The Messy Middle

Author: Scott Belsky
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0735218072
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 418

Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER NAMED ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING BOOKS OF 2018 BY INC. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST STARTUP BOOKS OF ALL TIME BY BOOKAUTHORITY The Messy Middle is the indispensable guide to navigating the volatility of new ventures and leading bold creative projects by Scott Belsky, bestselling author, entrepreneur, Chief Product Officer at Adobe, and product advisor to many of today's top start-ups. Creating something from nothing is an unpredictable journey. The first mile births a new idea into existence, and the final mile is all about letting go. We love talking about starts and finishes, even though the middle stretch is the most important and often the most ignored and misunderstood. Broken into three sections with 100+ lessons, this no-nonsense book will help you: • Endure the roller coaster of successes and failures by strengthening your resolve, embracing the long-game, and short-circuiting your reward system to get to the finish line. • Optimize what’s working so you can improve the way you hire, better manage your team, and meet your customers’ needs. • Finish strong and avoid the pitfalls many entrepreneurs make, so you can overcome resistance, exit gracefully, and continue onto your next creative endeavor with ease. With insightful interviews from today’s leading entrepreneurs, artists, writers, and executives, as well as Belsky’s own experience working with companies like Airbnb, Pinterest, Uber, and sweetgreen, The Messy Middle will outfit you to find your way through the hardest parts of any bold project or new venture.

Leading from the Middle

Author: Scott Mautz
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119717914
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 226

Book Description
The definitive playbook for driving impact as a middle manager Leading from the Middle: A Playbook for Managers to Influence Up, Down, and Across the Organization delivers an insightful and practical guide for the backbone of an organization: those who have a boss and are a boss and must lead from the messy middle. Accomplished author and former P&G executive Scott Mautz walks readers through the unique challenges facing these managers, and the mindset and skillset necessary for managing up and down and influencing what happens across the organization. You’ll learn the winning mindset of the best middle managers, how to develop the most important skills necessary for managing from the middle, how to create your personal Middle Action Plan (MAP), and effectively influence: Up the chain of command, to your boss and those above them Down, to your direct reports and teams who report to you Laterally, to peers and teams you have no formal authority over Anyone in an organization who reports to someone and has someone reporting to them must lead from the middle. They are the most important group in an organization and have a unique opportunity to drive impact. Leading from the Middle explains how.

Looming Transitions

Author: Amy Young
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN: 9781519622341
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 166

Book Description
When you go abroad to serve, you're thinking about the language, the losses, and the excitement. When you return home you're thinking about your friends and family, the losses, and the relief. Most aren't thinking about the process of transition-and yet if you do, it can make the difference between a smooth entry and re-entry, or a decidedly bumpy landing. Veteran of serving abroad Amy Young is the perfect companion to guide you through the much-neglected process of transitions. Practical in nature, Looming Transitions places a strong emphasis on Keeping your soul fertile as you stay grounded in Christ Looking for the lighter moments Learning about yourself Helping others Making lists Leaning into grief as you prepare for your transition"

Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality

Author: Scott Belsky
Publisher: Viking
ISBN: 9780670920556
Category : Creative ability in business
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
Thomas Edison famously said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Every day, new solutions, revolutionary cures, and artistic breakthroughs are conceived and squandered by smart people. Along with the gift of creativity come the obstacles to making ideas happen: lack of organisation, lack of accountability and a lack of community support.Scott Belsky has interviewed hundreds of the most productive creative people and teams in the world, revealing a common trait: a carefully trained capacity for ideas execution. Implementing your ideas is a skill that can be taught, and Belsky distils the core principles in this book.While many of us obsess about discovering great new ideas, Belsky shows why it is better to develop the capacity to make ideas happen - using old-fashioned passion and perspiration. Making Ideas Happen reveals the practical yet counterintuitive techniques of "serial creatives" - those few who make their visions a reality.

Choosing Purposeful Alignment

Author: Tracey Greene-Washington
Publisher: Elite Online Publishing
ISBN: 9781513660530
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Book Description
Rise and make intentional choices as you lean into a journey of transformation. Whether you realize it or not, in this moment you are called into something bigger than yourself that requires the creation of intentional purpose and alignment. In doing so, you inevitably have to navigate the necessary messy middle of change, which is the gap between your current state and your desired purpose. The messy middle is the space where the painful, often unspoken work takes place. That work you whisper about to your most trusted confidants. The sacred work you often do not prioritize that ultimately moves you from success to significance. But you have to choose it and step into your game-changer posture to position your leadership and leaderful organization to drive innovation and change for the future. Learn from Tracey's Journey "What If" Questions Transformation Defining Moments Clarity Audacious Boldness Through imbalance and dis-ease, and grappling with challenging moments in her personal and professional life, Tracey Greene-Washington survived the messy middle of transformation and emerged as a true game changer who continues to evolve in the work to address complex social change. She takes you through a series of critical "what if" questions to guide you into your game-changer posture, allowing you to rise and make intentional choices as you lean into a journey of transformation, defining moments, clarity, and audacious boldness.

The Messy Life of Blue

Author: Shawna Railey
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1499810407
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 176

Book Description
"Readers will laugh out loud, cry, and commiserate with her every step of the way....The protagonist is a feisty, mixed-up, phenomenal delight." Kirkus Reviews "Shawna Railey has crafted a funny, sensitive, yet relatable narrative around her title character. Anyone who has experienced loss can understand Blue's attempts to come to terms with it. A strong debut novel that would be an excellent recommendation for any reader looking for books on loss and sibling relationships." Booklist "Railey's debut is a touching and humorous tale of family, loss, grief, and friendship." School Library Journal "A book for our times."-Betsy Bird for School Library Journal Eleven-year-old "Blue" Warren is cursed with three bothersome brothers, a too-busy father, a recently deceased mother, and she's annoyed. With humor, hijinks, and heart, this debut novel is a touching tale of grief and the healing power of family. Eleven-year-old Beulah "Blue" Warren spends every waking moment surrounded by boys: her three brothers, her father, her best friend, even the family dog, but that's never stopped her from being her usual rambunctious self. Grappling with the loss of her mother, Blue is determined to do what she wants without fear of consequences. When she is sent to the principal's office, she gets out of it like a pro. When the witchy neighbor next door trashes her yard, Blue doesn't just get even, she gets ahead. No clean underwear because she hasn't done the laundry? No worries. That's what her little brother's Superman underwear is for, isn't it? But everything changes on the day she explores the attic and finds her mother's death certificate. Blue will need to muster all the strength she has to deal with the truth, find forgiveness, trust in her father, and grieve for her mother once and for all.

Beyond the Messy Truth

Author: Van Jones
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0399180036
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A passionate manifesto that exposes hypocrisy on both sides of the political divide and points a way out of the tribalism that is tearing America apart—from the CNN host hailed as “a star of the 2016 campaign” (The New York Times), now seen on The Van Jones Show Van Jones burst into the American consciousness during the 2016 presidential campaign with an unscripted, truth-telling style and an already established history of bridge-building across party lines. His election night commentary, during which he coined the term “whitelash,” became a viral sensation. A longtime progressive activist with deep roots in the conservative South, Jones has made it his mission to challenge voters and viewers to stand in one another’s shoes and disagree constructively. In Beyond the Messy Truth, he offers a blueprint for transforming our collective anxiety into meaningful change. Jones urges both parties to abandon the politics of accusation. He issues a stirring call for a new “bipartisanship from below,” pointing us toward practical answers to problems that affect us all regardless of region or ideology. He wants to tackle rural and inner-city poverty, unemployment, addiction, unfair incarceration, and the devastating effects of the pollution-based economy on both coal country and our urban centers. Along the way, Jones shares memories from his decades of activism on behalf of working people, inspiring stories of ordinary citizens who became champions of their communities, and little-known examples of cooperation in the midst of partisan conflict. In his quest for positive solutions, Van Jones encourages us to set fire to our old ways of thinking about politics and come together to help those most in need. Includes an invaluable resource of contacts, books, media, and organizations for bipartisan bridge-building and problem solving. “Van Jones is a light in the darkness when we need it most. In the tradition of the great bridge builders of our past, Van’s love for this country and all its people shines through.”—Cory Booker, U.S. senator, New Jersey “Van Jones’s voice has become an integral part of our national political debate. He is one of the most provocative and interesting political figures in the country.”—Bernie Sanders, U.S. senator, Vermont

Life Is in the Transitions

Author: Bruce Feiler
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1594206821
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 369

Book Description
A New York Times bestseller! A pioneering and timely study of how to navigate life's biggest transitions with meaning, purpose, and skill Bruce Feiler, author of the New York Times bestsellers The Secrets of Happy Families and Council of Dads, has long explored the stories that give our lives meaning. Galvanized by a personal crisis, he spent the last few years crisscrossing the country, collecting hundreds of life stories in all fifty states from Americans who’d been through major life changes—from losing jobs to losing loved ones; from changing careers to changing relationships; from getting sober to getting healthy to simply looking for a fresh start. He then spent a year coding these stories, identifying patterns and takeaways that can help all of us survive and thrive in times of change. What Feiler discovered was a world in which transitions are becoming more plentiful and mastering the skills to manage them is more urgent for all of us. The idea that we’ll have one job, one relationship, one source of happiness is hopelessly outdated. We all feel unnerved by this upheaval. We’re concerned that our lives are not what we expected, that we’ve veered off course, living life out of order. But we’re not alone. Life Is in the Transitions introduces the fresh, illuminating vision of the nonlinear life, in which each of us faces dozens of disruptors. One in ten of those becomes what Feiler calls a lifequake, a massive change that leads to a life transition. The average length of these transitions is five years. The upshot: We all spend half our lives in this unsettled state. You or someone you know is going through one now. The most exciting thing Feiler identified is a powerful new tool kit for navigating these pivotal times. Drawing on his extraordinary trove of insights, he lays out specific strategies each of us can use to reimagine and rebuild our lives, often stronger than before. From a master storyteller with an essential message, Life Is in the Transitions can move readers of any age to think deeply about times of change and how to transform them into periods of creativity and growth.

The Messy Baker

Author: Charmian Christie
Publisher: Rodale
ISBN: 1623361877
Category : Cooking
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
Since when did every cookie on the plate have to be just like the next? Or each layer of cake exactly the same height? Each piecrust an impeccable work of art and encircled by stunningly perfect pastry leaves? To the uninitiated, all that fastidious, spotless baking is intimidating, not to mention exhausting. The Messy Baker celebrates baking as it happens in the real world--sweet, messy, fun, not always gorgeous, but a way to show love. Which doesn't make it any less delicious; to the contrary, Charmian Christie's flavor combinations rise far above the ordinary. Why have a raspberry galette when you can enjoy a raspberry-rhubarb galette with drippy, unctuous walnut frangipane? Or how about a Brie and walnut whiskey tart? It's all yours without the rigid perfectionism or complicated instructions of other gourmet cookbooks. Christie's warm, irreverent voice brings the fun back into baking at a time when home cooks--pulled from pillar to post by jobs and errands--need to have fun. The Messy Baker is a full-service book that not only guides the reader through simple, delicious recipes but is also there to help out when things go wrong. For anyone who gave in frustration when that cake collapsed or the frosting smeared, Christie's practical advice is here to rescue even the worst disaster and inspire the baker to try the next recipe.

Jump Start Your Joy

Author: Paula Jenkins
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780578813776
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 60

Book Description
Do you want to jump start your connection with joy in a mindful and meaningful way? Living in a turbulent and stressful time has left many of us feeling unhinged and overwhelmed. The pandemic and events of 2020 have changed nearly every aspect of our lives, and we are living in a time that feels vastly different than where we were at the end of 2019. This is truly a "Messy Middle," and it has left many of us feeling frazzled and detached from our purpose and our joy. Enter: A mindful approach to building joy, connection, and fulfillment into your life, starting right now. This tiny book is chock full of the inspiration, intention, and actionable steps that you can take to bring more joy into your every day. Inspired by the podcast of the same name, you'll learn how to navigate the messy middle of difficult situations and hard times. Life lessons on how to reconnect with your joy are gleaned from conversations with both rock stars and candlestick makers; all curated by one rebellious podcaster with a big heart. "Joy is not something that simply happens to us. Joy is a choice and we must keep choosing it." - Henri Nouwen