Discover the transformational work of student Olivia Van Ledtje, who exemplifies responsible online activism, inspiring both kids and adults in the global community. Kids are naturally curious about the world around them. They seek ways to understand and interact with their environment, often using digital tools to do so. Imagine a world where children’s curiosities are amplified -- helping them see the power of their thinking, perspective and voice. Spark Change examines the multitude of possibilities available when students are given the opportunity to amplify their learning online, centering on three ideas of citizenship: be a good person, be critical and be an advocate for something you care about in life. The book introduces readers to Liv, a young changemaker empowered to use digital tools to create and share content online. Liv’s story offers readers an opportunity to explore how students can use technology as a tool for empathy, equity and activism. Kids can’t become changemakers if they aren’t empowered to think beyond their own community. Liv’s online sense of agency serves as an example of maximizing opportunities, developing a powerful voice and making global connections that deepen her compassion for people and the world. This book: • Follows a model of gradual release of responsibility -- I do, we do, you do -- to show how to teach kids how to approach connected-learning experiences. • Draws on rich literacy and technology research on student identity and pairing literacy and thinking in a digital age. • Illustrates the value of creation and connected learning, weaving in the critical need for digital literacy for students. • Features young students as digital leaders, providing examples of digital activism and the power of authentic student voice and participation. Connected-learning opportunities help students develop key understandings about the world around them. This book shows how these understandings lead to social action, and how students develop a deeper sense of empathy and kindness from interacting with the world.

Awards for Spark Change: • Nautilus Awards 2020 in Silver: Gift & Specialty • American Book Fest 2020 Best Book Award Winner in Spirituality: Inspirational • 2020 IAN Book of the Year Award Finalist: Spiritual/Inspirational Attain greater self-awareness and orient toward your highest potential through a process of engaged, incisive questioning. It’s been said that finding the right question is as important as finding its answer. As author Jennie Lee writes, “Quality questions lead to quality answers. Questions promote deeper thought, connection, authenticity, and humility.” In Spark Change, Lee shows you how to identify your most important personal questions and explore how they might redefine the trajectory of your life. Here, Lee guides you through 108 inspiring prompts designed to deepen your awareness of your innermost needs and initiate powerful shifts throughout your life. Whether it’s examining the attitudes that hold you back or investigating where you truly want to go in life, these guided inquiries are meant to cultivate gratitude for your gifts, peace with the present moment, and resilience in the face of life’s challenges. For the last two decades, Lee has used conscious inquiry practices to encourage self-reflection in her yoga therapy practice. Inspired by the source teachings of classical yoga as well as Lee’s own inner journey, these prompts delve into some of the most enduring questions of psychology, self-improvement, and the spiritual path. With Lee’s piercing insight and constant guidance, Spark Change provides 108 prime opportunities to stop, ponder, and listen to the call of your most essential self.

“A plethora of insights about nature and ourselves, revealed by one man’s journey as he comes to terms with human exploitation of our planet.” —Dr. James Hansen, climate scientist and former director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies Life on one-tenth the fossil fuels turns out to be awesome. We all want to be happy. Yet as we consume ever more in a frantic bid for happiness, global warming worsens. Alarmed by drastic changes now occurring in the Earth’s climate systems, Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist and suburban father of two, embarked on a journey to change his life and the world. He began by bicycling, growing food, meditating, and making other simple, fulfilling changes. Ultimately, he slashed his climate impact to under a tenth of the US average and became happier in the process. Being the Change explores the connections between our individual daily actions and our collective predicament. It merges science, spirituality, and practical action to develop a satisfying and appropriate response to global warming. Part one exposes our interconnected predicament: overpopulation, global warming, industrial agriculture, growth-addicted economics, a sold-out political system, and a mindset of separation from nature. It also includes a readable but authoritative overview of climate science. Part two offers a response at once obvious and unprecedented: mindfully opting out of this broken system and aligning our daily lives with the biosphere. The core message is deeply optimistic: living without fossil fuels is not only possible, it can be better. “In this timely and provocative book, Peter Kalmus points out that changing the world has to start with changing our own lives. It’s a crucial message that needs to be heard.” —John Michael Greer, author of After Progress and The Retro Future

This practical guide shows how to facilitate collaboration among diverse individuals and organizations to navigate complexity and create change in our interconnected world. The social and environmental challenges we face today are not only complex, they are also systemic and structural and have no obvious solutions. They require diverse combinations of people, organizations, and sectors to coordinate actions and work together even when the way forward is unclear. Even so, collaborative efforts often fail because they attempt to navigate complexity with traditional strategic plans, created by hierarchies that ignore the way people naturally connect. By embracing a living-systems approach to organizing, impact networks bring people together to build relationships across boundaries; leverage the existing work, skills, and motivations of the group; and make progress amid unpredictable and ever-changing conditions. As a powerful and flexible organizing system that can span regions, organizations, and silos of all kinds, impact networks underlie some of the most impressive and large-scale efforts to create change across the globe. David Ehrlichman draws on his experience as a network builder; interviews with dozens of network leaders; and insights from the fields of network science, community building, and systems thinking to provide a clear process for creating and developing impact networks. Given the increasing complexity of our society and the issues we face, our ability to form, grow, and work through networks has never been more essential.

The hottest trend spotter in North America reveals powerful strategies for thriving in any economic climate. Did you know that Hewlett?Packard, Disney, Hyatt, MTV, CNN, Microsoft, Burger King, and GE all started during periods of economic recession? Periods of uncertainty fuel tremendous opportunity, but the deck gets reshuffled and the rules of the game get changed. EXPLOITING CHAOS is the ultimate business survival guide for all those looking to change the world. Topics include: SPARKING A REVOLUTION, TREND: HUNTING, ADAPTIVE INNOVATION and INFECTIOUS MESSAGING.

Unlock the Potential in Your Employee Survey You spend months crafting the right survey questions and planning how to share the results with senior leaders and managers. Then you anxiously anticipate the responses. But once the data trickle in, nothing happens, no one acts, and your employees wait and wait for change. What happened? When did the survey become just another “check the box” task for HR to administer and employees to fill out? In Engaging the Workplace: Using Surveys to Spark Change, Sarah R. Johnson has scanned the diminishing state of the organizational survey and reached a profound, yet simple, conclusion: Companies don’t know why they want to conduct a survey and how they plan to act on its results. As the big data movement took off, companies and their HR departments sought to capture, measure, and evaluate whatever data they could get their hands on. This led to more surveys—annual, semiannual, quarterly, pulse—all in the name of compiling more information and driving an engagement score. In theory, leaders could look at these frequent snapshots of how their employees were doing and determine what actions to take. But this increase in data has instead produced gridlock. Leaders put off next steps until the next survey and its results arrive, while employees lose faith in the survey’s potential to make a difference. With Engaging the Workplace, you can relaunch your survey process. When executed properly, the survey can enable leaders to make decisions based on data, rather than on fads, trends, or guesses. This means baking action planning into its design and ditching the one-size-fits-all trend in survey administration. After all, your company is not like any other. Use the survey to support the people analytics program you need and drive organizational excellence.