We are living in a time of mounting political segregation that threatens to tear us apart as a unified society. The result is that we are becoming increasingly tribal, and the narratives of life that we get exposed to on a daily basis have become echo chambers in which we hear our beliefs reinforced and others' beliefs demonized.

At the core of tribalism exists a paradox: as humans, we are hardwired with the need to belong, which ends up making us deeply connected with some yet deeply divided from others. When these tribes are formed out of fear of the “other,” on topics such as race, immigration status, religion, or partisan politics, we resort to an “us versus them” attitude. Especially in the digital age, when we are all interconnected in one way or another, these tensions seep into our daily lives and we become secluded with our self-identified tribes. Global diversity and inclusion expert Howard J. Ross, with JonRobert Tartaglione, explores how our human need to belong is the driving force behind the increasing division of our world.

Drawing upon decades of leadership experience, Ross probes the depth of tribalism, examines the role of social media in exacerbating it, and offers tactics for how to combat it. Filled with tested practices for opening safe and honest dialogue in the workplace and challenges to confront our own tendencies to bond with those who are like us, Our Search for Belonging is a powerful statement of hope in a disquieting time.

In the first edition of Fun Works (over 30,000 copies sold) dozens of case studies with companies demonstrated the fundamental principles of fusing fun with work. In this revised 2nd edition, the Leslie Yerkes does a series of follow-up interviews to see how the original companies have changed or maintained their fun-based work environments across the last 5 years.Leading-edge organizations have discovered that fun can--and does--translate into bottom line success. By harnessing the power of fun, companies find they can better retain employees and customers, motivate teams, improve productivity, increase innovation, and create a sense of community. Leslie Yerkes details precisely how eleven successful companies--including Southwest Airlines, Pike Place Fish, Isle of Capri Casinos, EmployEase, and Prudential--have integrated fun into the normal course of business. This new edition provides updates on how these same companies have grown, prospered, and continued to thrive--in spite of national tragedies, natural disaster, growing competition, and changing economic conditions--in part because of the culture they have created through what Yerkes calls "The Fun/Work Fusion." Yerkes illustrates eleven principles--from capitalizing on the spontaneous to hiring good people and getting out of their way--that will inspire you to inject a sense of playfulness and joy into your workplace. Full of real-life examples, strategies, ideas, resources, tools, tips, and techniques, Fun Works will help any company in any industry become a place where people love to work.

• Proves that organizations can use fun to increase employee and customer retention, motivate individuals and teams, and improve overall productivity
• Completely revised and updated to show how the companies profiled in the first edition have continued to thrive by combining fun and work
• From the coauthor of the bestselling book on fun in the workplace, 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work (75,000 copies sold)

Change is everywhere these days—at times it seems like barely controlled chaos. Yet within this turmoil are the seeds of a higher order. When a new system arises from the ashes of the old, science calls the process “emergence.” By engaging it, you can help yourself and your organization or community to successfully face disruption and emerge stronger than ever.

In this profound book, Peggy Holman offers principles, practices, and real-world stories to help you work with compassion, creativity, and wisdom through the entire arc of change—from disruption to coherence. You'll learn what to notice, what to explore, what to try, and what mindset opens new possibilities.

This work can be challenging but also tremendously rewarding. It enables new and unlikely partnerships and develops breakthrough projects. You become part of a process that transforms the culture itself.

• Shows how to spot the emergence of a new level of order from the seemingly chaotic change that characterizes modern times

• Offers practices and principles that will help you align yourself and your organization with the new order

• Features real-world examples of individuals and organizations that have successfully navigated disruptive change

• 2011 Nautilus Gold Medal in the category of Conscious Business/Leadership

 

Change is everywhere these days, so much so that it can seem like barely-controlled chaos. As a result, increasing numbers of leaders, managers, workers and change agents feel overwhelmed. Some see too many choices, while others see no choices at all. But sometimes within this seeming chaos are the seeds of a higher order.  Science calls the process of a new system arising from the ashes of the old emergence. Understanding the phenomenon of emergence can help leaders to gracefully and successfully cope with change and emerge stronger and more purposeful. 

In this profound and insightful book, Peggy Holman offers new ways to think about the potential upheaval contains as a source of emergent change and shows how to engage it productively. This is is an art more than a science, so Holman offers practices that tell you not precisely what to do but rather how to approach disruptive situationswhat to notice, what to explore, what to try, what mindset will leave you most open to identifying the new paradigm as it emerges. She grounds these practices in five overarching principles that apply the scientific understanding of emergence in the natural world to social and organizational change processes. Real-world stories of collapse and renewal serve to illustrate these principles and practices in action. And Holman outlines three questions to help you work compassionately, creatively and wisely with the entire arc of the change process, from coherence to disruption to renewal.

This work can be difficultthe end is rarely in sight and the outcome is often uncertain. But it can also be tremendously exciting. Our survival in an increasingly unpredictable world is at stake, and working consciously with emergence is a promising pathway to doing something about it.

We all know the proverb about teaching someone to fish, but if there are no fish left, knowing how to catch them won't do you any good. And that's the position businesses are in today. Resources are being depleted at an alarming rate and the cost of raw materials is rising dramatically. As a result, scholar and entrepreneur Nadya Zhexembayeva says, businesses need to make resource scarcity—the overfished ocean—their primary strategic consideration, not just a concern for their “green” division.

Overfished Ocean Strategy offers five essential principles for innovating in this new reality. Zhexembayeva shows how businesses can find new opportunities in what were once considered useless by-products, discover resource-conserving efficiencies up and down their value chain, transfer their expertise from physical products to services, and develop ways to rapidly try out and refine these new business models. She fills the book with examples of companies that are already successfully navigating the overfished ocean, from established corporations such as BMW, Microsoft, and Puma to newcomers such as Lush, FLOOW2, and Sourcemap.

The linear, throwaway economy of today—in which we extract resources at one end, create products, and throw them away at the other—is rapidly coming to an end. In every industry, creative minds are learning how to make money by taking this line and turning it into a circle. Nadya Zhexembayeva shows how you can join them and avoid being left high and dry.

By bestselling author Ken Blanchard (whose 40+ books have sold over 18 million copies), KNOW CAN DO! tells the story of how a well known author learns to bridge the gap between what we all know—all the advice we've taken in from books, seminars, etc.—and how we actually use that knowledge.Attempting to better themselves—learn new skills, break bad habits, realize their potential—people read books, attend seminars, take training courses. And companies pitch in too, spending billions of dollars every year on professional development programs aimed at helping their employees become more effective. But in spite of what people sincerely believe are their best efforts, all too often their behavior doesn’t change. The fact that it seems to be so hard to make new learning stick is an endless source of frustration for both individuals and organizations. For years Ken Blanchard has been troubled by the gap between what people know—all the good advice they’ve digested intellectually—and what they actually do. In this new book he and his coauthors, Paul J. Meyer and Dick Ruhe, use the fable format Blanchard made famous to lay out a straightforward method for learning more, learning better, and making sure you actually use what you learn. This engaging story identifies three key reasons people don’t make the leap from knowing to doing and then moves on to the solution. It teaches you how to avoid information overload by learning “less more, not more less.” You’ll find out how to adjust your brain’s filtering system to learn many, many times more than ever before, ignite your creativity and resourcefulness with Green Light Thinking, master what you’ve learned using spaced repetition, and more. At last, an answer to the question, “Why don’t I do what I know I should do?” Read this book and you will!

• From bestselling author Ken Blanchard, whose books have sold more than 18 million copies worldwide

• Offers a foolproof method for putting your knowledge into practice

• Written in the entertaining fable format Blanchard made famous