Performance Books

Roland D. Nolen is urging people in Corporate America to adopt a new perspective on success. "Most people work hard, if you think about it," Nolen says, "When it comes down to it, you have to differentiate yourself. The people with interpersonal skills, communication skills, and team player attitudes are the ones getting ahead." He claims that it is imperative for workers to see their weaknesses and strengths through the eyes of others. Communication is also crucial, claims Nolen. Most employees work very hard and produce good results; however, if they can't communicate their progress to others successfully, these people may never enjoy positive recognition. This has become increasingly more important as technical skills have gained value over interpersonal skills. With such intense emphasis on technology, employees rarely appreciate the significance of communication and perspective. Because of Roland D. Nolen, my career is finally going places!

Roland Nolen describes in simple terms and different situations how company dynamics really work. This book has beeninstrumental in helping me understand my manager more and hence helped me be more successful in my career ! Since I work in the Technology industry like Mr. Nolen, I totally understand the situations presented and the problems encountered in the day to day routines. I agree with so many things in this book (so uncanny !)He also gives you ways on how to improve your style, image and even productivity with very useful checklists at the end of the book

I must say that I became a huge fan of Mark Graham Brown's after reading his book "Get it, Set it, Move it, Prove it", so of course I had to pick up his next book on analytics. What I like the most about Mark's books is that they are really easy to understand. He talks about real life examples from recognizable companies he has worked with in every industry. There are some great industry specific scorecard samples in the book which I found really informative. Whether you are just beginning your Balanced Scorecard or performance management initiative, Mark describes what is important to the success of your performance management initiative, key failures, best practises and how to develop your scorecard to reap the most benefit and success of your organizations strategic goals. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is just starting their performance management initiative or to anyone who wants to improve their scorecard.

One of the key points I took away from Mark's new book is that analytics can form the basis of a dynamic approach to performance management. Dynamic in the sense that analytics can be adjusted to be more responsive to changing directions in the market, the economy, employee profile or whatever is important to the organization. Because an analytic is a composite or aggregate of sub-metrics, each sub-metric necessarily carries a weight that can be based on its importance to the company's business results. As business conditions inevitably change, such as the surfacing of a new competitive threat, the weights of the sub-metrics can be quickly changed to reflect their current significance. This can reduce or eliminate the need to create another scorecard. Not only can a scorecard be balanced, the aggregate analytics can be dynamically adjusted to indicate the affects that changes in business strategy have on business results; a sensible approach for remaining stable, yet agile in a turbulent business environment.

finally a book on engines that was copyrighted less than 15 years ago! A good book....not to be confused with THE good book! God hasen't told me how to make my big block run faster yet!....grin

This book looks at a number of actual (19 to be exact) Big Block engine buildups. From 427 to 572, street to strip with part numbers pictures and dyno results. Excellent reference for choosing parts and building your own mill. Enjoyable to read.

CM

This book contains twenty six essays on black culture and how it has moved from Africa to the United States and from there to the world. It is specifically oriented to the performing arts, loosely defined to include everything from gospel music to sports to television series. The contributors are an eclectic mix of scholars (mostly), critics and practicing artists who express their own views about black culture.

The writers, like people everywhere offer a diverse set of views from their own perspectives. In these times the influence of Black culture in areas like popular music and sports that even these writers have a hard time defining things like Black Music. Music for instance that started as black has found homes in other cultures as diverse as Gospel groups in Australia and Broadway.

This book could be used for readings in Black studies, or by anyone interested in the differentiation in Black performing arts.

This is not a collection of essays celebrating the tremendous influence of black culture around the world.

Instead, as Tricia Rose states in the Foreword, "The traffic in black culture to which this volume is dedicated is tethered to the trafficking in black bodies on which these cultural exchanges are based. They share several disheartening characteristics: similar trade routes, unequal forms of exchange, and often, a soulless focus on capital gain." But she adds, "Despite the troubled ground on which these traffic patterns are set, a good deal of black culture emphasizes sacrifice for the larger good and a steadfast commitment to affirmation and confirmation against relentlessly long odds."

I suspect that if the 26 contributors - an international and interdisciplinary mix of scholars, critics, and practicing artists - met together in a room, they would not reach consensus on exactly what constitutes "black culture" or "appropriation" or "authenticity." But therein lies the book's strength; there is no company line here, but rather a dynamic, thought-provoking discussion.

Racial "hybridization" and public perceptions are a common thread, as in Caroline Streeter's "Faking the Funk? Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys and (Hybrid) Black Celebrity."

Others explore the commodification - or "trafficking" - of black culture. It is not addressed as a simple matter of whites exploiting blacks. As Kennell Jackson notes in "The Shadows of Texts: Will Black Music and Singers Sell Everything on Television?" the sort of collaboration taking place between black artists and television ad creators "reminds us that in late capitalism black cultural material often travels in commercial contexts with collusion of the makers of cultural products."

It's impossible to sum up this diverse collection in a few paragraphs. Suffice to say I think it provides much food for thought to anyone interested in cultural studies, African American Studies, vernacular culture or the arts in general.

The book came out too early to address Dave Chapelle's rationale for terminating his show, which he summed up to Oprah as discomfort over "the white guy laughing." Here's hoping the second edition includes something by or about him, since it would be a perfect fit.

This book is an excellent piece of literature for any serious brass player. The advice from the pros is invaluable! Also ideal for a collegiate brass student.

The Brass Player's Cookbook is filled with tidbits of wonderful advice. Covering topics ranging from easier travelling for gigs, vibrato, respiration, goal planning, mouthpiece selection...a plethora of insights written in succinct, easily read "recipes."

Recommendable for nearly everyone as the scope ensures something beneficial can be attained from the reading.

Physicians, as others, are often confused by conflicting news in the media regarding the nutritional benefits of what we eat. What is good for us, and what is potentially or definitely harmful to our bodies? Cocores, in this easy-to-read book, provides practical guidelines for patients, as well as for the physicians who serve them, on how to make informed choices to rationally eat better to live better and more productive lives.
Andrew E. Slaby, M.D., PH.D., M.P.H.
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
New York University School of Medicine

Substance Abuse Disorders, or addictions, have been thought to be the exclusive province of drugs of abuse, like cocaine or heroin. More recently, food has been considered a substance of abuse, with morbid obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and other consequences the result of a pathological attachment to food. What we eat causes profound changes in the brain. This book by Dr. Cocores is an easy-to-use guide to recovery from the disease of obesity - a brain disease that causes shame and guilt and results in secondary diseases of the body and spirit of the patient.

-Mark S. Gold, M.D., Professor and Chief of the Department of Psychiatry, Neuroscience, Anesthesiology, Community Health and Family Medicine Division of Addiction Medicine at the McKnight Brain Institute

With the increased scrutiny on company accounting practices, executive compensation, and the Board's role in setting strategy, this book on corporate governance is an extremely timely and important one. The authors thoughtfully detail the issues Boards face, how best to work with CEOs and plan for their successor, and develop strategies for effective leadership. There's even a section on Boards for companies outside the U.S., which I found extremely valuable.

For anyone interested in how Boards work and the steps they need to take going forward (and I think any shareholder should be), this is essential reading. Highly recommended.

This is a superb book. Comprehensive and well-written, it addresses a vitally important topic with innovative ideas and practical solutions. In a field increasing crowded with prescriptions for solving the dilemmas of corporate governance, Building Better Boards stands out as a book worth reading.

"This book explains how to use behavioral competencies to link human resource (HR) systems to an organization's purpose. This linkage will help organizations better communicate to associates about how they can effectively guide their own actions...The book is written for human resource professionals, who strive to link their organization's core competencies, capabilities, values, and priorities to its human resource applications...You can expect this book to recognize and reinforce important distinctions between an organization's strategic core competencies and its individual competencies and skills. Although these distinctions are obvious to business strategists, they are a source of confusion for many in human resources who want to use competencies to reflect vision, culture, and values" (from the Preface).

In this context, Paul C. Green divides his book into two main parts:

I. Clarifying Competencies: In this part;

* He argues that "robust competencies help you define what was done, what is being done, and what needs to be done." And hence, he sets the stage for building robust competencies by identifying the ambiguities, challenges, and rewards of using competencies.

* He explores the different meanings of competencies that are used in organizations and research. And he argues that "HR competency system must be job related and should reflect core competencies, capabilities, core values, and priorities."

* He discusses operationalizing performance skills to enable you to use behavioral observation, description, and inference to communicate clearly what a person needs to do to do a job well. Here he says that "a behavior is an action that you can observe, describe, and verify."

* He explores how the identity of an organization can become the target for alignment, and discusses how an organization's identity can be reflected in and reinforced by interviews, appraisal, coaching, and training.

II. Linking Competencies to Human Resource Systems: In this part, after briefly discussing perception-driven, experience-driven, attribute-driven, and behavior-driven approaches, he offers behavioral approach to link interviews, appraisals, coaching, and training to the identity of an organization. It emphasizes a systemic, job-related approach to support the effectiveness and defensibility of an HR system. He argues that "the linkage of HR applications is easier when the organization consistently uses a behavioral approach. Once behavioral language is used in one part of an HR system, it can be expanded to other applications."

Finally, he says that "the best answers to questions about core competencies, capabilities, core values, and priorities come from real experiences in applying them. Today, each answer is just an opinion at one point in time. However, the big question for the future will be: How can I link HR systems to my organization's identity? At present the most useful answers are those that emphasize a behavioral approach, job relatedness, nimbleness, and open mindedness."

Highly recommended.

Dr. Green demonstrates that the job analysis which is the basis of behavioral interviews, is also the cornerstone upon which competencies, PD's, interviews, coaching, performance measurement, and training are all built. Once the use of behavioral thinking is understood by the manager, the development of the tools and methods for selecting, developing, and managing successful people will flow from the analysis of the behaviors needed for success in any specific job.

Dr. Green goes beyond the individual in applying behavioral understandings and tools, taking them to the organizational level as well. He clearly demonstrates the linkage between high performing individuals, and high performing organizations.

A must read for any manager using Behavioral Interviewing, any trainer teaching Behavioral Interviewing, or any manager tired of spending a disproportionate share of their time and energy dealing with poor performance, low productivity, and poor morale.

While you can easily read it in a few days, you will want your own copy to highlight, make notes in, and refer to from time to time as you grow as a manager.

This book has given me much to think about and provided much comfort. The "much to think about" comes from Part One where Stone looked at storytelling communities. Her analysis of them helped me see more clearly what's here in Kentucky and how those communities function as well as what might be missing and how those could come about and could function. Part Two provided "much comfort." Here Stone looked at individual tellers as they talked about the development of the telling of a specific tale. She also included a transcript of the tale as the teller told it to her. This was fascinating since I love telling fairy and folk tales (wondertales, Stone calls them) and am not that interested in creating parodies or spicing them up in ways that call attention to the teller's cleverness instead of to the story. To read about how storytellers have worked on the telling of a story and about how the story has worked on the teller was like looking in a mirror at my ways of working and seeing that I truly am not alone. Although my comments touch on only a fraction of the subject matter in Kay Stone's book, those two aspects are what burns brightest for me now. To read it was a fine and wonderful experience with thoughts and images "burning brightly" to illuminate my path. Thank you, Kay Stone.

In Burning Brightly: New light on old tales told today, Kay Stone tracks the revival of oral storytelling in Canada. Since the dawn of human history storytellers have entertained, educated and inspired members of their communities, but in the age of books and television their art almost died out, relegated to story hours for children. Early chapters of Burning Brightly explore the many adult storytelling communities which have arisen in cities and rural areas over the last twenty years, including four streams: "traditional", library/educational, theatrical, and spiritual/therapeutic. The book shows how these communities fulfill the human need for meaning and connection. Traditional tales, including many from the Grimm collections, retain their relevance in today's world. Stone explores the reasons tellers choose these old tales and the ways they rework them. In the second half of her book, Kay Stone explores in depth the life stories, thoughts and repertoires of eight contemporary tellers, including herself. Texts of their stories are included. Her own tale, that of a curious girl who meets a dangerous crone and finds her own storytelling voice, acts as a metaphor for the revival of oral storytelling as a performance art. Kay Stone offers rare insights based on her dual career as a popular Winnipeg storyteller and an internationally recognized folklorist. Her book shows the depth and breadth of today's storytelling as does no other book I have seen, and is a valuable resource for storytellers, folklorists and anyone interested in oral tradition and community building.

Having perused this book during a coaching, it looks like the real deal, and a big help when dealing with the language. Also included, but not mentioned specifically in the first review, is the original short novella by Prosper Merimee, quite essential to understanding the complexities of the title character. It also fleshes out some information concerning the origins of some of the supporting roles in the opera.

Mary Dibbern's Carmen: A Performance Guide is an annotated guide which provides the complete French text for both the recitative and dialogue versions, transcriptions of the French into the International Phonetic Alphabet, and an English translation. A complete reference for the study, performance, and production of this classic opera, Dibbern's Carmen provides everything needed and necessary for a theatrical success and is ardently recommended for use by singers, conductors, coaches, stage directors, opera producers, students, and teachers. Mary Dibbern's impressive text is enhanced with an informative foreword by Thomas Grubb and is a core addition to academic and professional opera studies and reference library collections.