How should Christians approach important contemporary issues like war, race, creation care, gender, and politics? Christians in every culture are confronted with social trends and moral questions that can be difficult to navigate. But, the Bible often doesn't speak directly to such issues. Even when it does, it can be confusing to know how best to apply the biblical teaching. In Cultural Engagement: A Crash Course in Contemporary Issues authors Joshua D. Chatraw and Karen Swallow Prior first offer a broadly accessible framework for cultural engagement and then explore specific hot topics in current Western culture including: Sexuality Gender Roles Human Life and Reproduction Technology Immigration and Race Creation and Creature Care Politics Work Arts War, Weapons, and Capital Punishment Featuring contributions from over forty top thinkers, proponents of various views on the specific topics present their approaches in their own words, providing readers an opportunity to fairly consider options. Unique in how it addresses both big-picture questions about cultural engagement and pressing current issues, Cultural Engagement provides a thorough and broad introduction useful for students, professors, pastors, college ministers, and any believer wanting to more effectively exercise their faith in the public square.

Learn how to create a workforce that’s more creative, more driven, and more enthusiastic about reaching company goals. Every great company has an engaged workforce, and nurturing a culture of engagement is at the heart of great leadership—employees who really care about their work, their coworkers, and the organization can supercharge a company’s success. But for many years, engagement has been suffering. Gallop reports that seventy percent of employees are not fully engaged on the job. Mark Miller draws on more than forty years of leadership experience to show leaders at all levels how to change the conversation and create real competitive advantage in the process. In the fourth book in Miller’s High Performance Series, CEO Blake Brown sets out to discover how to create the kind of workplace where everyone feels excited to come to work, passionate about what he or she brings to the company, and energized at the end of the day. It’s a journey that takes him literally all over the world—from Italy to Greece to Green Bay and more. What he discovers from the pages of history is as relevant as the evening news. Engagement unleashes untapped potential buried deep within the hearts of your people. An engaged workforce is more creative, more driven, and more enthusiastic about reaching company goals. If you put the lessons in this book to work, your people will never look at work, or their leaders, the same way again. “Virtually anything is possible if enough people care…Win the Heart will show you how to ensure they do!” —Scott Harrison, New York Times–bestselling author of Thirst “Win the Heart is an easy, entertaining, and engaging read with simple yet powerful reminders of our role as leaders. I couldn’t put it down! If you want something magical to happen in your organization, read and apply the ideas in this book.” —Dina Dwyer-Owens, brand ambassador and former CEO, Neighborly “Win the Heart: easy to read, profoundly simple, rock solid! Mark Miller has written another classic!” —Bobb Biehl, executive mentor and author “Win the Heart is a must-read for any leader at any level! In your hands, you hold a brilliant roadmap that breaks down how to make choices as a leader to overcome the “just a job” mentality and catapult your organization to new heights.” —Simon T. Bailey, breakthrough strategist

This is the third book in the Culture of Partnership series. It shows you how to engage your employees and it provides the tools to do it. Based on 20 years of research and client application, Thomas McCoy reveals a step-by-step process for the design and implementation of a tested and proven engagement system. The reader can apply the entire system or select individual components that support existing initiatives. Either way, engagement will increase and business results will improve. "Employee Engagement increased more than 15% over eighteen months as measured by the survey." "Revenue increased by more than 10% the first year." "Net Profit increased more than 5% the first year." These are typical results. And you can achieve similar results from the system described in this book. Written by Thomas J. McCoy - an expert in the field of employee involvement, performance improvement and reward systems - this experience-based book delivers the concepts, techniques, templates, flow charts and action sessions that will engage your employees. Filled with over 90 illustrations, examples, and a money-back guarantee, Employee Engagement: The Framework for the Future presents a proven, lasting set of solutions that are guaranteed to improve operational effectiveness. This book contains: Concepts that develop a common understanding about engagement. A framework for dealing with the complex issues of engagement. A structure that supplies the tools and techniques to engage employees. Already have improvement initiatives in place? This system acts as an integrating platform for a broad range of management tools and methods. This book will enable you to: Develop an engagement strategy. Design, build, implement an engagement system. Measure engagement using the culture survey. Take corrective action. (Implement practices that respond to engagement issues.) Sustain the gains of improvement. Your organization will: Increase profit, improve stock value and, for private companies, improve the value modifier. Build a unified team of employees with a common focus. Increase ease of operation. Become an employer of choice. Your employees will: Become more motivated...and engaged. Understand and respond to the voice of the customer. Improve productivity and effectiveness. Think, act and feel more like business partners. "Employee Engagement is a blueprint for creating and executing an engagement system from start to finish. It should be of great value to any business owner or senior executive who wants to maximize the involvement of the company's most valuable asset." Barry Silverstein - Clarion Book Review"

Achieve unprecedented business value by fostering true employee engagement Many organizations fail to realize and harness the power of their most valuable asset—their employees. Though they can be developed into a true competitive advantage, engagement isn't attainable if the employee isn't invested in the company's overall success. Agile Engagement offers business leaders a concrete strategy for building, maintaining, and utilizing employee engagement to achieve the highest level of business success. The key? Employees must feel like they are a part of their company's culture instead of having it handed down to them. Stories of failed employee engagement initiatives abound, and they all have one thing in common: they begin from the premise of "initiative" rather than "employee." True engagement occurs when an employee's heart and mind are activated in a way that leads to their motivation and commitment to positively impact the company's goals and vision. This book shows you how to create an environment that stresses a culture of unity at all levels by showing you how to: Create a clear, compelling vision and corresponding engagement strategy through the Engagement Canvas Communicate your unique culture strategy throughout all levels of your company Foster grassroots, employee-led engagement initiatives Improve engagement continuously with the Emplify Score tool Agile Engagement provides a deeper look into real engagement, helping you foster a work environment that's rewarded with unsurpassed productivity, innovation, and competitive advantage, as well as employees who feel valued, respected, and heard.

Ever notice how companies with the best service also have the happiest employees? That’s no accident. Do you want to build a strong, successful organization? Start by ignoring your customers. Really. Instead, focus first on creating a better employee experience, or EX. Your employees interact with customers, make them smile, and carry your brand message from the warehouse to the front lines. If your employees are having a great experience, so will your customers. In The Employee Experience, employee engagement pioneers Tracy Maylett and Matthew Wride reveal the secrets not only to attracting and retaining top talent, but to building a deeply engaged workforce—the foundation of organizational success. With deep insights into the dynamics of trust and mutual expectations, this book shows that before you can deliver a transcendent customer experience (CX), you must first build a superlative EX. With real-world examples and more than 24 million employee survey responses, Maylett and Wride reveal a clear, consistent pattern among the world’s most successful organizations. By establishing a clear set of expectations and promises—collectively known as the Contract—and upholding it consistently, employers can build the trust that leads to powerful engagement. Whether in business, healthcare, education, sports, or nonprofit, these organizations are consistently more successful and more profitable, enjoy sustainable growth, and win the battle to keep today’s rarest resource: talented people. Blending rigorous research, detailed case studies, in-depth interviews and expert insights, The Employee Experience will teach you to: Make the employee experience a core part of your strategy Understand employee expectations and bridge the “Expectation Gap” Establish rock-solid Brand, Transactional, and Psychological Contracts that breed trust and confidence Build an employee-employer partnership in creating something extraordinary Turn employee engagement into fuel for customer satisfaction, profit, and growth Attracting talent, retaining top performers, and creating an environment in which employees choose to engage drives results. The Employee Experience shows you where truly extraordinary organizations begin...and how to build one. TRACY MAYLETT, Ed.D, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, is the CEO of DecisionWise, where he currently advises leaders across the globe in leadership, change, and employee engagement. Maylett holds a doctorate from Pepperdine University and an MBA from BYU. He is a recognized author, and teaches in the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. MATTHEW WRIDE, JD, PHR, is the COO of DecisionWise. With an extensive business background, Wride brings a fresh approach to organization development and leadership consulting. He is passionate about helping leaders create winning employee experiences. Wride holds a JD from Willamette University and a master’s degree from the University of Washington. For over two decades, DecisionWise has advised organizations and leaders in more than seventy countries on leadership, assessment, talent, organization development, and the employee experience. Visit us online at www.decision-wise.com.

What if all workplace cultures were as well-crafted as video games? Effective workplaces and popular video games have a lot in common. The things that make employees happier, more motivated, and more productive leverage the same underlying psychology that makes video games engaging, but sometimes the lessons for work are easier to see when presented in the context of play. The Engagement Game is a leadership and management book that shows how organizational culture and leadership can be super-charged by applying the same principles that video game designers apply when creating a new game. This quick, one-hour read will show you how to do this by blending industrial-organizational workplace psychology with insights on good video game design. This will help you become a better leader, manager, coach, and coworker. You don't have to be a hardcore gamer to benefit from this book. It is for anyone looking to create a positive work experience for their team. This book covers topics including: How games lay out their tasks, goals, and challenges so that they motivate people to do amazing things The ways in which games encourage problem solving and growth mindset Why expanding skills, building self-confidence, and finding opportunities to innovate feel so natural to those who play a lot of games How social information is framed in games so as to engender fruitful competition and cooperation What multiplayer games can tell us about building cohesive, high-performing teams How to create shared experiences and values that can craft a great organizational culture and shared expectations for the right kinds of behaviors Which is all to say that you could learn a lot from video games about how to be an effective leader and manager. Ready? Game on.

Experience the transformative power of creative rituals in the workplace Rituals for Work shows us how creative rituals can make our personal and business lives more meaningful and rewarding. Rituals are powerful tools: they reinforce good habits, motivate personal and professional achievement, create a common bond between co-workers and build shared values; they can transform an organization’s culture and provide a foundation to achieve common goals. Focusing on real-world examples, this book takes a practical approach to the power and benefits of workplace rituals. This insightful guide presents 50 creative rituals, from business and management to design and personal development. Specific case studies highlight the use of rituals and their positive impact to real-world organizations, while vivid visuals allow us to feel their energy and emotion. A ritual is only effective when its purpose is clearly defined. This book goes beyond simple analysis to provide actual recipes for individual rituals designed to promote specific habits, change negative behaviors, and instill values. Each ritual can be adapted to achieve a multitude of goals and tailored to fit your organization or team’s specific needs. ● Change behaviors, form positive habits, and assign meaning to shared goals ● Build shared values, foster innovation, and encourage strong teamwork ● Deal with conflicts effectively and engage others to work on resolutions ● Learn the fundamental concepts of ritual-building and share your knowledge with your team An informative and inspirational resource for executives, managers, team leaders, and employees of every level, Rituals for Work provides a blueprint for building a culture of engagement, innovation, and shared purpose for organizations of all sizes, across industries.

Businesses are built by growing relationships with customers. Culture is created by the stories those relationships tell. Two of the most important differentiators of a business are its talent and its culture. Talent energized by a compelling culture will drive organizational success and provide innovative growth opportunities for both the business and the individual. Based on her more than thirty years at Chick-fil-A, most of which have been spent as Vice President, Corporate Talent, Dee Ann Turner shares how Chick-fil-A has built a devoted talent and fan base that spans generations. It's My Pleasure tells powerful stories and provides practical applications on how to develop extraordinary talent able to build and/or stimulate a company's culture.

Religious traditions in the United States are characterized by ongoing tension between assimilation to the broader culture, as typified by mainline Protestant churches, and defiant rejection of cultural incursions, as witnessed by more sectarian movements such as Mormonism and Hassidism. However, legal theorist and Catholic theologian Cathleen Kaveny contends there is a third possibility—a culture of engagement—that accommodates and respects tradition. It also recognizes the need to interact with culture to remain relevant and to offer critiques of social, political, legal, and economic practices. Kaveny suggests that rather than avoid the crisscross of the religious and secular spheres of life, we should use this conflict as an opportunity to come together and to encounter, challenge, contribute to, and correct one another. Focusing on five broad areas of interest—Law as a Teacher, Religious Liberty and Its Limits, Conversations about Culture, Conversations about Belief, and Cases and Controversies—Kaveny demonstrates how thoughtful and purposeful engagement can contribute to rich, constructive, and difficult discussions between moral and cultural traditions. This provocative collection of Kaveny's articles from Commonweal magazine, substantially revised and updated from their initial publication, provides astonishing insight into a range of hot-button issues like abortion, assisted suicide, government-sponsored torture, contraception, the Ashley Treatment, capital punishment, and the role of religious faith in a pluralistic society. At turns masterful and inspirational, A Culture of Engagement is a welcome reminder of what can be gained when a diversity of experiences and beliefs is brought to bear on American public life.

Full of practical advice for HR and other business professionals, The Social Organization is a clear guide to addressing the urgent need for companies to shift their focus from developing individuals to enabling networks and relationships between employees. Case studies from leading companies such as Whole Foods, P&G, The Cleveland Clinic, Spotify and Cisco illustrate how relationship-based strategies can be implemented successfully to increase organizational performance. Following a foreword by Dave Ulrich, Part One of The Social Organization explores the context of social capital and analyses how and why HR and others responsible for talent management need to foster and develop social capabilities. Part Two provides practical guidance for developing higher quality connections and social capital by improving the alignment and effectiveness of organizational architectures, including through workplace design. Part Three outlines how HR and related professionals can identify and implement appropriate changes throughout the whole employee life cycle: this includes initial recruitment and job design, social learning, performance management, employee retention, talent management, organization development and the role of social media and other technology as well as social analytics. The Social Organization is an essential book for all professionals needing to develop the social capital of their organizations for improved performance.