The Road to Audacity Being Adventurous In Life and Work

by Carter, Stephen; Kourdi, Jeremy

• ISBN13: 9781403906175
• ISBN10: 1403906173
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-12-05
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Being audacious and adventurous can be inspiring, but is often submerged by concerns for comfort and security. The authors argue that to be successful in a more uncertain environment individuals and organizations need to adopt a more adventurous and audacious approach.

Author Biography

Steven Carter is Managing Director, Apter International.

Jeremy Kourdi is a Freelance Writer and Business Consultant.

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	viii
Preface	ix
Prelude What is Audacity?	1	(1)
Journeys and destinations	2	(1)
This happy band	3	(2)
Note	5	(1)
The Road to Audacity	6	(16)
Living in a clockwork world?	6	(2)
Why risk it? The value of risk-taking and audacity	8	(3)
Driven to audacity - the case of Chrysler	11	(1)
The inevitability of risk	12	(1)
Handling uncertainty	13	(5)
An unreasonable art	18	(2)
Travelling the road to audacity	20	(1)
Notes	21	(1)
Why? The Audacity Factor	22	(10)
Why be audacious?	22	(1)
The search for excitement	23	(1)
The puzzle of why	24	(2)
Born audacious?	26	(2)
The promise of inconsistency	28	(2)
What uncertainty offers	30	(1)
Notes	31	(1)
The Eight Ways of Being	32	(20)
Consistently inconsistent: how we deal with arousal	33	(3)
Experiencing the world	36	(1)
Intention: goals versus means	37	(3)
Inclusion: fitting in versus falling out	40	(3)
Interaction: transactions versus relationships	43	(2)
Identification: me versus you	45	(3)
Connecting to audacity	48	(2)
Notes	50	(2)
The Meaning of Mountains	52	(5)
The 'real 'dangerous edge	52	(1)
Mountains and reversal theory	53	(1)
Learning from the journey	54	(2)
A motivationally rich promise	56	(1)
Note	56	(1)
Walking the Dangerous Edge	57	(20)
How can we be audacious?	57	(1)
Stepping up to the dangerous edge	57	(4)
The confidence frame and the England middle order batting collapse	61	(1)
But confidence in what?	62	(3)
Switching between states: fracturing the protective frame	65	(1)
Establishing protective frames	66	(4)
Awareness	70	(2)
Are you with me?	72	(1)
How organisations can be aware of an uncertain future	73	(2)
The audacity factor	75	(1)
Notes	76	(1)
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Employee?	77	(18)
Organisations need audacity	77	(2)
Employee-phobia	79	(2)
Malice, laziness and downright corruption	81	(2)
The paradox of audacity and the squandering of talent	83	(1)
Can the paradox be resolved?	84	(1)
What do you get when you trust people to be audacious?	85	(1)
The people you want, want to be audacious	86	(1)
The war for talent	87	(1)
Audacity delivers	88	(2)
... and is innovative	90	(2)
What does it take for an organisation to be audacious?	92	(1)
The very big picture	92	(2)
Notes	94	(1)
Leadership Matters	95	(22)
The need for leadership	97	(1)
Led astray: why traditional leadership ideas are failing	98	(1)
Leadership is what matters, not simply leaders	98	(1)
Developing audacity through leadership	99	(1)
Building microclimates	100	(1)
What's it like being around you? The eight microclimate conditions	101	(4)
A role model for climate-building?	105	(2)
Mandela	107	(2)
The demon seen	109	(1)
Captain Mainwaring and Private Fraser	110	(2)
Leadership communities	112	(1)
Developing a performance climate through a leadership community	113	(3)
The formula	116	(1)
Notes	116	(1)
Of Wildebeest, Buffalo and Bison	117	(8)
About SABMiller	118	(1)
About HSBC	119	(1)
Interesting and exceptional organisations	119	(5)
Notes	124	(1)
Dancing with Customers	125	(12)
Desperately conforming incorporated	125	(5)
Treating customers as real people the final frontier	130	(3)
But love is ... the safest thing	133	(3)
Notes	136	(1)
Building a New Eden -Audacity at Work	137	(14)
About The Eden Project	138	(1)
The dream of Eden	139	(2)
Creating Eden	141	(4)
The motivation to build Eden	145	(3)
The importance of Eden	148	(2)
Notes	150	(1)
The Road from Morocco	151	(7)
Imlil	152	(1)
The Kasbah Du Toukbahl	152	(3)
Audacity -- dreaming with your eyes open	155	(3)
Index	158