Teams Books

I have used this book as a text book in many Change Agent classes I have taught and have found it to be a very pragmatic and useful guide. It is a shame that it is out of print now. In fact, the last class I tought, I had to go scrounging around the office to find copies on bookshelves to use. I wish they would republish it.

The list of consequences "when bad things happen to good projects" or What-NOT-To-Do is worth the price of the book. I wish I had read this book before starting my 6+ years as a consultant helping organizations to improve. This book presents most of the lessons that I've learned during those years and gives quite a few additional ideas on organization change.

Don't let the garish cover art distract you. This is a solidly good book, which I regularly recommend to my clients. Of course, I can't vouch for the Price Waterhouse consulting group's ability to get clients to change successfully or whether they even follow their own advice. I just know that I do apply the best ideas in this book (plus some of my own) in my consulting practice.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Easy to read and it truly made sense. We are just beginning an effort to change our organization and this book has helped us plot our course. I am encouraged that this book will help us achieve positive change for our company and employees.

If you're trying to figure out why a project isn't going well, this book just may solve your problem. It takes you through the basics of change mangement, and makes you aware of just what you're dealing with. Good, practical advice that made me wear out a highlighter. When I showed it to other IS people on our Oracle software implementation project, they said "that's us"!!! We didn't realize we were in the middle of a change project - now we can try to take a step back and regroup.

THIS BOOK ABOUT FRANK MAHOVLICH IS WELL WORTH READING. THE BIG M WAS ONE OF THE BEST AND CLASSIEST PLAYERS OF ALL TIME. HIS GRACE AND POWER ON THE ICE WERE A THINK TO BEHOLD. HIS SON TED, DOES A GREAT JOB TELLING HIS STORY AND HITS ON ALL 8 CYLINDERS. I ESPECIALLY ENJOYED THE PARTS CONCERNING PUNCH IMLACH AND HIS DICTATOR WAYS AND THE VARIOUS OTHER COACHES AND PLAYERS THAT THE BIG M PLAYED FOR AND AGAINST. A GREAT READ FOR ALL HOCKEY FANS.

This book has been very enjoyable. Ted Mahovlich has done an excellent job in telling us the interesting story about his father. He showed us the Punch Imlach lacked class and Frank Mahovlich had a lot of class and finally enjoyed his career when he joined the best organization in sports at the time the Montreal Canadiens. I would recommend this to any hockey fan or sports fan in general

Frank Mahovlich was one of THE great players in the history of hockey. This books gives a thoughtful and intelligent insight into the mind of the quiet giant who won four Stanley Cups with the Leafs and two more with the Canadiens.

Told alongside the biographical narrative of The Big M is the author's experience of going on the road with his father, in the touring team of NHL past masters. Not only does this expose the reader to some beautiful anecdotes about other former stars of the game, but also captures the bond between father and son in a most moving way.

Ted Mahovlich is a very accomplished writer, telling his father's story with compassion, respect and honesty in a fine style that makes the book hard to put down. A must for any fan of hockey and/or good writing.

This book is great, not your normal biography. Ted Mahovlich captures a seldom read about side of his father Frank, along with the exploits of his spectacular career. The author spent considerable time traveling and playing with the old-timer greats while interviewing them as wells as capturing moments the common fan is not privey to. If you are a hockey fan -- this books for you. (Yes I know I live in Texas, but I moved here)

This is for sure THE BOOK to open your mind and start developping yourself on the subject in a fun and intuitive way. I did order another book previouos to this one and have been doing an extensive research in the web on reviews on the subject as my customers (I am an organizational development consultant) are more and more asking for support on the subject of virtual and remote teams. Other books and approaches are ok, they provide you structure but most are still in the discovery process and using the already known patterns. They identify virtual teams as a matter of technology and not a matter of major change in how we approach work and human connections in this century. Ken Thompson goes beyond and takes you to look at best practices, there where you would not expect them. Virtual and remote teams is the top of the iceberg of the major change that we need to make in our current conception of teams and work

In an era where the forces of convergence are blurring and challenging the paradigms between businesses, customers, suppliers and industry ecosystems and where technology is leading non-linear change in the processes and dominant fabrics of society, there is a need for a holistic approach for anticipating and managing these external catalysts whilst concurrently fostering interaction, co-evolution and "emergence" between these agents operating in any given organizational, cultural, societal and/or economic system.

Ken Thompson in Bioteams delineates the extraction of the biological processes and principals underpinning nature's evolution to its application in human and organizational contexts through extrapolation and real life case studies. A very significant portion of the book is dedicated to expanding on the bioteam action `zones', rules and techniques, exemplifying the traits of collective leadership and transparency, with Thompson aligning the directive for the methodology to disrupt existing organizational DNA by designing, enabling and integrating the tenets of `living systems' theory (known as autopoiesis in the biological vernacular).

The inclusion of a dynamic bioteam evaluation scorecard together with associated techniques for team design and mobilization and the detailed case studies gives rise to the conclusion that if correctly embraced, bioteaming initiatives are strategic innovations that lead to the emergence of complex behavior using simple concepts of self-organisation. A must read for anyone serious about taking evolution seriously!!

(perhaps even three reads)

Web 2.0 (wikis, blogs, social networking, SMS, chat,et al) give us a whole new world of connectivity. But in addition to dealing with the daily drudge of email, Web 2.0 also can overwhelm us with noise. Thompson breaks new ground by turning to nature and the field of biomimicry to both tame and harness the new world of connectivity in getting work done by building agile high performance teams. I like to think of it as Collaboration 2.0. Thompson gives us the "human protocols" needed for effective communication using the new media. I totally agree with Dr. Patrick Cannon's comment about the book, "Don't just read it, use it."

The biggest challenge businesses today face is unlearning what was successful in the industrial age and learning how to prosper in the network era.


Ken Thompson has written an important book, a guidebook to help companies move from vestiges of the industrial age to the efficiencies of the network era.

Companies are not machines; they are living organisms. Yesterday's organizational teams are giving way to organic, self-organizing bioteams. Drawing on lessons from biology, ecology, and the natural world, Thompson provides wise counsel for setting up and nurturing bioteams. Here's the bottom line:

"After 3.8 billion years of research and development, failures are fossils, and what surrounds us is the secret to survival. Like the viceroy butterfly imitating the monarch, we humans are imitating the best and brightest organisms in our habitat. We are learning, for instance, how to grow food like a prairie, build ceramics like an abalone, create color like a peacock, self-medicate like a chimp, compute like a cell, and run a business like a hickory forest."

Thompson believes that today's managements misunderstand the dynamic and living nature of the team as an entity over and above its membership.

This is a great book for anyone looking to recapture the excitement of the Super Bowl Season. It is more of a picture book but also includes a short review of each game in the season - a definate must add to any Colts Collection.

Bought this for one of the kids for Christmas, they were very happy with it.

This is a wonderful keepsake, and at a very affordable price. The pictures of the team were great, and they've thrown in a picture or two of Colts' fans. Certainly our Super Bowl victory was a long-time coming, and this is a great way to remember and relive it. Would make a nice gift, as well. Mine also came in superb condition.

I am very happy with this purchase. It came in excellent condition, as promised.

Great book that brought back a lot of memories of faded Brooklyn Glory. Osborne captures the details of a summer in the minors leagues from the fresh cut grass of a new season to the hope of Major League stardom.

Warning: This book has a tendency to make the reader into a die hard Cyclones fan.

Great book. Loved the historical aspects, and the personal stories of the player and local kid. A great gift for father's day, espcially for anyone with Brooklyn roots or a love of baseball.

With Ben Osborne's newest book, The Brooklyn Cyclones, Hardball Dreams and the New Coney Island, baseball is displayed, honored, and celebrated in such a way that my "jones" for a bleacher seat, a dog and a draft has spiraled out of control. This tale of baseball's return to Brooklyn is much more than just an account of the 2001 season of the Mets' Single-A Brooklyn Cyclones. It is a socially in-depth look into baseballs' influence on not only a community (in this place, the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn), and the city of New York at large, but also on two specific individuals. The two featured in this beautifully crafted piece of work are contrasts in background and involvement with the club. The first featured character is catching prospect, Brett Kay. A native Californian, who had never stepped foot in the Big Apple prior, Kay brings a natural energy to the club, as well as a strong bat and solid defensive play behind the plate. As a single-A prospect, Kay like many others in his position, the Cyclones are the first step in his pursuit of his dream of one day playing in the bigs.
The second individual featured is 13-year old Coney Island resident, Anthony Otero Jr. A big fan of the game of baseball, Otero is the leader of a group of Coney teenagers, who in stark contrast to the borough's basketball history, enjoy using the blacktops for hardball instead of roundball. Living just 15 blocks from the site of KeySpan Park (the cyclone's beautiful boardwalk-side stadium), Osborne chronicles Otero's interest in the team, alongside his own aspirations of one day playing pro ball. Possibly the most intriguing portions of the book, are the historical sections which detail Brooklyn's rich baseball tradition with the Dodgers, the economic rise and fall of Coney Island, and finally ex-mayor, Rudy Guilani's attempt to use the genesis of the team as a cornerstone of his "legacy" as mayor.

In the end, this slice of Americana is truly an enjoyable read. A tale which intertwines many different faces of the American sports fan, from the prospect, to the fierce political leader, to the local kid from the projects. How these individuals affect and are ultimately affected by the team is the true story line. A couple years later, Kay puts it perfectly in the book's final thought, "that season in Brooklyn was something that I'll never experience again."

Ben Osborne's second book is a solid journalistic foray that delves into the political, regional, and economic contexts surrounding the return of professional baseball to the borough of Brooklyn 44 years after the Dodgers took off for California. The first season of the minor league Cyclones, an afiliate of the New York Mets, who play in the New York-Penn League, is recounted in detail through the eyes of Anthony Otero, a kid from the projects and Coney Island native who dreams of playing for the Yankees but had never been to a professional game before the Cyclones came to town and Brett Kay, a Californian catching prospect drafted by the Mets and farmed out to the Class A Cyclones to begin his big league career.

From the potitical manuevering of Rudy Giuliani to the construction of the incredible Keyspan Park at Coney Island to the season long sellout crowds Ben Osborne crafts a riviting story and fascinating read that encompasses both historical and cultural perspectives while exploring the media circus that followed the Cyclones in their inaugual season. The book is about more then just baseball. It's about the inner city struggle, big city politics, and hardball dreams. An accurate portrayal and intriguing analysis of the realities facing Brooklyn and Coney Island today.

One of the best baseball books I ever read and I've read lots. I am looking forward to Rudy's next book.

Beind an avid baseball fan all my life, it gives me great pleasure reading Rudy's book on the Dodgers. It brings one back to the time when baseball was a game played by players--not by millionaires. He captures the essence of the day with very fine detail, almost to the point where one can smell the roasted peanuts and hear the Sym-phony band playing. What's more interesting are the beginnings of the safety standards we commonly see today, ie., batting helmets, padded walls, and we all take for granted. It's sad that players had to get hurt or lose their careers for these changes to get made-thanks to the Dodgers. It's a must read. I must give Rudy 10 stars *********

This has got to be the best baseball book i have ever read...and I'm not even a baseball fan!! The author is precise and meticulous with great writing skills. For all baseball fans (and even those who aren't, the historical facts are fascinating) this is a definate must read.

All baseball fans will love this book. It provides wonderful history and insight to the way baseball was played when the sport was more down to earth and before players made millions per year. I learned so much and was fascinated how these characters changed the course of baseball. If you like baseball, this is a must read.

The Weekender, June 20, 2007
by Alison Myers

After first considering the idea of writing a book about his favorite baseball team in 1997, and beginning research in 2005, historian John Nordell's book about the Brooklyn Dodgers' last year in Brooklyn has finally come to life in "Brooklyn Dodgers: The Last Great Pennant Drive, 1957."

Nordell, an Old Forge resident whose primary interest is on military and diplomatic history, had been thinking about writing his book for years and originally wanted to write it in 1997, the 40th anniversary of the last Brooklyn season. He first became interested in baseball back in 1956 while watching a game between the Dodgers and the New York Yankees. He began following Brooklyn in the beginning of the 1957 season.

The center of the story surrounds a game Nordell saw at Ebbets Field on July 18, 1957 between the Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals. The game made such great history that, according to Nordell, the Sporting News later referred to the ninth inning as "the most fantastic inning of the season." Although the main highlight of the book is the Dodgers' memorable year, it also discusses the decision makers and factors involved in deciding to move the franchise to Los Angeles at the end of the season.

"It was a truly amazing game, and seeing it was the most exciting thing I have ever experienced." Nordell wrote in an e-mail. "I was determined that I was not going to let the 50th anniversary of the Dodgers' last year in Brooklyn go by without telling this story."

The season also featured some of the all-time best professional baseball players, including Duke Snider, Gil Hodges, Carl Furillo, and Roy Campanella.

In order to obtain further information for his writing, Nordell used books already written about the Dodgers and then began looking up primary sources in August 2005. He explored microfilms at the Osterhout Free Library in Wilkes-Barre and the Albright Memorial Library in Scranton. He also traveled to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and the New York Public Library. There, he found a baseball website called Retro Sheet (http://www.retrosheet.org). The idea behind the website is to give box scores, narratives, transactions, and other data from as many Major League Baseball games prior to 1984 as possible.

Nordell already had research materials of his own, including books, magazines and personal memories. The writing of the book was completed in spring 2006, but he worked on researching photographs well into the summer and fall. "Photos add greatly to a book and my book on the Dodgers has 37." Nordell said.

He describes the process of writing a book as "tremendously satisfying." In order to put together such a project, he says one should have an eye for detail, an organized filing system, and a love for the project they are working on. Having a word processing system is a big help as well.

For those interested in purchasing a copy, Nordell hopes to take them back to the excitement the Dodgers provided for their fans right up until they left Brooklyn.

"Virtually lost to history was the Dodgers' mid-season surge in the standings during that last year. The memories that I have of Brooklyn's last pennant drive, along with the game that I saw, also gives the book a personal dimension that I think readers will enjoy."

"Brooklyn Dodgers: The Last Great Pennant Drive, 1957" is available at local bookstores or online through http://tribute-books.com. Anyone wishing to find out more about the book can visit http://www.brooklyndodgersbaseball.com

What: John Nordell Book Signings

Where: Barnes and Noble stores and Borders near the Viewmont Mall

When:
June 28
Barnes and Noble
7 South Main St. in Wilkes-Barre (11:30 a.m.)
August 11
Barnes and Noble
421 Arena Hub Plaza in Wilkes-Barre Township (2-4 p.m.)
September 1
Borders
100 Viewmont Mall, Scranton (2-4 p.m.)

For more information: Visit http://www.brooklyndodgersbaseball.com

John Nordell's tribute to one of baseball's most storied and inspirational teams, reaching its zenith in one of the sport's greatest
eras, has lots to recommend it to the aficionado. Brooklyn Dodgers, The Last Great Pennant Drive, 1957, is a work of art on a couple of levels.
Precisely and painstakingly researched - the sense of "play by play" is
both engaging and eerie - it has at least as much charm, never losing sight of the fact that this book speaks to both history and American folklore. The Bums - that is the boys - from Brooklyn: Gil, Duke, Junior, Carl, and Johnny - well, all of them, are nothing if not folklore.
His attention to statistics could cause a CPA to nod appreciatively, but Mr. Nordell's book is also personal narrative. He includes numerous photos of the team in action, on and off the diamond, many of which he
took with his family at one big game. All this adds to the charm of a book that will stand alone as the quintessential telling of one magical year in the sport.

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1EIEQOIOW3D1R Call Me Sonya Grey

A well-orchestrated women's ministry is like a beautiful dance, bringing grace and creativity to the Body of Christ. In Building an Effective Women's Ministry, gifted author Sharon Jaynes not only teaches the basic dance steps, but all the intricate footwork that prepares women to have Scripturally "beautiful feet" in order to share Christ's Gospel of peace. In chapters like "Defining Your Purpose," "Servant Leadership," "Utilizing God-Given Abilities," "Encouraging the Team," "Lifestyle Evangelism," and "Dividing and Multiplying," Jaynes encourages women to glide across the dance floor of life, following their partner Jesus' lead. And with her trademark practical, powerful, and persuasive writing, Sharon Jaynes continues to lead the way in helping women to draw strength from Christ and, in turn, strengthen others in Him. I highly recommend this thoroughly comprehensive guide to women's ministries. Your women, your church, and your community need the potent principles outlined in this wonderful book. It will masterfully lead them in Christ's dance of joy!
--Lynn D. Morrissey, author of Love Letters to God: Deeper Intimacy through Written Prayer and AWSA/CLASS speaker

Although Building an Effective Women's Ministry is 363 pages long, I devoured it, cover-to-cover, in one sitting. The writing style was as comfortable as the content was practical. As I read, my highlighter pen flew along, tracing the many "a-ha" moments inspired along the way. The acronyms, ministry models, suggested timelines and sections on ministry personalities were especially insightful. The quotes, stories and analogies made this weighty subject both intriguing and fun. A terrific resource!

I purchased this book a couple months after becoming part of a team of women who are developing a women's ministry at our church. The first few chapters alone would have saved us a ton of work, had I read this book earlier. Not to despair, however, this book is packed full of practical advice and encouragement, touching on every conceivable aspect of developing a women's ministry from the ground up. The author's style is friendly and easy to read, yet the book is organized in such a manner that it can be easily accessed as an reference. We purchased books for every member of our women's ministry team and all have found it to be excellent. Highly recommend.

My team and I went through this book after four years of doing women's ministry in the efforts to rebuild and refocus on what God had called us to do. This book has excellent material with regards to purpose, planning, staffing and leadership plus specific ideas for events and ministry directions. I consider it a must-read for any women's ministry leader, either new or well established.

Mitt Romney was a business man who founded Bain Capital to grow it int a billion dollar fortune. Then he walks away from it al to go to Salt Lake City and take over the U.S. Olympics Committe to save it from going bankrupt and embarassing our country,. The he runs for Governor of Massachussets and promptly institutes guaranteed healthcare for every citizen. He ounsd liberal AND conservative, which is why he can win. And if he does, there'll be a President in the White House who actually told the Boston Herald and states on the myspace page that his favorite books are Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain) and The Business of Winning (Robert Evangelista) How cool is that!

This book was like nothing I've read before. A legitmate business book that taught me things I could use tomorrow. But it didn't bore me to death like too many other management books. It was an easy read, is loaded with insight, has a terrific story, and lots of anecdotes about successful coaches and leaders. A good mix.

The correlation between sports and business has always been intriguing to me. I've just been waiting for someone to develop a valid process and quantify the results so I can apply it. Nice work, Good read. The underlying hockey story is compelling.

As an ex-coach of midget sports teams, I identified with the author's approach to developing a winning team. Over the years, my teams and I visualized ourselves as winners, talked about the necessary skills and attitude that it was going to take to reach our goal, worked to develop those skills and concentrated on how each player's strengths played to the team. In The Business of Winning the author demonstrates how he effectively identified, analyzed and documented the achievements he had on the playing field and brought that strategy successfully into the workplace. It is very impressive that he is unselfishly sharing his successful approach with his peers. He is definitely a team player who wants everyone on his team and his company to win. This is a must read for every coach, every parent, and every teacher, as well as every manager.

Dr. Kock's work is one that illustrates "real world" situations and case studies of the business world, be it in a class room or at hom for one's reading pleasure. It uses the business environment's strategies and breaks them down so that the audience may fully understand them and implement them. His vast experience with information technology and management enhances this book's effeciency in sharing knowledge to an audience, not just meaningless information.

This Book mainly deals with Organizations ,seeking redesigning process ,with facilitating collborative technologies.Book is profound resources with respect to Business process redesign techniques.Being a ardent reader of Dr Kock's works on E-collaboration,I think this book encompasses all that is required for BPR process involving collaboration technologies.Interesting feature of the book involves in exploring a new methdologies of communication in corporate work environments apart for email.The book has strongly emphasized on statistics and contains necessary resources having academic value.I think book caters perfectly to the need of researchers working in the area of E-collaboration and its impacts in dynamic business processes

This book serves for the purpose of Academic as well as Industrial needs dealing with business process improvement.A special feature dealing with the book includes real life cases and thier apt description.Dr Kock should be specially commended for his work .He has taken enough care to make it easily digestible for a novice reader too.Book contains range of statistics as well as case studies which enhance its value beyond. Book covers e-collaboration advancements,and thier implementational issues.Book provides a new dimension to the field of Business Process Redesign. All in all a great book

This book is an excellent tool for those of you who want to not just learn but understand e-collaboration.It gives a clear idea about the various concepts and theories that lead to the emergence of e-collaboration and virtual groups.The author has been very consistent in his writing and provides a great deal of evidence on his observations that make sense in this real world. Overall its a very good book and one needs to read it in order to know it.