Getting the Job Done


Book Description

Unleash Your Team’s Potential to Succeed Today’s workplace has evolved. Yet the strategies to empower employees and teams are still maturing. Getting the Job Done fills this gap by providing a practical framework to inspire teams and keep them accountable for ultimate success. Rather than impose a single method to make you a better project manager, Getting the Job Done gives a flexible strategy that will help you lead confidently, take advantage of all the perspectives on your team, and get the job done on time without having to sacrifice quality. Conveyed through 100 educational, factual, and relatable project management tips, T2’s framework will keep your team engaged, responsible, and transparent. Through our “getting the job done” philosophy—the key to how we’ve led healthcare tech consulting for over fifteen years—you will master the building blocks of effective project management, as outlined by our acronym P.R.O.J.E.C.T.S: Planning Reflection Organization Juggling Empowerment Communication Teamwork Standards With the compact analysis of each block, followed by clear bite-sized tips, and concluding with T2’s case studies, you and your team will discover and create a new culture that can be used in both life and business. Elevate your team and organization’s capabilities and discover how projects can turn from overwhelming undertakings into successful collaborations.




Jobs to Be Done


Book Description

Why do some innovation projects succeed where others fail? The book reveals the business implications of Jobs Theory and explains how to put Jobs Theory into practice using Outcome-Driven Innovation.




Oil Rig Workers


Book Description

People throughout the world use crude oil products in some form every day: the plastic bottles we drink from, the gasoline that powers our vehicles, and the desks we sit at in school and work. These are all things that make our lives easier. However, we might not have access to them without the hard work put in by oil rig workers. These men and women work on offshore oil rigs away from their friends and families for weeks at a time. Readers will learn about what it takes to become an oil rig worker, the different types of jobs available on an oil rig, and why these jobs are so important to modern society.




Ask a Manager


Book Description

From the creator of the popular website Ask a Manager and New York’s work-advice columnist comes a witty, practical guide to 200 difficult professional conversations—featuring all-new advice! There’s a reason Alison Green has been called “the Dear Abby of the work world.” Ten years as a workplace-advice columnist have taught her that people avoid awkward conversations in the office because they simply don’t know what to say. Thankfully, Green does—and in this incredibly helpful book, she tackles the tough discussions you may need to have during your career. You’ll learn what to say when • coworkers push their work on you—then take credit for it • you accidentally trash-talk someone in an email then hit “reply all” • you’re being micromanaged—or not being managed at all • you catch a colleague in a lie • your boss seems unhappy with your work • your cubemate’s loud speakerphone is making you homicidal • you got drunk at the holiday party Praise for Ask a Manager “A must-read for anyone who works . . . [Alison Green’s] advice boils down to the idea that you should be professional (even when others are not) and that communicating in a straightforward manner with candor and kindness will get you far, no matter where you work.”—Booklist (starred review) “The author’s friendly, warm, no-nonsense writing is a pleasure to read, and her advice can be widely applied to relationships in all areas of readers’ lives. Ideal for anyone new to the job market or new to management, or anyone hoping to improve their work experience.”—Library Journal (starred review) “I am a huge fan of Alison Green’s Ask a Manager column. This book is even better. It teaches us how to deal with many of the most vexing big and little problems in our workplaces—and to do so with grace, confidence, and a sense of humor.”—Robert Sutton, Stanford professor and author of The No Asshole Rule and The Asshole Survival Guide “Ask a Manager is the ultimate playbook for navigating the traditional workforce in a diplomatic but firm way.”—Erin Lowry, author of Broke Millennial: Stop Scraping By and Get Your Financial Life Together




Competing Against Luck


Book Description

The foremost authority on innovation and growth presents a path-breaking book every company needs to transform innovation from a game of chance to one in which they develop products and services customers not only want to buy, but are willing to pay premium prices for. How do companies know how to grow? How can they create products that they are sure customers want to buy? Can innovation be more than a game of hit and miss? Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen has the answer. A generation ago, Christensen revolutionized business with his groundbreaking theory of disruptive innovation. Now, he goes further, offering powerful new insights. After years of research, Christensen has come to one critical conclusion: our long held maxim—that understanding the customer is the crux of innovation—is wrong. Customers don’t buy products or services; they "hire" them to do a job. Understanding customers does not drive innovation success, he argues. Understanding customer jobs does. The "Jobs to Be Done" approach can be seen in some of the world’s most respected companies and fast-growing startups, including Amazon, Intuit, Uber, Airbnb, and Chobani yogurt, to name just a few. But this book is not about celebrating these successes—it’s about predicting new ones. Christensen contends that by understanding what causes customers to "hire" a product or service, any business can improve its innovation track record, creating products that customers not only want to hire, but that they’ll pay premium prices to bring into their lives. Jobs theory offers new hope for growth to companies frustrated by their hit and miss efforts. This book carefully lays down Christensen’s provocative framework, providing a comprehensive explanation of the theory and why it is predictive, how to use it in the real world—and, most importantly, how not to squander the insights it provides.




Smart and Gets Things Done


Book Description

A "good" programmer can outproduce five, ten, and sometimes more run-of-the-mill programmers. The secret to success for any software company then is to hire the good programmers. But how to do that? In Joel on Hiring, Joel Spolsky draws from his experience both at Microsoft and running his own successful software company based in New York City. He writes humorously, but seriously about his methods for sorting resumes, for finding great candidates, and for interviewing, in person and by phone. Joel’s methods are not complex, but they do get to the heart of the matter: how to recognize a great developer when you see one.




Time Management for System Administrators


Book Description

Provides advice for system administrators on time management, covering such topics as keeping an effective calendar, eliminating time wasters, setting priorities, automating processes, and managing interruptions.




Jobs to Be Done


Book Description

In a challenging economy filled with multiple competitors, no one can afford to stagnate. Yet, innovation is notoriously difficult. How do you pinpoint the winning ideas that customers will love? Sifting through purchasing data for clues about what might sell or haphazardly brainstorming ideas are typical strategies. However, innovation expert Stephen Wunker offers the effective Jobs method: determining the drivers of customer behavior--those functional and emotional goals that people want to achieve. This simple shift in perspective opens up new insights about your customers and a wealth of hidden opportunities. For example, social media newcomer Snapchat used the Jobs process to capture the millennial demographic. By reducing functionality, the company satisfied its users' unmet need to document real life in the moment, without filters and "like" buttons. Packed with similar examples from every industry, this complete innovation guide explains both foundational concepts and a detailed action plan developed by Wunker and his team. In Jobs to Be Done, the groundbreaking Jobs Roadmap takes you step-by-step through the innovation process and reveals how to: Gather valuable customer insights Turn those insights into new product ideas Test and iterate until you find original profitable solutions And much more! Jobs to Be Done gives you a clear-cut framework for thinking about your business, outlines a roadmap for discovering new markets, new products and services, and helps you generate creative opportunities to innovate your way to success.




The Jobs To Be Done Playbook


Book Description

These days, consumers have real power: they can research companies, compare ratings, and find alternatives with a simple tap. Focusing on customer needs isn't a nice–to–have, it's a strategic imperative. The Jobs To Be Done Playbook (JTBD) helps organizations turn market insight into action. This book shows you techniques to make offerings people want, as well as make people want your offering.




A Practical Introduction to Real-World Research


Book Description

This practical text combines social research methods with coverage of statistical analysis to help students develop the applied research skills needed for future careers in public and private organizations, while also delivering a solid foundation for those going on to graduate school. Throughout the book, the author offers a real-world example and then breaks it down into a decision tree, which helps lead students to a possible statistical decision (rather than starting with the statistic). This text gives students a toolbox of the most common and in-demand skills and demonstrates how those skills can be used to make the best research decisions. The book takes students through the entire real-world research process, from the formation of a research topic to measurement and sampling, to methods for gathering information and making sense of the data, and finally presenting to a non-academic audience in a way that "gets the job done." Resources for instructors and students are available on an accompanying website for the book.