Training Books

The Nun and the Bureaucrat is so simple, inviting, and fascinating that it is easily read in a sitting. It should be required reading for every university program in Nursing and Management. In fact, every administrator, faculty member, and graduate must in the future know the profound lessons this book so tersely describes. What a delightful way to begin a quality journey into systems thinking and organizational transformation so demanded in American institutions from business, education, government, not-for-profits, NGOs.

Ralph F. Mullin, Ph.D.
Professor of Quality Management
University of Central Missouri

Savary and Crawford-Mason have done an analysis of dramatic improvement in health care delivery in two hospital systems. This book provides insight into the benefits of using systmes thinking for organizational transformation. The authors allow the players--doctors, nurses, aides, administrators--to tell their stories.

Those hospitals challenged to improve patient satisfaction and optimum patient care will find this book inspiring. Those hospitals already doing continuous quality improvement will find interesting supportive examples.

The book is a good illustration of the benefits of total engagement of everyone involved in the process of review and recommendation for continued improvements in all processes.

Dr. Marylouise Fennell, Hospital Board Member

Since we have had several personal experiences of almost dying or being infected after a medical procedure, we tuned into the PBS broadcast of the documentary "Good News... How Hospitals Heal Themselves". It was so revealing that we got the book for both personal and business reasons. In our business, ESF, Inc., we frequently deal with hospitals and those in the medical and nursing professions. Both my husband, Dr. Peter J. Esseff, and I feel this book should be read by personnel in every hospital from administrator to janitor. The "Systems Thinking" initiatives put into effect by the hospitals in the two "Good News" health care systems (SSM Health Care, St. Louis, Mo. comprised of 23 hospitals, and the Pittsburgh Regional Health Care Initiative, Pittsburgh, PA, comprised of 40 hospitals) demonstrated how a variety of "hospital diseases" could be treated and eventually eradicated. These initiatives were used initially by Dr. W. Edwards Deming in helping Japan "work smarter, not harder" in improving their auto manufacturing industry. In these two health care systems, statistics are given that demonstrate how the hospitals were able to: focus more on patients' needs; reduce costs, deaths, suffering, infections, duplication of services, waste of time and supplies; avoid deadly mistakes; streamline their bureaucracy; and work as a Team, from the top to the bottom of the chain of employees, by not placing blame for errors committed and empowering their workers to recommend changes to improve the quality of care in the hospitals.

The Savary/Crawford-Mason book takes the reader through the step-by-step process used by the two "good news" health care systems and described what each step in the process achieved. "The Nun and the Bureaucrat" is filled with specific examples of what the problem was and how the hospital solved it, sometimes in creative ways, but more often in logical ways that make us wonder why someone didn't think of that sooner. The positive results achieved through these initiatives are astounding.

What an incredible impact it would be on our entire health care system if these "Systems Thinking" initiatives could be enacted country wide in every medical facility. It gives us hope for curing our sick hospitals. It gives us hope for reducing our ever-increasing health care costs. It gives us hope for raising the standard of health care.

Everyone should read "The Nun and the Bureaucrat--How They Found an Unlikely Cure for America's Sick Hospitals" and pressure their hospital administrators, community, state, and federal officials to apply these "Systems Thinking" initiatives to our health care system nationwide.

School systems should do likewise.

Read this book and give it to your doctor and your hospital administrator and they will learn how to reduce waste, suffering, hospital-acquired infections, costs, errors and improve patient safety and save lives. And additional money or government regulations are not required to begin this improvement plan.

In the book, doctors and nurses explain how they didn't believe systems thinking would improve their hospitals. But to their delight, it did and they are saving lives, making fewer errors and enjoying their work.

I am the co-author of this book and believe the comments from the experts on the back cover of the book say it all.

"If you think that hospital care cannot be significantly improved in quality and cost, you have another think coming. Read this book."
Russell Ackoff, Professor Emeritus, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Author, Ackoff's Best, Re-creating the Corporation, and Redesigning Society (with Sheldon Roven)


"This book describes the kind of leadership that's essential for making our hospitals safe and patient friendly and at the same time cutting costs by driving out waste. And that is leadership that employs systems thinking to realize an inspiring vision. Read this book to learn how two leaders educated and transformed their hospitals. They show the way that others can and should follow."
Michael Maccoby, MD, Anthropologist, psychoanalyst and consultant on leadership, strategy and organization. Author, The Gamesman; Why Work?: Motivating the New Work Force; and the Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Perils of Visionary Leadership.


"Most of us realize that living and doing daily work requires us to depend on other people and predictable work processes. Taking those understandings into health care and the work of improving it is a complex undertaking. These authors have created an inviting introduction to health care as a system. In the midst of widespread recognition that we must improve our health care, they offer a starting point for creating the changes we need. Their attention to the insightful people making these changes happen allows us to learn from what's working. They have seen what is hard to see at first: health care as a system. Their writing is clear and inviting. In short, this is a welcome addition to the public conversation. Read it, share it and tell your elected officials about what you now understand needs to be encouraged to make health care better."
Paul Batalden, M.D., Professor, Dartmouth Medical School


"If ever there was an idea whose time as has come, this is the idea and this is the time.
Cal Thomas, syndicated columnist

"This book gives me hope that we can make similar improvements at many hospitals around the country."
Kenneth H. Cohn, MD, MBA, Cambridge Management Group. Author: Better Communication for Better Care: Mastering Physician-Administrator Collaboration, and Collaborate for Success: Breakthrough Strategies for Engaging Physicians, Nurses, and Hospital Executives

This book was easy to follow, had a great layout, and the pictures on how to do the excercises actually made sense!

Thank you for getting me excited about exercising again! I am buying this book for everyone in my family this year!

This book was easy to follow, had a great layout, and the pictures on how to do the excercises actually made sense!

Thank you for getting me excited about exercising again! I am buying this book for everyone in my family this year!

This was one of the few fitness books that was well designed, easy to understand, and helped me to stick with my exercise and nutrition goals.

I absolutely love my journal - it was the only journal I found that walked me through how to set goals and really figure out what I wanted out of my fitness program. The journal pages are excellent - I track everything! And the other thing that I always use in the gym is the section with photos on different exercises. I highly recommend it...

I have been a student of Taoism for over 40 years and try to accumulate as much literature on the subject as I can. This particular book is a very good find. I have been (and still am) enjoying it immensely. And Amazon.com helped me in finding this book at a great value.

Original Tao is a wonderful translation of an often over-looked text. The verses contained within this short work rival and often surpass those found in the more well known Taoist classic, Lau-tzu.

In addition to the translation, Professor Roth's commentary on Chinese mysticism is phenomenal and provides an interesting back-drop to the history of Taoist thought.

I highly recommend this book to both newcomers and veterans of Taoism

The centre of this 200-pages book is the critical edition of the Chinese text and the scholar translation of the Nei Ye (55 pages). Before and after this part, an introduction and 4 other chapters trace the history of the text, its contents and structure, its position in the context of the early Taoist mysticism and its position in the context of the early Taoism in general.

The Nei Ye is not a recent discovery; it was known since millennia but, buried in a supposed Confucian miscellany, its actual contents and significance have been since long overlooked. This book attempts, with success, to re-assess them, placing this work at the origins of Taoist mysticism, as the earliest extant text of the tradition which will later express more widely known works like Laozi and Zhuangzi.

"Original Tao" is a scholar book, it is not an 'easy' reading and the reader without any familiarity with ancient China's history and philosophy will be easily overwhelmed by the amount of names, data, quotations and so on.

On the other hand, its language is not too technical, and basic concepts are never taken for granted but appropriately introduced. And, above all, the new lights it casts on (and the grounds it provides for) the development of the early Taoist mysticism are for sure of great interest even to the layman who knows Taoism only through (more or less sound translations of) the Laozi and the Zhuangzi.

While not really new (it has now about 10 years), this book is definitely to recommend to anybody with a non-casual interest on Taoism.

The only (small) criticism I can make is the use of an old Chinese transliteration system instead of the now more widely used pinyin system.

Original Tao provides a new translation and commentary which revise Taoism's origins and reflect new historic discoveries, uncovering the original expressions of Taoist philosophy and using original texts as masterworks for revision. From an introduction of short poetic verses devoted to meditation to the author's contention that the seminal Taoist work Inward Training is the foundational text of early Taoism, this provides an intriguing new examination.

I got this one in hardback from the public library before I bought this paperback version. I liked the hardback version, but I was disappointed with the paperback version and here's why:

It appears as if the pictures are copies of copies of copies taken out of the the original hardback and copied right on some copier rather than done correctly all over again, and there is at least one VERY GOOD picture M I S S I N G!!!!--one of my favorites--where Bob is reading a magazine or paper up close and he has his hat on. NOT DONE RIGHT IS ALSO A TOP FAVORITE: the one where Bob Dylan is playing chess at a French cafe--REALLY REALLY GOOD ONE, I love that one very much--but it still seems COPY OF COPY OF COPY quality--IT IS DARK AND GRITTY. The quality of the pictures in the original hardback book are FAR superior. and I SEE it. I did a copy of the one at the cafe on a copier before I returned the book to the library and believe me it is BETTER quality than the one in this paperback version!!! AAAAHHHHH!!! Maybe people won't notice, but I do notice it. Unfortunately I had to return the hardback book to the library.

P L E A S E TELL THE PUBLISHER TO R E D O THIS BOOK PROPERLY AND RESPECT Bob Dylan's fans because we want quality pictures. This book deserves to be done again properly. Paperback is okay to save the forests, but the quality of the pictures has something to do with the process and technology that they use. They just dished out a paperback version and copied the pictures from some other copies (as I see it) just to make money with no concern about the QUALITY OF THE PICTURES.

May I also suggest Dylan: Visions, Portraits & Back Pages as a book with FAR FAR FAR FAR SUPERIOR quality pictures and it even costs less!

Please do this PICTURE BOOK all over again, PUBLISHERS!!! These pictures deserve FIRST QUALITY production.

These photos will absolutely break your heart.
They will break your heart absolutely. If you love Dylan and the mythology he created around himself, this book will give you a glimpse behind the curtain. The images of Joan Baez and Dylan are so gorgeous you'll want to duck out of your busy life and cry for five crucial minutes. The image of a back-lit Bob and a shadowy Joan in profile is a just, simple ode to these monoliths. These photos give us what we've intimated about Bob all along.

many of these photos became icons over the years. not only absorbing photos of dylan, but classics of the photographic art. dylan was lucky during this period to be photographed by so many excellent photographers: kramer's work is the best

This seems to be a reprint of a book that first came out in the 60's. I still have my copy but it's a smaller format than this reprint. It is chock full of great photos of Dylan being whimsical and eccentric, posing in a studio setting. Very professional. All seem to be from the "Highway 61 Revisited" period (1965)when Dylan affected a "mod" style of clothes, including polka-dot shirts and Beatle boots. This is a treasure for any Dylan addict. Except for one essay, the book is all photos without text.

This is a lovely, paperback book and I recommend for those with young riders in their home or barn. Not too simple, and not too complex, the stories are entertaining and unique! Again, gorgous photos and a beatiful layout. A great gift idea for any young person who loves horses or American Indians.

Leadership through trust and respect is one of the many lessons the young reader will learn from this book. The simple tools and techniques for starting a line of communication with horses are presented in a wise and gentle manner. Indeed, the Native American philosophy of teaching horses coincides with their attitude toward all animals living on, in, or above Mother Earth, and that is responsibility for them and mutual respect among and between them. GaWaNi Pony Boy speaks of creating the right environment for understanding, and his thoughts, words, and deeds are relevant to everyday life. The book is artfully laid out and contains beautiful and decoratively captioned photographs. There are several Native American tales and sayings, such as, "...the reason Creator gave two-leggeds two ears and one mouth was so that we would listen twice as much as we talk." I found this book to be a most enjoyable learning experience and recommend it to adults and youngsters alike.

I have owned this book for years. I still read it when it is not possible to feel the wind in my hair for real. The breathtaking pictures, the lovely stories and the obvious connection GaWaNi has with Kola, his horse, all make this an outstanding book and mini escape for me. Thank you Mr. Pony Boy and Ms. Boiselle!

Nice pics but not a HUGE amount of substance. But, girls who love horses aren't looking for a lot of that anyway! They want pictures and romantic thoughts about being with horses. That's what they get!

This is a wonderfully practical book. I plan buying it for my friends when their children turn two. I purchased 2 other books regarding toilet training, and I have 4-5 bookmarks in this one while the others are back on the shelf. This is an excellent book to read before your child is ready as it outlines the preparation phase to toilet training very well.

A good summary of modern American thoughts on toilet learning: basically, relax! As things have changed drastically since we were in diapers, this is a good way to bring older relatives up to date--and to verify the advice they give you! One thing to beware of though: the cover photo (girl sitting her teddy on the toilet) may lead to imitations in your house....

This book was very helpful, and priced at a much lower rate than other books with less information. It will give all parents - especially the frustrated parents - enough information to put their mind at ease. The main thing for a parent to remember is that their child will not become potty trained until they are ready... however, this guide will give you the information to know when they are ready, to talk to them without discouraging them, and what you can do to get them ready.

This book has completely calmed my nerves regarding potty training. I bought two other potty training books and while they were good this book was the most straightforward, practical, and easy to read of the three. The book discusses, among other topics, when your toddler is ready, how to prepare your toddler, and then step by step instructions to accomplish toilet learning. The chapter on preparing your toddler is great. It provides a lot of examples and continually reiterates that every child is different.

What a delight! A Christian-based book that uses dinner table terms to help families share their faith with their children. Biblical verses provide a foundation for the text. But the writer includes laugh-out-loud examples that could be from your own home. A light, yet insightful read. A deep and inspiring guide. I want to give all my friends a copy, even the ones without children!!!

As a mother and a Christian who's responsible for passing on lessons of spirituality to my 10-year-old son, this book was a blessing in itself and is a helpful tool to guide parents in teaching their children about God and His love.

While the world seems an ugly place - violence, war and crime abound - parents don't have to solely rely on their own wisdom to come up with answers of logic and reason to share with their children. They can turn to the Lord for help.

But what's the best way to open the doors of humility, respect, humbleness and righteous living to your kids, without pounding their brows with the Bible and polishing a weekly sermon without sounding like last generation's Billy Graham?

Lori Borgman, mother of three and author of "Pass the Faith, Please: Nourishing Your Child's Soul in the Everyday Moments of Life," uses the visual metaphor of setting a dinner table as a vehicle for passing spiritual messages along to the next generation.

This is a must-read and all parents should own a copy! Bravo, Lori!

---Jennifer Kellar Erwin, Features reporter, The Gaston Gazette daily newspaper

I've finally found the perfect gift. It works for expectant parents, parents of toddlers through parents of teenagers--not to mention proud new grandparents! I've purchased three dozen since the book was released this spring. Its publication has delivered me from guilt. I'm sending it to folks I've owed new baby gifts to for, well, years. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving! Lori Borgman is hysterically funny, shrewdly insightful, and packs a punch. She tells my recipients what I'd love to say, but more eloquently and enticingly. Read it yourself! Buy it for others! Trust me on this--my friends are loving "Pass the Faith, Please."

I loved reading this book, as I enjoy Lori's humor so much. But I also enjoy the life situations she always uses to teach moral truth to children. Being a visual learner, I associated well with the "placesetting" idea to help jog my memory for important points. Chapter 7 is a must read for any parent--cutting everyday problems into bite-size pieces. Wish I would have read something this applicable when my children were younger!

I frequently referred to this book in our company library. Now that I'm retired I bought my own copy. I looked at several books on the topic and found nothing and good at explaining how our bodies work. I've saved myself a lot of medical fees over the years.

I have had this book for over 20 years. It is a great reference covering just about every part of the body. Any muscle or joint aches and pains, this book tells you what causes it and how to fix it.

Great analysis of cause and practical approach to cure. Especially good with joint issues. Thanks Dr. Garrick, your efforts have limited my pain and time in recovery! You should be everyone's first responder to sports injury...another edition??

This is the best book on athletic injuries I've used. It's old, but the sound advice hasn't been improved upon. I had a chronic hamstring injury when I got the book (back in '86) and for the first time in years I was able to rehab it completely and compete pain free. I've since referred to it for advice on knees and shoulders. Most recently I had an early stress fracture only a few weeks before an important competition. Following Garrick's guidlines, I was able to recover completely before the event. Garrick understands an athlete's need to stay active and take positive action to recover from an injury and tells you exactly how to do this. He also realizes that an injury that is "cured" by rest and cessation of the activity most often returns when the activity is resumed unless active rehab has been performed.
Highly recommended. The only reason I gave it four stars rather than five is it's brevity. I wish he would write a much longer and more detailed reference.

A lot has been written about "personal and executive coaching", but this book really offers something new. This book is a must for coaches, psychotherapists who are entering the coaching field, trainers and counselors!
Dr. Auerbach has written a great manual packed full of ethical issues, coaching tools, coaching model, powerful coaching questions, letters of agreement to use with your coachees, etc.
I recommend reading it more than once. With each reading you learn something new that will help you to not only understand your clients better, but also get some guidance for your own life!

If you're a mental health professional, chances are you have adequate training in psychology to be an executive coach, but how about training and experience in OD and in business? these are necessry to be credible and effective in executive coaching. See a complete competency model on the website (...) NEW page.

Executive Coaching is hot. A number of people from various professional backgrounds provide personal and business coaching for managers and leaders. Dr. Auerbach has written a wonderfully comprehensive manual for mental health professionals who bring a unique background to this exciting discipline.

In a clear, concise and thoughtful fashion, Dr. Auerbach clarifies the essential differences between coaching and psychotherapy. Underlying, his philosophy of coaching is a focus on the client's values. He delineates a model of coaching that provides an excellent guide for the coaching process.

Dr. Auerbach discusses the legal and ethical issues involved in coaching that is extremely helpful to both beginning and seasoned coaches. He thoroughly explains how coaching is conducted on the telephone-a process likely to be unfamiliar to many therapists.

The book is "jam-packed" with specific practical techniques, how to incorporate assessment instruments, and illuminating coaching examples. The resource section includes invaluable samples of letters of agreement to use with coaching clients and powerful coaching questions.

Therapists desiring to enter the exciting world of coaching and seasoned coaching professionals, will find Dr. Auerbach's wise counsel a roadmap for their success.

To psychotherapists who are entering the coaching field: You must get this book. It is packed full of ethical issues you need to understand and will also get you started right away with necessary skills.

The subtitle of this treatise "The Complete Guide for Mental Health Professionals" is no misnomer. This book is complete. It takes you through the transition from your mental health background to the closely related field of coaching. It does this smoothly, through three well-written sections, ending in a crescendo to the very helpful Appendix.

The first section clearly lays out the differences between the fields (in approach and language), moves you through a very effective and comprehensive model of coaching (including a perfect New Client Questionnaire), to the ethical issues that you must know to make the transition a safe one. The ethics section and Dr. Auerbach's research with attorneys is worth twice the admission fee. For example, all sources researched agree that you need to keep your two businesses separate - no dual Web site advertising. You won't need to worry about losing your license after reading this section.

The second section covers techniques, processes, and the use of assessments, which will be familiar to most therapists; however, Dr. Auerbach does an excellent job of pointing out the subtle differences that are key to making you act and sound like a coach instead of a therapist.

The third section covers the major varieties of coaching, and can even help you assess which area you are best fit to work in or which you will be most passionate about.

The Appendix is very helpful, and includes samples of forms to use; including the above-mentioned New Client Questionnaire, a Coaching Agreement, and other helpful questions and questionnaires to help you get clients and to start those first few sessions.

I highly recommend this book to any mental health professional moving into this exciting field.

I started reading Lynda Weinman's books way back when she did a book on creating graphics for the web. I don't recall the title, but it was a book on optimizing images, and it was made way back in around '99.

What I guess I'm saying is that Lynda is an authority, she knows what she's doing, and just as importantly, knows how to actually convey her knowledge in an understandable, interactive way. Hands On Training is kinda like those DeVry ads you've seen for so many years during Perry Mason episodes. It's about learning by doing. I mean, how are you going to learn how create layer masks with gradients and textures that are linked and include shapes and are feathered with paths and........if you're reading a book with one paragraph after another, and very few numbered steps. Are you really going to remember that shortcut key for the magic wand from reading a manual written in paragraph form, with one pictured example every 3 pages?

And, to sidetrack, do you really want to learn how to make 3-D warped multicolored lettering to be used in a Word newsletter?

I say no. And so does Lynda, I'm sure. And so, I'd guess, does DeVry. I've used Photoshop for 12 years and I'd say I'm an intermediate. Maybe in 20 years I'll know what Lynda and her fine associates know.

This is by far the best and most informative and detailed book of its kind. It covers every aspect of "everything you ever wanted to know about" rollovers and rollover animated menus! It does not leave you 'missing something' or saying: 'yes, but it really doesn't cover...' - It covers everything! The accompanying CD is excellent!

My favorite tutorial books for software are the Hands On Training and the Classroom In A Book series. And, if forced to choose one series or the other, I'd choose H O T.

Authors Lynda Weinman and Jan Kabili have done a great job.

Although I remain a devotee of CIB methods, my library will include the HOT books for all complex software.

Discussion of animated GIFs, automation and integrating with other programs, such as GoLive, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Acrobat and QuickTime [Chapters 13, 14 and 16] are of especial importance.

This book is a must for users of Adobe's ImageReady and Photoshop.

The most comprehensive tutorial you're likely to find covering PhotoShop's "little web sister", leave it to Lynda.com to come up with THE ImageReady book. Don't let the title mislead you, especially if you're already a long-time P-Shop veteran. The information contained in these pages, accompanied by outstanding tutorials and full color illustrations, is NOT a rehash of stuff you already know; it is a means of making the transition from traditional publishing to creating full-blown web pages with minimal compromise.

Even seasoned users of Adobe's cornerstone image editing tool may find some new and useful tips in streamlining graphics production - I certainly did. Instructor Jan Kabili makes the journey such a pleasure (not to mention a productive use of time), one could actually become converted to working in lo-res art! As in other titles by this publisher, the exercises are straighforward, economical and plentiful - the reader is presented with a great deal of material in relatively short order, yet in a way that is not at all difficult to retain practical information.

Granted, Adobe ImageReady is not a web management tool ..... that's Macromedia Dreamweaver's job, and though it may not integrate with that program as closely as, say, Fireworks, it contains no shortage of tools for fully preparing, creating, optimizing and animating raster images for web use. This entry in the highly-praised Hands-On-Training series is as good an introduction as you'll find on making full use of ImageReady in a short time, and a genuinely enjoyable one at that.

Acquire, read, and get thyself web-ready.