Book picks similar to
Consensus Organizing: Building Communities of Mutual Self-Interest by Mike Eichler
social-work-recommendations
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Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits
Leslie R. Crutchfield - 2006
What makes great nonprofits great? Authors Crutchfield and McLeod Grant searched for the answer over several years, employing a rigorous research methodology which derived from books on for-profits like Built to Last. They studied 12 nonprofits that have achieved extraordinary levels of impact--from Habitat for Humanity to the Heritage Foundation--and distilled six counterintuitive practices that these organizations use to change the world. This book has lessons for all readers interested in creating significant social change, including nonprofit managers, donors and volunteers. Leslie R. Crutchfield (Washington, D.C.) is a managing director of Ashoka and research grantee of the Aspen Institute. Heather McLeod Grant (Palo Alto, CA) is a nonprofit consultant and advisor to Duke University's Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship and the Stanford Center for Social Innovation. Crutchfield and Grant were co-founding editors of Who Cares, a national magazine reaching 50,000 readers in circulation between 1993-2000.
The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart
Alicia Garza - 2020
Garza wrote: Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter. With the speed and networking capacities of social media, #BlackLivesMatter became the hashtag heard ’round the world. But Garza knew even then that hashtags don’t start movements—people do. Long before #BlackLivesMatter became a rallying cry for this generation, Garza had spent the better part of two decades learning and unlearning some hard lessons about organizing. The lessons she offers are different from the “rules for radicals” that animated earlier generations of activists, and diverge from the charismatic, patriarchal model of the American civil rights movement. She reflects instead on how making room amongst the woke for those who are still awakening can inspire and activate more people to fight for the world we all deserve. This is the story of one woman’s lessons through years of bringing people together to create change. Most of all, it is a new paradigm for change for a new generation of changemakers, from the mind and heart behind one of the most important movements of our time.
This Is an Uprising: How Nonviolent Revolt Is Shaping the Twenty-First Century
Mark Engler - 2016
When mass movements erupt onto our television screens, the media consistently portrays them as being spontaneous and unpredictable. Yet, in this book, Mark and Paul Engler look at the hidden art behind such outbursts of protest, examining core principles that have been used to spark and guide moments of transformative unrest. With incisive insights from contemporary activists, as well as fresh revelations about the work of groundbreaking figures such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Gene Sharp, and Frances Fox Piven, the Englers show how people with few resources and little conventional influence are engineering the upheavals that are reshaping contemporary politics. Nonviolence is usually seen simply as a philosophy or moral code. This Is an Uprising shows how it can instead be deployed as a method of political conflict, disruption, and escalation. It argues that if we are always taken by surprise by dramatic outbreaks of revolt, we pass up the chance to truly understand how social transformation happens.
The Assistant Principal 50: Critical Questions for Meaningful Leadership and Professional Growth
Baruti K. Kafele - 2020
Whatever your status--the sole AP in your school, one of two or more APs in your school, a career AP, an AP aspiring to the principalship--yours is one of the most misunderstood and underutilized positions in education. Positioned between teachers and the principal, you are an instructional leader. However, you are not the leader of the school. Therefore, you must carefully navigate your way to ensure that you thrive in your role without "stepping on the toes" of your principal.In The Assistant Principal 50, award-winning, four-time principal Baruti Kafele presents reflective questions that encompass the breadth and depth of the assistant principalship--from finding your leadership "lane" to thriving and being an asset to your principal. Kafele infuses the book (which also includes guidance and insights for principals and aspiring assistant principals) from beginning to end with personal anecdotes and accounts of both failures and successes from his years as an assistant principal. He arms you with tools and insights that will drive you to view the assistant principalship as critical to the climate and culture of your school as well as to student achievement.You, assistant principal, play a critical role in your school's success. The questions that Kafele asks you to consider will aid you as you hone your leadership skills toward becoming an effective leader in your school.
Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters
Richard P. Rumelt - 2011
Richard Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” He debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for overcoming—the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect in challenges as varied as putting a man on the moon, fighting a war, launching a new product, responding to changing market dynamics, starting a charter school, or setting up a government program. Rumelt’snine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can be put to work on Monday morning.Surprisingly, a good strategy is often unexpected because most organizations don’t have one. Instead, they have “visions,” mistake financial goals for strategy,and pursue a “dog’s dinner” of conflicting policies and actions.Rumelt argues that the heart of a good strategy is insight—into the true nature of the situation, into the hidden power in a situation, and into an appropriate response. He shows you how insight can be cultivated with a wide variety of tools for guiding yourown thinking.Good Strategy/Bad Strategy uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis.Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.From the Hardcover edition.
Healthy Congregations: A Systems Approach
Peter L. Steinke - 1995
He outlines the factors that put congregations at risk for anxiety and conflict. Learn ten principles of health, how congregations can adopt new ways of dealing with stress and anxiety, as well as how spiritually and emotionally healthy leaders influence the emotional system. Featuring a new preface and a fresh redesign, this book is a classic work by one of the most respected names in congregational consulting.
Scrappy Project Management: The 12 Predictable and Avoidable Pitfalls That Every Project Faces
Kimberly Wiefling - 2007
Unfortunately most of these are PREDICTABLE and AVOIDABLE. Tact and diplomacy can only get you so far in the wild and wacky world of project work. A combination of outrageous creativity, sheer bravado and nerves of steel will serve you far better than any fancy-schmancy Microsoft Project Gantt chart!'Scrappy Project Management' is about what REALLY happens in the project environment, how to survive it, and how to make sure that your team avoids the predictable and avoidable pitfalls that every project faces.
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
Jacqueline Novogratz - 2009
It all started back home in Virginia, with the blue sweater, a gift that quickly became her prized possession—until the day she outgrew it and gave it away to Goodwill. Eleven years later in Africa, she spotted a young boy wearing that very sweater, with her name still on the tag inside. That the sweater had made its trek all the way to Rwanda was ample evidence, she thought, of how we are all connected, how our actions—and inaction—touch people every day across the globe, people we may never know or meet.From her first stumbling efforts as a young idealist venturing forth in Africa to the creation of the trailblazing organization she runs today, Novogratz tells gripping stories with unforgettable characters—women dancing in a Nairobi slum, unwed mothers starting a bakery, courageous survivors of the Rwandan genocide, entrepreneurs building services for the poor against impossible odds. She shows, in ways both hilarious and heartbreaking, how traditional charity often fails, but how a new form of philanthropic investing called "patient capital" can help make people self-sufficient and can change millions of lives. More than just an autobiography or a how-to guide to addressing poverty, The Blue Sweater is a call to action that challenges us to grant dignity to the poor and to rethink our engagement with the world.
Studying Congregations: A New Handbook
Nancy Tatom Ammerman - 1998
Using a comprehensive systems approach to congregations, this volume enables readers to analyze the ministries, stories, and processes that are at work in congregations. It provides techniques for studying the congregation as well as a framework for understanding the nature of the congregation.
Streets of Hope: The Fall and Rise of an Urban Neighborhood
Peter Medoff - 1994
Norman Krumholz
Uprising: How to Build a Brand--and Change the World--By Sparking Cultural Movements
Scott Goodson - 2012
It’s the new way forward for anyone trying to win customers’ loyalty, influence public opinion, and even change the world. In Uprising, Scott Goodson, founder and CEO of StrawberryFrog, the world’s first cultural movement agency, shows how your idea or organization can successfully ride this wave of cultural movements to authentically connect to the lives and passions of people everywhere.We are in the midst of a profound cultural transformation in which technology is making it easier than ever for anyone to share ideas, goals, and interests. Working with companies and brands ranging from SmartCar to Pampers to Jim Beam to India’s Mahindra Group, StrawberryFrog and Goodson have led a paradigm focal shift away from one-on-one selling to sharing.Using client case studies and contributions from a global team of movement marketing forerunners—among them, political guru Mark McKinnon; Lee Clow, creative chief at TBWA/Chiat/Day; Apple evangelist Guy Kawasaki; and Marty Cooke, who helped make yellow LIVESTRONG bracelets synonymous with the fight against cancer—Goodson details why and how individuals and companies are embracing the movement phenomenon. He then applies these insights to practical steps that you can take right now to reach people through what matters most to them, including:Stop talking about yourself—let the movement control your messageHome in on the core objectives of your concept or brand—and align these values with what people are for (or against)“Light the spark”—create a culture within your organization that can embrace and drive a movementLeverage your assets—content, events, expertise, connecting platforms—to give people tools to spread your gospelAdjust concepts to travel across borders and link people across cultural boundariesThe examples and guidance in this book will prepare you to find, connect to, and even lead the next big movement. What happens next is up to you. Get up. Go out. And create a brand Uprising of your own.
Going Public: An Organizer's Guide to Citizen Action
Michael Gecan - 2002
But there are forces that can and do reverse it. They are not spectators, or critics, or occasional demonstrators. They are groups of citizens, encouraged and trained to take power with dignity and creativity and unrelenting determination, and to make it work for them, day by day, month by month, and year to year. For more than twenty-five years, Michael Gecan has been a professional organizer with Industrial Areas Foundation, which has trained thousands of little-known community groups from Brownsville, Texas, to Brownsville, Brooklyn. Having grown up witnessing at close range the destructive effects of political patronage on powerless, disenfranchised Chicago communities, Gecan knows from experience that strong relationships in the public sphere and sustained and disciplined organizing can spark the public and private alchemy necessary to achieve sidewalks, parks, schools, housing--and the collective renewal that results. Full of good advice and entertaining accounts of success, Going Public is the story of those who, says Gecan, “succeed in unexpected ways and in unexpected places.”
12 Huge Mistakes Parents Can Avoid: Leading Your Kids to Succeed in Life
Tim Elmore - 2014
But you’re concerned—why are so many graduates unprepared to enter the workforce and face life on their own? You’re doing your best to raise healthy children, but sometimes you wonder, am I really helping them?Tim Elmore shows you how to avoid twelve critical mistakes parents unintentionally make. He outlines practical and effective parenting skills so you won’t fall into common traps, such as…making happiness a goal instead of a by-productnot letting kids struggle or fight for what they believenot letting them fail or suffer consequenceslying about kids’ potential—and not exploring their true potentialgiving them what they should earnFind out why thousands of organizations have sought out Tim Elmore to help them develop young leaders—and how you can improve your parenting skills and help your kids soar.
Coaching Skills: A Handbook
Jenny Rogers - 2004
It is a book for practitioners who will find here a profound and accessibly-presented analysis of the most important models, theories and results of research, with detailed links to coaching as well as guidelines on how to deal with the difficult situations and dilemmas faced by coaches." Dorota Porażka, Managing Partner of DORADCA Consultants Ltd" ""Jenny Rogers writes with enviable elegance and simplicity about the skills that coaches need. This third edition is a testament to her belief that coaches never stop learning. In this edition she shares the fruits of her recent reading and experiences. There is a good deal of new material, including a chapter on advances in neuroscience, new insights from the recent coaching literature and new models to consider. But Jenny wears her erudition lightly. She takes the reader by the hand through a complex journey, sharing the excitement of her discoveries but not overwhelming with detail. Her strong personal voice comes through in every sentence, understanding, encouraging, pragmatic. I read it from cover to cover in a weekend, and know I will be back to reread before long." Lis Paice, NHS Mentor of the Year, 2010" ""Jenny Roger's clear writing style, straight-forward approach and case examples allow for insight into the coaching process and a glimpse at the learning that occurs for both client and coach. This edition offers even more with enhancements to previous writing and a chapter specifically focused on the brain. Whether you are a coach - new or experienced, a manager or simply interested in learning more about what we do as coaches, this is a must have resource for your library." Diane Brennan, MBA, MCC, Past President of The International Coach Federation (2008) and coeditor, The handbook of knowledge-based coaching: From theory to practice" ""This book is a gem for anyone curious about executive coaching - what it is, how it works and how to do it well in practice. As a coaching pioneer and highly accomplished practitioner, Jenny draws upon her extensive experience in coaching, coach training and supervision and brings to life theory and approaches with rich case studies, humour and humility. The third edition benefits from a chapter on the fascinating emerging field of neuroscience and explores early implications for coaching. As with the rest of the book it is accessible, relevant and well researched. I consider "Coaching Skills" to be essential reading for novice and established coaches alike." Sandra Grealy, Director of Coaching, Management Futures Ltd" ""Among all the coaching books on the market this book stands out for its clarity and wisdom, and for its engaging and unpretentious voice. In designing a coaching course at Fielding Graduate University, I had no hesitation in making it required reading." Leni Wildflower, PhD, PCC, wildflower-consulting.com""Coaching Skills" is a popular text for coach training schools all over the world, brought to life with dozens of case studies and practical guidance, while also emphasizing the importance of underpinning psychological awareness and understanding.This book will support you whether you are an experienced coach working with senior executives, or a beginner taking your first steps on the journey to becoming a master-practitioner. The book answers questions such as:Which tools and techniques pay dividends every time and to avoid? What are the magic ingredients that determine whether the coach-client relationship works? Why are goal-setting and questioning such important skills for any coach and how can you acquire them? How as a coach can you work with clients to make truly transformational changes in their lives?Now includes new material on: coaching and the human brain, working with clients on their self-limiting beliefs, new models of understanding what coaching is and being a coach during the psychological stresses of a severe economic recession.Jenny Rogers is an executive coach with more than 20 years' experience. Her clients are typically senior leaders from a wide range of sectors. She has also trained many hundreds of coaches and managers in coaching skills. As a writer Jenny has published more than 70 books on topics which include adult learning, influencing, facilitation skills and career management.
Life Under Fire: How to Build Inner Strength and Thrive Under Pressure
Jason Fox - 2020
‘During my military career, I dealt regularly with fear, emotional breakdown, pain in hostile environments and the horrors of war. I summoned bravery during intense gun battles and, perhaps more courageously, raised my hand for help during my darkest moment - though it took a while. The psychological techniques I developed during my time as an elite operator still serve me today, in and out of danger.’ – Jason Fox We all face internal conflict, both at home and at work. Some pressures threaten to crush us mentally, others cause stress, anxiety and self-doubt. Whether serving in the Special Forces, rowing oceans or investigating some of the world's most notorious drug cartels, Jason Fox has overcome more than his fair share of these emotional and mental battles.Recounting stories of the military operations and expeditions that have tested his own resolve, in Life Under Fire he shares the tools he's developed at the cutting edge of an elite military career and shows how you, too, can build the resilience and inner strength to overcome whatever challenges life puts in front of you.