Align


Book Description

USA Today and Wall Street Journal BestSellerAlign, part 1 of a 3-part series, shares four simple steps that transforms the way leaders lead and renew their self-confidence. Through the process Align offers, leaders develop the courage to connect with their team in a meaningful way and start winning together. Through Align, leaders will learn to create alignment within their organization and develop a culture built on employee fulfillment. It shows leaders exactly how to get there. Within Align, leaders learn how to: Foster a leadership style built on loving people Leverage their own natural gifts to become an effective leader Develop a culture built on employee fulfillment Create a company where everyone feels like their winning




The Align Method


Book Description

"Celebrity manual therapist and movement coach Aaron Alexander shows readers how posture and body alignment are powerful tools for building strength, achieving peak performance, reducing pain, and approaching the world with a new sense of confidence."--




It's Time to Align


Book Description

Many books have been written regarding the law of attraction. The best known one, The Secret, is reported to have grossed $300 million worldwide. But what if all these books are missing the most important information we can use when it comes to activating this law in our lives? Furthermore, what if this information is purposely being suppressed—and has been for thousands of years—by entities intent on keeping humans from growing spiritually? It’s Time to Align takes a look at how the law of attraction really works and how it is being suppressed in our lives. It also explains how to overcome this manipulation and how to experience alignment with the creative power of the universe.




Align


Book Description

Shortlisted for the 2020 Business Book Awards Why do some businesses thrive, while many more struggle and fail? A key reason – and the focus of this book – is strategic alignment. This is the careful arrangement of the various elements of an enterprise – from its business strategy to its organisation – to best support the fulfillment of its long-term purpose. The best-aligned enterprises are the best performing. Most executives recognise that their enterprises should be managed in this aligned way, but lack a robust system of thought to allow them to execute strategic alignment effectively and realise its full benefits. There are thousands of organisations globally that are operating below their potential simply because they are not aligned. This book aims to change that. In Align, Jonathan Trevor provides a blueprint for how strategic alignment can be effectively developed, implemented and sustained. Drawing upon active research at the University of Oxford's Saïd Business School (with contributions from the joint works of Dr Jonathan Trevor and Dr Barry Varcoe), Jonathan also provides practical case studies and evidence-based insights – culminating in a thoughtful and compelling message to help leaders everywhere to improve their alignment and enterprise performance.




The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values


Book Description

A jaw-dropping exploration of everything that goes wrong when we build AI systems and the movement to fix them. Today’s “machine-learning” systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us—and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole—and appear to assess Black and White defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands. The mathematical and computational models driving these changes range in complexity from something that can fit on a spreadsheet to a complex system that might credibly be called “artificial intelligence.” They are steadily replacing both human judgment and explicitly programmed software. In best-selling author Brian Christian’s riveting account, we meet the alignment problem’s “first-responders,” and learn their ambitious plan to solve it before our hands are completely off the wheel. In a masterful blend of history and on-the ground reporting, Christian traces the explosive growth in the field of machine learning and surveys its current, sprawling frontier. Readers encounter a discipline finding its legs amid exhilarating and sometimes terrifying progress. Whether they—and we—succeed or fail in solving the alignment problem will be a defining human story. The Alignment Problem offers an unflinching reckoning with humanity’s biases and blind spots, our own unstated assumptions and often contradictory goals. A dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, it takes a hard look not only at our technology but at our culture—and finds a story by turns harrowing and hopeful.




When Stars Align


Book Description

On the surface, Cosimo Garibaldi is young, handsome, charming, and somewhat naïve, considering he's a member of a royal family. Given his looks and his pedigree, he is rarely at a loss for admirers. Then he meets Megan Walker, an American humanities professor vacationing in Paris who seems both unaware of his status and immune to his charms. Cosimo finds her aloofness refreshing as well as challenging, so he does his best to win her over. A week later Megan returns home to Boston believing their romance was nothing more than a brief suspension from reality. Meanwhile, Cosimo can't seem to forget her and begins to formulate a plan for their reunion. Unfortunately, his mother, Princess Maria-Carmella, has other plans for him. When Cosimo resurfaces in Boston several months later, Megan fears that her simple, carefully choreographed life will be upended. As for Cosimo, he's afraid that the secrets he's been keeping from her will scare her away. And they just might, as one by one Megan discovers the truth about him. Megan's life gets even more complicated when she finds herself keeping a secret of her own. A secret that will have her come face to face with Princess Maria-Carmella, a powerful and devious woman who will go to any lengths to protect the family name. When Stars Align is about the serendipitous nature of life and love. It is a tale that is both tragic and comic. And all the more so because it is inspired by the true story of the last prince of Italy.




Scaling Agile with Jira Align


Book Description

Accelerate business value delivery with Jira Align, the enterprise agile planning platform, by connecting strategy with execution to maximize outcomes Key FeaturesImprove coordination and transparency between multiple programs, products, and business portfoliosIncrease customer satisfaction by responding quickly to ever-evolving customer needsDeliver higher quality products faster and more predictably with real-time insights and OKR trackingBook Description Jira Align is a platform purpose-built for enterprises to connect strategy with execution and drive transparency, consistency, and predictability at all levels of scale. The platform supports business value delivery in agile frameworks such as LeSS, DAD, and SAFe. It also caters to organizations that mix agile with waterfall to support scaled bimodal delivery. Starting with an introduction to the platform and its features, this book takes you through the foundational building blocks of Jira Align. You'll learn how an organization can benefit from implementing Jira Align and understand how to connect dimensions such as people, work, time, and outcomes. The book takes you through the typical steps for implementing Jira Align for maximizing outcomes and helps you solve common team, program, and portfolio-level challenges by enhancing visibility, tracking dependencies and risks, and using reports for real-time, distributed decision making. Throughout the book, you'll explore features such as remote agile ceremonies, live roadmaps, and objectives and key results (OKRs). You'll also get to grips with lean portfolio management, financial reporting, and using the program board for planning and execution. By the end of this book, you'll be well versed in the key features of Jira Align and be able to leverage them to support all levels of agile at scale. What you will learnUnderstand Jira Align's key factors for successFind out how you can connect people, work, time, and outcomes with Jira AlignNavigate and collaborate in Jira AlignScale team agility to the portfolio and enterpriseDelve into planning and execution, including roadmaps and predictability metricsImplement lean portfolio management and OKRsGet to grips with handling bimodal and hybrid deliveryEnable advanced data security and analytics in Jira AlignWho this book is for This book is for portfolio managers, program managers, product managers, product owners, executives, release train engineers, and scrum masters who want to empower their teams to deliver the right things at the right time and quickly respond to changes in the market. Familiarity with agile frameworks and Jira Software is necessary; the book will teach you the rest.




When Two Spines Align: Dressage Dynamics


Book Description

Within riding exists a fundamental conflict of interest: The rider needs to have control—her confidence depends on her ability to control the balance of her own body as well as that of her very powerful horse. The horse, by nature, needs to feel free—free in both mind and body to express himself through movement. In When Two Spines Align, author Beth Baumert, writer and editor at the equestrian magazine Dressage Today, resolves the freedom-control enigma by taking a close look at the individual components that make up riding and dressage and providing practical ways riders can learn to harness the balance, energies, and forces at play. Readers will discover how to use “positive tension” and their body’s “power lines” to become balanced and effective in the saddle. They will then find ways to understand and manage the horse's balance and “coordination challenges.” Ultimately, the rider learns to regulate and monitor the horse's rhythm, energy, flexion, alignment, bend, and line of travel by properly aligning her spine with his. When the center of gravity of a balanced rider is over the center of gravity of a balanced horse, that place where two spines align becomes the hub for rider and horse harmony.




Aligned


Book Description

Have you ever felt like you were on a roll? Time slows, and you see everything clearly. You instinctively know what to do, and have the profound feeling that you are on the right path. This is what leadership coach Hortense le Gentil calls alignment the congruence of who you are and what you think, feel, and love on a fundamental level with what you do, say, and envision for your future. It's about becoming more of yourself--and transcending the limits you once thought were holding you back. Hortense first experienced alignment as a competitive show-jumper, realized its wider application in her entrepreneurial career, and fine-tuned its message as a leadership executive coach. Now in Aligned, she delivers an essential three-part guide for anyone wanting to lead with ease, joy, and impact--and to become even more successful. Alignment helps organizations reach their full potential, and people realize their personal goals. Alignment does not happen by itself, however. In Aligned, Hortense uses real-life examples to show you how to connect with who you truly are, do the work to become who you want to be, and project your aligned self from your inner world onto the outside one. Told through the personal and professional victories of her clients, revealing case studies, and Hortense's own journey towards alignment, her book is an inspiring and intuitive approach to a concept as enduring as it is momentous.




Scaling Up


Book Description

In this guide, Harnish and his co-authors share practical tools and techniques to help entrepreneurs grow an industry -- dominating business without it killing them -- and actually have fun. Many growth company leaders reach a point where they actually dread adding another customer, employee, or location. It feels like they are just adding more weight to an ever-heavier anchor they are dragging through the sand. To make matters worse, the increased revenues have not turned into more profitability, so at some point they wonder if the journey is worth the effort. This book focuses on the four major decisions every company must get right: People, Strategy, Execution and Cash. The book includes a series of One-Page tools including the One-Page Strategic Plan and the Rockefeller Habits Execution Checklist, which more than 40,000 firms around the globe have used to scale their companies successfully.