A new paradigm for shaping and aligning processes, tools, and employees—to tap into the power and potential of your company. Through fifteen years of intense observation and analysis, Tony Gruebl, Jeff Welch, and Bryan Wolbert of advisory services firm Think Systems, Inc. identified a powerful controlling force hiding in plain sight—and now they reveal it in The Red Pill Executive. Tony, Jeff, and Bryan named their approach to harnessing this controlling force the Red Pill model. Every company has an invisible framework called culture. Red Pill Operators sense it where others are oblivious. Culture determines how business happens and what success looks like. Some cultures love growth; others, a perfect record in customer service. For some, it’s sales or P&L—regardless of tanking satisfaction or turnover. With culture as their blueprint, Red Pill Operators shape their processes, tools, language, staff, and every other aspect to align—not just with the strategy and mission, but with the culture as it exists in time. The Red Pill Executive offers operating executives and small business owners fresh insight into the grooming of their frontline managers who carry out critical initiatives. This new paradigm unlocks massive potential for Operations Executives and their team members who have the courage to embrace them. It showcases a new way of thinking that empowers operators to capture value and corrects the one-size-fits-all approach created by the project management industry in reaction to massive project failure. In The Red Pill Executive, Tony, Jeff, and Bryan use a straight-talking style—and some entertaining pop culture metaphors—to deliver their results in an engaging and readable style.

Paul Ballman has helped some of the biggest companies in the world get their leadership strategies on track. He has conducted detailed interviews with 2,000 leaders about what has worked for them and why. He has studied the simple success formulas and models that are peddled by gurus across the industry, and come to the conclusion that in the real world they just don't work. He now invites you to take the Red Pill and discover the truth about leadership. Why are the existing formulas for success continually found wanting? How can you tell a fad from enduring wisdom? What are the causes of the most spectacular leadership failures? And, most importantly, what can you do about it? Entertaining, insightful and practical. RED PILL lets you become your own guru.

SHORTLISTED: CMI Management Book of the Year 2017 - Commuter's Read Category (previous edition) The Trusted Executive helps leaders deliver outstanding results, create inspiring relationships and provide a positive contribution through the power of trustworthy leadership. In the shifting world of business, affected by trends involving robotics, AI, data privacy, the #metoo movement, climate crisis, employment rights and income inequality, trust and truthfulness have become the agenda. But how can business leaders and executives build trust in an untrusting world? The Trusted Executive, gives leaders the tools to build trust by focusing on ability, integrity and benevolence. Providing a range of tools, exercises, examples and case studies, the fully updated edition will help readers: - Understand the primary role of trust as a leadership skill - Build trust around themselves as a leader, and develop role modelling behaviours - Lead transformation change within their own organization - Develop strategies to deal with unwanted violations of trust within their business

A revealing trip down the rabbit hole of conspiracy theories -their appeal, who believes them, how they spread -with an eye to helping people deal with the alt-right conspiracists in their own lives.Conspiracy theories are killing us. Once confined to the fringes of society, this worldview now has adherents numbering in the millions -extending right into the White House. This disturbing look at this alt-right threat to our democratic institutions offers guidance for counteracting the personal toll this destructive mindset can have on relationships and families.Author David Neiwert -an investigative journalist who has studied the radical right for decades -examines the growing appeal of conspiracy theories and the kind of personalities that are attracted to such paranoid, sociopathic messages. He explains how alt-right leaders are able to get such firm holds on the imaginations of their followers and chronicles the destruction caused by the movement's most virulent believers.Colloquially, this recruitment to alt-right ideologies is called "getting red-pilled" -a metaphor for when believers of conspiracy theories become convinced that their alternate universe is real. Uniquely, and optimistically, Neiwert provides a "blue pill toolkit" for those who are dealing with conspiracy theorists in their own lives, including strategies drawn from people who counsel former far-right extremists who have renounced their former beliefs.

"When the going gets tough, they call for the sons of bitches! - Admiral Ernest King (attributed) It's a sad fact that most projects fail - as many as 70% according to one well known study. Those failed projects cost billions of dollars. Perhaps they've even cost you or your company. You've hired certified project managers and implemented project management techniques, and yet you still don't have the success you need. BARE KNUCKLED PROJECT MANAGEMENT has the answer. Of course, there are lots of management philosophies that tell you that if you just follow a few simple rules, you'll have perfect results. But it's never that simple, and we know it. The bare-knuckled approach to project management is all about the people. Anybody can swing a bat, but that doesn't mean anybody can be a major leaguer. It's all about the person. It takes talent, temperament, training, experience, and aptitude to achieve greatness. And make no mistake, for great projects, you need a great project manager - someone who isn't afraid to do what it takes to get the job done. You need a Bare-Knuckled Project Manager, someone not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, make hard decisions, and speak unpleasant truths to people who don't always want to hear bad news. In this insightful and powerful book, you'll learn: *** The key reasons projects fail, and the simple steps needed to avoid the most common mistakes. *** How the "three sided table" approach empowers project managers, customers, and teams to do excellent work. *** How to become a Bare-Knuckled Project Manager, and how to groom others. *** How to handle conflict and communication like a pro. *** How the "Kranz Dictum" that saved NASA's Apollo Program can save your most troubled projects. *** How to transform the organization using the Bare Knuckle approach. For once, you'll experience the "no bullshit" approach to project management: what matters, what doesn't, and how to tell the difference. BARE KNUCKLED PROJECT MANAGEMENT is the one guide you need to achieve real project results!

Over the last 20 years, China fed our zombie-like appetite for iPhones, Prada and Snuggies. At the same time, its biggest customer, the US, found itself in debt, under-educated, and covered with recreational tattoos. So now what? Will America wallow in mediocrity like Greece or some C-list celebrity? Or, will our legendary ingenuity save us from Tweeting...and eating our way to irrelevance? Econovation is a bold, witty response to those questions that doesn't rely on miracles or government for answers. It challenges business leaders to think differently about the next decade of the US economy and respond with big, sustainable innovations. Written by Steve Faktor, former Vice President of Growth & Innovation and head of the Chairman's Innovation Fund at American Express, Econovation is a trends book on steroids. It's bursting with practical, thought-provoking ideas no executive, entrepreneur or Fed Chairman can afford to miss. Most importantly, Econovation envisions a very different future. It's one ruled by "producerism", not consumerism. It's a future in which real innovators must do more than slide a greasy finger over the screen of an iPad. Econovation uncovers opportunities in unexpected places. You'll learn how to: Capitalize on a market that will go from making nothing to making everything...for China. Use psychological pricing and some crafty tricks from Google to reduce reliance on tapped-out consumers Sell to consumers whose new identities will be based on what they create, not what they buy, click or super-size Seduce a desperate government to finance your business, then feed you pancakes in the morning Motivate tomorrow's employee with social currency instead of the green, depreciating kind Upgrade your business and your kids with a little help from Mormons and kindergartners with hacksaws Econovation is a fresh perspective on a future we've taken for granted. It empowers readers to think big, dream big, and conquer economic conditions that will paralyze others. With a hefty dose of data, humor, and actionable ideas, Econovation offers insight and amusement in one, convenient place - a rare treat for a business book.

ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 NOTABLE BOOKS OF 2020 ONE OF NPR's BEST BOOKS OF 2020 ONE OF THE A.V. CLUB'S 15 FAVORITE BOOKS OF 2020 From the widely acclaimed author of White Tears, a bold new novel about searching for order in a world that frames madness as truth. After receiving a prestigious writing fellowship in Germany, the narrator of Red Pill arrives in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee and struggles to accomplish anything at all. Instead of working on the book he has proposed to write, he takes long walks and binge-watches Blue Lives--a violent cop show that becomes weirdly compelling in its bleak, Darwinian view of life--and soon begins to wonder if his writing has any value at all. Wannsee is a place full of ghosts: Across the lake, the narrator can see the villa where the Nazis planned the Final Solution, and in his walks he passes the grave of the Romantic writer Heinrich von Kleist, who killed himself after deciding that "no happiness was possible here on earth." When some friends drag him to a party where he meets Anton, the creator of Blue Lives, the narrator begins to believe that the two of them are involved in a cosmic battle, and that Anton is "red-pilling" his viewers--turning them toward an ugly, alt-rightish worldview--ultimately forcing the narrator to wonder if he is losing his mind.