Scenario Planning


Book Description

Is your business ready for the future? Scenario planning is a fascinating, yet still underutilized, business tool that can be of immense value to a company's strategic planning process. It allows companies to visualize the impact that a portfolio of possible futures could have on their competitiveness. It helps decision-makers see opportunities and threats that could emerge beyond their normal planning horizon. Scenario Planning serves as a guide to taking a long-term look at your business, your industry, and the world, posing thoughtful questions about the possible consequences of some current (and possible future) trends. This book will help you: Outline (and help you prepare for) any trends that could play out in the future that could change the political, social, and economic landscapes and significantly impact your business Explore the impact of technological advances and the emergence of new competitors to your business Examine challenges that are only dimly recognizable as potential problems today This visual book will help you answer this question: Is my organization ready for every possibility?




Changing Writing


Book Description

Writing can change the world—by inspiring action, adding to readers’ knowledge, or altering their attitudes. Changing Writing by Johndan Johnson-Eilola is a brief guide with online scenarios that gives students the rhetorical tools they need in order to respond to and create change with their own writing. Informed by Johnson-Eilola’s research, the book’s ten focused chapters illustrate straightforward strategies for problem solving and digital composing through lively real-world examples. Central to the author’s approach is a simple PACT framework that presents purpose, audience, context, and text as powerful, necessary, interconnected elements that both change writing and create change.




Business Writing Scenarios


Book Description

Written by an experienced instructor of business writing courses, Business Writing Scenarios offers a hands on approach that immerses students in the types of writing situations they will encounter throughout their working lives. Detailed guidance and numerous examples help students build the skills they will need to respond to these situations effectively. In each of the core chapters, students first learn how other writers addressed a particular writing situation—such as having to convey disappointing news to employees, explain a major policy change, or respond to a difficult customer—effectively or ineffectively. Students then apply what they’ve learned through guided activities ("applications") that ask them to respond in writing to a similar business scenario. Additionally, the book emphasizes the potentially serious consequences of ill-considered business communications, especially those delivered electronically. A chapter dedicated to business writing gaffes provides many real-world examples of these mistakes and advises students on how to avoid them. Suitable for use on its own or in conjunction with another text, Business Writing Scenarios is a useful addition to any course building students business writing skills.




The Scenario-planning Handbook


Book Description

The primary objective of the book is to provide decisionmakers the insight and means to apply this technique in changing the way they think about and plan for the future. Scenario-based strategy both confronts and deals with uncertainty and leads to a strategy that is focused but resilient, specific but flexible. The handbook guides readers step by step through the sequence and intricacies of a scenario project and the subsequent strategic decision-making. It explains what scenarios are and are not, when they are needed, as well as their uses and benefits. It also deals with cultural and organizational changes that an organization must undertake to maximize the benefits of scenario-based planning.




Scenarios, Stories, Use Cases


Book Description

Extending the scenario method beyond interface design, this important book shows developers how to design more effective systems by soliciting, analyzing, and elaborating stories from end-users Contributions from leading industry consultants and opinion-makers present a range of scenario techniques, from the light, sketchy, and agile to the careful and systematic Includes real-world case studies from Philips, DaimlerChrysler, and Nokia, and covers systems ranging from custom software to embedded hardware-software systems




Information Modelling and Knowledge Bases X


Book Description

LISTENING TO MUSIC is designed to help develop and refine the listening skills of your students and inspire a lifelong appreciation of music. Author and award-winning scholar-teacher Craig Wright, who has taught Music Appreciation courses for more than 35 years, is consistently praised by reviewers and other professors for his unparalleled accuracy and his clear, direct, conversational style. Throughout the book, Wright connects with today's students by incorporating comparisons between pop and classical music and by using examples from popular artists to illustrate core concepts. This chronological text succinctly covers traditional Western music from medieval to modern, discussing examples from each historical period within their social contexts and the construction of each piece. Later chapters cover popular music, its impact on musical globalization, and comparisons between Western and non-Western music. LISTENING TO MUSIC is the only text that provides Craig Wright's own Listening Exercises, in the book and online, which help students focus on important musical elements and episodes. A free CD, packaged with each printed copy of the text, includes all of the musical examples for the Part 1 listening exercises. A full set of optional online student resources includes Active Listening Guides, streaming music, an interactive eBook, quizzing, and more--all to challenge your students. All of the music discussed in the text is also available on CD and on Sony Music download cards. Available with InfoTrac Student Collections http://gocengage.com/infotrac.




An Educator's Guide to STEAM


Book Description

This practical book will help readers understand what STEAM is, how it differs from STEM, and how it can be used to engage students in K–8 classrooms. The authors present a conceptual model with recommendations and classroom examples illustrating various key aspects of STEAM teaching in action, including creating the correct teaching environment, integrating STEAM content, and supporting students as they develop STEAM-related skills. The model includes specific strategies such as problem-based learning, student choice, technology integration, and teacher facilitation. Each chapter incorporates elements of connected learning—a type of learning that draws on students’ interests that teachers can capitalize on when using STEAM to address real-world problems.Readers will find easy-to-understand examples of what STEAM education looks like in a variety of classrooms, and will hear from teachers, instructional coaches, principals, and administrators about what it takes to ensure that STEAM is a schoolwide success. “Provides inspiration to sustain readers through this challenging work by emphasizing the rewards for both students and educators who engage in STEAM education.” —From the Foreword by Deborah Hanuscin, Western Washington University “This text will be appreciated by school and district staff interested in implementing STEAM education for students.” —Kevin O’Gorman, chief academic officer, Berkeley County School District, SC “This book will become a go-to for crafting meaningful STEAM learning experiences for students.” —Nicole Beeman-Cadwallader, National Math and Science Initiative




Scenario Planning for Climate Change


Book Description

Climate change, and the resultant impact on resource management and societal wellbeing, is one of the greatest challenges facing businesses and their long-term performance. Uncertainty about access to resources, unanticipated weather events, rapidly changing market conditions and potential social unrest is felt across all business and industry sectors. This book sets out an engaging step-by-step scenario-planning method that executives, Board members, managers and consultants can follow to develop a long-term strategy for climate change tailored for their business. Most climate change strategy books discuss climate mitigation only, focusing on how companies engage with carbon policy, new technologies, markets and other stakeholders about reducing carbon emissions. This book explores these themes but also looks at strategizing for climate change adaptation. Adaptation is equally important, especially given that companies cannot negotiate with nature. There is a need to interpret climate science for business in a way that acknowledges the realities of climate change and identifies a way forwards in responding to this uncertain future. with nature. There is a need to interpret climate science for business in a way that acknowledges the realities of climate change and identifies a way forwards in responding to this uncertain future.




The Anatomy of Story


Book Description

John Truby is one of the most respected and sought-after story consultants in the film industry, and his students have gone on to pen some of Hollywood's most successful films, including Sleepless in Seattle, Scream, and Shrek. The Anatomy of Story is his long-awaited first book, and it shares all of his secrets for writing a compelling script. Based on the lessons in his award-winning class, Great Screenwriting, The Anatomy of Story draws on a broad range of philosophy and mythology, offering fresh techniques and insightful anecdotes alongside Truby's own unique approach for how to build an effective, multifaceted narrative. Truby's method for constructing a story is at once insightful and practical, focusing on the hero's moral and emotional growth. As a result, writers will dig deep within and explore their own values and worldviews in order to create an effective story. Writers will come away with an extremely precise set of tools to work with—specific, useful techniques to make the audience care about their characters, and that make their characters grow in meaningful ways. They will construct a surprising plot that is unique to their particular concept, and they will learn how to express a moral vision that can genuinely move an audience. The foundations of story that Truby lays out are so fundamental they are applicable—and essential—to all writers, from novelists and short-story writers to journalists, memoirists, and writers of narrative non-fiction.