Learn to identify, capture, and utilize impactful data for organizational transformation Impact & Excellence is the culmination of a four year research study into the most successful data-driven strategies for today's non-profit and government organizations. The book focuses on five strategic elements to success based on proven principles, with solutions that are easy to implement and often lead to sweeping change. Each chapter includes discussion questions and action items to help leaders implement key concepts in their own organizations. Included with purchase is access to the Measurement Culture Survey, which, will allow readers to access a free benchmark report. Learn to implement a measurement culture that emphasizes strong performance and measurable outcomes Read vivid case studies from successful organizations that do things differently Learn to utilize and leverage data to take decisive actions within your organization Avoid common barriers to developing a measurement culture and learn ways to overcome limitations The book utilizes a series of experiences and templates to help leaders develop a unique action plan tailored to their organization's particular circumstances. Filled with real success stories to inspire readers and with full study results available in the appendix, Impact & Excellence is a crucial resource for leaders to enable their social sector organizations to prosper and compete in today's economy.

Teachers empower both the next generation of learners and educators. Communities value the intricate roles and responsibilities of teachers: many of whom who go beyond the tangibles to cater to the learning needs of their students. The multidimensional and multifaceted relationship between teacher-education providers and teachers is a complex one. At one end of the spectrum sits the scholarship of teaching while at the enacted zone sits standards-based praxis. Teacher education and scholarship of teaching provides the avenue to demonstrate this interaction of knowledge, pedagogy, research and broadly, scholarship. Unfortunately, there is no strong consensus about the value of pedagogical preparation for teachers. This monograph highlights the broad focus on how education draws its knowledge base from various disciplines; advancing that education itself can become a plethora for shared discourse and reflection. The chapters provide fresh demonstrated understanding into practice-enabled research directions and emphasise the position of research-based praxis in both schools and in institutions entrusted with teacher education. Importantly, the monograph demonstrates the two-way communication between the community and teacher educators about knowledge, experiences, values and diversity and to add value with the sole aim to enhance learning. It highlights education is a collective endeavour in that education and teacher education are subsets of the community, and deliberations in communities add important synergy to education’s evolution and revolution. Thus, the process of inquiry is fundamental in education, and implies transcending traditional discipline-bound knowledge and processes. This monograph provides the challenge to educators that no single or specific discipline directs educational development and enrichment, nor does the latter exclude any.

"Based on extensive interviews with today's . . . corporate leaders, this look at how the best CEOs do their jobs focuses on the mindsets and actions that foster an environment of excellence"--

Make customer-centricity tangible, sustainable, and real by implementing structural and systemic changes to the DNA of your company. Businesses need to do more than sell to customers—they need to help them live their best lives. This superior experience is what customers expect and deserve from companies and it’s possible to deliver just that with the framework provided in The Customer Excellence Enterprise: A Playbook for Creating Customers for Life. An enlightening and pragmatic guide, The Customer Excellence Enterprise is for everyone who needs to elevate the customer experience to a fundamental revenue accelerator and value driver. With this fresh perspective on customer-centricity, companies can address the persistent disconnect between their customer-first claims and an often disappointing reality. Wayne Simmons and Tom DeWitt are practitioners and professors of customer excellence. Wayne is a leader in customer excellence and customer experience management at Pfizer, the Fortune 50 global leader in health care and life sciences. Tom is the founder of CXM@MSU, an industry-facing entity designed to advance customer experience management thought and practice, and the founder and architect of North America’s first master’s degree in Customer Experience Management (CXM) at the Broad College of Business, Michigan State University. Together, they expertly frame the complexities of consistently delivering a superior customer experience at enterprise and global scale and provide a compelling case for urgency for companies to take the journey to become a Customer Excellence Enterprise (CXE). Outlining the leadership, organizational, operational, and commercial facets essential for sustained success, The Customer Excellence Enterprise is a comprehensive playbook for any company seeking to differentiate deeply from competitors and win preferred positions in the hearts and minds of today’s discerning customers. With insights into how companies can become structurally and systemically predisposed to deliver exceptional experiences, the authors draw on real-world practice and examples from customer experience “outliers”―companies renowned for consistently improving their customers' lives. Readers will also find: Practical strategies for building a case for urgency and mobilizing all levels of the enterprise to deliver tangible results. Winning methods to build deep emotional connections that lead to lifelong customer relationships. Insights into the habits and ways of working from customer experience industry outliers. The Customer Excellence Enterprise: A Playbook for Creating Customers for Life is a must-have for the boards of directors, C-Suite executives, line of business leaders and managers, marketers, sales teams, product leaders, human resources, customer experience, operations and other customer-facing professionals tasked with answering pressing questions like, Why are exceptional customer experiences still so rare? and If customers are truly the most valuable of corporate assets, why are they consistently being treated so poorly? This book serves as an invaluable tool and urgent call to action for anyone committed to elevating how customers are viewed, treated, and valued—the keys to creating customers for life.

This book reports findings of a three-nation study of public relations and communication management sponsored by the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Research Foundation. The Excellence Study provides communication managers and public relations practitioners with information critical to their own professional growth, and supplies organizations with tools that help them communicate more effectively and build beneficial relations with key publics. Communication excellence is a powerful idea of sweeping scope that applies to all organizations -- large or small -- that need to communicate effectively with publics on whom the organization's survival and growth depend. The essential elements of excellent communication are the same for corporations, not-for-profit organizations, government agencies, and professional/trade associations. And they are applicable on a global basis. The study identifies three spheres of communication excellence. These spheres consider the overall function and role of communication in organizations, and define the organization of this book. They are: * the core or inner sphere of communication excellence -- the knowledge base of the communication department, * the shared expectations of top communicators and senior managers about the function and role of communication, and * the organization's culture -- the larger context that either nurtures or impedes communication excellence. This text also examines communication excellence as demonstrated in specific programs developed for specific publics.

We are entering a new era—an era of impact. The largest intergenerational transfer of wealth in history will soon be under way, bringing with it the potential for huge increases in philanthropic funding. Engine of Impact shows how nonprofits can apply the principles of strategic leadership to attract greater financial support and leverage that funding to maximum effect. As Good to Great author Jim Collins writes in his foreword, this book offers "a detailed roadmap of disciplined thought and action for turning a good nonprofit into one that can achieve great impact at scale." William F. Meehan III and Kim Starkey Jonker identify seven essential components of strategic leadership that set high-achieving organizations apart from the rest of the nonprofit sector. Together, these components form an "engine of impact"—a system that organizations must build, tune, and fuel if they hope to make a real difference in the world. Drawing on decades of teaching, advising, grantmaking, and research, Meehan and Jonker provide an actionable guide that executives, staff, board members, and donors can use to jumpstart their own performance and to achieve extraordinary results for their organization. Along with setting forth best practices using real-world examples, the authors outline common management challenges faced by nonprofits, showing how these challenges differ from those faced by for-profit businesses in important and often-overlooked ways. By offering crucial insights on the fundamentals of nonprofit management, this book will help leaders equip their organizations to fire on all cylinders and unleash the full potential of the nonprofit sector. Visit www.engineofimpact.org for additional information.

Exploring the implications of 10 years of data from more than 21,000 communication professionals across Europe, combined with case studies and interviews with senior communication directors from top European companies and organisations, this book provides an insight into how to build, develop and lead excellent communication. It presents a culmination of research and best practice models, covering strategic communication, the impact on reputation, crisis, mediatisation, organisational culture, new digital, social and mobile media as well as the development of professionalisation. Providing clear guidance on the difference between normal and excellent communications departments, the book shows readers how communication can effectively influence and support the organisation and positively fit within the business strategy of today’s global and changing markets. The study behind this book, the European Communication Monitor, is known as the most comprehensive provider of reliable data in the communication field worldwide.