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Learn how frictionless organizations cut costs, grow revenue, and create loyal fans by creating products and services that work so well, their customers never have to contact them for the wrong reasons.
Many organizations focus so intently on improving the way customers interact with them that they don't ask the more fundamental question of whether the interactions are needed in the first place. Every contact channel adds cost and complexity. And while customers appreciate that they can now call, chat, text, or email to check an order or resolve a problem, they appreciate not having to do anything even more.
Veteran customer service experts Bill Price and David Jaffe explain how service, support, and sales can be made invisible, reducing costs and providing a better customer experience. Drawing on examples from four continents and over twenty-five countries, they provide a logical and sequential methodology that every reader can follow.
Reducing contact with customers means proactively focusing on the customer perspective, which is always a good idea. This means organizations need to rethink all aspects of their business, from product and services design to quality and control. It is a whole enterprise initiative, but one with a huge upside.
Many organizations focus so intently on improving the way customers interact with them that they don't ask the more fundamental question of whether the interactions are needed in the first place. Every contact channel adds cost and complexity. And while customers appreciate that they can now call, chat, text, or email to check an order or resolve a problem, they appreciate not having to do anything even more.
Veteran customer service experts Bill Price and David Jaffe explain how service, support, and sales can be made invisible, reducing costs and providing a better customer experience. Drawing on examples from four continents and over twenty-five countries, they provide a logical and sequential methodology that every reader can follow.
Reducing contact with customers means proactively focusing on the customer perspective, which is always a good idea. This means organizations need to rethink all aspects of their business, from product and services design to quality and control. It is a whole enterprise initiative, but one with a huge upside.
Sustainable company growth isn't just a pipedream. This 3-part blueprint is your guide to avoiding the traps that cause growth to stall.
As companies mature, their underlying growth naturally slows-this is called the ‘growth curse'. It's a pervasive problem that plagues companies, CEOs, and board members alike. In order to safeguard a company's future, a strategic form of governance in which the board plays a more active role on behalf of all stakeholders, must be activated.
This book is comprised of 3 parts. First it shows companies how to identify the traditional traps that hinder growth. The second part provides companies with a blueprint for building their board, defining long-term strategy, and adjustments necessary to serve continued growth. The final part delves into the specific ways that the board and executives must collaborate in relation to strategic renewal.
Reimagining the limits of growth and how companies are run as a consequence provides an escape from the ‘growth curse' at last.
As companies mature, their underlying growth naturally slows-this is called the ‘growth curse'. It's a pervasive problem that plagues companies, CEOs, and board members alike. In order to safeguard a company's future, a strategic form of governance in which the board plays a more active role on behalf of all stakeholders, must be activated.
This book is comprised of 3 parts. First it shows companies how to identify the traditional traps that hinder growth. The second part provides companies with a blueprint for building their board, defining long-term strategy, and adjustments necessary to serve continued growth. The final part delves into the specific ways that the board and executives must collaborate in relation to strategic renewal.
Reimagining the limits of growth and how companies are run as a consequence provides an escape from the ‘growth curse' at last.
This essential playbook shows how companies can scale success by coupling digital strategies with an investment in the health of their organizations and the people within.
To scale and grow, a company must get the organizational elements right. That begins with having the right strategy, the right leadership to drive it, and the right talent, culture, and organizational design to realize a company's potential. This is especially true in the AI era, where a company's most valuable assets are its people.
To begin with, leaders must rethink their value creation strategies. To hone their organizational edge, leaders must prioritize their organization's health in seven vital areas: strategic direction, culture, leadership, talent, organizational design, EID (equity, inclusion, and diversity), and well-being. No matter what type or size of business, those essential conditions must be leveraged for increased value and growth. Put simply: organizational matters matter. To hone their digital edge, leaders must understand AI, as advances in technology allow leaders to build organizations that can compete and win in the future. Finally, an investor mindset will enable leaders to invest wisely in the technology (and leverage that tech) that sets their organizations apart.
To scale and grow, a company must get the organizational elements right. That begins with having the right strategy, the right leadership to drive it, and the right talent, culture, and organizational design to realize a company's potential. This is especially true in the AI era, where a company's most valuable assets are its people.
To begin with, leaders must rethink their value creation strategies. To hone their organizational edge, leaders must prioritize their organization's health in seven vital areas: strategic direction, culture, leadership, talent, organizational design, EID (equity, inclusion, and diversity), and well-being. No matter what type or size of business, those essential conditions must be leveraged for increased value and growth. Put simply: organizational matters matter. To hone their digital edge, leaders must understand AI, as advances in technology allow leaders to build organizations that can compete and win in the future. Finally, an investor mindset will enable leaders to invest wisely in the technology (and leverage that tech) that sets their organizations apart.
NASA, Pixar Animation Studios, and BMW all use the Process Communication Model as a way of training leaders to connect effortlessly with anyone. This book simplifies the complex model to make it easy for anyone to use.
Today, more than ever, leaders need a new style of leadership. They are realizing that true transformation happens through meaningful relationships, and discovering that the key to sustainable connections that create possibility and potential is through communication.
In Seeing People Through, we take a deep dive into The Process Communication Model® (PCM), a behavioral communication model that teaches people how to assess, connect, motivate, and resolve conflict by understanding the personality types that make up a person's whole self, which is the key to leveraging personality diversity.
PCM is more than a lens for understanding how people see things differently; it's a deep journey into self-awareness and self-transformation. In this book, new emerging leaders, senior leaders, and seasoned consultants alike will develop a fresh and relevant framework on leadership that is consistent with emerging trends, and they will learn how individual and collective concerns can be reconciled in leadership.
NASA, Pixar Animation Studios, and BMW are just some of the companies who have all used PCM as a way to build better relationships through authenticity, trust, agility, and positive influence-and now you can, too!
Today, more than ever, leaders need a new style of leadership. They are realizing that true transformation happens through meaningful relationships, and discovering that the key to sustainable connections that create possibility and potential is through communication.
In Seeing People Through, we take a deep dive into The Process Communication Model® (PCM), a behavioral communication model that teaches people how to assess, connect, motivate, and resolve conflict by understanding the personality types that make up a person's whole self, which is the key to leveraging personality diversity.
PCM is more than a lens for understanding how people see things differently; it's a deep journey into self-awareness and self-transformation. In this book, new emerging leaders, senior leaders, and seasoned consultants alike will develop a fresh and relevant framework on leadership that is consistent with emerging trends, and they will learn how individual and collective concerns can be reconciled in leadership.
NASA, Pixar Animation Studios, and BMW are just some of the companies who have all used PCM as a way to build better relationships through authenticity, trust, agility, and positive influence-and now you can, too!
A leading expert on risk management describes how to steer your company through a “risk hurricane”-the extreme risk exposure that can lead to major disruption for your business.
Risk management has become a standard part of the strategic tool kit, providing senior leaders with a forward-looking radar to scan the future and give early warnings of approaching threats and opportunities. However, even best-in-class organizations can falter in the face of extreme risk exposure. Special circumstances demand special responses, and extreme risk exposure needs very careful handling. Routine risk management approaches will fall short, but businesses that demonstrate a high degree of flexibility and resilience will have the competitive advantage and the ability to thrive where others fail.
The causes and consequences of meteorological hurricanes have parallels in the way uncontrolled risk exposure can develop in organizations. Both are caused largely by predictable factors, but both are characterized by sustained uncertainty and severe impact once they develop. If we can learn to predict a risk hurricane, prepare for it effectively, and survive its effects, then our organizations will be well placed to address the challenge of extreme risk exposure, if and when we are unfortunate enough to face it.
Risk management has become a standard part of the strategic tool kit, providing senior leaders with a forward-looking radar to scan the future and give early warnings of approaching threats and opportunities. However, even best-in-class organizations can falter in the face of extreme risk exposure. Special circumstances demand special responses, and extreme risk exposure needs very careful handling. Routine risk management approaches will fall short, but businesses that demonstrate a high degree of flexibility and resilience will have the competitive advantage and the ability to thrive where others fail.
The causes and consequences of meteorological hurricanes have parallels in the way uncontrolled risk exposure can develop in organizations. Both are caused largely by predictable factors, but both are characterized by sustained uncertainty and severe impact once they develop. If we can learn to predict a risk hurricane, prepare for it effectively, and survive its effects, then our organizations will be well placed to address the challenge of extreme risk exposure, if and when we are unfortunate enough to face it.
When physicians and nurses suffer from burnout, patients suffer as well. This book pinpoints the how and why and shows what healthcare providers and their organizations can do.
Burnout is among the most critical topics in healthcare as it deprives us of our most important resource-the talents and passion of those who perform the difficult work of caring for patients and their families. The purpose of this work is to provide not only a taxonomy of burnout within the landscape of healthcare but also to provide pathways for healthcare professionals to guide themselves and their organizations toward changing the culture and systems of their organization. An additional purpose is to summarize personal strategies to prevent and ameliorate burnout.
Practical tools, techniques, and case studies are used to illustrate specifically how to promote positive, proactive change. The book looks at healthcare workers' roles in promoting change within themselves and their organization and addresses solutions to change the culture and the systems of work. Both are presented with a pragmatic focus, with liberal use of examples and case reviews, including those from several nationally recognized healthcare systems.
Burnout is among the most critical topics in healthcare as it deprives us of our most important resource-the talents and passion of those who perform the difficult work of caring for patients and their families. The purpose of this work is to provide not only a taxonomy of burnout within the landscape of healthcare but also to provide pathways for healthcare professionals to guide themselves and their organizations toward changing the culture and systems of their organization. An additional purpose is to summarize personal strategies to prevent and ameliorate burnout.
Practical tools, techniques, and case studies are used to illustrate specifically how to promote positive, proactive change. The book looks at healthcare workers' roles in promoting change within themselves and their organization and addresses solutions to change the culture and the systems of work. Both are presented with a pragmatic focus, with liberal use of examples and case reviews, including those from several nationally recognized healthcare systems.
“Full of concrete, real-world examples, this guide is written with both understanding and encouragement-'Maybe you're already feeling this. Some days you feel isolated and alone,' they offer. With so many office jobs now being done at home, this couldn't have arrived at a better time.”
-Publishers Weekly
Remote work is growing at nearly 30 percent per year in major economies worldwide, meaning there are millions of people who once worked at a central location every day and are now finding themselves facing an entirely new way of working. This book is the best single resource for remote workers for getting work done effectively, building relationships that are both productive and satisfying, and maintaining a career trajectory when they are not in constant close contact with their employer or the organization.
The Long-Distance Teammate aims to tackle three important issues: the dynamics of remote work, the understanding of virtual strengths and vulnerabilities, and the necessary steps to creating appropriate processes and communication skills. This is a practical guide for both individual workers who want to regain some control over their work and those inside organizations responsible for the ongoing development of their most important resource: people.
-Publishers Weekly
Remote work is growing at nearly 30 percent per year in major economies worldwide, meaning there are millions of people who once worked at a central location every day and are now finding themselves facing an entirely new way of working. This book is the best single resource for remote workers for getting work done effectively, building relationships that are both productive and satisfying, and maintaining a career trajectory when they are not in constant close contact with their employer or the organization.
The Long-Distance Teammate aims to tackle three important issues: the dynamics of remote work, the understanding of virtual strengths and vulnerabilities, and the necessary steps to creating appropriate processes and communication skills. This is a practical guide for both individual workers who want to regain some control over their work and those inside organizations responsible for the ongoing development of their most important resource: people.
“Maya Hu-Chan shares a blueprint for becoming a more empathetic, self-aware, and inclusive leader. Saving Face guides us to consider different perspectives, to think first and speak last, and to respect others above all else.”
-Frances Hesselbein, former CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
Organizations now need to attract, retain, and motivate teams and employees across distance, time zones, and cultural differences. Building authentic and lasting human relations may be the most important calling for leaders in this century. According to management and global leadership specialist Maya Hu-Chan, the concept of “saving face” can help any leader preserve dignity and create more empathetic cross-cultural relationships.
“Face” represents one's self-esteem, self-worth, identity, reputation, status, pride, and dignity. Saving face is often understood as saving someone from embarrassment, but it's also about developing an understanding of the background and motivations of others to discover the unique facets we all possess. Without that understanding, we risk causing others to lose face without even knowing it. Hu-Chan explains saving face through anecdotes and practical tools, such as her BUILD leadership model (Benevolence, Understanding, Interacting, Learning, and Delivery). This book illustrates how we can give face to create positive first impressions, avoid causing others to lose face, and, most importantly, build trust and lasting relationships inside and outside the workplace.
-Frances Hesselbein, former CEO, Girl Scouts of the USA, and Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient
Organizations now need to attract, retain, and motivate teams and employees across distance, time zones, and cultural differences. Building authentic and lasting human relations may be the most important calling for leaders in this century. According to management and global leadership specialist Maya Hu-Chan, the concept of “saving face” can help any leader preserve dignity and create more empathetic cross-cultural relationships.
“Face” represents one's self-esteem, self-worth, identity, reputation, status, pride, and dignity. Saving face is often understood as saving someone from embarrassment, but it's also about developing an understanding of the background and motivations of others to discover the unique facets we all possess. Without that understanding, we risk causing others to lose face without even knowing it. Hu-Chan explains saving face through anecdotes and practical tools, such as her BUILD leadership model (Benevolence, Understanding, Interacting, Learning, and Delivery). This book illustrates how we can give face to create positive first impressions, avoid causing others to lose face, and, most importantly, build trust and lasting relationships inside and outside the workplace.
Since the 1980s, Appreciative Inquiry has proven to be one of the most powerful and effective methods for organizational change. Now two top consultants show how leaders can adapt its principles to become more personally and professionally resilient.
Appreciative Inquiry is a venerable and widely used organizational change method that emphasizes identifying what's working and building on those strengths. It is the focus on the best of what is and using that to generate the future that makes it so powerful. In answer to numerous requests from their clients, consultants and scholars McArthur-Blair and Cockell show how to apply the lessons of AI to build resilience in leaders. Every leader has moments of despair, that "dark night of the soul" where there seems to be no clear path forward. The authors' ALIVE process (Appreciate, Love and Inquire in order to Venture and Evolve) helps leaders forgive themselves for their own failures and those of others, focus on their strengths in times of despair, and amplify and grow those strengths so that they are better able to build hope in themselves and throughout their organizations. In times of rapid change like ours, building resilience is a vital leadership skill.
Appreciative Inquiry is a venerable and widely used organizational change method that emphasizes identifying what's working and building on those strengths. It is the focus on the best of what is and using that to generate the future that makes it so powerful. In answer to numerous requests from their clients, consultants and scholars McArthur-Blair and Cockell show how to apply the lessons of AI to build resilience in leaders. Every leader has moments of despair, that "dark night of the soul" where there seems to be no clear path forward. The authors' ALIVE process (Appreciate, Love and Inquire in order to Venture and Evolve) helps leaders forgive themselves for their own failures and those of others, focus on their strengths in times of despair, and amplify and grow those strengths so that they are better able to build hope in themselves and throughout their organizations. In times of rapid change like ours, building resilience is a vital leadership skill.
For newcomers and upper management alike, leadership can be overwhelming and overcomplicated. By building core tenets of leadership around two key words for each chapter, Bill Treasurer simplifies the equation.
Congratulations, new leader! You've joined the ranks during an exceptionally complicated time.
Our current workplace climate is fraught with political divisions, economic disparities, and ever-shifting social dynamics. Leaders are managing remote teams across larger geographic distances and facing new roadblocks to onboarding, giving performance feedback, and nurturing healthy relationships.
Leadership Two Words at a Time speaks directly to the plight of the new leader and is divided into three parts: Leading Yourself, Leading People, and Leading Work. Rather than overintellectualize the practice, Bill Treasurer breaks up the concept into essential and understandable learning nuggets-summed up by two-word headers-that provide the practical guidance and support that leaders often don't get. The result is time-tested wisdom that new leaders can grasp immediately and implement easily-and, with a little practice, master completely. Consider it a personal leadership playbook.
This book gives you the basic building blocks to gain both competence and confidence, take on greater responsibility, and learn what it takes to be and stay a leader.
Congratulations, new leader! You've joined the ranks during an exceptionally complicated time.
Our current workplace climate is fraught with political divisions, economic disparities, and ever-shifting social dynamics. Leaders are managing remote teams across larger geographic distances and facing new roadblocks to onboarding, giving performance feedback, and nurturing healthy relationships.
Leadership Two Words at a Time speaks directly to the plight of the new leader and is divided into three parts: Leading Yourself, Leading People, and Leading Work. Rather than overintellectualize the practice, Bill Treasurer breaks up the concept into essential and understandable learning nuggets-summed up by two-word headers-that provide the practical guidance and support that leaders often don't get. The result is time-tested wisdom that new leaders can grasp immediately and implement easily-and, with a little practice, master completely. Consider it a personal leadership playbook.
This book gives you the basic building blocks to gain both competence and confidence, take on greater responsibility, and learn what it takes to be and stay a leader.
In their much-anticipated sequel to the bestseller Ideas Are Free (over 50,000 copies sold), Alan Robinson and Dean Schroeder explain that employee ideas are no longer a “nice-to-have” but rather the very lifeblood of competitiveness, culture, and strategy. Their new book shows how to align every part of the organization around generating and implementing ideas at the front line.
Build organizations where employees feel truly safe to learn, contribute, and challenge the status quo.
The proven practical guide to psychological safety is now expanded with updated research and powerful new frameworks and tools.
Psychological safety—the belief that you can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation—is crucial for high-performing teams and innovative organizations. This revised and expanded edition of Timothy Clark's groundbreaking framework provides leaders with a research-backed roadmap through four distinct stages that enable individuals to feel safe, valued, and empowered.
The four stages build progressively:
This new edition adds compelling quantitative evidence from Clark's global database of 1.2 million data points, validating the four-stage model across cultures and demographics. New chapters explore what psychological safety is not, the dangers of “nice” cultures, the relationship between psychological and physical safety, and practical measurement strategies.
Leaders will learn to banish fear, create performance-based accountability, and build environments where people thrive beyond expectations.
The proven practical guide to psychological safety is now expanded with updated research and powerful new frameworks and tools.
Psychological safety—the belief that you can speak up without risk of punishment or humiliation—is crucial for high-performing teams and innovative organizations. This revised and expanded edition of Timothy Clark's groundbreaking framework provides leaders with a research-backed roadmap through four distinct stages that enable individuals to feel safe, valued, and empowered.
The four stages build progressively:
- Inclusion Safety (feeling included and accepted),
- Learner Safety (feeling safe to learn and ask questions),
- Contributor Safety (feeling safe to contribute and participate), and
- Challenger Safety (feeling safe to challenge the status quo and speak truth to power).
This new edition adds compelling quantitative evidence from Clark's global database of 1.2 million data points, validating the four-stage model across cultures and demographics. New chapters explore what psychological safety is not, the dangers of “nice” cultures, the relationship between psychological and physical safety, and practical measurement strategies.
Leaders will learn to banish fear, create performance-based accountability, and build environments where people thrive beyond expectations.
Stop running toward someone else’s definition of success, and start intentionally shaping your own. This prequel to Aesop’s famous tortoise and hare fable shows exhausted professionals how to shift from chasing external validation to creating internal meaning and alignment.
Stop chasing visibility. Start creating meaning.
In today’s high-pressure workplace, professionals are depleted from constantly proving themselves to others—yet struggling to find genuine satisfaction in their work. What if the breakthrough isn’t working harder within the system but instead reimagining what success means to you?
Stop Chasing, Start Creating reveals the untold story of Tano the tortoise before his famous race with the hare. In this prequel to the beloved Aesop’s fable, we discover that Tano wasn’t always the steady, purposeful creature we know. He once chased visibility, approval, and validation just like the rest of us—until a moment of awakening changed everything.
Through Tano’s journey from external pressure to internal clarity, readers discover the crucial difference between chasing meaning and creating it. Grounded in motivation science, this framework shifts professionals from extrinsic motivation (external rewards, recognition, and belonging) to intrinsic motivation (purpose, contribution, and alignment).
Perfect for burned-out professionals in healthcare, education, nonprofit management, and other purpose-driven fields, this story-first approach offers the metaphor-rich reflection modern workers crave without feeling like another productivity manual.
Stop chasing visibility. Start creating meaning.
In today’s high-pressure workplace, professionals are depleted from constantly proving themselves to others—yet struggling to find genuine satisfaction in their work. What if the breakthrough isn’t working harder within the system but instead reimagining what success means to you?
Stop Chasing, Start Creating reveals the untold story of Tano the tortoise before his famous race with the hare. In this prequel to the beloved Aesop’s fable, we discover that Tano wasn’t always the steady, purposeful creature we know. He once chased visibility, approval, and validation just like the rest of us—until a moment of awakening changed everything.
Through Tano’s journey from external pressure to internal clarity, readers discover the crucial difference between chasing meaning and creating it. Grounded in motivation science, this framework shifts professionals from extrinsic motivation (external rewards, recognition, and belonging) to intrinsic motivation (purpose, contribution, and alignment).
Perfect for burned-out professionals in healthcare, education, nonprofit management, and other purpose-driven fields, this story-first approach offers the metaphor-rich reflection modern workers crave without feeling like another productivity manual.
This book, the first to treat workplace culture like a garden instead of a construction project, offers a proven framework that transforms toxic environments into thriving ecosystems where all talent flourishes.
Organizations fail when they treat culture like a construction project. They thrive when they treat it like a garden, cultivating conditions for growth rather than engineering behavior through rigid blueprints.
Award-winning consultant Abi Adamson introduces the SERN™ framework (Soil, Exposure, Roots, Nutrients) to guide sustainable cultural transformation. Drawing from her experience working with international clients, including Spotify, Sony Music, and Match Group, Abi shows how to do the following:
Unlike traditional culture initiatives, focused on compliance and conformity, this framework reveals why expensive transformation efforts keep failing and how to spot “nutrient vampires” draining your best people.
For C-suite leaders, executives, people managers, and anyone who has ever felt invisible at work, this guide offers a sustainable alternative: treating culture as a living ecosystem requiring ongoing cultivation, not a one-time fix.
Because as Abi says, “We bloom together or we wilt alone.”™
Organizations fail when they treat culture like a construction project. They thrive when they treat it like a garden, cultivating conditions for growth rather than engineering behavior through rigid blueprints.
Award-winning consultant Abi Adamson introduces the SERN™ framework (Soil, Exposure, Roots, Nutrients) to guide sustainable cultural transformation. Drawing from her experience working with international clients, including Spotify, Sony Music, and Match Group, Abi shows how to do the following:
- Identify and detoxify the soil poisoning organizational foundations
- Expose who's hoarding the light while others wither in shadows
- Strengthen the root networks where real culture actually lives
- Distribute the nutrients people actually need to thrive (hint: it's not pizza Fridays)
Unlike traditional culture initiatives, focused on compliance and conformity, this framework reveals why expensive transformation efforts keep failing and how to spot “nutrient vampires” draining your best people.
For C-suite leaders, executives, people managers, and anyone who has ever felt invisible at work, this guide offers a sustainable alternative: treating culture as a living ecosystem requiring ongoing cultivation, not a one-time fix.
Because as Abi says, “We bloom together or we wilt alone.”™