Books

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The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals and Organisations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World

What is THE NECESSARY REVOLUTION? The End of an Era. The Industrial Age Bubble the take, make, waste way of thinking that has dominated the developed world for the past 200 years is coming to an end. Leaders from organizations and groups as diverse as Coca- Cola and Costco, DuPont, Google, Alcoa, and Nike, Oxfam and the World Wildlife Fund are leading the charge to change the very way we do business. The Dawn of a Revolution. The environmental and social challenges before us climate change, the depletion of natural resources, the side-effects of rampant consumerism, and a widening economic divide create an unprecedented opportunity for change. Initiatives from innovative organizations from every sector from the EU’s End of Vehicle Lifetime directive to Nike’s new green products to Coke s transformative collaboration with the World Wildlife Fund are proving that by working together, businesses, government, and non-profit organizations are starting to bring about real, sustainable change. We must act together now. The Necessary Revolution offers a toolkit with specific strategies and points of action to help change how organizations think and act. Our situation could not be more urgent. We need to cut carbon dioxide emissions globally by 80% in 20 years. We need to reduce our consumption of water and energy drastically. We need to stop pretending that the problems belong to someone else: in an interconnected world, it doesn t matter whose end of the boat has a hole. There are no good guys and bad guys we are all responsible for our core sustainability issues: food, water, energy, waste, and toxicity. And every one of us has to be part of the solution. Imagine a world in which the excess energy from one business would be used to heat another. Where buildings need less and less energy, and where regenerative commercial buildings ones that create more energy than they use are being designed. A world in which environmentally-sound products and processes would be more cost-effective than wasteful ones. A world in which corporations such as Costco, Nike, BP and countless others are forming partnerships with environmental and social justice organizations to ensure better stewardship of the earth and better livelihoods in the developing world. Now, stop imagining that world is already emerging. A revolution is underway in today’s organizations. As Peter Senge and his co-authors reveal in The Necessary Revolution, companies around the world are boldly leading the change from dead-end business as usual tactics to trans- formative strategies that are essential for creating a flourishing, sustainable world. There is a long way to go, but the era of denial has ended. Today’s most innovative leaders are recognizing that for the sake of our companies and our world, we must implement revolutionary not just incremental changes in the way we live and work.

APM Introduction to Programme Management: 1

A clear and concise introduction to programme management. The impact of new technologies has led many organisations to adopt programmes as a means of achieving organisational change. Programmes are temporary management structures designed to help organisations achieve specific objectives. Programmes come in many different shapes and sizes and the term programme is applied to many different structures. This guide will help to clarify what a programme consists of and its components. This guide was written by authors working in the Programme Management SIG (Specific Interest Group) affiliated to the Association for Project Management, Europes largest single national professional body dedicated to project management.

Strategy Bites Back: It is a Lot More, and Less, Than You Ever Imagined

SWOTed by strategy models? Crunched by analysis? Strategy doesn’t have to be this way. Strategy is really all about being different. Thinking about it shouldn’t make you reach for the snooze button, but in the world of strategy everybody has become so serious. If that gets us better strategies, fine. But it doesn’t; we get worse ones—predictable, generic, uninspiring, dull. Strategy doesn’t only have to position; it also has to inspire. So an uninspiring strategy is really no strategy at all. The most interesting and most successful companies are not boring. They have novel, creative, inspiring, sometimes even playful strategies. By taking the whole strategy business less seriously, they end up with more serious results—and have some fun in the bargain. Strategy Bites Back invites you to encounter a diverse and unlikely set of voices with something sharp to say about strategy — from Michael Porter and Peter Drucker to Coco Channel’s “little black dress”. Taken together these perspectives will provide you with new and dramatically different angles from which to attack the world of strategy.

Managing successful programmes

Combining rigour and flexibility, MSP helps all organisations – public sector and private, large and small – achieve successful outcomes from their programme management time and time again. With change a pressing reality for all organisations, successful programme management has never been more vital to success. Organisations must respond as new processes or services are introduced, supplier relationships alter and structures adapt to market forces or legislation. At the same time, all organisations strive to achieve excellence by improving practices, offering better services, preparing more effectively for the future and encouraging innovation. But change always creates new challenges and risks. Inevitably there will be interdependencies to manage and conflicting priorities to resolve as the organisation adapts not just to a new situation internally but to the constantly shifting world outside.To enable organisations to manage their programmes successfully, they need a structured framework that does two things. It must acknowledge that every programme exists in its own context and demands unique interpretation. At the same time it must be universally applicable. MSP has been developed with these two priorities in mind. Its framework allows users to consistently manage a huge variety of programmes so that they deliver quality outcomes and lasting benefits. Fusing leadership with management best practice, MSP enables organisations to coordinate their key functions, develop a clear sense of unity and purpose and achieve the strategic cohesion necessary to drive through effective change (Office of Government Commerce).

Causality and Modern Science

4th Edition: The causal problem has become topical once again. While we are no longer causalists or believers in the universal truth of the causal principle we continue to think of causes and effects, as well as of causal and noncausal relations among them. Instead of becoming indeterminists we have enlarged determinism to include noncausal categories. And we are still in the process of characterizing our basic concepts and principles concerning causes and effects with the help of exact tools. This is because we want to explain, not just describe, the ways of things. The causal principle is not the only means of understanding the world but it is one of them.The demand for a fourth edition of this distinguished book on the subject of causality is clear evidence that this principle continues to be an important and popular area of philosophic enquiry. Non-technical and clearly written, this book focuses on the ontological problem of causality, with specific emphasis on the place of the causal principle in modern science. Mario Bunge first defines the terminology employed and describes various formulations of the causal principle. He then examines the two primary critiques of causality, the empiricist and the romantic, as a prelude to the detailed explanation of the actual assertions of causal determinism.Bunge analyzes the function of the causal principle in science, touching on such subjects as scientific law, scientific explanation, and scientific prediction. In so doing, he offers an education to layman and specialist alike on the history of a concept and its opponents.

Fast Forward: Organizational Change in 100 Days

In the age of rapidly changing technology, increased global opportunities and globalisation, and shareholder activity, executives all over the world are expected to use the right techniques in order to gain the highest level of success for their organization. These executives need the knowledge and tools that will allow them to continue to thrive and remain ahead of the competition in the business environment. This volume and its accompanying guide puts them on the right track. It offers a practical and proven framework for rapid implementation of strategic change that can be used by executives and their organisations. Complete with an collection of examples and checklists, the accompanying guides provide guidance on specific types of change initiatives such as the launch of a new strategic plan, deep cultural change, acquisitions, and new products.