Two leading experts on designing strategic conversations unveil a simple, creative process that allows teams to tackle their most challenging issues. In our fast-changing world, leaders are increasingly confronted by messy, multifaceted challenges that require collaboration to resolve. But the standard methods for tackling these challenges—meetings packed with data-drenched presentations or brainstorming sessions that circle back to nowhere—just don’t deliver. Great strategic conversations generate breakthrough insights by combining the best ideas of people with different backgrounds and perspectives. In this book, two experts “crack the code” on what it takes to design creative, collaborative problem-solving sessions that soar rather than sink. Drawing on decades of experience as innovation strategists—and supported by cutting-edge social science research, dozens of real-life examples, and interviews with well over 100 thought leaders, executives, and fellow practitioners— they unveil a simple, creative process that leaders and their teams can use to unlock solutions to their most vexing issues. The book also includes a “Starter Kit” full of tools and tips for putting the book’s core principles into practice.

Are you a senior executive, board member, emerging leader, or consultant responsible for leading a strategic plan that actually gets implemented and delivers results? ​Strategic Impact : A Leader’s Three-Step Framework for the Customized Vital Strategic Plan presents a trailblazing method that will help you guide and customize your organization’s strategic planning program. Dr. Poore delivers innovation through virtual strategy workshops, digital communication opportunities, and new, accessible cloud-based tracking systems. Strategic Impact provides a reliable, three-step framework, applicable to any organization, regardless of size, scale, or structure, allowing you to: • Declutter the typically complicated strategic planning process. • Deliver a destiny-shaping program in an efficient, budget-conscious way—including for mission-driven small businesses and nonprofits with limited resources. • Plan and lead a life-changing leadership workshop experience culminating in strategic goals. • Craft a compelling written strategic plan which can be digitized and communicated through social media. • Implement an effective tracking and communication system to monitor progress and ensure accountability. • Engage employees, customers, and key audiences in celebrating your organization’s strategic impact. Unlike other strategic planning books, Strategic Impact places intense focus on curating a vibrant, life-changing strategic planning workshop that strengthens leadership bonds and commitment for implementation. It simplifies the strategic planning process and ensures a clear, comprehensive, and customizable approach for you and your leadership team. Dr. Poore's emphasis on strategic goal implementation will amplify your organization’s ability to get it done, fulfill your mission and purpose, and achieve strategic impact!

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.

Speaking with Strategic Impact is for business people who make their living-or their mark-through presentations long and short. You'll get specific strategic and tactical advice to keep you on the mark in your presentations and meetings-and differentiate you from the vast majority of business presenters.

Strategic Communication at Work provides the reader with a practical approach to engaging in all types of communication—one-on-one, small group, and large group—to achieve intended results. The framework presented enables readers to make informed decisions that increase the effectiveness of their communication and enhance their credibility. Lennard presents the IMPACT Paradigm—Intending, Messaging, Presence, Attending, Connecting, and Together—in the first part of the book explaining the benefits of using a single framework for all strategic communication. The second part illustrates how to apply these principles and approach interactions with a purposeful mindset, express ideas congruently, and connect with others. The third part offers curated exercises for practicing communication skills, along with specific ways to integrate the paradigm into everyday communication interactions. The text’s clear and practical approach will appeal to graduate students of business communication, as well as instructors and professionals interested in improving their communication skills.

The second edition of the Impact Evaluation in Practice handbook is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to impact evaluation for policy makers and development practitioners. First published in 2011, it has been used widely across the development and academic communities. The book incorporates real-world examples to present practical guidelines for designing and implementing impact evaluations. Readers will gain an understanding of impact evaluations and the best ways to use them to design evidence-based policies and programs. The updated version covers the newest techniques for evaluating programs and includes state-of-the-art implementation advice, as well as an expanded set of examples and case studies that draw on recent development challenges. It also includes new material on research ethics and partnerships to conduct impact evaluation. The handbook is divided into four sections: Part One discusses what to evaluate and why; Part Two presents the main impact evaluation methods; Part Three addresses how to manage impact evaluations; Part Four reviews impact evaluation sampling and data collection. Case studies illustrate different applications of impact evaluations. The book links to complementary instructional material available online, including an applied case as well as questions and answers. The updated second edition will be a valuable resource for the international development community, universities, and policy makers looking to build better evidence around what works in development.