Applied research and development serving leading and managing professionals

Mandate:
• Accelerate employee engagement and organization successes
Focus:
• Making leading and managing easier, efficient, and more effective
• Helping leaders and managers better connect, teach, and learn
Opportunities:
• Available knowledge not being applied to full advantage
• Technology support for leading and managing can be improved
Results:
• Organizational environments in which everyone embraces a vibrant, rewarding, productive, and fulfilling life
• Every individual benefits

Objetive: Improve the leadership and management capabilities, capacities, and outcomes in small and midsize businesses (SMBs).

Symptoms: Few organizations really thrive. Many struggle and are characterized by poor communication, chaos, and anemic growth. Of the one hundred million American workers 30 percent are engaged and inspired, 20 percent are actively disengaged, and 50 percent are not engaged.¹ Also, 55 percent of small and midsize businesses fail before the end of their fifth year and 70 percent by year ten.² Of venture-capital-funded companies, 75 percent don’t make a return for their investors.³

Problems: Leading and managing organizations is difficult. Building the new capabilities needed for growth isn’t easy while coping with the demands of daily operations. Too much time with daily hot issues traps management into ongoing firefighting mode. The result is no time available to establish a leadership and management structure. Leadership by seat of the pants happening on the fly is cause for alarm.

Solution: Implement a structured and holistic approach to lead and manage your organization. Getting organized first with what you already know and do makes leading easier, efficient, and more effective. Implement this simple and easy-to-use leadership and management structure. This is the foundation for profitable and sustainable growth.

Results: Expectations include accelerated growth, higher margins, fewer failures, and more successes through increased productivity and performance. Work environments become more collaborative and less stressful.

Audience: People in organizations dedicated to improving their leadership and management capabilities and outcomes.

The books in the series do not need to be read in a specific order. It is hoped readers will be drawn to a particular subtitle and topics that suit their interests and then set their own reading sequence to match with their needs. However, the first three volumes are intended to introduce the basic concepts with discussions about applying the framework and methodology.

It is hoped the reading will be done as the concepts are being applied. In this way the learning evolves in a manner and pace that suits the reader. There is overlap and repetition with some themes between books when needed to reinforce and expand certain concepts.

This is our form of “Street” learning and teaching. It emphasizes your daily experiences as the primary source for learning. The framework guides you with practical online tools, structure, and concepts to identify and solve issues and implement opportunities as they occur.

¹ Gallup Research.
http://www.gallup.com/topic/employee_engagement.aspx
² United States Small Business Administration.
http://www.isbdc.org/small-business-failure-rates-causes/
http://www.statisticbrain.com/startup-failure-by-industry/
³ Shikhar Ghosh, a senior lecturer at Harvard Business School.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390443720204578004980476429190