Going far beyond previous empirical work, John Kotter and James Heskett provide the first comprehensive critical analysis of how the "culture" of a corporation powerfully influences its economic performance, for better or for worse. Through painstaking research at such firms as Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, ICI, Nissan, and First Chicago, as well as a quantitative study of the relationship between culture and performance in more than 200 companies, the authors describe how shared values and unwritten rules can profoundly enhance economic success or, conversely, lead to failure to adapt to changing markets and environments. With penetrating insight, Kotter and Heskett trace the roots of both healthy and unhealthy cultures, demonstrating how easily the latter emerge, especially in firms which have experienced much past success. Challenging the widely held belief that "strong" corporate cultures create excellent business performance, Kotter and Heskett show that while many shared values and institutionalized practices can promote good performances in some instances, those cultures can also be characterized by arrogance, inward focus, and bureaucracy -- features that undermine an organization's ability to adapt to change. They also show that even "contextually or strategically appropriate" cultures -- ones that fit a firm's strategy and business context -- will not promote excellent performance over long periods of time unless they facilitate the adoption of strategies and practices that continuously respond to changing markets and new competitive environments. Fundamental to the process of reversing unhealthy cultures and making them more adaptive, the authors assert, is effective leadership. At the heart of this groundbreaking book, Kotter and Heskett describe how executives in ten corporations established new visions, aligned and motivated their managers to provide leadership to serve their customers, employees, and stockholders, and thus created more externally focused and responsive cultures.

'Does culture create competitive advantage? Case closed in this compelling analysis of sporting success. Read it.' – James Kerr, bestselling author of Legacy. In The Barcelona Way, sports psychologist Prof. Damian Hughes draws on exclusive insight into FCB as well as first-hand research from organizational psychology, to set out a method to create your own high-performance culture. At the heart of FCB’s winning culture are a set of principles, epitomized by Pep Guardiola, Johan Cruyff, Lionel Messi and many other FCB legends, which govern how to nurture talent, prepare for change and provide the best environment to build a culture of sustained success. These principles: Big Picture, Arc of Change, Repetition, Cultural Architects, Authentic Leadership are at the heart of FCB’s unprecedented domination of football, and are the key to developing high-performance cultures in any team-based organisation across every industry. The Barcelona Way is a hugely practical must-read that sets out a clear plan, based on the same principles, for you to create a culture of success and get the best of yourself and your team.

Named by The Washington Post as one of the 11 Leadership Books to Read in 2018 When it comes to recruiting, motivating, and creating great teams, Patty McCord says most companies have it all wrong. McCord helped create the unique and high-performing culture at Netflix, where she was chief talent officer. In her new book, Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility, she shares what she learned there and elsewhere in Silicon Valley. McCord advocates practicing radical honesty in the workplace, saying good-bye to employees who don’t fit the company’s emerging needs, and motivating with challenging work, not promises, perks, and bonus plans. McCord argues that the old standbys of corporate HR—annual performance reviews, retention plans, employee empowerment and engagement programs—often end up being a colossal waste of time and resources. Her road-tested advice, offered with humor and irreverence, provides readers a different path for creating a culture of high performance and profitability. Powerful will change how you think about work and the way a business should be run.

Based on never-before-shared insights from more than 1,000 organizations and millions of employees, this insightful book reveals the ten essential culture qualities that can help any organization prepare for, and thrive in a constantly changing future. The Culture Quotient provides a simple, easy-to-read approach to culture that guides readers every step of the way. It focuses on helping companies achieve better financial results, as well as increasing employee engagement, and improving talent acquisition and retention. The Culture Quotient is written with three main goals. The first is to inspire readers. The second is to provide tangible data, tips, and actions. And the third is to share culture stories from many industry leaders that show the power and results of culture initiatives in action. The Culture Quotient features forty-five culture stories and excerpts written exclusively for this book. Some featured companies include American Express, GoDaddy, Bazaarvoice, and many others. The Culture Quotient combines these three goals to provide practical takeaways and tips to help readers implement similar culture programs at their company. The author Greg Besner, is the founder of CultureIQ, a company that helps organizations around the world create high-performance cultures. He is also a highly rated adjunct professor at New York University Stern School of Business, and he was one of the original investors in Zappos.com. Besner was recently ranked in USA Today as the eighth best CEO in the United States among a pool of fifty thousand companies. He also was named the EY Entrepreneur Of The Year® in New Jersey. The Culture Quotient highlights qualities that help any organization achieve a high-performance culture. Business leaders have been seeking a practical yet data-driven solution for managing culture for a very long time. Now leaders have it with The Culture Quotient.

This volume offers transdisciplinary perspectives on the study of acting and performance in moving image forms. It assembles 26 international scholars from dance, theatre, film, media and cultural studies, art history and philosophy to investigate the art of acting and the presence of the human body in analog and digital film, animation and video art. The volume includes classical case studies and essays devoted to acting history and acting and genres, but its particular emphasis is on introducing a wide range of groundbreaking theoretical approaches - from continental and analytic philosophy to new media theory and cognitivist research - all of which interrogate the fundamental conceptions of »act« and »actor« that underwrite both popular and academic notions of performance in moving image culture.

Best practices for using accountability, trust, and purpose to turn your long-term vision into reality Accountability explains why the “carrot-and-stick” approach doesn’t work—and describes how to build and sustain a culture based on shared beliefs, positive action, and internal leadership development. The author’s conclusions are based on data resulting from his work with more than 3,000 executives worldwide, plus exclusive interviews with Fortune's Most Admired Companies and Best Places to Work. Greg Bustin has written a monthly bulletin about leadership and accountability that goes to more than 4,000 managers/executives. He speaks about 50 times per year in the U.S., Canada, and the UK and is one of the top-rated Vistage speakers. He also gives workshops and webinars on planning, execution, and accountability to business owners and leaders in the U.S. and Canada.

An innovative approach to driving maximum performance at all levels of an organization Peak Performance Culture: The Five Metrics of Operational Excellence is a step-by-step roadmap to achieving optimal organizational development in your company or association. This practical guide helps you accurately evaluate the current state of your company and create a strategy that maximizes its future success. Author Dave Mitchell, building upon concepts introduced in his bestselling books The Power of Understanding People and The Power of Understanding, provides new applications, effective real-world tactics, powerful organizational assessment tools, and much more. The book addresses the five critical factors for organizational success: vertical alignment, horizontal alignment, leadership ideology and corporate culture, employee experience, and customer experience. Each comprehensive chapter introduces a key component to peak performance culture — containing a detailed definition of the component, illustrative examples, expert insights, and practical considerations relevant to a diverse range of real-world situations. This must-have guide: Features exercises and assessments to identify organizational metrics drawn from 25 years of work with client organizations such as Allstate Insurance, Bank of America, Universal Studios, Hilton Worldwide, Walt Disney World, and hundreds more Explores best practices for implementing policies, procedures, and philosophies that align with an organization's mission, values, and strategy Discusses individual characteristics of high performers, how to enhance teamwork, the relationships between functional units within an organization, and employee recruitment, selection, and onboarding Addresses issues surrounding how employees responsible for customer satisfaction are experiencing their organizations Provides tools for continually evaluating and improving customer experience, including a pragmatic model that can be applied to any organization Whether your company needs to correct performance problems, or is already successful but seeking even higher levels of success, Peak Performance Culture: The Five Metrics of Operational Excellence will prove to be an invaluable resource for any organization.

The contribution of culture to organizational performance is substantial and quantifiable. In The Culture Cycle, renowned thought leader James Heskett demonstrates how an effective culture can account for 20-30% of the differential in performance compared with "culturally unremarkable" competitors. Drawing on decades of field research and dozens of case studies, Heskett introduces a powerful conceptual framework for managing culture, and shows it at work in a real-world setting. Heskett's "culture cycle" identifies cause-and-effect relationships that are crucial to shaping effective cultures, and demonstrates how to calculate culture's economic value through "Four Rs": referrals, retention, returns to labor, and relationships. This book: Explains how culture evolves, can be shaped and sustained, and serve as the organization's "internal brand." Shows how culture can promote innovation and survival in tough times. Guides leaders in linking culture to strategy and managing forces that challenge it. Shows how to credibly quantify culture's impact on performance, productivity, and profits. Clarifies culture's unique role in mission-driven organizations. A follow-up to the classic Corporate Culture and Performance (authored by Heskett and John Kotter), this is the next indispensable book on organizational culture. "Heskett (emer., Harvard Business School) provides an exhaustive examination of corporate policies, practices, and behaviors in organizations." Summing Up: Recommended. Reprinted with permission from CHOICE, copyright by the American Library Association.

Play and Performance offers hope to those lamenting the loss of play in the twenty-first century and aims to broaden the understanding of what play is. This volume showcases the work of programs from early childhood through adulthood, in a variety of educational and therapeutic settings, and from a range of theoretical and practical perspectives. The chapters cover an array of practices that can be seen across the play to performance continuum. Taken together, the myriad ways that play is performance and performance is play become clear, sometimes blurring the need for distinction. The volume provides play advocates, researchers and practitioners a wealth of practical and theoretical ideas for expanding the use of performance as a tool for creating playful environments where children and adults can create and develop.

Thrive provides leaders with a clear blueprint for building a high-performance culture. Drawing on extensive experience in change management, organizational development, and performance consulting, Andrew Freedman and Paul Elliott share their systematic approach, known as the Exemplary Performance System (EPS), in a way that enables leaders to take immediate action to shift workforce engagement and performance. Thrive teaches leaders how to create clarity and alignment around what high performance looks like and how to replicate it at scale, identify and eliminate barriers to performance excellence, effectively align individual and team priorities with those of the company, and build organizational systems and processes that accelerate business and financial results.