The first book to help organizations understand and harness the extraordinary workplace learning potential of social media Cowritten by the CEO of the world's largest workplace learning organization and a consultant and writer with extensive experience on the forefront of workplace learning technology Features case studies showing how organizations around the world have transformed their businesses through social media Most business books on social media have focused on using it as a marketing tool. Many employers see it as simply a workplace distraction. But social media has the potential to revolutionize workplace learning. People have always learned best from one another -- social media enables this to happen unrestricted by physical location and in extraordinarily creative ways. The New Social Learning is the most authoritative guide available to leveraging these powerful new technologies. Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner explain why social media is the ideal solution to some of the most pressing educational challenges organizations face today, such as a widely dispersed workforce and striking differences in learning styles, particularly across generations. They definitively answer common objections to using social media as a training tool and show how to win over even the most resistant employees. Then, using examples from a wide range of organizations -- including Deloitte, IBM, TELUS, and others -- Bingham and Conner help readers sort through the dizzying array of technological options available and decide when and how to use each one to achieve key strategic goals. Social media technologies -- everything from 140-character "microsharing" messages to media-rich online communities to complete virtual environments and more -- enable people to connect, collaborate, and innovate on levels never before dreamed of. They make learning dramatically more dynamic, stimulating, enjoyable, and effective. This greatly anticipated book helps organizations create a contemporary learning strategy that is as timely as it is transformative.

• The first book to help organizations understand and harness the extraordinary workplace learning potential of social media

• Cowritten by the CEO of the world's largest workplace learning organization and a consultant and writer with extensive experience on the forefront of workplace learning technology

• Features case studies showing how organizations around the world have transformed their businesses through social media

Most business books on social media have focused on using it as a marketing tool. Many employers see it as simply a workplace distraction. But social media has the potential to revolutionize workplace learning. People have always learned best from one another -- social media enables this to happen unrestricted by physical location and in extraordinarily creative ways. The New Social Learning is the most authoritative guide available to leveraging these powerful new technologies.

Tony Bingham and Marcia Conner explain why social media is the ideal solution to some of the most pressing educational challenges organizations face today, such as a widely dispersed workforce and striking differences in learning styles, particularly across generations. They definitively answer common objections to using social media as a training tool and show how to win over even the most resistant employees. Then, using examples from a wide range of organizations -- including Deloitte, IBM, TELUS, and others -- Bingham and Conner help readers sort through the dizzying array of technological options available and decide when and how to use each one to achieve key strategic goals.

Social media technologies -- everything from 140-character "microsharing" messages to media-rich online communities to complete virtual environments and more -- enable people to connect, collaborate, and innovate on levels never before dreamed of. They make learning dramatically more dynamic, stimulating, enjoyable, and effective. This greatly anticipated book helps organizations create a contemporary learning strategy that is as timely as it is transformative.

CSR can help companies build customer loyalty, recruit and retain employees, and stand out in a crowded marketplace. But to be most effective CSR must be intimately connected to the corporate brand—it must reinforce a company’s unique identity, be an integral part of how a company tells its story. How can your company make the most of this potential competitive advantage? In Just Good Business, Kellie McElhaney shows leaders and managers exactly how to connect their CSR efforts to their company’s overall corporate strategy, business objectives, and core competencies. She provides a process for assessing whether CSR practices are reinforcing the brand, explains how to develop a unified CSR strategy, and lays out a framework of seven principles for leveraging the power of CSR branding. McElhaney’s book draws on over ten years of previously unpublished CSR consulting engagements inside companies grappling with developing strategically aligned CSR initiatives. The book’s case vignettes, examples, best practices, and strategic recommendations span a host of industries and sectors, and draw upon McElhaney’s work with leading corporations like McDonalds, Nokia, Medtronic, Levi, Wells Fargo, Birkenstock, Gap, Inc., HP, and Pepperidge Farm. Savvy companies carefully manage their brand in every area—CSR shouldn’t be any different. Just Good Business offers a detailed blueprint any company can use to ensure that their CSR initiatives deliver significant, quantifiable, bottom-line benefit.

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.The challenges we face these days are so great that we cannot rely entirely on ourselves, our communities, or our organizations to support us and help us stay on track. We need a small group of people with whom we can have in-depth discussions and share intimately about the most important things in our lives—our happiness and sadness, our hopes and fears, our beliefs and convictions. For the past thirty-five years, Bill George and Doug Baker have found the answer in what they call True North Groups. “At various times,” George and Baker write, “a True North Group will function as a nurturer, a grounding rod, a truth teller, and a mirror. At other times the group functions as a challenger or an inspirer. When people are wracked with self-doubts, it helps build their courage and ability to cope.” Drawing on recent research in psychology and sociology, George and Baker explain why True North Groups are so critical to helping us develop the self-awareness, compassion, emotional intelligence, and authenticity required to be inspired human beings and inspiring leaders. They cover every detail from choosing members, establishing norms, and dealing with conflicts to evaluating progress and deciding when it’s time to restructure. True North Groups provides a wealth of practical resources, including suggested topics for the first twelve meetings, advice on facilitating groups, techniques to evaluate group satisfaction, and much more. For the millions of people who are searching for greater meaning and intimacy in their lives, this book will help them to grow as leaders and as people—and to stay on course to their True North.

"We are in deep trouble," writes Sharif Abdullah. "We live a world that works for only a few." The problem, Abdullah asserts, is exlusivity: "I am separate." By practicing exclusivity, he maintains, we have created a soul-starved society. We suffer, both personally and as a society, from complex, interlocking so intense that they create a deep sense of emptiness in all of us. But there is hope. Abdullah shows how we can change our world by changing our consciousness. We can actually put an end these complex problems if we reject exclusivity in favor of inclusivity. We must turn from a mentality that disconnects us and instead embrace the goals of restoring balance to the earth and building community with all other people. In Creating a World That Works for All, Abdullah provides a practical blueprint for that change. Abdullah makes it clear that there are no bad guys to blame: we are all equally responsible for the current state of our world. We each have created it, and we each have equal power to change it. Abdullah offers three criteria for creating a world that works for all: 1. The Criteria of Enoughness: Everyone has enough, even though not everyone shares resources equally 2. The Criteria of Exchangeability: Trading places would be okay 3. The Criteria of Common Benefit: The system is designed and intended to benefit all In order to meet these criteria, Abdullah shows us how to let go of old theories and ideas, so we can clearly see our current problems and possible solutions. And he shows us how to create new stories that explain and define the new behaviors that make cultural changes possible.

• Shows how we can create a world that works for all by rejecting the practice of exclusivity in favor of inclusivity
• Uses numerous insightful stories to illustrate how and why things don't work and how they can be made to work if we are willing to change our thinking and our society

In America as Empire, Jim Garrison urges us to face up to the complexities and responsibilities inherent in the indisputable fact that America is now the world's single preeminent power. "America", Garrison writes, "has become what it was founded not to be: established as a haven for those fleeing the abuse of power, it has attained and now wields near absolute power. It has become an empire." Garrison traces the roots of the American empire to the very beginnings of the republic, in particular to the historic willingness of United States' to use military might in the defense of two consistent --- if sometimes contradictory --- foreign policy objectives: protection of American commercial interests and promotion of democracy. How long can the American empire last? Garrison looks at American history within the context of the rise and fall of empires and argues that the U. S. can gain important insights into durability from the Romans. He details the interplay between military power, political institutions, and legal structures that enabled the Roman empire at it's apogee to last for longer than America has as a country. But the real question is, what kind of empire can and should America be? As the sole superpower, America must lead in shaping a new global order, just as after World War II Roosevelt and Truman took the lead in shaping a new international order. That international order is now crumbling under the pressures of globalization, persistent poverty, terrorism and fundamentalism. Garrison outlines the kinds of cooperative global structures America must promote if its empire is to leave a lasting legacy of greatness. Garrison calls for Americans to consciously see themselves as a transitional empire, one whose task is not to dominate but to catalyze the next generation of global governance mechanisms that would make obsolete the need for empire. If this is done, America could be the final empire.

• Asserts that America has already made the transition from republic to empire

• Asks what kind of empire America can and should be, suggesting that America should consciously see itself as a new kind of empire, one that will work to make the notion of empire obsolete

• Written by the President of the State of the World Forum, a global network whose members include such distinguished figures as Mikhail Gorbachev, Oscar Arias, George Schultz, Jane Goodall, and Elie Weisel

The investment advice and management industry is built on fraud: the idea that professional advisors can predictably and consistently help you get a better rate of return on your investments. The industry sells us on this lie using manipulative tactics that are studied, refined, Wall Street minted, and Madison Avenue packaged. And extraordinarily effective. Here, Michael Edesess exposes the shocking truth that, in fact, behind the success of nearly every prosperous investment professional lies not the ability to procure higher rates of return on investment for his or her clients but the ability to procure astoundingly high fees from those clients and nothing more. Through fascinating and sometimes humorous anecdotes and straightforward explanations of investment theory and scientific evidence, Edesess reveals just how badly investors are being scammed by The Big Investment Lie. He examines how the master salespeople that make up the industry sell their cleverly concocted distortions of truth--to the tune of $200 billion a year--to unsuspecting consumers who swallow them hook, line and sinker. He then shines a spotlight on the true cost of the industry's useless advice, showing that a prudent independent investor, following a conservative strategy, can reap anywhere from 40 percent to over 100 percent more than an investor who falls for The Big Investment Lie. Detailing the Ten New Commandments for Smart Investing--practical advice for how, where, and when to invest your money to maximize wealth--The Big Investment Lie provides the guidance you need to secure your financial future without throwing your hard-earned money away on the fraudulent investment advice industry.