Can Scorpions Smoke

Imagination, creativity, improvisation and play are not words that adults normally associate with their work, but many secretly lament their absence in everyday life. They are also words that many of us wouldn't put at the top of our curriculum vitae either. However, the world is changing and the emergence of an Age of Applied Artistry is calling for modern organisations to take the development of these skills more seriously, as they become capabilities that are not just nice-to-have but essential for survival in the corporate world of the future. This book crashes together ideas from the world of Organisation Development (OD), gestalt psychology and improvisational theatre and distils them into some simple stories, concepts and practices that anybody and everybody can experiment with in order to awaken and unleash their own creative spirit. It is an unusual, entertaining and insightful mix of biography and field guide that helps defrost the little creative genius inside of us all.

The process of change in all organizations - corporate, public sector and not-for-profit - can be fraught, overwhelming and unpredictable, both for those experiencing change and for those charged with its implementation. Relational Change presents a refreshingly readable and accessible alternative to the normal rhetoric of mechanistic, top-down change. Instead, Liz Wiggins and Harriet Hunter show how paying closer attention to personal interactions and relationships lies at the very heart of effective and sustainable change in organizations. Exploring issues of power, politics, emotions and the way people and systems can become stuck in unhelpful patterns, this book will help you work practically with the messiness of change. The dynamic new ways discussed are highly relevant for life in organizations today and will apply to your life outside work too. Integrating research and theory from a wide range of sources, as well sharing their own extensive experience of leading change, the authors present a stimulating and thought-provoking people-centred and relational approach that focuses on doing with others, rather than doing to them. Relational Change combines academically-grounded, theoretically-robust thinking that explains the rationale for relational change with real-world stories that will resonate with your own experience of change, whether as a seasoned or novice leader.

Are you hungry to increase productivity in your workplace? Do you want to solve problems and enhance working relationships? A creative director with more than 25 years' experience, Patrick Collister introduces new ways to get the creative juices flowing. Whatever your career, how to: use innovation and creativity in the workplace is packed with simple and practical techniques that are easy to introduce into the working day. Find out how to encourage the exchange of ideas with colleagues and make meaningful and positive changes. Use technology and digital platforms, break established work patterns and engineer working environments to harness creative potential and increase innovation.

This book is written for leaders that are challenging the status quo from the inside of large, established, institutions. As these organisations scale, we notice that complexity grows, their business models become entrenched and cultural barriers to change dominate. The greatest challenge leaders face at this stage is one of maintaining their energy, vitality and ability to innovate, in the face of the personal risk entailed in doing so. The100 mindsets captured here are written as an illustrated series of sharp, quick, paradoxical insights that disturb habitual corporate logic. The book is easy to pick up when five minutes are available, to remind the reader how easy it is to slip back into the comfortable armchair of conformity, and what to do to get out of it.

Instability, disturbance, emergence, networks, informal learning, trial, error, adaptability, low growth, fluctuation and momentum – these are the experiences that dominate the lives of today’s business leaders. There is a growing awareness that the old industrial constructs of detailed planning, perfection and process are no longer working as effectively as we might wish in our large, established organizations. This book is a challenge to the way we relate to each other and lead businesses in the post-industrial age; it is full of passionate stories, reflections and insights. The writing inspires the practice of alternative forms of courage, acceptance of our imperfections and new methods of contact with each other as we navigate the changing nature of the workplace.

This practical commentary on Revelation is conversant with contemporary scholarship, draws on ancient backgrounds, and attends to the theological nature of the text. Sigve Tonstad, an expert in the early Jewish context of the New Testament, offers a nonretributive reading of Revelation and addresses the issue of divine violence. Paideia commentaries explore how New Testament texts form Christian readers by attending to the ancient narrative and rhetorical strategies the text employs, showing how the text shapes moral habits, and making judicious use of photos and sidebars in a reader-friendly format.

Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that Watches, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame. —Revelation 16:15 Jesus Christ warns us to watch, to be in readiness for his coming, whenever it occurs it would be at a time when people were not expecting Him. Only God knows the time, not even the saints or angels in heaven know the time, we must always be prepared. Christ used nakedness as a symbol of unrighteousness and not being prepared. He counseled the Church of Laodicea to buy from Him “white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness [unrighteous acts] may not be revealed” (Revelation 3:18). Jesus encourages us to watch world events and ourselves to make sure we are always ready.