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Now completely updated, Making Sustainability Work is the bible for applying real metrics and best practices to the often-nebulous realm of business sustainability. Mark Epstein and Adriana Rejc Buhovac provide concrete tools for measuring and increasing social and environmental impacts in a manner that businesses can understand and put to real use.
The current model of leadership isn't working for the planet because business has diminished values and outlooks that are traditionally thought of as feminine. Seeking to reclaim feminine power and restore balance for both women and men, this book charts a new path based on timeless Indian wisdom.
Our current one-sided notion of a leader's power is a root cause of a host of contemporary problems, including social breakdown, environmental degradation, an epidemic of depression, and corruption in business and government. Whether we are male or female, we have been trained to value leadership qualities that are traditionally thought of as masculine: hierarchical, individualistic, militaristic. Reaching into ancient spiritual and mythical teachings, the authors revive a feminine archetype of leadership: generative, cooperative, creative, empathetic. In the Indian yogic tradition, these qualities are associated with Shakti, the source of creation, sustenance and transformation that powers the cycle of life.
Bhat and Sisodia seek to restore a long-lost balance, for men and women alike, of masculine and feminine energies. All leaders should learn to value and understand "Shakti Leadership," meaning acting from a consciousness of life-giving creativity and sustainability to achieve self-mastery and be of selfless service. When leaders of both sexes learn to embrace this mindset, we can restore sanity, elevate humanity and heal the planet by evolving consciously together.
Our current one-sided notion of a leader's power is a root cause of a host of contemporary problems, including social breakdown, environmental degradation, an epidemic of depression, and corruption in business and government. Whether we are male or female, we have been trained to value leadership qualities that are traditionally thought of as masculine: hierarchical, individualistic, militaristic. Reaching into ancient spiritual and mythical teachings, the authors revive a feminine archetype of leadership: generative, cooperative, creative, empathetic. In the Indian yogic tradition, these qualities are associated with Shakti, the source of creation, sustenance and transformation that powers the cycle of life.
Bhat and Sisodia seek to restore a long-lost balance, for men and women alike, of masculine and feminine energies. All leaders should learn to value and understand "Shakti Leadership," meaning acting from a consciousness of life-giving creativity and sustainability to achieve self-mastery and be of selfless service. When leaders of both sexes learn to embrace this mindset, we can restore sanity, elevate humanity and heal the planet by evolving consciously together.
Teaming up shouldn't mean slowing down. Bestselling author Laura Stack's FAST model mobilizes teams to be the most effective they can be, while keeping each other's best interests at heart.
Today's workplaces require people who can "team well." Collective effort results in greater results and faster outcomes than an individual effort, in almost all instances. It takes less time to get things done with a team. Using the Four Keys in Laura Stack's original FAST model, teams will learn to work together Fairly, accept Accountability, apply Systems Thinking, and maximize available Technology. The trick is for team members to continually ask themselves, "What can I do to make my team go FAST?" Paired with an interactive assessment, each team will evaluate their current speed and path towards acceleration. If you want your business to win the race, everyone has to contribute. When done well, the team wins championships.
As Laura Stack puts it, "Team up, don't slow down."
Today's workplaces require people who can "team well." Collective effort results in greater results and faster outcomes than an individual effort, in almost all instances. It takes less time to get things done with a team. Using the Four Keys in Laura Stack's original FAST model, teams will learn to work together Fairly, accept Accountability, apply Systems Thinking, and maximize available Technology. The trick is for team members to continually ask themselves, "What can I do to make my team go FAST?" Paired with an interactive assessment, each team will evaluate their current speed and path towards acceleration. If you want your business to win the race, everyone has to contribute. When done well, the team wins championships.
As Laura Stack puts it, "Team up, don't slow down."
In this third edition, bestselling authors Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller answer the question most leaders ask at some point in their career: “What do I need to do to be a great leader?” The secret may surprise you.
In The Magic of Tiny Business, by ECOBAGS® founder and pioneering green business champion, Sharon Rowe shows entrepreneurs and business owners how to build a profitable, right-scaled, sustainable business that doesn't compromise their values.
“This is a powerful book-tiny is mighty. Sharon Rowe's simple shift in thinking is a profound idea, precisely what we need to hear.”
-Seth Godin, author of Linchpin
Too many of us feel trapped by work that keeps us from living our purpose. We fantasize about starting our own business, yet we're warned against falling into debt, working eighty hours a week, and coping with the pressure to grow. Eco-Bags Products founder Sharon Rowe says there's another way: go tiny.
Like a tiny house, a tiny business is built on maintaining a laser focus on what is essential by living an intentional life. As an entrepreneur and mother, Rowe is most concerned with putting family first, maintaining financial security, and doing something that makes an impact in the world. Using the success story of Eco-Bags Products, Rowe distills the step-by-step process of building a profitable, right-scaled, sustainable venture that doesn't compromise your values. She shows you how to test your concept, manage your money and priorities, and more, while staying true to the "tiny" ethos.
“This is a powerful book-tiny is mighty. Sharon Rowe's simple shift in thinking is a profound idea, precisely what we need to hear.”
-Seth Godin, author of Linchpin
Too many of us feel trapped by work that keeps us from living our purpose. We fantasize about starting our own business, yet we're warned against falling into debt, working eighty hours a week, and coping with the pressure to grow. Eco-Bags Products founder Sharon Rowe says there's another way: go tiny.
Like a tiny house, a tiny business is built on maintaining a laser focus on what is essential by living an intentional life. As an entrepreneur and mother, Rowe is most concerned with putting family first, maintaining financial security, and doing something that makes an impact in the world. Using the success story of Eco-Bags Products, Rowe distills the step-by-step process of building a profitable, right-scaled, sustainable venture that doesn't compromise your values. She shows you how to test your concept, manage your money and priorities, and more, while staying true to the "tiny" ethos.
Wall Street Journal bestselling author David Horsager provides a selection of incredible new tips and tricks for maintaining your business edge on a daily basis.
How do you get your work done and still maintain relationships and build trust? For most busy executives, it's an either/or choice -- either spend time with your people, or be an effective and productive leader who focuses entirely on the work. But David Horsager says you can do both.
The key is to do lots of little things on a daily basis that make you so effective that you have enough time to interact with your people and honor and build the relationships you have with them. In succinct, quick-read chapters Horsager offers thirty-five high impact productivity practices, each easily implemented and powerful on their own. Taken together, they form a solid wave of efficacy that will enable you to get more done, keep your energy up, and make sure that you're able to put people first-which Horsager insists must be always be one of your top priorities.
How do you get your work done and still maintain relationships and build trust? For most busy executives, it's an either/or choice -- either spend time with your people, or be an effective and productive leader who focuses entirely on the work. But David Horsager says you can do both.
The key is to do lots of little things on a daily basis that make you so effective that you have enough time to interact with your people and honor and build the relationships you have with them. In succinct, quick-read chapters Horsager offers thirty-five high impact productivity practices, each easily implemented and powerful on their own. Taken together, they form a solid wave of efficacy that will enable you to get more done, keep your energy up, and make sure that you're able to put people first-which Horsager insists must be always be one of your top priorities.
Bestselling author, therapist, lawyer, and mediator Bill Eddy describes how dangerous, high-conflict personalities have gained power in governments worldwide-and what citizens can do to keep these people out of office.
Democracy is under siege. The reason isn't politics. It's personalities: too many countries have come under the sway of high-conflict politicians (HCPs). Most of these HCPs have traits of narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial (i.e., sociopathic) personality disorder, or both. This is the first and only guide for identifying and thwarting HCPs.
Bill Eddy says the key to understanding HCPs is their use of what he calls the Fantasy Crisis Triad:
1. There's a terrible crisis!
2. It's caused by this evil person or group.
3. I'm the only person who can solve it and save you.
Using Hitler, Stalin, Putin, Berlusconi, Chavez, Nixon, Trump and others as case studies, Eddy shows how HCPs create or exacerbate conflict to manipulate our emotions and rise to power. But he also shows how we can spot HCPs early on (he includes a checklist of forty typical behaviors), respond to them effectively, and identify and give our support to genuine leaders.
Democracy is under siege. The reason isn't politics. It's personalities: too many countries have come under the sway of high-conflict politicians (HCPs). Most of these HCPs have traits of narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial (i.e., sociopathic) personality disorder, or both. This is the first and only guide for identifying and thwarting HCPs.
Bill Eddy says the key to understanding HCPs is their use of what he calls the Fantasy Crisis Triad:
1. There's a terrible crisis!
2. It's caused by this evil person or group.
3. I'm the only person who can solve it and save you.
Using Hitler, Stalin, Putin, Berlusconi, Chavez, Nixon, Trump and others as case studies, Eddy shows how HCPs create or exacerbate conflict to manipulate our emotions and rise to power. But he also shows how we can spot HCPs early on (he includes a checklist of forty typical behaviors), respond to them effectively, and identify and give our support to genuine leaders.
“By the end of this book, you will understand what is valuable, how to measure value, and how to optimize the flow of value-from idea to your customer.”
-Evan Leybourn, co-founder and CEO, Business Agility Institute
Agile methods have brought about dramatic changes in how organizations manage and deliver not only IT services, but their entire product and service value streams. As legacy organizations transition to newer, end-to-end agile operating models, the Project Management Office (PMO) needs to redesign its mission and operation to be more in line with these modern ways of working.
That requires being more customer-focused and value-adding, and less hidebound, bureaucratic and tied to antiquated processes and mindsets. Visionary leaders are transitioning into enablers of this change, and maximizing value through the entire organization. Middle management, including program and project managers (PMs), are racing to maximize their professional relevancy in this new world.
This book defines the role of the agile value management office (VMO), using case studies and a clear road map to help PMs visualize and implement a new path where middle management and the VMO are valued leaders in the age of business agility.
-Evan Leybourn, co-founder and CEO, Business Agility Institute
Agile methods have brought about dramatic changes in how organizations manage and deliver not only IT services, but their entire product and service value streams. As legacy organizations transition to newer, end-to-end agile operating models, the Project Management Office (PMO) needs to redesign its mission and operation to be more in line with these modern ways of working.
That requires being more customer-focused and value-adding, and less hidebound, bureaucratic and tied to antiquated processes and mindsets. Visionary leaders are transitioning into enablers of this change, and maximizing value through the entire organization. Middle management, including program and project managers (PMs), are racing to maximize their professional relevancy in this new world.
This book defines the role of the agile value management office (VMO), using case studies and a clear road map to help PMs visualize and implement a new path where middle management and the VMO are valued leaders in the age of business agility.
Frustrated that change efforts you're leading take too long, are too difficult, or are too often ineffective? Discover eight powerful ways to make any change work faster, easier, and better-whether done by C-suite leaders or frontline workers.
In a recent Fast Company article, nine CEOs said the biggest challenges their companies face are all related to change. Change is a constant need and a constant challenge for every organization-large or small, for-profit, nonprofit, or governmental. Is there a way to make it easier?
If you're trying to lift something heavy, it helps to have a lever. In this book, Jake Jacobs provides eight levers that can transform the typical change process into something far smoother and more efficient-he calls the new process Leverage Change. Jacobs offers proven advice and real-life examples that will accelerate every step of the change process, including designing your own customized change process, figuring out where the real energy for change is in your organization, striking the right balance between explicit direction and creative collaboration, making change work as part of people's regular routines, and more. Archimedes said with the right lever, he could move the world-with Jacobs' eight levers, you can change your world.
In a recent Fast Company article, nine CEOs said the biggest challenges their companies face are all related to change. Change is a constant need and a constant challenge for every organization-large or small, for-profit, nonprofit, or governmental. Is there a way to make it easier?
If you're trying to lift something heavy, it helps to have a lever. In this book, Jake Jacobs provides eight levers that can transform the typical change process into something far smoother and more efficient-he calls the new process Leverage Change. Jacobs offers proven advice and real-life examples that will accelerate every step of the change process, including designing your own customized change process, figuring out where the real energy for change is in your organization, striking the right balance between explicit direction and creative collaboration, making change work as part of people's regular routines, and more. Archimedes said with the right lever, he could move the world-with Jacobs' eight levers, you can change your world.
For too long, women have been told to confine themselves-physically, socially, and emotionally. Eliza VanCort says now is the time for women to stand tall, raise their voices, and claim their space.
Women fight the pressure to make themselves small in private, professional, and public spaces. VanCort, a teacher, consultant, and speaker, provides the necessary tools for women to rewrite the rules and create the stories of their choosing safely and without apology.
VanCort identifies the five key behaviors of all “Space-Claiming Queens”: use your voice and posture to project confidence and power, end self-sabotage, forge connections, neutralize unsafe spaces, and unite across differences. Through personal narrative, research, and actionable strategies, VanCort provides how-tos on combating challenges, such as antimentors and microaggressions, and gives advice for building up your “old girls” club, asking for what you're worth, and owning your space without apology.
Bold, fun, and enlightening, this book is birthed from VanCort's incredible story. Having a mother with schizophrenia forced VanCort to learn to be small and invisible at an early age, and suffering a traumatic brain injury as an adult required her to rethink communication from the ground up. Drawing on these experiences, and those of real women everywhere, VanCort empowers women to claim space for themselves and for their sisters with courage, empathy, and conviction because “when we rise together, we rise so much higher.”
Women fight the pressure to make themselves small in private, professional, and public spaces. VanCort, a teacher, consultant, and speaker, provides the necessary tools for women to rewrite the rules and create the stories of their choosing safely and without apology.
VanCort identifies the five key behaviors of all “Space-Claiming Queens”: use your voice and posture to project confidence and power, end self-sabotage, forge connections, neutralize unsafe spaces, and unite across differences. Through personal narrative, research, and actionable strategies, VanCort provides how-tos on combating challenges, such as antimentors and microaggressions, and gives advice for building up your “old girls” club, asking for what you're worth, and owning your space without apology.
Bold, fun, and enlightening, this book is birthed from VanCort's incredible story. Having a mother with schizophrenia forced VanCort to learn to be small and invisible at an early age, and suffering a traumatic brain injury as an adult required her to rethink communication from the ground up. Drawing on these experiences, and those of real women everywhere, VanCort empowers women to claim space for themselves and for their sisters with courage, empathy, and conviction because “when we rise together, we rise so much higher.”
This complete guide to effective, transformative diversity training provides an answer to the superficial, check-the-box DEI efforts that are undermining the entire field.
DEI work is getting a bad reputation. But that's because it's not being done right, say veteran diversity consultants James O. Rodgers and Laura Kangas. Too many organizations are treating diversity training as a quick-hit, low-cost, check-the-box activity.
Effective diversity training involves behavioral change based on adult learning theory. It is rigorous, deeply personal, experience based, and, if done well, life changing. Rodgers and Kangas offer a complete guide, from design to implementation to results. They show how to
• determine what specific, tangible outcomes an organization wants before it starts
• link diversity training to overall organizational strategy
• help all participants forge an individual, emotional connection to the training
• identify what skills a facilitator needs-the right facilitator makes all the difference
• create memorable learning experiences, not simply educational programs
The authors' goal is nothing less than to spark a worldwide revolution of informed practitioners, employees, and business leaders who will demand diversity training be given the same time, resources, and attention as any other critical enterprise initiative.
Reading group discussion guide available in book.
DEI work is getting a bad reputation. But that's because it's not being done right, say veteran diversity consultants James O. Rodgers and Laura Kangas. Too many organizations are treating diversity training as a quick-hit, low-cost, check-the-box activity.
Effective diversity training involves behavioral change based on adult learning theory. It is rigorous, deeply personal, experience based, and, if done well, life changing. Rodgers and Kangas offer a complete guide, from design to implementation to results. They show how to
• determine what specific, tangible outcomes an organization wants before it starts
• link diversity training to overall organizational strategy
• help all participants forge an individual, emotional connection to the training
• identify what skills a facilitator needs-the right facilitator makes all the difference
• create memorable learning experiences, not simply educational programs
The authors' goal is nothing less than to spark a worldwide revolution of informed practitioners, employees, and business leaders who will demand diversity training be given the same time, resources, and attention as any other critical enterprise initiative.
Reading group discussion guide available in book.
Majora Carter shows how brain drain cripples low-status communities and maps out a development strategy focused on talent retention to help them break out of economic stagnation.
"My musical, In the Heights, explores issues of community, gentrification, identity and home, and the question: Are happy endings only ones that involve getting out of your neighborhood to achieve your dreams? In her refreshing new book, Majora Carter writes about these issues with great insight and clarity, asking us to re-examine our notions of what community development is and how we invest in the futures of our hometowns. This is an exciting conversation worth joining.”
-Lin-Manuel Miranda
How can we make the promise of America more accessible and equitable for everyone? What is a path toward wealth creation, quality of life, and happiness in low-status communities, whether in the inner city, in Rust Belt towns, Native American reservations, or other “marginalized” places?
There is an alternative to programs that simply ameliorate poverty without building wealth or counteracting the effects of displacement and cultural erasure through gentrification. What Majora Carter proposes in this inspiring and eye-opening book is a talent retention community development strategy.
Low-status communities have never had a shortage of successful people emerging from them. What they have had is a shortage of successful people staying. Carter focuses on retaining homegrown talent to create a robust, economically diverse ecosystem. She advocates
• helping property owners resist selling to speculators
• assembling available resources to build local businesses
• creating vibrant third spaces where personal and professional connections can grow
• and much more
Throughout the book, Carter shares key lessons from her personal and professional journey. The result is a powerful, heartfelt rethinking of poverty, inequality, economic development, and individual and family success.
"My musical, In the Heights, explores issues of community, gentrification, identity and home, and the question: Are happy endings only ones that involve getting out of your neighborhood to achieve your dreams? In her refreshing new book, Majora Carter writes about these issues with great insight and clarity, asking us to re-examine our notions of what community development is and how we invest in the futures of our hometowns. This is an exciting conversation worth joining.”
-Lin-Manuel Miranda
How can we make the promise of America more accessible and equitable for everyone? What is a path toward wealth creation, quality of life, and happiness in low-status communities, whether in the inner city, in Rust Belt towns, Native American reservations, or other “marginalized” places?
There is an alternative to programs that simply ameliorate poverty without building wealth or counteracting the effects of displacement and cultural erasure through gentrification. What Majora Carter proposes in this inspiring and eye-opening book is a talent retention community development strategy.
Low-status communities have never had a shortage of successful people emerging from them. What they have had is a shortage of successful people staying. Carter focuses on retaining homegrown talent to create a robust, economically diverse ecosystem. She advocates
• helping property owners resist selling to speculators
• assembling available resources to build local businesses
• creating vibrant third spaces where personal and professional connections can grow
• and much more
Throughout the book, Carter shares key lessons from her personal and professional journey. The result is a powerful, heartfelt rethinking of poverty, inequality, economic development, and individual and family success.
“Ed Hess's Hyper-Learning is uniquely practical and is the essential starting point for charting new ways of thinking, living, working, leading, and being fulfilled in our new world.”
-Gary Roughead, Admiral, US Navy (retired) former Chief of Naval Operations
How will you pursue a meaningful life when smart technology takes over most of the jobs that humans currently do? Darden School of Business Professor Edward Hess says the answer is hyper-learning: developing our uniquely human qualities as agile, adaptive, iterative learners without fear or ego inhibiting that learning.
In the digital age, humans will succeed by doing what technology can't do well: being creative, imaginative, and innovative; engaging in higher-level critical thinking; making decisions in environments where there is a lot of uncertainty and little data; and connecting and collaborating with fellow humans. Hyper-learning is vital for optimizing every one of these tasks. Hess describes the core mindsets and behaviors that enable hyper-learning for individuals and teams and includes case studies of four business leaders who created personal hyper-learning development plans. This book is about harnessing the power of human emotions, choices, and behaviors to enable the highest levels of human cognitive, emotional, and behavioral performance.
-Gary Roughead, Admiral, US Navy (retired) former Chief of Naval Operations
How will you pursue a meaningful life when smart technology takes over most of the jobs that humans currently do? Darden School of Business Professor Edward Hess says the answer is hyper-learning: developing our uniquely human qualities as agile, adaptive, iterative learners without fear or ego inhibiting that learning.
In the digital age, humans will succeed by doing what technology can't do well: being creative, imaginative, and innovative; engaging in higher-level critical thinking; making decisions in environments where there is a lot of uncertainty and little data; and connecting and collaborating with fellow humans. Hyper-learning is vital for optimizing every one of these tasks. Hess describes the core mindsets and behaviors that enable hyper-learning for individuals and teams and includes case studies of four business leaders who created personal hyper-learning development plans. This book is about harnessing the power of human emotions, choices, and behaviors to enable the highest levels of human cognitive, emotional, and behavioral performance.
America's most popular progressive radio host and New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals how the government and corporate America misuse our personal data and shows how we can reclaim our privacy.
Most Americans are worried about how companies like Facebook invade their privacy and harvest their data, but many people don't fully understand the details of how their information is being adapted and misused. In this thought-provoking and accessible book, New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals exactly how the government and corporations are tracking our every online move and using our data to buy elections, employ social control, and score and monetize our lives.
Hartmann uses extensive, vivid examples to highlight the consequences of Big Data on all aspects of our lives. Along with tracing the history of surveillance, he shows how we got to where we are today, how China-with its new Social Credit System-serves as a warning, and how we can and must avoid a similarly dystopian future.
By delving into the Constitutional right to privacy, Hartmann reminds us of our civil right and shows how we can restore it.
Most Americans are worried about how companies like Facebook invade their privacy and harvest their data, but many people don't fully understand the details of how their information is being adapted and misused. In this thought-provoking and accessible book, New York Times bestselling author Thom Hartmann reveals exactly how the government and corporations are tracking our every online move and using our data to buy elections, employ social control, and score and monetize our lives.
Hartmann uses extensive, vivid examples to highlight the consequences of Big Data on all aspects of our lives. Along with tracing the history of surveillance, he shows how we got to where we are today, how China-with its new Social Credit System-serves as a warning, and how we can and must avoid a similarly dystopian future.
By delving into the Constitutional right to privacy, Hartmann reminds us of our civil right and shows how we can restore it.
This is the first book to describe in detail the principles of Outward Bound, told through the stories of former instructors and graduates who show how to apply them to create healthier, more effective teams, organizations, and communities.
Outward Bound has helped develop millions of leaders by stressing that every team needs leaders at all levels and that the nominal team leader must learn alongside the team, never from a position of superiority. Based on the foundational ideas of educator Kurt Hahn, Outward Bound teaches that leaders lead best when they have taught self-reliance and mutual responsibility and can fade into the background. Countless companies and organizations have used Outward Bound lessons (and you do not need to climb a mountain to use them) to strengthen their teams. Noted Outward Bound leader and educator Mark Brown shares these unique lessons with readers:
1. Leaders are learners.
2. Leaders create a safe environment to take risks.
3. Leaders develop other leaders at all levels.
4. Leaders understand the journey is the destination.
5. Leaders always watch for teachable moments.
6. Leaders are always ready to serve a greater good.
7. Leaders facilitate a Graduated Level of Responsibility for all those in their care.
Outward Bound has helped develop millions of leaders by stressing that every team needs leaders at all levels and that the nominal team leader must learn alongside the team, never from a position of superiority. Based on the foundational ideas of educator Kurt Hahn, Outward Bound teaches that leaders lead best when they have taught self-reliance and mutual responsibility and can fade into the background. Countless companies and organizations have used Outward Bound lessons (and you do not need to climb a mountain to use them) to strengthen their teams. Noted Outward Bound leader and educator Mark Brown shares these unique lessons with readers:
1. Leaders are learners.
2. Leaders create a safe environment to take risks.
3. Leaders develop other leaders at all levels.
4. Leaders understand the journey is the destination.
5. Leaders always watch for teachable moments.
6. Leaders are always ready to serve a greater good.
7. Leaders facilitate a Graduated Level of Responsibility for all those in their care.
“Chip Bell's unique perspective, lively illustrations, and practical advice result in one terrific resource for anyone eager to tap a customer's ingenuity for creating breakthrough results.” -Jeanne Bliss, founder and CEO, CustomerBliss; and cofounder, Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA)
Every organization aspires to be customer-centric, but the current approach is shallow and transactional: organizations ask customers what they want and then try to give it to them. But often customers can't articulate precisely what they want. To really stay ahead of the competition, organizations have to have such a deep relationship with their customers that they can surprise them and create innovations that match their hopes and aspirations, not just their needs and expectations.
This book lays out a strategy for getting customers fully integrated into the creation process. Bell offers five secrets for what he calls Co-creative Partnerships: Curiosity-develop a deep connection with customers that bonds, affirms, and supports; Grounding-find the juncture between the customer's needs and hopes and the organization's mission and values; Discovery-turn tryouts into bold, risk-taking learning adventures; Trust-honor candor, respect clear work agreements, and plan for the inevitable hiccups; and Passion-offer signs of admiration and actions of caring that help keep the alliance fresh and spirited.
Every organization aspires to be customer-centric, but the current approach is shallow and transactional: organizations ask customers what they want and then try to give it to them. But often customers can't articulate precisely what they want. To really stay ahead of the competition, organizations have to have such a deep relationship with their customers that they can surprise them and create innovations that match their hopes and aspirations, not just their needs and expectations.
This book lays out a strategy for getting customers fully integrated into the creation process. Bell offers five secrets for what he calls Co-creative Partnerships: Curiosity-develop a deep connection with customers that bonds, affirms, and supports; Grounding-find the juncture between the customer's needs and hopes and the organization's mission and values; Discovery-turn tryouts into bold, risk-taking learning adventures; Trust-honor candor, respect clear work agreements, and plan for the inevitable hiccups; and Passion-offer signs of admiration and actions of caring that help keep the alliance fresh and spirited.