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Renowned scholars and consultants Monica Worline and Jane Dutton offer a new argument for compassion in organizations, showing leaders how to tap their innate ability for compassion to create more effective and humane workplaces.
We are living in an epidemic of disengagement and despair that calls us to action. Awakening Compassion at Work answers the call, showing us new ways to enliven the humanity of work and in so doing address the suffering of the world and create an innovative, optimistic, and engaged workforce.
Scholars and consultants Monica Worline and Jane Dutton approach compassion in organizations through the lens of new research that helps us see what compassion is, how we can create it in our everyday work, and the benefits it offers to both individuals and organizations. They reveal why compassion is integral to recruiting and retaining talented people, essential to delivering high quality service and rapid innovation, and inextricably linked to engagement, collaboration, and adaptability. They even include a tool for assessing your organization's “compassion potential.” This book gives us the tools to build skill in creating compassion and invigorating the humanity of our basic institutions.
We are living in an epidemic of disengagement and despair that calls us to action. Awakening Compassion at Work answers the call, showing us new ways to enliven the humanity of work and in so doing address the suffering of the world and create an innovative, optimistic, and engaged workforce.
Scholars and consultants Monica Worline and Jane Dutton approach compassion in organizations through the lens of new research that helps us see what compassion is, how we can create it in our everyday work, and the benefits it offers to both individuals and organizations. They reveal why compassion is integral to recruiting and retaining talented people, essential to delivering high quality service and rapid innovation, and inextricably linked to engagement, collaboration, and adaptability. They even include a tool for assessing your organization's “compassion potential.” This book gives us the tools to build skill in creating compassion and invigorating the humanity of our basic institutions.
In this mind-opening new book, bestselling author Otto Scharmer (Theory U, 40,000 copies sold) and Katrin Kaufer reveal the root cause of the economic, social, ecological, political, spiritual, and institutional crises today and detail seven new practices for revolutionizing and revamping society and growth.
Leadership coach, consultant, and keynote speaker Steve Arneson, named one of the country's top 25 leadership coaches by Leadership Excellence Magazine, helps aspiring leaders overcome cutbacks in corporate training and "pull themselves up" the leadership ladder in 50 practical, tested tips.
One of the world's top experts on applying analytics to organizational performance provides a new, more comprehensive approach for using analytics to effectively guide business decisions.
There are tons of books on how to do strategy execution better, but they all operate from the premise that their one-size-fits-all solution works for what ails all companies. But each company's context and problems are unique. You need analytics to diagnose where improvements really need to be made, but existing approaches don't give you the full picture. Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations, Alec Levenson provides a roadmap for doing diagnostics that will lead to actionable insights and solutions.
Levenson's model, combines the enterprise (or organization-level) approach to analytics and the human capital (or job-level) approach. This solves two parallel problems in organizations today: senior leaders pay too little attention to the practical challenges of implementing the business strategy and setting goals for achieving it, and frontline managers and HR too often focus on narrow improvements to jobs and processes that appear to be useful yet have little strategic value. The book provides an in-depth critique of common measurement approaches and, through case studies and real-world examples, shows how to apply the model to increasing customer retention, spurring innovation, developing go-to-market strategies, making budgeting and investment decisions, and more.
There are tons of books on how to do strategy execution better, but they all operate from the premise that their one-size-fits-all solution works for what ails all companies. But each company's context and problems are unique. You need analytics to diagnose where improvements really need to be made, but existing approaches don't give you the full picture. Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations, Alec Levenson provides a roadmap for doing diagnostics that will lead to actionable insights and solutions.
Levenson's model, combines the enterprise (or organization-level) approach to analytics and the human capital (or job-level) approach. This solves two parallel problems in organizations today: senior leaders pay too little attention to the practical challenges of implementing the business strategy and setting goals for achieving it, and frontline managers and HR too often focus on narrow improvements to jobs and processes that appear to be useful yet have little strategic value. The book provides an in-depth critique of common measurement approaches and, through case studies and real-world examples, shows how to apply the model to increasing customer retention, spurring innovation, developing go-to-market strategies, making budgeting and investment decisions, and more.
Ron Wallace rose from driver to president of UPS International. Here he reveals the UPS secret sauce--culture--that allows it to outcompete younger companies that are not unionized, not sprawling, and not Brown.
The steady, long-term success of UPS is sometimes a mystery to business observers. Founded over a century ago, UPS has been moving up, not down the Fortune 500 list. Massive in size, UPS has cultivated a family environment where promotion is almost always from within, lifetime employment is the norm and even the executives are union members. In one of the most mature of mature industries, UPS is consistently seen as a strong investment on Wall Street.
What is the UPS secret sauce? In this groundbreaking book, Ron Wallace credits the unique “people culture” of UPS as the distinguishing factor. Ron credits this culture with giving him his start in management and helping him rise from driver to president of UPS International. Different from the typical business memoir that celebrates the leader as celebrity, Ron's book focuses on the people and simple principles that taught him the UPS way. He exhorts his fellow leaders to grow their people, not just their business plans. Ron's key takeaway comes straight from the UPS founder and Ron's inspiration, Jim Casey: “Treat your people well, and the company will flourish.” These simple principles can work in any company, whether or not brown is the wardrobe color.
The steady, long-term success of UPS is sometimes a mystery to business observers. Founded over a century ago, UPS has been moving up, not down the Fortune 500 list. Massive in size, UPS has cultivated a family environment where promotion is almost always from within, lifetime employment is the norm and even the executives are union members. In one of the most mature of mature industries, UPS is consistently seen as a strong investment on Wall Street.
What is the UPS secret sauce? In this groundbreaking book, Ron Wallace credits the unique “people culture” of UPS as the distinguishing factor. Ron credits this culture with giving him his start in management and helping him rise from driver to president of UPS International. Different from the typical business memoir that celebrates the leader as celebrity, Ron's book focuses on the people and simple principles that taught him the UPS way. He exhorts his fellow leaders to grow their people, not just their business plans. Ron's key takeaway comes straight from the UPS founder and Ron's inspiration, Jim Casey: “Treat your people well, and the company will flourish.” These simple principles can work in any company, whether or not brown is the wardrobe color.
These leadership lessons work for leaders at every level when everything goes wrong, from the doctor who saved lives after the 9/11 attacks, in war-torn Ukraine, and on the NFL sidelines.
Dr. Thom Mayer doesn’t just talk about leadership: he lives it in the world’s most high-stakes situations. From commanding the 9/11 Pentagon rescue operation to rushing onto NFL fields during medical emergencies to training doctors in war-torn Ukraine, Mayer has learned that leadership isn’t about titles or positions. It’s about action.
In this practical guide, Mayer reveals eleven provocative principles that flip conventional leadership wisdom: “Leadership is worthless . . . but leading is priceless.” “Power is worthless . . . but influence is priceless.” “Success is worthless . . . but failure is priceless.” Through gripping stories from the Pentagon’s smoking corridors, NFL sidelines, and Ukrainian hospitals, he shows how real leaders emerge not from corner offices but from moments of crisis when someone must step up and act.
Whether readers are managing a team, raising a family, or facing a crossroads, Mayer’s hard-won insights will transform how readers think about influence, teamwork, and making decisions under pressure. This isn’t theoretical leadership. Mayer offers battle-tested wisdom from someone who has led when lives hung in the balance.
Dr. Thom Mayer doesn’t just talk about leadership: he lives it in the world’s most high-stakes situations. From commanding the 9/11 Pentagon rescue operation to rushing onto NFL fields during medical emergencies to training doctors in war-torn Ukraine, Mayer has learned that leadership isn’t about titles or positions. It’s about action.
In this practical guide, Mayer reveals eleven provocative principles that flip conventional leadership wisdom: “Leadership is worthless . . . but leading is priceless.” “Power is worthless . . . but influence is priceless.” “Success is worthless . . . but failure is priceless.” Through gripping stories from the Pentagon’s smoking corridors, NFL sidelines, and Ukrainian hospitals, he shows how real leaders emerge not from corner offices but from moments of crisis when someone must step up and act.
Whether readers are managing a team, raising a family, or facing a crossroads, Mayer’s hard-won insights will transform how readers think about influence, teamwork, and making decisions under pressure. This isn’t theoretical leadership. Mayer offers battle-tested wisdom from someone who has led when lives hung in the balance.
Business is waking up to a global shortage of resources of every kind. Raw materials are running out, whether in Tokyo or Quito. While businesses have toyed with the idea of sustainability as a means to market to eco-minded consumers, this book shows that scarcity must become central to their thinking and the key driver of strategic innovation.
Smart Videoconferencing is the first book to show people how to participate effectively in videoconferences, rather than just how to set them up. The authors show that just like traditional meetings, mastering a few tricks and simple skills can mean the difference between a successful videoconference and an unsuccessful one.
Bestselling author Bill George (True North 150,000 copies sold) and longtime corporate executive Doug Baker have participated for decades in a unique small group of peers dedicated to personal growth and leadership development. In this book they provide the first practical guide - including detailed instructions, rules, and resources - for anyone to start and manage such a group on their own.
Most leaders assume they're good communicators. What they're actually doing—most of the time—is telling. And telling, even when well-intentioned, is a subtle power move that shuts people down, withholds critical information, and quietly erodes trust.
Humble Inquiry makes the case for a different approach: asking questions you genuinely don't know the answers to, from a posture of curiosity rather than authority.
What you'll find inside this fully updated third edition:
Best for: managers, leaders, coaches, healthcare professionals, and anyone navigating complex, interdependent teams. This is a mindset shift, not a script.
Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier. Based on Edgar H. Schein's fifty years of research at MIT. Over 300,000 copies sold.
Humble Inquiry makes the case for a different approach: asking questions you genuinely don't know the answers to, from a posture of curiosity rather than authority.
What you'll find inside this fully updated third edition:
- The ORJI cycle—why conversations go wrong in a split second, and how to interrupt the pattern
- A levels-of-relationship model to diagnose where your team is—and how to move toward real openness and trust
- Why hierarchy and “tell” culture actively undermine psychological safety—and what to do about it
- A new chapter on humble inquiry in remote and hybrid work (spoiler: it works—and may work better)
- Reader exercises, twelve mini case studies, and a discussion guide for teams
Best for: managers, leaders, coaches, healthcare professionals, and anyone navigating complex, interdependent teams. This is a mindset shift, not a script.
Foreword by Michael Bungay Stanier. Based on Edgar H. Schein's fifty years of research at MIT. Over 300,000 copies sold.
Presenting to senior decision makers can be a terrifying "through the looking glass" moment. The stakes are high-one presentation can make or break a career-but the rules are utterly unclear. This book is an indispensable resource for anyone who wants to thrive, not just survive, in a top-level meeting.
Positive psychology and organizational guru Larry Senn shows readers how allowing room for your mood swings rather than suppressing them can lead you to be more successful and happy.
Mood swings are a common, almost universal experience-especially in a world as full of unpredictable, uncontrollable changes and chances as ours. People know they have good and bad moods, but most have never thought of them as an emotional elevator they ride and can have influence over. Perhaps they've even tried to suppress their moods and refuse to acknowledge the ride at all.
Larry Senn implores us to take our changing moods seriously and ride the mood elevator, which can help us all be more effective leaders and greatly impact our personal lives. At the top floors, we find ourselves to be grateful, wise, creative, resourceful, and hopeful. At the bottom, we can be depressed, angry, stressed, judgmental, and defensive. The Mood Elevator provides a framework and a series of simple pointers and illustrative stories that help us see that without taking the full ride, we can't access the top floor moods without remembering that we have to build up from the bottom.
The Mood Elevator shows us that we create our own moods through our own thinking and, in the end, have control over the direction we head. The book provides simple steps for readers to quickly change their thinking to create better emotional states based on their environments.
Mood swings are a common, almost universal experience-especially in a world as full of unpredictable, uncontrollable changes and chances as ours. People know they have good and bad moods, but most have never thought of them as an emotional elevator they ride and can have influence over. Perhaps they've even tried to suppress their moods and refuse to acknowledge the ride at all.
Larry Senn implores us to take our changing moods seriously and ride the mood elevator, which can help us all be more effective leaders and greatly impact our personal lives. At the top floors, we find ourselves to be grateful, wise, creative, resourceful, and hopeful. At the bottom, we can be depressed, angry, stressed, judgmental, and defensive. The Mood Elevator provides a framework and a series of simple pointers and illustrative stories that help us see that without taking the full ride, we can't access the top floor moods without remembering that we have to build up from the bottom.
The Mood Elevator shows us that we create our own moods through our own thinking and, in the end, have control over the direction we head. The book provides simple steps for readers to quickly change their thinking to create better emotional states based on their environments.
What if some of the most powerful words in your organization were “I'm not sure,” “I need help,” and “I have a new idea”? Imagine the potential for innovation, connection, and results if your employees felt courageous enough to say anything to you.
What if people could simply communicate what they are really thinking without fear of having a bad idea? When you are in a leadership position, your people should feel comfortable to learn from and brainstorm with you. It is your responsibility to create an authentic environment characterized by honesty and trust that encourages everyone to share ideas. When your people don't speak up, it's not their problem-it's yours.
Building a culture in which people are able to say anything opens up pathways to innovation that would otherwise not exist. Ultimately, this book is a letter to leaders-filled with experience, research, and practicality. Peering inside a vast array of organizations for the past decade, the authors have seen time and again that leaders are failing to draw out ideas from their introverts and, at the same time, shutting up their extroverts. Inhibitors in organizations make candid communication unsafe. As a leader, you must recognize and acknowledge these complex dynamics and then work tirelessly to inspire your team to speak freely.
What if people could simply communicate what they are really thinking without fear of having a bad idea? When you are in a leadership position, your people should feel comfortable to learn from and brainstorm with you. It is your responsibility to create an authentic environment characterized by honesty and trust that encourages everyone to share ideas. When your people don't speak up, it's not their problem-it's yours.
Building a culture in which people are able to say anything opens up pathways to innovation that would otherwise not exist. Ultimately, this book is a letter to leaders-filled with experience, research, and practicality. Peering inside a vast array of organizations for the past decade, the authors have seen time and again that leaders are failing to draw out ideas from their introverts and, at the same time, shutting up their extroverts. Inhibitors in organizations make candid communication unsafe. As a leader, you must recognize and acknowledge these complex dynamics and then work tirelessly to inspire your team to speak freely.
As Ken Blanchard, John Carlos, and Alan Randolph clearly demonstrated in their previous bestseller, Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute, empowerment is not a goal that can be achieved in a minute. Empowerment is a process that requires ongoing effort, awareness, and commitment to transforming the hierarchy. This essential guide offers managers detailed, hands-on answers to their real-life questions about how, exactly, they can navigate the journey to empowerment.
Written in an easily accessible Q&A format, the book closely examines and expands on the three keys to empowerment originally presented in Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute-sharing information, creating autonomy through boundaries, and replacing the hierarchy with teams. It clearly outlines the promises and challenges of each stage of the journey, providing managers with thought-provoking questions, clear advice, effective activities, and action tools that will help them create a culture of empowerment. Wherever they are in the journey, managers will find a clear roadmap in this user-friendly action guide.
Written in an easily accessible Q&A format, the book closely examines and expands on the three keys to empowerment originally presented in Empowerment Takes More Than a Minute-sharing information, creating autonomy through boundaries, and replacing the hierarchy with teams. It clearly outlines the promises and challenges of each stage of the journey, providing managers with thought-provoking questions, clear advice, effective activities, and action tools that will help them create a culture of empowerment. Wherever they are in the journey, managers will find a clear roadmap in this user-friendly action guide.
In this inspiring and practical guide for achieving better decision-making and management, Linda Tarr-Whelan shows how having women account for at least 30% of representation at decision-making tables marks the tipping point for positive organizational and societal change, and she offers readers concrete tools and resources for reaching that target.
For leaders, facilitators, social change agents, and anyone charged with convening groups, Baldwin and Linnea offer a foundational guide to circle process, the simple yet profound practice through which people sit within a negotiated social frame that fosters clear speaking, compassionate listening, and the making of well-grounded decisions.