Organizations Books

I did like this book because it offers a "battle plan"-you feel empowered just reading it. Some of the ideas in the book are very very practical and I would have never thought about them. However...not all the ideas are all that original, and I was doing lots of the things described anyway. Another problem is that the author, instead of showing more about organizing paperwork, refers her readers to a different book... Overall, it's a pretty nice read, but for the organizing freaks out there-don't expect an epiphany!

I like the author's use of humor as well as the included lists for organization. It is possible to organize one area at a time. I have read Alexandria Stoddard in the past and like how this author incorporates her ideas especially for the Decompression Chamber. I live in a one room apartment so I can develop my own Cozy Corner.
This book is more an advanced course in organization than other books I have used in the past. This previous knowledge is often assumed. The book also has another problem common to books on organization. Many of us rent and for that reason cannot add built-ins to where we live.

Household Winners For Working Women: Your Personal Organizational Tool Kit To Declutter & Design A Comfortable Home is a highly practical and "user friendly" guide for keeping one's home free of useless encumbrances and enhancing a cozy, liveable space in which to better enjoy life. Written specifically for working women with limited time for housework, individual chapters address everything from an easy-to-access closet, to choosing groceries that offer maximum nutrition and delicious preparation with minimum fuss, to car cleaning and car jacking prevention tips, Household Winners For Working Women is packed cover to cover with solid, useful, and highly recommended ideas, suggestions, and advice.

I purchased this book as a gift for my wife. She is a fairly well organized person but she said that she needed to be better about certain tasks. So anyway, I gave it to her and she said it was perfect. The fact that she was able to read and zoom in on the relevant chapters to her pleased her to no end. I highly recommend this book. It is a great gift idea.

Written in a conversational style, Dr. Bishop guides us through a delightful process of decluttering and organizing our home environments--to Assess, Zone, Unload, Rearrange & Enjoy. Chapters address creating organized rooms and work and storage spaces throughout the home. This comprehensive manual is especially valuable for the numerous checklists for project planning and for documenting important family and household information. Also includes extensive, useful Resources, Apprendix, and Bibliography sections.

If reading from beginning-to-end is not your style, start by learning Dr. Bishop's philosophy of AZURE-ing (p.340-41) and move to Chapter 4 to create your own Personal Decompression Chamber. Then, in your personal care retreat, read the remaining chapters that will guide you in the process of organizing your other home environments, and simplifying your life to enjoy it more!

I was impressed with the chapter by Charlotte Laws on Jainism. I have spent years searching for information on this elusive religion and found very little. Jainism has much to offer the environmental movement, both radical and mainstream. As a novice Jain, this chapter made me think about my own habits and realize I need to make some major changes. I can lend a hand to the environment and animals and plan to do so from now on.

People in and around mainstream environmentalism have spent the last year mentally masturbating about whether or not environmentalism is dead. Igniting a Revolution is a thoughtful, noisy, cantankerous, and courageous collection that should serve as a conceptual prophylactic that ends that debate once and for all. During a time of Green Scare when federal authorities are infiltrating activist groups everywhere, decrying "ecoterrorism" in the hollow halls of government, and carting earth and animal liberationists off to prision as quickly as possible, Best & Nocella (along with the AK collective) have edited/produced a roof raising howl of tremendous defiance and disgust. Only time will tell if the book is prophetic and ecologically mindful revolutionary forces materialize to play a role in transforming society such that a verdant peace grows out of the shorted-out circuitry of the mega-war-machine. In the meantime, however, the diverse range of essays included herein should be more than capable of setting fire to readers' imaginations as they generate ideas of how a more just, peaceful, and beautiful world might be achieved. A must read I would think for anyone with even the slightest concern for the state of the planet...

In a time when apathy is no longer a luxury we can afford; this book delves into the deep social-environmental issues that involve us all. This book has an underlying message that hyper-individualism is not at all in our best interest, we should be practicing social responsibility for even the slightest hope of a sustainable planet.

Much of the environmental struggle reminds me of the idea that the means of resistance is not determined by the oppressed; rather the oppressor.

Are the "eco-terrorists" fighting fair? Well, how about their opponents; big business with seemingly endless financial resources and legal sway?

This book is a great read and a real motivator.

I have read this book twice and find something amazing everytime I read it. With so many authors talking about so many amazing and important topics, this book is perfect for anyone interested in social change, - from feminism to veganism. This book is a must read!

I've been a member of the friends of AK press for about six years. Every month or so I get a package filled with books, videos and CDs. It is a cool deal, for twenty bucks a month you get everything AK press produces plus stickers and random zines.

Today I opened an AK press package and found a book with my writing in it. It was pretty cool. Igniting a revolution: voices in defense of the earth is a pretty intense anthology with a nice rant from King Maxwell. It was cool enough to be in an AK press book, but this book is filled with some serious radical stars and takes up where most of the other radical ecology books of the nineties finished.

The alliance-orientented big tent approach is worn on most of our sleeves. Queers, radical labor peeps, "take back the land" indigenous activists, eco-feminists, animal liberationists, anti-civilization roughnecks - y'all are included in here. This ain't your Dave Foreman radical ecology.

Despite being in the book, I had no idea who else was going to be included. Poems from anti-imperialist political prisoner Marilyn Buck help to set the tone of the text as open but SERIOUS. A few poetic words are included on being imprisoned by Little Chairman Fred Hampton - POCC. The book includes a nice essay from Robert Jensen who seems to agree with the 100-mile diet as a revolutionary ecological tactic and a piece by Derek Jensen on his own direct action. Adam Weismann, a dedicated NY activist who is serious about freegan scavenging and helps to articulate a feral city-based life style in his chapter. L. Kimmerer offers a strong argument about faith and liberation.

I'm kind of excited that there is a fervent discussion on the contribution of the anti-civilization movements to earth liberation activities. John Zerzan drops a brief tribute to liberation. Imprisoned activists Rob Los Ricos and "Critter" Marshall get seriously hardcore on folks while Jeff "Free" Luers tells his story of radical activism.

Igniting a revolution has a great section on repression with words from a dozen folks who've done time for earth, native, and anti-imperialist actions. Sara Olson, the symbionese liberation army underground activist who was captured in 1999 calls for Armageddon. Rik Scarce writes about the repression of authors and activists. Anne Hansen also provides a chapter reflecting on her own contributions to earth liberation and the continued value of direct action.

The two highlights of the book in my opinion are former Black Panther and former BLA activist Ashanti Alston's essay on the cross-fertilization between militants called "Mojo Workin'" - an awesome dialogue. The other piece which brought me to tears was pattrice jones' "stomping with the elephants" which documents how humans can learn from animals about liberation. Both should be required reading, and soon will be in my classes . . .

Closing with a poem from BLA coordinator Jalil Muntaqim on Katrina, the book stands as an incredible testament to the power and diversity of the struggles for the earth. There is no other text like this - certainly nothing as diverse or as militant.

The book is awesome and worth your attention. Support AK Press, get your learn on and buy one now!

Kudo for the author.

Simply excellent. A real gem. One book one should be without if you are a Bible reader and if you are of thinking mind. Just click and get one copy to enjoy. I've read once; I'm planning to read again (possible again.)

His easy prose style of English is so smooth; one feels like reading an exciting fiction. I'm glad it is not a small book; it gives so much to fill your heart's desire.

You are not interested in early Christianity? Well, if you don't know your own root (biblically speaking), then you cannot be a Christ-believer and are not really reading the New Testament to hear ITS message but getting someone's messages and being happy to be their copycat. (It doesn't matter whether you do attend a church regularly and enjoy all its programs and get involved in lots of its activities).

A good introduction and reference to various socio-historical situations in Judaism from the first century to Rabbinic times and its influence upon or relation with the nascent Jewish and Gentile believers in Yeshua. A primary focus is how Temple thinking and understanding shaped and/or defined both religious milieus. Instead of forging its own academic arguments, this surveys many of the various scholastic views, choosing to substitute bibliographic lists of important books on the subject for argument-bearing footnotes. As befits a broad-reaching survey, many conclusions are not thoroughly examined and tested, leaving this to the reader. I did feel, however, that at some points, arguments or conclusions were so insubstantial that the author was chasing shadows. Unfortunately, the book teeters off at the end into quite a few disappointing chapters. Overall, however, this is an easy-to-understand, well-organized foundation with many jump-off points to delve into more serious academic study about first century Judaism, Rabbinic Judaism, and the Jewish makeup of Christianity.

During most of the last twenty years of the twentieth century, a professor of church history from the Norwegian Lutheran School of Theology (Oslo) made an in-depth analysis of the Jewish roots of Christianity and gradually assembled his findings into a highly readable, fairly comprehensive introductory book on the subject. Professor Oskar Skarsaune's In the Shadow of the Temple (Temple) (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2002) is an outstanding contribution to this important area of historical inquiry. Professor Skarsaune's Temple was meticulously researched and tirelessly annotated, and the results are a first-class, reader-friendly scholarly resource capable of edifying both the Ph.D. and the interested layman.

Temple's 444 pages are divided into three main sections and an eighteen-page epilogue. Each of these four large parts are divided into several chapters, and further subdivided into subsections of chapters, very much like a textbook. Temple's resemblance to a textbook ends there, however, as Skarsaune's tone lacks any trace of the pedant's and is instead almost conversational, much like an experienced enthusiast sharing exciting past discoveries with an audience of relative newcomers. And what a wide-ranging list of discoveries Skarsaune has to share! Many who thought they had an adequate familiarity with earliest Christianity and late Second Temple Judaism will be both humbled and enriched by Temple. This is because throughout Temple Skarsaune skillfully reviews and sheds light on a host of important historical, geographical, political and religious issues and events occurring over the several centuries that immediately precede and follow what was long considered the most important event in recorded history--the advent of Jesus Christ.

This book would make a valuable addition to anyone's library, particularly a Christian's. An outstanding scholarly effort.

Skarsaune makes propositions faithful to and indicative of the origin of Christianity: Jewish monotheism.

'There was a rather extensive two-way dialogue between the religious authorities in Jerusalem and the Jews in the Disapora. Envoys were sent out from Jerusalem, carrying letters to the Diaspora communities, instructing them on matters of observance, the ritual calendar and doctrines to be avoided. This continued after the fall of the Temple; many of the leading rabbis of the second century A.D. are pictured in the rabbinic texts as traveling widely among the Jews of the Diaspora. Groups of pilgrims from the Diaspora came to the three great pilgrimage festivals in Jerusalem. They came not only to bring their temple tax and the prescribed sacrifices, but also hear the famous teachers of the Law and to bring back from Jerusalem a renewed zeal for their ancestral faith and its observances.' pg 74

'The synagogue, as institution and building, was an invention of the Diaspora Jews. Only later was the synagogue introduced in the Land, first in Galilee, far away from the Temple. In Judea there were for a long time no synagogues; the Temple was too close. Only in Jerusalem itself do we find synagogues at the same time as in Galilee, but they were built by and for Diaspora Jews visiting Jerusalem or residing there.' pg 79

It is a easy book to read and one finds oneself enjoying the trip down 'memory lane' with Skarsaune. I appreciate the back-drop of cultural context and history he set his work off with, for it begins at about 300BC.

This puts us squarely into the Jewish time-situation and helps us understand the times Christ was born into. The storyline develops further and we stay with the Jewish perspective on the Church in her formative years. A solid foundation is then hereby laid for all things Jewish in our Gentile gospel.

An important historical study.

Everyone knows that Christianity started out as just another Jewish sect. Interesting historical fact, but its implications for modern thinking and practice around Christianity are seldom addressed by the average layeperson (or clergy!). Oskar Skarsaune leads the reader to address this, and whether reading this from an aspiritual historical perspective or from a faith perspective, the reading is highly rewarding. He succeeds in bringing us back to ground zero, so to speak, of the explosion of Christianity upon the ancient near eastern world. What struck me reading this book was not so much the Jewishness of early Christianity, but the Gentileness of modern Christianity and how Christians have drifted away from many Jewish aspects of the faith which would certainly benefit individuals and churches alike by being re-explored afresh. Skarsaune leads one on the start of this journey, and hopefully for many this book will be the first step for many in travelling closer towards the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of Christ. The only criticism I have is that the Skarsaune's momentum starts to die out around the last fifth of the book. Nevertheless, even with this the text deserves 5 stars!

Over the past year I have immersed myself in a profound search for how to truly understand the differences in generations both for personal and professional reasons. I have read numerous books from Millennials Rising to Secrets of the Young & Successful, but not until I happed upon Leadership Divided did I feel an author really put in to words what anyone who runs a business with multigenerational employees really needs to know. After 20 years selling advertising in Corporate America I decided to take another career path specializing in understanding our future business leaders and this book has become the basis for my outline. In laypersons terms, Ron Carucci really gets it and you can too! This book will prove to inspire both frustrated Boomers as well as incumbent leaders who want to continue to improve their understanding of the workforce of the future. A true sense of gratitude for what each generation stands for is essential in realizing how to propel forward versus being mired in generational differences. A must read!

this book is great for leaders looking for emerging leaders, it analyzes the
key aspects of todays leader subordinate relationship, and how it is changing and evolving.
Despite the authors optimism it provides great insight
al nymc

I enjoyed all aspects of this book. For me it was the perfect read. The way the author drew you into the facts and the storyline was interesting and a real page turner. I highly recomed this book to everyone.

I believe this book about leadership, challenges and generational gaps, should be read by all leaders past old and emerging new leaders. I enjoyed reading this book and hope many more generations to come will do so as well. Carucci's points are logical, as he accurately describes a younger generation of managers as highly mistrustful of their own managers and averse to taking on leadership positions because of a very strong perception of risk. Carucci's central theme is that emerging leaders have already decided against following a traditional management style, so long-established managers must break specific habits in order to retain the needed talent. Each chapter focuses on a specific management trait and is framed by a fictional case study that Carucci admits is a best-case scenario. It is up to the new emerging leaders to define the preferred management style, and make the most of their life experiences to be successful. They also need to take what they have learned from their past and past leaders to inspire and motivate future leaders of the next generations to come.

Ever have the gut need to just be inspired? To read material, especially on an over-serviced subject like leadership, and want to exclaim with conviction, "YES!" Leadership Divided is the book that will take you there. As an emerging leader in a major government organization, I spend many days wondering about my future and the leadership career that will unfold for me. I hear over and over that there is a "shortfall" of leaders for the future, and as such, my development is essential for the sustainability of my organization. Yet my experience doesn't match that belief. What I have found is that there is definitely a crisis, but its not one of shortfall. (Diane at Harvard Business review who wrote the review above clearly never cracked open her copy of the book - had she, she would have known the quote she references was from the TV show "The Office." She completely missed the point! That's the kind of integrity shortage that makes us emerging leaders so cynical about leadership!). The crisis is one of relationship. Page after page, I was able to locate myself in the words and stories of Leadership Divided. I am being "developed" as a fast-tracked leader, and find myself fighting not to roll my eyes at some of the empty platitudes being put forth as leadership. In the wake of such leadership trash, I have finally come across a book that rises above the noise and says something of great substance. Don't miss this one!

Positive Turbulence is a very practical guide to keeping your organization moving at a healthy pace and continuing to innovate in order to compete in today's ever-changing marketplace. The theories included can be easily applied and related to any organization with Positive or Negative turbulence. It's a fluid read that's over before you know it.

Positive Turbulence is helpful for leaders at all levels of an organization. With theories and examples, the author promotes the need to see the world of work with fresh eyes and to learn from unexpected situations. As a well-known authority on creativity and innovation, Dr. Gryskiewicz provides convincing information about the value of using changing, often turbulent conditions, to shape a flexible organization, open to new ideas. A good source of practical approaches and lots of resources in an easy-to-read format--this is a good book to include in your leadership library.

C.M.Steward Managing Director The Crossland Group

Stan Gryskiewicz has a gift for telling a story. This makes his book, Postive Turbulence, a pleasure to read. More important, he has years of experience in helping organizations, teams, and individuals become more innnovative. This makes Positive Turbulence truly useful.

This optimistic, upbeat book stands out because of Gryskiewicz's ability to show how his ideas can be put into action. Pragmatic and practical, he shares his ideas and experience generously. Strategies such as "Focusing on the periphery as a source for innovation and renewal" come to life as a way of spotting technology shifts and marketplace trends.

As a psychologist and consultant, I work with R & D teams and with managers who need to become more effective, forward-looking leaders. This is a book I can and will recommend to my clients and to my colleagues.

As a business man and entrepeneur for more than 40 years, I am forced to confess that this is the most "down to earth" high quality thinking book that came into my hands in many years. It shows from the very begining -and in each page- what real innovation is and should be in any organization operating in any country. It is written out of a life experience which obviously includes knowledge and hard extended atentive work (a good life!). It is not an "instant happening", like instant coffe and other much popular approaches to delicate and far reaching issues, accompanied by an extensive and highly practical "how to" hints and tools for each managerial level and position. Mr. Gryskiewicz, if you intend to keep on writting on the subject, it is not going to be easy to surpass this "Positive Turbulence" you generated. Angel Sanhueza, Executive Director, CPS International.

POSITIVE TURBULENCE is enjoyable to read, logical in its structure but not stiff, and it really reflects the essence of 30 years of top-level insight into major organizations around the world. The author provides us with the best of this experience, and not all writers do this-they often try to withhold a few gems for the next book, making the current product less than it could have been.

It is our good fortune that the author has avoided this temptation. Rather, this book is a sincere sharing of a breakthrough experience that has lessons of value the reader can immediately put to productive use. I am one of those that tries on a lot of books, and few seem to fit; but POSITIVE TURBULENCE fits perfectly and, like a favorite, it will be enjoyed and appreciated for a lifetime.

Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very good condition.

This is terrific if you have any desire to learn the personality types around you.
Take a break from guessing... give yourself a tool.

Not a big book, but large on the value that it brings to the workplace. Highly recommended and well worth its cost.

This is a small book that goes to the point, It have a section for each type of personality that have a small description of it, the way that they solve problems, their style of leadership, their creative expression, how do they work on teams, how the have to deal with stress, how they learn, and tips for personal growth. Also in the later chapters, this book have two pages that describes the team roles that each personality prefers.

I am a certified instructor for Myers-Briggs and have read many of these books about type. This one has it all! It's easy to use as a reference and practical. I reccommend it to anyone who uses Myers-Briggs at work.

The Kahnweilers have written a thoughtful, well organized and understandable guidebook for human resources professionals. Shaping Your HR Role, Succeeding in Today's Organizations, however, has a broader scope than careers in human resources. The book is a thoughtful discussion of the role of human resources in organizations and of good management practices. William Kahnweiler describes himself as a "pracademic", and he and Jennifer Kahnweiler have written a book that combines good practice with outstanding academic research. Anyone interested in better understanding the important role of human capital in an organization and how to wisely use it will benefit from this book.
Jim Martin, former Georgia Commissioner of Human Resources. "

Drs. William and Jennifer Kahnweiler do a superb job outlining the competencies required of a contemporary HR professional in this business environment.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND!

This book provides very helpful advice about how to be successful within the HR field, both for those entering or transitioning to the HR field, as well as for practicing HR professionals.

The Drs. Kahnweiler do an excellent job of providing detailed descriptions of the skills, traits and knowledge needed to successful in HR, and also provide great advice about how to hone your skills and traits, and gain the knowledge to be successful in the field.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of entering the HR field as well as current HR professionals who would like to become more effective in their roles.

Shaping Your HR Role engages readers by providing them with the tools to better understand themselves and how they can best apply their talents in HR.

With outsourcing HR as a trend, individuals in this profession or thinking about moving into HR can learn how they can truly contribute to a company's productivity and find fulfillment in their work at the same time.

Lynn Joseph, Ph.D.
Vice President
Parachute, Inc.

As a student of the HRD program at GSU, I found the book very helpful in providing a starting point for my career. The chapter discussing the various 'hats' that HR professionals wear provided insight into what a potential job in a corporation may look like for a new graduate and job seekers alike. I was impressed with the case studies and the wealth of experience that both doctors shared with their audience. I would recommend all students and practitioners read this book and keep it as a reference.

I came across this book during a very, very difficult time in my life. My wife of 17 years had left me and my children... everything I thought I had built my life to be had crumbled around me.

I read Steve's words and really related to his journey. I have climbed a lot of "mountains" in my life, career-wise and even real mountains including Mt. Rainier, so I could relate to his "mountain climbing" symbolism. But my life was definitely in a desert place, with no map, no compass (other than my own heart), no water, and no understanding of when I would get across that desert... or even if I would SURVIVE thr crossing.

Steve's words helped me. I found myself weeping at the end of the book when Steve shares how he felt his heart breaking... not breaking apart, but breaking OPEN. That was EXACTLY what I was feeling at the time, but I had no words to understand what was happening to me. Steve's book gave me those words, and enabled that heart-transformation to continue.

I recommend this book if you are willing to look past your "mountains" of career, family, image, and keeping up with the Joneses, and look into the desert journey that truly is life. The tools Steve gives you will keep you going, even when the view before your eyes doesn't look ANYTHING like the map in your hands.

Steve Donohue strikes a powerful chord in his book, "Shifting Sands: A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change" - the metaphor of a desert rather than an upward climb is far more logical and applicible to "everyman's" journey in life. I am not a reader of self-help books or even of much non-fiction, but do some in the course of my work, so in reading Steve's book, I was pleasantly surprised to find an enjoyable and refreshing read. His story, told with humor and pathos, is easy to relate to and very comforting and inspiring. I highly recommend this book to any and every one.

If you are standing at the top of a mountain looking down and wondering how and why you got there? Then this book is for you. Take a compass rather than a map. Seek a topography that fosters change, gives you a soft place to fall and a wide angle view of a never ending expanse The desert metaphor provides the perfect lessons for life in the 6 rules of desert travel outlined by Steve Donahue in this book.
If you have spent half your life reaching for the pinnacle of success and are standing on your mountain top wondering which way to go now, then you will appreciate Steve's wonderful story of his travels through the Sahara Desert. He has woven his true story of his trek across the desert into a guide to help you discover your direction and purpose. It's time to start enjoying the journey, stop at all the oases, travel alone together, step away from your campfire and call the border guard's bluff.

Steve Donohue strikes a powerful chord in his book, "Shifting Sands: A Guidebook for Crossing the Deserts of Change" - the metaphor of a desert rather than an upward climb is far more logical and applicible to "everyman's" journey in life. I am not a reader of self-help books or even of much non-fiction, but do some in the course of my work, so in reading Steve's book, I was pleasantly surprised to find an enjoyable and refreshing read. His story, told with humor and pathos, is easy to relate to and very comforting and inspiring. I highly recommend this book to any and every one.

This book is like a cool drink of water on a desert-hot day for those of us who are trying to make it in a world where the climb to the top doesn't always go as planned -- and the world itself seems topsy-turvy, too!

I picked up Shifting Sands for my husband who's been experiencing the longest mid-life crisis in history. I ended up not only reading it but loving and benefiting from it myself.

Steve Donahue offers an alternative to setting and reaching goals the way mountain (and corporate) climbers tend to do -- the way we've all been taught. I was able to immediately put to use his gentle suggestions for navigating through a world in which change is the only constant (hence the "shifting sands," desert metaphor).

Careers...marriage...parenting...chronic illness -- all are deserts. This book offers some counter-intuitive suggestions for using change and adversity to your advantage.

The story of Donahue's own Sahara Desert crossing makes it an easy and enjoyable read, too. It's a self-help book that reads like an adventure novel...what more could you ask for?

"Teaching Virtues" adds to our understanding of the connections between the teaching of virtues and the practice of moral reciprocity within community. -C.A. Bowers, Professor of Education, Portland State University and author of "Educating for an Ecologically Sustainable Future" and "The Culture of Denial"

Here is an educational approach that honors the interconnectedness of the world and helps our young people engage it with wisdom and integrity. The result is a refreshing perspective on character education. -Ron Miller, author of "What Are Schools For? Holistic Education in American Culture" and publisher of "Paths of Learning Magazine"

This book offers a new but ancient perspective on teaching virtues. Like the American Indian people who practiced it for thousands of years, it does not allow us to separate character from content, and by this, makes it possible for us all to "walk the talk." -Sunita Gandhi, President-Worker, The Council for Global Education and Dignity

With clarity and directness, the authors provide an inspiring and practical guide for teachers to infuse character education throughout the curriculum. Their framework adds much needed meaning and integrity to learning and honors the creativity and wisdom of each teacher. -Rachael Kessler, author of "The Soul of Education: Helping Students Find Connection, Compassion and Character at School"

I read this book with much interest. The topics addressed here are of great importance for educational practice, and hence, as the authors rightly emphasize, for the larger society. They approach the issues of character education from a variety of directions, including a highly suggestive American Indian perspective that has been far too little understood in our culture. "Teaching Virtues" is a stimulating and thoughtful contribution. -Noam Chomsky, Professor, M.I.T., and author of "Language and the Problem of Knowledge" and "Manufacturing Consent"

If you have a martial arts school or just a club, this is a must have book! Go for it immediately!

If you are a martial artist who wants to make a living full time and not just do martial arts on the side then you NEED this book. You'll learn how to set up a very successful school that you can be proud. Every instructor no matter what should get this book!!

...and this time around it should at least ruffle your feathers!

John Graden, Martial Arts Master Teacher, has gone to the heart of what it takes to be an effective Martial Arts teacher today. Without completely disgarding the training ideas of the past, he instead shows how to build on these ideas, how to use what we know about the psychology of learning, the physics of motion and the economics of the 21st century to create a learning environment that firmly turns it's back on the "Dungeon Dojos" of the last century and creates a modern, safe atmosphere where serious, effective and (dare I say it?) FUN martial arts training can take place!

(Lest any naysayers regard the concept of "safety" and "fun" as somehow being contrary to "real" martial arts training, I refer them to the summary chapter entitled "A School Full of Pooh Bears"--it will open your eyes!)

There are lots of things to learn here, lots of great writing, too. If nothing else, I will always remember Mr. Graden refering to the war-like aspects of the Martial Arts and explaining that this doesn't mean that every class is devoted to destroying the enemy. He explains: "...that our foundation is one of peace through superior firepower."

I like that. Get the book. You'll like it, too.

John Graden has a unique way of showing you everything you need to successfully run a top martial art school in today's age.
He does it with the insight of someone who has obviously "been there and done that".
This new book can be used by any martial arts instructor, regardless of style, as a step-by-step blueprint for everything from how to negotiate a lease for your school up to how to train and compensate an employee/instructor.
No one else in the industry has his superb talents. The martial arts industry will forever owe a huge debt to this man for showing us how to be a professional success without selling out!

The content of this book accomplished two very important things for me, as a martial arts businessman - 1) it re-affirmed what I was already doing in my business and, most important, 2) it provided me with new concepts, methods and ideas that will help take my business to the next level. Awesome resource!