Business Problem Solving

The creative mode in your brain is like a butterfly. It's beautiful and erratic, hard to catch, and highly valued as a result. If you want to capture it, you need a net. Enter the executive mode, the task-oriented network in your brain that helps you tie your shoes, run a meeting, or pitch a client. To succeed, you need both modes to work together - your inner butterfly to be active and free, but your inner net to be ready to spring at the right time and create that "aha!" moment. But is there any way to trigger these insights, beyond dumb luck?

New York Times best-selling author and iconic Hollywood producer Brian Grazer reveals a new secret to forge a happier and more successful life. Through his own personal stories, discover how eye contact - a power available to nearly everyone - can change your life, too. Whether you’re looking to develop a relationship, build your confidence, or win a negotiation, the answer is in the eyes. Grazer delves into the power of eye contact as he shares personal, life-changing stories and insightful advice that will help you immediately discover the secret to a more meaningful life.

There are different kinds of difficult people, and what you'll learn first in this audiobook is to recognize them for who they are. You won't be able to cure them, they would have to go into therapy most of the time to become better versions of themselves. But you'll also find your weapons to overcome the obstacles these aggressive, negative, or just silent people erect on your path. Working in stages to assess the situation and the profile of the difficult people you face, you'll be able to shield yourself and turn their shortcomings into an opportunity for both of you.

It's very likely that best practices - ideas, processes, and strategies that are commonplace in your industry - are actually hurting your business. Although best practices can help businesses operate more competitively and efficiently, they are often outdated, harmful, and a hindrance to innovation. In Breaking Bad Habits, Freek Vermeulen, a strategy professor at London Business School, offers the tools to identify bad practices, eliminate them from your organization, and then move on to create new sources of innovation and growth by outthinking your competitors.

Fred Reichheld's 2006 book The Ultimate Question - that question being, "How likely is it that you would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?" - challenged the conventional wisdom of customer satisfaction programs. It coined the terms "bad profits" and "good profits" and pointed to a faster, much more accurate way of gauging customers' real loyalty to a company. Richard Owen and Laura Brooks are co-developers, along with Reichheld, of the methodology behind answering the question.

Volume 2 of The Great Mental Models series provides a collection of over twenty important concepts from physics, chemistry, and biology in a clear and accessible style. Not only will you better understand the hidden forces that influence the world around you, you’ll also learn how those forces can work to your advantage.

Preeminent leadership scholar Linda Hill, along with former Pixar tech wizard Greg Brandeau, MIT researcher Emily Truelove, and Being the Boss coauthor Kent Lineback, found among leaders a widely shared, and mistaken, assumption: that a "good" leader in all other respects would also be an effective leader of innovation. The truth is, leading innovation takes a distinctive kind of leadership, one that unleashes and harnesses the "collective genius" of the people in the organization.

Find the best solutions to your problems. Become a better decision maker. We are surrounded by systems. Businesses, schools, families, the economy, our country are all systems. The more you understand how they work, what problems do they face and how can you improve your position in them, the happier, and more stress-free your life will be. Find strategic solutions considering every aspect of your problem. Apply systems thinking to solve work, business, and relationship problems. Learn to see through the hidden pathways of contemporary politics, economics, and education changes.

Should I change careers? Is it time to end my relationship? Can I move halfway across the world? We have to make choices everyday, big and small, but it's the life-changing ones that often cause us to freeze or react too quickly, without thinking. What can we do differently? Laurence Alison and Neil Shortland have spent more than 20 years helping soldiers, police officers, doctors and other professionals in high-stakes environments make tough decisions when lives are on the line. In Decision Time, they show us how those same decision-making techniques apply to everyday life.

Successful decision-makers are fierce interrogators. They square critical thinking with open-mindedness by blending information, intuition, and experience. Balancing these elements is at the heart of Decisions Over Decimals.

Our age of radical uncertainty requires a new way of assessing risk that pays more attention to the extreme outliers that too often become tomorrow’s reality. Today’s models cannot cope with the frightening new unpredictable risks we face every day that frequently seem to come out of left field–the effects of climate change, a killer pandemic, a cascading wildfire, a financial crisis triggered by faceless algorithms, or a devastating cyberattack that shuts down the electric power grid. This audiobook advocates a new, more realistic approach to analyzing risk and strategizing.

In today's high-speed, customer-empowered world, the levels of swiftness and efficiency of business transactions will determine ultimate success or failure. In this groundbreaking guide, Dooley helps you spot the inevitable points of friction in your organization, and he provides the tools and insight you need to eliminate them. By truly understanding the impact friction can have, you'll be able to establish positive habits and eliminate negative ones - all with the end result of building a company that's the envy of your industry.

This is humanity’s last chance. Centuries of greed, pride, and hate have sent humankind hurtling toward disaster, far from our original purpose. There is only one solution that can reset the compass and right the ship, and that answer is only two words. With time running out, it’s up to David Ponder and a cast of history’s best and brightest minds to uncover this solution before it is too late. The catch? They are allowed only five tries to solve the ominous challenge.

What makes a great team tick? Leadership guru John C. Maxwell says the answer is simple: great players. In 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player, Maxwell teaches leaders how to develop better players and teaches each player how he or she can achieve true greatness from the inside out. Drawing on examples from some of history's most winning team players--including Quincy Jones, Ronald Reagan, and Bob Taylor--he shows readers how to develop qualities such as discipline, enthusiasm, communication, preparation, and commitment.

In an era of ambiguous, messy problems - as well as extraordinary opportunities for positive change - it’s vital to have both an inquisitive mind and the ability to act with intention. Creative Acts for Curious People is filled with ways to build those skills with resilience, care, and confidence.

This is a book about common sense—what it is, how to make it, and how to put it into practice across all contexts of leadership and life. It's also a book of stories from my leadership journey across continents, cultures, and contexts (e.g., combat, business, and government). In this book, you’ll learn what I learned and what many other common-sense leaders across the ages have learned before us.

On average, people leave about 20 percent of potential mutual gains untapped in any negotiation. This is akin to taking 20 percent of the value in any deal and dumping it into a garbage canister. Finding that hidden 20 percent, the “sweet spot”, is a skill that takes practice but is also one that anybody can learn. In Negotiating the Sweet Spot, Leigh Thompson offers surefire best practices and tools to use in daily negotiations and conflict situations.

Leading with Strategic Thinking reveals what effective leaders do differently. Eschewing the one-size-fits-all leadership model, this helpful guide outlines four general leadership types and demonstrates how each type achieves success - whether through personal vision, structured process, collaboration, or empowering others. The authors identify the actions and skills that distinguish strategic leadership, drawn from interviews and focus groups with over 300 leaders from around the world.

Written by a director at the award-winning global innovation firm frog design, this vital book shows business leaders and managers how to accomplish truly effective innovation in today's disruptive climate. Richardson shows how business is filled with "X-problems" - tough new challenges that present massive innovation opportunities, but also risks.

In this book, you will find the main ingredients you need to take your competitive intelligence program to the next level. You will learn how to build, manage, and optimize your program. You will learn how to move your program from the tactical to the strategic level of your organization. Most importantly, you will learn how to extract the most business value from the program.