SHAPERS is the definitive guide to elevate the way you work and live. PRAISE FOR SHAPERS: "Do you wish you could throw yourself into your work, become energised and enriched by it, and leave the world a better place? Then SHAPERS is for you. Altman shows that your idiosyncrasies and unique skills are not the obstacles to achievement and purpose. They are the path.” –Daniel H. Pink, #1 New York Times bestselling author of WHEN and DRIVE “With countless nuggets of timeless wisdom, SHAPERS gently nudges readers to envision new possibilities for them to build more meaningful, joyful work and lives.” –Amy C. Edmondson, Professor, Harvard Business School, author of The Fearless Organisation and Teaming "Altman mixes together case studies, anecdotes and careful empirical research to offer wise and practical advice about how to make work better, and thus to get better work. If companies followed even a quarter of his suggestions they would foster a more productive and more satisfied workplace for everyone. And his engaging, informal style makes for effortless reading.” –Barry Schwartz teaches at Haas School of Business, U.C. Berkeley and is the author of The Paradox of Choice and Why We Work We work in places, ways, and on things that were once the stuff of sci-fi flicks. Yet the reality is that most professionals are unhappy in their work. Whether you want to reset your career, strike out on your own, or just ignite more joy in what you do, this illuminating productivity book shows you how to create a working life that reveals meaning while rewriting our collective future. When we connect with something larger than ourselves, we enjoy the fruits of our labour as well as the journey — the sweat and the struggle. It’s the unyielding commitment to a purpose that gives shapers their shimmer. The benefits of this shine are plentiful: enhanced wellbeing, more community engagement, a healthier economy, better work for all, and a more beautiful world. Altman is a workologist who guides companies to leave politics and posturing behind in favour of transparent and trusting cultures. After decades facilitating culture-defining practices for leaders, you’ll learn everything he knows: Adopt the mindset for creativity, innovation, and boundless growth Amplify your career and inspire others to do the same Help create engaged teams through building leadership skills Become a better leader through the five new modes of leadership ethics Learn what underpins the most resilient organisations in the world The stories and anecdotes in SHAPERS come from hundreds of interviews with innovators dedicated to improving our outdated system of work. These trailblazers include CEOs, organisational designers, social psychologists, workplace strategists, and start-up entrepreneurs. See your work from a whole new perspective and focus on what fulfils you. If you seek the freedom to approach work in your own unique way and become energised by what you do, then SHAPERS is your guide.

Despite roughly thirty years of experience with growth management programs, which are basically land-use planning tools, most U.S. communities do not plan for how best to limit or manage rapid growth; in fact, most communities do not plan at all. In the absence of planning, land-use boards, regulators, and other governing bodies simply react to initiatives from the private sector. The result is predictably haphazard and does not allow communities to achieve such goals as protecting quality of life, attracting certain types of businesses while discouraging others, conserving wildlife or preserving open spaces, and so forth. In contrast, planning by managing growth can help a town or city achieve any number of goals. But it is a complex task. This book brings the benefit of state and local experiences with growth management to researchers, students, and particularly practitioners who seek guidance in these matters. Kelly provides a much-needed context from which any community can answer the following questions: Does growth management work? Is it appropriate for the community and the particular problems that it is trying to address? Is one type of growth management program more appropriate than another for our community? Will the program in question have undesirable (or desirable) side effects?What are the likely effects of adopting no growth management program at all? This work is invaluable for the citizen volunteers who sit on land-use boards, including planning and zoning commissions, conservation commissions, and inland wetlands agencies. In addition, it can aid mayors, city managers, and city councils in interviewing and selecting candidates for town planner.

Shaper Nations provides illuminating perspectives on the national strategies of eight emerging and established countries that are shaping global politics at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The volume’s authors offer a unique viewpoint: they live and work primarily in the country about which they write, bringing an insider’s feel for national debates and politics. The conventional wisdom on national strategy suggests that these states have clear central authority, coherently connect means to ends, and focus on their geopolitical environment. These essays suggest a different conclusion. In seven key countries—Brazil, China, Germany, India, Israel, Russia, and Turkey—strategy is dominated by nonstate threats, domestic politics, the distorting effect of history and national identity, economic development concerns, and the sheer difficulty, in the face of many powerful internal and external constraints, of pursuing an effective national strategy. The shapers represent a new trend in the international arena with important consequences. Among them is a more uncertain world in which countries concentrate on their own development rather than on shared problems that might divert precious resources, and attend more to regional than to global order. In responding to these shaper states, the United States must understand the sources of their national strategies in determining its own role on the global stage.