Through vignettes, essays, snapshots, portraits, and poems, Music in the Halls reveals the inner workings of a high-poverty District of Columbia Public School. In it, Jankowski brings to light the visceral and emotional nature of childhood poverty and trauma and how it not only impacts a student’s ability to learn but also how it restricts their ability to live a full life. Uncovering the interwoven worlds of children and their parents, teachers and administrators, and the DCPS bureaucracy—all residing in close proximity to the nation’s capitol—Music in the Halls is not simply a tale of hard knocks; it is an exploration of how one man’s understanding and compassion can be transformed and expanded to encompass and embrace this world.
You might think the key to innovation is attracting exceptional creative talent. Or making the right investments. Or breaking down organizational silos. All of these things may help-but there's only one way to ensure sustained innovation: you need to lead it-and with a special kind of leadership. Collective Genius shows you how.
Preeminent leadership scholar Linda Hill, along with former Pixar tech wizard Greg Brandeau, MIT researcher Emily Truelove, and Being the Boss coauthor Kent Lineback, found among leaders a widely shared, and mistaken, assumption: that a 'good' leader in all other respects would also be an effective leader of innovation. The truth is, leading innovation takes a distinctive kind of leadership, one that unleashes and harnesses the 'collective genius' of the people in the organization.
Using vivid stories of individual leaders at companies like Volkswagen, Google, eBay, and Pfizer, as well as nonprofits and international government agencies, the authors show how successful leaders of innovation don't create a vision and try to make innovation happen themselves. Rather, they create and sustain a culture where innovation is allowed to happen again and again-an environment where people are both willing and able to do the hard work that innovative problem solving requires.
You're busy trying to lead a 'full' life. But does it really feel full-or are you stretched too thin? Enter Stew Friedman, Wharton professor, adviser to leaders across the globe, and passionate advocate of replacing the misguided metaphor of 'work/life balance' with something more realistic and sustainable. If you're seeking 'balance' you'll never achieve it, argues Friedman. The idea that 'work' competes with 'life' ignores the more nuanced reality of our humanity-the interaction of four domains: work, home, community, and the private self. The goal is to create harmony among them instead of thinking only in terms of trade-offs. It can be done.
Building on his national bestseller, Total Leadership, Friedman identifies the critical skills for integrating work and the rest of life. He illustrates them through compelling original stories of these remarkable people: former Bain & Company CEO and Bridgespan cofounder Tom Tierney, Facebook COO and bestselling author Sheryl Sandberg, nonprofit leader and US Navy SEAL Eric Greitens, US First Lady Michelle Obama, soccer champion-turned-broadcaster Julie Foudy, and renowned artist Bruce Springsteen.
Each of these admirable (though surely imperfect) people exemplifies a set of skills-for being real, being whole, and being innovative-that produce a sense of purpose, coherence, and optimism.
You cant succeed without making a plan. Most organizations and individuals work in the context of annual goals and plans; a twelve-month execution cycle. The authors have found that annual goals and plans create unforeseen barriers to achieving the best results. This is too short. Instead, a 12 Week Year captures the energy of year-end, and avoids the pitfalls of low productivity annualized thinking. With the traditional annual execution cycle there is an illusion that there is a lot of time to accomplish the goals, especially early in the year. The 12 Week Year is a how-to book for both individuals and organizations seeking to improve their execution effectiveness. The authors have redefined a year to be 12 weeks long. The rationale for our 12-week execution cycle, is that traditional annualized thinking is highly unproductive and creates a lack of healthy urgency. In 12 weeks however, there just isnt enough time to get complacent, and urgency increases and intensifies. The 12 Week Year creates focus and clarity on what matters most and a sense of urgency to do it now. In the end more of the important stuff gets done and the impact on results is profound. This book explains how to leverage the power of a 12-week year to drive improved results in any area of your life.
