Two distinguished scholars offer eight steps to help organizations discover and embrace an authentic higher purpose—something that will dramatically improve every aspect of any enterprise, including the bottom line.

What does a lofty notion like purpose have to do with business basics like the bottom line? Robert E. Quinn and Anjan J. Thakor say pretty much everything. Leaders and managers are taught that employees are self-interested and work resistant, so they create systems of control to combat these expectations. Workers resent these systems, and performance suffers. To address the performance issues, managers double down on the coercion, creating a vicious cycle and a self-fulfilling prophecy.

But there is a better way. Quinn and Thakor show that when an authentic higher purpose permeates business strategy and decision-making, the cycle is broken. Employers and employees see themselves as working together toward an inspiring goal, not just trying to hit quarterly targets. They fully engage, become proactive contributors, and, ironically, easily exceed those quarterly targets.

Based on their widely acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, Quinn and Thakor offer eight sometimes surprising steps for shifting from a transaction-oriented mind-set focused on constraints to a purpose-oriented mind-set focused on possibility. This iconoclastic book will help any organization discover its authentic purpose and weave it into the fabric of everything it does, leading to unprecedented levels of personal satisfaction, service and product innovation, and economic growth.

The Risk Doctor's Cures for Common Risk Ailments offers tried-and-true cures for risk management problems at both the organizational and project levels. Written by noted risk management consultant David Hillson, aka The Risk Doctor, this book gives practical advice based on sound risk management principles and real-life cases. Using the medical metaphor, Dr. Hillson prescribes treatment for serious issues that can lead to project or business failure. These common risk management ailments include risk blindness, risk amnesia, risk muteness, risk obesity, risk anorexia, risk depression, and risk myopia. Proper risk management is essential to project and business success but is often misunderstood and inappropriately applied at all levels of the organization. This book makes the basics comprehensible and the application of sound risk management workable. Follow The Risk Doctor's recommended treatment plan and begin a fast recovery from risk ailments that have troubled your projects and your business and look forward to a future filled with the rewards of a healthy approach to risk management!

They Just Don't Get It! explores an all-too-common dilemma: when people around us just don't "get" our ideas. Through a charming illustrated fable, it tells the story of Julie Buffet, a hard-charging advertising executive with what she thinks is a fantastic idea for a new campaign. But nobody gets it-not the client, not her boss, and not her coworkers. And Julie can't understand why. We have all found ourselves in this situation at one time or another, and we typically see this problem as a failing on the part of the other party. They Just Don't Get It! shows that when they don't get it, the problem is really with ourselves. And it shows how we can finally really get it. If you've ever wondered why your ideas haven't been received or acted on in the way you expected, this book will reveal your own personal responsibility in helping others understand your intentions. Examining the root source of the problem, it details five keys to "getting it"-Take Responsibility; Practice Humility; Begin with Questions; Remain Open; and Believe They Can. These five simple steps will enable you to overcome the problem, and prevent it from happening in the future. They Just Don't Get It! will teach you how to communicate your ideas better, and how to motivate others to pull together and achieve your highest goals in any situation.They Just Don't Get It! explores an all-too-common dilemma: when people around us just don't "get" our ideas. Through a charming illustrated fable, it tells the story of Julie Buffet, a hard-charging advertising executive with what she thinks is a fantastic idea for a new campaign. But nobody gets it-not the client, not her boss, and not her coworkers. And Julie can't understand why. We have all found ourselves in this situation at one time or another, and we typically see this problem as a failing on the part of the other party. They Just Don't Get It! shows that when they don't get it, the problem is really with ourselves. And it shows how we can finally really get it. If you've ever wondered why your ideas haven't been received or acted on in the way you expected, this book will reveal your own personal responsibility in helping others understand your intentions. Examining the root source of the problem, it details five keys to "getting it"-Take Responsibility; Practice Humility; Begin with Questions; Remain Open; and Believe They Can. These five simple steps will enable you to overcome the problem, and prevent it from happening in the future. They Just Don't Get It! will teach you how to communicate your ideas better, and how to motivate others to pull together and achieve your highest goals in any situation.

• Addresses a universal experience and offers a positive solution in an easy-to-read illustrated fable format
• Details five keys for ensuring that everyone "gets it"
• By the coauthor of the bestselling Beans! and 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work (more than 75,000 copies sold)
• Find out more at www.ChangeIsFun.com

Zachary Wong offers practical strategies, skills, and tools to help project managers diagnose and solve their toughest people problems. Based on decades in the trenches, the book shows how to confront and correct bad behavior, increase team performance and inclusion, turn around difficult people and poor performers, get people to do what you want them to do, boost employee motivation and attitude, reduce change resistance and risk aversion, and manage difficult bosses.

Wong believes that the best team leaders are problem-solvers and facilitators, so this book provides problem-solving models and tools to diagnose people problems, and facilitative methods, processes, and techniques to correct them. It's an approach that can be personalized to fit any person or situation. Each skill is explained with a well-balanced mix of case stories, examples, strategies, processes, tools, and techniques along with illustrations, graphics, tables, and other visuals to clarify key concepts and their workplace application. To reinforce the most important learnings, Wong includes a “Memory Card” and “Skill Summary” at the end of each chapter.

Nothing is harder than leading people and managing project teams. Being successful takes a combination of knowing human psychology, organizational behaviors, and human factors; having supervisory, process, and communication skills; ensuring good teamwork, high integrity, and strong leadership; and having the ability to integrate and apply these skills to a diverse work team. The Eight Essential People Skills for Project Management is designed for individuals, team leaders, and managers who oversee and coordinate the daily performance of others and who are seeking solutions that they can apply immediately.

"What is impressive is not only how Winters builds a case for the urgency and need for bold, inclusive conversations but that she also gives specific strategies and competencies to turn her theory into practice.
-Dr. Sheila Robinson, publisher and CEO, Diversity Woman Media"What is impressive is not only how Winters builds a case for the urgency and need for bold, inclusive conversations but that she also gives specific strategies and competencies to turn her theory into practice.
-Dr. Sheila Robinson, publisher and CEO, Diversity Woman Media

Effective dialogue across different dimensions of diversity, such as race, gender, age, religion, or sexual orientation, fosters a sense of belonging and inclusion, which in turn leads to greater productivity, performance, and innovation. Whether in the workplace, faith communities, or educational settings, our differences can tear us apart rather than bring us together if we do not know how to communicate. Recognizing our collective responsibility to earnestly address our differences and increase understanding and empathy will not only enhance organizational goals but will also lead to a healthier, kinder, and more compassionate world.

Award-winning diversity, equity, and inclusion consultant Mary-Frances Winters has been leading workshops on what she calls Bold, Inclusive Conversations for years. In this book she offers specific dialogue strategies to foster greater understanding on the following topics:
Recognizing the importance of creating equity and sharing power
Dealing with the "fragility" of dominant groups--their discomfort in engaging with historically subordinated groups
Addressing the exhaustion historically marginalized groups feel from constantly explaining their different lived experience
Exploring how to build trust and create psychologically safe spaces for dialogue
This guide is comprehensive for anyone who wants to break down the barriers that separate us and facilitate discussions on potentially polarizing topics.

Turn Time into Money!

If you're under 40, you may not have a lot of money, but you're loaded with a valuable resource: time. It probably doesn't seem like it when you're looking at your student loan debt or scraping up rent money each month, but being young is the ultimate advantage when it comes to building wealth. Starting now means you can experiment, learn from mistakes, bounce back from setbacks, and steadily build your legacy.

Rising-star financial advisor Dasarte Yarnway offers a simple 4-step process you can use to become a Master Wealth Builder. It begins with having the right mindset—wealth begins in your mind and then is built every day through intentional actions. Yarnway examines:

• The 4 most common financial pitfalls and how to avoid them
• The 5 habits all Master Wealth Builders engage in
• The 3 best ways to master your income
• 7 simple practices for controlling costs

A worksheet helps you assess exactly where you are financially, where you want to go, and how you're going to get there. So start now! As Warren Buffett said, “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree long ago.” The sooner you plant, the more shade you'll have.