Practitioners Books

Physical theatre is better practiced or seen than read about. Lecoq himself apparently acknowledged this reality, since his only book on the subject of his own pedagogy was not published until shortly before his death. Nevertheless, Murray does an excellent job of placing Lecoq's work in the context of Western performance tradition, current theoretical models of the body and culture, and of examining the creative journeys of a pair of theatre companies based in his . . . . well, I don't really want to call it a "method" . . . let's just just say, "based in his explorations of the performing body." For someone aware of Lecoq and interested in pursuing training in physical theatre, this makes an excellent first dive into the waters. Murray even provides you with a sense of what the pedagogical method in a Lecoq-based program will probably be like, and some exercises used in class.

There's not a lot out there on Lecoq yet, in terms of the printed word, but there are now a number of theatre companies and well-known performers and directors (Theatre Complicite, Mummenschanz, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, Bill Irwin, Julie Taymor and most of the "clowns" of the Cirque de Soleil, to name only a few) working with the inspiration Lecoq provided and, as they continue to achieve prominence in the culture, more and more will be written about Lecoq as a result.

This book is tremendous--it provides an engaging entrance into the authors' dilemna (one all teachers have): How to teach usefully? Next is an excellent overview of Dewey's educational theories, and then a step-by-step description of the authors' successful application into a college classroom. I am so motivated now to try it myself. "They" said it could not be done, but "they" were wrong! My response: Aaaahaahhhh!

I'm a vet tech student, and microscope work can be some of the hardest stuff to grasp when you're learning what looks like what. This book saved my life when it came to urinalysis- the pictures are clear and they only use actual microscope magnifications. My textbooks annoy me because the powers are always on 1000x- typical schools and clinics use 10x-100x and this book does not go above 100x so what you see is the same size as what you see under an actual scope. Book is compact and spiral-bound so you can lay it flat while your fingers are on the scope. I like the large print- goes to the point instead of paragraphs of type no one is going to read. Lots of note/ empty pages to glue in your own notes so that you have an awesome resource for clinical work. If you hate your textbook's pictures, buy this book!

Its a great book and helped me understand the cases and other important law stuff in the previous semester. I used it as my handbook.

Various state and federal licensing laws exist to protect the public from unregulated dispensing of drugs, careless administration of powerful radiation, and overzealous surgery.

However, there also exists a wide gamut of extremely positive benign healing modalities that have so rarely offended the public that lawmakers have never seen reason to regulate them beyond the ordinary rules of commerce. In reality, some states have taken the proactive position that various alternative practitioners should be allowed to go about their healing without undue interference.

Even so, the medical societies are vigorous in their efforts to have the public believe that *all* healing falls under their domain and they are quick to instill fear in alternative healers with threats that they will be charged with "unlicensed practice of medicine," a very serious offense. This unionized restraint of trade is generally overlooked by uninformed law officers and judges who fail to understand the original intent of the laws meant to regulate the mentioned drugs, radiation, and surgery.

A key part of unlicensed practice is that all good rules of business, including record keeping, cooperation with authorities, money-back guarantees, client confidentiality, and proposed treatment disclosure to clients, should be followed to the letter. No part of alternative healing has room for con-men, scam artists, or the like. Dr. Wilson's book addresses all these concerns and helps the bewildered ethical alternative healer set a course that will keep him or her far from the rocky shoals of "practicing medicine without a license."

Even those such as chiropractors, who successfully fought in the courts for their rights to practice, will find much of value in Dr. Wilson's book.

Mr. Matz and Mr. Neu provide insights into liquidity planning and management that are of value to bankers and non-bankers alike. While there is sufficient theory to intrigue the conceptual crowd, the book excels at providing "real world" examples and solutions. Non-bankers should strongly consider this book as well:
* bank "best practices" can be adapted and/or adopted for other financial institutions, as well as general corporates
* bank liquidity and illiquidity influences the broader economy.

If you only read one liquidity book in the marketplace, this is the one.

Wanting to testify how important Hoebeke's 'Making Work Systems Better' has been for my practice as a process consultant, I felt compelled to write this review. The book is both in style and content unlike any other management book I know. The terseness of the discussion - stretching to a mere 180 pages - and its obvious conceptual rigour make it at first difficult to approach. It took me a while to tunnel through to its deeper messages, but now I feel confident with the material and I find it informs many aspects of my practice as a professional in the field of strategy and organisational development.

The breakthrough in my appreciation of Hoebeke's work came when I realised how masterly it bridges the gap between the 'lived texture of organisational life' (thus Peter Checkland in his Foreword) and the elegance and power of systems science concepts. 'Never confuse a definition with the mysterious reality beneath it', is a key message very early on in the book and yet for a long time I failed to grasp its importance. I can see now why that is: as a professional it takes time to mature up to a point where one enters open and relaxed into a client organisation, without being stifled by fears of personal failure or feeling compelled to 'make a point'. Paradoxically, this groundtone of empathy with the messiness inherent in a concrete organisational reality creates a much more effective starting point for the mobilisation of disciplined conceptual thinking. It is only when this insight started to sink in that this book moved into the center of my practice.

If I want to do justice to Luc Hoebeke's fundamentally anti-bureaucratic stance, I need to be careful here with the concept of 'organisation'. As a matter of fact, in an attempt to avoid its pernicious connotations with power and ownership, the author disposes of the term right from the start. Instead he prefers the concept of 'work system' which denotes a purposeful but more or less loosely coupled and self-regulated group of people. Organisational boundaries as a rule do not coincide with those of related work systems. By looking at the reality around us as composed of myriad interacting and overlapping work systems, we see sets of meaningful and concrete 'activities' and set of 'relations' between the people performing these activities. Hence, the bulk of Hoebeke's book is devoted to a conceptual framework that allows us to identify relevant work systems, the sets of activities that constitute these volatile systems and the contributions that are made by those people engaged in the system. Again, the formal character of the language should not obscure the fact that it refers to the concrete, living reality of people burning carbohydrates in manifold ways, all in the process of jointly pursuing a shared purpose. As such, the framework and the language that goes with it constitutes a fundamental alternative to the ideological organisational templates that are populating textbooks on organisational development.

Work systems are firmly anchored in the world surrounding them by the purpose they have identified for themselves. Building on Peter Checkland's notion of 'system definition', Hoebeke characterises this purpose as an elementary transformation of a specified input into a particular output. Once there is a shared understanding of this purpose then there is a basis for studying in depth the processes or activity models that support this transformation (and thereby constitute the essence of the work system). It is here that the specifically systemic nature of Hoebeke's framework comes into play: processes can be differentiated in a recursive hierarchy of domains, stretching from the operationally oriented 'added value' domain to the spiritual domain, with the 'innovation' and 'value systems' domain in between. The recursive nature of the hierarchy comes down to the fact that the output of work systems operating at a higher recursion level are creating viability conditions for the underlying domain. Each of these recursion levels is associated with different types of activities which unfold over increasingly wide timescales as we move up the systemic hierarchy.

The bulk of the book is taken up by a detailed treatment of each domain in terms of its basic characteristics, generic transformation process, strategic dilemma and information needs. Hoebeke lightens the otherwise quite uncompromising rigour of his discussion by weaving in many examples of his own professional practice, often in quite adventurous settings. They warrant detailed study as many of them are exhilarating examples of out-of-the-box thinking. The move from the added value domain, dictated by a purely economic logic to the spiritual domain, where the struggle with one's own mortality is fought, is a captivating journey. Hoebeke approaches the latter with trepidation and his treatment of these highly personal and at the same time universally human issues is of utmost brevity. Yet the depth of insight is truly humbling. Together with a few chapters from Roger Harrison's 'Consultant's Journey' these are amongst my most cherished pages in the whole of 'management' literature.

In Chapter 8 Hoebeke starts to play around with the framework as a whole, showing how elegantly and effectively it leads us to the disclosure of all kinds of socially constructed paradoxes, tensions and controversies that continue to wreak havoc. At each of the recursion levels, Hoebeke broaches fundamental issues - such as the nature of competition in the added-value domain and of democracy in the value-systems domain - all in his characteristic, quietly iconoclastic way. It is an excellent demonstration of the framework's power as a diagnostic tool when in capable hands.

A fifteen-page synopsis, neatly summarising the key points for each of the domains, brings the book to a close.

'Making work systems better' is a wayward book. Sometimes I find the basic ideas simple, only to bump in unexpected layers of complexity the next day. Its layout is scientifically rigorous, yet at the same time the book holds on to a strangely labyrinthine quality. It gives few answers but prompts many good questions.

It is a pity that this book never had a great audience. Wiley published it as a hardback in 1994. Since it has sold about 1.500 copies. Now it has been withdrawn from the catalogue. A cheap paperback reissue, more moderately priced than the original publication, would be most welcome. I know from personal correspondence with the author that he has been considering a reissue, taking the opportunity to expand the book with a rich collection of essays written in the last five years. I advised him strongly against doing so. The book as it stands now has all it needs to become a classic in the long run. Not only in its uncompromising terseness and severe logic I would compare it to Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Similar to the latter its angular facade conceals a humane and wise attempt to help us to come to terms with the world and our place in it.

This is an excellent book for project managers and key team members who are involved in development projects. Although this book is out of print it is worth the effort to track down a copy because of the emphasis on planning and estimation. This material will serve you well with any development project life cycle methodology from the Rational Unified Process to the often disdained but frequently used waterfall model. The book starts out strong with a 5-page chapter devoted to outlining the challenges that you'll face. After 25+ years in the industry I think the challenges cited are as fresh today as they were when I started out. Hopefully this succinct chapter will be read and heeded. Launching the project is covered well in the scant 18 pages of the next chapter. Chapter 3 on analysis and design is a bit out of date with respect to more modern approaches, but chapter 4's thorough and accurate treatment of project plans and estimates makes this book worthwhile. The final two chapters on implementing the project and project manager roles and qualities are mediocre. However, the 30-page appendix titled "Estimating Guidelines" is pure gold. This alone is worth the price of the book, but combined with chapter 4 it is the core of the book and a compelling reason to track down a used copy of this out-of-print book. I give it 5 stars.

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The MIDP Kit is a power-packed resource guide for the implementation of development projects. It is an excellent guide for project management practitioners, and a must-have for instructors. It is a first-rate teaching manual and self-learning guide. The content is rich and the presentation is excellent:

CONTENT: The Kit embraces a sequence of twelve logical processes, which if properly executed will lead to effective management of development projects. These are: Understanding the project and project management; Structuring the project organization; Building the project team; Analyzing the project context; Refining project objectives, scope, and other parameters; Preparing the WBS, Responsibility matrix, and Master Schedule; Planning and scheduling with CPM; Obtaining management approval and support; Designing control and reporting systems (time, cost, resources, and scope); Organizing procurement; Executing and controlling the work; and Terminating the project.

For each module, the Kit presents: a brief introduction covering essential project management skills, processes, and procedures; and instructional objectives, giving focus for better understanding and use of the module. The other modular elements are a session outline covering the essential project management content; and participant materials including a copy of each lecture and visuals, case studies and group exercises, homework, and in some modules, pre-class study materials. Each module also presents on-the-job-tasks for the PM. This is indeed a how-to-do list, which if assembled for twelve modules, provides a complete step-by-step guide to managing development projects - a handy material for the development practitioner.

LESSONS LEARNED: 1) Twice I have used the Kit in Africa. In using it, I included a final session on "PM Integration" tying up the modular processes into a distinct methodology. A flow chart, effectively showed the iterative nature and flow inherent in the overall PM process. 2) Using the Kit reminds me of the proverbial dry meat, which the African elder would advise you "to eat in bits" so that you can enjoy the flavor. Dry meat swells in the mouth as it gains moisture, and with a big bite, you will shortly find difficulty chewing and unable to savor its richness. The Kit is a densely packed reservoir of practical knowledge that will yield the best results only if you pay deliberate attention to every detail, as each is an important knowledge element. 3) An MIDP Book of Readings is desirable accompaniment to the Kit. Such a text containing copies of the modular references, plus other relevant publications arranged according to the modules, will enhance the value of the Kit and widen its client base.