Change Crisis

Today, in an instant, leaders can find themselves face-to-face with crisis. An active shooter. A media controversy. A data breach. In You're It, the faculty of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at Harvard University takes you to the front lines of some of the toughest decisions facing our nation's leaders - from how to mobilize during a hurricane or in the aftermath of a bombing to halting a raging pandemic. They also take listeners through the tough decision-making inside the world's largest companies, hottest startups, and leading nonprofits.

We live in a culture of limitless choice - and life is now more complex than ever. In This Too Shall Pass, acclaimed psychotherapist Julia Samuel draws on hours of conversations with her patients to show how we can learn to adapt and thrive during our most difficult and transformative experiences. Illuminated by the latest social and psychological research, this book unflinchingly deals with the hard times in family, love, work, health, and identity.

In this revelatory, unnerving, and ultimately hopeful book, Bremmer details how domestic and international conflicts leave us unprepared for a trio of looming crises—global health emergencies, transformative climate change, and the AI revolution. Today, Americans cannot reach consensus on any significant political issue, and US and Chinese leaders behave as if they’re locked in a new Cold War. We are squandering opportunities to meet the challenges that will soon confront us all.

Revolutions, droughts, famines, invasions, wars, regicides, government collapses—the calamities of the mid-seventeenth century were unprecedented in both frequency and severity. The effects of what historians call the "General Crisis" extended from England to Japan and from the Russian Empire to sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas.

Shaped by his 25 years traveling the world and enlivened by encounters with tycoons, presidents, and villagers from Rio to Beijing, Ruchir Sharma's The Rise and Fall of Nations rethinks the "dismal science" of economics as a practical art. Narrowing the thousands of factors that can shape a country's fortunes to 10 clear rules, Sharma explains how to spot political, economic, and social changes in real time. He shows how to read political headlines, black markets, the price of onions, and billionaire rankings as signals of booms, busts, and protests.

The Colorado Trail in Crisis addresses the sweeping transformation of western forests and wilderness ecosystems affected by climate change. This book is equal parts trail journal and synthesis of natural and human history. Karl Ford uses research on climate impacts to forests, wildlife, hydrology, and more to stress the urgent need for an action plan to reduce greenhouse gases and save forests and watersheds.

This book is a way to think about thriving by using a different lens. One thing that author John R. Robertson has learned from the many first responders he has worked with is a quality they called "muscle memory". The premise is simply that one trains so frequently that when they are faced with something challenging, they do not react, they respond. Their muscle memory takes over to the extent that they can react in the opposite way from most normal (untrained) humans. They are able to run toward the roar instead of the normal reaction of running away from it.

What Brian McLaren sets forth in this provocative, unsettling work is a "form of Christian faith that is holistic, integral, balanced, that offers good news for both the living and the dying, that speaks of God's grace at work both in this life and the life to come, both to individuals and to societies and the planet as a whole."

America has passed a tipping point. A majority of Americans now say that truth is up to the individual and that ultimate truth cannot be known. Learning to "speak our own truths" was supposed to lead to dignity and harmony. Instead, our society struggles with unprecedented levels of social conflict, purposelessness, and loss of identity. And still, the "Truth versus truths" tension continues to grow. Is all hope lost? In this inspiring book, Dr. Jeff Myers tells the fascinating stories of Jesus—followers who lived for Truth and transformed their world in times of crisis.

From fatal heatwaves and cruel droughts to devastating floods and fast-depleting water tables, climate change is the greatest disruptor of our time - and it can no longer be ignored. For most of us the odds seem overwhelming and solutions out of reach. Yet, in this forcefully argued book, climate-change practitioner, teacher and investor Mridula Ramesh emphasizes that while the situation is grim, it is not without hope.

The 12 essays in Voices of Change, by 15 inspiring youth leading the climate change movement in Canada, explore the most challenging issues around climate change, from sustainability to activism. The contributors, from all across the nation, describe their own work developing successful initiatives that have positively brought about environmental change.

Grace Under Pressure: Leading Through Change and Crisis focuses on three things leaders need to do when change and adversity strike: take care of their people, take care of themselves, and prepare for the future. And they must do it all with a sense of grace—calmly, collectedly, and compassionately. This book provides a roadmap for leaders seeking to create community as they meet the coming challenges with dignity and grace.

Crises are inevitable, but your response to them can shape your legacy. In a world where crises seem to be the new normal, leadership that adapts is more vital than ever. In his new book How Not to Waste a Crisis bestselling Tod Bolsinger offers a refreshing perspective on turning chaos into opportunity. Unlike a typical leadership book, How Not to Waste a Crisis is an invitation to rethink and redefine your approach to leadership in times of upheaval. What sets How Not to Waste a Crisis apart is its vibrant storytelling, engaging illustrations, and practical exercises.

In this personal, moving essay, youth activist Hannah Testa shares with listeners how she led a grassroots political campaign to successfully pass state legislation limiting single-use plastics and how she influenced global businesses to adopt more sustainable practices. Through her personal journey, listeners can learn how they, too, can follow in Hannah's footsteps and lower their carbon footprint by simply refusing single-use plastics.

Scott Proposki's storytelling helps us understand beekeeping and the amazing metaphor he weaves together with business during an extraordinary time in history. Scott examines the critical art of thinking and stinging point, as learning questions and opens other people's minds, which can position you for excellence in understanding some crucial business strategies.

Climate change is the biggest existential crisis that humankind has faced. In the last 100 years, we have ruined the carbon cycle using fossil fuels, namely coal, petroleum, and natural gas, to build our civilization, not taking into account the catastrophic impacts climate change can cause. Even though our lives depend on it, most of us don't know about the causes and how we will be able to tackle this existential threat. This book gives you alternative answers on what steps governments, companies, and individuals need to take.

The introduction of new medicines has dramatically improved the quantity and quality of individual and public health, while contributing trillions of dollars to the global economy. In spite of these past successes - and indeed because of them - our ability to deliver new medicines may be quickly coming to an end. Moving from the 20th century to the present, A Prescription for Change reveals how changing business strategies combined with scientific hubris have altered the way new medicines are discovered, with dire implications for both health and the economy.

Every few weeks in British politics, a columnist will reach for the word ‘unprecedented’ as a cabinet minister resigns or yet another inquiry is called. We have become so accustomed to turmoil that it is impossible to take a breath and see where we are headed. In this magisterial history, respected broadcaster and journalist Steve Richards puts the recent chaos into context and takes a step back to explore ten critical moments that have shaped modern Britain.

Chocolate is the center of a massive global industry worth billions of dollars annually, yet its future in our modern world is currently under threat. In Chocolate Crisis, Dale Walters discusses the problems posed by plant diseases, pests, and climate change, looking at what these mean for the survival of the cacao tree. Walters takes listeners to the origins of the cacao tree in the Amazon basin of South America, describing how ancient cultures used the beans produced by the plant, and follows the rise of chocolate as an international commodity over many centuries.

Whether planned or unexpected, change presents leaders with their toughest sustained challenges - regardless of the leader's seniority or the organization's size. For many leaders, change brings drama - and the replaying of familiar stories. In A Question of Leadership, Keith Leslie provides a wide range of illustrative case studies derived from both research and his firsthand experience in the public and private sectors as a former partner at both Deloitte and McKinsey.