Showing results by publisher "Brilliance Audio" in Organisational Behavior

IDEO, the widely admired, award-winning design and development firm that brought the world the Apple mouse, Polaroid's I-Zone instant camera, the Palm V, and hundreds of other cutting-edge products and services, reveals its secrets for fostering a culture and process of continuous innovation.

Tremendous forces for change are radically reshaping the world of work. Disruptive innovations, radical thinking, new business models and resource scarcity are impacting every sector. Although the scale of expected change is not unprecedented, what is unique is the pervasive nature of the change and its accelerating pace which people in organizations have to cope with. Structures, systems, processes and strategies are relatively simple to understand and even fix.

The Darwinian struggle of business keeps getting more brutal as competitive advantage gaps get narrower and narrower. Anything you invent today will soon be copied by someone else - probably better and cheaper. Many companies thrive during the early stages of their life cycle, only to fall slack during periods of inertia and die out while others surge ahead. Geoffrey Moore shows, some notable companies have figured out how to deal with Darwin in their mature years - making changes on the fly while fending off challenges from every quarter.

That is the challenge that all leaders face. This challenge grows more intense every day. Lead with Speed is the answer. This problem of speed is often disguised by other symptoms, such as "my projects cannot make an accurate prediction of when they will be done" or the stated need of "my teams need to take more risks." The real need is not reckless risk-taking that will lead to even more problems and finishing even later. The real need is for speed.

Through her global consulting projects, keynote speeches, and work with thousands of leaders, Karen has seen first-hand how a pervasive lack of clarity strangles business performance and erodes employee engagement. Ambiguity is the corporate default state, a condition so prevalent that “tolerance for ambiguity” has become a clichéd job requirement. It doesn’t have to be this way.

We've decided by consensus that consensus is good. In In Defense of Troublemakers, psychologist Charlan Nemeth argues that this principle is completely wrong: left unchallenged, the majority opinion is often biased, unoriginal, or false. It leads planes and markets to crash, causes juries to convict innocent people, and can quite literally make people think blue is green. In the name of comity, we embrace stupidity. We can make better decisions by embracing dissent. Dissent forces us to question the status quo, consider more information, and engage in creative decision-making.

Tichy draws on decades of hands-on experience working with CEOs and boards to provide a framework for building a smart, effective transition pipeline, whether for a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, a family business, a small start-up, or a non-profit. Through revealing case studies like Hewlett Packard, IBM, Yahoo, P&G, Intel, and J.C. Penney, he examines why some companies fail and others succeed in training and sustaining the next generation of senior leaders.

In a world that's changing faster and more furiously than ever, the ability to shift focus is critical. Why is it that some organizations can continually evolve to meet the times and the marketplace, and others can't? How do some businesses recognize the right moment to shift, and others, ruefully, only after it's too late? Packed with insightful interviews, Shift Ahead offers a smart, calculated approach to knowing when to change course and how to pull it off.

From turf wars to low morale, most companies attempt to cure what ails them with the latest management fad - and fail. They are treating the symptoms while ignoring the true problem. Success starts with knowing the kind of business you're really in.

Business books fall into two categories: theory and impractical protocols. Both provide either ideas without applications or applications without proven theoretical frames. They are like concept cars no one expects to drive to work. The Leader Architect provides the bridge to proven solutions based on sound theory. These solutions are being used successfully by expert leaders at some of the best companies in the world, without the elaborate external systems and training teams required by many popular approaches.

The greatest threat to an organization's success is not always the competition. Often, it is what a company does to itself. Because of fear, companies become plagued with barriers and bureaucracy that limit success, crush employees, and infuse frustration and a sense of futility across the enterprise. It starts with a narrowing of focus, which leads to the first level of bureaucracy: parochialism.

Solid profits, a strong brand, steady customers - all of these can vanish when market shifts disrupt business as usual. So how do you keep from losing ground? How do you stay a step ahead of competitors? The solution is surprisingly straightforward: innovate tweak by tweak.

Customer behaviors, business models, technologies, and regulations are evolving quickly, and many of the strategic rules we formerly lived by have become obsolete. To be able to respond quickly and intelligently to the fast pace of change, we need all levels and functions in our businesses to be creative and responsive. We need both courage and speed. Fearless Growth provides new rules to enable your company to adapt faster, move faster, and grow faster.

Does your business feel lifeless in today's fast-paced marketplace? Tired of struggling to stand out? Can't seem to clarify your message? You may be a zombie and not even know it. Zombies are confused, haphazard, and indistinguishable. Businesses act like zombies when empty communications alienate customers, supporters, and partners. The Zombie Business Cure gets to the heart of many communication problems: identity.

Decade of Change features insights and wisdom into how to manage, and make the most of, change. Vinton Cerf, co-creator of the Internet, peers into the Web's future. Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman probes the nature of decision making. Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, the Hurricane Katrina hero, offers leadership lessons he applied in that crisis. Visionary executive Ray Anderson makes a powerful business case for environmental sustainability.