The Great Alignment

The Great Alignment
Author: Alan I. Abramowitz
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2018-06-19
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0300235127

Alan I. Abramowitz has emerged as a leading spokesman for the view that our current political divide is not confined to a small group of elites and activists but a key feature of the American social and cultural landscape. The polarization of the political and media elites, he argues, arose and persists because it accurately reflects the state of American society. Here, he goes further: the polarization is unique in modern U.S. history. Today’s party divide reflects an unprecedented alignment of many different divides: racial and ethnic, religious, ideological, and geographic. Abramowitz shows how the partisan alignment arose out of the breakup of the old New Deal coalition; introduces the most important difference between our current era and past eras, the rise of “negative partisanship”; explains how this phenomenon paved the way for the Trump presidency; and examines why our polarization could even grow deeper. This statistically based analysis shows that racial anxiety is by far a better predictor of support for Donald Trump than any other factor, including economic discontent.

Alignment

Alignment
Author: Robert S. Kaplan
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1591396905

How to align all organisational units to the organisational strategy. Amplifies the ideas in the Balanced Scorecord and Strategy Maps.

True Alignment

True Alignment
Author: Edgar Papke
Publisher: AMACOM
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2013-12-11
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0814433375

It cannot be overemphasized how important it is for leaders to ensure the company’s mission is manifested in the roles, expectations, and goals of every member of the organization. Companies live or die based on their ability to communicate and deliver on the promise their brand makes to its customers. But if that message is varied, or added to, or even unknown by a single member of the team, the resulting inefficiency, conflict, and disengagement will cripple a company’s ability to provide value to its customers. True Alignment reveals the blueprint for businesses of all types and sizes for creating a company culture where everyone is aligned to the vision and strategy behind the brand intention and responsible for living out the brand promise. You will learn how to: Decipher customer expectations Define the brand as a solution to the customer's needs Turn the unique selling proposition into the mission And much more You can replace the tires on a car, but if you don’t fix the alignment, you still won’t drive straight. The same goes for your company. Nothing else matters until the entire organization is aligned.

The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values

The Alignment Problem: Machine Learning and Human Values
Author: Brian Christian
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 459
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 039363583X

A jaw-dropping exploration of everything that goes wrong when we build AI systems and the movement to fix them. Today’s “machine-learning” systems, trained by data, are so effective that we’ve invited them to see and hear for us—and to make decisions on our behalf. But alarm bells are ringing. Recent years have seen an eruption of concern as the field of machine learning advances. When the systems we attempt to teach will not, in the end, do what we want or what we expect, ethical and potentially existential risks emerge. Researchers call this the alignment problem. Systems cull résumés until, years later, we discover that they have inherent gender biases. Algorithms decide bail and parole—and appear to assess Black and White defendants differently. We can no longer assume that our mortgage application, or even our medical tests, will be seen by human eyes. And as autonomous vehicles share our streets, we are increasingly putting our lives in their hands. The mathematical and computational models driving these changes range in complexity from something that can fit on a spreadsheet to a complex system that might credibly be called “artificial intelligence.” They are steadily replacing both human judgment and explicitly programmed software. In best-selling author Brian Christian’s riveting account, we meet the alignment problem’s “first-responders,” and learn their ambitious plan to solve it before our hands are completely off the wheel. In a masterful blend of history and on-the ground reporting, Christian traces the explosive growth in the field of machine learning and surveys its current, sprawling frontier. Readers encounter a discipline finding its legs amid exhilarating and sometimes terrifying progress. Whether they—and we—succeed or fail in solving the alignment problem will be a defining human story. The Alignment Problem offers an unflinching reckoning with humanity’s biases and blind spots, our own unstated assumptions and often contradictory goals. A dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, it takes a hard look not only at our technology but at our culture—and finds a story by turns harrowing and hopeful.

The Big Sort

The Big Sort
Author: Bill Bishop
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 478
Release: 2009-05-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0547525192

The award-winning journalist reveals the untold story of why America is so culturally and politically divided in this groundbreaking book. Armed with startling demographic data, Bill Bishop demonstrates how Americans have spent decades sorting themselves into alarmingly homogeneous communities—not by region or by state, but by city and neighborhood. With ever-increasing specificity, we choose the communities and media that are compatible with our lifestyles and beliefs. The result is a country that has become so ideologically inbred that people don't know and can't understand those who live just a few miles away. In The Big Sort, Bishop explores how this phenomenon came to be, and its dire implications for our country. He begins with stories about how we live today and then draws on history, economics, and our changing political landscape to create one of the most compelling big-picture accounts of America in recent memory.

Partisan Hearts and Minds

Partisan Hearts and Minds
Author: Donald P. Green
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9780300101560

A treatment of party identification, in which three political scientists argue that identification with political parties powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. They build a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities.

The Limits of Alignment

The Limits of Alignment
Author: John D. Ciorciari
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2010-08-16
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1589016262

The Limits of Alignment is an engaging and accessible study that explores how small states and middle powers of Southeast Asia ensure their security in a world where they are overshadowed by greater powers. John D. Ciorciari challenges a central concept in international relations theory—that states respond to insecurity by either balancing against their principal foes, “bandwagoning” with them, or declaring themselves neutral. Instead, he shows that developing countries prefer limited alignments that steer between strict neutrality and formal alliances to obtain the fruits of security cooperation without the perils of undue dependency. Ciorciari also shows how structural and normative shifts following the end of the Cold War and the advent of U.S. primacy have increased the prevalence of limited alignments in the developing world and that these can often place constraints on U.S. foreign policy. Finally, he discusses how limited alignments in the developing world may affect the future course of international security as China and other rising powers gather influence on the world stage.

Straight A Leadership

Straight A Leadership
Author: Quint Studer
Publisher: Studer Group
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2009
Genre: Executive ability
ISBN: 9780984079414

Alignment - Action - Accountability Today more than ever, your senior leaders must produce 'Straight' work. Quint Studer's new book is the study guide they need. Straight A Leadership, a book by Wall Street Journal bestselling author Quint Studer, can help your organization achieve the peak performance it needs to survive in the toughest environment. The book is based on Studer Group's work with hundreds of top healthcare organizations. It makes the case the vast majority of problems organizations face fall under one of the following three categories: Alignment - Think of C-suite leaders as aircraft pilots. If a pilot makes even a tiny error in setting longitude or latitude at the start of the flight, the plane can end up in the wrong city. Likewise, a small misalignment at the top echelon of a healthcare organization can spark problems that multiply as they cascade through the leadership hierarchy-causing everyone to veer off course. Action - Sometimes an organization is implementing the right action plan but it's being poorly executed. Other times, so many actions are taking place that they're working against each other, in the way that multiple medications can interfere with each other's effectiveness. Either way, the impact of each action is diminished or desired results go completely unmet. Accountability - An organization may be properly aligned and taking the right action steps, but without a good system of accountability in place, it will get only short term gains. The absence of accountability-for selecting the right talent, teaching the right tools and techniques, validating positive behaviors and evaluating overall performance-can derail long term results. Straight A Leadership offers a wealth of thoughtful, evidence-based insights on addressing the three in light of an organization's external environment. It also shows senior leaders how to evaluate their own execution in these areas and provides a tool kit that will help them get the organization moving in the right direction. It's the perfect book for any leader who wants to stay on the cutting edge in making their organization the best. -- Provided by publisher.

The Great Revolt

The Great Revolt
Author: Salena Zito
Publisher: Forum Books
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2019-11-12
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1524763705

A CNN political analyst and a Republican strategist reframe the discussion of the “Trump voter” to answer the question, What’s next? NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FOREIGN AFFAIRS • “Unlike most retellings of the 2016 election, The Great Revolt provides a cohesive, non-wild-eyed argument about where the Republican Party could be headed.”—The Atlantic Political experts were wrong about the 2016 election and they continue to blow it, predicting the coming demise of the president without pausing to consider the durability of the winds that swept him into office. Salena Zito and Brad Todd have traveled over 27,000 miles of country roads to interview more than three hundred Trump voters in ten swing counties. What emerges is a portrait of a group of citizens who span job descriptions, income brackets, education levels, and party allegiances, united by their desire to be part of a movement larger than themselves. They want to put pragmatism before ideology and localism before globalism, and demand the respect they deserve from Washington. The 2016 election signaled a realignment in American politics that will outlast any one president. Zito and Todd reframe the discussion of the “Trump voter” to answer the question, What’s next?

The Work of Leaders

The Work of Leaders
Author: Julie Straw
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1118636538

The culmination of six years of research and development, The Work of Leaders presents a simple structure that neatly captures the complexity of contemporary leadership. The goal of this book is to make this wealth of leadership insight accessible to anyone who wants better results as a leader. The work that leaders do—the work that really matters—is boiled down to three areas: crafting a vision, building alignment, and championing execution. Vision, Alignment, and Execution are “magic words.” They strike a chord that turns the goal of leadership into tangible steps. With passion and insight, the authors draw from the best-known leadership authorities, while leveraging their unparalleled access to data from thousands of leaders and followers and their connections to hundreds of organizational development consultants. Interwoven with humor and drawing from real-world scenarios, The Work of Leaders distills leadership best practices into a simple, compelling process that helps leaders at all levels get immediate results.