Working patterns and practices Books

Book SynopsisHas COVID-19 ushered in the end of the office? Or is it the office’s final triumph? For decades, futurologists have prophesied a boundaryless working world, freed from the cramped confines of the office. During the COVID-19 crisis, employees around the globe got a taste of it. Confined by lockdown to their homes, they met, mingled, collaborated, and created electronically. At length, they returned to something approaching normality. Or had they glimpsed the normal to come? In The Momentous, Uneventful Day, Gideon Haigh reflects on our ambivalent relationship to office work and office life, how we ended up with the offices we have, how they have reflected our best and worst instincts, and how these might be affected by a world in a time of contagion. Like the factory in the nineteenth century, the office was the characteristic building form of the twentieth, reshaping our cities, redirecting our lives. We all have a stake in how it will change in the twenty-first. Enlivened by copious citations from literature, film, memoir, and corporate history, and interspersed with relevant images, The Momentous, Uneventful Day is the ideal companion for a lively current debate about the role offices will play in the future.Trade Review‘In his new book, Gideon Haigh goes beyond the banal exterior of the office and examines how they’ve shaped our cities, culture and collective history … In this deeply researched and engaging analysis, Haigh ponders if this is just a glimpse of things to come.’ * Happy Magazine *‘Haigh recounts the evolution of the office with imagination and fairness, and he can turn a fine phrase when he wants to. The Momentous, Uneventful Day reads like a good story – and it is, for better or worse, the story of our lives.’ -- Derek Parker * Spectator Australia *‘Enlivened by copious citations from literature, film, memoir, and corporate history, and interspersed with relevant images, The Momentous, Uneventful Day is the ideal companion for a lively current debate about the role offices will play in the future.’ * Female.com.au *‘Iridescent … No one is a better guide to the paradoxes of the working at home / being at work pivot … He writes of these matters as they should be written about, with a full sense of their history and the panache of the literature and art they have inspired.’ -- Peter Craven * Sydney Morning Herald *Praise for The Office: a hardworking history: ‘Tracing its history as far back as ancient Egypt (but concentrating on the 20th century), author Gideon Haigh presents a thorough and interesting account of the office over time. His approach is not merely a collection of facts but rather an attempt to understand the office's impact on our culture and society, and vice versa … Haigh is an adept writer — clear, informative … His information is drawn from an astonishingly wide range of sources, including pop culture.’ -- Ian Halett * Books+Publishing *Praise for The Racket: how abortion became legal in Australia: ‘Gideon Haigh is quite simply one of the best – and most intriguing – writers working in Australia today. He is amazingly prolific on a variety of subjects, but entirely consistent in delivering elegant prose that engages thoughtfully with his subject and wears its (often considerable) research lightly.’ -- Jo Case * Readings Monthly *Praise for Asbestos House: the secret history of James Hardie Industries: ‘[A] serious, sombre and, at times, heart-rending account befitting a tragic and awful story … At all times Haigh’s research is impeccable. This is the book’s great strength — it could become the reference book on all matters relating to asbestos.’ -- Matthew Charles * Herald Sun *‘Haigh has produced a very timely book, given the current debate around the role that offices will play in the future.’ * Sunraysia Daily *

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Book SynopsisWinner of the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year 2023 A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2023 A revolutionary guide that will transform your relationship with failure, from the pioneering researcher of psychological safety and award-winning Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson.We used to think of failure as the opposite of success. Now, we’re often torn between two “failure cultures”: one that says to avoid failure at all costs, the other that says fail fast, fail often. The trouble is that both approaches lack the crucial distinctions to help us separate good failure from bad. As a result, we miss the opportunity to fail well. After decades of award-winning research, Amy Edmondson is here to upend our understanding of failure and make it work for us. In Right Kind of Wrong, Edmondson provides the framework to think, discuss, and practice failure wisely. Outlining the three archetypes of failure—basic, complex, and intelligent—Amy showcases how to minimize unproductive failure while maximizing what we gain from flubs of all stripes. She illustrates how we and our organizations can embrace our human fallibility, learn exactly when failure is our friend, and prevent most of it when it is not. This is the key to pursuing smart risks and preventing avoidable harm. With vivid, real-life stories from business, pop culture, history, and more, Edmondson gives us specifically tailored practices, skills, and mindsets to help us replace shame and blame with curiosity, vulnerability, and personal growth. You’ll never look at failure the same way again.

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Book SynopsisThe way we manage organizations seems increasingly out of date. Survey after survey shows that a majority of employees feel disengaged from their companies. The epidemic of organizational disillusionment goes way beyond Corporate America-teachers, doctors, and nurses are leaving their professions in record numbers because the way we run schools and hospitals kills their vocation. Government agencies and nonprofits have a noble purpose, but working for these entities often feels soulless and lifeless just the same. All these organizations suffer from power games played at the top and powerlessness at lower levels, from infighting and bureaucracy, from endless meetings and a seemingly never-ending succession of change and cost-cutting programs. Deep inside, we long for soulful workplaces, for authenticity, community, passion, and purpose. The solution, according to many progressive scholars, lies with more enlightened management. But reality shows that this is not enough. In most cases, the system beats the individual-when managers or leaders go through an inner transformation, they end up leaving their organizations because they no longer feel like putting up with a place that is inhospitable to the deeper longings of their soul. We need more enlightened leaders, but we need something more: enlightened organizational structures and practices. But is there even such a thing? Can we conceive of enlightened organizations?In this groundbreaking book, the author shows that every time humanity has shifted to a new stage of consciousness in the past, it has invented a whole new way to structure and run organizations, each time bringing extraordinary breakthroughs in collaboration. A new shift in consciousness is currently underway. Could it help us invent a radically more soulful and purposeful way to run our businesses and nonprofits, schools and hospitals?The pioneering organizations researched for this book have already cracked the code. Their founders have fundamentally questioned every aspect of management and have come up with entirely new organizational methods. Even though they operate in very different industries and geographies and did not know of each other''s experiments, the structures and practices they have developed are remarkably similar. It''s hard not to get excited about this finding: a new organizational model seems to be emerging, and it promises a soulful revolution in the workplace. Reinventing Organizations describes in practical detail how organizations large and small can operate in this new paradigm. Leaders, founders, coaches, and consultants will find this work a joyful handbook, full of insights, examples, and inspiring stories.

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Book SynopsisSchon seit über einem Jahrhundert hat sich unsere Arbeitswelt immer wieder verändert. Durch die Covid-19-Pandemie hat die Digitalisierung des Arbeitsplatzes einen nachhaltigen Schub erhalten. Mit dem zunehmenden Rückgang der Pandemie kehren Fachkräfte wieder in das klassische Büro zurück. Dennoch ist die Arbeitswelt nicht mehr die, die wir kannten. Der Spagat zwischen Home und Office wird unsere Arbeitswelt dominieren, weshalb es gilt, die Vorteile beider Welten in einer hybriden Arbeitskultur zu vereinen. Doch wie kann dieser Spagat ausgestaltet werden? In diesem Essential werden erste Antworten aus Wissenschaft und Praxis gegeben und Empfehlungen formuliert, die Praktiker*innen in der Strategiefindung helfen sowie Dozierenden und Studierenden als Input für die weitere Forschung dienen sollen.Trade Review“... Mit interessanten aktuellen Studien, wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen, Expertenratschlägen und eigenen Praxiserfahrungen findet Autor Dominic Lindner Antworten und zeigt Wege und Empfehlungen auf, wie die Arbeit in einer sich verändernden Welt bestens gelingt. Dieses essential ist ein Brückenschlag zwischen analoger und digitaler Arbeit und erfreut den Leser mit zahlreichen Praxistipps für beide Arbeitswelten und deren erfolgreiche Zusammenführung.” (FPSB Newsletter, April 2023)

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