When the status quo no longer works, the contrarian perspective reigns! In this innovative business how-to, leadership expert Marcia Daszko draws on her expertise to guide leaders at any level through a three-step process to radically improve their businesses: first, recognize and stop outmoded ways of thinking that fail to move the business forward (like focusing on the bottom line, conducting performance appraisals, and searching for best practices); second, start taking steps to introduce new, innovative ways of thinking and contrarian practices (such as developing leaders with the capacity to effect change, creating an interconnected team, and seeking knowledge through questions); and finally, transform your company into a more resilient, adaptive, and united organization. Recent studies have reported that 90% of start-ups will fail. In Silicon Valley alone, this means that more than 5,400 of the current 6,000 startups will flounder and disappear. But risky and cash-strapped start-ups are not the only corporate fatalities: More than 60% of the original Fortune 500 corporations no longer exist. Given these statistics, how can organizational leaders and their employees beat the odds and survive? The only solution is to question the usual business practices, re-think how to lead and inspire, challenge the accepted beliefs, and toss out the failures to accelerate business growth and profitability. Using Marcia's three-part stop, start, transform method, readers will learn to pursue significant untapped opportunities, achieve their organization's competitive edge, and pivot, disrupt, and adapt to unexpected levels of success.

Professionals face many critical crossroads in their careers, sometimes unpredictable, sometimes more expected, but for which they were often not truly prepared. This book discusses many such career transitions - from leaving a corporation to joining a non-profit, evolving from athlete to executive, or returning to a former employer. Using the stories of 50 leaders from all over the world, the authors describe what provokes the change, the challenges it creates, how the individual is surviving the transition, and what effective leaders do to navigate and grow from it. Disrupt Your Career offers a simple, easy-to-use framework to help make the most of any uncharted transition. Drawing on examples of a wide range of companies, it also provides recommendations to help organizations better acquire, develop and retain talent.

Research in cognitive science over the last 30 years shows much of what we know about culture in the business world is based on myth, wishful thinking, outdated science, or is just plain wrong. This is why culture-shaping and change programs in organizations often amount to little more than sloganeering with minimal impact on the lived experience of employees. This book bridges the gap between the latest research on cognitive science and culture, providing a valuable guide for change leaders, CEOs, and practitioners on how to sustainably work with and change this important resource. It answers many of the major questions that have plagued culture work, such as: Why so many CEOs and management consultants preach culture change when so few culture interventions actually succeed Why CEOs persist in believing "culture starts at the top" when virtually no research in anthropology supports that claim Why most culture shaping approaches have no answer for how to affect culture in global companies Why culture doesn’t cause us to do anything, yet we persist in believing that somehow it does Why so many culture-shaping projects focus on corporate values despite the fact modern science shows why changing personal values is exceedingly difficult What we are learning about culture from the last 30 years of cognitive science gives us the foundation for far more impactful and sustainable interventions than have been possible to date. This book explains why, showing how everyday business practices well beyond HR are key to culture change. Why? Because the brain’s synaptic plasticity can only be altered through new sustained and widespread organizational habits and routines. This groundbreaking, practical guide will show you finally how to realize the full power of culture as a transformational, empowering, and competitive resource.

A 260-page, full-color book that will help you: STOP REACTING TO NOISE. START RESPONDING TO SIGNALS. Measures of Success shows business leaders how. A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR HOW TO MANAGE YOUR METRICS Organizations depend on metrics for their business. Question is, are they helping people do the right things? Or, encouraging them to overreact to every uptick, downturn, and change? In other words, reacting to noise. Noise is present in every metric. But, it's our reaction to noise that causes waste and stress. Too often, people don't recognize this. Like feeling stuck on a rollercoaster you no longer enjoy. We do and explain things that don't help us improve. At the cost of doing things that do. No need to be jittery about every change in a metric. Not by a long shot. Measures of Success shows a better way to chart and manage your metrics, in any organization or setting. For your business processes and activities, you need to know what's working, what's not, and what to change. And why. Then, you can determine what to stop doing, what to start doing, what to keep doing. So you can... Jump off the metrics rollercoaster, by responding to signals. Systematically. Sustainably. Learn how to identify meaningful signals in a metric. To respond just right. Or perhaps, not at all. You'll learn how with methods easy to understand, making it obvious what activities to do next. Loads of vivid stories and clear examples from healthcare, software companies, and more. With compelling case studies from the news and personal lives, too. "What gets measured gets managed." We've all heard that. But did you ever learn how to manage a metric? This ain't about gaming the system or fudging the numbers. This is about delivering real value, understood by everyone, and proven with data. Learn a better way to manage your measures. WHO IS MEASURES OF SUCCESS FOR? EXECUTIVES AND LEADERS...in healthcare, manufacturing, and services. Who know what to measure, and are now ready to learn how to manage those measurements. And... WILLING TO... Challenge and change the way things are done today Motivate workers to think and do them better tomorrow Coach people, versus telling them what to do Be responsible for results, not hold others accountable Encourage people to collaborate, not compete Help people sleep better at night because they're improving their work during the day TO BE CLEAR Measures of Success is not for leaders who'd rather give orders. Then, blame others when things go south. That whole hit the target or else thing... won't create real change, nor real value. But that ain't you, right? AFTER READING MEASURES OF SUCCESS ...you'll be able to answer three critical questions for your business. Are we achieving our target? And, how often? Occasionally? Consistently? Are we improving? And, can we predict our future performance? How do we improve? And, when do we react? When do we ignore? When do we improve? ...AND HOW CAN WE PROVE WE'RE IMPROVING? How would you feel if you could answer these questions for your business? Measures of Success shows you how. PROCESS BEHAVIOR CHARTS This book teaches you a proven method for filtering out noise, so we can identify signals. This means we waste less time chasing our tail and more time responding to signals that really matter, heading off small problems before they become big, or showing that we've boosted performance in significant and sustainable ways.

One of Forbes's Top Ten Technology Books of the Year How to redesign ‘big, old’ companies for digital success—featuring a survey of 300+ business leaders and 30+ global organizations, including Amazon, Uber, LEGO, Toyota North America, Philips, and USAA. Most established companies have deployed such digital technologies as the cloud, mobile apps, the internet of things, and artificial intelligence. But few established companies are designed for digital. This book offers an essential guide for retooling organizations for digital success through 5 key building blocks: • Shared Customer Insights • Operational Backbone • Digital Platform • Accountability Framework • External Developer Platform In the digital economy, rapid pace of change in technology capabilities and customer desires means that business strategy must be fluid. As a result, business design has become a critical management responsibility. Effective business design enables a company to quickly pivot in response to new competitive threats and opportunities. Most leaders today, however, rely on organizational structure to implement strategy, unaware that structure inhibits, rather than enables, agility. In companies that are designed for digital, people, processes, data, and technology are synchronized to identify and deliver innovative customer solutions—and redefine strategy. Digital design, not strategy, is what separates winners from losers in the digital economy. Designed for Digital offers practical advice on digital transformation, with examples that include Amazon, BNY Mellon, DBS Bank, LEGO, Philips, Schneider Electric, USAA, and many other global organizations. Drawing on 5 years of research and in-depth case studies, the book is an essential guide for companies that want to disrupt rather than be disrupted in the new digital landscape.

Game-changing disruptions will likely unfold on your watch. Be ready. In Dual Transformation, Scott Anthony, Clark Gilbert, and Mark Johnson propose a practical and sustainable approach to one of the greatest challenges facing leaders today: transforming your business in the face of imminent disruption. Dual Transformation shows you how your company can come out of a market shift stronger and more profitable, because the threat of disruption is also the greatest opportunity a leadership team will ever face. Disruptive change opens a window of opportunity to create massive new markets. It is the moment when a market also-ran can become a market leader. It is the moment when business legacies are created. That moment starts with the core dual transformation framework: Transformation A: Repositioning today’s business to maximize its resilience, such as how Adobe boldly shifted from selling packaged software to providing software as a service. Transformation B: Creating a new growth engine, such as how Amazon became the world’s largest provider of cloud computing services. Capabilities link: Fighting unfairly by taking advantage of difficult-to-replicate assets without succumbing to the “sucking sound of the core.” Anthony, Gilbert, and Johnson also address the characteristics leaders must embrace: courage, clarity, curiosity, and conviction. Without them, dual transformation efforts can founder. Building on lessons from diverse companies, such as Adobe, Manila Water, and Netflix, and a case study from Gilbert’s firsthand experience transforming his own media and publishing company, Dual Transformation will guide executives through the journey of creating the next version of themselves, allowing them to own the future rather than be disrupted by it.

The proven, effective strategy for reinventing your business in the age of ever-present disruption Disruption by digital technologies? That's not a new story. But what is new is the "wise pivot," a replicable strategy for harnessing disruption to survive, grow, and be relevant to the future. It's a strategy for perpetual reinvention across the old, now, and new elements of any business. Rapid recent advances in technology are forcing leaders in every business to rethink long-held beliefs about how to adapt to emerging technologies and new markets. What has become abundantly clear: in the digital age, conventional wisdom about business transformation no longer works, if it ever did. Based on Accenture's own experience of reinventing itself in the face of disruption, the company's real world client work, and a rigorous two-year study of thousands of businesses across 30 industries, Pivot to the Future reveals methodical and bold moves for finding and releasing new sources of trapped value-unlocked by bridging the gap between what is technologically possible and how technologies are being used. The freed value enables companies to simultaneously reinvent their legacy, and current and new businesses. Pivot to the Future is for leaders who seek to turn the existential threats of today and tomorrow into sustainable growth, with the courage to understand that a wise pivot strategy is not a one-time event, but a commitment to a future of perpetual reinvention, where one pivot is followed by the next and the next.