I M Sorry I Broke Your Company

Karen Phelan is sorry. She really is. She tried to do business by the numbers—the management consultant way—developing measures, optimizing processes, and quantifying performance. The only problem is that businesses are run by people. And people can't be plugged into formulas or summed up in scorecards. Phelan dissects a whole range of consulting treatments for unhealthy companies and shows why they're essentially fad diets: superficial would-be fixes that don't result in lasting improvements and can cause serious damage. With a mix of clear-eyed business analysis, heart-wrenching stories, and hard-won lessons for both consultants and the people who hire them, this book is impossible to put down and impossible to ignore. Karen Phelan and other consultants may have “broken” your company, but she's eager to make amends.

The traditional model of consulting places an emphasis on diagnosing a problem and finding a cure. But in today’s business world of globalized organizations, rapid knowledge proliferation, and the intertwining of economies, that approach is becoming less and less viable; problems are quickly redefined, new knowledge (and ownership of that knowledge) is constantly surfacing and being challenged, and no solution is a permanent solution. Consulting in Uncertainty articulates a model of consulting that addresses the uncertainty and interconnectedness of the world in a post-industrial, knowledge era. Emphasizing outcomes and inquiry over ‘diagnosis’, Brooks and Edwards outline this new consulting model, as well as the skills consultants must bring to the table in any uncertain and dynamic environment. Integrating practical knowledge with scholarship, this book covers skills such as: Relational skills and the consulting relationship Cultural awareness and related skills Contextual analysis Facilitating inquiry Collecting and efficiently analyzing data or information Consultants and students of consulting, as well as managers, teachers, counselors, and even parents, will find this book enlightening and useful in navigating today’s uncertain world.

Ready for Better Business RESULTS?In this practical guide for small to mid-sized companies, Stephen Lynch takes you through the proven strategic planning and business execution processes you need to drive better business RESULTS. This is not just theory. Stephen works in the trenches. As Chief Operating Officer of RESULTS.com - the Business Execution Experts - he knows what it's like to run and grow a business. Business Execution for RESULTS sets out a framework that utilizes best-of-breed concepts and tools. It's a process that thousands of RESULTS.com clients all around the world use to get RESULTS. RESULTS.com's business model gives it a unique and privileged insight into what really works and what doesn't when creating and executing a winning strategy. To save you from spending several lifetimes trying to figure it out on your own, this book will show you:- Why it all starts with a big goal- The importance of strategy (and why Jim Collins was wrong)- How to analyze your industry the right way- How to choose your game and play that game to win- Why most companies get their SWOT analyses wrong- How to make your performance visible- How to really hold your people accountable In Business Execution for RESULTS, Stephen replicates the methodology he personally uses when he works with leadership teams of small and mid-sized firms globally. It incorporates the best of dozens of effective business practices modified to work together in a process that will help you get RESULTS.

The fastest, easiest way to shift culture toward engagement and productivity Change Your Space, Change Your Culture is a guide to transforming business by rethinking the workplace. Written by a team of trail-blazing leaders, this book reveals the secrets of companies that discovered the power of culture and space. This insightful guide reveals what companies lose by viewing office space as something to manage or minimize. With practical tips and implementation details, the book helps the reader see that the workspace is, in fact, a crucial driver of productivity and morale. Change Your Space, Change Your Culture was born out of recent studies that expose truly outrageous "Oh, my God" realities: More than 70 percent of the workforce either hates their job or they are just going through the motions. Half of all office space is wasted. Those shattering facts exist because office space is generally regarded as "overhead" or "sunk cost." Most buildings today clearly communicate the low priority placed on people-friendly design. Poor workforce engagement is baked into the culture. This book provides guidance on turning this around, by rethinking and reshaping space to align with the way people work. Specifically, this book moves from the high-altitude view down to the details on how to: Discover the fastest, easiest and most cost-effective way to shift culture Add square footage by using space more effectively Boost employee engagement and vitality by the creative use of space Learn how space can become a powerful productivity tool We all know that design, space, and flow have a powerful effect on the human psyche. Our homes, museums, sports arenas, places of worship, and even airport terminals reveal that. Environment can inspire dread or enthusiasm, distraction or focus, collaboration or isolation. That's why the office must be designed to inspire the desired culture and workflow – if it's not properly designed, no program, training or rules will be effective over time. Change Your Space, Change Your Culture is the practical guide to office space, the foundation of an engaging culture.

The field of management consultancy research has grown rapidly in recent years. Fuelled by the drivers of complexity and uncertainty, a growing number of organizations – both profit and third sector alike – are looking at management consultancy to assist in their aims for development and change. Consultants have become a common feature in organizational change initiatives, involved in both providing advice and in implementing ideas and solutions. However, despite this growing recognition and influence, management consultancy is still often misunderstood or criticized for its lack of theoretical underpinning. The book seeks to address these issues by offering applied theoretical insights from academics that both teach and practice management consultancy. Written by recognized experts in their field, the contributors combine original insights with authoritative analysis. Uniquely, this book identifies emerging themes with critical discourse and provides rich empirical case study evidence to show the reader how management consultancy projects are implemented. Real-world international consultancy projects are featured as written up cases featuring organizations from multi-national corporations to the public sector. Written for graduate level managers or those who have practical leadership experience, this book will enable readers to apply management consultancy models beyond a classroom context

This volume develops a theoretical and critical foundation for understanding "maladministration"—the phenomena of harmful administrative and organisational behaviours in educational systems. Chapter authors provide theoretical and practice-based perspectives across international contexts regarding common destructive practices that occur in educational organisations, such as negligence and mistreatment of people, professional dishonesty, fraud and embezzlement, abuse of power, and corrupt organisational cultures. International Perspectives on Maladministration in Education shines a light on this complex topic by examining various practices at individual, group, organisational, and system levels; the contexts and influences that give rise to them; and potential remedies to ensure more accountable, just, and safe institutions.

It's not always easy to figure out what's right or wrong. Your parents say one thing, your teachers say another, and your friends say something else entirely. Is it okay to tell a friend that her cookies taste awful? How should you respond when you see someone cheating on a test? And what's the big deal with downloading music for free? Whether it's about the use of the internet (copying homework papers?) or sports (steroids?), friendship, family, school, or affairs of the heart, kids often find themselves asking: What's the right thing to do? With five simple and clear ethical principles as a foundation, and plenty of out-of-real-life dilemmas as examples, Dr. Bruce Weinstein offers answers and an approach to things that teens will find useful and reliable. With a good dose of common sense, this accessible life guide proves that, while no one can give you all of the answers, Bruce Weinstein can give you the tools to make the best decisions you can -- anywhere, anytime.

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together