Mary Gentile: Giving Voice To Values - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Director of Giving Voice To Values, Senior Research Scholar at Babson College, and author of the practical and wisdom packed book Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What's Right, Mary C. Gentile, Ph.D., describes the renewed interest in values and ethics in business schools and major corporations. Mary Gentile provides ideas about how instead of teaching ethics, business students must be taught ethical behavior. Mary Gentile shares ideas for acting with values in a business setting, including how to to act when someone else in the organization is acting unethically, or when you are pressed to act against your values yourself. Mary Gentile offers a process that can be applied to ensure that your ethical voice is heard, and that ethics and values have an impact on leaders and the actions of the entire organization.

Mary C. Gentile, Ph.D. is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Thursday, August 9, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Director of Giving Voice To Values, Senior Research Scholar at Babson College, and author of the practical and wisdom packed book Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What's Right, Mary C. Gentile, Ph.D., describes the renewed interest in values and ethics in business schools and major corporations. You will learn:

* Why ethics and values are about more than knowing right from wrong

* Why acting on your values and ethics is so critical

* Why there is a renewed interest in ethics for business

* How to stand up to others on behalf of ethics and make a difference



Mary C. Gentile, Ph.D. (photo left) is Director of Giving Voice To Values, an innovative global curriculum for values-driven leadership development.
She is also Senior Research Scholar at Babson College; Senior Advisor, The Aspen Institute Business & Society Program; and an independent consultant based in Arlington, MA. Previously Gentile was a faculty member and manager of case research at the Harvard Business School.

As Director of Giving Voice to Values (GVV), a business curriculum launched by Aspen Institute and Yale SOM now based and funded at Babson College. Gentile is leading a pioneering approach to values-driven leadership development that has been featured in Financial Times, Harvard Business Review (twice), strategy+business, Stanford Social Innovation Review, McKinsey Quarterly, BizEd, among many others, and is being piloted in over 125 business schools and organizations globally. The book Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What's Right is out from Yale University Press (2010).

As an independent consultant (1995-present), Gentile works with corporate, non-profit and academic institutions on leadership development, social impact management, ethics, business education and diversity. Clients include: Columbia University Business School, INSEAD, Harvard Business School, Pfizer Corporation, The United Nations Global Compact Learning Forum, University of Texas-Austin Business School, Harvard University Kennedy School of Government, UCLA Anderson School of Business Executive Education, Duke University Fuqua School of Management, Notre Dame Business School, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Harvard Divinity School, among others.

With The Aspen Institute’s Business and Society Program (Aspen BSP), Gentile has been a key consultant from the organization’s inception, focusing on strategy and mission definition; research and networking; curriculum development; program design; writing of position papers and articles; and general executive coaching.

While at Harvard Business School (1985-95), Gentile was one of the principal architects of the innovative educational program, Leadership, Ethics and Corporate Responsibility, which served to integrate Business Ethics into the Harvard graduate management curriculum. Gentile co-authored a book detailing the history, philosophy and implementation of this ethics initiative, Can Ethics Be Taught? Perspectives, Challenges, and Approaches at Harvard Business School (co-authored with Thomas R. Piper and Sharon Parks, Harvard Business School Press, 1993, translated into Japanese and Hungarian).

Her other publications include Differences That Work: Organizational Excellence through Diversity, Managing Diversity: Making Differences Work, Managerial Excellence Through Diversity: Text and Cases, as well as numerous articles, cases, and book reviews in publications such as Academy of Management Learning and Education, Harvard Business Review, Risk Management, CFO, The Journal of Human Values, New Academy Review, BizEd, strategy+business, etc. Gentile also served as the Content Expert for the award-winning multi-media interactive CD-ROM, Managing Across Differences (Harvard Business School Publishing New Media Group, 1996).

Gentile holds a bachelor’s degree from The College of William and Mary (Williamsburg, VA) and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with Director of Giving Voice To Values, Senior Research Scholar at Babson College, and author of the practical and wisdom packed book Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What's Right, Mary C. Gentile, Ph.D., as she describes the renewed interest in values and ethics in business schools and major corporations. Mary Gentile provides ideas about how instead of teaching ethics, business students must be taught ethical behavior. Mary Gentile shares ideas for acting with values in a business setting, including how to to act when someone else in the organization is acting unethically, or when you are pressed to act against your values yourself. Mary Gentile offers a process that can be applied to ensure that your ethical voice is heard, and that ethics and values have an impact on leaders and the actions of the entire organization on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Giving Voice To Values: How To Speak Your Mind When You Know What's Right, Mary C. Gentile, Ph.D., ethics and values in leadership, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Seeing The Big Picture by Kevin Cope - Book review

Seeing the Big Picture

Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company

By: Kevin Cope

Published: March 6, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 176 pages
ISBN-10: 1608322467
ISBN-13: 978-1608322466
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press












"Business acumen is keen, fundamental, street-smart insight into how your business operates and how it makes money and sustains profitable growth, now and in the future", writes successful executive, speaker, and founder of Acumen Learning, Kevin Cope, in his business building and very hands on book Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company. The author describes how to understand and apply the same five drivers - cash, profit, assets, growth, and people - that create the success or failure of any business.

Kevin Cope understands how recognizing these key factors, in the daily operations and decisions of the company, have an impact on the big picture for the organization. The author points out that regardless of industry or size of the business, the five key drivers remain the same. Kevin Cope describes how understanding this interrelationship between the drivers, the day to day operations, and the overall big picture, as having acumen. To delve more deeply into the five key drivers, the author provides the tools for understanding the numbers that underline the success or failure of the company. With the development of acumen, a business person at any point in their career, can influence the direction and strength of the entire organization.



Kevin Cope (photo left) provides evidence that business people want to be more effective and valuable to their companies. They want to make decisions, be consulted on ideas and direction, and to contribute to the organizational success. Kevin Cope shares the insights that business people want work that is both engaging and worthwhile. At the same time, they understand that to enhance both their own career and the success of the company, they must have a complete grasp of the five drivers of business success and failure.

To make a real difference, Kevin Cope offers the following competencies that business people must achieve, in order to have business acumen:

* Seeing the big picture of the organization
* Understanding company communications, data, and financial statements
* Using knowledge to make and influence good decisions
* Understanding how your decisions relate to the company's objectives
* Effectively communicate your ideas to employees, managers, and executives

For me, the power of the book is how Kevin Cope provides the insight of identifying the five key drivers of a company is critical to successful management, both on a daily basis and to the overall big picture. The relationship between individual decision making and big picture objectives of the organizations is often a challenge for many managers. Kevin Cope describes the ability to make the overall connection as having acumen. Being in possession of acumen creates a vast improvement in the ability to communicate ideas, influence organizational direction, and the development of strategy at all levels.

To ensure that the business person has the tools to achieve acumen, Kevin Cope provides very accessible and readily understood concepts of business finance. With the complete grasp of the numbers, and what they really mean, a manager or executive can see readily whether the company is on the road to success or to failure. A business person with acumen takes these numbers seriously, as they understand their crucial importance as the illustration of the five main drivers of success.

I highly recommend the very practical and personal outlook changing book Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company by Kevin Cope to any business people, at any level of the organization, or at any point in their career, who are seeking a concise course on the importance of the drivers of business success, and how to master them. This book will demonstrate the relationship between everyday decision making and its impact on the overall big picture goals of the organization.

Tags: Seeing the Big Picture: Business Acumen to Build Your Credibility, Career, and Company, J. Keith Murnighan, leadership development, business book reviews

Margie Analise: Women Entrepreneurs: Live Your Biggest Dream - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Speaker, author, and business coach Margie Analise describes how women entrepreneurs can break free of obstacles and live their biggest dream. Margie Analise offers advice for overcoming self worth, confidence, and mistaken attitudes about money to kickstart your entrepreneurial success. Margie shares ideas for discovering enhanced clarity of vision for the business, and how to zero in on that target.



Margie guides women who feel they are not qualified to own and operate a business toward their goals, while also building their management skills. Margie Analise also discusses the all too frequent challenge of not receiving support from family and friends who may not understand the entrepreneurial vision. Learn how women can overcome barriers and achieve success as entrepreneurs and business leaders in any economy.

Margie Analise is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, August 7, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Speaker, author, and business coach Margie Analise describes how women entrepreneurs can break free of obstacles and live their biggest dream. You will learn:

* Why women don't go for their biggest dream

* Obstacles to women's entrepreneurial success

* How to find clarity of vision for business and life

* How to gain the support of friends and family for your business start-up



Margie Analise (photo ledt) is an effervescent spirit, and a passionate warrior of happiness and fulfillment. Her mission in life is empowering women entrepreneurs to their create sexy outrageous success, and live the business and life they really want!

As an author, speaker, coach, and hostess of the lively twitter chat AWEtalk, Margie is a busy woman, but her greatest joy is found in getting to know you.

Margie Analise has a great sense of fun and adventure – she even learned to play the drums just a couple of years ago! (Talk about a workout!) She's a lifelong fashionista at heart! She has a weakness for bling, sea salt dark chocolate, and almond milk lattes. And Margie is fired up about music, healthy eating and fitness. It’s all jam-packed into her DNA! Whew!

Margie was once 80 lbs overweight, hating her life and completely directionless. Margie learned and earned her way down the path to actually living the life that once she only lived in her dreams.

Margie now weaves her extensive business experience, entrepreneurial acumen, and powerful life lessons into helping you.

Margie pays it forward by guiding and mentoring women down the paths to the life written on their heart. She draws upon their innate creative energy to help them find and lay each stone that paves the way to their greatest success.

Listen live on Tuesday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk with Speaker, author, and business coach Margie Analise describes how women entrepreneurs can break free of obstacles and live their biggest dream. Margie Analise offers advice for overcoming self worth, confidence, and mistaken attitudes about money to kickstart your entrepreneurial success. Margie shares ideas for discovering enhanced clarity of vision for the business, and how to zero in on that target. Margie guides women who feel they are not qualified to own and operate a business toward their goals, while also building their management skills. Margie Analise also discusses the all too frequent challenge of not receiving support from family and friends who may not understand the entrepreneurial vision. Learn how women can overcome barriers and achieve success as entrepreneurs and business leaders in any economy on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Women Entrepreneurs: Live Your Biggest Dream, Margie Analise, personal development, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Critical Risk Research - Editors: Matthew Kearnes, Francisco Klauser & Stuart Lane - Book review

Critical Risk Research

Practices, Politics and Ethics

Edited by: Matthew B. Kearnes, Francisco R. Klauser, Stuart N. Lane

Published: May 1, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 0470974877
ISBN-13: 978-0470974872
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell













"Our presumption is not that risk research is inherently uncritical. Rather, we argue that the intellectual foundations of contemporary risk research need more critical attention", write international researchers in risk research, Matthew B. Kearnes, Francisco R. Klauser, and Stuart N. Lane, editors of the comprehensive and interdisciplinary book Critical Risk Research: Practices, Politics and Ethics. The authors present a series of essays, written by distinguished international experts, that address the fundamental questions of what is risk and how do people relate to it; how are those risks framed, approached, and studied; and what do people know and do about and in the name of risk.

Matthew B. Kearnes, Francisco R. Klauser, and Stuart N. Lane provide essays that takes as its basic premise that to approach and address risk, people must look beyond the usual practices and assumptions. Through the lenses of scientific, economic, and social studies, the essays challenge the current practices, the usual framing, and standard approaches to risk and risk management. The editors offer essays that demonstrate the importance of risks and risk research to the contemporary political process and public awareness. With the focus on risk, risk research, and research analysis in light of current events, risk research is now a critical component of modern policy making efforts.

Matthew B. Kearnes, Francisco R. Klauser, and Stuart N. Lane recognize risk management as an subject for critical study and for renewed debate in the face of constant challenges. Not only does risk research concern itself and its practitioners with natural disasters, but also with urgent new challenges from human created sources. The response to risk and real disaster has ranged from effective to other additional failures in practice.

To address these growing and ever increasing risk research factors, the editors group the contributions into three overall sections. Those three sections ars:

* Practices in risk research
* Politics in risk research
* Ethics in risk research

For me, the power of the book is how Matthew B. Kearnes, Francisco R. Klauser, and Stuart N. Lane provide a collection of academic essays that provide an overview of the practices, politics, and ethics of risk, risk research, and risk management. The editors go beyond the usual studies that focus on the process of managing risk, after the fact, and include the crucial human elements of politics and ethics. With a renewed societal interest in ethics, this book is especially timely, with the inclusion of an important section on ethics.

The contributed essays are well researched, accessible, and completely annotated for additional research and study. The editors succeed in presenting alternative viewpoints that openly challenge the usual procedures and processes of risk, and open up discussion to fresh debate, policy, and actions.

I highly recommend the essential reference book Critical Risk Research: Practices, Politics and Ethics edited by Matthew B. Kearnes, Francisco R. Klauser, and Stuart N. Lane, to any academic researchers, students, business leaders, non-profit organizations, policy makers and analysts, and elected officials at all levels of government, who are seeking a useful overview of the crucial elements of contemporary risk research. This book is an excellent reference for any discussion and debate for finding a new direction for meeting the challenges facing modern risk research.

Tags: Critical Risk Research: Practices, Politics and Ethics, Matthew B. Kearnes, Francisco R. Klauser, Stuart N. Lane, risk research studies, public policy book reviews

Rapid Realignment by George Labovitz & Victor Rosansky - Book review

Rapid Realignment

How to Quickly Integrate People, Processes, and Strategy for Unbeatable Performance

By: George Labovitz, Victor Rosansky

Published: June 5, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 0071791132
ISBN-13: 978-0071791137
Publisher: McGraw-Hill










"Alignment is a condition in which the key elements of an organization - its people, strategy, customers, and processes - work in concert to serve the primary purpose of the enterprise: increasing value for stakeholders", write founder and CEO of ODI, George Labovitz; and cofounder and president of LHR International, Inc., Victor Rosansky, in their transformational and comprehensive book Rapid Realignment: How to Quickly Integrate People, Processes, and Strategy for Unbeatable Performance. The authors describe how the principles of alignment and realignment are the most powerful tools in organizational improvements, and share the strategies and processes to achieve rapid and lasting cultural change within for profit and non-profit organizations.

George Labivitz and Victor Rosansky recognize that that both for profit and non-profit organizations face the serious challenges of change and complexity. Change is taking place at lightning speed, and arriving from several directions at once, including globalization, technological change, demographics and skills of the workforce, and in customer expectations. Complexity increases with the sizes of business units, product lines, and customer demographics. The authors point out that organizations must sense and respond rapidly to these and other challenges. To counter the tide of seemingly overwhelming challenges, the authors recommend the alignment and rapid realignment of strategy, customers, processes, and people.



George Labovitz (left in photo left) and Victor Rosansky (right in photo left) understand the critical importance of cultural change within an organization. For the authors, the change is in the form of cultural realignment, to better align that culture with the overall organizational goals. The authors provide real world evidence of how moving slowly at first, to collect data through listening to employees, customers, and all other stakeholders, builds the foundation for a very fast realignment.

The authors present a complete process for achieving rapid realignment in any type or size of organization.

* An overview of alignment in the big picture
* Aligning people with strategy; and with one another
* Achieving strategy buy in with a passion for its implementation
* Connecting the value creation of the organization with the customers
* Moving people to think outside their silos
* Put the tools of the realignment process into action

For me, the power of the book is how George Labovitz and Victor Rosansky combine the theory of realignment with real world proven processes for its successful implementation. The authors present a holistic approach to integrating the people, processes, customers, and strategy into a unified system. The authors provide the strategy and the reasons why that realignment strategy is important. At the same time, the need to listen to all stakeholders is emphasized as a key to achieving quick realignment.

The authors also understand the importance of culture change, and how to achieve that change effectively, as essential to any realignment goal. The authors share several case studies that demonstrate the principles in action in the real world. The book also contains key chapter self assessments, applicable takeaways and action items that move the leader along in the process.

I highly recommend the very practical and results oriented book Rapid Realignment: How to Quickly Integrate People, Processes, and Strategy for Unbeatable Performance by George Labovitz and Victor Rosansky, to any business leaders seeking a powerful strategy and process for meeting and overcoming the many challenges facing their organizations. This book will change the company culture, both more quickly than ever thought possible, and create the necessary alignment to achieve the overall organizational goals effectively.

Tags: Rapid Realignment: How to Quickly Integrate People, Processes, and Strategy for Unbeatable Performance, George Labovitz, Victor Rosansky, organizational strategy development, business book reviews

Do Nothing! by J. Keith Murnighan - Book review

Do Nothing!

How to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader

By: J. Keith Murnighan

Published: June 14, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1591845300
ISBN-13: 978-1591845300
Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin












"Most leaders clearly try to do way too much at work; not only that, because they try to do too much, they perform worse than they otherwise could - and their teams don't perform as well as they could either", writes award-winning Professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, J. Keith Murnighan, in his insightful and very practical book Do Nothing! mHow to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader. The author describes how managers attempt to do too much, causing them to fail to perform their real role as leaders, while stifling the efforts of their teams at the same time; and instead offers the counter-intuitive but highly effective advice of doing nothing.

J. Keith Murnighan understands that the first impulse of most managers is to do something in what they perceive to be a crisis; whether one exists of not. Instead of trusting their team members to do their jobs, the tendency of the over managing leader is to try to do too much. The author points out that this urge to action is precisely the wrong approach to management. It results in two problems that harm the organization. Instead of performing the role of leader, and devising strategy, developing plans, and making important decisions, the micro-manager under-utilizes team members and reduces their level of trust. Instead, J. Keith Murnighan recommends focusing on the job as leader, trusting the staff to do their job, and building team morale and productivity.



J. Keith Murnighan (photo left) recognizes that simply working is not synonymous with leadership. Indeed, the author makes clear that doing the wrong things, or the jobs of team members, actually makes things worse. When tempted to micro-manage or over-manage, the author recommends doing nothing at all. While doing nothing may seem anathema to many driven managers, J. Keith Murnighan provides evidence that instead of the anticipated disaster, good things follow the inaction. Team members feel more trusted to do their jobs and to make decisions, they exceed all expectations including their own, and productivity and morale increase.

J. Keith Murnighan recommends the following strategies for leaders to strengthen their teams, remove their own fear, and build trust:

* Do nothing
* Focus on them
* Start at the end
* trust more
* Release control, deviously
* Bear down warmly
* ignore performance goals
* De-emphasize profits

For me, the power of the book is how J. Keith Murnighan addresses head on the ubiquitous managerial problem of over-managing, and provides practical and actionable solutions to achieve superior results. The author diagnoses the problem the challenges facing leaders who feel the urge, through fear, to do something or anything, when the optimum solution is to do nothing. Instead of micro-managing, the author presents a powerful process for trusting team members, so they can display their true abilities.

The author bolsters his thesis with case studies of the concept of doing nothing in the real world. The results of changing the managerial focus, from the manager to the team, changes the overall dynamic improving both trust levels and net results. Instead of doing more, the concept of doing less is paradoxically more effective in achieving goals.

I highly recommend the transformational and idea filled book Do Nothing! How to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader by J. Keith Mornighan, to any leaders, managers, and entrepreneurs seeking an alternative approach to the failed techniques of over-managing and micro-managing. This book will change the way you manage your team, build their trust, and achieve superior results.

Tags: Do Nothing! How to Stop Overmanaging and Become a Great Leader, J. Keith Murnighan, leadership development, business book reviews

Jim Link: Idea-Links: The New Creativity - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Consultant and educator and author of the demystifying and results oriented book Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link , describes how CEOs identify creativity as the key leadership competency, but have no idea how to develop creativity in their employees. Jim Link provides evidence that the concept of somehow unleashing creativity is the wrong approach. Instead, Jim Link offers the alternative idea of building creativity as a learned skill. Jim Link shares the techniques and disciplines necessary to developing creativity as a core skill. Instead of the traditional, and often misguided approaches to creativity, Jim Link presents a viable learning process that transforms creativity into another developed skill for all employees. Jim Link also shows how to utilize this new competency as a resource to solve specific problems that challenge the organization.

Jim Link is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Thursday, August 2, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Consultant and educator and author of the demystifying and results oriented book Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link , describes how CEOs identify creativity as the key leadership competency, but have no idea how to develop creativity in their employees. You will learn:

* Why CEOs consider creativity the most important leadership competency

* Why creativity is not something that can be unleashed or some eureka moment

* How to identify idea-links to boost your creativity thinking

* How to re-frame idea-links to find solutions to any problem



Jim Link (photo left) has a fascination with ideas began as a child when he would invent new products in his head, then record commercials for his ideas on an old tape recorder he found in the basement. "I've always had a deep fascination with ideas--how they happen, how to get more of them, and why some people generate them more easily than others. You might say I'm addicted to ideas, but in a good way."

Jim eventually turned his love of new ideas into a career at General Mills, where he led new product efforts in a variety of food categories. Seeking to spread his creative wings, Jim started his own idea company at the age of thirty-three. Since 1994, Jim has helped over seventy organizations generate, refine, and market new ideas. Through it all, Jim has chosen to remain a one-man shop, focusing on doing the work he loves.

Jim is an engaging teacher who conducts training workshops on creativity across the world. He is an instructor for 3M University and also teaches creativity as a guest lecturer at major universities.

An avid but shockingly unproductive fisherman, Jim lives in Stillwater, Minnesota, with his wife and their three children.

My book review of Idea-Links: The New Creativity by Jim Link.
Listen live on Thursday at 8:00 pm Eastern, 5:00 pm Pacific time.



If you miss this very informative show, it will be available for free download as a podcast for iPod, iTunes, and MP3 players; or play it right on your computer. To download this, or any other of my guest interviews, go to the Blog Business Success host page and click on Archived Segments. Once there, click on the podcast icon at the end of the episode description, to download the show free of charge for your listening enjoyment. You can also subscribe to the show feed.



To call in questions for my guest, the number is: (347) 996-5832

Let's talk consultant and educator and author of the demystifying and results oriented book Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link , as he describes how CEOs identify creativity as the key leadership competency, but have no idea how to develop creativity in their employees. Jim Link provides evidence that the concept of somehow unleashing creativity is the wrong approach. Instead, Jim Link offers the alternative idea of building creativity as a learned skill. Jim Link shares the techniques and disciplines necessary to developing creativity as a core skill. Instead of the traditional, and often misguided approaches to creativity, Jim Link presents a viable learning process that transforms creativity into another developed skill for all employees. Jim Link also shows how to utilize this new competency as a resource to solve specific problems that challenge the organization on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link, creativity development, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Idea-Links: The New Creativity by Jim Link - Book review

Idea-Links

The New Creativity

By: Jim Link

Published: February 12, 2012
Format: Hardcover, 280 pages
ISBN-10: 1592982751
ISBN-13: 978-1592982752
Publisher: Beaver's Pond Press














"We begin our journey by rethinking creativity and seeing how the allure of the fabled eureka moment actually distracts us from focusing on the important work that leads us there", writes consult and teacher of creativity, Jim Link in his demystifying and results oriented book Idea-Links: The New Creativity. The author describes how the most commonly understood theories and practices of creative thinking miss the point that creativity is a skill that can be developed, learned, and applied as a reliable problem solving process.

Jim Link cites a 2010 IBM poll which reported that CEOs considered creativity to be the most important leadership competency. The problem for these CEOs, writes Jim Link, is that they have no idea how to develop creativity within their employees or organizations. As a result, the CEOs simple wait from some magical unleashing, of some supposed creative energy, that never seems to happen. At the same time, countless hours and dollars are spent on creative thinking training sessions, seminars, and books that fail to produce more creativity either. Jim Link presents an alternative approach, where creativity is treated as another skill to be learned by individuals, and a process to be put into place by organizations.



Jim Link (photo left) begins by dispelling the myth that creativity is something that happens at random to supposedly gifted people. He also dispenses with the notion that creativity can be added to a person's skill set overnight, but instead requires hard work at learning and developing the proper disciplines. Jim Link guides the reader through the needed skills and disciplines that lead to enhanced creativity through a complete rethinking of the entire creative process and how it works in practice.Jim Link presents the concept of idea-links that connect what you already know to the problem at hand. With those links in hand, the author then moves to the next step of creatively re-framing what you already know to develop new ideas.

Jim Link presents a series of steps for the making of these all important idea-links. The making of idea-links includes the following:

* Digging deeper to use analysis to create idea-links
* Curiosity through the asking of why questions
* Storing idea-links by banking them for future use
* Finding idea-links for important subject areas
* Finding idea-links for specific projects or problems
* Creatively re-framing to access your already owned idea-links
* Asking the important what if questions
* Planning for success through a shared process and vocabulary

For me, the power of the book is how Jim Link transforms the entire concept of creativity, from one of random chance and supposed eureka moments, to one of a learned and repeatable skill. The author moves beyond the standard books on creative thinking, and presents creativity as a learned skill, that will become a reusable problem solving process. Jim Link demonstrates that creativity is not some random event, but is a discipline that can be learned, practiced, and mastered by anyone.

The author rightly cautions the reader that learning to think creatively requires work and dedication to understanding and employing this new competency effectively. To his credit, Jim Link doesn't posit any get creative quickly approaches, but instead shares the techniques to establish creativity as a core competency, and as an organizational process. Jim Lake adds to the texture of his concepts through real world case studies of the principle of idea-links in action.

I highly recommend the organizational and individual creativity skill development book Idea-Links: The New Creativity by Jim Link, to anyone seeking a realistic, and proven skill building approach to developing their own creativity skills, and those of their entire organization. This book will move you away from thinking that creativity is only an unleashing of a eureka moment away, and will guide you toward learning and practicing an important and valuable new skill.

Tags: Idea-Links: The New Creativity, Jim Link, creativity development, business book reviews

JoAnn Corley: Organizational Strategies For The Overwhelmed - Blog Business Success Radio

Listen to Wayne Hurlbert on Blog Talk Radio



Speaker, coach, and author of the very practical and results oriented book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy. JoAnn R. Corley, describes how in companies where people have been laid off, leaving others to pick the additional and often overwhelming workload, is the new normal. JoAnn Corley provides ideas for regaining control over your work, life, and career through managing your time, space, and priorities more effectively. JoAnn shares her strategies for being more empowered to negotiate your workload, able to find things more easily, and for getting more done in the same amount of time. JoAnn offers suggestions for using space more efficiently, and for handling interruptions effectively and tactfully. You will learn how to feel less stressed, make better and more effective decisions, and take control of your life and your career.

JoAnn Corley is my internet radio show guest on Blog Business Success; hosted live on BlogTalkRadio.

The show airs live on Tuesday, July 31, at 8:00 pm Eastern Time; 5:00 pm Pacific Time.

Speaker, coach, and author of the very practical and results oriented book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy. JoAnn R. Corley, describes how in companies where people have been laid off, leaving others to pick the additional and often overwhelming workload, is the new normal. You will learn:

* Why being overwhelmed is the new normal in workplaces

* How to apply an inside out approach to empowering yourself

* How to get more done in the same amount of time

* How to transform your desk and office to get more done faster



JoAnn R. Corley (photo left) is an experienced human resource professional and a dynamic, inspiring speaker-trainer, author & coach. She has a contagious passion and energy for the topics she teaches and has shared that passion with thousands across North America specializing in seminars on Time & Organizational Management, Personal Empowerment, Emotional Intelligence, Creative and Innovative Thinking, Effective Management and Leadership, Team Productivity & Collaboration. She has the unique distinction of having conducted seminars in every state in the U.S. and every major city.

She is author of the newly released book, Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed, How to Manage Your Time, Space, & Priorities to Work Smart, Get Results, & Be Happy, Wisdom@Work and The 1% Edge – Power Strategies to Increase Your Management Effectiveness. She is also contributing author to the book, Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Success, a collaborative effort with some of the top female motivational speakers in North American and hailed by Jack Canfield of Chicken Soup for the Soul fame as a must read.

JoAnn also has a unique passion for the connection of technology to enhancing the quality of both our personal and professional lives. She sees herself as a non-techie who loves to learn about what's next and how can that help. That interest lead to the development of her mobile learning-training app - The 1% Edge Portable Coach.

Ms. Corley utilizes her 20+ years of business experience, expertise in the knowledge of work functions and thousands of hours of human behavior coaching to consult in areas such as organizational design, creative and innovative thinking, management development, and adaptive leadership strategies.

She is known by her clients as insightful, passionate and an acute strategic thinker as she assists them in reaching their targeted outcomes.

Ms. Corley founded Convergence Consulting Group in 1998, a human resource-organizational development firm, which has provided services to a variety of industries such as; accounting & finance, engineering, government, staffing, risk management, not-for-profits, and sales to name a few.

Variety also describes the type of coaching and consulting clients Ms. Corley’s has helped over the years, which have included governmental leaders, scientists, engineers, Phds, executives, finance and accounting consultants, mid-level managers and small business owners.

Ms. Corley attended Concordia College, Moorhead, MN and Eastern Illinois University. Prior to launching her consulting practice, she spent several years as the International Benefits Manager for a not-for-profit, then moved on to become a Senior Recruiter for the Richard Michael Group, a boutique Chicago recruiting firm. She is a member of ASTD, SHRM, and AWBA.

My book review of Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy by JoAnn R. Corley.

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Let's talk with speaker, coach, and author of the very practical and results oriented book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy. JoAnn R. Corley, as she describes how in companies where people have been laid off, leaving others to pick the additional and often overwhelming workload, is the new normal. JoAnn Corley provides ideas for regaining control over your work, life, and career through managing your time, space, and priorities more effectively. JoAnn shares her strategies for being more empowered to negotiate your workload, able to find things more easily, and for getting more done in the same amount of time. JoAnn offers suggestions for using space more efficiently, and for handling interruptions effectively and tactfully. You will learn how to feel less stressed, make better and more effective decisions, and take control of your life and your career on Blog Business Success Radio.

Tags: Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy, JoAnn R. Corley, personal development, Blog Business Success, Blog Talk Radio.

Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed by JoAnn R. Corley - Book review

Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed

How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy

By: JoAnn R. Corley

Published: November 6, 2011
Format: Paperback, 152 pages
ISBN-10: 1466481412
ISBN-13: 978-1466481411
Publisher: CreateSpace





"Overwhelm is the emotional response that is triggered when your brain gets a signal that too much is going on for you to reasonably process and thereby threatens the desire and possibility of getting things done in a way that you think you should", writes speaker and coach JoAnn R. Corley, in her very practical and results oriented book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy. The author describes how being overwhelmed, in the face of layoffs and the remaining people being asked to do more, is the new normal. As a result, JoAnn Corley shares ideas and strategies for regaining control over time, space and work priorities.

JoAnn Corley understands that employees are under tremendous stress in the workplace. People feel overwhelmed, and the author points out that the deeper emotion is one of fear. To counter this sense of fear that leads to being overwhelmed and unable to cope with the demands of the job, JoAnn Corley offers a two pronged approach to overcome the feeling of being overwhelmed and no longer in control. The first part of the remedy is to manage yourself and your own reactions to the day's events. The author calls this managing yourself on the inside. The second part of the remedy is manage what is happening outside that can be controlled by the individual. The approach presented by the author is one that works from the inside out.



JoAnn R. Corley (photo left) recognizes that simply providing another book on time management or organization is insufficient to overcome that sense of being overwhelmed at work. In this new normal of the over-demanding workplace, the JoAnn Corley emphasizes the need to work smarter than ever before. As a result, the author shares the strategies, tools, and tips to achieve greater results in less time.

To facilitate these various techniques and strategies, JoAnn Corley offers her overall philosophy for empowering the individual. The philosophy includes the following points:

* Stay grounded in reality and focus on what you can influence and control
* Approach everything in small bites to keep it simple
* Find a way to improve your performance by 1% per day
* Don't get hung up on tools, technology, and tips

For me, the power of the book is how JoAnn Corley goes beyond the standard time management books, to add the critical elements, that are missing from those books. Instead of the usual focus on the tips, techniques, and tricks, the author precedes them with an understanding of decision making and choices. JoAnn Corley goes a step beyond other books as well, and makes herself available through seminars and coaching. There is also a consideration of the importance of social media for adding value and interaction with the readers.

JoAnn Corley includes a series of very valuable tips for better managing time and organizing office and desk space. These concepts, however, are always presented within the context of making decisions, proper choices, and personal empowerment. Each chapter is a hands on group of ideas that can be applied readily, and right away to help achieve that 1% daily improvement, and to remove that sense of being overwhelmed by events.

I highly recommend the transformational and idea filled book Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy by JoAnn R. Corley, to anyone seeking a refreshing and holistic approach to removing that sense of being overwhelmed in the workplace. This book will change your perspective and empower you to get more done, and achieve greater results, than ever before.

Tags: Organizational Strategies for the Overwhelmed: How to manage your time, space, & priorities to work smart, get results, & be happy, JoAnn R. Corley, personal development, business book reviews