Tags:business
Right Kind of Wrong
Winner of the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2023 A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2023 A revolutionary guide that will transform your relationship with failure, from the pioneering researcher of psychological safety and award-winning Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson.We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures”: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often. The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well. After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely. Outlining the three archetypes of failure—basic, complex, and intelligent—Amy showcases how to minimize unproductive failure while maximizing what we gain from flubs of all stripes. She illustrates how we and our organizations can embrace our human fallibility, learn exactly when failure is our friend, and prevent most of it when it is not. This is the key to pursuing smart risks and preventing avoidable harm. With vivid, real-life stories from business, pop culture, history, and more, Edmondson gives us specifically tailored practices, skills, and mindsets to help us replace shame and blame with curiosity, vulnerability, and personal growth. You’ll never look at failure the same way again.
Highly Sensitive People: How to Feel Empowered in an Overstimulated World (Harnessing the Power of Empathic Abilities and a Guide for the Highly Sensitive Person)
Learn all about hypersensitivity and master the right coping methods to turn your life around!Have you always had trouble socializing with people?Hypersensitivity is a common problem that can manifest itself in various ways. It can have a physical impact on some people (extreme sensitivity to physical stimuli), while it can be more of a cognitive challenge for others. Luckily, there are several coping mechanisms to help make things easier, and that’s where this book comes in. In this book you will find a detailed discussion on the following subjects:• The pros and cons of the hsp.• Nature's contribution to the awesome personality of the highly sensitive.• 7 factors that differentiate an hsp from an empath.• 7 health concerns you didn't know are associated with hsps.• Discover the best career choices for hsp.• Secret self-care tips to keep you energized and happy.• How the loss of a pet affects an hsp and how to recover from it.• And much, much more!You might easily feel drained by interactions, find it difficult to concentrate with so many distractions, or feel stronger emotions from ordinary encounters.As a result, you feel misunderstood by others, who label you as difficult, weak, or full of drama.But not only are they gravely mistaken, but they also have no idea just how powerful you are. There are tons of incredible strengths that come with high sensitivity.
Joy, Inc.
The moment you walk into Menlo Innovations, you can sense the atmosphere full of energy, playfulness, enthusiasm, and maybe even . . . joy. As a package-delivery person once remarked, “I don’t know what you do, but whatever it is, I want to work here.”Every year, thousands of visitors come from around the world to visit Menlo Innovations, a small software company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They make the trek not to learn about technology but to witness a radically different approach to company culture.CEO and “Chief Storyteller” Rich Sheridan removed the fear and ambiguity that typically make a workplace miserable. His own experience in the software industry taught him that, for many, work was marked by long hours and mismanaged projects with low-quality results. There had to be a better way.With joy as the explicit goal, Sheridan and his team changed everything about how the company was run. They established a shared belief system that supports working in pairs and embraces making mistakes, all while fostering dignity for the team.The results blew away all expectations. Menlo has won numerous growth awards and was named an Inc. magazine “audacious small company.” It has tripled its physical office three times and produced products that dominate markets for its clients.Joy, Inc. offers an inside look at how Sheridan and Menlo created a joyful culture, and shows how any organization can follow their methods for a more passionate team and sustainable, profitable results. Sheridan also shows how to run smarter meetings and build cultural training into your hiring process.Joy, Inc. offers an inspirational blueprint for readers in any field who want a committed, energizing atmosphere at work—leading to sustainable business results.
Influence at Work
'Outstanding...This book is superb.' Robert B Cialdini, bestselling author of InfluenceTo be successful at work you also need to be influential at work.And to be influential requires an understanding of how the rules of influence work. Not just those mandated by logic, economics and company policy. But the unspoken rules too. The rules people rarely talk about, but that frequently have an out-sized impact on who and what gets listened to and done, and who and what gets ignored. Recognising and navigating these rules of influence is crucial to your persuasive success.Influence at Work shows you what these rules are and how to effectively deploy them to command attention; connect with others; win over the sceptics; sway the undecided and motivate people to act.The result is a new guide to an age-old subject: what influence is, why it matters, and how to use it wisely and ethically.
Originals
WINNER of the Chartered Management Institute's (CMI's) Mangement Book of the Year Awards 2017, JP Morgan's Best Summer Read 2018, and a #1 New York Times Bestseller!‘Extraordinary’ JJ Abrams‘Fascinating’ Arianna Huffington‘Inspire creativity and change’ Richard Branson‘One of my favourite thinkers’ Malcolm Gladwell‘Masterful’ Peter Thiel‘One of the great social scientists of our time’ Susan Cain, bestselling author of Quiet‘Fresh research, counter-intuitive insights, lively writing, practical calls to action’ The Financial TimesThe New York Times bestselling author examines how people can drive creative, moral, and organisational progress—and how leaders can encourage originality in their organisations.How can we originate new ideas, policies and practices without risking it all? Adam Grant shows how to improve the world by championing novel ideas and values that go against the grain, battling conformity, and bucking outdated traditions. Using surprising studies and stories spanning business, politics, sports, and entertainment, Grant explores how to recognize a good idea, speak up without getting silenced, build a coalition of allies, choose the right time to act, and manage fear and doubt. Parents will learn how to nurture originality in children, and leaders will discover how to fight groupthink to build cultures that welcome dissent.Told through dazzling case studies of people going against the grain, you’ll encounter an entrepreneur who pitches the reasons not to invest, a woman at Apple who challenged Steve Jobs from three levels below, an analyst who challenged secrecy at the CIA, a billionaire financial wizard who fires employees who don’t criticize him, and the TV executive who saved Seinfeld from the cutting room floor. Originals will give you groundbreaking insights about rejecting conformity and how to change the world.
Why We Work
An eye-opening, groundbreaking tour of the purpose of work in our lives, showing how work operates in our culture and how you can find your own path to happiness in the workplace.Why do we work? The question seems so simple. But Professor Barry Schwartz proves that the answer is surprising, complex, and urgent. We’ve long been taught that the reason we work is primarily for a paycheck. In fact, we’ve shaped much of the infrastructure of our society to accommodate this belief. Then why are so many people dissatisfied with their work, despite healthy compensation? And why do so many people find immense fulfillment and satisfaction through “menial” jobs? Schwartz explores why so many believe that the goal for working should be to earn money, how we arrived to believe that paying workers more leads to better work, and why this has made our society confused, unhappy, and has established a dangerously misguided system.Through fascinating studies and compelling anecdotes, this book dispels this myth. Schwartz takes us through hospitals and hair salons, auto plants and boardrooms, showing workers in all walks of life, showcasing the trends and patterns that lead to happiness in the workplace. Ultimately, Schwartz proves that the root of what drives us to do good work can rarely be incentivized, and that the cause of bad work is often an attempt to do just that. How did we get to this tangled place? How do we change the way we work? With great insight and wisdom, Schwartz shows us how to take our first steps toward understanding, and empowering us all to find great work.
The Learning and Development Handbook
The skills needed in today's business world are not the same as they used to be. As a result companies must embrace upskilling, reskilling and developing staff to achieve the productivity, performance, personal well-being and revenue benefits that come from effective learning. Workplace learning works best when it is collaborative, accessible and immediate. The Learning and Development Handbook is a practical guide for L&D professionals who recognize this and want to move away from only offering a traditional classroom towards a holistic organizational approach, but are not sure where to start. This updated edition includes a new framework for L&D consulting with advice on how to embed social and digital learning, artificial intelligence, blending learning and how to design more effective, efficient, engaging and enjoyable learning within your organization for improved employee experience and performance. The book also provides guidance on identifying learning needs in an organization, gathering evidence to engage stakeholders, evaluate and measure the effectiveness of learning and align L&D strategy with the overall business strategy. Packed full of tips, advice, hints, tools and frameworks to improve both individual and overall business results in the immediate, middle- and long-term future, and written by an L&D practitioner for L&D practitioners, this is essential reading for anyone in the people and learning profession.
What Works
Shortlisted for the Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year AwardA Financial Times Best Business Book of the YearA Times Higher Education Book of the WeekBest Business Book of the Year, 800-CEO-READGender equality is a moral and a business imperative. But unconscious bias holds us back, and de-biasing people’s minds has proven to be difficult and expensive. By de-biasing organizations instead of individuals, we can make smart changes that have big impacts. Presenting research-based solutions, Iris Bohnet hands us the tools we need to move the needle in classrooms and boardrooms, in hiring and promotion, benefiting businesses, governments, and the lives of millions.“Bohnet assembles an impressive assortment of studies that demonstrate how organizations can achieve gender equity in practice...What Works is stuffed with good ideas, many equally simple to implement.”—Carol Tavris, Wall Street Journal“A practical guide for any employer seeking to offset the unconscious bias holding back women in organizations, from orchestras to internet companies.”—Andrew Hill, Financial Times
Getting to Diversity
“This book has the potential to change CEO mindsets, human resource practices, manager behavior, and employee well-being—if only enough people grab it and heed its powerful messages.” —Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of Think Outside the Building“Dobbin and Kalev have spent their careers studying why diversity initiatives fail and what it takes to fix them. Their data-driven book doesn’t just spotlight the problems—it’s packed with solutions.” —Adam Grant“Essential reading for anyone who wants to learn which practices can actually improve managerial diversity in organizations.”—Edward Chang, Science“Too many companies don’t know how to walk the walk of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Getting to Diversity shows them how.”—Lori George Billingsley, former Global Chief DEI Officer, Coca-Cola Company“This is the book all leaders need to read to achieve results.”—Adia Wingfield, author of FlatliningEvery year America becomes more diverse, but change in the makeup of the management ranks has stalled. The problem has become an urgent matter of national debate. How do we fix it?Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev draw on more than thirty years of data from eight hundred companies as well as in-depth interviews with managers to show just how little companies gain from standard practice: sending managers to diversity training to reveal their biases, then following up with hiring and promotion rules, and sanctions, to shape their behavior. Almost nothing changes. It’s time, Dobbin and Kalev argue, to focus on changing the management systems that make it hard for women and people of color to succeed. They demonstrate how the best firms are pioneering new recruitment, mentoring, and skill training systems, and implementing strategies for mixing segregated work groups to increase diversity. And they argue that as firms adopt new systems, the key to making them work is to make them accessible to all—not just the favored few.Powerful, authoritative, and driven by a commitment to change, Getting to Diversity is the book we need now to address constructively one of the most fraught challenges in American life.
Influence Is Your Superpower
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Rediscover the superpower that makes good things happen, from the professor behind Yale School of Management's most popular class “The new rules of persuasion for a better world.”—Charles Duhigg, author of the bestsellers The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better You were born influential. But then you were taught to suppress that power, to follow the rules, to wait your turn, to not make waves. Award-winning Yale professor Zoe Chance will show you how to rediscover the superpower that brings great ideas to life.Influence doesn’t work the way you think because you don’t think the way you think. Move past common misconceptions—such as the idea that asking for more will make people dislike you—and understand why your go-to negotiation strategies are probably making you less influential. Discover the one thing that influences behavior more than anything else. Learn to cultivate charisma, negotiate comfortably and creatively, and spot manipulators before it’s too late. Along the way, you’ll meet alligators, skydivers, a mind reader in a gorilla costume, Jennifer Lawrence, Genghis Khan, and the man who saved the world by saying no. Influence Is Your Superpower will teach you how to transform your life, your organization, and perhaps even the course of history. It’s an ethical approach to influence that will make life better for everyone, starting with you.
The Power of Culture
All organizations have a culture, whether they acknowledge it or not, and whether it's helping or hindering them. Get it right, and culture can be a positive force for good. Get it wrong, and culture can be a negative, becoming toxic and undermining performance and reputations.In short, culture matters.It can, though, be a tricky thing to understand and master. The Power of Culture tackles this head-on, exploring what culture is and why it matters; how it needs to be aligned with strategy and values, and how to understand it, change it and make it a reality.Told through real stories and examples and using the author's Intentional Culture Circle as a guide, this book helps everyone at work to be more aware of culture and how to find opportunities to make it work better.
How Big Things Get Done
“Why do big projects go wrong so often, and are there any lessons you can use when renovating your kitchen? Bent Flyvbjerg is the ‘megaproject’ expert and Dan Gardner brings the storytelling skills to How Big Things Get Done, with examples ranging from a Jimi Hendrix studio to the Sydney Opera House.”—Financial Times“Entertaining . . . There are lessons here for managers of all stripes.”—The EconomistA BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Economist, Financial Times, CEO Magazine, MorningstarFinalist for the Porchlight Business Book Award, the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award, and the Inc. Non-Obvious Book AwardNothing is more inspiring than a big vision that becomes a triumphant, new reality. Think of how the Empire State Building went from a sketch to the jewel of New York’s skyline in twenty-one months, or how Apple’s iPod went from a project with a single employee to a product launch in eleven months.These are wonderful stories. But most of the time big visions turn into nightmares. Remember Boston’s “Big Dig”? Almost every sizeable city in the world has such a fiasco in its backyard. In fact, no less than 92% of megaprojects come in over budget or over schedule, or both. The cost of California’s high-speed rail project soared from $33 billion to $100 billon—and won’t even go where promised. More modest endeavors, whether launching a small business, organizing a conference, or just finishing a work project on time, also commonly stall out. But why do some projects fail?Understanding what distinguishes the triumphs from the failures has been the life’s work of Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg, dubbed “the world’s leading megaproject expert.” In How Big Things Get Done, he identifies the errors in judgment and decision-making that lead projects, both big and small, to fail, and the research-based principles that will make you succeed with yours. For example:• Understand your odds. If you don’t know them, you won’t win.• Plan slow, act fast. Getting to the action quick feels right. But it’s wrong. • Think right to left. Start with your goal, then identify the steps to get there.• Find your Lego. Big is best built from small.• Be a team maker. You won’t succeed without an “us.”• Master the unknown unknowns. Most think they can’t, so they fail. Flyvbjerg shows how you can.• Know that your biggest risk is you.Full of vivid examples ranging from the building of the Sydney Opera House, to the making of Pixar blockbusters, to a home renovation in Brooklyn gone awry, How Big Things Get Done reveals how to get any ambitious project done—on time and on budget.