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… there is a strong community feeling and the passions of the givers are genuine. “We can achieve more by giving together than we can by giving alone“, is tangible.
Read Tom’s article in The Guardian Professional. Former MP Tom Levitt is author of Gower’s Partners for Good
A recent post on Gower Author Peter McManners’ Blog discusses why the third industrial revolution, driven by the capabilities of highly versatile robots and new automated processes, will have problems that need mitigating. The first of these is increased environmental damage, ushered in by the first industrial revolution…read more here.
Peter is the author of Green Outcomes in the Real World considered as:
”excellent…provides a unique perspective on sustainability and globalisation” by Professor Emilio Herbolzheimer, Henley Business School
“ground-breaking book, Peter McManners shines a spotlight on some of the most intractable and important issues of the current age…should be compulsory reading for policy makers and students of international affairs.” by Paul Taylor, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, London School of Economics
and as a:
“valuable and incisive book…makes challenging proposals for a new balance of responsibility and partnership in world affairs. These are indeed critical issues which will determine the future of humanity in the twenty-first century.” by Martin Lees, Secretary General, Club of Rome
Thought-provoking if somewhat alarming piece on Gordon Pearson’s blog: Anglo-American Post-Industrial Waste. He is not describing waste in terms that might immediately occur to you or I, but rather waste in human terms; the loss of employment associated with the economic decline of the West. Sobering stuff! Gordon is author of The Road to Cooperation: Escaping the Bottom Line and The Rise and Fall of Management: A Brief History of Practice, Theory and Context.
In her blog post The Rise of Stakeholders, Gower Author Lynda Bourne writes about the Google Ngram Viewer and shows how ‘the rise of “Stakeholders” from a pure legal/gambling term (the neutral party who holds the ‘stakes’ during a game of chance or similar) to its current status is amazing.’
The post is part of the blog’s overall remit to cover: Project management training and the PMI range of credentials including PgMP, PMP, CAPM and PMI-SP. Project ‘controls’ in the 21st Century, primarily the evolving role of scheduling as a key driver of project success but also Earned Value, PMOs, Governance and OPM3 and Effective stakeholder management including communicating for effective outcomes.
In her book Advising Upwards: A Framework for Understanding & Engaging Senior Management Stakeholders she talks about the central role of stakeholders in the successful delivery of organisational strategy becoming increasingly recognised, as well as the importance of developing a sponsor culture to support more collaborative practices within the organisation. Both blog and book explore how building, and managing, relationships with senior (upwards) stakeholders is essential for success.
Dr Lynda BourneDPM, PMP, FAIM.
Lynda is Director of Training with Mosaic Project Services focusing on the delivery of CAPM, PMP, PgMP, OPM3, Stakeholder Circle® and other project related workshops, training and mentoring services. She is also the Director of Stakeholder Management Pty Ltd and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at University of Maryland University College (UMUC) Adelphi, Maryland, USA.
She was the first student to graduate from the RMIT University, Doctor of Project Management course with a professional Doctorate in Project Management (DPM) and has extensive experience as a Senior Project Manager and Project Director specialising in delivery of IT and other business-related projects within the telecommunications sector working in Australia and South East Asia (primarily in Malaysia).
On 15th September, Cary Cooper who is a Gower author and Editor of the Psychological and Behavioural Aspects of Risk series, took part in a one hour live Q&A with the Chartered Management Institute. Please see Cary’s Q&A correspondence here.
“Innovation is not a process, but an outcome.”
The Forbes Leadership Forum brings renowned speakers and thought leaders who discuss their leadership strategies. As a speaker at the Forum, Gower Author Alexander Manu was interviewed by Shaku Selvakumar for the IBM Impact 2011 Blog. In this interview Manu discusses in-depth the concepts of Imagination and Innovation in business Extract:
The redefinition of innovation as a human behaviour outcome, a dynamic in constant change, requires the shaping of new responses in business and the economy.
The past understanding of what innovation “is”, was generally connected with a breakthrough in technology – some new tool being employed in some new way. This understanding limits the potential of innovation as bound by the tools employed, instead of the imagination employing them. The latent imagination triggered by an innovation outcome is the true goal of innovation. It is not what “I can do with this now”? but “what can I become doing this in the future”? The tool is not a response, but a question. Every innovation is a question. The truly important innovations are a series of questions.
A few definitions: Innovation is an outcome, a new behaviour, a new way of doing things. Disruption is a behavior – an outcome involving a media and a user – changed by invention. Invention is a moment of discovery or creation of something new. Disruptive Business means the sum of new behaviours and their support models. Innovation is a moment of use, a manifest behaviour that engages an innovation object into new uses, and modifies the habitual conditions of the present.
This position challenges the current understanding of innovation, and some of the labels applied to innovation typologies, such as the label “disruptive innovation”. In general, the current discourse around innovation addresses competently the technology side of an invention, at the expense of the motivational side of the user, the human motivation which leads in the behaviour of use.
Alexander Manu is Chief Imaginator and Senior Partner at InnoSpa. He is the author of Distruptive Business: Desire, Innovation and the Re-design of Business published by Gower.
Robert F. Grattan (author of Strategic Review:The Process of Strategy Formulation in Complex Organisations) will give a presentation at an event being organised by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC (1800 K Street NW, DC 20006). This two-day workshop on ‘Strategic Defense Reviews: Defense Institution Building Framework’ will take place on 3-4 August 2011 (contact Jennifer Taylor).
Celebrating launching a Plan for the Planet, 7th July, 2011, 7.30pm – 9.30pm
St James Centre, Gerrards Cross, will be hosting a celebration of the launch of the Plan for the Planet – including the book written by Ian Chambers and John Humble. The evening will feature both an overview of the key global challenges we are facing – including global population, sustainable energy, climate change, biodiversity, global health, poverty and education – but more importantly, how we each can make a difference in addressing these challenges in our key spheres of influence – individually, as well as in our families, community, business and government.
There is no charge to attend, however, those interested are encouraged to register early at the St James Centre on 01753-883311, as there will only be limited places available for the evening. We look forward to joining with you in this celebration.
This is not just a launch for the book it is a serious attempt to highlight the scale of the global issues we are facing todayand achieve change. The website www.Plan-for-the-planet.com enables you to download a Plan for the Planet overview and templates so you can build your own Plan for the Planet. You can then upload your plan to share with the rest of the community and read some other plans that interest you. The authors have lots of ideas to share and build upon.
