- Table View
- List View
Leapfrogging: Harness the Power of Surprise for Business Breakthroughs
by Soren KaplanHow did Gatorade revitalize itself in the wake of Red Bull and Starbucks? How did OpenTable come to be? What makes one company thrive while others languish in mediocrity? There’s no doubt hard work is involved, but Soren Kaplan shows you can’t do it by simply creating a big vision and implementing a set plan. In his trailblazing debut, Kaplan gives business leaders the tools to do exactly what they’re taught to avoid: embrace surprise—the new key to business breakthroughs. Instead of fighting against uncertainty, Kaplan reveals how to use it to break down limiting mindsets and barriers to change the game. By highlighting specific ways to transform both good and bad surprises into unique opportunities, Kaplan encourages leaders to compete by embracing counterintuitive ideas, managing paradoxes, and even welcoming failure. This is the key to “leapfrogging”—creating or doing something radically new or different that produces a significant leap forward. Leapfrogging connects new research, unconventional strategies, and practical tools for navigating the “messy” and elusive process of achieving business breakthroughs. Filled with real-world examples from innovators such as Gatorade, Intuit, Philips, Kimberly-Clark, Colgate-Palmolive, OpenTable, and Etsy, Kaplan shows that any organization or business function can leapfrog. Using his LEAPS process (Listen, Explore, Act, Persist, and Seize), leaders learn to seek out, recognize, and respond to surprising experiences and events as a way to create solutions that leap beyond the current expectations of customers, partners, employees, the market, and the competition. Kaplan’s Leapfrogging is the new handbook for the modern leader.
Mother Teresa, CEO: Unexpected Principles for Practical Leadership
by Ruma Bose Louis Faust IIIWhen most people think of Mother Teresa, they think of a saint—a spiritual hero of extraordinary humanitarian accomplishments, a Nobel Peace Prize winner. But Mother Teresa was also the leader of one of the world’s largest and most successful organizations: the Missionaries of Charity. Since founding it in 1948 she has raised millions of dollars and, with over a million volunteers in more than 100 countries, it remains one of the most recognized brands in the world. How did one nun who never received any formal education in business build such an impressive global organization? Frank, realistic, and firmly grounded in practicality, Mother Teresa’s leadership style helped to inspire and organize people across the world. This book shares ten essential leadership principles drawn from Mother Teresa’s example and applies them to today’s business world. Authors Ruma Bose, an entrepreneur who volun- teered with Mother Teresa, and Lou Faust, a leading business expert, are the first to examine her in this light—as a leader whose management style and dedication to a singular vision led to one of the world’s most unlikely success stories. Mother Teresa may have been a saint, but her spectacular success was not a product of divine providence. Her genius was the simplicity of her vision and her dedication to its implementation. It was in the way she treated her people, refusing to distance herself from the everyday work of a typical sister of the Missionaries of Charity. It was in how she handled tough choices—like accepting donations from brutal Haitian dictator François “Papa Doc” Duvalier. These were the principles that made her the great leader of a global organization, and they can be applied by anyone in any organization—no sainthood required.
Humble Consulting: How to Provide Real Help Faster
by Edgar H. ScheinConsulting in Complex and Changing TimesOrganizations face challenges today that are too messy and complicated for consultants to simply play doctor: run a few tests, offer a neat diagnosis of the "problem," and recommend a solution. Edgar Schein argues that consultants have to jettison the old idea of professional distance and work with their clients in a more personal way, emphasizing authentic openness, curiosity, and humility. Schein draws deeply on his own decades of experience, offering over two dozen case studies that illuminate each stage of this humble consulting process. Just as he did with Process Consultation nearly fifty years ago, Schein has once again revolutionized the field, enabling consultants to be more genuinely helpful and vastly more effective.
Using Scenarios: Scenario Planning for Improving Organizations
by Thomas J. ChermackThis is the first book to offer detailed guidance on how scenarios can be used to help organizations make their toughest decisions in a world of ever-escalating crisis and opportunity.To reap the full benefits of scenarios, you have to be able to apply them in the real world. This groundbreaking book goes beyond the theoretical to clearly explain different ways scenarios can be used in business decision-making—from strategic planning and financial modeling to crisis response. Connecting scenarios to strategy and action can have many benefits, including the ability to react quickly, anticipate major changes in the environment, and identify major opportunities. Thomas Chermack, a top expert on scenario planning, offers seven specific ways organizations can use scenarios and provides a wide variety of examples, along with proven processes, exercises, and workshops that have been used successfully in organizations across industries and countries for more than fifteen years.
Ten Thousand Horses: How Leaders Harness Raw Potential for Extraordinary Results
by Ken Jennings John Stahl-WertMatt James is in trouble. Recently promoted to head his division, he has delivered two years of divisional losses in clients, market share, and profits. He knows his workers are talented and creative, but they don't respond to his efforts to lead them, and he's on the brink of being fired. In desperation, he reaches out to an old mentor, David Butler, who now works with wild mustang horses and hard-to-place foster children on a ranch in Colorado. David agrees to work with his former student but only on the condition that Matt comes to him--to the ranch. Matt has no idea what the ranch could possibly have to do with his problems, but David assures him that if he spends some time there, he'll learn exactly what he needs to know. Through David's unorthodox tutelage, Matt discovers that leaders who succeed in engaging their workers do so because they see their day-to-day work as an opportunity to build an organizational culture of engagement. The engagement model is illuminated as Matt comes to understand its components piece by piece--and ultimately discovers how to engage those on his team and in his life. In this inspiring leadership fable, John Stahl-Wert and Ken Jennings draw on their years of experience as consultants and chief executives, as well as on findings from Gallup's groundbreaking Q12 survey of 4 million workers from 360,000 workgroups, to lay out an innovative leadership model that will turn employees from dutiful drones to committed contributors. But Ten Thousand Horses is also a story of personal transformation. Beyond specific practices and techniques, Matt must learn a whole new way of relating to his employees--because, as he discovers, leading an engaged workforce is as much about who you are as what you do.
Great Leaders Grow: Becoming a Leader for Life
by Ken Blanchard Mark MillerSuccessful leaders don’t rest on their laurels because leadership is not a title on a business card. Leadership is a living process—and life means growth. As Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller write in the introduction, “the path to increased influence, impact, and leadership effectiveness is paved with personal growth.… Our capacity to grow determines our capacity to lead. It’s really that simple.” Great Leaders Grow shows leaders and aspiring leaders precisely which areas to focus on so they can remain effective throughout their lives. Debbie Brewster—the protagonist from Blanchard and Miller’s international bestseller The Secret—returns in this book to mentor her mentor’s son, Blake, as he begins his career. Now an accomplished leader herself, Debbie shows Blake how growing as a leader and as a human being are inextricably linked. “How well you and I serve will be determined by the decision to grow or not,” she says. “Will you be a leader who is always ready to face the next challenge? Or will you be a leader who tries to apply yesterday’s solutions to today’s problems?” As Blake confronts the challenges of business in the real world, he turns to Debbie for guidance. Step by step, Debbie and Blake explore the GROW model—four ways that leaders must challenge and stretch themselves, both on the job and off, to fulfill their highest potential. Whether you’re a CEO or an entry-level employee, this book will inspire you to reflect on your life and design your own long-term growth plan—a plan that can lead not only to continuing professional success but to personal fulfillment as well.
The Art of Insight: How to Have More Aha! Moments
by Malcolm Constable Charles F. KieferInspiration Whenever You Need It We have all experienced it: the jolt of an insight arriving like a thunderclap, unexpectedly and without warning. But what if insights could be accessed more reliably? Drawing on years of research, reflection, and experiences with colleagues, friends, and clients, Charles Kiefer and Malcolm Constable present a thorough, pragmatic approach for dependably generating fresh thoughts and perspectives. Guided by their user-friendly practices and helpful exercises (both in the book and online at www.TAOI-Online-Learning.com), you'll develop your own personal approach to cultivating a mindset where insights come so readily that new or long-standing problems are solved with confidence and ease. “Creating insights isn't a magical process-this book provides a practical framework for generating insights for yourself and your organization. We've used many of these techniques with our innovation teams and they work.” -Wayne Delker, Chief Innovation Officer and Senior Vice President, The Clorox Company “Conventional wisdom holds insights to be elusive and mysterious. Kiefer and Constable turn conventional wisdom on its head with this marvelous addition to the libraries of all those devoted to improving the quality of their thinking.” -Len Schlesinger, President, Babson College, and former Vice Chairman, Limited Brands “In my forty-five years in business, I have found insights to be invaluable in strategy formulation and vital in forming best-in-class products and services. This book provides a simple road map of how to achieve such insights.” -Dick Kovacevich, retired Chairman and CEO, Wells Fargo & Company
Agenda for a New Economy: From Phantom Wealth to Real Wealth
by David C. KortenNEW EDITION, REVISED AND UPDATED Nearly two years after the economic meltdown, joblessness and foreclosures are still endemic, Wall Street executives are once again getting massive bonuses, and our leaders in Washington lack the will to make desperately needed fundamental changes to the economy. Change will have to come from below. Agenda for a New Economy is the handbook for that revolution. In this revised and updated edition David Korten has fleshed out his vision of the alternative to the corporate Wall Street economy: a Main Street economy based on locally owned, community-oriented “living enterprises” whose success is measured as much by their positive impact on people and the environment as by their positive balance sheet. We will lose nothing in the process because, as Korten ably demonstrates, the supposed services Wall Street offers are simply a con game. And Korten now offers more in-depth advice on how to mount a grassroots campaign to bring about an economy based on shared prosperity, ecological stewardship, and citizen democracy.
The Self-Made Myth: And the Truth about How Government Helps Individuals and Businesses Succeed
by Mike Lapham Brian MillerThe Self-Made Myth exposes the false claim that business success is the result of heroic individual effort with little or no outside help. Brian Miller and Mike Lapham bust the myth and present profiles of business leaders who recognize the public investments and supports that made their success possible—including Warren Buffett, Ben Cohen of Ben and Jerry’s, New Belgium Brewing CEO Kim Jordan, and others. The book also thoroughly demolishes the claims of supposedly self-made individuals such as Donald Trump and Ross Perot. How we view the creation of wealth and individual success is critical because it shapes our choices on taxes, regulation, public investments in schools and infrastructure, CEO pay, and more. It takes a village to raise a business—it’s time to recognize that fact.
Street Smart Sustainability: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Profitably Greening Your Organization's DNA (false)
by David Mager Joe SibiliaGo Green While Making Green You already know why your company should go green. This comprehensive guide tells you how to do it profitably. It details every step of the process—from getting employee buy-in and conducting a current sustainability audit to developing a plan of action and measuring progress. Nuts-and-bolts guidance helps you make continuous, cost-effective improvements and shift the prevailing business culture by infusing green practices into your organization’s very DNA. Through illustrative examples from a wide variety of industries, this book shows how to: • Design sustainable products • Green your facilities • Find green vendors • Use renewable energy • Reduce harmful emissions • Recycle waste products, and more The emphasis is on practicality—stand-alone chapters you can read when you need them and tools you can use to implement change in any area of your organization. enough
Organizational Project Management: Linking Strategy and Projects
by Pmp Rosemary HossenloppImprove Your Business Results Through Organizational Project ManagementOrganizational project management (OPM) aligns project deliverables with strategy. Understanding this emerging process is essential for all stakeholders, from the corporate sponsor to project team members. OPM is a valuable new tool that can enhance your organization's successful execution of projects in alignment with strategic priorities.Under the editorship of Rosemary Hossenlopp, PMP, ten contributors from around the globe, representing a wide variety of industries, offer valuable insights on how OPM can give any organization the competitive edge. They discuss how to• Improve business outcomes• Better align project work with strategies• Set priorities• Organize project workWhether you direct projects, fund projects, or conduct project work, Organizational Project Management: Linking Strategy and Projects is vital to your understanding of this emerging business discipline.
The Confidence Myth: Why Women Undervalue Their Skills, and How to Get Over It
by Helene LernerNot only do we need more female leaders at the top, but we need more women at all levels of business, government, and nonprofits to step up—there's no time to waste. The problem, says Helene Lerner, isn't so much that women lack confidence but that they misunderstand what confidence really is. True confidence isn't fearlessness; it's having the courage to jump in even when your knees are shaking. Any woman who waits until she feels 100 percent confident before offering a big idea or asking for a raise or promotion will never get anywhere. Drawing on her own and other female leaders' experiences, as well as on her survey of over 500 working women, Lerner lays out practical strategies for beating this confidence myth and overcoming obstacles like gender bias. The book features dozens of Confidence Sparks, simple but powerful exercises and techniques that can catapult anyone's career to the next level.
The Power of Servant-Leadership
by Robert K. GreenleafBased on the seminal work of Robert K. Greenleaf, a former AT&T executive who coined the term almost thirty years ago, servant-leadership emphasizes an emerging approach to leadership—one which puts serving others, including employees, customers, and community, first. The Power of Servant Leadership is a collection of eight of Greenleaf's most compelling essays on servant-leadership. These essays, published together in one volume for the first time, contain many of Greenleaf's best insights into the nature and practice of servant-leadership and show his continual refinement of the servant-as-leader concept. In addition, several of the essays focus on the related issues of spirit, commitment to vision, and wholeness.
Yes Lives in the Land of No: A Tale of Triumph Over Negativity
by Steve Ventura BJ GallagherIt seems like everywhere we turn, we're confronted by shaking heads, thumbs down, brick walls, brush-offs, and closed doors. NOs surround us--in our workplaces, in our communities and places of worship, in government, in social settings, in schools, and even within our families. Whether you're applying for a job, making a request, looking for a house, dating to find the right mate, seeking some type of approval, selling a product or an idea (or yourself), or trying to organize others into getting something accomplished, you're going to encounter rebuffs and resistance. What can you do to overcome so much negativity? This wise, insightful parable follows our hero who ventures into the Land of NO in search of YES. He watches well-intentioned characters flounder and fail--while noticing other characters using different approaches and achieving success. Our observant hero learns from others' experiences, as well as his own. Through his journey, you will discover how you, too, can persist in the face of frequent NOs--both the NOs uttered by people around you and, perhaps more importantly, the insidious NOs whispered by your own inner voices. The second half of the book takes you from parable to practice--with proven tips, tools, and strategies to help you persevere, develop tenacity, persist in the face of rejection, and overcome the inertia of the status quo. Taken together, the two parts of this book provide a how-to manual that's both practical and entertaining. It will help you find the YESes you seek--faster, more effectively, and with a lot less discouragement and despair in the process.
Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail (Bk Currents Ser.)
by Paul PolakBased on his 25 years of experience, Polak explodes what he calls the "Three Great Poverty Eradication Myths": that we can donate people out of poverty, that national economic growth will end poverty, and that Big Business, operating as it does now, will end poverty. Polak shows that programs based on these ideas have utterly failed--in fact, in sub-Saharan Africa poverty rates have actually gone up. These failed top-down efforts contrast sharply with the grassroots approach Polak and IDE have championed: helping the dollar-a-day poor earn more money through their own efforts. Amazingly enough, unexploited market opportunities do exist for the desperately poor. Polak describes how he and others have identified these opportunities and have developed innovative, low-cost tools that have helped in lifting 17 million people out of poverty.
The Resilient Investor: A Plan for Your Life, Not Just Your Money
by Michael Kramer Christopher Peck Hal BrillIf you want to build a better life and a better world—and really be prepared for any possible future in these turbulent times—you need to become a resilient investor! This trailblazing guide will expand your ideas of investing way beyond Wall Street. Your time, your energy, and the things you own are investments too, and you'll learn to diversify them in ways that move you toward your life goals. The Resilient Investment Map lays out all your assets—personal and physical as well as financial—and then provides three essential, timely strategies (Close to Home, Sustainable Global Economy, and Evolutionary Investing) that will help you grow each of them. The goal is to become more resilient: able to anticipate disturbance, rebuild as necessary, and improve when possible. You'll discover that the choices making you more resilient also enhance our communities, our economy, and the planet—building real wealth for all.
Why Digital Transformations Fail: The Surprising Disciplines of How to Take Off and Stay Ahead
by Tony SaldanhaFormer Procter & Gamble Vice President for IT and Shared Services, Tony Saldanha gives you the keys to a successful digital transformation: a proven five-stage model and a disciplined process for executing it. Digital transformation is more important than ever now that we're in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, where the lines between the physical, digital, and biological worlds are becoming ever more blurred. But fully 70 percent of digital transformations fail. Why? Tony Saldanha, a globally awarded industry thought-leader who led operations around the world and major digital changes at Procter & Gamble, discovered it's not due to innovation or technological problems. Rather, the devil is in the details: a lack of clear goals and a disciplined process for achieving them. In this book, Saldanha lays out a five-stage process for moving from digitally automating processes here and there to making digital technology the very backbone of your company. For each of these five stages, Saldanha describes two associated disciplines vital to the success of that stage and a checklist of questions to keep you on track. You want to disrupt before you are disrupted—be the next Netflix, not the next Blockbuster. Using dozens of case studies and his own considerable experience, Saldanha shows how digital transformation can be made routinely successful, and instead of representing an existential threat, it will become the opportunity of a lifetime.
Untapped Agility: Seven Leadership Moves to Take Your Transformation to the Next Level
by Jesse FewellThis balanced guide to agility gets past the hype and frustration to help frustrated leaders transform their agile transformations. Agile transformations are supposed to make organizations modern, competitive, and relevant. But in the well-intentioned effort to move into the future, change leaders find themselves frustrated by pushback, limited impact, poor practices, and unfair criticism. What's going on? Jesse Fewell's book cuts through the "quick-fix" hype of agile theory and explains a recurring transformational pattern that unpacks what holds organizations back. The boost is the initial gains from logical first steps; the barrier is the unavoidable roadblock that must come next; and the rebound is the way forward to further gains by leaning against the concept of the original boost. With these counterintuitive rebounds, Fewell identifies seven leadership moves that can be used to unblock stalled agile transformations. No, your transformation is not a failure. It turns out the buy-in, the talent, the alignment, and the growth you need to break through are already in front of you; it's all simply hidden under the surface—undiscovered, unutilized, and untapped.
Leadership from the Inside Out: Becoming a Leader for Life
by Kevin CashmanThis classic bestseller by Kevin Cashman pioneered a holistic approach to leadership development: grow the whole person to grow the whole leader. The third edition turns leadership development inside out for a new generation of authentic, purpose-inspired leaders.This book was the first to reveal and build on a foundational insight: we lead by virtue of who we are. Cashman's trademark whole-person approach is essential to success in today's talent-starved marketplace and provides a measurable return on investment. Framed in seven simple yet profound personal mastery areas, this book serves as an integrated coaching experience that helps leaders understand how to harness their authentic, value-creating influence and elevate their impact as individuals, in teams, and in organizations. The third edition contains updated content in the first three chapters-Personal Mastery, Purpose Mastery, and Interpersonal Mastery (the most foundational chapters in the book)-and includes a new chapter, Story Mastery: Leading with Inspiration. This chapter deepens comprehension of authenticity, provides a more significant sense of meaning and purpose, and inspires more profound interpersonal connection. For everyone from CEOs to emerging leaders, this long-awaited third edition advances the art and science of leadership, which makes the book even more relevant today than when it was first published.
Leadership Is Worthless…But Leading Is Priceless: What I Learned from 9/11, the NFL, and Ukraine
by Thom MayerPractical leadership for difficult times, from a crisis management expert who has led response teams through the 9/11 Pentagon attack, NFL on-field medical emergencies, and the war in Ukraine.Dr. Thom Mayer knows first-hand that true leadership stems from our actions, not our positions, especially in times of crisis.Drawing on his experiences heading the 9/11 Pentagon rescue efforts, dealing with on-field emergencies in the NFL (he was at Damar Hamlin’s bedside after his injury), training mobile response medical teams in Ukraine, and more, Mayer covers such topics as:Why trust is vital for innovationThe critical role of failure in devising new ways of leadingHow questions fuel innovative actionWhy every leader should have the title Chief Story TellerThe importance of distinguishing between data, knowledge, and wisdomEach chapter begins with a provocative and seemingly contradictory statement, like the book’s title, and includes stories, historical examples, and literary lessons selected to guide pragmatic and practical solutions.Leadership is worthless because it is something you say, a noun. But leading is priceless because it is a verb—it is the things we do that make a difference. From Pentagon generals to corporate CEOs to football players on the field to parents driving their kids to school, Mayer shows how leaders ensure that their actions will help others to succeed.
The Influence Effect: A New Path to Power for Women Leaders
by Jill Flynn Kathryn Heath Mary Davis Holt Diana FaisonWomen hold over half of all professional jobs today, yet they represent just four percent of CEOs in the S&P 500. Even worse, that percentage has barely budged in a decade.That's where The Influence Effect comes in. Based on recent research by the authors of the New York Times bestseller Break Your Own Rules, this book begins with the premise that when it comes to political savvy, what works for men at work won't work for women. Packed with the authors' coaching insights and their "Big Five" strategies designed specifically for female executives, this book guides women to break past political barriers and get right to what they really want—influence. Authors Kathryn Heath, Jill Flynn, Mary Davis Holt, and Diana Faison make success far less complex, helping women overcome entrenched resistance to their ideas, create their own access points to power, and attract followers in a way that works for them. They present tools such as Influence Loops (to organically increase influence), Personal Scaffolding (to grow a groundswell of support), and Scenario Thinking (a savvy twist on strategic planning). These and other smart strategies finally allow women to succeed on their own terms.Illustrated with dozens of engaging, real stories culled from the authors' many years of coaching experience, The Influence Effect moves women past the politics problem and offers a new path to power. Actually, it's more than a path—it's a runway—it frees women to take off in their careers on their own terms. The Influence Effect will work for women, not because gender barriers will no longer exist, but because they will no longer hold women back.
Sprout!: Everything I Need to Know about Sales I Learned from My Garden
by Alan Vengel Greg WrightSales has always been a high burnout profession. These days, with the intense focus on quarterly earnings reports, there is more pressure on sales professionals than ever before. The relentless push for immediate results can leave salespeople exhausted, frustrated, and wondering why they ever got themselves into this business. And it can leave sales organizations with a serious turnover problem. SPROUT! was written by two long-time sales veterans to help their fellow professionals rediscover enthusiasm for their chosen profession and to help sales organizations retain top talent. Vengel and Wright use a page-turning story to outline a new strategy for sales, one that will make salespeople better able to cope with the inevitable ups and downs and take a more effective, long-term approach. As the book begins, Marsha Molloy has had it. Once a top pharmaceutical sales representative so crackerjack her nickname was Marsha Money, she's been laid low by a tough economy and just plain exhaustion. The once-hungry top producer has seemingly lost her touch and grown indifferent to a sales culture that appears to value faxes, emails, and cell phone chats instead of the relationship building that had been her forte. An avid gardener on a visit to her local nursery, Marsha runs into Bob Rawlings, the store's new owner and an ex-sales professional himself. They begin to chat, and Marsha mentions her career frustrations. Bob replies that he'd had the same problem, but found that the more he began treating his business like his garden, the better his business grew - and a happier, more relaxed salesman appeared. Marsha is intrigued but puzzled - how could sales be like gardening? Bob takes Marsha under his wing and, with the assistance of several other salespeople he's mentored, teaches her the secrets of his sales garden. By using the authors' sales garden metaphor to change their whole way of thinking about sales, and by adhering to the easy, practical steps outlined in SPROUT! salespeople can beat the career blues, increase their sales, and sustain themselves for the long term.
The Long-Distance Team: Designing Your Team for Everyone's Success (The Long-Distance Worklife Series)
by Kevin Eikenberry Wayne TurmelDesign and cultivate remote work teams that actually work.From the experts who brought you The Long-Distance Leader and The Long-Distance Teammate comes the proven and practical guide for leaders to consciously design teams, define and create their desired culture, and encourage and nurture employee engagement-all from a distance. Team design and culture are often presented as separate concepts when they are in fact intertwined in the remote work setting. Using the 3C model of communication, collaboration, and cohesion, leaders will be given the tools to overcome challenges, such as proximity bias and deteriorating social connections, to create an environment where everyone can contribute and add value equally, regardless of location. The 3Cs are Communication-While communication is a fundamental part of being human, it is also a critical foundation of successful work. Without it, teams break down. Collaboration-Remote leaders face the misguided belief that physical presence is required to have a collaborative team. The truth is that proximity has nothing to do with successful collaboration. Cohesion-This dimension includes decidedly nonstructural aspects, such as relationships, trust, and accountability. While difficult to measure, a team's cohesion is critical to its success. Using this framework, leaders of all levels will learn to assess, design, and develop their communication channels, methods for remote collaboration, and ability to foster cohesion to build successful long-distance teams. While a hybrid culture will be different, it can, when done right, be better than what existed before.
Prayer for the Living: Stories
by Ben OkriTopical and timely, Booker Prize–winning author Ben Okri’s new collection of short stories blurs parallel realities and walks the line between darkness and magic.A Library Journal Best Book of 2021“No matter how different each story is in context or story line, Prayer for the Living is not simply a collection of different tales, it is a deliberate assemblage of universal truths that explores what it means to seek and to live.” —Los Angeles Review of BooksPlayful, frightening, shocking—these stories from a writer at the height of his power will make you think, or make you laugh. Sometimes they’ll make you want to look away, but they will always hold your gaze.These are stories set in London, in Byzantium, in the ghetto, in the Andes, and in a printer’s shop in Lagos. Characters include a murderer, a writer, a detective, a woman in a dream, a man in a mirror, a little girl, a prison door, and the author himself.Each one of these twenty-four stories will make you wonder if what you see in the world can really be all there is . . .
Tigerbelle: The Wyomia Tyus Story
by Wyomia Tyus Elizabeth TerzakisA timely memoir about world record–breaking Tyus's 1964 and 1968 Olympic victories, amid the turbulence of the 1960s, along with contemporary reflections.“Tyus proves as winning a storyteller as she was a runner . . . The ‘a’ in Wyomia is silent, but thankfully, the woman who owns that name is not.” —New York Times Book Review“Tigerbelle offers a fresh perspective on the history of women’s sports in the United States. From her one-of-a-kind accomplishments on the track to her contributions to equal pay and publicity for women through the Women’s Sports Foundation, Wyomia Tyus has earned her place in the pantheon of American sports sheroes and heroes.” —Billie Jean KingThe latest from Akashic’s Edge of Sports imprint, curated by Dave Zirin.In 1968, Wyomia Tyus became the first person ever to win gold medals in the 100-meter sprint in two consecutive Olympic Games, a feat that would not be repeated for twenty years or exceeded for almost fifty. Tigerbelle chronicles Tyus’s journey from her childhood as the daughter of a tenant dairy farmer through her Olympic triumphs to her post-competition struggles to make a way for herself and other female athletes.The Hidden Figures of sport, Tigerbelle helps to fill the gap currently occupying Black women’s place in American history, providing insight not only on what it takes to be a champion but also on what it means to stake out an identity in an often hostile world. Tyus’s exciting and uplifting story offers inspiration to readers from all walks of life.With a foreword by MSNBC host Joy Reid, and an afterword by sportswriter Dave Zirin.