Social Development

Nationally recognized communication expert, keynote speaker and trainer and best-selling author Debra Fine reveals the techniques and strategies anyone can use to make small talk—in any situation. With practical advice and conversation cheat sheets, The Fine Art of Small Talk will help you learn to feel more comfortable in any type of social situation.

Actionable and applicable verbal maneuvers for just about every phase of conversation—good and bad. Whatever your conversational goal, you’ll find tactics to put you in a winning position—in a literal sense with arguments and in a figurative sense with making friends. You can never underestimate the power of a simple conversation.

The Mindful Parent brings together Dr. Peterson's village interviews, observations, research, and over 35 years of work as a psychologist to teach modern parents how to raise healthier, more well-balanced, and kinder children. It includes creative ideas from parents who are currently adopting these practices and balancing other aspects of their personal, career, and financial responsibilities to assure their children get the support they need to thrive.

When slighted, misunderstood, cut-in-front-of, annoyed, taken advantage of, or treated rudely, most people avoid their bosses, ignore co-workers, change hairdressers, complain to friends, shout and pound their fists. They often miss the most positive, effective alternative of all: confronting positively. Now, for everyone who was never taught, or never realized, that between "bully" and "wimp" is a range of behavior that is positive, dignified, and effective for dealing with life's bothersome situations.

Building on the lessons she learned as an award-winning TV news journalist, Chen—who now speaks at Fortune 100 companies and whose LinkedIn Learning courses have been watched by over 2 million people—introduces a new way of getting noticed at work, without being loud, aggressive, or boastful. In Smart, Not Loud, Chen teaches listeners how they can look within, to the values they already hold, to more effectively show up.

Why America's sons are underachieving, and what we can do about it. Something is happening to boys today. From kindergarten to college, American boys are, on average, less resilient and less ambitious than they were a mere 20 years ago. The gender gap in college attendance and graduation rates has widened dramatically. In Boys Adrift, Dr. Leonard Sax delves into the scientific literature and draws on more than 20 years of clinical experience to explain why boys and young men are failing in school and disengaged at home.

The 25 Minute Meeting goes beyond "cut to the chase" and shows you how to take back your work day with smarter planning and more productive action. Meetings have become a de facto way of working, and as they pile up and stretch to interminable lengths, they eat up our days and sink productivity - if they are poorly planned and run. Done well, meetings are short, sharp, productive affairs that provide critical time and space for the interactions that drive business forward.

Social justice work, we often assume, is raised voices and raised fists. But what does it look like for those of us who don't feel comfortable battling in the trenches? Sustaining justice work can be particularly challenging for the sensitive, and it requires a deep level of self-awareness. In Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul, writer Dorcas Cheng-Tozun offers six possible pathways for sensitive types.

As the culture wars rage, and masculinity has been politicized from all sides, feminist writer and mother of three boys Ruth Whippman finds herself conflicted and scared. While the right pushes a dangerous vision of fantasy manhood, her feminist peers often dismiss boys as little more than entitled predators-in-waiting. Meanwhile her home life feels like a daily confrontation with the triumph of nature over nurture.

As parents, we all want to raise kind and loving kids who will grow up to be conscientious adults. But when you look closely at our society - especially at the statistics surrounding rape, domestic violence, and sexual assault - it's clear that something needs to change. It's time to teach our sons compassion and empathy.

Do you ever think you’re the only one making any sense? Or tried to reason with your partner with disastrous results? Do long, rambling answers drive you crazy? You are not alone. After a disastrous meeting with a highly successful entrepreneur, who was genuinely convinced he was ‘surrounded by idiots,’ communication expert and bestselling author Thomas Erikson dedicated himself to understanding how people function and why we often struggle to connect with certain personality types.

Learn how to quickly gain confidence and skills to socialize and communicate with anyone in any situation. Always know what to say. Never again be afraid to be assertive. Learn the art of charisma. Approach any situation with a calm confidence. Best-selling author and international speaker Jason Flemming brings you the ultimate step-by-step, concise, easy-to-follow guide to social skills. Learn how to quickly become a more confident and capable person.

Do you want to be more confident, know how to communicate with anyone in any situation, command attention and improve your charisma? Here’s The People Skills Guide - the ultimate guide to exude confidence and supercharge your social skills, fast and with ease!

Men give their undivided attention to those who respect them. If a man doesn't feel respected communicating with you, he'll find the respect he needs elsewhere. The woman who knows how to communicate with men can influence the man she wants without resorting to "that mini-skirt he loves." A man craves the attention of a gracious woman who knows exactly what to say to him, when to say it, and most importantly, how to say it to get what SHE wants. Men love being gracefully influenced by the woman they adore.

Nobody needs telling that there isn't enough time. We're obsessed by our lengthening to-do lists, our overfilled inboxes, the struggle against distraction and the sense that our attention spans are shrivelling. Yet we rarely make the conscious connection that these problems only trouble us in the first place, thanks to the ultimate time-management problem: the challenge of how best to use our 4,000 weeks. Four Thousand Weeks is an uplifting, engrossing and deeply realistic exploration of this problem.

We all need help navigating the politics of ministry. In The Politics of Ministry, Bob Burns, Tasha Chapman, and Donald Guthrie combine their long ministry experience with sociological research on the topic. Filled with real-life stories taken from a variety of ministry settings, this book sets out wise principles and practices that help us see more clearly the political dynamics at play in our churches and parachurch ministries.

Most of us are familiar with the three Fs of trauma—flight, fight, or freeze. But psychologists have identified a fourth, extremely common (yet little-understood) response: fawning. Often conflated with “codependency” or “people pleasing,” fawning occurs when we inexplicably draw closer to a person or relationship that causes pain, rather than pulling away. The good news: we can break the pattern of chronic fawning for good, once we see it for the trauma response it is.

Play is how children explore, discover, fail, succeed, socialize, and flourish. It is a fundamental element of the human condition. It's the key to giving schoolchildren skills they need to succeed. Expert organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Academy of Sciences, and the Centers for Disease Control agree that play and physical activity are critical foundations of childhood, academics, and future skills - yet politicians are destroying play in childhood education.

Alan Watts draws on the wisdom of Eastern philosophy and religion in this timeless and classic guide to living a more fulfilling life. His central insight is more relevant now than ever: when we spend all of our time worrying about the future and lamenting the past, we are unable to enjoy the present moment—the only one we are actually able to inhabit.

Is this love… or are you trapped in something toxic? The Toxic Relationships Bible is the ultimate guide to understanding, escaping, and healing from toxic relationship patterns. Whether you’re dealing with gaslighting, narcissistic abuse, codependency, or anxious attachment, this 800-page in-depth resource gives you everything you need to break free and build healthy, fulfilling relationships.