Business Problem Solving

This practical guide shows how to facilitate collaboration among diverse individuals and organizations to navigate complexity and create change in our interconnected world. David Ehrlichman draws on his experience as a network builder; interviews with dozens of network leaders; and insights from the fields of network science, community building, and systems thinking to provide a clear process for creating and developing impact networks.

Market volatility. Sustainability demands. Hybrid working. Opportunities and hazards of fast-changing technology and regulations. Companies and nonprofits face more daunting challenges than ever. How can we collaborate in our organizations—and with outside partners—to solve problems, innovate, and succeed? This indispensable new book lays out a pragmatic action plan blending rich stories, new empirical research, and loads of practical advice to help companies thrive by collaborating more effectively.

Master the art of thinking with Mental Models: An AI's Guide to 100 Thinking Tools Humans Overlook. This audiobook transforms complex concepts into actionable strategies, making life’s toughest decisions easier to tackle. Ever felt stuck in a problem, unsure how to navigate the noise? Or missed opportunities because you didn’t see all the angles? This audiobook is your shortcut to clarity and creativity.

Mark Schwartz, author of leadership classics A Seat at the Table and The Art of Business Value, reveals a new (empowering) model for the often soul-shattering, frustrating, Kafkaesque nightmare we call bureaucracy. Through humor, a healthy dose of history and philosophy, and real-life examples from his days as a government bureaucrat, Schwartz shows IT leaders (and the whole of business) how to master the ways of the Monkey, the Razor, and the Sumo Wrestler to create a lean, learning, and enabling bureaucracy.

How to Make Better Decisions shows you, step by step, how to choose wisely every time. You'll discover how to stop agonizing and make smart decisions quickly and confidently with zero regret. You'll also learn how to recognize influences, both internal and external, that threaten to sabotage your choices.

In The Partnership Charter, psychologist and business mediation expert David Gage offers a comprehensive guide to the art of establishing and maintaining a business partnership. The centerpiece of his approach is the Partnership Charter, a document that clearly outlines the goals, expectations, responsibilities, and relationships of the principals. The charter identifies potential sources of conflict and how they will be resolved, while addressing such sensitive issues as personal styles, values, money, and power.

With rapid technological innovation leading the charge, today's world is transforming itself at an extraordinary and unprecedented pace. As jobs become more multifaceted, as information streams multiply, and as myriad devices place increasing demands on our attention, we are confronted every day with a plethora of new challenges. Fortunately, as Leonard Mlodinow shows, the human brain is uniquely engineered to adapt.

In the 2011 best seller Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, an economist and psychologist, writes about the way humans make decisions and judgements in a complex world. In Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman helpfully points out the errors in thinking that people commonly have and fall victim to. He frames them as a series of illusions in a well-organized, direct fashion. Through this work, he enables readers to better make decisions and resist any harmful proclivities they may have.

It isn't enough to just do your job anymore. In order to thrive in today's marketplace, all of us, regardless of our role, have to be ready to generate brilliant ideas on demand. Business creativity expert Todd Henry explains how to establish effective practices that unleash your creative potential. Born out of his consultancy and his popular podcast, Henry has created a practical method for discovering your personal creative rhythm.

In an increasingly polarized world, our only chance for coming together and moving forward is to learn from those who have mastered the art and science of disagreement. In this much-needed book, Ian Leslie explores what happens to us when we argue, why disagreement makes us stressed, and why we get angry. By drawing together the lessons he learns from different experts, he proposes a series of clear principles that we can all use to make our most difficult dialogues more productive—and our increasingly acrimonious world a better place.

Welcome to what may be the most important module in this course. I'll be talking about problem-solving and a way of visually representing problem-solving. You may have heard this referred to as "A3 reporting" or "A3 storytelling". I will be referring to it as "A3 thinking"; that is, it's a way of thinking rather than documenting problem-solving on a piece of paper.

This is the most important module because in the Toyota Way, problem-solving drives continuous improvement and showing respect for people. Problem-solving is the core skill of a lean leader and it is the skill most leaders lack.

ORGANIZATIONS must accelerate strategic results to thrive, and they need you in the driver’s seat. How do you achieve this, even when firefighting is the norm? With three decades helping organizations deliver change, 2021 World PMO Influencer Laura Barnard unveils the system she uses with clients and students to evolve stagnant project and transformation teams into nimble, business-driven delivery engines.

Top companies around the world turn to Jonathan Byrnes to figure out where the profit is. He can show them which parts of their businesses are worth expanding and which are just a drain on resources. Most astonishing, he has found that roughly 40 percent of any new client’s business is unprofitable and that profit increases of 30 percent or more are within reach. Byrnes reveals an uncomfortable truth....

Bullies aren't limited to the playground. These days, they roam our offices and can be found everywhere from break rooms to boardrooms. They don't steal your lunch money, but they can make your work life a living hell - and even ruin your career. Whether the bully is a boss or a coworker...whether you're the target of manipulation, intimidation, verbal abuse, or deliberate humiliation, Beating the Workplace Bully will show you how to fight back.

Ideas are everywhere, but those with the greatest problem-solving, business-transforming, and life-changing potential are often hard to identify. Even when we recognize good ideas, applying them to everyday obstacles - whether in the workplace, our homes, or our civic institutions - can seem insurmountable. According to Matthew Syed, it doesn't have to be this way. In Rebel Ideas, Syed argues that our brainpower as individuals isn't enough. To tackle problems from climate change to economic decline, we'll need to employ the power of "cognitive diversity".

An indispensable guide to decision-making and risk-taking for anyone who finds themselves afraid of making a wrong choice in their career. This fresh, new approach comes from one of the most highly regarded and well-respected female tech executives in Silicon Valley, who made many wrong choices in her career, but learned how to turn those down moments into successes.

Jobs to Be Done gives you a clear-cut framework for thinking about your business, outlines a road map for discovering new markets, new products, and new services, and helps you generate creative opportunities to innovate your way to success.

Murphy's Law tells us that if something can go wrong, it will. Nonsense! says Al Casey, who maintains: If things can go right, they should. But you've got to make them go right, he adds, by hard work, focusing on key problems, and believing in the people around you. One of the most successful - and original - American businessmen of our time, Al Casey is a no-nonsense turnaround specialist who loves nothing more than the big challenges, whether in the private or the public sector.

The extensively revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg's hugely popular book, The Armchair Economist - "a delightful compendium of quotidian examples illustrating important economic and financial theories" (The Journal of Finance). In this revised and updated edition of Steven Landsburg's hugely popular book, he applies economic theory to today's most pressing concerns, answering a diverse range of daring questions, such as: why are seat belts deadly, why do celebrity endorsements sell products, and many more.

Change for Good is a new system for making social change through business that reflects Paul’s experience over the last 35 years. One of the core principles of Change for Good is including people with lived experience of social problems in identifying promising solutions and collaborating to bring these solutions to life. This methodology can create impactful and sustainable social change in society in ways that aren’t possible when executives make decisions in their boardrooms that are intended to impact the lives of vulnerable people.