Facilitation is an emerging and exciting profession!

A facilitator helps groups of people to enable them to interact more effectively in a wide range of situations and occupations, including workplaces, organisational planning, leisure and health activities and community development.

Review

About the Author

Available in Paperback

When Profit from the Core was published in 2001, it became an international bestseller, helping hundreds of companies find their way back to profitable growth after the bursting of the Internet bubble.

The 2007 global financial meltdown reaffirmed the perils of pursuing heady growth through untested strategies, as firms in industries from finance to retailing to automobiles strayed too far from their core businesses and suffered the consequences. In this updated edition of Profit from the Core, authors Chris Zook and James Allen show that a renewed focus on the core is more critical than ever as firms seek to rebuild their competitive advantage coming out of the downturn—and that a strong core will be the foundation for successful expansion as the economy recovers. 

Based on more than ten years of Bain & Company research and analysis and fresh examples from firms responding to the current downturn, the book outlines what today’s executives and managers need to do now to revitalize their core, identify the next wave of profitable growth, and build on it successfully. Zook and Allen explain how companies can:

• Develop a strong, well-defined core and use it to establish a leadership position
• Follow the golden rule of strategy: discourage competitors from investing in your core
• Assess whether your core is operating at its full potential
• Uncover hidden assets in your core that provide the seeds for new growth
• Find a repeatable formula to apply core business strengths in adjacent markets

Building on powerful and proven ideas to meet today’s formidable business challenges, Profit from the Core is the back-to-basics strategy field guide no manager should be without.

Available in Hardback and Kindle Edition - click below

Rich Dad Poor Dad is Robert's story of growing up with two dads — his real father and the father of his best friend, his rich dad — and the ways in which both men shaped his thoughts about * and investing. The book explodes the myth that you need to earn a high income to be rich and explains the difference between working for * and having your * work for you.

Available in Paperback

A treasury of hundreds of quick, practical, and easy-to-read strategies.

Your eyes will be opened to new ideas in this crucial branch of marketing, including why focus groups, value-price positioning, discount pricing, and being the best usually fail; the critical emotion that most influences your prospects - and how to deal with it; the vital role of vividness, focus, "anchors", and stereotypes; the importance of Halo, Cocktail Party, and Lake Wobegon Effects; marketing lessons from black holes, grocery lists, the Hearsay Rule, and the fame of Pikes Peak; dozens of proven yet consistently over-looked ideas for research, presentations, publicity, advertising, and client retention; and much more.

©2008 Harry Beckwith (P)2008 Hachette Audio

Available in Paperback, Hardback, Audio and Kindle Edition

...How to Lead Effective Collaboration with Agile Teams 

Have you ever been with a team that was spinning in circles and felt unsure how to help? Have you ever been in the room with a high-conflict group and wanted to flee?

If you are responsible for leading teams of any size toward better outcomes, then chances are you have stepped into the role of facilitator at some point. But what does it mean to be a facilitator? While sticky notes, dot voting, and gathering people around a whiteboard are all helpful activities, they can only take us so far.

Introducing the Five Guiding Principles of the Agile Coach Facilitation Stance, this book is your guide to moving your team forward, even when things get tough. You will learn to lead your team toward effective collaboration by inviting different points of view (even when it creates conflict), remaining unbiased in high-stakes meetings, understanding what the group needs, and navigating difficult interpersonal dynamics.

The Art of Facilitation is for anyone who is ready to lead with self-awareness and group insight—who is ready to help their teams work more efficiently and effectively in a truly collaborative environment.

Marsha Acker is a professional facilitator and executive coach with 25 years of experience supporting leaders as they tackle complex challenges and lead change in their organisations. The founder and CEO of TeamCatapult, she uses systems thinking, structural dynamics, dialogue, and agility to help teams collaborate and align with clarity, purpose, and vision.

Available in Paperback, Audiobook and Kindle

Being deprived of social gatherings revealed just how important they are; to connect with others, collaborate, share ideas and create moving, life-affirming experiences.

If there's one thing lockdown showed us, it's that time together is a gift we've too often taken for granted.

In The Art of Gathering, Priya Parker shows us how to ensure that however we meet, it's a truly transformative experience. An expert on organizing successful gatherings whether in conference centres, crisis zones or her living room, Parker sets forth a human-centred approach to gathering that can help us create meaningful, memorable moments - large and small, for work and play.

The result is a book full of exciting real-world ideas that will forever alter the way you look at your next business meeting, dinner party and garden barbecue.
___________________________

'Hosts of all kinds, this is a must-read!' Chris Anderson, creator of TED

'Priya Parker has created both an art and a science to gathering in ways that can bring joy and fulfilment to any meeting' Deepak Chopra

'A long overdue and urgent manifesto' Seth Godin, New York Times bestselling author of This is Marketing

Available in Paperback, Audiobook and Kindle Edition

What do Barbie dolls, Nokia phones, and American Express credit cards have in common? They all represent a powerful business model called pyramid profit. How about Intel, Microsoft, and Stephen King? They all exploit another model called value chain position profit.

The Art of Profitability reveals the invisible but important governing principles that can mean the difference between business failure and success. Writing with wit and provocative insight, best selling author Adrian Slywotzy tells the story of eccentric strategy teacher David Zhao and his young student. Each of the book's chapters presents a lesson from the exuberant and always challenging master - and a profit paradigm that will open your mind to the many ways to make profit happen.

You'll understand - from a different perspective - how your company and your competitors generate profit, which business models can be best applied to your profit-making strategy, what specific actions your organization can take in the next ninety days to improve its bottom line, and more.

With scores of examples from today's global marketplace, a weekly assignment, and an eclectic business reading list ranging from Obvious Adams to Einstein's Dreams, The Art of Profitability invites anyone in business to engage in the lively exchange between mentor and protégé.

Enter the classroom. Discover the art. And learn which form of profitability will help your company succeed today and grow tomorrow.

©2002 Mercer Management Consulting, Inc. All Rights Reserved. (P)2003 Time Warner AudioBooks. A division of the AOL Time Warner Book Group.

Available in Paperback, Hardback, Audio and Kindle Edition

This totally revised underground best seller, The E-Myth, Michael Gerber dispels the myths surrounding starting your own business and shows how commonplace assumptions can get in the way of running a business.

He walks you through the steps in the life of a business, from entrepreneurial infancy, through adolescent growing pains, to the mature entrepreneurial perspective, the guiding light of all businesses that succeed, and shows how to apply the lessons of franchising to any business, whether or not it is a franchise. Finally, Gerber draws the vital, often overlooked distinction between working on your business and working in your business. After you have finished The E-Myth Revisited, you will truly be able to grow your business in a predictable and productive way.

©1955, 2001, 2003, 2004 Michael E. Gerber (P)2004 HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Available in Paperback, Audio, Audio CD and Kindle Edition

Available in Audio, Hardback and Audio CD

The New York Times best-selling team leadership handbook for modern executives, managers, and organizations

After her first two weeks observing the problems at DecisionTech, Kathryn Petersen, its new CEO, had more than a few moments when she wondered if she should have taken the job. But Kathryn knew there was little chance she would have turned it down. After all, retirement had made her antsy, and nothing excited her more than a challenge. What she could not have known when she accepted the job, however, was just how dysfunctional her team was, and how team members would challenge her in ways that no one ever had before.

For twenty years, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team has been engaging audiences with a page-turning, realistic fable that follows the travails of Kathryn Petersen, DecisionTech’s CEO, as she faces the ultimate leadership crisis. She must unite a team in such disarray that it threatens to derail the entire company.

Equal parts leadership fable and business handbook, this definitive source on teamwork by Patrick Lencioni reveals the five behavioral tendencies that go to the heart of why even the best teams struggle. He offers a powerful model and step-by-step guide for overcoming those dysfunctions and getting every one rowing in the same direction.

Today, the lessons in The Five Dysfunctions of a Team are more relevant than ever. This special anniversary edition celebrates one of the best-selling business books of all time with a new foreword from the author that reflects on its legacy and lessons.

Available in Hardback, Audiobook and Kindle Edition