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Creating justice-centered organizations is the next frontier in DEI. This book shows how to go beyond compliance to address harm, share power, and create equity.
Traditional DEI work has not succeeded at dismantling systems that perpetuate harm and exclude BIPOC groups. Proponents of DEI have put too much focus on HR solutions, such as increasing representation, and not enough emphasis on changing the deeper organizational systems that perpetuate inequities-in other words, on justice. DEIJ work diverges from traditional metrics-driven DEI work and requires a new approach to effectively dismantle power structures.
This thought-provoking, solutions-oriented book offers strategic advice on how to adopt a justice mindset, anticipate and address resistance, shift power dynamics, and create a psychologically safe organizational culture. Individual chapters provide pragmatic how-to guides to implementing justice-centered practices in recruitment and hiring, data collection and analysis, learning and development, marketing and advertising, procurement, philanthropy, and more.
DEIJ pioneer Mary-Frances Winters and her coauthors address some of the most significant aspects of adding a justice focus to diversity work, showing how to create a workplace culture where equity is not a checklist of performative actions but a lived reality.
Traditional DEI work has not succeeded at dismantling systems that perpetuate harm and exclude BIPOC groups. Proponents of DEI have put too much focus on HR solutions, such as increasing representation, and not enough emphasis on changing the deeper organizational systems that perpetuate inequities-in other words, on justice. DEIJ work diverges from traditional metrics-driven DEI work and requires a new approach to effectively dismantle power structures.
This thought-provoking, solutions-oriented book offers strategic advice on how to adopt a justice mindset, anticipate and address resistance, shift power dynamics, and create a psychologically safe organizational culture. Individual chapters provide pragmatic how-to guides to implementing justice-centered practices in recruitment and hiring, data collection and analysis, learning and development, marketing and advertising, procurement, philanthropy, and more.
DEIJ pioneer Mary-Frances Winters and her coauthors address some of the most significant aspects of adding a justice focus to diversity work, showing how to create a workplace culture where equity is not a checklist of performative actions but a lived reality.
Stop complicating everything! Create simple messages that are more powerful, more memorable, and win people over.
Simply Put is a modern exploration of the simplicity principle for anybody who needs to sell stuff or persuade others. This book is a splash of cold water, designed to wake up entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, and marketing pros who have something they need to tell the world but just can't quite connect the dots. With this book, we're all better marketers.
So why does simple win? And how do we get simple? The award-winning marketing entrepreneur behind New York Times best-selling authors and notable campaigns such as I Love NY provides answers and tools to simplify messages in this practical guide.
From “Yes We Can” to “Just Do It”, regardless of if they're trying to get your dollars, your votes, or just your thoughts, effective messages share one thing – they're simple. Being able to tell your story clearly and effectively is the winning skill for the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders.
Simply Put is a modern exploration of the simplicity principle for anybody who needs to sell stuff or persuade others. This book is a splash of cold water, designed to wake up entrepreneurs, C-suite executives, and marketing pros who have something they need to tell the world but just can't quite connect the dots. With this book, we're all better marketers.
So why does simple win? And how do we get simple? The award-winning marketing entrepreneur behind New York Times best-selling authors and notable campaigns such as I Love NY provides answers and tools to simplify messages in this practical guide.
From “Yes We Can” to “Just Do It”, regardless of if they're trying to get your dollars, your votes, or just your thoughts, effective messages share one thing – they're simple. Being able to tell your story clearly and effectively is the winning skill for the next generation of entrepreneurs and leaders.
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.
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.
Hone your skills and strengthen your practice with this series of twenty-five fresh and provocative questions for reflection that challenge the conventional wisdom in the coaching profession.
Like any established profession, coaching is full of unexamined assumptions. These need to be regularly questioned and tested to keep the profession vital and valuable. Coaches need to engage in the same kind of scrutiny and self-examination that offers such powerful benefits to their clients.
In Positive Provocation, coaching thought leader Robert Biswas-Diener asks a series of twenty-five provocative and sometimes playful questions that take a fresh look at some of coaching's most cherished beliefs. What if coaches had agendas? Why are ethics so boring? What's so great about interrupting? Can we trust eureka moments? What if we used less empathy?
This is not an attack on the coaching profession-Biswas-Diener writes with a light, conversational, and often humorous touch. These are positive provocations, meant to stimulate your curiosity, engage you with the latest research, and invite you to see your practice with new eyes.
Biswas-Diener covers philosophies of coaching, communicating with clients, common coaching concepts, coaching interventions, and a big final provocation: should coaching be informed by science? This book will give you a richer understanding of the coaching process, make you more articulate about your own beliefs, and allow you to feel more engaged with the craft.
Like any established profession, coaching is full of unexamined assumptions. These need to be regularly questioned and tested to keep the profession vital and valuable. Coaches need to engage in the same kind of scrutiny and self-examination that offers such powerful benefits to their clients.
In Positive Provocation, coaching thought leader Robert Biswas-Diener asks a series of twenty-five provocative and sometimes playful questions that take a fresh look at some of coaching's most cherished beliefs. What if coaches had agendas? Why are ethics so boring? What's so great about interrupting? Can we trust eureka moments? What if we used less empathy?
This is not an attack on the coaching profession-Biswas-Diener writes with a light, conversational, and often humorous touch. These are positive provocations, meant to stimulate your curiosity, engage you with the latest research, and invite you to see your practice with new eyes.
Biswas-Diener covers philosophies of coaching, communicating with clients, common coaching concepts, coaching interventions, and a big final provocation: should coaching be informed by science? This book will give you a richer understanding of the coaching process, make you more articulate about your own beliefs, and allow you to feel more engaged with the craft.
Los Angeles Times Bestseller
How do we stop the unrelenting evolution of the economic hit man strategy and China's takeover?
The riveting third edition of this New York Times bestseller blows the whistle on China's economic hit man (EHM) strategy, exposes corruption on an international scale, and offers much-needed solutions for curing the degenerative Death Economy.
In this shocking exposé, former EHM John Perkins gives an insider view into the corrupt system that cheats and strong-arms countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars and ultimately causes staggering income inequality and ecological devastation.
EHMs are highly paid professionals who use development loans to saddle countries with huge debts and force them to serve US interests. Now, a new EHM wave is infecting the world, and at the peak of the devastation sits China, a newly dominant economic power, with its own insidious version of the US EHM blueprint. Twelve explosive new chapters detail the allure, exploitation, and wreckage of China's EHM strategy in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
If allowed to continue its rampage, the EHM strategy-whether executed by the United States or China-will destroy life as we know it. However, all is not lost. Perkins offers a plan for transforming this system that places profits above all into a Life Economy that restores the earth. He inspires readers to take actions toward a new era of global cooperation that will end the United States's and China's EHM strategies for good.
How do we stop the unrelenting evolution of the economic hit man strategy and China's takeover?
The riveting third edition of this New York Times bestseller blows the whistle on China's economic hit man (EHM) strategy, exposes corruption on an international scale, and offers much-needed solutions for curing the degenerative Death Economy.
In this shocking exposé, former EHM John Perkins gives an insider view into the corrupt system that cheats and strong-arms countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars and ultimately causes staggering income inequality and ecological devastation.
EHMs are highly paid professionals who use development loans to saddle countries with huge debts and force them to serve US interests. Now, a new EHM wave is infecting the world, and at the peak of the devastation sits China, a newly dominant economic power, with its own insidious version of the US EHM blueprint. Twelve explosive new chapters detail the allure, exploitation, and wreckage of China's EHM strategy in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
If allowed to continue its rampage, the EHM strategy-whether executed by the United States or China-will destroy life as we know it. However, all is not lost. Perkins offers a plan for transforming this system that places profits above all into a Life Economy that restores the earth. He inspires readers to take actions toward a new era of global cooperation that will end the United States's and China's EHM strategies for good.
Offering a revolution in Black business financing, this book centers the entrepreneur and responds to the systemic failures surrounding Black wealth building.
There is a huge wealth gap in America today. Owning a business is one of the best ways to build wealth-but entrepreneurs need capital. And investing in Black companies is obstructed by systemic racism and implicit biases that continue to create barriers to success.
Merging historical information and data with tactical examples and explanations, this practical guide shows us what needs to be done to change the way we support Black companies and how we think about wealth.
Norwood calls for investors to move away from extractive, individualistic, and exploitative approaches to capital and entrepreneurship. She asks us to move toward transformational, restorative, regenerative, and interdependent relationships to repair the impacts of systemic racism. Investors, large and small, need to say to Black business owners, “We believe in you.”
With an entrepreneur-centric approach, Believe-in-You Money challenges the systemic failure surrounding Black companies. This book is a guide on how Black entrepreneurs can be supported in sustainable ways and offers a shift in the way we think about who can be an investor while also aiming to change our personal relationships with money.
There is a huge wealth gap in America today. Owning a business is one of the best ways to build wealth-but entrepreneurs need capital. And investing in Black companies is obstructed by systemic racism and implicit biases that continue to create barriers to success.
Merging historical information and data with tactical examples and explanations, this practical guide shows us what needs to be done to change the way we support Black companies and how we think about wealth.
Norwood calls for investors to move away from extractive, individualistic, and exploitative approaches to capital and entrepreneurship. She asks us to move toward transformational, restorative, regenerative, and interdependent relationships to repair the impacts of systemic racism. Investors, large and small, need to say to Black business owners, “We believe in you.”
With an entrepreneur-centric approach, Believe-in-You Money challenges the systemic failure surrounding Black companies. This book is a guide on how Black entrepreneurs can be supported in sustainable ways and offers a shift in the way we think about who can be an investor while also aiming to change our personal relationships with money.
Light bulb moments in coaching are the creative insights that change minds and lives.
A new, highly actionable guide for disrupting the narratives holding clients back from resolving problems and making the changes they want in themselves, Breakthrough Coaching provides methods, resources, and exercises to help you activate immediate and sustainable shifts in perspective and behavior, moving you forward on your path of coaching mastery.
Stop being haunted by doubt and discomfort. Discover how to quickly create safety and connection so your clients accept when you challenge their thinking. Then know what to say that evokes the creative flashes of insight that change their minds and lives forever.
Read Breakthrough Coaching to unlock access to:
•5 Modules of learning and discovery
•19 Resource Tools and 5 Practice Exercises
•Coaching case studies and examples
•And so much more
No longer will you worry “can I really say that?” or “should I have said more?” Instead, you'll be able to reveal deep desires and dreams, shine a light on blind spots and mental blocks, and open your client's minds to new perspectives that change their stories ripe with new possibilities-in less than an hour of your time together.
A new, highly actionable guide for disrupting the narratives holding clients back from resolving problems and making the changes they want in themselves, Breakthrough Coaching provides methods, resources, and exercises to help you activate immediate and sustainable shifts in perspective and behavior, moving you forward on your path of coaching mastery.
Stop being haunted by doubt and discomfort. Discover how to quickly create safety and connection so your clients accept when you challenge their thinking. Then know what to say that evokes the creative flashes of insight that change their minds and lives forever.
Read Breakthrough Coaching to unlock access to:
•5 Modules of learning and discovery
•19 Resource Tools and 5 Practice Exercises
•Coaching case studies and examples
•And so much more
No longer will you worry “can I really say that?” or “should I have said more?” Instead, you'll be able to reveal deep desires and dreams, shine a light on blind spots and mental blocks, and open your client's minds to new perspectives that change their stories ripe with new possibilities-in less than an hour of your time together.
Offering a new lens on leadership and living, this research-based guide shows how to design experiences that can touch hearts, provoke minds, and change lives in powerful ways.
Transformative experiences are life events that change our sense of self in important ways. How do they work? What elements do they require? How can we learn to design them intentionally?
By embracing the research-based approach of ELVIS (the Experiential Learning Variables and Indicators System), this book details how to recast yourself as an Experience Design Leader, one that can provide those in your organization with the opportunities needed to reflect and grow as individuals.
Beginning with the ELVIS Framework, you will gain deep foundational insight into how transformative experiences work. And then with the ELVIS Toolkit, which includes seven practical design elements, you will have the key to unlocking these powerful experiences for yourself and others.
Whether you are new to the idea of designing experiences for others or are a seasoned veteran, ELVIS shows you how to tap into the psychology operating behind the most powerful and important experiences of our lives-those that shape who we are.
Transformative experiences are life events that change our sense of self in important ways. How do they work? What elements do they require? How can we learn to design them intentionally?
By embracing the research-based approach of ELVIS (the Experiential Learning Variables and Indicators System), this book details how to recast yourself as an Experience Design Leader, one that can provide those in your organization with the opportunities needed to reflect and grow as individuals.
Beginning with the ELVIS Framework, you will gain deep foundational insight into how transformative experiences work. And then with the ELVIS Toolkit, which includes seven practical design elements, you will have the key to unlocking these powerful experiences for yourself and others.
Whether you are new to the idea of designing experiences for others or are a seasoned veteran, ELVIS shows you how to tap into the psychology operating behind the most powerful and important experiences of our lives-those that shape who we are.
Design and cultivate remote work teams that actually work.
From the experts who brought you The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate comes the proven and practical guide for leaders to consciously design teams, define and create their desired culture, and encourage and nurture employee engagement-all from a distance.
Team design and culture are often presented as separate concepts when they are in fact intertwined in the remote work setting. Using the 3C model of communication, collaboration, and cohesion, leaders will be given the tools to overcome challenges, such as proximity bias and deteriorating social connections, to create an environment where everyone can contribute and add value equally, regardless of location.
The 3Cs are
• Communication-While communication is a fundamental part of being human, it is also a critical foundation of successful work. Without it, teams break down.
• Collaboration-Remote leaders face the misguided belief that physical presence is required to have a collaborative team. The truth is that proximity has nothing to do with successful collaboration.
• Cohesion-This dimension includes decidedly nonstructural aspects, such as relationships, trust, and accountability. While difficult to measure, a team's cohesion is critical to its success.
Using this framework, leaders of all levels will learn to assess, design, and develop their communication channels, methods for remote collaboration, and ability to foster cohesion to build successful long-distance teams. While a hybrid culture will be different, it can, when done right, be better than what existed before.
From the experts who brought you The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate comes the proven and practical guide for leaders to consciously design teams, define and create their desired culture, and encourage and nurture employee engagement-all from a distance.
Team design and culture are often presented as separate concepts when they are in fact intertwined in the remote work setting. Using the 3C model of communication, collaboration, and cohesion, leaders will be given the tools to overcome challenges, such as proximity bias and deteriorating social connections, to create an environment where everyone can contribute and add value equally, regardless of location.
The 3Cs are
• Communication-While communication is a fundamental part of being human, it is also a critical foundation of successful work. Without it, teams break down.
• Collaboration-Remote leaders face the misguided belief that physical presence is required to have a collaborative team. The truth is that proximity has nothing to do with successful collaboration.
• Cohesion-This dimension includes decidedly nonstructural aspects, such as relationships, trust, and accountability. While difficult to measure, a team's cohesion is critical to its success.
Using this framework, leaders of all levels will learn to assess, design, and develop their communication channels, methods for remote collaboration, and ability to foster cohesion to build successful long-distance teams. While a hybrid culture will be different, it can, when done right, be better than what existed before.
If you're on the internet, you're already global. Now, get access to an innovative data-driven model for profitably expanding the international presence you already have.
Companies looking to expand used to think about “entering international markets,” but today you're global from the moment you create a website. Nataly Kelly, Chief Growth Officer at Rebrandly (a global tech company with customers in more than 100 countries) and former VP International Ops and Strategy at HubSpot, says now the goal should be market intensification-building on the presence you already have.
Kelly's MARACA model enables companies to distill the mass amounts of data available to determine if, how, and where they should expand by looking at three key areas of measurement:
MA: market availability-the size of the market opportunity within a given country
RA: real-time analytics-data indicating how your company is currently performing in that market
CA : customer addressability-the measure of your company's ability to address the market, no matter its size
The book is based on Kelly's experiences with building a global business both at HubSpot and as a consultant, but also contains numerous examples from successful global companies of various sizes, such as Airbnb, Canva, Dashlane, GoStudent, Facebook, LinkedIn, Lottie Dolls, Netflix, Revolut, Teamwork, and Zoom. Including information on building a globally minded corporate culture, this is a complete strategic guide to discovering international growth opportunities.
Companies looking to expand used to think about “entering international markets,” but today you're global from the moment you create a website. Nataly Kelly, Chief Growth Officer at Rebrandly (a global tech company with customers in more than 100 countries) and former VP International Ops and Strategy at HubSpot, says now the goal should be market intensification-building on the presence you already have.
Kelly's MARACA model enables companies to distill the mass amounts of data available to determine if, how, and where they should expand by looking at three key areas of measurement:
MA: market availability-the size of the market opportunity within a given country
RA: real-time analytics-data indicating how your company is currently performing in that market
CA : customer addressability-the measure of your company's ability to address the market, no matter its size
The book is based on Kelly's experiences with building a global business both at HubSpot and as a consultant, but also contains numerous examples from successful global companies of various sizes, such as Airbnb, Canva, Dashlane, GoStudent, Facebook, LinkedIn, Lottie Dolls, Netflix, Revolut, Teamwork, and Zoom. Including information on building a globally minded corporate culture, this is a complete strategic guide to discovering international growth opportunities.
“Not only does Anholt explain the challenges facing the world with unique clarity, he also provides genuinely new, informative, practical, innovative solutions. . . . The book is a must-read for anyone who cares about humanity's shared future.”
-H. E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo), President of the Federal Republic of Somalia
Why doesn't the world work? Why, despite all the power, technology, money and knowledge that humanity has accumulated, are we are still unable to defeat global challenges like climate change, war, poverty, migration, extremism, and inequality?
Simon Anholt has spent decades helping countries from Austria to Zambia to improve their international standing. Using colorful descriptions of his experiences-dining with Vladimir Putin at his country home, taking a group of Felipe Calderon's advisors on their first Mexico City subway ride, touring a beautiful new government hospital in Afghanistan that nobody would use because it was in Taliban-controlled territory-he tells how he began finding answers to that question.
Ultimately, Anholt hit on the Good Country Equation, a formula for encouraging international cooperation and reinventing education for a globalized era. Anholt even offers a “selfish” argument for cooperation: he shows that it generates goodwill, which in turn translates into increased trade, foreign investment, tourism, talent attraction, and even domestic electoral success. Arnholt insists we can change the way countries behave and the way people are educated in a single generation-because that's all the time we have.
-H. E. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed (Farmaajo), President of the Federal Republic of Somalia
Why doesn't the world work? Why, despite all the power, technology, money and knowledge that humanity has accumulated, are we are still unable to defeat global challenges like climate change, war, poverty, migration, extremism, and inequality?
Simon Anholt has spent decades helping countries from Austria to Zambia to improve their international standing. Using colorful descriptions of his experiences-dining with Vladimir Putin at his country home, taking a group of Felipe Calderon's advisors on their first Mexico City subway ride, touring a beautiful new government hospital in Afghanistan that nobody would use because it was in Taliban-controlled territory-he tells how he began finding answers to that question.
Ultimately, Anholt hit on the Good Country Equation, a formula for encouraging international cooperation and reinventing education for a globalized era. Anholt even offers a “selfish” argument for cooperation: he shows that it generates goodwill, which in turn translates into increased trade, foreign investment, tourism, talent attraction, and even domestic electoral success. Arnholt insists we can change the way countries behave and the way people are educated in a single generation-because that's all the time we have.
This newly updated and revised edition of the classic (60,000 copies sold) celebrates the global growth of the THEORY U phenomenon and its evolution in multiple industries worldwide.
With the release of THEORY U almost ten years ago, Otto Scharmer set in motion a revolution in thought. Scharmer explained that what we pay attention to and how we pay attention is key to what we create. What prevents us from attending to situations more effectively is that we aren't fully aware of and in touch with the inner place from which attention and intention originate. This is what Scharmer calls our blind spot. By moving through Scharmer's U process, we consciously access the blind spot and learn to connect to our authentic Self-the deepest source of knowledge and inspiration-in the realm of “presencing,” a term coined by Scharmer that combines the concepts of presence and sensing.
Now, ten years later, Scharmer revisits the phenomenon THEORY U has become and updates and reports on the progress and evolution since initial release. He includes new materials, updates studies and examples, and includes eight pages of rich new graphics and charts in full color to better visually convey the book's premise.
With the release of THEORY U almost ten years ago, Otto Scharmer set in motion a revolution in thought. Scharmer explained that what we pay attention to and how we pay attention is key to what we create. What prevents us from attending to situations more effectively is that we aren't fully aware of and in touch with the inner place from which attention and intention originate. This is what Scharmer calls our blind spot. By moving through Scharmer's U process, we consciously access the blind spot and learn to connect to our authentic Self-the deepest source of knowledge and inspiration-in the realm of “presencing,” a term coined by Scharmer that combines the concepts of presence and sensing.
Now, ten years later, Scharmer revisits the phenomenon THEORY U has become and updates and reports on the progress and evolution since initial release. He includes new materials, updates studies and examples, and includes eight pages of rich new graphics and charts in full color to better visually convey the book's premise.
This new edition of a classic, bestselling book has been revised and updated throughout and includes a new chapter on “Forgiveness in the Workplace”
Conversations about social change devolve quickly into conflict when participants don't agree. Experienced practitioners Jason Jay and Gabriel Grant offer advocates and aspiring change agents six easy steps for opening the lines of communication when conversations get stuck.
The tough problems in the world are made harder when we can't even talk about them. We try to address issues that matter, but conversations break down because they become emotionally charged and we lose sight of our common goals. Scarred from these breakdowns with coworkers, family, and friends, we find it easier and safer to stick with people who already agree with us.
Getting unstuck requires the courage to confront our own inner contradictions and then to re-engage with people in a newly authentic way. This book invites readers to join in a spirit of serious play, laughing at ourselves as we take on the important work of self-reflection and renewing our conversations. Breaking through Gridlock includes six steps and a series of proven exercises to help readers along the way. We encourage readers to invite a friend to join them on the journey.
The tough problems in the world are made harder when we can't even talk about them. We try to address issues that matter, but conversations break down because they become emotionally charged and we lose sight of our common goals. Scarred from these breakdowns with coworkers, family, and friends, we find it easier and safer to stick with people who already agree with us.
Getting unstuck requires the courage to confront our own inner contradictions and then to re-engage with people in a newly authentic way. This book invites readers to join in a spirit of serious play, laughing at ourselves as we take on the important work of self-reflection and renewing our conversations. Breaking through Gridlock includes six steps and a series of proven exercises to help readers along the way. We encourage readers to invite a friend to join them on the journey.
Relentless speed and unconstrained activity are not necessary for growth-you need only look to companies like Enron, Pets.com, and Groupon to see that “fast” does not always mean “good.” Leading growth consultant Alison Eyring provides a different view on growth, preaching restraint, not rushing in.
“It's a marathon, not a sprint.” We hear this truism all the time, but in business there's constant pressure to go all out and never let up. Leaders are driven to set stretch targets, relentlessly reduce costs, launch new initiatives, expand into new markets, hire more people, develop more capabilities, and execute flawlessly. It all sounds great-until the company overextends itself and collapses like a badly trained racehorse in the home stretch.
So what is the right pace for steady, sustainable growth? How do you know when to push yourself and when to back off? Growth consultant Alison Eyring (who also happens to be a distance runner) says the answer is what she calls Intelligent Restraint. Eyring shows precisely how you can evaluate your company's current capacity for growth so you can restrain yourself from exceeding it, no matter how tempting the supposed opportunities seem. Then she offers a set of practices for gradually building that capacity so you can grow steadily but sensibly in a way that strengthens your company instead of stretching it to the breaking point.
“It's a marathon, not a sprint.” We hear this truism all the time, but in business there's constant pressure to go all out and never let up. Leaders are driven to set stretch targets, relentlessly reduce costs, launch new initiatives, expand into new markets, hire more people, develop more capabilities, and execute flawlessly. It all sounds great-until the company overextends itself and collapses like a badly trained racehorse in the home stretch.
So what is the right pace for steady, sustainable growth? How do you know when to push yourself and when to back off? Growth consultant Alison Eyring (who also happens to be a distance runner) says the answer is what she calls Intelligent Restraint. Eyring shows precisely how you can evaluate your company's current capacity for growth so you can restrain yourself from exceeding it, no matter how tempting the supposed opportunities seem. Then she offers a set of practices for gradually building that capacity so you can grow steadily but sensibly in a way that strengthens your company instead of stretching it to the breaking point.
