The former Walgreens Senior Vice President details how he was inspired by his autistic son to implement a model for hiring disabled employees at the retail chain and holding them to the same standards as people without disabilities.
Like every parent of a disabled child, Randy Lewis fears for the future of his son. People like Austin need the security of a job. Randy was a senior executive at one of the largest and fastest growing retailers in America. If his distribution centres did not deliver efficiently and economically, Walgreens could not serve its customers and would lose out to competitors. Randy's motto is what's the use of having power if you don't use it to do good? He set out to create an inclusive workplace where people with disabilities could thrive in jobs with equal pay and conditions, held to the same standards as those without disabilities. No Greatness without Goodness tells how Randy and his team achieved their goal, the impact it had, and how companies throughout the world like Boots and Marks & Spencer have been inspired by this example.
Why does modern life revolve around objectives? From how science is funded, to improving how children are educated -- and nearly everything in-between -- our society has become obsessed with a seductive illusion: that greatness results from doggedly measuring improvement in the relentless pursuit of an ambitious goal. In Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned, Stanley and Lehman begin with a surprising scientific discovery in artificial intelligence that leads ultimately to the conclusion that the objective obsession has gone too far. They make the case that great achievement can't be bottled up into mechanical metrics; that innovation is not driven by narrowly focused heroic effort; and that we would be wiser (and the outcomes better) if instead we whole-heartedly embraced serendipitous discovery and playful creativity. Controversial at its heart, yet refreshingly provocative, this book challenges readers to consider life without a destination and discovery without a compass.