Organizational Change

The world of work is changing at an unprecedented rate. At a time when constant innovation, agility and speed often mean the difference between success and failure, we can no longer afford to waste time navigating the complex bureaucracy present in most companies.... Number one New York Times best-selling author Keith Ferrazzi argues that in times like these the ability to lead without authority is the essential workplace competency.

Cyber-risk, climate change, and terrorism are all man-made risks. Daniel Wagner and Dante Disparte, two leading authorities in global risk management, make a compelling case for the need to bring traditional approaches to risk management and decision-making into the 21st century.

Why are some organizations more innovative than others? How can we tap in to, empower, and leverage the natural innovation within our organizations that is so vital to our future success? Now more than ever, companies and institutions of all types and sizes are determined to create more innovative organizations. In study after study, leaders say that fostering innovation and the need for transformational change are among their top priorities.

As climate change becomes an international crisis, more and more industries are looking for a sound model for creating successful environmentally friendly companies, and a new generation of young leaders are eager for inspiration and guidance on creating sustainable businesses. Mid-Course Correction Revisited advocates why we need to create prototypical green companies and a new economy - not based on non-renewable resources, but on renewable energy, aggressive recycling, innovative technology, and sustainable business practices.

In 2004 Kentaro Toyama, an award-winning computer scientist, moved to India to start a new research group for Microsoft. Its mission: to explore novel technological solutions to the world's persistent social problems. But after a decade of designing technologies for humanitarian causes, Toyama concluded that no technology, however dazzling, could cause social change on its own.

The modern working world doesn't leave much time for reflection. Leaders in particular are encouraged to speed ahead, make quick decisions, and seek swift solutions to any problem that may arise. However, the full-speed-ahead approach can backfire. By taking time to pause and reflect, it's possible to notice new pathways and develop innovative solutions that allow for impactful results. Executive coach Janet M. Harvey has worked with leaders and teams around the world to explore the common tensions that arise in the workplace.

When Marc Harrison became CEO of Intermountain Healthcare, the organization was already a well-regarded and financially stable player in the industry. Nevertheless, Harrison led an ambitious transformation that has unleashed Intermountain's workforce to look beyond the organization and tackle a range of problems that have hobbled both the healthcare industry and our broader society. Bucking the prevailing culture of conflict and polarization, leaders at all levels are empowered to convene diverse stakeholders in unorthodox ways to solve problems that affect everyone.

Change is never a stepwise or easily prescribed process. Rather, it is messy and complicated, and its outcomes are easily swayed by a host of factors. In this context, leaders need to develop and utilize realistic frameworks for organizational change. They need to implement a holistic change model that defines and justifies the proposed change, and takes account of both the abilities of those who will be asked to lead and carry out the change, and the context in which the change is to occur.

Does it have to be this way? Can’t resist checking your smartphone or mobile device? Sure, all this connectivity keeps you in touch with your team and the office - but at what cost? In Sleeping with Your Smartphone, Harvard Business School professor Leslie Perlow reveals how you can disconnect and become more productive in the process. In fact, she shows that you can devote more time to your personal life and accomplish more at work. And the good news is that this doesn’t require an organizational makeover.

Meet your secret weapon for a better career. You can advance at work only as far as clients and stakeholders are willing to act on your knowledge and recommendations. If you want decision makers to give you the green light, make the decisions you want, hire, or champion the success of your projects, you must learn the art of talking with your stakeholders. Alexandra Mack understands the impact you want to make and the challenges standing in your way. In Talking to Stakeholders, she presents actionable, proven strategies to communicate and connect with anyone wielding the power to help or ...

Companies need to grow, innovate, and adapt to changing needs. But stressed-out employees rarely go the extra mile, chaos rarely produces agility or speed, and it’s hard innovate or grow while bleeding talent to turnover and quiet quitting. This is how change stymies the very progress that it seeks. Drawing on decades spent leading HR operations at Deloitte and Cisco, Ashley Goodall explores the essential nature of human performance and offers a radical new alternative to the constant turbulence that defines corporate life.

Whether you are a business or nonprofit leader, a consultant, a coach or an educator, this book will provide you with a step-by-step methodology and practical tools to help teams envision, design, and implement important new organizational futures. Creating Futures that Matter Today: Facilitating Change through Shared Vision demonstrates how creating shared vision positively impacts an organization’s ability to address the critical challenges it faces. Parker and Pool offer convincing examples of how to use visionary thinking with any team seeking to discover new opportunities.

As a leader, changing your mind has always been perceived as a weakness. Not anymore. In a world that's changing faster than ever, successful leaders realize that a genuine willingness to change their own minds is the ultimate competitive advantage. Drawing on evidence from social science, history, politics, and more, business consultant Al Pittampalli reveals why confidence, consistency, and conviction are increasingly becoming liabilities.

A toolkit of proven strategies and practices for building capacity and creating transformation. Recent years have seen a proliferation of information on how to make change in business, in social and environmental movements, and on a more personal scale. But, even with all this attention, two out of three change efforts fail to achieve their desired result. How can you make your own effort buck this trend?

The Capitalist and the Activist offers an engaging and thoughtful look at the new reality of corporate social activism - its driving forces, promises and perils, and implications for our businesses and personal lives. Weaving deep research and fascinating stories that span business, entertainment, history, science, and politics, Tom Lin provides an insightful road map for how society arrived here and a practical compass for moving forward.

In this short book, author Jeff Coker shares his secrets for developing and utilizing political skills to get more done at work. Take a look at the success formula at work. What defines "success" in your workplace? Once you understand the social landscape and how political capital works, then you can learn how to audit your own situation and make an action plan to improve your political skills.

In A Good Time to Be a Girl, Helena Morrissey sets out how we might achieve the next big breakthrough towards a truly inclusive modern society. Drawing on her experience as a City CEO, mother of nine, and founder of the influential 30% Club, which campaigns for gender-balanced UK company boards, her manifesto for new ways of working, living, loving and raising families is for everyone, not just women.

Paul A. Pagnato has tapped into an incredible brain trust of world-renowned experts from a diverse set of challenging disciplines, each having encountered the intersection of exponential growth and transparency. Their honest assessment for turning challenges into opportunities is inspirational. Their work is changing the world, and now through the prism of transparency, the wave of the future is upon us.

The authors of The Phoenix Encounter Method don't advise safety. In fact, their method of leadership thinking requires you to imagine burning your business to the ground - throwing yourself into a firestorm change - and turning the upheaval to your organization's advantage. It can then rise, phoenix-like, from the ashes, stronger and more powerful than ever.

In Lifeboat, Maggie Craddock uses the stories of the survivors of the Titanic as a metaphor for hardworking professionals today facing uncertainty. They are swimming in waters jarred by sudden waves of downsizing, management shakeups, company mergers, dried-up funding, scandals, and probably a shark or two. The experiences of Titanic survivors, Craddock shows, offer lessons for a transformative workplace approach, one that recognizes that “every man for himself” does not work long-term.