In Grounded Vision, William Major puts contemporary agrarian thinking into a conciliatory and productive dialogue with academic criticism. He argues that the lack of participation in academic discussions means a loss to both agrarians and academics, since agrarian thought can enrich other ongoing discussions on topics such as ecocriticism, postmodernism, feminism, work studies, and politics--especially in light of the recent upsurge in grassroots cultural and environmental activities critical of modernity, such as the sustainable agriculture and slow food movements.

Building the Bridge As You Walk On It tells the personal stories of people who have embraced deep change and inspired author Robert Quinn to take his concept one step further and develop a new model of leadershipthe fundamental state of leadership. The exploration of this transformative state is at the very heart of the book. Quinn shows how anyone can enter the fundamental state of leadership by engaging in the eight practices that center on the theme of ever-increasing integrityreflective action, authentic engagement, appreciative inquiry, grounded vision, adaptive confidence, detached interdependence, responsible freedom, and tough love. After each chapter, Quinn challenges you to assess yourself with respect to each practice and to formulate a strategy for personal growth.

As most managers know, you need a vision to motivate employees to achieve goals. But people, and companies, lose focus, and the future appears hazy. People say, We're getting stale, or, I just don't know where we're headed. Leaders know they need a vision to bring people together. And they know a good vision will renew enthusiasm and commitment. But waiting for inspiration rarely works—sometimes you need a vision now. But how? Recharge Your Team not only shows managers how to create an effective vision—it shows how to do it in as little as four hours, using a time-tested, proven approach. Traditionally, companies call in consultants to help create a vision. Experts can help—for $4,000 per day plus expenses. And then there's the time involved: Visioning efforts can take months. This book offers a less-expensive, faster method. Called Grounded Visioning, and based on a concept called appreciative inquiry, the process allows groups to come up with a revitalizing vision that everyone buys into in half a day or less. How? As this book shows, the key is to be sure everyone takes part, to base the vision on how the team acts when at its best, and to imagine a vision bold enough to inspire but practical enough to feel achievable. This book covers the six quick but essential steps that ensure such results—with small teams or large groups. And any manager, not just trainers or HR people, can lead a successful Grounded Visioning session. Grounded visioning is a breakthrough concept of breathtaking simplicity and power that any leader can put to use today. It works, because it frees employees to share their dreams, hopes, and aspirations. As they soar, a vision naturally arises that recharges the team.

​Inspired by a new, transformative era in human and business relations, this book provides a unique perspective on the business transformation that results from the collaboration between suppliers and their strategic customers. It is all about guiding organizational change and business transformation, starting with sales itself. Companies choosing this approach can make a significant and meaningful difference with strategic customers, moving beyond the competition. By challenging existing business assumptions and creating new perspectives on the marketplace, organizations can increase value across traditional company borders, making the (business) world a better place in the process. Both thought-provoking and practical, this management book integrates academic insights, real life examples and best practices of business transformation. It is a must-read for business leaders aiming to make a difference. "Integrating with your strategic customers beyond a transactional sales relationship is key for shaping new markets, developing your brand, and leveraging your strategic relationships. If sales and profitability with strategic accounts are to grow beyond the average, a change in mindset from seeing sales as an “outside” to an “inside” job is required to truly create a win-win relationship. Kotler/Dingena/Pfoertsch’s “Transformational Sales” provides hands-on insights and tools needed for companies who truly want to achieve this transformation." Marc Hantscher, CEO and President Asia-Pacific, BSH Home Appliances Pte. Ltd. Singapore "The more profoundly and systematically B2B companies familiarize themselves with and accommodate their customers’ functional, emotional and strategic needs, the more powerful they are on the market. Top brands are professionally and passionately tuned in to their customers. Sales, Project Management, Marketing, R&D, Production and Purchasing work in concert to drive customer success, always with an eye to the future. This book presents illustrative cases, highlighting how champions have scaled up their business." Achim Kuehn, CMO Herrenknecht AG, Schwanau, Germany

As most managers know, you need a vision to motivate employees to achieve goals. But people, and companies, lose focus, and the future appears hazy. People say, We're getting stale, or, I just don't know where we're headed. Leaders know they need a vision to bring people together. And they know a good vision will renew enthusiasm and commitment. But waiting for inspiration rarely works—sometimes you need a vision now. But how? Recharge Your Team not only shows managers how to create an effective vision—it shows how to do it in as little as four hours, using a time-tested, proven approach. Traditionally, companies call in consultants to help create a vision. Experts can help—for $4,000 per day plus expenses. And then there's the time involved: Visioning efforts can take months. This book offers a less-expensive, faster method. Called Grounded Visioning, and based on a concept called appreciative inquiry, the process allows groups to come up with a revitalizing vision that everyone buys into in half a day or less. How? As this book shows, the key is to be sure everyone takes part, to base the vision on how the team acts when at its best, and to imagine a vision bold enough to inspire but practical enough to feel achievable. This book covers the six quick but essential steps that ensure such results—with small teams or large groups. And any manager, not just trainers or HR people, can lead a successful Grounded Visioning session. Grounded visioning is a breakthrough concept of breathtaking simplicity and power that any leader can put to use today. It works, because it frees employees to share their dreams, hopes, and aspirations. As they soar, a vision naturally arises that recharges the team.

“This is a book about nature and culture,” Eric T. Freyfogle writes, “about our place and plight on earth, and the nagging challenges we face in living on it in ways that might endure.” Challenges, he says, we are clearly failing to meet. Harking back to a key phrase from the essays of eminent American conservationist Aldo Leopold, Our Oldest Task spins together lessons from history and philosophy, the life sciences and politics, economics and cultural studies in a personal, erudite quest to understand how we might live on—and in accord with—the land. Passionate and pragmatic, extraordinarily well read and eloquent, Freyfogle details a host of forces that have produced our self-defeating ethos of human exceptionalism. It is this outlook, he argues, not a lack of scientific knowledge or inadequate technology, that is the primary cause of our ecological predicament. Seeking to comprehend both the multifaceted complexity of contemporary environmental problems and the zeitgeist as it unfolds, Freyfogle explores such diverse topics as morality, the nature of reality (and the reality of nature), animal welfare, social justice movements, and market politics. The result is a learned and inspiring rallying cry to achieve balance, a call to use our knowledge to more accurately identify the dividing line between living in and on the world and destruction. “To use nature,” Freyfogle writes, “but not to abuse it.”

Tending to the Holy: The Practice of the Presence of God in Ministry invites pastors to embody their deepest beliefs in the routine and surprising tasks of ministry. Inspired by Brother Lawrence's classic text in spirituality, Tending to the Holy integrates the wisdom and practices of the Christian spiritual tradition with the commonplace practices of pastoral ministry. Bruce and Katherine Epperly utilize a variety of spiritual disciplines especially Benedictine, Celtic, Ignatian, Rhineland, and process spiritualities to provide a framework for helping clergy nurture the awareness of God, creative imagination, and personal well-being in every aspect of their ministerial lives. Practicing God's presence in the ordinary tasks of ministry inspires wholeness, spiritual transformation, vision, imagination, endurance, and healthy self-differentiation in ministry. Commitment to joining spiritual practices with the routine and repetitive tasks of ministry provides an important antidote to unhealthy stress, burnout, and loss of vision in ministry. By seeing their congregational leadership in terms of spiritual transformation, imaginative practice, and relational interdependence, ordinary ministerial practices can become ways pastors can deepen their relationship with God. Growing out of their work with pastors at every season of ministry, as well as combined ministerial experience of nearly sixty years, Bruce and Katherine Epperly invite pastoral leaders to complement and expand on their understanding of spiritual leadership, pastoral excellence, and self-care, integrating traditional and contemporary spiritual practices with the concrete arts of ministry.