Reinvent best practices that have become bad habits Without meaning to, and often with the best of intentions, most organizations continually waste precious time and money on processes and activities that don't create value and no longer make sense in today's business environment. Until now, the relatively slow speed of marketplace evolution has allowed wasteful habits to continue without consequence. This reality is ending. Detonate explains how organizations built up bad habits, identifies which ones masquerade as "best practices," and suggests alternatives that can contribute to winning in the marketplace. With a focus on optimism and empowerment, it focuses on an approach and mindset which are critical to successfully compete in an era characterized by profound technological advances and uncertainty. - Core themes challenge how you think about and approach problems - Case studies illustrate the challenges you face and how to overcome them - Recommendations are pragmatic and steer clear of suggesting a brand-new, complicated wiring diagram - Actionable advice provides the first steps down an evolutionary path If you want to compete differently in today's marketplace and to challenge the things your company does which you have a nagging feeling are actually just a waste of time - and maybe value-destroying - Detonate gives you what you need to ignite change.

Modern workplaces are following a strong trend of increasing flexible working practices and approaches, offering more flexibility in working times, working places, work organization, and work relations as the result of new information and communication technologies. This book brings together a group of internationally recognized experts in the field of flexible work to examine the psychological and social implications of these practices, describing the current state of research and empirically-based practices in this field. It focuses on organizational, job, and individual factors related to the quality of working life, and identifies potential risk groups where the benefits of flexible work are suppressed or not realized. Ideal for organizations implementing or considering implementing flexible work, for professionals and researchers in work and organizational psychology, and for HR professionals, this volume is an invaluable overview of rapidly changing work norms and their impact on working life.

The "informal" economy economic activity and income outside government regulation, taxation and observation is, by its very nature, difficult to quantify. Recent estimates suggest it accounts, in OECD countries, for around 13% of national income (in the UK, the equivalent of GBP150 billion) and in developing nations it can make up as much as three-quarters of all non-agricultural employment. Whatever the exact figures, it is clear that the informal economy plays a significant role in national incomes (eventhough excluded from calculations of GDP or GNP) and affects a large share of the global workforce. Colin C. Williams provides an authoritative introduction to the topic, explaining what the informal economy is (and what it isn't) and how it can best be measured. Taking a global perspective, he examines its characteristics in developed, developing and transitional economies, and looks at its role as a driver of economic growth. The theoretical underpinnings are explored, from conceptual origins in the development models of the 1950s, through to present-day discussions, which question whether a formalised economy is always the ideal. The book considers the economic motivations of the informal economy workforce, which may include tax evasion, circumventing regulations and maintaining state benefits, and assesses the different policy options available to governments to combat them, whether a punitive policy of deterrence, or one of accommodation that recognises the value of the sector in generating income and in meeting the needs of poor consumers. The book provides a masterly summation of the published research on the informal economy and an expert assessment of the key areas for research going forward. It will be welcomed by students taking courses in development economics, economic growth, labour economics, welfare economics and public policy.

What can you learn from the most successful companies in the world? The NBA Story will help you understand and adopt the competitive strategies, workplace culture, and daily business practices that enabled the exciting basketball league to become the powerhouse it is today. Today's NBA is filled with larger-than-life figures, like LeBron James, James Harden and Stephen Curry, who effortlessly dominate the courts. But it wasn't always so glamorous. The multi-billion-dollar league has grown from humble roots into a sports powerhouse that is loved around the world due to savvy digital marketing and a global focus. Thanks to the popularity of individual players and team rivalries, the NBA has survived league mergers and financial crisis. Teams have earned the respect of millions of loyal fans who are dedicated to the success of each and every organization within the league. Through the story of the NBA, you'll learn: How to keep a dream alive when it seems like no one wants to see it come true. How a company can find their way out of a financial crisis. How presentation is the secret sauce to the success of any show. And how a company can build a loyal fanbase who will do anything to keep them on top.

Work-life balance isn't about where or how you spend your time. At least not solely. It's about where and how you use and replenish your energy. Work matters. Life matters. Work-life matters. As we start to navigate life during and after the pandemic, employers and employees are increasingly re-evaluating how work can be made more sustainable and more fulfilling. Many employees - particularly Gen X and Gen Z - are seeking a new psychological contract with their employers. Putting these trends into context and offering practical solutions, this book takes a deep dive into why work matters as part of a healthy and fulfilling life. The authors present a new and different way of thinking about the matter of balance, arguing that there is no hard divide between 'work' and life' because 'work' takes place entirely within 'life' and you can't balance two things when one is a subset of the other. To achieve the balance required for a healthy existence, we need to recognise that there are activities in all parts of work-life that drain our energy and others that give us a buzz. Rather than trying to solve the drain of hard work by living it large at the weekend - or compensating for an unfulfilling home life by working like a demon, we need to create balance at work and balance at home. Now is a golden opportunity to re-examine the world of work and job-craft to make them more satisfying, less draining and more energising. The ideas in this book provide a practical guide to help that process.

*** Shortlisted for the 2020 Financial Times & McKinsey Business Book of the Year *** It's time to do things differently. Trust your team. Be radically honest. And never, ever try to please your boss. These are some of the ground rules if you work at Netflix. They are part of a unique cultural experiment that explains how the company has transformed itself at lightning speed from a DVD mail order service into a streaming superpower - with 190 million fervent subscribers and a market capitalisation that rivals the likes of Disney. Finally Reed Hastings, Netflix Chairman and CEO, is sharing the secrets that have revolutionised the entertainment and tech industries. With INSEAD business school professor Erin Meyer, he will explore his leadership philosophy - which begins by rejecting the accepted beliefs under which most companies operate - and how it plays out in practice at Netflix. From unlimited holidays to abolishing approvals, Netflix offers a fundamentally different way to run any organisation, one far more in tune with an ever-changing fast-paced world. For anyone interested in creativity, productivity and innovation, the Netflix culture is something close to a holy grail. This book will make it, and its creator, fully accessible for the first time.

The increasing globalization, the battle for talents, and global trends are changing the work patterns in organisations around the globe. Enterprises are working across country and cultural borders alongside complex supply and demand networks. Global incidents such as the financial crisis in 2008 and the recent COVID-19 pandemic have forced global organizations to find innovative ways to continue to connect globally and maintain a competitive advantage. Therefore, innovative enterprises have established global and virtual organisations including members of the value chain on supply and demand side. This book outlines these new work and leadership styles, and agile organisations, which are necessary to work virtually and globally. It provides case studies and experiences from different global organizations in different industries and sectors with a focus on value-adding processes and services.

The last thirty years have seen the world of work transformed in Britain. Manufacturing and nationalized industries contracted and private services expanded. Employment became more diverse. Trade union membership collapsed. Collective bargaining disappeared from much of the private sector, as did strikes. This was accompanied by the rise of human resource management and new employment practices. The law, once largely absent, increasingly became a dominant influence. The experience of work has become more pressured. The Evolution of the Modern Workplace provides an authoritative account and analysis of these changes and their consequences. Its main source is the five Workplace Employment Relations Surveys that were conducted at roughly five-year intervals between 1980 and 2004. Drawing on this unique source of data, a team of internationally renowned scholars show how the world of the workplace has changed, and why it has changed, for both workers and employers.

Meetings should matter. No one wants to be called in for a meeting that could've been an email. No one wants to sit in a meeting where everyone's distracted or talking over each other. If you're going to attend or lead a meeting, don't you want it to...well, matter? Meetings are a chance to initiate a conversation with your teammates. You can communicate information with them that wouldn't have the same hold digitally. You can foster new relationships with your coworkers, and learn from their new ideas and perspectives. So why do so many people dread meetings? Because they're doing them all wrong. Change the way people think about meetings. Transform their opinions by holding a meeting that is efficient and productive, that is open and communicative, that is useful and important. Revolutionize the definition of a meeting. Learn to make them matter. Paul Axtell affirms the importance of meetings, and he redesigns them using the vital foundation of conversation. With real-life examples and actionable advice, he shows you how to design meetings for results, lead them to achieve agendas that move projects forward, and even allow time for building the relationships that make working together in a remarkable way possible. Based on his award winning efficiency training, this book will revolutionize the meeting-moving it from that dreaded obligation to a powerful way to get things done in business and in life.

Managing Projects for success is a how to do it book of considerable value to practitioners and students alike. It provides the challenge of theory application through a series of exercises and is comprehensively illustrated. Managing Projects for Success equips the reader with specialist skills that can be immediately applied in practice and is written in three inter-related parts - Part 1: The framework; Part 2: Planning for control and Part 3: The tool kit - to promote clarity of understanding and study.

In the 1970s, Xerox pioneered the involvement of social science researchers in technology design and in developing better ways of working at PARC, its internal research center at the time (now an independent wholly owned subsidiary). The PARC legacy resulting from this work is a hybrid methodology that combines an ethnographic interest in direct observation in settings of interest with an ethnomethodological concern to make the study of interactional work an empirical, investigatory matter. This edited volume is an overview of PARC and Xerox's social science tradition. It uses detailed case studies showing how the client engagement was conducted over time and how the findings were consequential for business impact. Case studies in retail, production, office and home settings cover four topics: practices around documents, the customer front, learning and knowledge-sharing, and competency transfer. The impetus for this book was a 2003 initiative at Xerox to transfer knowledge about conducting ethnographically grounded work practice studies to its consultants so that they may generate the kinds of knowledge generated by the researchers themselves.

A Science-Based Organizational Change Roadmap for Managers"A science-based playbook that is a must-read for every manager of people..." -John A. List, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Voltage Effect and The Why Axis #1 New Release in Office Management and Business Operations Research Adapting to change is part of life. But, change is hard and managing change is even harder. First, understand how the brain works. Because we really don't know how the brain works, we don't know what makes us more receptive to change. Employees can't tell their managers what they need to "get on the train", and managers don't know either. How to get your team on board. In her first book, What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell You, author and behavioral economics specialist Melina Palmer, applies the science of behavioral economics to unlocking what is behind customer decisions. Behavioral economics combines elements of economics and psychology to understand how and why people behave the way they do in the real world. Now, in her sequel, What Your Employees Need and Can't Tell You, she offers a highly actionable roadmap for business executives and managers faced with the task of instituting successful organizational change. Actionable behavioral economics for successful change management. What Your Employees Need and Can't Tell You delivers insights and research from behavioral economics and the greater behavioral sciences, presented in an enjoyable way that you can actually use to get results. Inside find: An introduction to how the brain really works when faced with change Insights into key biases and concepts the subconscious brain uses to make decisions "Apply it" sections with tips on how to start using what you have learned-immediately If you are responsible for managing change and have tried books such as The Heart of Business, Humanocracy, or Change, you should read Melina Palmer's What Your Employees Need and Can't Tell You.

***NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*** Feel like you're always drowning in email? How much more would you achieve without them - and how much happier would you be? 'A World Without Email crystallizes what so many of us feel intuitively but haven't been able to explain: the way we're working isn't working.' Drew Houston, co-founder and CEO of Dropbox ________________ Emails are an integral part of work today. But the 'kind regards', forwards and attachments we check every 5.4 minutes are making us unproductive, stressed and costing businesses millions in untapped potential. Bestselling author of Deep Work and Digital Minimalism, Cal Newport, is here to offer a radical new vision - a world without email. Drawing on sociology, behavioural economics and fascinating case studies of thriving email-free companies, Newport explains how this modern tool doesn't work for our ancient brains and provides solutions you can implement today to transform your workday into one without constant, distracting pings. Revolutionary and practical, A World Without Email will liberate you to do your most profound, fulfilling and creative work - and be happier too. ________________ 'If you are currently drowning in endless email and not sure where to start: read this book' Emma Gannon, author of The Multi-Hyphen Method 'Read this superb book. It might just change your life; it's changing mine' Tim Harford, author of How To Make The World Add Up 'This is a bold, visionary, almost prophetic book that challenges the status quo' Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism

The last twenty-five years have seen the world of work transformed in Britain. Manufacturing and nationalized industries contracted and private services expanded. Employment became more diverse. Trade union membership collapsed. Collective bargaining disappeared from much of the private sector, as did strikes. This was accompanied by the rise of human resource management and new employment practices. The law, once largely absent, increasingly became a dominant influence. The experience of work has become more pressured. The Evolution of the Modern Workplace, first published in 2009, provides an authoritative account and analysis of these changes and their consequences. Its main source is the five Workplace Employment Relations Surveys that were conducted at roughly five-year intervals between 1980 and 2004. Drawing on this unique source of data, a team of internationally renowned scholars show how the world of the workplace has changed, and why it has changed, for both workers and employers.

This one-stop board leadership resource, written by one of the world's leading governance consultants and author of the bestselling Boards That Make a Difference, offers you a broad range of material including the best articles from the Board Leadership newsletter, articles from various publications, and previously unpublished short works. Each chapter has been carefully selected and arranged to provide you with a distillation of John Carver's revolutionary Policy Governance model.

It's time to acknowledge that not all working women are interested in climbing the corporate ladder or securing the corner office. Most want and need flexible, less life-consuming work to accommodate their real lives, and it's not weak, lacking ambition or letting down the sisterhood to pursue professional fulfillment and financial security through less lofty, or headline-making ways. Eye-opening and practical, Ambition Redefined is a welcome alternative to 'women's business books'. Sollmann calls it like it is: everyday women want and need flexible work that allows them to unapologetically pursue their own brand of ambition and success. She shows them how without sacrificing themselves, their careers or their families. Armed with practical insights and tools, readers will be empowered to go after opportunities beyond traditional definitions of work, career and success. They will learn why they should never leave the workforce, how to make a case for flexibility in a current full-time job, how to find flexible employers, industries and job functions and how to return to work after time away raising children or caring for elderly parents.

This book provides a framework to understand the disregarded aspect of emerging market growth which is informal employment. Informal employment in unregistered enterprises or of workers without employment contracts or social protection contributions constitutes 88 per cent of employment in India and is a ubiquitous feature of the economy. A large proportion of informal employment (86 per cent) is self-employment and this category of employment has been neglected in the literature on work and development which has focused instead on wage employment that is a contract for work with another person or enterprise. Another striking feature of such economies which the book engages with is that, as they have liberalized, informal employment in the registered enterprises or formal part of the economy has grown. The informal sector has been analyzed by recourse to two major approaches. One is a public economics framework that underlines how informal enterprises evolve as they trade-off reduced access to public services such as contract enforcement with the payment of taxes and regulatory compliances. This book extends this literature by focusing on the access to formal sector credit and its potential for financing productive enterprises as a factor that is considered when an enterprise contemplates whether to incorporate or not. The second leg of the literature takes a labour perspective and emphasizes mandated labour costs such as hiring and firing costs, benefits, and minimum wages as considerations when deciding on whether to engage labour on a formal or informal basis. The book broadens this literature by taking into account how the human capital of workers and the monitoring costs of ensuring that workers are adhering to the terms of negotiated contracts inform the decision with regard to informality. The book will resonate with those academics and policy makers who are engaged with the conundrums of development.

Architects of the Business Revolution is a journey through the remarkable new territory of e-business and the new economy. Dearlove and Coomber identify the entrepreneurs, radicals and thinkers who have made the greatest contribution to this new world. From wunderkinds like Marc Andreessen and Sabheer Bhatia and rocket scientists like Tim Berners-Lee and Vinton Cerf to visionaries like Don Tapscott and Esther Dyson and business engineers like Scott McNealy and Jim Clark, these are the guys and girls you have to know about. Beyond the individuals themselves, Dearlove and Coomber take ideas into action and offer practical guidance drawn from these pioneers.

This volume contributes to a growing consensus about effective workplace practices. The collection combines detailed studies of single industries (automobile assembly, apparel, and machine tools) with cross-industry studies of financial performance. Compared to most past investigations, the research here has better measures of both workplace practices and organizational performance. The contributors find that systems of innovative human resource management practices can have large effects on business performance. Success does not come from any single innovation, but from a coherent system encompassing pay, training, and employee involvement.

In The Organized Mind, New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin offers practical solutions to the problems of information overload. ___________________________________________________ Overwhelmed by demands on your time? Caught in an unproductive spiral of emails and multitasking? You're not alone. When we're deluged with information our creativity plummets, our decision making suffers and we grow absent-minded. Nowadays, we drown in our inboxes, forever juggle several tasks at once and try to make complex decisions ever more quickly. This is information overload. Combining the latest neuroscience with everyday examples, Daniel Levitin explains how to take back control of your life - from your home to your business to your children - all through organization. You'll discover life-changing facts about: - How to make the most of your brain's daily processing limit - Why pressing Send or clicking Like are addictive - Why daydreaming is your brain at its most productive - What the most successful people keep in their drawer - Why multitasking is a bad way to do nearly everything In a world where information is power, The Organized Mind holds the key to harnessing that information and making it work for you. 'A comprehensive account of the way we think about organizing everything from our possessions to our friends' - Financial Times 'The perfect antidote to the effects of information overload' - Scott Turow, New York Times bestselling author of Identical and Innocent

Equal opportunity in the workplace is thought to be the direct legacy of the civil rights and feminist movements and the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. Yet, as Frank Dobbin demonstrates, corporate personnel experts--not Congress or the courts--were the ones who determined what equal opportunity meant in practice, designing changes in how employers hire, promote, and fire workers, and ultimately defining what discrimination is, and is not, in the American imagination.

Dobbin shows how Congress and the courts merely endorsed programs devised by corporate personnel. He traces how the first measures were adopted by military contractors worried that the Kennedy administration would cancel their contracts if they didn't take "affirmative action" to end discrimination. These measures built on existing personnel programs, many designed to prevent bias against unionists. Dobbin follows the changes in the law as personnel experts invented one wave after another of equal opportunity programs. He examines how corporate personnel formalized hiring and promotion practices in the 1970s to eradicate bias by managers; how in the 1980s they answered Ronald Reagan's threat to end affirmative action by recasting their efforts as diversity-management programs; and how the growing presence of women in the newly named human resources profession has contributed to a focus on sexual harassment and work/life issues.

"Inventing Equal Opportunity" reveals how the personnel profession devised--and ultimately transformed--our understanding of discrimination.

Psychological Management of Individual Performance contains a unique combination of contributions from academics and practitioners for each topic.

Leading international authors come together in this integrative and comprehensive handbook, to combine academic research findings and to provide detailed practice-relevant information, on subjects such as performance concepts, work design, cognitive ability and personality as predictors of performance, performance appraisal and potential analysis, goal setting, training, mentoring, reward systems, strategic HRM as well as broader issues such as well-being and organizational culture.

This handbook is a valuable resource for researchers, academics and advanced students in psychology and related fields; as well as consultants, practitioners and professionals in HR, who want to contribute to the enhancement and maintenance of high individual performance.

A Wall Street Journal and Financial Times book of the month Millennials have become the largest generation in the U.S. workforce, and Generation Z workers are right behind them. Leaders and organizations must embrace the new ways of working that appeal to the digital-first generations, while continuing to appeal to Baby Boomers and Generation X, who will likely remain in the workforce for decades to come. Within any organization, team, meeting, or marketing opportunity, you will likely find any combination of generations, each with their own attitudes, expectations, and professional styles. To lead and succeed in business today, you must adjust to how Millennials work, continue to accommodate experienced colleagues and pay attention to the next generations coming up. The Remix shows you how to adapt and win through proven strategies that serve all generations' needs. The result is a workplace that blends the best of each generation's ideas and practices to design a smarter, more inclusive work environment for everyone. As a leading expert on the multigenerational workplace, Lindsey Pollak combines the most recent data with her own original research, as well as detailed case studies from Fortune 500 companies and other top organizations. Pollak outlines the ways businesses, executives, mid-level managers, employees, and entrepreneurs can tackle situations that may arise when diverse styles clash and provides clear strategies to turn generational diversity into business opportunity. Generational change is impacting all industries, all types of organizations, and all leaders. The Remix is an essential guide for anyone looking to navigate today's multigenerational workplace, which is more diverse and varied than ever before.

Want to make your workplace more sustainable, get ahead in your career and improve your reputation?
Want to help your company or organisation save money, boost profits and improve its brand?
Whatever your level or industry, from sales and management to government and teaching, "Climb The Green Ladder" offers practical knowledge to help you make a difference. Whether you'd like to transform your entire company or just get your colleagues recycling, "Climb The Green Ladder" will provide you with the tools and motivation to move your company (and career) towards a more successful, more sustainable future.
The twin challenges of the economic meltdown and climate change means we must act quickly to evolve our businesses to weather the storm. You can ensure your company or organisation saves money, reduces environmental damage and improves its performance while you advance your personal reputation and further your career.

Step by step, "Climb The Green Ladder" identifies the key themes that underpin successful sustainability strategies, including real-life case studies from people who've done it, to create a comprehensive tool-kit for action.
Authors Amy Fetzer and Shari Aaron undertook extensive research to find out what works and what doesn't. They surveyed hundreds of employees and employers, and interviewed over 80 sustainability specialists who have successfully changed their workplaces from within to reveal the secrets of their success.

Do you know how your brain functions? Do you sometimes feel like you're fighting your own brain and habits in order to be productive at work? What if there was a way to work with your brain to become more efficient, effective and productive... and transform the way you operate? Make Your Brain Work is here to help. Author Amy Brann is fascinated by the application of brain science to business, and you don't have to be an expert to understand - she explains the principles and latest insights in practical and easy-to-understand language, enabling you to understand the way you work, and form the helpful habits that will revolutionize your output. With clear, in-context examples; hands-on tips; and focused case studies on how companies are doing things well and the pitfalls to avoid, this entertaining book will help you reduce the stress and overwhelm of poor time management, and help get you to that next professional level. Including brand-new content on developing resilience and creativity, and managing your work-life balance, now it's even easier to Make Your Brain Work!