Products

Many federal agencies have made huge strides to develop, fully utilize, and enhance the effectiveness of their most valuable resource: their workforce. This book captures those successes and relates the stories behind them. Innovative recruitment and retention strategies, dynamic employee onboarding programs, leading-edge HR technology—these are some of the stories that offer valuable lessons for anyone dealing with human resources issues in government, business, or any other organizational environment. The authors highlight not only the successful outcomes of various agency programs, but also consider the bumps and hurdles encountered and overcome along the way. Rather than a theoretical presentation of what might, or should, work, Human Capital Management: What Really Works in Government provides thought-provoking and practical examples detailing what federal agencies are doing that is working.

A self-compassion blueprint for leaders who are closed-off, constantly on the verge of burnout, and/or trapped in the myth of perfectionism.

Through this 6-step framework, leaders will learn that self-compassion is for the strong, to separate their title from their person, and how to care for themselves in order to care for others.

So many leadership and compassion books seek to remind leaders to behave human and treat those around them with care. But the truth is that leaders are human. They're not playing at being human or calling forth their humanity on demand. Their struggle in marrying leadership and compassion stems from leaders ignoring self-care—the lack of compassion toward their subordinates is just a symptom.

Human First, Leader Second introduces leaders to the practice of self-compassion through a 6-step framework designed to ease even the most hard-headed and hard-assed leaders into thoughtful, and productive, introspection.

• Backward: Biography, Biology, Backstory
• Forward: Purpose, Values, Priorities
• Inward: Intentions, Feelings, Thoughts
• Outward: Intent, Actions, Behaviors
• Leeward: Self-care and Personal Accountability
• Wayward: Regret and Self-forgiveness

Offering strategies for a personalized exploration of self-compassion—and what works best for the individual—this book will help leaders grow awareness to the importance of self-care while debunking the myth that compassion equals weakness. Regardless of our title or influence, we are all humans first, who need compassion.

A self-compassion blueprint for leaders who are closed-off, constantly on the verge of burnout, and/or trapped in the myth of perfectionism.

Through this 6-step framework, leaders will learn that self-compassion is for the strong, to separate their title from their person, and how to care for themselves in order to care for others.

So many leadership and compassion books seek to remind leaders to behave human and treat those around them with care. But the truth is that leaders are human. They're not playing at being human or calling forth their humanity on demand. Their struggle in marrying leadership and compassion stems from leaders ignoring self-care—the lack of compassion toward their subordinates is just a symptom.

Human First, Leader Second introduces leaders to the practice of self-compassion through a 6-step framework designed to ease even the most hard-headed and hard-assed leaders into thoughtful, and productive, introspection.

• Backward: Biography, Biology, Backstory
• Forward: Purpose, Values, Priorities
• Inward: Intentions, Feelings, Thoughts
• Outward: Intent, Actions, Behaviors
• Leeward: Self-care and Personal Accountability
• Wayward: Regret and Self-forgiveness

Offering strategies for a personalized exploration of self-compassion—and what works best for the individual—this book will help leaders grow awareness to the importance of self-care while debunking the myth that compassion equals weakness. Regardless of our title or influence, we are all humans first, who need compassion.

A self-compassion blueprint for leaders who are closed-off, constantly on the verge of burnout, and/or trapped in the myth of perfectionism.

Through this 6-step framework, leaders will learn that self-compassion is for the strong, to separate their title from their person, and how to care for themselves in order to care for others.

So many leadership and compassion books seek to remind leaders to “behave human” and treat those around them with care. But the truth is that leaders are human. They're not playing at being human or calling forth their humanity on demand. Their struggle in marrying leadership and compassion stems from leaders ignoring self-care-the lack of compassion toward their subordinates is just a symptom.

Human First, Leader Second introduces leaders to the practice of self-compassion through a 6-step framework designed to ease even the most hard-headed and hard-assed leaders into thoughtful, and productive, introspection.

• Backward: Biography, Biology, Backstory
• Forward: Purpose, Values, Priorities
• Inward: Intentions, Feelings, Thoughts
• Outward: Intent, Actions, Behaviors
• Leeward: Self-care and Personal Accountability
• Wayward: Regret and Self-forgiveness

Offering strategies for a personalized exploration of self-compassion-and what works best for the individual-this book will help leaders grow awareness to the importance of self-care while debunking the myth that compassion equals weakness. Regardless of our title or influence, we are all humans first, who need compassion.

Synthesizes current thinking on knowledge management and intellectual capital and identifies how human resource management can make a value-added contribution
As more organizations recognize the importance of intellectual capital and knowledge management to competitive success, you would expect human resources (HR) to move to the forefront of organizational leadership. Yet, to the contrary, HR continues to be criticized for its operational and bureaucratic focus and its inability to keep up with changes in the environment.
Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy examines how human resource management must change if it is to remain a vital part of the organization. The Lengnick-Halls show how HR departments can move beyond a simple operational focus on attracting, selecting, developing, retaining, and using employees to a more strategic focus on managing human capital and managing knowledge.
The book identifies the most important features of the knowledge economy and details four new roles HR must adopt in order to help organizations succeed in this new environment: human capital steward, knowledge facilitator, relationship builder, and rapid deployment specialist. Each of these roles is defined and described in detail using examples from leading-edge businesses. Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy describes how human resource management has evolved and continues to evolve to meet the increasing demands of organizations for sources of competitive advantage.

Offers a fundamentally new conceptual model for the human resource function to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy Provides concrete suggestions for implementing this model, including numerous examples of effective practices from leading-edge firms Synthesizes current thinking on knowledge management and intellectual capital and identifies how human resource management can make a value-added contribution As more organizations recognize the importance of intellectual capital and knowledge management to competitive success, you would expect human resources (HR) to move to the forefront of organizational leadership. Yet, to the contrary, HR continues to be criticized for its operational and bureaucratic focus and its inability to keep up with changes in the environment. Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy examines how human resource management must change if it is to remain a vital part of the organization. The Lengnick-Halls show how HR departments can move beyond a simple operational focus on attracting, selecting, developing, retaining, and using employees to a more strategic focus on managing human capital and managing knowledge. The book identifies the most important features of the knowledge economy and details four new roles HR must adopt in order to help organizations succeed in this new environment: human capital steward, knowledge facilitator, relationship builder, and rapid deployment specialist. Each of these roles is defined and described in detail using examples from leading-edge businesses. Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy describes how human resource management has evolved and continues to evolve to meet the increasing demands of organizations for sources of competitive advantage.

Offers a fundamentally new conceptual model for the human resource function to meet the challenges of the knowledge economy
Provides concrete suggestions for implementing this model, including numerous examples of effective practices from leading-edge firms
Synthesizes current thinking on knowledge management and intellectual capital and identifies how human resource management can make a value-added contribution
As more organizations recognize the importance of intellectual capital and knowledge management to competitive success, you would expect human resources (HR) to move to the forefront of organizational leadership. Yet, to the contrary, HR continues to be criticized for its operational and bureaucratic focus and its inability to keep up with changes in the environment.
Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy examines how human resource management must change if it is to remain a vital part of the organization. The Lengnick-Halls show how HR departments can move beyond a simple operational focus on attracting, selecting, developing, retaining, and using employees to a more strategic focus on managing human capital and managing knowledge.
The book identifies the most important features of the knowledge economy and details four new roles HR must adopt in order to help organizations succeed in this new environment: human capital steward, knowledge facilitator, relationship builder, and rapid deployment specialist. Each of these roles is defined and described in detail using examples from leading-edge businesses. Human Resource Management in the Knowledge Economy describes how human resource management has evolved and continues to evolve to meet the increasing demands of organizations for sources of competitive advantage.

Consulting in Complex and Changing Times

Organizations face challenges today that are too messy and complicated for consultants to simply play doctor: run a few tests, offer a neat diagnosis of the “problem,” and recommend a solution. Edgar Schein argues that consultants have to jettison the old idea of professional distance and work with their clients in a more personal way, emphasizing authentic openness, curiosity, and humility. Schein draws deeply on his own decades of experience, offering over two dozen case studies that illuminate each stage of this humble consulting process. Just as he did with Process Consultation nearly fifty years ago, Schein has once again revolutionized the field, enabling consultants to be more genuinely helpful and vastly more effective.

Consulting in Complex and Changing Times

Organizations face challenges today that are too messy and complicated for consultants to simply play doctor: run a few tests, offer a neat diagnosis of the “problem,” and recommend a solution. Edgar Schein argues that consultants have to jettison the old idea of professional distance and work with their clients in a more personal way, emphasizing authentic openness, curiosity, and humility. Schein draws deeply on his own decades of experience, offering over two dozen case studies that illuminate each stage of this humble consulting process. Just as he did with Process Consultation nearly fifty years ago, Schein has once again revolutionized the field, enabling consultants to be more genuinely helpful and vastly more effective.

Nowhere else in the business world is communication more important than to consultants, moving between hundreds of communities every year. In an increasingly complex world, a new level of skill is required, but begins with a seemingly paradoxical skill for a consultant: how to ask rather than tell.

This new book reveals what it takes for consultants of all types, as well as organizational leaders, to be really helpful in dealing with the complex, systemic, constantly changing organizational problems of today. They need to rapidly create a relationship of trust and openness that enables clients, subordinates, and team members to reveal what is really on their minds and to jointly develop a sense of what is the problem and what kind of adaptive response could best deal with it.

Schein first introduced some of these concepts in his foundational 1969 book Process Consultation, which is still in use today. But now clients don't have the time or patience for the endless questioning that characterized much of process consultation. And clients still expect consultants to hand them answers. But Schein has come to realize that answers from outsiders are useless, because they're often working the wrong problem, don't understand the client organization's culture, or ignore the fact that constant change makes today's solutions obsolete tomorrow.

To achieve a joint sense of what to do requires consultants and other helpers to develop a different kind of relationship with clients-a set of attitudes and behaviors that Schein calls humble consulting. Schein shows how helpers can display from the moment of first contact a level of caring and curiosity to move from relationships of professional distance to relationships of personalized trust and openness. And he gives many illustrations of the profound changes in mindset, behavior, and daily actions that flow from this new helpful consulting model.

Most leaders assume they're good communicators. What they're actually doing—most of the time—is telling. And telling, even when well-intentioned, is a subtle power move that shuts people down, withholds critical information, and quietly erodes trust.

Humble Inquiry makes the case for a different approach: asking questions you genuinely don't know the answers to, from a posture of curiosity rather than authority.

What you'll find inside this fully updated third edition:

• The ORJI cycle—why conversations go wrong in a split second, and how to interrupt the pattern
• A levels-of-relationship model to diagnose where your team is—and how to move toward real openness and trust
• Why hierarchy and “tell” culture actively undermine psychological safety—and what to do about it
• A new chapter on humble inquiry in remote and hybrid work (spoiler: it works—and may work better)
• Reader exercises, twelve mini case studies, and a discussion guide for teams

Best for: managers, leaders, coaches, healthcare professionals, and anyone navigating complex, interdependent teams. This is a mindset shift, not a script.

Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier. Based on Edgar H. Schein's fifty years of research at MIT. Over 300,000 copies sold.

Most leaders assume they're good communicators. What they're actually doing—most of the time—is telling. And telling, even when well-intentioned, is a subtle power move that shuts people down, withholds critical information, and quietly erodes trust.

Humble Inquiry makes the case for a different approach: asking questions you genuinely don't know the answers to, from a posture of curiosity rather than authority.

What you'll find inside this fully updated third edition:

• The ORJI cycle—why conversations go wrong in a split second, and how to interrupt the pattern
• A levels-of-relationship model to diagnose where your team is—and how to move toward real openness and trust
• Why hierarchy and “tell” culture actively undermine psychological safety—and what to do about it
• A new chapter on humble inquiry in remote and hybrid work (spoiler: it works—and may work better)
• Reader exercises, twelve mini case studies, and a discussion guide for teams

Best for: managers, leaders, coaches, healthcare professionals, and anyone navigating complex, interdependent teams. This is a mindset shift, not a script.

Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier. Based on Edgar H. Schein's fifty years of research at MIT. Over 300,000 copies sold.

Most leaders assume they're good communicators. What they're actually doing—most of the time—is telling. And telling, even when well-intentioned, is a subtle power move that shuts people down, withholds critical information, and quietly erodes trust.

Humble Inquiry makes the case for a different approach: asking questions you genuinely don't know the answers to, from a posture of curiosity rather than authority.

What you'll find inside this fully updated third edition:

• The ORJI cycle—why conversations go wrong in a split second, and how to interrupt the pattern
• A levels-of-relationship model to diagnose where your team is—and how to move toward real openness and trust
• Why hierarchy and “tell” culture actively undermine psychological safety—and what to do about it
• A new chapter on humble inquiry in remote and hybrid work (spoiler: it works—and may work better)
• Reader exercises, twelve mini case studies, and a discussion guide for teams

Best for: managers, leaders, coaches, healthcare professionals, and anyone navigating complex, interdependent teams. This is a mindset shift, not a script.

Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier. Based on Edgar H. Schein's fifty years of research at MIT. Over 300,000 copies sold.

Discover a more agile, democratic, and effective model of leadership, from legendary business scholar Edgar Schein and Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein.

Legendary organizational scholar Edgar Schein and former Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein say leadership today requires that people transcend their hierarchical roles and relate to each other as human beings-what they call humble leadership. In such relationships new ideas can flow freely, mistakes can come to light immediately, and course corrections can be made in real time rather than by committee or by order of the lone heroic CEO.

This second edition includes three new chapters. Chapter 1 zeros-in on the Schein's actionable definition of leadership-relative to management and administration-focused on leading people toward new and better. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of situational humility-leaders now need to shift between several types of relationships to deal with the accelerating complexity of a supply-constrained, quiet-quitting, and two-days-in-the-office world. And Chapter 5 explains how to create a culture of humble leadership.

Illustrated with examples from healthcare, government, the military, tech, and more, this is a compact, accessible guide to a leadership paradigm far better suited to a world that demands fast, nimble response to change, and a workplace hungry for mutual respect and trust.

Discover a more agile, democratic, and effective model of leadership, from legendary business scholar Edgar Schein and Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein.

Legendary organizational scholar Edgar Schein and former Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein say leadership today requires that people transcend their hierarchical roles and relate to each other as human beings-what they call humble leadership. In such relationships new ideas can flow freely, mistakes can come to light immediately, and course corrections can be made in real time rather than by committee or by order of the lone heroic CEO.

This second edition includes three new chapters. Chapter 1 zeros-in on the Schein's actionable definition of leadership-relative to management and administration-focused on leading people toward new and better. Chapter 2 introduces the concept of situational humility-leaders now need to shift between several types of relationships to deal with the accelerating complexity of a supply-constrained, quiet-quitting, and two-days-in-the-office world. And Chapter 5 explains how to create a culture of humble leadership.

Illustrated with examples from healthcare, government, the military, tech, and more, this is a compact, accessible guide to a leadership paradigm far better suited to a world that demands fast, nimble response to change, and a workplace hungry for mutual respect and trust.

Discover a more agile, democratic, and effective model of leadership, from legendary business scholar Edgar Schein and Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein.

Legendary organizational scholar Edgar Schein and former Silicon Valley executive Peter Schein say leadership today requires that people transcend their hierarchical roles and relate to each other as human beings-what they call humble leadership. In such relationships new ideas can flow freely, mistakes can come to light immediately, and course corrections can be made in real time rather than “by committee” or by order of the lone heroic CEO.

This second edition includes three new chapters. Chapter 1 zeros-in on the Schein's actionable definition of leadership-relative to management and administration-focused on leading people toward “new and better.” Chapter 2 introduces the concept of “situational humility”-leaders now need to shift between several types of relationships to deal with the accelerating complexity of a supply-constrained, “quiet-quitting,” and “two-days-in-the-office” world. And Chapter 5 explains how to create a culture of humble leadership.

Illustrated with examples from healthcare, government, the military, tech, and more, this is a compact, accessible guide to a leadership paradigm far better suited to a world that demands fast, nimble response to change, and a workplace hungry for mutual respect and trust.

Smart machines are replacing more and more jobs. Edward Hess and Katherine Ludwig show how to develop abilities that machines don't have so we can thrive in this Smart Machine Age. Underlying them all is a sense of personal humility: honestly recognizing our limitations and working to mitigate them.


In nearly every industry, smart machines are replacing human labor. It's not just factory jobs-automated technologies are handling people's investments, diagnosing illnesses, and analyzing written documents. If we humans are going to endure, Edward Hess and Katherine Ludwig say we're going to need a dose of humility.

We need to be humble enough to let go of the idea that smart means knowing the most, using that information quickest, and making the fewest mistakes. Smart machines will always be better than we are at those things. Instead, we need to cultivate important abilities that smart machines don't have (yet): thinking critically, creatively, and innovatively and building close relationships with others so we can collaborate effectively. Hess and Ludwig call this being NewSmart.

To develop these abilities, we need to practice four specific behaviors: keeping our egos out of our way, managing our thoughts and emotions to curb any biases or defensiveness, listening to others with an open mind, and connecting with others socially and emotionally. What all these behaviors have in common is, again, humility-avoiding self-centeredness so we can learn from and work with other humans. Hess and Ludwig offer a guide to developing these NewSmart abilities and to creating organizations where these qualities are encouraged and rewarded.