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This book is a comprehensive guide to an exciting new approach that managers at any level can use to transform their corners of government.
Whether people want more government or less, everyone wants efficient government. But most innovation efforts try to change the very nature of government-such as dismantling bureaucracy or privatizing services-and thus they usually fail.
Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder accept government on its own terms and simply ask how some existing organizations are dramatically improving their performance. What they found is that the best innovations come not from the top down but from the bottom up.
Drawing on their study of seventy government organizations and interviews with nearly 1,000 people in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden, they found that the most innovative agencies and offices solicited and implemented ideas from frontline workers, the people who directly serve the public.
These often modest, pragmatic improvements can have a huge cumulative effect. For example, the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses was able to cut its average wait time from an hour and forty minutes to just seven minutes. Robinson and Schroeder offer a comprehensive guide for systematically collecting, evaluating, and implementing game-changing frontline ideas.
Reading group discussion guide available in book.
Whether people want more government or less, everyone wants efficient government. But most innovation efforts try to change the very nature of government-such as dismantling bureaucracy or privatizing services-and thus they usually fail.
Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder accept government on its own terms and simply ask how some existing organizations are dramatically improving their performance. What they found is that the best innovations come not from the top down but from the bottom up.
Drawing on their study of seventy government organizations and interviews with nearly 1,000 people in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Sweden, they found that the most innovative agencies and offices solicited and implemented ideas from frontline workers, the people who directly serve the public.
These often modest, pragmatic improvements can have a huge cumulative effect. For example, the Denver Department of Excise and Licenses was able to cut its average wait time from an hour and forty minutes to just seven minutes. Robinson and Schroeder offer a comprehensive guide for systematically collecting, evaluating, and implementing game-changing frontline ideas.
Reading group discussion guide available in book.
Using a proven three-part framework, this book shows how anyone-from a CEO to frontline employee-can play a pivotal role in creating a diverse and welcoming workplace.
Creating a diverse workplace needs to be an ongoing effort, not just the subject of occasional training. As Celeste Warren says, needed change won't take place unless all employees feel that they have a role to play in creating the culture they would like to see in their organization.
Regardless of what position you hold, you have the ability to impact change and create a more inclusive environment. Anyone can commit to becoming an unofficial Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador in his or her organization. Warren offers a straightforward three-stage model:
Become aware of your strengths, weaknesses, and conscious and unconscious biases.Take an inventory of your surroundings: what is getting in the way of there being an inclusive environment in your organization? Develop a personal action plan.
Depending on your position, the actions you take can be as simple as consistently raising DEI-related issues in staff meetings or as far-reaching as leading an Employee Resource Group or developing a new hiring policy. In separate chapters, Warren offers specific advice for chief diversity and inclusion officers, C-suite leaders, first-line managers, human resources practitioners, and individual contributors. This book features examples, exercises, and practical tools that show you how to assess where your organization is at and develop a purpose and strategy that can make diversity a workplace reality.
Creating a diverse workplace needs to be an ongoing effort, not just the subject of occasional training. As Celeste Warren says, needed change won't take place unless all employees feel that they have a role to play in creating the culture they would like to see in their organization.
Regardless of what position you hold, you have the ability to impact change and create a more inclusive environment. Anyone can commit to becoming an unofficial Diversity and Inclusion Ambassador in his or her organization. Warren offers a straightforward three-stage model:
Become aware of your strengths, weaknesses, and conscious and unconscious biases.Take an inventory of your surroundings: what is getting in the way of there being an inclusive environment in your organization? Develop a personal action plan.
Depending on your position, the actions you take can be as simple as consistently raising DEI-related issues in staff meetings or as far-reaching as leading an Employee Resource Group or developing a new hiring policy. In separate chapters, Warren offers specific advice for chief diversity and inclusion officers, C-suite leaders, first-line managers, human resources practitioners, and individual contributors. This book features examples, exercises, and practical tools that show you how to assess where your organization is at and develop a purpose and strategy that can make diversity a workplace reality.
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.
“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.
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.”
“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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
From the Center for Creative Leadership, this essential guide is updated with new insights, tips, and tools to help organizations get the most out of 360-degree feedback.
This is a hands-on guide for implementing effective 360-degree feedback systems as part of leadership development initiatives in organizations. Written for professionals who work inside organizations and external consultants working with clients, the book draws on over twenty years of research and practice by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). The book provides step-by-step guidelines for successful 360-degree feedback as well as best practices observed and tested with CCL's broad base of clients.
The second edition is updated with advances in the field over the past ten years and features new chapters on ensuring validity, why the process can fail, and the future of leadership development. The book includes worksheets, checklists, and other tools to use or adapt with a 360-degree process in any organization.
Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) is a top-ranked, global provider of programs that develop better leaders through its exclusive focus on leadership education and research.
This is a hands-on guide for implementing effective 360-degree feedback systems as part of leadership development initiatives in organizations. Written for professionals who work inside organizations and external consultants working with clients, the book draws on over twenty years of research and practice by the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). The book provides step-by-step guidelines for successful 360-degree feedback as well as best practices observed and tested with CCL's broad base of clients.
The second edition is updated with advances in the field over the past ten years and features new chapters on ensuring validity, why the process can fail, and the future of leadership development. The book includes worksheets, checklists, and other tools to use or adapt with a 360-degree process in any organization.
Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) is a top-ranked, global provider of programs that develop better leaders through its exclusive focus on leadership education and research.
Consumers of the future are going to want their consumption hand in hand with a demonstrated commitment to bettering our world- it is the companies that can deliver on this that will thrive in the coming decades.
More and more, employees, customers, and investors want their work and money to not only provide for their own material needs but to also help create a better world for all. Bestselling author John Izzo teams up with Jeff VanderWein to show leaders and companies how to transform their corporate culture so they can succeed in the midst of this Purpose Revolution.
Today people want more than just a good job or a good deal--increasingly, they want to feel like they're doing good as well, that their work and money are contributing to some greater purpose. John Izzo and Jeff VanderWielen call it The Purpose Revolution, and in this revelatory book they argue that it will dramatically transform the world of business.
While they describe the Purpose Revolution's impact on consumers and investors, their prime focus is on how to activate purpose among employees and how to embed purpose in the culture of your organization. Because you can't fake purpose--it has to be a genuine part of your organizational DNA if you're going to attract customers and investors. Using many examples, the authors illustrate how to lead in this new age of social good, how to attract and engage talented employees, how to create a purposeful culture, and how to win loyalty from employees, customers, and investors.
More and more, employees, customers, and investors want their work and money to not only provide for their own material needs but to also help create a better world for all. Bestselling author John Izzo teams up with Jeff VanderWein to show leaders and companies how to transform their corporate culture so they can succeed in the midst of this Purpose Revolution.
Today people want more than just a good job or a good deal--increasingly, they want to feel like they're doing good as well, that their work and money are contributing to some greater purpose. John Izzo and Jeff VanderWielen call it The Purpose Revolution, and in this revelatory book they argue that it will dramatically transform the world of business.
While they describe the Purpose Revolution's impact on consumers and investors, their prime focus is on how to activate purpose among employees and how to embed purpose in the culture of your organization. Because you can't fake purpose--it has to be a genuine part of your organizational DNA if you're going to attract customers and investors. Using many examples, the authors illustrate how to lead in this new age of social good, how to attract and engage talented employees, how to create a purposeful culture, and how to win loyalty from employees, customers, and investors.