The Power of Difference

The Power of Difference

Author: Simon Fanshawe

Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers

Published: 2021-12-03

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1398601551

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SHORTLISTED: Business Book Awards 2022 - Diversity, Inclusion & Equality category Good intentions are not enough - real diversity is about change. This book explains why it's our differences and how we combine them that creates true diversity and generates innovation, fresh thinking and ultimately, success. With clarity and wit, The Power of Difference brings together the author's own experiences with the latest research to explain why inclusion is more than just being nice to people, why unconscious bias training isn't the fix we need and why listening to all individual voices, not just assuming that one viewpoint represents a group, is key. Offering insight, analysis and practical solutions, The Power of Difference is a must read for all managers, leaders and HR professionals as well as anyone looking to engage with the topic, who doesn't know where to start. Exploring how to confront bias, question assumptions and avoid generalizations, this book illustrates why diversity should be part of the overall business strategy, not separate from it. It shows how for innovation and diversity to flourish, we must create spaces that are safe for disagreement, not from disagreement. Written in an engaging yet practical style, this book courageously tackles some of the most significant issues at work today.


The Difference

The Difference

Author: Scott E. Page

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2008-08-11

Total Pages: 457

ISBN-13: 1400830281

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In this landmark book, Scott Page redefines the way we understand ourselves in relation to one another. The Difference is about how we think in groups--and how our collective wisdom exceeds the sum of its parts. Why can teams of people find better solutions than brilliant individuals working alone? And why are the best group decisions and predictions those that draw upon the very qualities that make each of us unique? The answers lie in diversity--not what we look like outside, but what we look like within, our distinct tools and abilities. The Difference reveals that progress and innovation may depend less on lone thinkers with enormous IQs than on diverse people working together and capitalizing on their individuality. Page shows how groups that display a range of perspectives outperform groups of like-minded experts. Diversity yields superior outcomes, and Page proves it using his own cutting-edge research. Moving beyond the politics that cloud standard debates about diversity, he explains why difference beats out homogeneity, whether you're talking about citizens in a democracy or scientists in the laboratory. He examines practical ways to apply diversity's logic to a host of problems, and along the way offers fascinating and surprising examples, from the redesign of the Chicago "El" to the truth about where we store our ketchup. Page changes the way we understand diversity--how to harness its untapped potential, how to understand and avoid its traps, and how we can leverage our differences for the benefit of all.


The Politics of Difference

The Politics of Difference

Author: Edwin Norman Wilmsen

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1996-08

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9780226900162

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According to most social scientists, the advent of a global media village and the rise of liberal democratic government would diminish ethnic and national identity as a source of political action. Yet the contemporary world is in the midst of an explosion of identity politics and often violent ethnonationalism. This volume examines cases ranging from the well-publicized ethnonationalism of Bosnia and post-Apartheid South Africa to ethnic conflicts in Belgium and Sri Lanka. Distinguished international scholars including John Comaroff, Stanley J. Tambiah, and Ernesto Laclau argue that continued acceptance of imposed ethnic terms as the most appropriate vehicle for collective self-identification and social action legitimizes the conditions of inequality that give rise to them in the first place. This ambitious attempt to explain the inadequacies of current approaches to power and ethnicity forges more realistic alternatives to the volatile realities of social difference.


New Power

New Power

Author: Jeremy Heimans

Publisher: Random House Canada

Published: 2018-04-03

Total Pages: 310

ISBN-13: 0345816463

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From two influential and visionary thinkers comes a big idea that is changing the way movements catch fire and ideas spread in our highly connected world. For the vast majority of human history, power has been held by the few. "Old power" is closed, inaccessible, and leader-driven. Once gained, it is jealously guarded, and the powerful spend it carefully, like currency. But the technological revolution of the past two decades has made possible a new form of power, one that operates differently, like a current. "New power" is made by many; it is open, participatory, often leaderless, and peer-driven. Like water or electricity, it is most forceful when it surges. The goal with new power is not to hoard it, but to channel it. New power is behind the rise of participatory communities like Facebook and YouTube, sharing services like Uber and Airbnb, and rapid-fire social movements like Brexit and #BlackLivesMatter. It explains the unlikely success of Barack Obama's 2008 campaign and the unlikelier victory of Donald Trump in 2016. And it gives ISIS its power to propagate its brand and distribute its violence. Even old power institutions like the Papacy, NASA, and LEGO have tapped into the strength of the crowd to stage improbable reinventions. In New Power, the business leaders/social visionaries Jeremy Heimans and Henry Timms provide the tools for using new power to successfully spread an idea or lead a movement in the twenty-first century. Drawing on examples from business, politics, and social justice, they explain the new world we live in--a world where connectivity has made change shocking and swift and a world in which everyone expects to participate.


Us Plus Them

Us Plus Them

Author: Todd L. Pittinsky

Publisher: Harvard Business Press

Published: 2012-07-31

Total Pages: 268

ISBN-13: 1422142418

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Moving beyond mere tolerance Us-versus-them is the costly mind-set in which organizations, communities, and whole nations too often find themselves trapped. In fact, recognizing difference as a positive force can bring astonishing value to even the most diverse organizations. In Us Plus Them, leadership scholar Todd Pittinsky introduces a groundbreaking new science of diversity that: • Debunks the assumption that wherever there is difference there will be inherent tension and animosity • Challenges the effectiveness of our standard attempts to fight prejudice and combat hate in our schools and workplaces, our civic and religious lives • Reveals how we benefit from the mixing of different ethnic, racial, national, social, and religious groups in a globalized world Through a wide range of examples—from Maine and Michigan to Rwanda and Bhutan, and from small-town classrooms to corporate boardrooms—Pittinsky opens our eyes to misunderstood yet useful aspects of us-and-them relations, including many of the neglected positive dimensions of difference. He provides a bold new assessment of the popular and scientific approaches to the issue, proving that it’s time to move beyond mere tolerance to build communities in which the two sides of the us-and-them equation engage each other because they both want to. Much as Martin Seligman and positive psychology have shifted the focus from mental illness to mental healthiness, this book shifts our mind-set to diversity as a positive force. Understanding the science and practical use of that energy will help us build the schools, neighborhoods, companies, and nations we want, and not simply avoid the ugliest problems of the past. Pittinsky shows us that our great diversity experiment hasn’t failed—it hasn’t even begun.


Power and Difference

Power and Difference

Author: Joint Committee on Southeast Asia

Publisher:

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 9780804717816

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Although the societies of island Southeast Asia(Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, plus Brunei and Singapore) are known for their egalitarian relations between men and women, subtle differences in power and status do exist. These differences are often difficult to conceptualize, and, consequently, the theoretical issues posed by such relatively egalitarian gender systems have been largely unexamined in Western scholarship, even thought these issues are of great importance to feminists and others interested in culture and power. This book is about difference and power as they relate to men and women in island Southeast Asia. It examines how differences between 'male' and 'female' (as gendered concepts of the person) and between men and women (as living beings engaged in activities) are constituted there in assumptions and through practices, and how power is envisioned and distributed among men and women. The book begins with a substantial theoretical essay on gender, power, and the body, which is followed by eleven studies of aspects of gender in various parts of island Southeast Asia.


Difference Matters

Difference Matters

Author: Brenda J. Allen

Publisher: Waveland Press

Published: 2010-07-19

Total Pages: 249

ISBN-13: 1478607696

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Allens proven ability and flare for presenting complex and oftentimes sensitive topics in nonthreatening ways carry over in the latest edition of Difference Matters. Her down-to-earth analysis of six social identity categories reveals how communication establishes and enacts identity and power dynamics. She provides historical overviews to show how perceptions of gender, race, social class, sexuality, ability, and age have varied throughout time and place. Allen clearly explains pertinent theoretical perspectives and illustrates those and other discussions with real-life experiences (many of which are her own). She also offers practical guidance for how to communicate difference more humanely. While many examples are from organizational contexts, readers from a wide range of backgrounds can relate to them and appreciate their relevance. This eye-opening, vibrant text, suitable for use in a variety of disciplines, motivates readers to think about valuing difference as a positive, enriching feature of society. Interactive elements such as Spotlights on Media, I.D. Checks, Tool Kits, and Reflection Matters questions awaken interest, awareness, and creative insights for change.