Mistakes to Success: Learning and Adapting When Things Go Wrong

Mistakes to Success: Learning and Adapting When Things Go Wrong PDF Author: Colin Austin
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450248616
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Throughout the nonprofit sector, successes are celebrated and mistakes tend to be deliberately forgotten. But, as Mistakes to Success: Learning and Adapting When Things Go Wrong makes clear, this is a lost opportunity. Discussing, analyzing and learning from mistakes should be a common practice, which can strengthen the work of nonprofits. Breaking new ground, Mistakes to Success provides a rich collection of revealing essays focused on failures in the field of community economic development. The authors, leaders in the nonprofit field, write with firsthand knowledge about a range of projects, including an ethnic marketplace in Chicago, a childcare assistance initiative in New York City, national workforce development initiatives and an innovative program to help working families purchase affordable used cars. These compelling stories provide valuable insights into what it takes to shape and manage complicated initiatives designed to improve opportunities for lower-income people and communities. This collection will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the challenges associated with social innovations, including program leaders, nonprofit advocates, policymakers, elected officials, foundation officers and members of the public. Researchers and practitioners jump at the chance to show their latest program impact results and share best practices. Asking them to acknowledge, much less discuss, their mistakes is like inviting them for a root canal. Yet, we learn some of our most useful lessons from our mistakes. The authors deserve gratitude from those interested in improving the practice of workforce and community development. Chris King, Director, Ray Marshall Center, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin This volume offers a fascinating walk through a variety of social innovation programs that didnt succeed, or at least didnt work as planned. Key themes, such as defining what constitutes success, determining when a projects success should be judged, balancing or prioritizing among the multiple goals social projects often reach for, and building and sustaining organizational capacity are addressed in a variety of contexts, providing a rich set of insights for both program leaders and investors. Maureen Conway, Director, The Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative

Mistakes to Success: Learning and Adapting When Things Go Wrong

Mistakes to Success: Learning and Adapting When Things Go Wrong PDF Author: Colin Austin
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1450248616
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

Get Book Here

Book Description
Throughout the nonprofit sector, successes are celebrated and mistakes tend to be deliberately forgotten. But, as Mistakes to Success: Learning and Adapting When Things Go Wrong makes clear, this is a lost opportunity. Discussing, analyzing and learning from mistakes should be a common practice, which can strengthen the work of nonprofits. Breaking new ground, Mistakes to Success provides a rich collection of revealing essays focused on failures in the field of community economic development. The authors, leaders in the nonprofit field, write with firsthand knowledge about a range of projects, including an ethnic marketplace in Chicago, a childcare assistance initiative in New York City, national workforce development initiatives and an innovative program to help working families purchase affordable used cars. These compelling stories provide valuable insights into what it takes to shape and manage complicated initiatives designed to improve opportunities for lower-income people and communities. This collection will be a valuable resource for anyone interested in the challenges associated with social innovations, including program leaders, nonprofit advocates, policymakers, elected officials, foundation officers and members of the public. Researchers and practitioners jump at the chance to show their latest program impact results and share best practices. Asking them to acknowledge, much less discuss, their mistakes is like inviting them for a root canal. Yet, we learn some of our most useful lessons from our mistakes. The authors deserve gratitude from those interested in improving the practice of workforce and community development. Chris King, Director, Ray Marshall Center, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin This volume offers a fascinating walk through a variety of social innovation programs that didnt succeed, or at least didnt work as planned. Key themes, such as defining what constitutes success, determining when a projects success should be judged, balancing or prioritizing among the multiple goals social projects often reach for, and building and sustaining organizational capacity are addressed in a variety of contexts, providing a rich set of insights for both program leaders and investors. Maureen Conway, Director, The Aspen Institute Workforce Strategies Initiative

Adapt

Adapt PDF Author: Tim Harford
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN: 1429920688
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
In this groundbreaking book, Tim Harford, the Undercover Economist, shows us a new and inspiring approach to solving the most pressing problems in our lives. When faced with complex situations, we have all become accustomed to looking to our leaders to set out a plan of action and blaze a path to success. Harford argues that today's challenges simply cannot be tackled with ready-made solutions and expert opinion; the world has become far too unpredictable and profoundly complex. Instead, we must adapt. Deftly weaving together psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, physics, and economics, along with the compelling story of hard-won lessons learned in the field, Harford makes a passionate case for the importance of adaptive trial and error in tackling issues such as climate change, poverty, and financial crises—as well as in fostering innovation and creativity in our business and personal lives. Taking us from corporate boardrooms to the deserts of Iraq, Adapt clearly explains the necessary ingredients for turning failure into success. It is a breakthrough handbook for surviving—and prospering— in our complex and ever-shifting world.

Responsibility Rebellion

Responsibility Rebellion PDF Author: Kain Ramsay
Publisher: Houndstooth Press
ISBN: 9781544509129
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Many of us crave more fulfillment in life, but we don't know how to find it. We try everything to feel better, from changing jobs and dating new people, to attending therapy and taking pills. We grasp at the superficial, and externally overcompensate for our internal voids and self-doubts. What we don't realize is that avoiding responsibility only postpones the inevitable-that nothing about our life changes until we change. You will not become empowered until you choose to take responsibility for the role you've played in undermining yourself. Finding more fulfillment, satisfaction, and inner-peace is your responsibility because no one else cares. In Responsibility Rebellion, author Kain Ramsay discusses why we often rely on easy steps and magical formulas to find fulfillment, only to come up short. He'll equip you with a structured roadmap for personal growth and progress-one that shows you how to be better, rather than feel better.

Improving Public Services

Improving Public Services PDF Author: Douglas J. Besharov
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190646055
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 361

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Book Description
This volume spotlights recent advances in the worldwide use of quantitative performance measures in the public sector, especially approaches that incorporate program evaluation techniques. Chapters include single-country case studies, multi-country comparisons, and thoughtful essays on the challenges of making performance measurement and management work in diverse settings.

The Daily Stoic

The Daily Stoic PDF Author: Ryan Holiday
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735211744
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 418

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Book Description
From the team that brought you The Obstacle Is the Way and Ego Is the Enemy, a daily devotional of Stoic meditations—an instant Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestseller. Why have history's greatest minds—from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with today's top performers from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities—embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise. The Daily Stoic offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you'll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms. By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you'll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.

Restoring Power to Parents and Places

Restoring Power to Parents and Places PDF Author: Richard S. Kordesh
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1462048730
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
To progress successfully through all of their stages of development, children need to grow up in good communities. Good communities do not occur without viable, productive families. In Restoring Power to Parents and Places, author Richard Kordesh makes a compelling call for the productive familys renewal and provides creative steps for parents, professionals, and policymakers to take to strengthen communities around all children. Kordeshs experiences as a planner, professor, and father, have taught him that productive families are vitally important to the creation of good communities around children. He details historically, and with contemporary examples, the forces in our society that place stresses on families in all sectors. Restoring Power to Parents and Places presents a pointed critique of economic and political forces that have harmed families, but it also offers practical suggestions for action by parents, community leaders, community development and planning professionals, and governments at the local, state, and federal levels. Restoring Power to Parents and Places celebrates the productive potentials of a familys habitat, and it provides tools for empowering familiesgiving them more time and ability to raise their children.

Navigating Community Development

Navigating Community Development PDF Author: Robert O. Zdenek
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137477016
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
This book describes the evolution of the community development sector over the past 50 years, and it presents a framework and road map for how community development organizations can advance their mission through strategic partnerships that utilize their core competencies. The authors describe the current community development ecosystem, define a range of essential community development competencies, and demonstrate, through seven case studies, how using comparative advantages built on core competencies can improve outcomes for communities. By recognizing and leading with their competencies and strengths, organizations can bring their specialized areas of expertise to address complex and interconnected community challenges, and effectively meet their missions and objectives.

Why Startups Fail

Why Startups Fail PDF Author: Tom Eisenmann
Publisher: Crown Currency
ISBN: 0593137035
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
If you want your startup to succeed, you need to understand why startups fail. “Whether you’re a first-time founder or looking to bring innovation into a corporate environment, Why Startups Fail is essential reading.”—Eric Ries, founder and CEO, LTSE, and New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Startup and The Startup Way Why do startups fail? That question caught Harvard Business School professor Tom Eisenmann by surprise when he realized he couldn’t answer it. So he launched a multiyear research project to find out. In Why Startups Fail, Eisenmann reveals his findings: six distinct patterns that account for the vast majority of startup failures. • Bad Bedfellows. Startup success is thought to rest largely on the founder’s talents and instincts. But the wrong team, investors, or partners can sink a venture just as quickly. • False Starts. In following the oft-cited advice to “fail fast” and to “launch before you’re ready,” founders risk wasting time and capital on the wrong solutions. • False Promises. Success with early adopters can be misleading and give founders unwarranted confidence to expand. • Speed Traps. Despite the pressure to “get big fast,” hypergrowth can spell disaster for even the most promising ventures. • Help Wanted. Rapidly scaling startups need lots of capital and talent, but they can make mistakes that leave them suddenly in short supply of both. • Cascading Miracles. Silicon Valley exhorts entrepreneurs to dream big. But the bigger the vision, the more things that can go wrong. Drawing on fascinating stories of ventures that failed to fulfill their early promise—from a home-furnishings retailer to a concierge dog-walking service, from a dating app to the inventor of a sophisticated social robot, from a fashion brand to a startup deploying a vast network of charging stations for electric vehicles—Eisenmann offers frameworks for detecting when a venture is vulnerable to these patterns, along with a wealth of strategies and tactics for avoiding them. A must-read for founders at any stage of their entrepreneurial journey, Why Startups Fail is not merely a guide to preventing failure but also a roadmap charting the path to startup success.

Good Strategy Bad Strategy

Good Strategy Bad Strategy PDF Author: Richard Rumelt
Publisher: Crown Currency
ISBN: 0307886239
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
Good Strategy/Bad Strategy clarifies the muddled thinking underlying too many strategies and provides a clear way to create and implement a powerful action-oriented strategy for the real world. Developing and implementing a strategy is the central task of a leader. A good strategy is a specific and coherent response to—and approach for—overcoming the obstacles to progress. A good strategy works by harnessing and applying power where it will have the greatest effect. Yet, Rumelt shows that there has been a growing and unfortunate tendency to equate Mom-and-apple-pie values, fluffy packages of buzzwords, motivational slogans, and financial goals with “strategy.” In Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, he debunks these elements of “bad strategy” and awakens an understanding of the power of a “good strategy.” He introduces nine sources of power—ranging from using leverage to effectively focusing on growth—that are eye-opening yet pragmatic tools that can easily be put to work on Monday morning, and uses fascinating examples from business, nonprofit, and military affairs to bring its original and pragmatic ideas to life. The detailed examples range from Apple to General Motors, from the two Iraq wars to Afghanistan, from a small local market to Wal-Mart, from Nvidia to Silicon Graphics, from the Getty Trust to the Los Angeles Unified School District, from Cisco Systems to Paccar, and from Global Crossing to the 2007–08 financial crisis. Reflecting an astonishing grasp and integration of economics, finance, technology, history, and the brilliance and foibles of the human character, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy stems from Rumelt’s decades of digging beyond the superficial to address hard questions with honesty and integrity.

Encyclopedia of Organizational Knowledge, Administration, and Technology

Encyclopedia of Organizational Knowledge, Administration, and Technology PDF Author: Khosrow-Pour D.B.A., Mehdi
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1799834743
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 2734

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Book Description
For any organization to be successful, it must operate in such a manner that knowledge and information, human resources, and technology are continually taken into consideration and managed effectively. Business concepts are always present regardless of the field or industry – in education, government, healthcare, not-for-profit, engineering, hospitality/tourism, among others. Maintaining organizational awareness and a strategic frame of mind is critical to meeting goals, gaining competitive advantage, and ultimately ensuring sustainability. The Encyclopedia of Organizational Knowledge, Administration, and Technology is an inaugural five-volume publication that offers 193 completely new and previously unpublished articles authored by leading experts on the latest concepts, issues, challenges, innovations, and opportunities covering all aspects of modern organizations. Moreover, it is comprised of content that highlights major breakthroughs, discoveries, and authoritative research results as they pertain to all aspects of organizational growth and development including methodologies that can help companies thrive and analytical tools that assess an organization’s internal health and performance. Insights are offered in key topics such as organizational structure, strategic leadership, information technology management, and business analytics, among others. The knowledge compiled in this publication is designed for entrepreneurs, managers, executives, investors, economic analysts, computer engineers, software programmers, human resource departments, and other industry professionals seeking to understand the latest tools to emerge from this field and who are looking to incorporate them in their practice. Additionally, academicians, researchers, and students in fields that include but are not limited to business, management science, organizational development, entrepreneurship, sociology, corporate psychology, computer science, and information technology will benefit from the research compiled within this publication.