Tools Books

The authors explain their purpose as follows, "We are not looking for a perfect solution." In most cases, the perfect solution is unattainable or will be endlessly delayed. A workable solution is much to be preferred. On the other hand, the power of this approach is clearly a major contribution to the conflict resolution literature, and contains insights that you would do well to capture and apply for yourself.

The book references Machiavelli in the title because he first asked the question of what once should advise princes. Since then, there has not been enough progress in answering that question. The book makes good headway in adding new insights and directions.

Although this book is aimed at (and explicitly discusses) conflicts in international relations, the authors also report that those using these techniques in negotiating workshops and exercises found them helpful in resolving business and legal issues as well. Having studied the book, heard Professor Fisher speak about it, and participated in a workshop to use this approach, I agree with that assessment. You can think of this book as the next phase beyond the landmark book, Getting to Yes, that Professor Fisher also coauthored.

Anyone who has gone to law school (which I admit I am guilty of) will recognize familiar elements of the legal analysis process. Yet the application is new and powerful.

Essentially, this book gives you the guidelines and examples you need to create:

-- a checklist of steps to analyze conflict

-- a set of analytic tools to figure out why the conflict is not settled and to offer a new approach that is better

-- an action plan built from a 2 page digest of a proposal, a 1 page list of talking points, and a to-do list for each party as next steps.

You are exhorted to focus on points of choice for the adversary, looking to your purposes in planning your moves rather than just reacting to what the other side does, and carefully choosing your purposes.

The process basically involves role playing that begins with seeing the problem from the point of view of the other side (this is nicely summarized in tables that show side-by-side comparisons of views on the same conflict elements); focusing on the choices open to the other side and influencing those choices (using tools of message analysis to get to intent); generating fresh ideas (by looking at the problem, diagnosing choices, looking at the approach being used, and reviewing action plans); formulating good advice ("What decision do you want the adverary to choose?"); and helping remove the causes of conflicts with process changes (creating new mediators, training people in this way of thinking, etc.).

The examples in the book cover every major conflict that you are likely to be familiar with in the last 40 years. They provide a useful reference point to the book's principles.

I was particularly impressed with the discussion of how to determine which advice is moral, and how to frame solutions so they would be well understood.

The key to this approach is to break down your thinking into step-by-step, smaller pieces. Those of you who have read Six Thinking Hats will recognize the benefits this can bring. By doing this, you can dissipate your own in-going perspective to capture the perspective of the person you want to convince.

Well done!

Good luck in using this approach to overcome misconception, communication, disbelief, procrastination, and bureaucratic stalls!

The first calendar of it's kind! Not only convenient for space to write, but additional quotes for business and professionalism to boost your ability to market your services. Reference guides to show your clients if you do not have anatomy or trigger point charts. Easily displayed at work or outside of work. You can keep track of expenses; have a place for your gift certificates and to be able to log them. The binder envelopes are very sturdy and can take the abuse with oil on hands to go in and out of over and over. You have your secure place for cash, credit and payment receipts. There are IRS reminders, client's ledgers and professional association listings. This is an all inclusive and comprehensive calendar that is a must and the top of the line in quality and convenience. The Massage Minder does a stellar job at keeping you on target with your business. Do not pass it up!

I borrowed this book through interlibrary loan because I'm working in a woodshop for historic interpretation, and I needed to know what I was doing. This book reminds me of the DK Eyewitness books in that it simply explains a tool and shows you with various line drawings and also photographs. Not a lot of explanation for each tool, but a good quick reference. The tools in the book are not necessarily period pieces, but they are derived from period tools. I think this is a good beginner reference book, of course because of the price (less than 10 bucks), and especially because it shows things well in the photographs.

Exactly what I was looking for. Would recommend greatly for people who are ready to delve into management and don't want to spend all the vast resources to do their MBA. Its a good on-the-job learning toolkit!!

Good Luck to all you budding IT managers!

7.24.99 SJW *****

This is something of a book review, but also a commentary on the Mathematica package. My background is a recent MS in Computer Science. My interest in Mathematica is as a thinking tool for Programmer/Analysts or R&D Prototypers.

John Gray's book comes with a CD-ROM including the entire text of the book (the book was produced using Mathematica) as well as help files which can easily be integrated into the resources of the Mathematica Help Browser.

The book is well laid out (see the Table of Contents at amazon.com) topically, starting with very basic usage of the math abilities, and the user interface, then moving on to programming styles using Mathematica and methods of representing information in Mathematica. (All major commands in the Mathematica package are searchable, topical resources are available via documentation chapters on that topic, and explanatory text is hyperlinked in html format.)

The book's style is absolutely functional, and is targeted at users who have at least a threshhold knowledge of modern programming. Much of the material somewhat assumes that the reader has read enough using the Help Browswer with its on-line manual to be able to operate the notebook interface. Examples are given for almost every topic (the examples are executable in Mathematica, as the text of the book is in the form of a Mathematica notebook), although the specifics of each example are not necessarily explained.

As a programmer, the most amazing revelation of Gray's book is the degree to which the Mathematica package is programmable. Of course, procedural commands are built in to allow the coding of procedural algorithms (these commands have the form of generic pseudocode commands, or "near-C"). But Gray gives examples of programming using functions (recursion is allowed), as well as instructions re o-o and constraint (rule-based) styles of programming. (Note that Mathematica has built in pattern matching notations--especially useful for rule-based programming.)

In short, not only is Mathematica a completely integrated symbolic/numeric advanced math utility with integrated graphics and statistical packages, but it also has its own virtual operating system (full file i/o controls), and it allows the user to write rule-based programs (such as LISP or Prolog interpreters) which have full access to all of the built in Mathematica abilities, and to custom compiled components which the user has written.

Because all Mathematica's abilities are integrated, data can easily be displayed graphically, allowing visual debugging of difficult algorithms, or analysis (or reports). Gray provides a few examples of the visual display of algorithms.

The bottom line is that Mathematica is an astounding prototyping tool, as well as being the best graduate CS math utility I have used. And John Gray's book opens up these possibilities to the reader. Savor the possibilities!

I just finished watching this video for the first time, and I thought it was excellent in every respect. Kelly Mehler not only knows his subject, he knows how to explain the different ways to use the table saw in a clear way. I am a beginner woodworker and I appreciate Taunton Press having made this DVD available.

This book provides excellant ideas for differentating lessons in the math classroom. Many of the activites can be used for any grade. I am a 6th grade math teacher and I am excited about incorporating many of these ideas in my classroom this year.

Temple College in Temple, Texas was awarded a $600K Grant to update the skills of the workers in industry. The math skills of the existing and new employees are exceptionally low. The difference between normal math as I call it and the aproach of the "Mathematics for Machine Technology" is that the students do not know where to apply the math that they have learned. With Mathematics for Machine Technology the aproach is applied mathmatics. This math is applied every day in the industry and now the math becomes functional. This is a great teaching aid to use by itself or to complement the math that is now being taugh. I bring measuring instruments such as verniers, caliphers, micromenters and others into the teaching enviroment to stress where the math is used.

This book is perfect for someone with a good education to get a quick but thorough overview of what you need to know to build and program models in quantitative finance, and it's also a great resource to look up things you should know or once knew but have forgotten.

Just want to know if this book has a detailed repair and maintenace about automatic transmission. On how to replace a automatic transmission on Mazda MPV 1992.