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Bestselling author Lynda Gratton-a world-renowned authority on business strategy-takes an extensive look at Hot Spots-places and times where cooperation flourishes, resulting in productivity and excitement. Now, these previously unexplained flares of ideas and innovation are thoroughly examined, as Gratton shows how to develop of Hot Spots within ones own environment.
Everybody hates meetings. And why shouldn't they? Most meetings are poorly led, counter-productive, and time-wasting. Based on decades of practice and research, bestselling authors Weisbord and Janoff have come to the conclusion that most people lead meetings incorrectly. They, instead, propose ten contrarian principles that actually get things done.
Solving complex problems is very difficult and usually can't be done by simply brainstorming. Readers will learn how to successfully apply nine behaviors in a systematic and methodical way to solve any problem.
Most problems are fairly easy: they have a few likely potential root causes. The most important problems often have hundreds or thousands of potential root causes within very complex systems. Such problems are hard problems and are highly resistant to guessing, brainstorming, or problem-solving methodologies that require conjuring a list of possible causes. Great problem solvers are armed with a set of behaviors that allows them to avoid guessing. They consistently solve hard problems in a way that can seem magical to most people.
In Stop Guessing, you will learn nine behaviors that are critical to success and how to adopt them from Nat Greene, who has twenty years of experience leading great problem solvers. Developing strength in these behaviors will help you
¥ Have confidence to solve the hard problems you face
¥ Easily build alignment to implement the right solution
¥ Identify more important and valuable opportunities that are being ignored
¥ Help others become better problem solvers
¥ Stop wasting time and money and trying your patience
Each of the nine behaviors comes with stories of great problem solving in action, including a best-in-class chemical processor that had hundreds of millions of dollars of upside hidden behind a hard problem, a losing baseball team without the budget for star players, and the scourge of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
Most problems are fairly easy: they have a few likely potential root causes. The most important problems often have hundreds or thousands of potential root causes within very complex systems. Such problems are hard problems and are highly resistant to guessing, brainstorming, or problem-solving methodologies that require conjuring a list of possible causes. Great problem solvers are armed with a set of behaviors that allows them to avoid guessing. They consistently solve hard problems in a way that can seem magical to most people.
In Stop Guessing, you will learn nine behaviors that are critical to success and how to adopt them from Nat Greene, who has twenty years of experience leading great problem solvers. Developing strength in these behaviors will help you
¥ Have confidence to solve the hard problems you face
¥ Easily build alignment to implement the right solution
¥ Identify more important and valuable opportunities that are being ignored
¥ Help others become better problem solvers
¥ Stop wasting time and money and trying your patience
Each of the nine behaviors comes with stories of great problem solving in action, including a best-in-class chemical processor that had hundreds of millions of dollars of upside hidden behind a hard problem, a losing baseball team without the budget for star players, and the scourge of poverty in sub-Saharan Africa.
Innovation comes from creative tension, not harmonious interaction, says “Dean of Innovation” Jeff DeGraff. He identifies four basic approaches to innovation and shows how leaders can manage the inevitable conflicts between them to create brilliant, unexpected hybrid solutions.
From years of research and practical experience as a consultant, Jeff DeGraff has learned that when it comes to any innovation initiative, disharmony is crucial. We innovate when we disrupt, and we first have to disrupt each other.
DeGraff identifies four contrasting types of innovators. There's the wild experimentation of the Artist, the pragmatic caution of the Engineer, the urgent competitiveness of the Athlete, and the patient community building of the Sage. He includes exercises so readers can find where they fit into this framework and shows how to build, manage, and embrace the dynamic discord of a team that contains all four types. When you combine the visionary thinking of the Artist and the practical thinking of the Engineer, you get innovation that's both revolutionary and manageable, highly ambitious without high risk. When you combine the results-oriented attitude of the Athlete with the values-oriented attitude of the Sage, you get innovation that's both a good investment and good for the world. This is a profound but highly accessible guide for achieving breakthrough solutions by utilizing the full-and seemingly contradictory-spectrum of innovative thinking.
From years of research and practical experience as a consultant, Jeff DeGraff has learned that when it comes to any innovation initiative, disharmony is crucial. We innovate when we disrupt, and we first have to disrupt each other.
DeGraff identifies four contrasting types of innovators. There's the wild experimentation of the Artist, the pragmatic caution of the Engineer, the urgent competitiveness of the Athlete, and the patient community building of the Sage. He includes exercises so readers can find where they fit into this framework and shows how to build, manage, and embrace the dynamic discord of a team that contains all four types. When you combine the visionary thinking of the Artist and the practical thinking of the Engineer, you get innovation that's both revolutionary and manageable, highly ambitious without high risk. When you combine the results-oriented attitude of the Athlete with the values-oriented attitude of the Sage, you get innovation that's both a good investment and good for the world. This is a profound but highly accessible guide for achieving breakthrough solutions by utilizing the full-and seemingly contradictory-spectrum of innovative thinking.
Written by bestselling author and renowned ROI guru Jack Phillips, this book presents a model for accurately measuring, monitoring, and anticipating one's return on investment for any organizational program or project. Show Me the Money solves the challenges of measuring the hard-to-measure, and placing monetary value on the hard-to-value.
Leadership is critical for any company's success, but how can you put a concrete, measurable value on it? For the first time, David Ulrich shows how anyone can effectively evaluate the impact of leadership quality on the market value of any firm.
Everyone agrees that much of the success of any company depends on the quality of its leadership. Yet there is has been no rigorous, comprehensive way of rating leadership quality as it relates to company market value-until now.
In this book leading scholar, author, and consultant Dave Ulrich provides a “leadership capital index” – a thorough way of assessing how the quality of a company's leadership impacts its value (e.g., like a Moody's index for leadership). Drawing on ten years of work Ulrich finally offers an alternative to the instinctive and subjective approaches people have been forced to take in the past.
In successive chapters, Ulrich develops multiple dimensions of this leadership capital index, including leaders' personal abilities (their personal proficiency, strategic proficiency, execution proficiency, people proficiency, and leadership brand proficiency) and organizational leadership capabilities (cultural capability, talent management, performance accountability, information management systems, and work process). The result is a groundbreaking book that opens up a major new area of understanding and analysis of business and leadership.
Everyone agrees that much of the success of any company depends on the quality of its leadership. Yet there is has been no rigorous, comprehensive way of rating leadership quality as it relates to company market value-until now.
In this book leading scholar, author, and consultant Dave Ulrich provides a “leadership capital index” – a thorough way of assessing how the quality of a company's leadership impacts its value (e.g., like a Moody's index for leadership). Drawing on ten years of work Ulrich finally offers an alternative to the instinctive and subjective approaches people have been forced to take in the past.
In successive chapters, Ulrich develops multiple dimensions of this leadership capital index, including leaders' personal abilities (their personal proficiency, strategic proficiency, execution proficiency, people proficiency, and leadership brand proficiency) and organizational leadership capabilities (cultural capability, talent management, performance accountability, information management systems, and work process). The result is a groundbreaking book that opens up a major new area of understanding and analysis of business and leadership.
Organizations need innovation, and there is a source right under their noses. Research has shown that people with multiple cultural experiences have higher levels of creativity-David Thomas shows how to create a workplace in which multiculturals can thrive and everyone can benefit from their insights.
In today's rapidly evolving business world continual innovation is now a must. Scholar and consultant David C. Thomas says the same forces of globalization that have created today's superheated competitive environment have also provided a potential hidden advantage: the multiculturals in your midst.
Thomas cites ample research and examples showing that people who have experienced more than one culture are more creative that those with more limited experience. Multiculturals have a broader worldview. Having to integrate different cultural values forces them to develop more complex ways of thinking and makes them better able to see new patterns and connections. Their heightened empathy, the result of learning to adapt to sometimes wildly different cultures, helps them build support for their ideas and work effectively on the teams that implement them.
This book makes a powerful business case for recognizing and cultivating a new dimension of diversity. Thomas looks at how different people express their multicultural identities and how to establish the organizational conditions under which multiculturals can flourish, And he shows how even the most monocultural among us can develop the characteristics of a multicultural mind.
In today's rapidly evolving business world continual innovation is now a must. Scholar and consultant David C. Thomas says the same forces of globalization that have created today's superheated competitive environment have also provided a potential hidden advantage: the multiculturals in your midst.
Thomas cites ample research and examples showing that people who have experienced more than one culture are more creative that those with more limited experience. Multiculturals have a broader worldview. Having to integrate different cultural values forces them to develop more complex ways of thinking and makes them better able to see new patterns and connections. Their heightened empathy, the result of learning to adapt to sometimes wildly different cultures, helps them build support for their ideas and work effectively on the teams that implement them.
This book makes a powerful business case for recognizing and cultivating a new dimension of diversity. Thomas looks at how different people express their multicultural identities and how to establish the organizational conditions under which multiculturals can flourish, And he shows how even the most monocultural among us can develop the characteristics of a multicultural mind.
From JetBlue to Eliot Spitzer, John Edwards to Pete Rose, at some point everyone needs to know how to make an effective apology. This is a survival guide for all of us who find a need to apologize in our business or professional work, either for ourselves or for our organizations. It guides the reader through all aspects of making effective apologies in all situations.
The authors of the bestseller The Secret (over 350,000 copies sold)-legendary bestselling author Ken Blanchard and top Chick-fil-A executive Mark Miller-offer profound wisdom and practical advice for how to keep growing in your leadership effectiveness throughout your life.
This long awaited 2nd edition of a classic title expands and deepens the story of Mike Wilson, an unlikely servant leader.
At a time of increasing concern about ethics at the top, The Serving Leader makes the case for an approach to leadership that is both more moral and more effective than the ruthless, anything-for-the-bottom-line approach that has brought disgrace-and often ruin- to many once-mighty organizations. "Serving leaders" lead by serving others, not by using them. As one of the characters in the book notes, "A leader qualifies to be first by putting other people first." It sounds paradoxical, but it works-and The Serving Leader shows precisely how and why.
While Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert use a parable to outline the basics of servant leadership, all the people in it are based on real people, the organizations depicted are based on real organizations-and the results they achieved are what really happened. On one level The Serving Leader is the most practical guide available to implementing servant leadership; on a deeper level, it is a book about the personal journey of growth that real leadership requires.
This 2nd edition features a new foreword by Ken Blanchard, a new introduction by the authors, and a new chapter checking back in with Mike, the main character, to see what he has learned 12 years after he embraced servant leadership.
At a time of increasing concern about ethics at the top, The Serving Leader makes the case for an approach to leadership that is both more moral and more effective than the ruthless, anything-for-the-bottom-line approach that has brought disgrace-and often ruin- to many once-mighty organizations. "Serving leaders" lead by serving others, not by using them. As one of the characters in the book notes, "A leader qualifies to be first by putting other people first." It sounds paradoxical, but it works-and The Serving Leader shows precisely how and why.
While Ken Jennings and John Stahl-Wert use a parable to outline the basics of servant leadership, all the people in it are based on real people, the organizations depicted are based on real organizations-and the results they achieved are what really happened. On one level The Serving Leader is the most practical guide available to implementing servant leadership; on a deeper level, it is a book about the personal journey of growth that real leadership requires.
This 2nd edition features a new foreword by Ken Blanchard, a new introduction by the authors, and a new chapter checking back in with Mike, the main character, to see what he has learned 12 years after he embraced servant leadership.
Helping others is one of the most universal things that people do every day in their work and lives. Yet often this help is not helpful or is resented or refused. In this seminal book, a preeminent author and scholar analyzes the dynamics of helping relationships and shows how to provide help that is really helpful.
Laura Stack, aka The Productivity Pro®, offers an up-to-date guide packed with advice to help busy executives make sure they are both efficient and effective
Inspired by Peter Drucker's classic The Effective Executive, Laura Stack offers a productivity bible for the 21st century. She focuses on time management strategies today's executives can use to quickly obtain profitable, productive results by managing the intersection between two critical values: effectiveness and efficiency.
Effectiveness, Stack says, is identifying and achieving the best objectives for your organization-doing the right things. Efficiency is accomplishing them with the least time, effort, and cost possible-doing things right. If you're not clear on both, you're wasting your time. As Drucker put it, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
Stack identifies twelve practices that will enable executives to be effective and efficient, grouped in three broad areas: strategy, teamwork, and tactics. For each practice she offers tips, techniques, and advice based on her work with individuals and organizations all over the world. There are dozens and dozens of great ideas here for making your organization, your team, and yourself vastly more productive.
Inspired by Peter Drucker's classic The Effective Executive, Laura Stack offers a productivity bible for the 21st century. She focuses on time management strategies today's executives can use to quickly obtain profitable, productive results by managing the intersection between two critical values: effectiveness and efficiency.
Effectiveness, Stack says, is identifying and achieving the best objectives for your organization-doing the right things. Efficiency is accomplishing them with the least time, effort, and cost possible-doing things right. If you're not clear on both, you're wasting your time. As Drucker put it, “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”
Stack identifies twelve practices that will enable executives to be effective and efficient, grouped in three broad areas: strategy, teamwork, and tactics. For each practice she offers tips, techniques, and advice based on her work with individuals and organizations all over the world. There are dozens and dozens of great ideas here for making your organization, your team, and yourself vastly more productive.
The workbook version of this international bestseller guides you through getting more of the important things done. You'll stop procrastinating and start eating those frogs in no time!
The workbook follows the same twenty-one-chapter format as the book. Each chapter includes four exercises with space to do the exercises on the pages. The workbook will also include a narrative character who is struggling with procrastination in her work and home lives and uses the recommendations from Eat That Frog! to improve her time management performance.
The workbook follows the same twenty-one-chapter format as the book. Each chapter includes four exercises with space to do the exercises on the pages. The workbook will also include a narrative character who is struggling with procrastination in her work and home lives and uses the recommendations from Eat That Frog! to improve her time management performance.
Veteran project manager and University of California professor Zachary Wong identifies the eight most common people problems in managing projects and offers a flexible, customizable approach to solving them, based on a lifetime of research.
Being a team leader is a demanding job that is expected to get even more demanding in the coming years. You're expected to be part parent, part referee, part coach, part manager and part frustrated. And today's workforce is more diverse, more knowledgeable, more complex and more dynamic than ever before. So where are the new tools for this ever-more complex job? Drawing on decades of experience as a senior manager at Chevron, a management consultant, and an “Honored Instructor” at U.C. Berkeley, Zachary Wong identifies the top eight people skills that project team leaders need. To master these skills he Wong doesn't prescribe specific habits or behaviors. Instead, he gives team leaders a tool or model to help them see and diagnose people problems more clearly and then offers different options and ideas to help them decide which actions best fit their situation and who they are-he empowers team leaders rather than constrains them. This book takes a uniquely flexible approach to the always-vexing problem of getting the best contributions from the people on your team.
Being a team leader is a demanding job that is expected to get even more demanding in the coming years. You're expected to be part parent, part referee, part coach, part manager and part frustrated. And today's workforce is more diverse, more knowledgeable, more complex and more dynamic than ever before. So where are the new tools for this ever-more complex job? Drawing on decades of experience as a senior manager at Chevron, a management consultant, and an “Honored Instructor” at U.C. Berkeley, Zachary Wong identifies the top eight people skills that project team leaders need. To master these skills he Wong doesn't prescribe specific habits or behaviors. Instead, he gives team leaders a tool or model to help them see and diagnose people problems more clearly and then offers different options and ideas to help them decide which actions best fit their situation and who they are-he empowers team leaders rather than constrains them. This book takes a uniquely flexible approach to the always-vexing problem of getting the best contributions from the people on your team.
In the newly updated edition of this classic empowerment business fable-over 400,000 copies sold-Ken Blanchard and John Carlos show you how to shift to an empowered, employee-driven work environment.
The new edition of the bestselling, acclaimed, and influential guide to applying the new science to organizations and management. In this new edition, Margaret Wheatley describes how the new science radically alters our understanding of the world and how it can teach us to live and work well together in these chaotic times.
Bestselling author Lynda Gratton-one of the top twenty management thinkers in the world according to the Financial Times-follows up her bestseller Hot Spots, (over 16,000 sold) by taking a deep look at people who GLOW-individuals in organizations who radiate energy and attract others to them - who are able to create, find, and flourish in hot spots of innovation.