Organizations Books

Glass's "Fertilizers, Pills, and Magnet Strips" is a must read for anyone interested in public education and its place within American culture. Glass uncovers how technological advances have shaped our way of life and way of thinking--a way of thinking that may explain why education reform efforts continue to flounder. As an educational policy researcher, I constantly grapple with why it is so difficult for policymakers to understand education. Glass adeptly and meticulously describes how the evolution of business practices, technological advances, and cultural fads have intersected and led to a narrow view of public education. His book has clarified for me why so many people have unrealistic expectations from public schooling.

Glass's writing is accessible, authoritative, and interesting. But, that is just the start. The real punch in this book comes from his creativity and innovation in weaving together the ways in which cultural processes have impacted how we see public education.

if you care about public education at all, you must read this book.

I am a teacher in the Texas public schools, and I can tell you from my own experience that what this book says about Texas is absolutely true.

I read this book in a few days which is fast for me. What is intriguing about the book is the "in your face" assertions about controversial topics in education. I found Glass' style refreshing in comparison to overly politically correct styles found in so many books on education.

My intent would be to use this book in a graduate seminar course and have students produce evidence that either challenges or supports many of the book's claims. The reader who is familiar with these topics may question the accuracy of some claims but in the end, the book does what it is supposed to do - it leaves the reader thinking about and wanting to discuss the book with others.

Glass's "Fertilizers, Pills and Magnetic Strips" is an extremely well conceived publication. The situation of education in the United States has been carefully analyzed and documented, as well as carefully argued with both data and personal opinion. It is a book that every parent, teacher, and education professor should be reading, studying, and acting on. I will be recommending it to all of my former graduate students, education colleagues, and personal friends.

~ Dale Lange
Professor Emeritus
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities

The analyses and projections Glass presents are spot on in my view. That the US will become older and browner is evident from US Census data. But Occam's razor could well be applied to "fertilizers, pills, and magnetic strips." These are metonyms for technologies that have indeed had wide-ranging consequences, but they are very distal determinants of the present status or likely future of US pre-collegiate education.

The sub-title is also problematic. The book deals with the politics and economics of education in the US. Accepting the five projections in Chapter 10 in no way defines the 'fate' of public education in the US. That will be what 'we' make it. Glass' analyses of current belief systems regarding education are scathing. But belief systems can be changed (per George Lakoff's work). And overriding beliefs is Boulding's wisdom: "We make our tools and then they shape us." Combine this with the wisdom of Josiah Royce, emblazoned over the stage at Royce Hall, UCLA, (when I was a student. They remodeled the building and I don't know what's there now): "Education is learning to use the tools humanity (Royce said 'the race' but 'humanity' would be the term used today) has found indispensable" and you have a pretty good two-sentence guide.

Ironically, in the end Glass goes soft-headed, " The only reform [sic] that stands any chance of making our public schools better is the investment on teachers--to aide them in their quest to understand, to learn. Go become more compassionate, caring, and competent persons." (p. 249) That's a fool's errand--well-intentioned, but foolish in the sense that it hasn't had the intended consequences in the past and offers little for the future. If Ray Kurzweil's projections in "Singularity" are even half-right, it's going to be a different future for instruction.

My story of how US schooling got to where it is currently is simpler than Glass' story. As Glass states, prior to the mid-50s the aspiration was to enroll all kids in high school. Prior to that time, schools handled instructional failures by tossing kids out or counseling them out. With "full access," weaknesses started to show.

Historically, all media information regarding schooling was local, focusing on athletics and 'human interest' anecdotes. Even today, only a handful of newspapers cover schooling nationally. That gain is an important consequence of NCLB, but even there the accounts largely swallow whole governmental news releases.

The move that began in 1965 to make schooling a matter of national interest was important. The subsequent history could be titled "Bureaucrats, academics, and publishers." The small number of individuals who constituted the Beltway Consensus bought, and still buy, Jim Coleman's contention (based on shoddy "research") that "families matter more than schooling," "education spending is unrelated to educational achievement," and "school integration across socioeconomic lines (and hence across racial lines) will increase Negro achievement, and they throw serious doubt upon the effectiveness of policies designed to increase non-personal resources in the school." (The self-serving interests Glass exposes are evident.)

By the mid-1980s it was all-too-clear that "school integration" was not getting the job done. "High standards "was the answer, culminating in the "Goals 2000" legislation. Of course 2000 came with none of the goals met. No one recognized that the "standards" were rhetoric masked as "content." The consensus was that "accountability" via standardized achievement tests is the answer. Hence NCLB. (Same self-serving interests.)

What has the academy been doing? Not much. Glass tells that story. What he doesn't explain is why those who understand the flaws in NAEP and all standardized achievement tests have sat with their thumbs in their mouths.

Publishers are culpable in that they provide the tools that define schooling instruction. The publisher line is that they "only respond to market demands." This means they're unaccountable and unregulated. Their 'offerings' are junk, but bureaucrats and academics give them a free ride.

So what to do? Again it's a simple story. Borrow from the corporate world the notion of "business intelligence" and "key performance indicators." Also borrow from the IT sector and several large corporations the notion of structured "certification of capability." This "gets a handle" on schooling and permits real cost-benefit analysis of instructional accomplishments. Further, recognize that schools today provide important societal services (e.g. health screening and nutrition provision) in addition to instruction. Ironically, instruction is the weakest benefit of schooling and the other benefits go unrecognized.

A few final reactions: "Appendix A: Notes on Theory, Research, and Policy" alone is worth the price of the book. If it were read by every student as a freshman, every legislator, and anyone remotely concerned with schooling, the future of education would be a good deal brighter.

The practice of documenting with footnotes on the relevant page as well as references and indexes at the end of the book is welcome and should be standard practice. The use of footnotes is judicious and the occasional accompanying elaboration makes the communication more interactive.

The exposition is a model of 'good writing.' Strunk and White, where ever they are, are no doubt exchanging high-fives. someone followed their advice. I didn't always buy what Glass was saying, but there was never any doubt about the substance of the communication. The communication warrants consideration by anyone in any way concerned with US schooling.

I've read tons of Christian books and have known the Lord for 30 years now. It is wrong to use Jesus for provision when hearts do not understanding that God's kingdom is first. "Grace to Grow" clears up past false teachings about wealth and poverty. God desires for prosperity in our lives that his kingdom on earth might prosper. "Grace to Grow" is finally a truthful book about financial growth and how almighty God drives us to success in life by His grace and our knowledge of His truth.

As a Pastor of the average church I was always looking for practical books and methods to move beyond average. When I first came upon Neil's book I thought, "There is no way simply making room for increase could grow my average church." I decided to try it out in our nursery area. We simply added a separate room and to my surprise it filled up with in two weeks. We have since added four more child care rooms and in two years our children's department has grown exponentially. The practical application of spiritual laws in this book are amazing. Thanks!

This book is definitely worth your time and money. It has made such a diference in my personal life and in my church.

My Bible, my organizer, and The Seven Laws... by Neil Kennedy, are the three books that keep me on track. I am an organized person. I thrive on order, yet somehow there were certain things in my life that managed to stay in chaos. This book has helped me to continuously evaluate each area of my life and establish how to maintain order so that increase will come. It applies to my relationships, my home life, my church life, and my business life. It has been an awesome experience to apply these principles and see the increase come in my time, production, finances, and many other areas. It is an invaluable resource and I highly recommend it!

I had always heard that God wanted to give us increase. Or God wanted to give us the desires of our hearts. What I didn't get was why I had desired a Ford Expedition for years and I still drove an old Volvo wagon with a dent in the side. The thing I was missing was the seven laws of divine increase and order. As a mother I wouldn't give my children something that they haven't proven faithful with in the past. So why would my heavenly Father give me a new vehicle when I had two week old fries littering the back sit along with mail from the past month and school work covering the floor of my current car. Why would God want to increase my life with things I desired when I wasn't taking care of the things he had already blessed me with! This book is an eye opener to the steps we need to take to live a life that God will increase!

An excellent publication for all those who have desired to implement eastern theology and the soul's path into the corporate realm, but didn't have the tools or know how. This book is revolutionary in providing the practical tools to bridge this tricky terrain.
Apply the soul's work in an "acceptable" format that won't raise the eye brows of CEOs. Execute exercises that seem sincere and truly contribute to well-functioning individuals and organizations. Review organizational and personal experiences with the new perspective of eight steps of the change journey realizing that they do exist, and how you can work with each step for the best possible outcome.
Highly effective in my work as a consultant and organizational behavioral specialist.

Guiding Change Journeys is a masterful fusion of Eastern and Western wisdom,science and mythology presented with great insight,clarity and warmth.It is full of new ideas,tools and practical applications that are guaranteed to energize and re-orient your thinking and approach to organization transformation.

Rebecca Chan Allen has written a masterful book that bridges
ancient eastern wisdom and modern western organization problems.
The book illuminates both the practical and theoretical side of some of our greatest organizational issues, and supports leaders
in playing full rich transformational roles in organization change.

Finally!... A book providing both practical guidance AND sound theoretical reference materials for change leaders and organizational effectiveness practitioners. Chan Allen's book is clearly organized, easy to use, and accessible at whatever level of conceptual depth her reader wishes to work (or to start from). Her examples are creative, original and fun to use -- in both professional and personal contexts. I highly recommend this for organization development professionals and those interested in transformation methodology.

One of the greatest challenges an author can undertake is to write a book that is both theoretically complex and strongly pragmatic. Rebecca Chan Allen has accomplished this in Guiding Change Journeys. In combining the philosophical underpinnings and conceptual bases of a wide variety of organizational change strategies with practical approaches, examples, exercises and illustrations, she skillfully supports change practitioners in integrating Eastern and Western perspectives. Through her integration of stories from mythology and concepts from organization development, new science and wisdom traditions, Chan Allen takes us on an "Archetypal change Journey" based on Jungian archetypes, which describe enduring patterns of transformation.

In a spirit of integration, the book implies throughout that successful organizational change is dependent upon individual and group psychological approaches, conceptualized within a systemic framework. The author's intention seems ultimately holistic, in that she continually addresses issues of mind/body/spirit, whether individually or organizationally.

Though the book may seem esoteric and philosophically dense at times, it carefully balances the more theoretical introductions to each chapter with a plethora of practical examples and exercises, which bring the theory to life and make the concepts infinitely usable. The overall impression is a treasure-trove of ideas. The many insights, methods and resources are offered by the author as gifts, with the invitation to "tinker and improvise" in order to adapt them to one's own needs.

In this simple offering, Chan Allen summarizes the heart of her book as a journey of discovery - which may well alter the life of the change practitioner, as well as the very nature of his or her organizational context.

Harvey McKinnon's brilliant book literally delivers what it says on the cover. If you haven't got a monthly giving proposition you're already well behind, but this book will quickly get you back in front. If you are recruiting monthly donors, Harvey's book will help you to do it better. Harvey McKinnon is acknowledged around the world as the Pope of monthly giving. 'Hidden Gold' is a readable, entertaining, informative guide to the most lucrative fundraising activity of all, after legacies (bequests). You can't afford not to have it on your bookshelf, with at least two more copies circulating among your fundraising colleagues.

Harvey McKinnon's brilliant book literally delivers what it says on the cover. If you don't already have a monthly giving proposition you're already behind, but this book will quickly get you back in front. If you do already recruit monthly donors this book can help you do it better. Harvey McKinnon is widely acknowledged as the Pope of monthly giving. 'Hidden Gold' is a readable, entertaining and informative tour of the most lucrative area of fundraising after legacies (bequests). You can't afford not to have it on your bookshelf.

THIS IS A FABULOUS RESOURCE THAT tells all. I came away convinced that monthly giving will be successful for almost any non-profit. Perhaps more importantly, if a non-profit doesn't embrace this form of giving they will be losing dollars and donors to competitors. There are many wonderful examples and probably hundreds of useful ideas. The writing style is easy to understand, often quite witty, a rarity in martketing and fundraising books, and there's a perfect balance between practical tips and creative options. One of the best fundraising books I own, and I own a lot of them. It will be considered a fundraising classic.

I have dozens of how-to books on my shelves, for fund raising and marketing communications. Maybe 6 of them are imperishably valuable: quick, sensible, well-written, and backed by lots of experience. Harvey's new book is among that chosen few. I didn't know what monthly giving programs were and I'd never heard of Harvey McKinnon before a Canadian fund raiser I met at a conference started praising Harvey to the stars. The fellow was right! This book is perfect: practical, illustrated with examples from organizations of all sizes, clearly written, wise. I don't even do monthly giving (although I have clients who might). I still loved reading this book. You won't be disappointed.

The only question you need ask yourself is: Could my nonprofit prosper if it had a monthly, assured flow of gifts? Author Harvey McKinnon -- one of the world's more successful fundraisers and a pioneer who has established successful monthly-giving programs in organizations large and small, national and local -- provides reader-friendly, step-by-step instructions to help you mine the hidden gold in monthly donations. Practical, comprehensive, with excellent examples. Everything a how-to book should be.

This is a nice read for history books. A lot of information. This is also good for someone who is studying American Literature because it is a good background source.

I was required to read this book for a seminary class and instead of being intimidated or turned off by its over 500 pages, I found the book to be an extremely enjoyable read.

Noll describes the spread of Christianity from the Roman Catholicism of the 1500s to today's pluralism. Particulary enjoyable were the chapters on: the Puritans, The Great Awakenings, Churches in the American Revolution, Evangelical America during the Civil War, Intellectual Challenges to the Christian Faith in the Early 1900s, certain personalities (Billy Graham, Martin Luther King, Fulton Sheen), and the Southern Baptist Convention.

A very interesting read, I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the history of Christianity in America!

Read and enjoy and do not be turned off by the size of the book!

This is a very good book for Church History. It is a single volume that is written on a fairly east-to-read level. If you've not read a Church History reference before, this would be a good choice with which to start.

Mark Noll's works are always good.

This book helps us to remember the Christian Heritage of our country. By studying the Christian Heritage of our country we can see how the secular history has played out too and how they go hand in hand. This book by Mark A. Noll helps to bring this rich history in an easy to read format. This book is also a great resource for research and to help with illustrations for sermons and Sunday School lessons.

This excellent, detailed history shows what was new about Christianity in the New World. It portrays the dramatic contrasts between official colonial churches and various refugee sects, with their different visions of how they might relate to each other. Where the first colonies, provinces or states usually had official state churches, Noll documents the issues of church relations on the borders or frontiers between these domains. Into these zones, dissidents of all stripes fled from state-backed religion. And in areas where no religious group had a majority, Noll records how people learned to meet their community needs and get along: "The result was a degree of interdenominational tolerance probably unknown anywhere else in the world at that time". (p. 89) Noll's statement may overlook the religious diversity of India or China, but for the Christian world it applied.

Of course Noll's book holds far more, and is of interest to people of every denomination in Canada and the USA. I was just most impressed by the explanation of how religion in North America escaped state control.

--author of "Different Visions of Love"

This book cuts through all the smoke that superintendents and principals have been giving me for years. Now, I know how to ask tough questions to make my school and school system better. This book wastes no words and is written so everyone can understand it. Cooperman may be an educator, but he talks to parents in clear language.

I sympathize with teachers and school administrators, really, I do. I know they are overworked and funds are tight and we expect a lot of them. And my son's future and (dare i say it) the future of this country is too important to just sit back and let the wheels grind on as they have.

Cooperman's book gave me strategies to make things different in my son's school. The bottom line of "How Schools Really Work" is that you have to ACT in order to make changes in your schools. I think I always knew that, but I wasn't really sure what the most effective course of action was. Cooperman's book completed the equation for me.

In easy, conversational prose, this former Commissioner of Education in NJ (during "Education Governor" Tom Kean's tenure -I have a feeling Cooperman had something to do with Kean getting that nickname!) opens the curtain and shows the inner workings of public schools; he debunks myths and offers countless practical and workable plans to help make a difference in your schools.

His caring for kids is evident, and like the former teacher that he is, Cooperman clearly wants to see his students (readers) succeed in their endeavors to change the educational system one school at a time.

If you really want to make a difference in your child's education, I highly recommend this book.

Knowing what was going on in my children's school was difficult. I kept getting the run around by the principal. No more! How Schools Really Work was a miracle for me. I know what should be happening and what is happening. A most helpful book if you want to improve schools. A step by step manual for parents and anyone who wants dramatically better schools

LOTS of practical advice on how to shake things up and get results in your children's schools. A real "how to" book for getting the most out of a public school experience. No quick fixes, although you can pick and choose suggestions as needed. And anyway, aren't your kids worth it?

The absolute best book I've ever owned on how public schools and public school officials operate. This is a must read for anyone interested in helping improve public education - whether it's for your own children or all the children in your community. Saul Cooperman, former Commissioner of Education in New Jersey, has done the lay person a huge favor by writing this book. It's simple and honest. I've taught public school, I've been a newspaper education reporter, I have children in public school, and I'm an elected member of a School Board in Virginia. This is THE book on understanding and coexisting with the public schools. Buy it now!

This stimulating work consists of nineteen insightful and engrossing essays that convey perspectives on the emerging forms of strategy and organization in the information age, focusing on knowledge as the competitive advantage. The contributors present thinking that is truly big picture, regarding the shape of today's and tomorrow's enterprises in a world that is changing at an exponentially increasing rate. This work delves into the new and emerging realities of the internal enterprise, corporate cooperation, and leveraging knowledge. In many cases the contributors talk about the experiences of their own organization; an enlightening and enlivening approach to gaining an understanding of this new, networked world driven by knowledge-the infinite resource. An enjoyable and informative collection of thoughtful writings. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, hrconsultant.com and Stern & Associates.

There are far too many books out there that focus on 'knowledge' as if it existed in a vacuum. These tend to be one person's opinion; a single 'flavor of the month,' if you will. This collection of essays explores the impact that the free sharing of information will have: changes in management, changes in employee relations, changes in the free enterprise system itself. As an unforeseen bonus, a very few of the articles are now a bit dated (the "Information Superhighway" article by the CEO of Bell Atlantic was doomed to be old as it was penned), a fact that only reinforces the tremedous speed of change many of the essayists speak to. The many references provide one the ability to more deeply research a particular area.

William E. Halal, editor, writes, "This book brings together the views of prominent leaders in the trenches of the Information Revolution to examine the revolutionary new principles for managing knowledge. Here's a quick overview of these confusing but exciting management heresies.

Principle 1: 'Complexity Is Managed Through Freedom': Success is no longer achieved by planning and control-but through entrepreneurial freedom among people at the bottom.

Principle 2: 'Cooperation Is Economically Efficient': Economic strength does not come from power and firmness-but out of the cooperative flow of information within a corporate community.

Principle 3: 'Progress Is Guided by Knowledge and Spirit': Abundance is not the result of material riches-but of understanding the subtle workings of an infinitely complex world.

There are the new laws governing institutions today, the economic imperatives that determine who succeeds and who fails, the keys to pioneering an unexplored frontier of boundless knowledge-The Infinite Resource" (from the Introduction).

In this context, Halal organizes this invaluable collection into three parts that each focuses on the principles outlined as below:

1. Halal writes, "Part I shows that today's hierarchical structures are being replaced by an emerging foundation of management based on enterprise. The complexity of a knowledge era has made our old command-and-control systems obsolete, and so entrepreneurial freedom is now crucial, not only in economic systems but also to permit free enterprise in organizational systems." Thus, authors of this part, S.Goldsmith, R.L.Ackoff, J.P.Starr, W.Gable, and M.Lehrer mainly focus on decentralized structures, self-supporting units, entrepreneurial freedom, internal competition, and accountability to clients.

2. Halal writes, "Part II illustrates how entrepreneurial organizations must also use cooperation to form collaborative communities. Knowledge differs from physical resources because it increases when shared, making collaborative working relations productive not only in strategic alliances but between buyer and seller, employee and employer, business and goverment, and other stakeholders." Thus, authors of this part, G.H.Taylor, R.E.Miles, J.Lipnack and J.Stamps, T.Holbrooke, and R.Oklewize mainly focus on virtues of teamwork, networking among internal units, shared knowledge, spherical organization, collaborative alliances, and corporate communities.

3. Halal writes, "Part III descibes the intelligent infrastructures now being built to guide this corporate community in creating powerful forms of knowledge." Thus, authors of this part, R.W.Smith, D.Walters, M.Malone, G. and E.Pinchot, R.Kuperman, and W.A.Owens mainly focus on global information networks, free flow of information, knowledge society, employee training, virtual organizations, strategic direction, and vision.

Finally, Halal writes that "the message my colleagues and I want to stress is that the world is entering such an uncharted new frontier, an epoch so fundamentally different that the old rules no longer apply. The conventional wisdom of the past must be replaced by concepts that conform with the new realities of infinite knowledge:

* Order can be best achieved-not through control and planning-but through entrepreneurial freedom.

* Strength comes-not out of power and firmness-but through cooperative community.

* Abundance flows out of-not material riches-but a subtle frontier of boundless understanding, meaning, and spirit."

Strongly recommended.

There are far too many books out there that focus on 'knowledge' as if it existed in a vacuum. These tend to be one person's opinion; a single 'flavor of the month,' if you will. This collection of essays explores the impact that the free sharing of information will have: changes in management, changes in employee relations, changes in the free enterprise system itself. As an unforeseen bonus, a very few of the articles are now a bit dated (the "Information Superhighway" article by the CEO of Bell Atlantic was doomed to be old as it was penned), a fact that only reinforces the tremedous speed of change many of the essayists speak to. The many references provide one the ability to more deeply research a particular area.

Dr. William E. Halal is a George Washington Universitybusiness school professor and expert on the Knowledge Economy. In arecent GWU conference, "Creating the New Organization," he brought together 17 representatives the public and private sectors to address how information technology has transformed their worlds, creating unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Their insights are shared directly with readers in this extraordinary and concise volume. "The Infinite Resource" refers to knowledge itself. Unlike raw materials, knowledge is inexhaustible: "the more you dispense, the more you generate," writes Dr. Halal. The marginal cost of duplicating knowledge is trivial and its value increases when shared. Halal writes: "Knowledge is the most strategic asset in enterprise, the source of all creativity, innovation, and economic value." That, in itself, is nothing new. Knowledge was no less "strategic" when mankind communicated via cave paintings. What has revolutionized knowledge over the past 15 years or so, however, has been extraordinary advances ["32 orders of magnitude"] in information technology. I can share my thoughts on this book with the world with the click of a mouse. And the world can return to my e-mailbox with critiques of my opinion. We now may draw "silicon paintings" for the enjoyment of audiences of 6 billion who never could have fit into those caves. Some bullet points serve to highlight the advances of the information technology age: + IBM itself once predicted market demand for computers to be 55. Worldwide. As of 1997, there were 1 billion computers in operation on planet earth. + In 1977, 50,000 computers existed in the entire world. In 1997, 50,000+ personal computers are sold every 10 hours. + Soon, 1 billion transistors will fit on a single chip: the entire computing power of NASA's Apollo Space Program will fit in a wristwatch.

It was, then, inevitable that the extraordinary advances in - and ubiquitous distribution of - information technology would in turn revolutionize the workplace. Dr. Halal breaks the presentations of his conferees into three sections: 1.) Creating the Internal Enterprise System; 2.) Forming a Network of Cooperative Alliances; 3.) Leveraging Knowledge with an Intelligent Infrastructure. The innumerable insights offered by Dr. Halal and his conferees would never fit in this review. Suffice it to say that the most successful organizations today long ago recognized that information technology created opportunities to broadly disseminate organizational information on the one hand and the more elusive [and hence invaluable] "tacit" or personal knowledge of their employees throughout their organizations, conferring upon all employees the ability to leverage all available organizational knowledge into innovations benefiting the organization, its employees, and its consumers. This leads the trend toward cutting-edge "mass customization." But it does not stop there. No sooner did organizations realize that they could unleash the power of knowledge internally than some recognized that the sharing of knowledge could greatly enhance relationships with customers, suppliers, and, yes, competitors which could be leveraged via coopetition - strategic alliances established to meet particular needs of individual clients at any one point in time. For decades, the rise of technology has created nightmarish visions of "1984" and HAL of "2001." Ironically, and perhaps - at first - counterintuitively, advances in information technology, by enhancing access of anyone in any organization with anyone else, anywhere, will make trust all the more important in public and private enterprises alike. Several conferees address the critical importance of disseminating all available information to employees to encourage innovation because, in fact, "the innovation cycle is now shorter than the planning cycle as customers are moving faster than companies' ability to manage." In short, if you cannot entrust your employees with your most sensitive information, you will be overtaken by another company that can. Another conferee notes: "Technology alone is inert. Trust develops and relationships crystallize in interactions over time and in moments of crisis. No trust without real relationships. No network without trust." It might, therefore, be one of the greatest ironies of the coming Knowledge Economy that technology will "re-personalize" relationships in the workplace while allowing all workers increased opportunities to make their own measurable [and thus rewardable] contributions to their organizations and alliances. Technology, as a tool, will free organizations and their employees from the more mundane business and governmental functions of measurement to engage their minds, individually and collectively, on an infinite course of creativity and innovation. Some provocative closing thoughts from this excellent book include the following insights from leaders of our continuing Knowledge Revolution: Bill Gates: "Two years is as far as long-term planning should go; anything beyond that is long-range dreaming..." General Electric: "The only way to be more competitive is to engage every mind in the organization." Ad agency Chiat Day: "Develop the ability to change faster than your competition or fail..." Dr. Halal: "The perfect company today is almost structureless. All that holds it together is its culture.

I cannot more highly recommend The Infinite Resource to all who are interested in understanding the enormous challenges, opportunities, and rewards - both personal and professional - to be realized as the Knowledge Economy reshapes our world.

Devane does it again! Co-author of the popular: "The Change Handbook"; he now provides us with a roadmap of breakthrough thinking in the areas of Lean Six Sigma and High Performance Organizations!
From the opening lines in the Preview we are invited into examining the crisis of improvement programs that face organizations today. The story concludes having introduced the reader into a unique journey examining the combinations and possibilities of these methods and what is fundamentally required of leadership. This book is masterfully written offering a balanced blend of theory, practicality and insightful breakthroughs, cracking the puzzle of achieving sustainable organizational results. The skilled OD practitioner will readily see the author's depth of expertise and scholarship displayed in the fields of change and leadership. He comfortably ties together the soft and hard skills necessary to accomplish what so many efforts fail to achieve and overlook in their improvement programs.
His main divisions of the book entitled, Practical Foundations and Pragmatic Practice, allow the novice to understand their working intentions and how to effectively apply them. The seasoned person will be able to jump in where they are most comfortable. His creative literary style, with a liberal combination of tables, charts, exhibits, figures, and war stories makes reading a pleasure and captures your attention. The repetitive structure within the Leader's Guide includes activity maps, leader to do lists, tool applications and pragmatic tips, allowing the reader to develop a rhythm in learning the principles and applications being discussed. The generous glossary and reference materials will greatly assist in allowing you to deepen your understanding or expand your resources in the field.
In addition, the book's companion website, www.LeanSixSigmaHPO.com, provides helpful supporting information for leaders serious about simultaneously addressing technical tool deployment and cultural aspects of large-scale process improvement efforts.

Most books I've seen on the topics of Lean, Six Sigma, and culture change suggest a one-size-fits all approach that is detailed by the author(s) in their specific book. Usually they are plugging one methodology that supposedly has universal application across all industries and all sized companies. Not so with this book.

This book, written for leaders, provides a succinct array of principles, general approach templates, and common traps for each stage of an improvement process. Rather than advocating detailed, sequential steps to take, the book offers up proven best practices and a general flow that leaders may, or may not apply based on their specific organizational circumstances. Another book I highly recommend that offers alternative approaches to improvement is Peter Pande's book What Is Six Sigma? A fixed, rigid improvement approach that is not customized to accommodate an organization's unique characteristics is doomed to expensive failure, and these two books get that concept.

Many books present the hard tools of Six Sigma. Many books present how to do change manageemnt, or the "soft side" of continuous improvement projects. This is the first book I've seen that provides leaders with a clear set of principles and a general approach for integrating hard and soft aspects of Six Sigma to achieve dramatic, sustainable results. The first third of the book presents concepts on Lean, Six Sigma, and High Performance Organizations. The final two-thirds of the book is organized according to the implementation stages of an enterprise-wide Six Sigma project. For each stage the book provides pragmatic tips on topics such as stage outputs, common traps, key large goup meetings, leader "To Do" checklists, counterintuitive elements, and leadership tools. In addition to the book's comprehensive coverage of leadership issues for large-scale process improvement, there's also an extensive reference section in the back that points leaders to other books and web-sites containing valuable leadership tips.

Readers should be aware that this book does not delve into detailed statistical tools that improvement teams use. Rather, the book focuses on leadership aspects so I would recommend another book like one of Breyfogle's for people interested in "hard tools" of Six Sigma.

I was pleased to find a leadership book for Lean Six Sigma that addresses both manufacturing and transactional improvement so I didn't have to buy two different leadership books as is necessary with detailed improvement tools for each. With shop floor and office examples from widely diverse industries like electronics assembly, pharmaceutical, retailing, environmental services, government, and financial services, this book presents ideas on how to lead the improvement of all kinds of processes. I was a bit surprised to see that many of the cases from other industries had direct applicability to my industry. I found the detailed advice on setting up an executive committee that meets regularly to evaluate the progress of all improvement projects to be especially useful. And by providing sample questions that executives can ask, the book helps executives ensure that improvement teams are proceeding in the right direction without having executives engaged in micro-managing.

This book is chockfull of golden advice nuggets for leaders of big changes in organizations. It shows how integrating the disciplines of Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and High-Performance Organizations can provide a robust combination of quick short-term wins, significant long-term wins based on rigourous data collection and analysis, and sustainable gains based on increased employee motivation. I found the Leadership Checklists that were provided for each of the book's 5 phases of an improvement effort to be particularly helpful. The book provides an excellent reference for busy leaders as its organization, indexing, and exhibit list make it easy to quickly find specific topics of interest.

The key concept of this book is that every organization could evolve trough several status. There is no a suggested preeferred status. Winning organisations are those which could find the right 'alignment' between market needs and behaviours and the internal organization. The evolution of the organization is only driven by the market change. The book focus on transitions between these different stages, analysing the impact of these changes through the entire Value Chain. Invented Here is a milestone for those people which needs to manage transition also in a turbulent environment. It helps managers to think about the actual company positioning and to build a framework helping to identify market changes and relevant organizational needed impact. Simply great!

The importance of organization design on the success of a business, be it that of a service company or a product supplier, is often underestimated. Strategy alone is not enough.

The great value of this book lies in 3 areas :

i) Use of illustrating failure as well as success - better to learn from someone else's mistakes so that you can, hopefully, avoid them.

ii) Identifying in meaningful terms where to position your organisation for your product/service e.g. if you need a great mass production machine, that is how you should organize; when your customers need more, don't hide from it - just do it well.

iii) The style is refreshingly alive. You feel you can relate to real people solving real problems. Too often, books like this feel like they belong only in libraries - this one offers genuinely practical insight. It's up to you to apply it.

If I have one (minor) criticism, it is the title. Don't let it mislead you. This book is a very helpful guide to many aspects of organizational design and a better title, in my opinion, would be something like:- "Optimizing Your Organization For Your Customers"

A well written book to help you understand how to develop your company's business along the "right path"to deliver higher customer value. The format and language of the book make it a joy to read. The concrete examples from both service and product industries are very useful.

Too many managers look to external consultants to provide the keys to their organization's success. Was it quality circles, TQM, or re-engineering you last tried as a way to rejuventate your struggling organzation? Victor and Boynton suggest you save your money and focus within. Their logical process of analysis and implementation will help your firm on the "right path" to organizational success.

The process demands that firms think clearly and carefully about who they are and what business they are in compared to what their customers really want. This analysis helps a firm determine if it should compete on the basis of novelty, commodity, quality, or precision. The choice made suggests that craft work, mass production, process enhancement, or mass customization provides the best strategy to meet those customer demands. Achieving these strategies can only occur as a firm moves from craft work, through mass production and process enhancement to mass customization via the "right path."

In an engaging combination of personal insight and case examples, the authors lead the reader along the "path." They offer numerous stories of organizations around the world that have followed this "path" to organizational success.

Don't let the reletive brevity of their effort mislead you. The ideas they propose should force the thoughful manager into careful and thoughful consideration of the firm's current structure, products, and processes. If the analysis suggests that changes are warranted, then Victor and Boynton's guidebook along the "right path" will prove well worth the initial investment.

A thoughtful, creative tour de force in a field littered with lightweight, feel-good competitors. Enjoy!

This book reveals how to use knowledge residing in the company to transform organization and manage growth. It presents a model of organizational learning and development with four steps: craft, mass production, process enhancement, and mass customization. It explores the leveraging of four associated types of knowledge and presents a learning system for developing organizational knowledge. Provides important insights the learning organization.

Hesselbein and Cohen have assembled and brilliantly edited "enduring insights on leadership" from the Drucker Foundation's award-winning journal. What a superb selection of essays they offer! The Introduction by Hesselbein (all by itself) is well worth the cost of the book. As for the 37 individual essays, they are organized within seven Parts:

I. On Leaders and Leadership (eg Peter Drucker, Max DePree, and Herb Kelleher)

II. Leading Innovation and Transformation (eg Peter M. Senge, John P. Kotter, and Douglas K. Smith)

III. Leadership in the New Information Economy (eg Esther Dyson, Margaret Wheatley, and Kevin Kelly)

IV. Competitive Strategy in a Global Economy (eg Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ann Winblad, and Keniche Ohmae)

V. Leading for High Performance (eg Steven R. Covey, Jim Collins, and Noel Tichy)

VI. Building Great Teams (eg Warren Bennis, Jon R. Katzenbach, and J. Richard Hackman)

VII. Leadership Across the Sectors (eg John W. Gardner, Regina Hetzlinger, and James E. Austin)

I know of no other single volume in which so many great business thinkers are represented by so many of their landmark essays. The editors are to be commended for the selections; also for the structure within which those selections are organized. This is "must reading" for leaders and, especially, for whose who aspire to be leaders.

"People both in this country and around the world also have an enormous hunger for ideas; that's why three years ago the Drucker Foundation launched 'Leader to Leader', a journal of ideas by leaders for leaders."Frances Hesselbein writes, "this hunger among millions of working executives demonstrates their concern for the future and a commitment to make a difference. The incisive thinkers and remarkable leaders who have contributed to the journal and to this book open doors, spark ideas, raise signal flags, and help satisfy that universal hunger."

In this context, I partially summarized only five of the thirty-seven essays written by thirty-seven talented thinkers.

I. Peter F. Drucker writes: "the three people from whom I learned the most in my work were all very different. The first two were exceptionally demanding; the third was exceptionally brillant. All three taught me a lot...Five lessons I learned from those remarkable men still apply today:

1. Treat people differently, based on their strengths.

2. Set high standards, but give people the freedom and responsibility to do their job.

3. Performance review must be honest, exacting, and an integral part of the job.

4. People learn the most when teaching others.

5. Effective leaders earn respect-but they don't need to be liked.

II. Doris Kearns Goodwin lists ten lessons from the stories of Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, and Franklin Roosevelt for leaders of today's organizations:

1. Timing is (almost) everything.

2. Anything is possible if you share the glory.

3. Trust, once broken, is seldom restored.

4. Leadership is about building connections.

5. Leaders learn from their mistakes.

6. Confidence-not just in oneself-counts.

7. Effective partnership require devotion to one's partners.

8. Renewal comes from many sources.

9. Leaders must be talent brokers.

10. Language is one's most powerful tool.

III. John P. Kotter argues: "No organization today-large or small, local or global-is immune to change. To cope with new technological, competitive, and demographic forces, leaders in every sector have sought to alter fundamentally the way their organizations do business. These change efforts have paraded under many banners-total quality management, reengineering, restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, turnarounds. Yet according to most assessments, few of these efforts accomplish their goals. Fewer than fifteen of the one hundred or more companies I have studied have successfully transformed themselves." Hence, he lists eight critical steps to transform your organization:

1. Establish a sense of urgency.

2. Form a powerful guiding coalition.

3. Create a vision.

4. Communicate the vision.

5. Empower others to act on the vision.

6. Plan for and create short-term wins.

7. Consolidate improvements and produce still more change.

8. Institutionalize new approaches.

IV. Warren Bennis argues: "I believe that behind every Great Man is a Great Group, an effective partnership. And making up every Great Group is a unique construct of strong, often eccentric individuals. So the question for organizations is, How do you get talented, self-absorbed, often arrogant, incredibly bright people to work together?" And he suggests ten principles common to all Great Groups:

1. At the heart of every Great Group is a shared dream.

2. They manage conflict by abandoning individual egos to the pursuit of the dream.

3. They are protected from the "suits".

4. They have a real or invented enemy.

5. They view themselves as winning underdogs.

6. Members pay a personal price.

7. Great Groups make strong leaders.

8. Great Groups are the product of meticulous recruiting.

9. Great Groups are usually young.

10. Real artists ship.

V. J. Richard Hackman identifies a number of mistakes that managers make in setting up and leading work teams.

Mistake 1. Use a team for work that is better done by individuals.

Mistake 2. Call the performing unit a team but really manage members as individuals.

Mistake 3. Fall off the authority balance team.

Mistake 4. Dismantle existing organizational structures so that teams will be fully empowered to accomplish the work.

Mistake 5. Specify challenging team objectives, but skimp on organizational supports.

Mistake 6. Assume that members already have all the skills they need to work well as a team.

I highly recommend this excellent collection as a whole.

This is a collection of outstanding contributions from the Journal of the Drucker Foundation, by leaders and thinkers. Key sections focus on: leaders and leadership; leading innovation and transformation; leadership in the new information economy; competitive strategy in a global economy; leading for high performance; and building great teams.

A few of the contributors include: Peter Drucker, Charles Handy, John Kotter, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Steven Kerr, Noel Tichy, Stephen Covey, Warren Bennis and Peter Senge. This book offers an enormous amount of rich content. Recommended. Reviewed by Yvette Borcia, Managing Partner, Stern & Associates, co-author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

"People in both in this country and around the world have an enormous hunger for ideas; that's why three years ago the Drucker Foundation launched 'Leader to Leader', a journal of ideas by leaders for leaders."Frances Hesselbein writes, "This hunger among millions of working executives demonstrates their concern for the future and a commitment to make a difference. The incisive thinkers and remarkable leaders who have contributed to the journal and to this book open doors, spark ideas, raise signal flags, and help satisfy that universal hunger."

In this context, I summarized partially only four of the thirty-seven essays written by talented thinkers as follows:

I. Peter F. Drucker writes: "The three people from whom I learned the most in my work were all very different. The first two were exceptionally demanding; the third was exceptionally brillant. All three taught me a lot...Five lessons I learned from those remarkable men still apply today:

1. Treat people differently, based on their strengths.

2. Set high standards, but give people the freedom and responsibility to do their job.

3. Performance review must be honest, exacting, and an integral part of the job.

4. People learn the most when teaching others.

5. Effective leaders earn respect-but they don't need to be liked.

II. Doris Kearns Goodwin lists ten lessons from the stories of Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, and Franklin Roosevelt for leaders of today's organizations.

1. Timing is (almost) everything.

2. Anything is possible if you share the glory.

3. Trust, once broken, is seldom restored.

4. Leadership is about building connections.

5. Leaders learn from their mistakes.

6. Confidence-not just in oneself-counts.

7. Effective partnerships reqire devotion to one's partners.

8. Renewal comes from many sources.

9. Leaders must be talent brokers.

10. Language is one's most powerful tool.

III. Warren Bennis argues: "I belive that behind every Great Man is a Great Group, an effective partnership. And making up every Great Group is a unique construct of strong, often eccentric individuals. So the question for organizations is, How do you get talented, self-absorbed, often arrogant, incredibly bright people to work together?" And he suggests ten principles common to all Great Groups:

1. At the heart of every Great Groups is a shared dream.

2. They manage conflict by abandoning individual egos to the pursuit of the dream.

3. They are protected from the "suits".

4. They have a real or invented enemy.

5. They view themselves as winning underdogs.

6. Members pay a personal price.

7. Great Groups make strong leaders.

8. Great Groups are the product of meticulous recruiting.

9. Great Groups are usually young.

10. Real artists ship.

IV. J. Richard Hackman identifies a number of mistakes that managers make in setting up and leading work teams.

1. Use a team for work that is better done by individuals.

2. Call the performing unit a team but really manage members as individuals.

3. Fall off the authority balance team.

4. Dismantle existing organizational structures so that teams will be fully empowered to accomplish the work.

5. Specify challenging team objectives, but skimp on organizational supports.

6. Assume that members already have all the skills they need to work well as a team.

Not only these essays, but all of the book as a whole is strongly recommended.

The Leader to Leader magazine, from The Drucker Foundation, is consistently one of the best magazines for insightful leadership thinking. Now the 'best of the best' has been gathered for this handbook. Harvard Business School Professor John Kotter's insight into the four most common mistakes that cause change efforts to fail are superb and right on the money -- and his chapter is just one of thirty-seven. I wish this book had been available when I started my leadership journey many years ago! Whether you are just beginning your leadership journey or you are well on your way to becoming a SmartLeader, this book is a resource that you will benefit from today and in the days ahead.