Books

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Five Minds for the Future

We live in a time of vast changes. And those changes call for entirely new ways of learning and thinking. In Five Minds for the Future: Howard Gardner defines the cognitive abilities that will command a premium in the years ahead: the disciplinary mind—mastery of major schools of thought (including science, mathematics, and history) and of at least one professional craft; the synthesizing mind—ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into a coherent whole and to communicate that integration to others; the creating mind—capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions, and phenomena; the respectful mind—awareness of and appreciation for differences among human beings and human groups; the ethical mind—fulfillment of one’s responsibilities as a worker and citizen. World-renowned for his theory of multiple intelligences, Gardner takes that thinking to the next level in this book, drawing from a wealth of diverse examples to illuminate his ideas. Concise and engaging, Five Minds for the Future will inspire lifelong learning in any reader as well as provide valuable insights for those charged with training and developing organizational leaders—both today and tomorrow.

Executing Your Strategy: How to Break It Down and Get It Done

Why do businesses consistently fail to execute their competitive strategies? Because leaders don’t identify and invest in the full range of projects and programs required to align the organization with its strategy. Moreover, even when strategy makers do break their plans down into doable chunks, they seldom work with project leaders to prioritize strategic investments and assure that needed resources are applied in priority order. And they often neglect to revise the strategic portfolio to fit the demands of a dynamic environment, or to stay connected to strategic projects through completion, as new products, services, skills and capabilities are transferred into operations. In Executing Your Strategy, Mark Morgan, Raymond Levitt, and William Malek present six imperatives that enable you to do the right strategic projects–and do those projects right. And it is no accident that the six imperatives combine to create the acronym INVEST: Ideation: Clarify and communicate Purpose, Identity and Long Range Intention; Nature: Develop alignment between Strategy, Structure and Culture based on Ideation; Vision: Create clear Goals and Metrics aligned to Strategy and guided by Ideation; Engagement: Do the right projects based on the Strategy through Portfolio management; Synthesis: Do Projects and Programs right, in alignment with Portfolio; Transition: Move the Project and Program outputs into Operations where benefit is realized. Full of intriguing company examples and practical advice, this crucial new resource shows you how to make strategy happen in your organization

Systems Thinking in the Public Sector: The Failure of the Reform Regime…. and a Manifesto for a Better Way

With the UK’s public sector in crisis, John Seddon’s fiercely outspoken new book is already causing a stir. Wrong-headed, ill thought-out reform from a succession of monetarist governments has led to unwieldy systems of mass production that do little for the people they are supposed to serve. Hospitals, local authorities, schools, housing associations, taxation and benefits offices: all are victims of a dysfunctional regime created by a government-enforced culture of deliverology that puts targets and red tape before people. In Systems Thinking in the Public Sector, John Seddon argues powerfully for the government to forget sticking plasters like CRM and citizen empowerment and says don’t tweak the system. Ditch it. Systems Thinking in the Public Sector gives example after example of exactly how the system fails from housing benefits and care for the elderly to call centres like Consumer Direct. Drawing on Seddon’s extensive experience working as a consultant with UK public sector managers, this is a fiercely uncompromising, yet rigorous manifesto for change.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI): Developing, Implementing,and Using Winning KPIs

KPIs, while used commonly around the world, have never been clearly defined until now. Management has often referred to certain measures as KPIs that have never been KPIs. The lack of understanding of performance measures has led to most monitoring and reporting of measures failing to deliver. The casualty has often been the balanced scorecard, a brilliant tool that can only work if the appropriate measures are in it. By exploring measures that have transformed businesses, David Parmenter has developed a methodology that is breathtaking in its simplicity and yet profound in its impact. It has been said that Key Performance Indicators is the missing link between the balanced scorecard work of Robert Kaplan and David Norton and the reality of implementing performance measurement in an organization.

I/T Architecture in Action

This book is for business professionals interested in learning techniques for managing change in technology driven companies. It focuses on bridging business and I/T strategies through the Enterprise Architecture function. Unlike many books about I/T, it is not about building things. Rather, it is about what business people can do with what I/T produces.

Enterprise Architecture Good Practices Guide: How to Manage the Enterprise Architecture Practice

The purpose of this guide is to provide guidance to organization’s in initiating, developing, using, and maintaining their enterprise architecture (EA) practice. This guide offers a set of Enterprise Architecture Good Practices that have proven their benefits to organizations and that addresses an end-to-end process to initiate, implement, and sustain an EA program, and describes the necessary roles and associated responsibilities for a successful EA program. Enterprise Architecture is a complete expression of the enterprise; a master plan which acts as a collaboration force between aspects of business planning such as goals, visions, strategies and governance principles; aspects of business operations such as business terms, organization structures, processes and data; aspects of automation such as information systems and databases; and the enabling technological infrastructure of the business such as computers, operating systems and networks.