Managers, organizations, and even whole societies repeatedly get trapped into solving the wrong problems. Their errors can be traced to one fundamental flaw: misdirected thinking. Leading business professor Ian Mitroff asserts that the ability to spot the right problems, frame them correctly, and implement appropriate solutions is the true competitive edge of a successful and prosperous organization.In Smart Thinking for Crazy Times, Mitroff shows how to identify a genuine...

Swans, Swine, and Swindlers addresses a core, contemporary question: What steps can we take to better anticipate and manage mega-crises, such as Haiti, Katrina, and 9/11?This book explores the concept of "messes." A mess is a web of complex and dynamically interacting, ill-defined, and/or wicked problems; their solutions; and our conscious and unconscious assumptions, beliefs, emotions, and values. The roots of messes can be classified as Swans (the inability to s...

Swans, Swine, and Swindlers addresses a core, contemporary question: What steps can we take to better anticipate and manage mega-crises, such as Haiti, Katrina, and 9/11?This book explores the concept of "messes." A mess is a web of complex and dynamically interacting, ill-defined, and/or wicked problems; their solutions; and our conscious and unconscious assumptions, beliefs, emotions, and values. The roots of messes can be classified as Swans (the inability to s...

Do your company and employees have the necessary "IQ" not only to withstand a crisis but also come through it with strength and confidence?Like many companies over the last few years, yours has probably done a great deal to reassess its physical, strategic, and financial vulnerabilities. However, there is a huge difference between business continuity planning and true crisis management. Ian Mitroff outlines seven distinct competencies your organization needs to han...

Global markets, Japanese competition, the service economy, the sophisticated consumer--American business today faces challenges undreamed of just a few decades ago, and traditional approaches to corporate problems are becoming increasingly less effective. And yet, as the authors of The Unbounded Mind point out, MBA programs still preach--and thousands of American firms hold sacred--an antiquated system of business thinking that is wholly inadequate to the problems they face. In th...

This book is a critical examination of the main ideas regarding disruptive change and startups. It systematically lays out the full set of challenges and tasks one needs to master in order for existing organizations to weather severe change or make a startup successful. Ian Mitroff outlines the protective actions business leaders must take to ensure their continued existence, providing a clear demonstration of the key roles leaders must assume such as Applied Epistemologist, Applied Ethici...

The recent data controversy with Facebook highlights that the tech industry as a whole was utterly unprepared for the backlash it faced as a result of its business model of selling user data to third parties. Despite the predominant role that technology plays in all of our lives, the controversy also revealed that many tech companies are reactive, rather than proactive, in addressing crises.This book examines society's failure to manage technology and its resulting negative consequ...

Fred Rogers is one of the great icons of American culture and the values and philosophy for which he is famous have stood the test of time. Fables and the Art of Leadership brings those same values and philosophy to the workplace, where they're now needed more than ever. This unique and timely work is for everyone who aspires to become and be a better leader. Mister Rogers didn't expound abstract principles to help children face up to the problems they faced; instead, he created and told c...

This book aims to examine sustainability and spirituality philosophically with ethics as the balancing force. The goal is to reveal the important intersection between sustainability and spirituality by using spirituality as the invisible guiding hand in the quest for sustainability. The editors and contributors examine old social and economics dilemmas from a new perspective in order to provide alternative approaches to economic and social development. The enclosed contributions cover a br...

This book explores the nature of the socially responsible organization, specifically the role of crisis management in creating a socially responsible organization. It applies the Myers-Briggs Personality Typology (MBPTI) and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Framework to issues such as responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, regulation of tech companies, and infrastructure. Dr. Mitroff lists the major arguments given in regards to these issues and subjects them to the strongest possible scrutiny and...

Technology has made human lives incomparably better. Civilization as we know it would utterly collapse without it. However, if not properly managed, technology can and will be systematically abused and misuse and thereby become one of the biggest threats to humankind. This open access book applies proactive crisis management to the management of technology organizations to make them more sustainable and socially responsible for the betterment of humankind. It forecasts the unintended conse...

This open access book provides a comprehensive look at the pluses and minuses of leadership in times of an unparalleled crisis, such as the COVID-19 global pandemic. It examines the COVID-19 crisis in terms of psychodynamics, crisis management, and especially from the standpoint of complex, messy systems. It analyses how leaders need to think and act differently to cope better with—and potentially prevent—future crises.