Kreativer Denken

Kreativer Denken 

By: Anne Brunner

Kreativität wer möchte nicht über diese Fähigkeit verfügen? Kreativität ist eine Schlüsselkompetenz, die in fast allen Lebensbereichen gefragt ist: in Wissenschaft und Technik, im künstlerischen Schaffen, in der stillen Reflexion auch im privaten Leben. Kreative Kompetenz zählt zu den wichtigsten Schlüsselkompetenzen überhaupt. Nach Hartmut von Hentig ist Kreativität ein „Heilswort“ unserer Zeit. Sie zu fördern wird als zentrale Aufgabe angesehen, sei es im Kontext der Persönlichkeitsentwicklung, des Managementtrainings oder der Didaktik. Kein Wunder also: Kreativitätsmethoden sind en vogue. Sie zielen im Wesentlichen in zwei Richtungen: Entweder darauf, problemorientiert Lösungen für bereits Vorhandenes zu finden. Oder darauf, in „unbekanntes Land“ vorzudringen, also den Möglichkeitsraum als solchen phantasievoll zu erweitern, und damit den Horizont des Denkens. [download]

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101 Boardroom Problems

101 Boardroom Problems

By: Eli Mina 

Before becoming a consultant on meetings and effective decision making, I was employed as an engineer. My motto then was: Silence is golden. Keeping quiet in meetings was safe and risk-free, and rarely did anyone solicit my ideas anyway. Had I shared my input, however, it might have improved the quality of my team’s decisions and reduced its mistakes. Silence is a common and highly damaging Boardroom problem, one that increases risk and diminishes opportunities. In 1984, I launched my consulting practice on meetings and rules of order. I had fun advising Boards on demystifying the rules of order and using them sensibly and intelligently to facilitate progress while protecting basic rights. [download]

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Leadership Under Pressure

Leadership Under Pressure

By: Colonel Bob Stewart 

At just after 5 am a telephone ring woke me. As I stirred I heard huge explosions close together; incoming artillery fire? Quickly pulling the phone to my ear, I recognized the voice at the far end. ‘Bob, is that you?’ ‘Yes, I’m hereBryan.’ ‘Do you know what’s going on? The whole place has erupted. It’s gone crazy. We’re stuck in the middle of a major battle. You’re miles away, on the wrong side of the lines’, said Major Bryan Watters, my second in command. The battalion operations room at Vitez was actually only some 20 miles from me as the crow flies, but it could only be reached by scaling a seriously large mountain on a winding, icy road. Last night I’d decided to stay in Zenica because the European Community ambassador had suggested we ate together. Afterwards it was late. [download]

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Superpower Rivalry and Conflict

Superpower Rivalry and Conflict

By: Chandra Charie

Why another book on the Cold War? 2009 seems a good place to take a look back at the superpower rivalry which dominated nearly half of the twentieth century. There is no gainsaying the fact that the international order today seems bewildered, bemused, clutching at straws and certainly ‘without a clue’, faced with the economic meltdown which has overtaken the world. Within the space of a year, all the new challenges which have hobbled the institutional structures in place since the Treaty of Westphalia terrorism, climate change, economic crisis seem to have come to a head. And yet in 2009 it does not seem inconceivable that all kinds of new possibilities are suddenly available to change the international system ‘beyond every utopian illusion’. A new president’s term in the USspells the possibility of change and if only the rest of the world could seize the moment to work towards ‘resetting the button’, [download]

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The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Mastering

The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Mastering 

By: Nanci Raphael

I must have come out of the womb with the word ENTREPRENEUR stamped on my forehead. Was I programmed at birth? Perhaps. All I know is, I have always had a fervor for venture. For some reason perhaps embedded in my DNA I need the freedom to cultivate my own course, innately fighting against conventional rules. So . . . ever since the earliest stage of my career, what I’ve done is contemplate, start up, and run companies. Then once running, I reinvent them while reinventing myself. It’s a way, I suppose, to keep me interested and excited about my pursuit. That seems to be a large part of my job description. And not always an ideal job, by any measure. While I’ve risen, at times, to glorious heights where anything seems possible, I’ve also descended into gloomy caverns of disappointment. [download]

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Perfect Your Presentations

Perfect Your Presentations 

By: Steve Shipside

Presentations should be the high points of your working life. They are your moment in the spotlight, your chance to shine, and an opportunity to plead your case, spread your word, and influence people. Whether you are swaying opinions, seeking extra funds, or simply trying to put your own view across, the presentation is key to every business campaign. So why, then, do so many of these golden opportunities go to waste? Perfect Your Presentations looks at all of the ingredients of a truly great presentation, from the research to the content, the skills involved in presenting it, and the feedback weeks after the big day. It tells you how to conquer stage fright and reach and grip an audience; what to include and what to omit. Whether you are a seasoned professional aiming to add polish to your presentation, or a nervous newcomer wondering how to get through it, you will find the information you need. With tips and examples drawn from some of the best presenters anywhere. [download]

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Distributed Generation

Distributed Generation 

By: D.N. Daonkar

Radical changes occurred in the energy scenario in recent years, with a clear trend towards shifting part of the energy production from large centralized plants to relatively small decentralized systems. The growing diffusion of distributed generation systems for Combined Heat and Power (CHP) production represents a significant part of these changes. In particular, CHP generation could bring substantial improvements in energy efficiency and energy saving, as well as economic benefits, with respect to the separate production (SP) of electricity in the centralized power system and of heat in local boilers (Horlock,1997). The development of CHP systems is particularly relevant for relatively small scale applications (e.g., below 10 MWe) in urban areas, including potential coupling to heat networks for larger capacities as well as micro cogeneration for domestic applications. [download]

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The Many Facets of Leadership

The Many Facets of Leadership 

By: Marshall Goldsmith

No book of collected works happens overnight. This one took a good two years of labor and then some. Perhaps the best way to provide you with an overview of its contents is to tell you a bit about its name. The subject of leadership is clearly multifaceted. The depth and breadth of the subject itself allows thought leaders everywhere to rethink it through their own lens. It is by adding a unique lens that the old becomes new or at least worth exploring in new ways. In each chapter of this book you will see the distinct lens of its author, as each presents the cutting edge of his or her own subject matter.  For most of the authors of this book, this was not a two year project. Rather, it was the distillation of their thinking over a much more extended period of time. In some instances, the thinking shaped itself throughout their professional careers. [download]

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Effective Communication

Effective Communication

By: Suzan Collins 

Everybody can communicate, but not always in the way you are used to. This workbook has been devised to enable you to learn how to communicate effectively, using a variety of methods and trying different tools to communicate with people. This workbook has been written for staff, carers and family members, in fact anyonewho supports or knows someone with different communication skills. It is not always possible for staff to be taken off the rota to attend a training course and so this workbook has been devised. It uses a variety of training methods: – reading passages where you will expand your knowledge – completing exercises – completing a self-assessment tool which shows you the knowledge you now have As a social care worker, you have to work to certain standards, which are set out by various professional bodies. This workbook links to several standards and if you are not familiar with them, here is a brief explanation of each one. [download]

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Education, Equality and Human Rights

Education, Equality and Human Rights 

By: Mike Cole 

As currently formulated, the concept of ‘human rights’ is a comparatively recent phenomenon. The President of the United Nations General Assembly, Dr E.H. Evatt, observed at the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 1948 that this was ‘the first occasion on which the organised world community had recognised the existence of human rights and fundamental freedoms transcending the laws of sovereign states’ (Laqueur and Rubin, 1979, cited in Osler and Starkey, 1996, p. 2). Article 1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: ‘All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood’ (cited in ibid., p. 173). One might respond charitably to the exclusion. [download]

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300 Best Job’s Without a Four Year Degree

300 Best Job’s Without a Four Year Degree 

By: Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin, Ph.D.

We kept this Introduction short to encourage you to actually read it. For this reason, we don’t provide many details on the technical issues involved in creating the job lists or descriptions. Instead, we give you short explanations to help you understand and use the information the book provides for career exploration or planning. We think this brief and user-oriented approach makes sense for most people who will use this book. Several years ago we wrote a book titled Best Jobs for the 21st Century. It was very well received and has since been revised several times. It covers all major jobs at all levels of education and training and includes only those with the best combined rankings for earnings, projected growth rate, and number of job openings. It is a very good book for those  who want to consider jobs at all levels of education and training, but over one-third of the jobs included require a four-year college degree or higher. [download]

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101 Great Answers to The Toughest Interview Questions

101 Great Answers to The Toughest Interview Questions

By: Ron Fry 

In the nearly seventeen years since I wrote the first edition of 101 Great Answers to the Toughest Interview Questions, its relevance to an ever-changing job market has continued to grow. That market has certainly changed from a seller’s (employee-friendly) market to a buyer’s (employer-friendly) market and back again. But the power this book has given interviewees, whatever their ages, skills, or qualifications, has expanded every year. I certainly couldn’t boast of my own interviewing skills before I wrote this book. On the contrary, I had often not gotten jobs for which I was eminently qualified. So I spent quite a lot of time learning all the mistakes you could possibly make, having made each one of them twice. [download]

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Meeting The Innovation Challenge

Meeting The Innovation Challenge 

By: Scott Isaksen and Joe Tidd

Transformation for innovation and growth is at the forefront of the agenda for many who work within organizations. In his work on disruptive innovation, Clayton Christensen identifies the many challenges organizations now face, and why so many fail to respond to these. Today, everyone seems to be involved in planning or implementing some sort of change program or innovation initiative. At the same time, organizations must competently manage existing operations and businesses, what Michael Tushman calls the ‘ambidextrous organization’. In his ground-breaking study Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap . . . and Others Don’t, Jim Collins describes a recipe for success that places leadership at the center. Our research and experience inform us that those who initiate change need to have a good understanding of the nature of organizations, as well as the dynamics of innovation and change. [download]

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Leadership for The Common Good

Leadership for The Common Good 

By: Barbara C. Crosby and John M. Bryson

Anyone who tries to tackle a public problem or need sooner or later comes face to face with the dynamics of a shared-power world. Consider the public health officer or physician picking up the signs of a new disease affecting gay men. Or perhaps you’re an elected official concerned about all the unemployed men congregating on the streets of your district. Perhaps you’re a successful business person who realizes the environmental destruction caused by industry will ultimately lead to disaster. Perhaps you’re a university teacher or administrator who believes the university isn’t prepared to serve the growing numbers of retirees who could have many years of productive life ahead of them. Or you may have no professional role related to these issues; you may be the sister of a man dying of AIDS. [download]

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Alchemies of The Mind

Alchemies of The Mind 

By: Jon Elster

Are there lawlike generalizations in the social sciences? If not, are we thrown back on mere description and narrative? In my opinion, the answer to both questions is no. The main task of this chapter is to explain and illustrate the idea of a mechanism as intermediate between laws and descriptions. Roughly speaking, mechanisms are frequently occurring and easily recognizable causal patterns that are triggered under generally unknown conditions or with indeterminate consequences. They allow us to explain, but not to predict. An example from George Vaillant gives a flavor of the idea: “perhaps for every child who becomes alcoholic in response to an alcoholic environment, another eschews alcohol in response to the same environment”. Both reactions embody mechanisms: doing what your parents do and doing the opposite of what they do. [download]

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Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers

Fifty Key Contemporary Thinkers 

By: John Lechte

This book follows the very admirable model provided by Diané Collinson’s Fifty Major Philosophers (1987). Thus I offer the reader both an overview of each thinker’s work together with biographical information. Like Ms Collinson, I also aim to introduce, sometimes in a fairly detailed way, one or more aspects of the oeuvre in question, and particularly as this relates to that aspect of thought inspired by structuralism. And I often engage with that thought differ with it, or appreciate its insights. My hope is that the reader will get a real sense of the flavour, style, and, in many cases, the truly innovative character of the thought in question. My task, however, was both easier and more difficult than Diané Collinson’s, for while I did not have to treat the entire history of the Western canon of philosophy in writing my entries, I had to choose fifty contemporary thinkers. [download]

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Leadership Blind Spots

Leadership Blind Spots

By: Karen Blakeley

We all have blind spots they are part of the human condition. But when leaders and people in authority have blind spots, it matters. The more power a person wields, the more lives are affected by their decisions. Since blind spots seriously impair decision making, it is important that we understand what blind spots are, how they emerge and what we can do to help ourselves and our leaders overcome them. So what are they? From a physiological perspective, a blind spot is an area on the retina lacking the receptors that respond to light. If an image falls onto this area it will not be seen. A popular experiment will allow you to notice your own blind spot. Look at the image below and close your right eye. Hold the book about 20 inches away from you. With your left eye look at the cross. [download]

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High Performance Process Improvement

High Performance Process Improvement 

By: Markus Pastinen

Lowering the costs, increasing the price of the products and services, and selling more  without constantly sacrificing the satisfaction of one or more stakeholders. This is the practical equation every company has to solve continuously under tight money and time constraints. Sounds hard? Well, it has been, it still is, and will continue to be difficult, unless you start to consider how to run the process improvement activities fundamentally better than the rest and the best. This chapter provides you with bags of insights towards this end. It delivers thus in a compressed form the essence of high-performance process improvement (HPPI). Section 1.1 deals with the reason or driver for writing this book, i.e. the dilemma of low-performance process improvement (LPPI). Section 1.2 continues to reflect on the main reason for low-performance process improvement presenting and discussing the process improvement paradox. [download]

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A Survival Guide for Working with Humans

A Survival Guide for Working with Humans 

By: Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D.

Today, with a sputtering economy, collapsing and merging companies, corporate scandals, high-tech upheavals, and growing global competition, life in the workplace is more difficult than ever. Trusting in business relationships has become more uncertain, too. It helps to have guidelines on how to maneuver through today’s unpredictable work environment, much like learning to swim through a narrow chasm in a swirling river. That’s what A Survival Guide for Working with Humans is all about. It started with a series of mostly weekly columns in the San Francisco Bay Area on the perils of the workplace and what to do about them. Eventually my editor had to drop the columns to run more advertising and specialty features, but as reader response grew I decided to expand on the idea for these columns and turn them into a book. [download]

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50 Success Classics

50 Success Classics

By: Tom Butler and Bowdon 

We desire success almost as much as we need to breathe. From the moment we are born we want to do more, get more, be more. While we may have a mental picture of success as striving hard toward perfection, in truth it is more natural. Success can be described as the courage to let out the potent dreams and potentialities already in us, simply to give them air. Most people don’t do this because it seems dangerous, it is not routine. Yet those who have gone this way do see it simply as the normal path of life. It feels more like home, a place that should be everyone’s experience. Sometimes the urge for more is drummed out of us by upbringing or culture, so you may have felt compelled to lower your expectations and settle for a less extraordinary life. If, however, you have recently resurrected your desire to succeed, this book is for you. [download]

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