compassion and accountability is the ultimate catalyst for improved results and a thriving workplace.

The solution is recognizing that compassion and accountability are not opposites. In fact, accountability is an element of compassion. Compassionate Accountability is the process of building connection while getting results. This book shows how this foundational mindset, philosophy, and way of living can lead to a thriving organizational culture. It covers such topics as these:

• Why you can't practice compassion without accountability
• How to turn on the three “switches” of the compassion mindset-and the predictable damaging consequences when they're turned off
• The key role Compassionate Accountability plays in a healthy leadership culture
• Six areas to focus on to start building your culture of Compassionate Accountability
• Five common barriers to compassion for leaders-and how to overcome them

Plus, readers will find real case examples of how organizations have adopted Compassionate Accountability, along with quizzes and self-assessments to help them learn and apply the concepts.

Leaders seeking a renewed sense of fulfillment in their roles and increased leadership impact will find inspiration, guidance, and a road map for cultural transformation.

From purchasing pay-per-view pornography to smoking pot, many so-called Muslim terrorists prove by their actions that they aren't motivated by devotion to religion, Leena Al Olaimy argues. So why do they really turn to violence, and what does that tell us about the most effective way to combat terrorism?

Al Olaimy sets the stage by providing a quick, thoughtful grounding in the birth of Islam in a barbaric Game of Thrones–like seventh-century Arabia, the evolution of fundamentalist thought, and the political failures of the postcolonial period. She shows that terrorists are motivated by economic exclusion, lack of opportunity, social marginalization, and political discrimination. This is why using force to counter terrorism is ineffective—it exacerbates the symptoms without treating the cause. Moreover, data shows that military interventions led to the demise of only 12 percent of religious terrorist groups.

Combining compelling data with anecdotal evidence, Al Olaimy sheds light on unorthodox and counterintuitive strategies to address social woes that groups like ISIS exploit. For example, she describes how Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has decreased terrorism while paradoxically becoming more overtly religious. Or how Mechelen, the city with Belgium's largest Muslim population, adopted integration policies so effective that not one of its 20,000 Muslims left to join ISIS. Using religion, neuroscience, farming, and even love, this book offers many inspiring examples and—for once—an optimistic outlook on how we can not just fight but prevent terrorism.

From purchasing pay-per-view pornography to smoking pot, many so-called Muslim terrorists prove by their actions that they aren't motivated by devotion to religion, Leena Al Olaimy argues. So why do they really turn to violence, and what does that tell us about the most effective way to combat terrorism?

Al Olaimy sets the stage by providing a quick, thoughtful grounding in the birth of Islam in a barbaric Game of Thrones–like seventh-century Arabia, the evolution of fundamentalist thought, and the political failures of the postcolonial period. She shows that terrorists are motivated by economic exclusion, lack of opportunity, social marginalization, and political discrimination. This is why using force to counter terrorism is ineffective—it exacerbates the symptoms without treating the cause. Moreover, data shows that military interventions led to the demise of only 12 percent of religious terrorist groups.

Combining compelling data with anecdotal evidence, Al Olaimy sheds light on unorthodox and counterintuitive strategies to address social woes that groups like ISIS exploit. For example, she describes how Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has decreased terrorism while paradoxically becoming more overtly religious. Or how Mechelen, the city with Belgium's largest Muslim population, adopted integration policies so effective that not one of its 20,000 Muslims left to join ISIS. Using religion, neuroscience, farming, and even love, this book offers many inspiring examples and—for once—an optimistic outlook on how we can not just fight but prevent terrorism.