Jennifer Garvey Berger

Keith Johnston

When faced with complex challenges or uncertain outcomes, many leaders believe that if they are smart enough, work hard enough, or turn to the best management tools, they will be able to find the right answer, predict and plan for the future, and break down tasks to produce controllable results. But what are leaders to do when this isn't the case? Rather than offering one-size-fits-all tips and tricks drawn from the realm of business as usual, Simple Habits for Complex Times provides three integral practices that enable leaders to navigate the unknown. By taking multiple perspectives, asking different questions, and seeing more of their system, leaders can better understand themselves, their roles, and the world around them. They can become more nimble, respond with agility, and guide their organizations to thrive in an ever-shifting business landscape. The more leaders use these simple habits, the more they enhance their performance and solve increasingly common, sticky business issues with greater acumen. Whether in large or small organizations, in government or the private sector, in the U.S. or overseas, leaders will turn to this book as a companion that helps them grow into the best version of themselves.

Powerful Practices for Leaders

Simple Habits for Complex Times

Listen to people in every field and you'll hear a call for more sophisticated leadership—for leaders who can solve more complex problems than the human race has ever faced. But these leaders won't simply come to the fore; we have to develop them, and we must cultivate them as quickly as is humanly possible. Changing on the Job is a means to this end. As opposed to showing readers how to play the role of a leader in a "paint by numbers" fashion, Changing on the Job builds on theories of adult growth and development to help readers become more thoughtful individuals, capable of leading in any scenario. Moving from the theoretical to the practical, and employing real-world examples, author Jennifer Garvey Berger offers a set of building blocks to help cultivate an agile workforce while improving performance. Coaches, HR professionals, thoughtful leaders, and anyone who wants to flourish on the job will find this book a vital resource for developing their own capacities and those of the talent that they support.

Developing Leaders for a Complex World

Changing on the Job

Author and consultant Jennifer Garvey Berger has worked with all types of leaders - from top executives at Google to nonprofit directors who are trying to make a dent in social change. She hears a version of the same plea from every client in nearly every sector around the world: "I know that complexity and uncertainty are testing my instincts, but I don't know which to trust. Is there some way to know what to do when I can't know what's next?" Her newest work is an answer to this plea. Using her background in adult development, complexity theories, and leadership consultancy, Garvey Berger discerns five pernicious and pervasive "mind traps" to frame the book. These are: the desire for simple stories, our sense that we are right, our desire to get along with others in our group, our fixation with control, and our constant quest to protect and defend our egos. In addition to understanding why these natural impulses steer us wrong in a fast-moving world, leaders will get powerful questions and approaches that help them escape these patterns.

How to Thrive in Complexity

Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps

Carolyn Coughlin

There is a complexity paradox that we all need to understand. We humans have a natural inclination towards connection, engagement, and creativity – all necessary skills to thrive in complexity. The problem is that the stress caused by uncertainty and ambiguity makes it difficult to tap into this inclination when we need it the most. This book offers a set of practices that help you not only understand complexity but actually hack into your own nervous system to bring your natural capacities back online. By paying close attention to your body, redefining your emotional experiences, and connecting more deeply to others, you can transform the anxiety, exhaustion, and overwhelm that complexity creates. Better still, as you unleash your natural complexity genius, you create the conditions for those around you to flourish in an uncertain world.

Growing Your Inner Capacity to Lead

Unleash Your Complexity Genius

Author and consultant Jennifer Garvey Berger has worked with all types of leaders—from top executives at Google to nonprofit directors who are trying to make a dent in social change. She hears a version of the same plea from every client in nearly every sector around the world: "I know that complexity and uncertainty are testing my instincts, but I don't know which to trust. Is there some way to know what to do when I can't know what's next?" Her newest work is an answer to this plea. Using her background in adult development, complexity theories, and leadership consultancy, Garvey Berger discerns five pernicious and pervasive "mind traps" to frame the book. These are: the desire for simple stories, our sense that we are right, our desire to get along with others in our group, our fixation with control, and our constant quest to protect and defend our egos. In addition to understanding why these natural impulses steer us wrong in a fast-moving world, leaders will get powerful questions and approaches that help them escape these patterns.

We humans have a natural inclination towards connection, engagement and creativity - all necessary skills to thrive in complexity. At the same time, the stress caused by uncertainty and ambiguity can make it hard to tap into this inclination. This book offers a set of practices that help you not only understand complexity but actually hack into your nervous system to bring your natural capacities back online. We do this by helping your body's natural complexity management gifts take charge: by learning to notice and shift our nervous systems through rest, movement, and experimentation; by developing a new relationship to our emotions; and by leaning into connections and love. Following the narrative of Unlocking Leadership Mindtraps, this book illustrates how paying close attention to our body, redefining our emotional experiences, and shifting our engagement to our surrounding environment can transform the anxiety, exhaustion, and overwhelm that complexity creates. Instead, we can cultivate better connection, engagement, and creativity--thereby creating the conditions for us and those around us to thrive in a complex world by making best use of the internal natural resources we already have.

Vi er i et nyt århundrede, der har sin helt egen stemme, som opfordrer os til at strække vores bevidsthed for at kunne navigere klogere, mere agilt og meningsfyldt i den kompleksitet og de udfordringer, som vores arbejdspladser står overfor. Erhvervslivet er begyndt at erkende, at vi bliver nødt til at understøtte udviklingen af ledere og medarbejdere i stedet for at presse dem til at yde mere for mindre. Der er brug for ledere, som kan håndtere mere komplekse problemstillinger og en større global forbundethed, end menneskeheden tidligere har oplevet. Vi kan ikke længere nøjes med et smalt fokus og en snæver bevidsthed. Vi efterspørger mere sofistikeret ledelse og lederskab, men den type ledere dukker ikke bare op af sig selv. Vi er nødt til at udvikle dem. Men hvordan gør vi det? Jennifer Garvey Berger giver et bud herpå i denne bog, hvor hun kortlægger udviklingsrytmen i den menneskelige bevidsthed, meningsskabelse og evne til at rumme og håndtere kompleksitet. Hun anviser en vej til, hvordan vi kan understøtte denne rytme gennem en mere psykologisk rummelig arbejdsplads, hvor vi kan skabe fremragende resultater samtidig med, at mennesker stortrives. Jennifers udgangspunkt er personlig udviklingsorienteret teori og Robert Kegans adult development-teori, der i disse år stormer ind på ledelsesgangene i hele verden. Denne teori er ikke en større-er-bedre-teori. Det er en større-er-større-teori, og forskellen mellem disse perspektiver er vigtig. Bogen anviser vejen til at skabe mere sofistikeret ledelse og lederskab, der åbner for større og mere inkluderende perspektiver, og den er en af de mest praktiske og tilgængelige bøger om emnet. De mange case-eksempler illustrerer denne bevidste udviklingsorienterede tilgang til os selv, andre omkring os og hele organisationsstrukturen. Det er en bevidst tilgang, hvor strækningen af vores iboende potentiale og understøttelsen af vores udviklingskant er nænsomt og ambitiøst vævet ind i hver dialog, hvert møde og hvert projekt gennem tre bevidsthedsvaner: 1) stil anderledes spørgsmål, 2) tag flere perspektiver og 3) se systemet. Bogen kan læses af alle men er specielt relevant for ledere, der ønsker at være foregangspersoner for at skabe de psykologisk rummelige arbejdspladser, hvor både resultater og mennesker stortrives. Men også coaches, HR-professionelle og andre med interesse for at understøtte både trivsel og resultater på jobbet, vil få glæde af bogen. Oversat fra engelsk af Hanne Lindblad.

Jennifer Garvey Berger

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