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A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter
Most organizational change initiatives fail spectacularly (at worst) or deliver lukewarm results (at best). In his international bestseller Leading Change, John Kotter revealed why change is so hard, and provided an actionable, eight-step process for implementing successful transformations. The book became the change bible for managers worldwide. In a Sense of Urgency, Kotter shines the spotlight on crucial first step in his framework: creating a sense of urgency by getting people to actually see and feel the need for change. This concise and authoritative guide help you set the stage for leading a successful transformation in your organization.
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Bank 3.0: Why Banking Is No Longer Somewhere You Go But Something You Do by Brett King
The first edition of BANK 2.0—#1 on Amazon’s bestseller list for banking and finance in the US, UK, Germany, France, and Japan for over 18 months—took the financial world by storm and became synonymous with disruptive customer behavior, technology shift, and new banking models.In BANK 3.0, Brett King brings the story up to date with the latest trends redefining financial services and payments—from the global scramble for dominance of the mobile wallet and the expectations created by tablet computing to the operationalising of the cloud, the explosion of social media, and the rise of the de-banked consumer, who doesn’t need a bank at all. BANK 3.0 shows that the gap between customers and financial services players is rapidly widening, leaving massive opportunities for new, non-bank competitors to totally disrupt the industry.
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Beyond Words: A Guide to Drawing Out Ideas by Milly Sonneman
A guide to creating exciting, colorful graphics for presentations and trainings to engage participants and trigger creative thinking.
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Boards At Work: How Corporate Boards Create Competitive Advantage by Ram Charan
Behind closed doors, in corporate boardrooms across America, a quiet revolution is taking place. Boards of directors – long an unrealized source of competitive advantage – are transcending their traditional roles to proactively influence the future direction of their companies. Ram Charan shares an intriguing, first-hand account of how a small but growing number of exceptional boards are changing the face of corporate governance. He also shows how CEOs can tap the vast reserve of experience and wisdom a board’s membership represents.
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Boards That Deliver: Advancing Corporate Governance From Compliance to Competitive Advantage by Ram Charan
Based on years of hands-on experience and building on the breakthrough ideas of Boards at Work, Charan provides practical, actionable ideas to move boards to a higher level of performance—to make a step-change improvement in the quality of their governance. By detailing the evolution of board dynamics in the post–Sarbanes-Oxley environment and providing insight into new best practices, Ram Charan has developed a comprehensive guide to creating and maintaining a next-generation board.
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Boards That Lead: When to Take Charge, When to Partner, and When to Stay Out of the Way by Ram Charan, Dennis Carey, Michael Useem
Is your firm’s board creating value—or destroying it?
Change is coming. Leadership at the top is being redefined as boards take a more active role in decisions that once belonged solely to the CEO. But for all the advantages of increased board engagement, it can create debilitating questions of authority and dangerous meddling in day-to-day operations. Directors need a new road map—for when to lead, when to partner, and when to stay out of the way.
Boardroom veterans Ram Charan, Dennis Carey, and Michael Useem advocate this new governance model—a sharp departure from what has been demanded by governance activists, raters, and regulators—and reveal the emerging practices that are defining shared leadership of directors and executives. Based on personal interviews and the authors’ broad and deep experience working with executives and directors from dozens of the world’s largest firms, including Apple, Boeing, Ford, Infosys, and Lenovo, Boards That Lead tells the inside story behind the successes and pitfalls of this new leadership model and explains how to:
• Define the central idea of the company
• Ensure that the right CEO is in place and potential successors are identified
• Recruit directors who add value
• Root out board dysfunction
• Select a board leader who deftly bridges the divide between management and the board
• Set a high bar on ethics and riskWith a total of eighteen checklists that will transform board directors from monitors to leaders, Charan, Carey, and Useem provide a smart and practical guide for business people everywhere—whether they occupy the boardroom or the C-suite.
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Boards That Make a Difference: A New Design for Leadership in Nonprofit and Public Organizations (J-B Carver Board Governance Series) by John Carver
In this updated third edition, Carver continues to debunk the entrenched beliefs and habits that hobble boards and to replace them with his innovative approach to effective governance. This proven model offers an empowering and fundamental redesign of the board role and emphasizes values, vision, empowerment of both the board and staff, and strategic ability to lead leaders. Policy Governance gives board members and staff a new approach to board job design, board-staff relationships, the role of the chief executive, performance monitoring, and virtually every aspect of the board-management relationship.
This latest edition has been expanded to include explanatory diagrams that have been used by thousands of Carver’s seminar participants. It also contains illustrative examples of Policy Governance model policies that have been created by real-world organizations. In addition, this third edition of Boards That Make a Difference includes a new chapter on model criticisms and the challenges of governance research.
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Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community by Robert D. Putnam
Drawing on vast new data that reveal Americans’ changing behavior, Putnam shows how we have become increasingly disconnected from one another and how social structures – whether they be PTA, church, or political parties – have disintegrated. Until the publication of this groundbreaking work, no one had so deftly diagnosed the harm that these broken bonds have wreaked on our physical and civic health, nor had anyone exalted their fundamental power in creating a society that is happy, healthy, and safe.
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Building Better Boards: A Blueprint for Effective Governance (J-B US non-Franchise Leadership) by David A. Nadler, Beverly A. Behan and Mark B. Nadler
“We’re nearing the end of an era. The age of the imperial CEO and the ornamental board of directors is waning, but what comes next isn’t clear. Every board of directors is approaching a fork in the road, forging new working relationships at the top of the corporation. The path each company takes will have huge implications for its shareholders, employees, and corporate leaders.
Building Better Boards is a practical and provocative blueprint for helping CEOs and boards create real value by striking the right balance between wp-contention and collaboration. It’s an approach to corporate governance that goes far beyond minimum compliance with legal requirements; this is about enabling the board, for the first time, to perform as a team in a way that significantly improves the quality of management’s decisions without interfering with management’s prerogatives.
In an engaging style, Building Better Boards provides a unique glimpse at the complex interplay of egos, interests, and interpersonal dynamics that dictates how boards and CEOs operate. Based on Mercer Delta Consulting’s unparalleled experience in working with top corporate leaders, supplemented by rigorous research conducted with the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and with the National Association of Corporate Directors, the book is a unique and invaluable resource for all those involved with and concerned about the future of corporate governance.”
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Community: The Structure of Belonging by Peter Block
Peter Block shares ideas for community building from fragmented societies into cohesive ones where all citizens can achieve their full potential as people. He shares ideas on how to develop the community-based leadership to begin that community transformation.
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Competing for the Future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad
New competitive realities have ruptured industry boundaries, overthrown much of standard management practice, and rendered conventional models of strategy and growth obsolete. In their stead have come the powerful ideas and methodologies of Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahalad, whose much-revered thinking has already engendered a new language of strategy. In this book, they develop a coherent model for how today’s executives can identify and accomplish no less than heroic goals in tomorrow’s marketplace. Their masterful blueprint addresses how executives can ease the tension between competing today and clearing a path toward leadership in the future.
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Consulting Mastery: How the Best Make the Biggest Difference by Keith Merron
Keith Merron believes that most consultants follow a consulting model that may make a lot of money, or add value, without making a real and enduring difference. In Consulting Mastery, he argues that the most powerful element in making that difference is the consultant’s inner stance – those attitudes, assumptions, beliefs, goals, and strategies that underlie his or her consulting practice.
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Culture of Inquiry : Healthy Debate in the Boardroom by Nancy R. Axelrod
This book explains how to create a culture of inquiry within the boardroom – one marked by mutual respect and constructive debate that leads to sound and shared decision making. It details how to develop an environment where board members solicit, acknowledge and respectfully listen to different points of view; where they seek more information, question assumptions, and challenge conclusions so that they may advocate for solutions based on analysis; and where board members are able to voice their concerns before reaching a collective decision, which, once made, is supported by the entire board. It includes tools for creating an environment of trust, for cultivating teamwork, for stimulating dialogue, and for sharing information. Written by one of the preeminent experts in nonprofit governance, this guide shows how to engage and energize board members and make better decisions.
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Extreme Facilitation: Guiding Groups Through Controversy and Complexity by Suzanne Ghais
Extreme Facilitation picks up where other books on the topic leave off to present a revolutionary method that helps large, unwieldy, adversarial, and apparently dysfunctional groups achieve consensus and reach objectives on divisive and wp-contentious issues no matter how long the group has been struggling. Throughout the book, expert facilitator Suzanne Ghais shows how extreme facilitation – which puts the emphasis on creativity, flexibility and customization – can change how group members interact with one another and how participants view the issues even in the most challenging and exceptionally difficult situations. Extreme Facilitation covers the preparatory phases of the process, including assessment, convening and contracting. Ghais also offers vital information on process design and tips for handling situations that many facilitators find particularly challenging.
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Fearless Fundraising for Nonprofit Boards by Dave Sternberg
Motivate and empower your board to get wholeheartedly involved in fundraising. This completely updated version of one of Boardsource’s best-selling books explains how board members, development officers, and chief executives can clarify the process of successful fundraising, target and approach potential funders, and increase levels of support. They will discover why some donors give…and why others do not. Fearless Fundraising for Nonprofit Boards is filled with practical, actionable advice and includes a quiz to assess your board’s fundraising culture, role playing exercises, a sample board member letter of agreement, and a fundraising checklist.
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Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life (Masterminds Series) by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Part psychological study, part self-help book, Finding Flow is a prescriptive guide that helps us reclaim ownership of our lives. The author argues that the quality of our lives is determined not so much what we experience but by how we experience it.
