It helps readers to effectively apply all three types of maps to make work visible at the organization, process, and job/performer levels.

    The logical response is to ban electronics in class. But acclaimed educator James M. Lang argues that this solution obscures a deeper problem: how we teach is often at odds with how students learn. Classrooms are designed to force students into long periods of intense focus, but emerging science reveals that the brain is wired for distraction. We learn best when able to actively seek and synthesize new information.In Distracted, Lang rethinks the practice of teaching, revealing how educators can structure their classrooms less as distraction-free zones and more as environments where they can actively cultivate their students' attention.Brimming with ideas and grounded in new research, Distracted offers an innovative plan for the most important lesson of all: how to learn.

    Here's a proven method that makes it not only considerably easier, but also much more effective for people on both sides of the conversation. Oren Sofer's method for effective communication is a unique combination of mindfulness with the modality called nonviolent communication (NVC), a method popular since the 1960s that is based on the belief that all human beings have the capacity for compassion and resort to violence or behavior that harms others only when they don't recognize more effective strategies for meeting needs. NVC provides those peaceful strategies. Oren's unique method for fostering peaceful--and effective--communication has three "steps" or components: (1) presence: bringing mindful awareness to the interaction, (2) intention: clarifying and setting a goal for the interaction, and (3) attention: learning to really hear and understand in a way that enables you to navigate the difficulties, express yourself clearly, and listen like it really matters--which it most certainly does. The steps are accompanied by many practical exercises, and in the course of this three-part training, readers will learn how to apply these skills to personal and social relationships with romantic partners, friends, colleagues, and family.

    It shows that the antidote to this self-defeating behavior is to identify which of the six major types of constraints are hindering innovation: individual, group, organizational, industry-wide, societal, or technological. Once innovators and other leaders understand exactly which constraints are working against them and how to overcome them, they can create conditions that foster innovation instead of stopping it in its tracks.The author's model of constraints on innovation integrates insights from the vast literature on innovation with his own observations of hundreds of organizations. The book is filled with assessments, tools, and real-world examples.The author's research has been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, London Guardian and San Jose Mercury News, as well as on Fox News and on NPR's MarketplaceIncludes illustrative examples from leading organizations Offers a practical guide for bringing new ideas to fruition even within a previously rigid organizational culture This book gives people in organizations the conceptual framework and practical information they need to innovate successfully.

    But few of us are aware that it is also one of the most vital tools for success. In The Power of Why, Amanda Lang shows how curiosity and the ability to ask the right questions fuels innovation and can drive change not just in business but also in our personal lives.Weaving together the latest research with in-depth profiles of innovators from around the world, Lang explores how to harness and develop the power of curiosity. She reveals how a major retailer set out to discover what really makes men happy—and was stunned by the results. She finds out why, at one particular hospital, nurses think it’s better if they don’t wash their hands. She learns why the most common methods of brainstorming don’t actually work and discovers a new soccer ball that could change the world.A book that challenges conventional wisdom and offers practical, inspiring advice, The Power of Why shows how it’s possible to reignite your innate curiosity and overcome long-standing barriers—leaving you more creative, productive and fulfilled in your job and happier in your relationships.

    How you, as an educator, respond to students’ natural curiosity can help further their own exploration and shape the way they learn today and in the future.The traditional system of education requires students to hold their questions and compliantly stick to the scheduled curriculum. But our job as educators is to provide new and better opportunities for our students. It’s time to recognize that compliance doesn’t foster innovation, encourage critical thinking, or inspire creativity—and those are the skills our students need to succeed.In THE INNOVATOR'S MINDSET, George Couros encourages teachers and administrators to empower their learners to wonder, to explore—and to become forward-thinking leaders. If we want innovative students, we need innovative educators. In other words, innovation begins with you. Ultimately, innovation is not about a skill set but about mindset.THE INNOVATOR'S MINDSET is for you if: •You are a superintendent, district administrator, or principal who wants to empower your staff to create a culture of innovation.•You are a school leader—at any level—and want help students and educators become their personal best.•You are a teacher who wants to create relevant learning experiences and help students develop the skills they need to be successful.THE INNOVATOR'S MINDSET includes practical suggestions for unleashing your students’ and teachers’ talent. You’ll also read encouraging accounts of leaders and learners who are innovating “inside the box.” You'll be inspired to:•Connect with other innovative educators•Support teachers and leaders as learners •Tap into the strengths of your learning community•Create ongoing opportunities for innovation•Seek more effective methods for measuring progress •And, most importantly, embrace change and use it to do something amazing

    But we rarely stop to think about how much impact they have on our well-being and our ability to thrive. This book shows how Appreciative Inquiry (AI) - one of the most widely used new approaches for fostering positive change for individuals, groups, organizations, and communities - can help everyone communicate better and flourish in all areas of their lives. Stavros and Torres spell out 2 practices and 5 principles to create great conversations. Each chapter is built around real-life stories of people using AI practices and principles to transform their conversations and their organizations.

    Fully updated, the text engages the reader in its discussion of both technical and non-technical models of curriculum development.

    Meetings are a crucial part of all our lives, but too often they go nowhere and waste valuable time. In Six Thinking Hats, Edward de Bono shows how meetings can be transformed to produce quick, decisive results every time. The Six Hats method is a devastatingly simple technique based on the brain's different modes of thinking. The intelligence, experience and information of everyone is harnessed to reach the right conclusions quickly. These principles fundamentally change the way you work and interact. They have been adopted by businesses and governments around the world to end conflict and confusion in favour of harmony and productivity. 'An inspiring man with brilliant ideas. De Bono never ceases to amaze with his clarity of thought' Richard Branson.Edward de Bono invented the concept of lateral thinking. A world-renowned writer and philosopher, he is the leading authority in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. Dr de Bono has written more than 60 books, in 40 languages, with people now teaching his methods worldwide. He has chaired a special summit of Nobel Prize laureates, and been hailed as one of the 250 people who have contributed most to mankind

    Mountains of print have been written about culture. Loonshots identifies the small shifts in structure that control this transition, the same way that temperature controls the change from water to ice.Using examples that range from the spread of fires in forests to the hunt for terrorists online, and stories of thieves and geniuses and kings, Bahcall shows how this new kind of science helps us understand the behavior of companies and the fate of empires. Loonshots distills these insights into lessons for creatives, entrepreneurs, and visionaries everywhere.

    today. An essential reference for all teachers, educational leaders, and policymakers at all levels, the book is organized and written in a style that is accessible to all, even those with little or no knowledge of the legal issues in education.

    You can podcast to boost your business, promote your passion, share your opinions, or just have fun. The point is to say what you want to say to those who want to hear it. With step-by-step explanations, screen shots, and tons of examples, this guide clues you in on recording, producing, and hosting your very own podcast with info on:Finding your voice and your niche, whether you want to talk tech, make your own kinds of music, educate listeners, make people laugh, do soundseeing tours, serialize your novel, or invent a new podcasting genre Getting the bare necessities (if you don't already have them), including a microphone, recording software, and an audio card Audio editing software such as Audacity, Cakewalk for PCs, GarageBand for musicality, and Audio HiJack Pro for Macs Recording, including understanding dB (decibel levels), capturing or minimizing ambient noise, and more Editing with GarageBand or Audacity, adding bed music, and including intros and outros for a signature finishing touch You want your podcast to be heard. Podcasting For Dummies helps you launch and promote it with info on how to:Downsize your audio files with MP3 compression Change bit rates and sample rates in Audacity and iTunes Create and edit your ID3 tags in Audacity or iTunes Post your show notes using Movable Type or Libsyn Simplify the RSS 2.0 feed by using blogging software or a podcast-hosting company such as Audioblog.com, Podcastamatic, and Feeder Ping for publicity Communicate with your listeners on your blog, through online discussion groups such as Yahoo! Groups or Google Groups, or on online forums Of course, if you want to be a podcatcher (a listener) and subscribe to podcasts, this guide shows you how to do that, too! Complete with a companion podcast--a free weekly audio commentary that will keep you up to speed on the podsphere--this guide helps you get your message heard, loud and clear.

    Here, Peter Elbow emphasizes that the essential activities underlying good writing and the essential exercises promoting it are really not difficult at all.Employing a cookbook approach, Elbow provides the reader (and writer) with various recipes: for getting words down on paper, for revising, for dealing with an audience, for getting feedback on a piece of writing, and still other recipes for approaching the mystery of power in writing. In a new introduction, he offers his reflections on the original edition, discusses the responses from people who have followed his techniques, how his methods may differ from other processes, and how his original topics are still pertinent to today's writer. By taking risks and embracing mistakes, Elbow hopes the writer may somehow find a hold on the creative process and be able to heighten two mentalities--the production of writing and the revision of it.From students and teachers to novelists and poets, Writing with Power reminds us that we can celebrate the uses of mystery, chaos, nonplanning, and magic, while achieving analysis, conscious control, explicitness, and care in whatever it is we set down on paper.

    Each day, a game of mind versus matter plays out on a field defined by the problems we must solve. Most are routine, and don t demand a more mindful approach. It s when we re faced with more difficult challenges that our thinking becomes vulnerable to brain patterns that can lead us astray.We leap to solutions that simply don t work. We fixate on old mindsets that keep us stuck in neutral. We overthink problems and make them worse. We kill the ideas of others, as well as our own. Worse, we "keep" doing these things, over and over again, naturally and instinctively.But it doesn t have to be that way.In "Winning the Brain Game," author and creative strategist Matthew E. May explains these and other fatal flaws of thinking, catalogued over the course of ten years and hundreds of interactive creative sessions in which he gave more than 100,000 professionals a thought challenge based on a real case far less complex than their everyday problems. Not only did less than 5% arrive at the best and most elegant solution, but the solutions given were remarkably similar, revealing seven observable problem-solving patterns that can block our best thinking.Calling on modern neuroscience and psychology to help explain the seven fatal flaws, May draws insights from some of the world s most innovative thinkers. He then blends in a super-curated, field-tested set of fixes proven through hundreds of creative sessions to raise our thinking game to a more mindful level. Regardless of playing field, mindful thinking is the new competitive advantage, and the seven fixes are a magic set of tools forachieving it."Winning the Brain Game" will lead you to better decision-making, higher levels of creativity, clearer strategies, and overall success in business, work and life.Matthew E. May is a five-time author and recognized thought leader on strategy and innovation. A popular speaker, facilitator, and seminar leader, he confidentially coaches executives, artists, and athletes, and conducts custom thinking sessions for leading organizations all over the world. "

    In constant demand as a coach, speaker, and consultant to companies around the world, David Rock has proven that the secret to leading people (and living and working with them) is found in the space between their ears. "If people are being paid to think," he writes, "isn't it time the business world found out what the thing doing the work, the brain, is all about?" Supported by the latest groundbreaking research, Quiet Leadership provides a brain-based approach that will help busy leaders, executives, and managers improve their own and their colleagues' performance. Rock offers a practical, six-step guide to making permanent workplace performance change by unleashing higher productivity, new levels of morale, and greater job satisfaction.