Organizations Books

I can write pages about how good this book is, but why when I can summarize it in one word. Excellent!

Peter's The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook is a must have for everybody who has read the original The Fifth Discipline or are in anyways interested on building learning organization.

In short, the book itself contains useful real life examples and tips & tricks on building learning organization. It really opens new point of views to see and solve problems. It has helped me at work and at personal life, it is 'more than asked I for'.

I recommend this book for anybody.

It seems to me that The Fifth Discipline (the previous publication of the series) is more attacting to me. The second book can be more precise and concise in content. Generally speaking I still like these two books as a foreign reader.

This book is a collection of theoretical summaries, reports, analyses, and strategies all quite useful to anyone interested in generating some thinking and action around change. The team of five writers (Peter Senge, Richard Ross, Bryan Smith, Charlotte Roberts, and Art Kleiner) provide some original work, but also serve as editors to a vast quantity of material drawn from practitioners, theorists, and writers in the field of organizational improvement. According to Senge, "great teams are learning organizations - groups of people who, over time, enhance their capacity to create what they truly desire to create." (p.18) This book is really about creating and building great teams. The learning organization develops its ability to reflect on, discuss, question, and change its current and past practices. To do this, people and groups in the organization need to meaningfully pursue the study and practice of the five disciplines - personal mastery, mental models, shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking.

The learning organization - Senge's vision for the productive, competitive, and efficient institutions of the future - is in a continuous state of change. Four fundamental questions continuously serve to check and guide a group's learning and improvement (see page 49): (1) Do you continuously test your experiences? ("Are you willing to examine and challenge your sacred cows - not just during crises, but in good times?") (2) Are you producing knowledge? ("Knowledge, in this case, means the capacity for effective action.") (3) Is knowledge shared? ("Is it accessible to all of the organization's members?") (4) Is the learning relevant? ("Is this learning aimed at the organization's core purpose?") If these questions represent the organization's compass, the five disciplines are its map.

Each of the five disciplines is explained, and elaborated in its own lengthy section of the book. In the section on "Systems Thinking" (a set of practices and perspectives, which views all aspects of life as inter-related and playing a role in some larger system), the authors build on the idea of feedback loops (reinforcing and balancing) and introduce five systems archetypes. They are: "fixes that backfire", "limits to growth", "shifting the burden", "tragedy of the commons", and "accidental adversaries". In the section on "Personal Mastery", the authors argue that learning starts with each person. For organizations to learn and improve, people within the organization (perhaps starting with its core leadership) must learn to reflect on and become aware of their own core beliefs and visions. In "Mental Models", the authors argue that learning organizations need to explore the assumptions and attitudes, which guide their institutional directions, practices, and strategies. Articles on scenario planning, the ladder of inference, the left-hand column, and balancing inquiry and advocacy offer practical strategies to investigate our personal mental models as well as those of others in the organization. In "Shared Vision", the authors make the case for the stakeholders of an organization to continually adapt their vision ("an image of a desired future"), values ("how we get to travel to where we want to go"), purpose ("what the organization is here to do"), and goals ("milestones we expect to reach before too long"). The section offers many strategies and perspectives on how to move an organization toward continuous reflection. In "Team Learning", the authors rely mostly on the work of William Isaacs and others, and make a case for educating organization members in the processes and skills of dialogue and skillful discussion.

This book is enlightening and informative. It has already found a place on my shelf for essential reference books.

Peter M Serge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

To quote the first few paragraphs at beginning of book:

Among the tribes of northen Natal in South Africa, the most common greeting, equivalent to "hello" in English, is the expression: Sawu bona. It literally means, "I see you." If you are a member of the tribe, you might reply by saying Sikhona, "I am here." The order of the exchange is important: until you see me, I do not exist. It's as if, when you see me bring me into existence.

This meaning, implicit in the language, is part of the spirit of ubuntu, a frame of mind prevalent among native people in Africa below the Sahara. The word ubuntu stems from the folk saying Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu, which from Zulu, literally translates as: "A person is a person because of other people."


"I bow in honor and reverence that place within you where to the Universe resides, when you are in that place within you, and I am in that place within me, there is One." ~namaste


The five disciplines are at the CORE of a Learning Organization

1) Personal Mastery: expand your personal capacity and ability

2) Mental Models: see how our internal pictures of the world shape action and decision

3) Shared Vision: group commitment

4) Team Learning: group ability is greater than the sum of individual talents

5) System Thinking:


"When we try to bring about change in our societies, we are treated first with indifference, then with ridicule, then with abuse and then with oppression. And finally, the greatest challenge is thrown at us: We are treated with respect. This is the most dangerous stage." --A. T. Ariyaratne (Speech made at International Community Leadership Summit, Winrock, Arkansas, March 1983. This quote paraphrases and expands upon a well-known statement made by Mahatma Gandhi in his book Satyagraha in South Africa, 1982, 1979, Canon, Me.: Greenleaf books)


"An [organization] is not a machine but a living organism." --Ikujiro Nonaka /****
Fundamentals of epistemology: what is knowledge, the nature of knowledge, and what constitutes learning.
understanding is achieved after internalization.
Without experience, we cannot truly understand.
Internalization: transformation from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge, habits and culture that we do not recognize in ourselves.
Innovation is a process to capture, create, leverage, and retain knowledge.
What is your belief? A belief about images of the world - you may call it a mental model - is a very subjective thing

information is the flow of a message, while knowledge is created by accumulating information. Thus, information is a necessary medium or material for eliciting and constructing knowledge.

The second difference is that information is something passive. When we switch on a TV set, information comes regardless of my commitment. But knowledge comes from my belief, so it's more proactive.

And the organizational knowledge or intellectual infrastructure of an organization encourages its individual members to develop new knowledge through new experiences.

This dynamic process is the key to organizational knowledge creation - that is, socialization (from individual tacit knowledge to group tacit knowledge), externalization (from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge), combination (from separate explicit knowledge to systemic explicit knowledge), and internalization (from explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge) [...].

[...]

Three Guiding Ideas

1) The Whole. When you are pointing a finger at the problems, notice how many fingers are pointing back at you. If you fixed the symptoms and ignore the root causes, the problems have not gone away. Another way to look at this is treat the person, not the disease. Of course treat the disease if the patient is dying, but know that the patient will get sick again because the "root causes" are stil there.

2) Community. The self is "a point of view." "The essence of being a person is being in a relationship [with] other people." You will not believe this, but each person before you is there for a reason. The reason this person is there at this moment is for you to learn something about yourself. If you ignore the person, do not ignore or forget the lesson.

3) Language. The map is not the territory. We cannot contain every bit of information that comes to us in the world, so we have to create a "map of the territory" and then refer to the map for our information. By changing a person's map, we change their reality. Language is the map, not the reality.

The Innovation SuperHighway is one of the fundamental pieces of work dealing with how to create sustainable collaborative advantage through the development AND implementation of knowledge strategies. The book defines the innovation frontier as our future assets and includes superb examples of innovation infrastructures being created in companies and countries - giving an understanding of how the attention should be on the people and not the technology per se. This since been documented in her subsequent research around knowledge innovation zones, the UNESCO reports and IBM CEO innovation surveys. In wise foresight there is also a chapter is dedicated to youth and how they are being mobilized with their vision. Finally, the vision in the concluding section documents the era of collaborative advantage - another evolving (and now accepted) principle of the Knowledge Economy. It is critical to note however that this book is NOT about knowledge management - it moves beyond these principles and provides a blueprint for discovering and leveraging intellectual capital, versus "managing" what is evident. In this manner the book enables the reader to sense not only why innovation is the utlimate manifestation of harnessing intangibles, but also how to create the dynamic conditions for profiting from an economy where sustainable succes is only possible if organizations and people innovate knowledge --existing and new-- more effectively to enhance economic growth and collaborative advantage. As we move from economic scarcity models based on land, labor, and capital to models of abundance based on an inexhaustible resource - knowledge, old rules do not apply; and the new rules are being innovated. This book provides the best starting point for executives and managers at all levels to begin this journey, and to set the stage for moving into a new innovation frontier - one based upon intangible value and intellectual wealth, for the success of their organizations, their enterprises and society.

Anyone who has read CIO Insight http://www.cioinsight.com/article2/0,1397,1777087,00.asp
And who wants to understand the how of living in a globalized economy:
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman and Oliver Wyman (available here too) , would want to read Amidon's's two books The Ken Awakening as well as this one, .

The book, The Innovation Superhighway, is not about the how why of globalization as much as it is about the forces of globalization (ease of transferring and exchanging knowledge and how as Friedman says "What I am trying to do is say that something important really is happening. The value-creation model is moving away from a vertical silo model to an increasingly collaborative horizontal model, from command and control to collaborate and connect, and that's going to change everything."
This is not recreational read. It is a book to be studied. And the concepts put to use.

First off, when looking for books on innovation, one must know what type of information they are looking for and what information they are going to find in the book that they are going to read. The Innovation Superhighway is a book that starts out presenting the start of a framework using the internet as a means of transmitting information. Early on in the book it is stated that internet and all it's services and facilities are really about innovation, not information. While many innovative activities are occurred because of the information that is made more readily and by the "free wheeling" of early internet companies, the internet is truly about the transfer of knowledge. When much of the book deals with sharing of innovations across some infrastructure sounds wonderful, I have seem little of it in the corporate world, where it may be true in the academic world. In fact I have seen the opposite in the corporate world, where innovation is coveted and hoarded.

In the end, this book will do a couple of good things for you. It provides an excellent look into the ideas of Intellectual Capital, which still has a certain amount of nebulousness about it (although I was looking for something a little deeper here). The book also presents some excellent views into Knowledge and what it can mean to an individual, a company, and even a country. There is a lot of good information in those chapters.

This however only gets us to page 127 out of 349. At this point, the book goes into the story of ENTOVATION which I was unable to find much that I could use in many of my roles of using technology to facilitate communication and parts within a corporation's innovation processes. It becomes the story of how individuals from many roles got together to explore knowledge exchange and sharing for the purpose of innovation. Many of the cases that are put forth rely on companies and individuals seeing the benefit of sharing information and also that all information being shared is of equal value. I have been part of such attempts at sharing only to have them break down due to information having different value to different parties and therefore demanding different returns. The whole knowledge market, although referenced earlier in the book, seems largely ignored. The primary aspects near the end of the book rely on a more idealistic world, where personal gain (thinking selfishly here) is largely ignored and the greater good of society and countries are funded to aid innovation. I have seen little evidence of any working towards that or any chance of these goals coming to fruition. Painting of Exemplar Ken Practitioners through ~40 pages had little value to me in my quest for knowledge and innovation processes.

So, there is value to the book. I felt that the first portion of the book was the most valuable and would love to see more around the strong formations of knowledge management, but I was disappointed that after such a strong start, the end left me wanting for the creating of innovative processes out of technology.

Debra Amidon has thrown the lawn party and everyone's invited!
Before WWW, I used to think how unfortunate it was that the global reach of information and entertainment was primarily a one-way communication. Then the Internet came along and the great dialogue begin. Now, Debra Amidon is helping to create a new agenda and a principal part of that agenda is to how to take the dialogue to the next level, especially in terms of process.

One could see this book from a variety of perspectives such as innovation or knowledge management, but, in essence, it's an incredible coalescing of new human ability to collaborate and create. Debra Amidon not only provides the vision and direction, she also provides a viable example with a vibrant international network of amazing human beings.

As you read the book, you can see that Debra Amidon is actually helping to "pave" the innovation superhighway that she writes about. From a nationalistic point of view, hopefully we in the U.S. are effectively developing our stretches of this highway system. Hopefully, corporate America and the U.S. Federal government will get clearer about this picture. Also, we need to figure out how we can get her to spend more of her time traveling U.S. sections of the "innovation superhighway".

This book wrestles with measuring the intangibles. The metrics of a knowledge driven economy.
This book was first available in 2003. In the March 4th 2006 issue of The Economist there appeared an article: Getting a Grip on Prosperity - what if intangible investment is measured properly?. The concepts in this book are now entering the mainstream.

For someone who wants to understand the forces that will drive our economies and most likely their careers for the next few decades...this book is a useful introduction...particularly chapter 11.2 and Part 5.

This book MUST become a part of your library if you are looking for a clear definition of how all Christians are called to help others deal with difficulties in life. Tripp has written a masterpiece in this work. The reader is gently led through a building discussion about how every Christian is personally in need of change, but who is also called to help others in need of change. Students in my graduate classes that are assigned this book to read almost unanimously agree that the work is "life-changing". It is great for both the professional and lay person. It is easy to read and is filled with personal reflections that add a warm tone to the book. Excellent in every regard!

This is a must read for anyone who wishes to learn more about Kingdom Building in a Covenantal sense...

Jesus says they will know us by how we love one another.... This book tells us exactly how to do just that.

I received my books in great shape and in a very timely fashion. Would order from this place again...Thanks so much!!

Just started book ,but am truly amazed at simplicity yet depth of information to live and serve as a Christian in this life. Am anxious to finish and apply.

I was given this book by a mentor of mine and told that it would be extremely helpful. The problem is that I saw it was deemed a "counseling" book on the back, so I moved on for a while before I picked it up and read it. I continued to see the book on the "Best Seller's" list at many sites that I admire, so I finally picked the book up and started to read. I have to be honest, if I were to try and write all that I learned this review would turn into a novel itself.

Paul David Tripp really unpacks a three part effort.

One: To show me who I am
Two: Who others are
Three: How to practically minister to them, and accept their ministering to me

This book gets to the root of the issues and he even starts with the theological impact of understanding who God is and then who we are, namely: we aren't perfect, we need change, and we need help in that changing process from Christ and others.

This book not only unfolds what we are to do in daily ministering opportunities, but he unpacks the practical ways to do them. One of my favorite quotes in the book is that:

"We often say we need to preach the Word, but we also need to counsel the Word."

That is what this book is all about. It is how to counsel the Word of God to those in everyday life that need change just like you and I. What will hinder this book is that some will think it is only for the pastor or counselor, but it's intention is for all believers and it is written that way and is desperately needed for today's church.

I have already used the book and will continue to go back to it to try and unpack my shortcomings and also to help others do the same when they are in need of ministering. I know this is not the "hot topic" of discussion around the water cooler, but this book is much more needed in today's world that wants to only deal with actions instead of the root of those actions, namely, our darkened heart in need of the power of Christ. You will learn how to effectively and biblically (synonymous terms) counsel another as they ask a simple question or are having everyday life problems, instead of giving a "pat" answer or reciting Scripture and telling them to pray about it. I cannot recommend this book more highly.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter" The Introvert's Networking Advantage". This chapter distinguishes this book from other networking books. Andrea tells you how to work out a practical networking plan without changing yourselves.

One of the best networking books on the market!
This book confirms the fact that when it comes for networking, relationships, social behaviour etc, women are better than men, as studies indicate, and this great book written by the "Queen of Networking" fully prove this.

Not only is this book worth a million dollars to businesses, we use it to coach and interview candidates who come to us seeking jobs in the arts and culture industry. People need to be proactive about their careers, and Neirenberg's networking strategies will become second nature and add to career success. We featured it in our Art Career Newsletter to raving reviews. Geri Thomas, President, artstaffing.com

What is the best way to grow your business, further your name recognition and meet new people all at the same time? Learn to effectively and efficiently network. Many people see networking as a burden but Nierenberg flips the script giving you motivation to get your networking on. MILLION DOLLAR NETWORKING is packed full of useful advice, time saving tips, along with all the how to's and what for's. Even though this book is stocked in the business section, it should be read by people looking for employment, business owners, and everyday people wanting more out of life.

MILLION DOLLAR NETWORKING is a follow-up to Nierenberg's "Nonstop Networking" but can easily be used as a stand alone and provides new information. The easy to read format, clever stories, and use-it-now ideas will increase your networking skills making you more marketable. Reading this book has provided keys to increasing my networking circle and I'm sure it will do the same for you.

Reviewed by:
Deltareviewer
Reviewing for Real Page Turners

We are not taught how to network in college, or perhaps anywhere else in our natural path of life. Well, this book teaches you all you wanted to know and much more. Even as a student and an introvert by nature, I have made contacts and developed meaningful friendships and professional relationships by using the tools from this book. Get this book, you will thank yourself!

I read this through once several months ago and need to read it again. I tend to often fall prey to 'magical thinking' - you know, I only have 5 minutes before I have to go to work, but I can probably wash these dishes, or pick that up, or why are these shoes by the door, pet the dog, holy cow! Where did the time go?

Ever have that happen? :)

The author is very entertaining and offers practical tips about ways to help save time and to plan ahead to be early, then you usually end up on time. She also covers how OTHERS may view your actions and behavior.

Overall this is a fun and helpful book, I have implemented some things but want to read it again to refresh my memory. I still fall victim to the 'magical time' and need to learn more about accurate estimation - my wife is very good at that, I may just be too highly optimistic and need to get more 'real' about time and space. After all, I don't have a DeLorean or phone booth to go back in time to do things over, eh?

Ms Delonzor starts by reminding us that bad habits develop because there's something beneficial to us lurking underneath the behaviors we want to change. Her approach is to help the reader find the underlying source of the unfortunate behaviors, and then to help the reader to redirect that energy in more useful ways.

The meat of the book is an examination of 7 different personality types that can lead to the end result of being chronically late. Once you find the type (or types) that ring true for you, you can use the exercises that the author offers for helping get over the punctuality problems they create. For example, I recognized that I fall into the Busy Syndrome trap: I try to over-fill every moment of the day with activity, then I aggravate the problem with ridiculously optimistic estimates for how long the activities will take. The exercises were simple and practical: find out how long your daily activities (showering, shaving, etc) actually take (I was shocked to realize that it takes 45 minutes for me to get from my morning workout to the office - I could have sworn it only took 15 minutes); practice transitions by giving yourself a fixed amount of time for a task before purposefully moving on to another task; and plan to be early.

I am chronically late despite my best intentions and many years of trying to improve. This book provides a thoughtful and compassionate approach to reversing this habit. As someone who has been able to change other types of behavior (e.g. eating too much), I am very optimistic that her methods will help me. I read the book in two sittings and made a plan that I will start on immediately.

I am regarded as a dependable and responsible person, but I have struggled with punctuality for as long as I can remember. I always show up, but it may be 15 minutes after the time we agreed upon. This book addresses different thought processes that contribute to tardiness instead of implying the reader should just get there earlier. I am much more conscious of the effect tardiness has on me and the people associating with me. The author has heightened my awareness of the mistakes I make subconciously in my attempts to make it to appointments early. This is a must read for anyone who is fed up with the habit of tardiness and is ready to do something about it.

This book is wonderful. The existing reviews say it all. It has really helped me. I bought it less than 24 hours ago and am already/only halfway through, but what I've read has already changed me. I'm so glad I found the book and so glad that it is so helpful! I really needed to make a change but never knew how or why I was always running late... always!! :) This morning, I was early to work! It was pretty funny actually, I sat in my car and read the book for 10 minutes.. but there I was, early to work, reading about how not to be late! :) This book is absolutely worth buying if you have a tardiness problem. What I've read and implemented has already improved my confidence and I am looking forward to no longer inconveniencing those around me! Thanks, Diana!!

Pelikan's 5 volume series on Christian Tradition has become a fairly standard reference work that is accessible to newer students as well as those more familiar with Christianity.

Pelikan has written a very useful, accessible and noteworthy history of the beginnings of Chirstianity covering the major issues in a creative and lucid manner. Certainly, a book worthy of the library.

Volume 1 of Dr. Pelikan's 5 volume magnum opus is a breathtaking panorama of the development of Christian doctrine over the course of its first 6 centuries. Dr. Pelikan tells us what the infant Church taught, and the fascinating process by which it came to those conclusions, introducing us to the specific arguments of the various positions regarding issues like the relationship of the Old Covenant to the New, the Trinity, the nature of Christ, the question of Christian authority, predestination, grace, salvation, etc. This book is a sumptuous feast for the theologically-oriented mind and an intellectual achievement for the ages.

Two words in the book's subtitle should be emphasized to clarify the book's purpose; firstly, that this is a study of Christian_doctrine_, not a history of Christianity per se. The mention of dates and years is rare, and indeed, this book seems to operate in a world outside of time, where spiritual ideas are debated by disembodied theologians unmoored from any earthly context. As a history-buff, that lack of chronological perspective sometimes grates, but I came to accept that this is a historical study of ideas, not events, and the book is made stronger by its single-minded focus on that area. Secondly, the starting point of this book that has to be accepted is that the basics of Christian doctrine have come down to us by a_process_of revelation, development, evolution, and scholarly dialectics, not from the self-exegesis of Scripture Alone. Pelikan himself once sarcastically asked what human being could sit in a room with the New Testament and come up with the idea of the Trinity without the benefit of Tradition. That kind of thinking is no obstacle to those sectors of Christianity which believe that the Holy Spirit works through properly appointed authority (Eph 4:11-14) to ensure that Christ's one Church will never err in doctrine, but it might be a stumbling block to those Christians (particularly religiously anarchic Americans) who think that the whole of Christian doctrine, history and devotion is, and was intended to be, contained in and clearly spelled out in the pages of the New Testament, which fell from the sky on Good Friday 33 A.D. leather-bound, annotated and translated into the King James Version, ready-made to be individually interpreted anew by every generation of average Joe-Christians. As a previous reviewer said, this book is an antidote for ahistorical Christians.

Unlike his predecessor Harnack, Pelikan doesn't take the historical development of doctrine as a justification for religious relativism. Pelikan always approached his subject from the perspective of a believer, and even though he wrote this book as a Lutheran and later converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, I-as a Catholic- find no cause for any accusation of sectarian bias in his work. This is a work of impartial scholarship through and through, on a subject which is ripe for the insertion of denominational proclivities. My criticisms are minor: as far as I can recall, this book barely touched on the questions of Biblical canon and pre- 5th century Roman claims of primacy, two subjects I would describe as "doctrinal" but of which Dr. Pelikan apparently disagreed. In his section on infant baptism, he apparently neglected the testimony of St. Polycarp (died ca 155-167- a self-described "Christian for 86 years") as an additional buttress to the tradition. And there are stray sentences which could have been rendered with less theological opacity. But these are minor. This is the standard reference work for any serious student of Christianity, and will likely remain so for many decades to come.

If you profess to be a Christian you need to read this book and understand how what you have accepted on faith. The Good News from Jesus was forced through a Hellenic sieve of of Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy; on the Platonic side the essence of the unknowable is stressed, on the Aristotelian side the existential details are laid out in a highly logical fashion.

In this book you will learn why the Apostle's creed reads the way it does. You will learn the dissenting views that were pushed aside as anathema; 3 participants at the Nicene council refused to sign the Apostle creed revision and were excommunicated on the spot.

Why is it important that Jesus was born of a virgin? Exactly how was Jesus God and man at the same time? When and where did original sin and infant baptism come about. Jaroslav Pelikan is a brillant man who expounds upon all this and more in an eluminating fashion. If your Greek is not strong, I do recommend having wireless laptop with you to help out at those tricky points to understand words like homoousia and homoiousia.

The late Jaroslav Pelikan demonstrates why he is the master ecclesiastical historian of our era in his five volume series _The Christian Tradition_. While Adolf Harnack made tremendous strides respecting Dogmengeschichte, there is no history of early church doctrine more readable and scholarly than Pelikan's five volume series. Jean Danielou's series is excellent. But still not on par with _The Christian Tradition_ by Pelikan.

In volume 1, we are treated to a non-linear discussion of doctrinal history from 100-600 CE. Pelikan touches on the notions of impassibility (apatheia), predestination, Christology, the Trinity and much more. He carefully defines key working nomenclature in the treatise and he packs the book with marginal notes for ease of reference. In the final analysis, Pelikan teaches us what the church has universally professed, taught and believed. Moreover, the author tries to be fair in his analyses while he offers some trenchant criticisms in volume one.

My favorite portion of this work is the discussion regarding Christology and the Trinity doctrine. In chapter four, which reviews the Arian Controversy, Pelikan argues that the Arians and orthodox pro-Nicenes had more in common than previously has been supposed. He reviews the factors that precipitated the famed controversy and supplies references demonstrating the common elements that obtained between Arius and those who opposed him.

Pelikan is never deterred from his primary goal of elucidating doctrinal history; nor does he allow political or social developments to distract him. Hence, if you enjoy reading about Dogmengeschichte, buy this work. You will have a chance to learn from the master historian. I own all five volumes and find them to be indispensable for serious historical research.

This book presents some interesting concepts on Process Design and Performance.

This is a classic text that hardly needs my endorsement. However, if I can bring it to the attention of people who might not have benefitted from its proven insights and wisdom, I am happy to do so. The basic notion of the book is that too many people run their companies in the silos of the traditional org-chart. This creates all kinds of communications and management problems that must be broken down to get the optimal performance from your firm. This need has only grown since the first edition of this book came out in 1990. This second edition came out in 1995.

The authors want you to think of what your company is trying to accomplish rather than as a bunch of fiefdoms hanging from a hierarchical org-chart. They use a matrix of three levels of performance (Organizational, Process, and Job/Performer) and three performance needs (Goals, Design, and Management). Using the nine areas these create the authors show you how to handle focusing, operating, and managing every aspect of your firm. Sure, the book requires more thought and concentration than your typical "business book", but the substance it provides is well worth the effort.

Use it.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

Don't let the date this book was published influence your decision to buy - it is timeless. I am on my second copy of this book and would characterize it as the best book on business process management that has ever been published. This is "The Book". Everyone I know in the Business Process Management field has this book. I recommend it to every client and every business improvement team member that I work with.

The information contained in this "gem" can help anyone involved in process improvement. Consultants, executives, managers, process team leaders, process team members - it doesn't matter whether you are working in manufacturing, finance, logistics, sales or human resources. It also doesn't matter whether you are new to BPM or have been in the field for 20 years. This book will change the way you think about organizational structure and approaching business process.

Trying to characterize what parts of the book were best, would be like trying to dissect what parts of the blue sky you like best. It is all great stuff - each chapter is better than the next, and will help you understand what needs to be done to make business improvement initiatives work. It is well written, easy to understand the concepts, with hundreds of useful illustrations and models to learn from.

I would give this book 6 stars if I could ...

This book will survive the trends, since most of the trends are based on the principles in this book. The names will change (Quality Circles, Just In Time, TQM, Re-engineering, Six Sigma, ...), but these principles and how well they are implemented will determine a companies' efficiency and quality.

As a business process and systems analyst, I have used the techniques in this book extensively to document existing and proposed processes and systems.

The diagramming techniques ensure thorough identification of all relevant interfaces and will assist in identifying those frustrating and toxic business processes that defy verbal description, but once diagrammed, seem to become clearly understood. I cannot count how many "Ah-ha" moments I have seen when confused managers, too deep in the trees to be able to see the whole forest, finally see the problems with their business laid out in clear pictures drawn with the techniques taught in this book.

This is A great ethics book, not just for scientologist but for everyone. It explains justice and ethics and why they are different. It also talks about "SP" or suppresive persons, and how they are detrimental to someones sanity and ambitions.

But what I Found most helpful, were the conditions. LRH explains that at any time someone who is out-ethics (doing unethical things) is in A certain condition, and they can redeem themselves from these conditions, and get ethics back in, by following a certain formula for each condition.

I Have read through this book countless times and have found it to be an essential tool for living in this society. The book is absolutely invaluble, and anyone who thinks otherwise is not nuts, they simply haven't looked at the bigger picture. Most people that slam Scientology aren't wrong from thier point of view, but they fail to look at everything there is to look at, which consequently makes them look rather silly and disappoints me in that our society commonly slams what they do not understand. Stop fearing Scientology, it will not bite you !! It may even help you, you decide...

This book clarifies the difference between morals and ethics -- what we do because we think doing them makes us "good" and those things we do because they lead to a better existence for ourselves and our fellows.

We don't live in a vacuum, despite what the materialists might think. This book is how to live well ourselves - without hurting those around us.

This is a revolutionary approach to the subject. I wish more business leaders would become familiar with these concepts! It would make a better world for all...

This book has been a useful tool for me in my business. It shows how to track statistics, and how to evaluate those statistics.

Once the statistics have been examined, then specific tools are given to increase them over time.

My business has increased by 8 times since implementing these tools! I am no longer in a mystery about how to increase business, when to promote, when to cut back... the formulas given are clear, and easy to implement, AND THEY WORK!

I am a VERY satisfied customer!

L Ron Hubbard is possibly the most controversial man of the 21st century.
I read this book while researching into supernatual phenonema like near-death-experiences, psychics, out of body experiences, as Hubbard made several claims in this area.
While the book doesn't talk about that, or Scientology techniques, it is an interesting read. You won't find philosophical arguments here - the emphasis is on workability. Hubbard's philosophy (which is a version of utilitarianism based on survival) is intuitively a better ethical philopsophy than anything I studied at Oxford.
I also gained an understanding of why Scientology charges money for its services, and found Hubbard's arguments about why people attack Scientology interesting (though I'm not in a position to judge them).
The book is also a good management book - on par at least with the One Minute Manager.
Hubbard was an intelligent and interesting character. If he was a charlatan then was certainly a complete genius who continues to deceive today.
On the other hand his principles seem sound and aimed at improving the human condition.

I already knew the general story. The seminary I wish to attend is where Fr. Eugene Hamilton studied for so brief a time. Truth be told, it was odd to see names of people I know!

When I saw the book, I had to buy it. This account of a man's life cannot truly be summerized without doing it great injustice. What I can say is that the love I felt radiating from the accounts in this piece of literature give me even greater respect for this priest, who only lived as a priest for three hours on earth, but is now a Priest Forever in heaven!

I reccomend it to anyone, but especially to those considering the priesthood.

I loved this book. However, it would be a little difficult for the non-Catholic to understand with all the talk of feast days, rituals, etc. Father Eugene was a wonderful man who accomplished more in his 25 years than many accomplish in their lifetime. I would encourage anyone who can handle a very sad story to read this book. It will strengthen your faith incredibly!

this was a very moving fantastic book. This guys faith is awesome. I got many copies of this book and sent them to my friends. I highly recommend this.

I have read and re-read this book several times and I only bought it two weeks ago!

The story of Father Eugene Hamilton is an inspiration to all Christians every where and I still shed many, many tears while absorbing the incredible testimony of faith by this Godly young man.

This is a book worth treasuring and reading over and over again and even though it merits 5 stars all the way, I only wish there were more testaments from people who knew him...to make the book longer!!

This is perfection in every way......like Father Eugene....who should be canonized!! This man was truly a saint of GOD! That's why God called him home just as his life and vocation was beginning.

Don't miss this one!!

I just finished reading the book... WOW!!!! What an amazing accounting of Fr. Gene; I was really moved by this and INSPIRED more than I could have ever been before reading this, the words of the Holy Father sent to Fr. Gene in hopes of his recovery, "Tell him I LOVE him with my whole heart - in toto corde" that is the true priesthood, embodied in one word, 'LOVE', it couldn't possibly be described any other way - Fr. Gene chose to use Cardinal Cooke's definition - a priest is: a Servant, a Victim, a Brother, a Listener, a Friend. I am very greatful for this story and will never be able to thank my Priest enough for giving me this book.

L. Ron Hubbard's insights into the behavior of humans are presented in the book 'Science of Survival', and there's even a handy fold out chart, so one can evaluate each human individually. Google "Xenu" for more information about Scientology. Since the Scientologists are on a rampage to have critical reviews of any books by L. Ron Hubbard deleted, and are having some limited success (all but one non-4 star review has been deleted here), I made this a four star review just for the fun of it.

This book is awesome! It will teach you how to make other people do what you want them to. Once you understand the inner workings of someone's mind, you can exploit that knowledge to manipulate them as you desire. It has a neat, fold-out map.

I just finished reading Science of Survival, cover to cover and really got my wits around it's content. I had some familiarity with it over the last thirty years (being a student of both Dianetics and Scientology) but I never really grasped it the way I did this time.
I've noticed that some people have an almost magical quality to make things happen, while others, no matter how well founded the intent or how great the intellect, seem to struggle. This book not only addresses this issue but also provides insight into what is behind this and what can be done to improve one's journey through life, especially in dealing with both the good and the bad intentioned individuals that we all can come across.
Give it a shot. I hope you get as much out of it as I did.
By the way, after reading it I suggest you listen to the Science of Survival lectures that were delivered by Mr. Hubbard. They further strengthen the understanding of the material.

This may be one of the worst and most offensive books I have ever read in my life. The truly upsetting thing about this book, is that it is passed off as self help literature. It is poorly written and has very little flow throughout its chapters because the author rambles on and writes in circles. Hubbard fills his writings with his own made up words that require google to figure out if you are unfamiliar with these types of texts he produced. It is also filled with quotes such as, "In any event, any person from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale should not have, in any thinking society, any civil rights of any kind, because by abusing those rights he brings into being arduous and strenuous laws which are oppressive to those who need no such restraints."

Keep in mind that in this "Tone Scale" having "No Sympathy" scores you a 1.2, while having "Sympathy" is lower (and worse) at 0.9. Homosexuals are placed at 1.1 while .375 is labeled as "Making Amends" even further down a "Victim" is 0.1. The author goes on to say, "There are only two answers for the handling of people from 2.0 down on the Tone Scale, neither one of which has anything to do with reasoning with them or listening to their justification of their acts. The first is to raise them on the Tone Scale by un-enturbulating some of their theta by any one of the three valid processes. The other is to dispose of them quietly and without sorrow." I would not recommend this book to anyone except as an example of hate.

As there is so much misinformation about Scientology (read the one and two star reviews for a real laugh) I wanted to write a brief book review. Unlike other low star reviewers who complain about the author, I will actually use the book:

First off, this new edition now has larger print and brighter paper for us old guys who need to read with bifocals. And the glossary and defined words are all in the back rather than as footnotes, which reduces the clutter. Good job on that.

What's not changed is the original premise of Hubbard's self-help books: that something can be done about the human mind and that anyone can use these data without a psych degree. In fact the book is subtitled The Prediction of Human Behavior and it certainly does that.

The acknowledgement page was sobering: "To 50,000 years of thinking men, without whose work Dianetics could never have been formulated -- the credit is theirs, not mine -- LRH".

The book is divided into two "Books". Book One The Dynamics of Behavior is based on a fold-out chart.

Each chapter summarizes and expands on the info on each column of this chart. Example: Column P "Sexual Behavior and Attitude Toward's Children" is then followed with a Chapter of the same name. What makes kids tick? How is your emotional reaction to sex talk an indicator of future behavior?

Column W, "Persistence on a Given Course" is followed with the chapter of the same name. Are you persistent or do you give up on your goals easily? Especially useful for me was the chapter "Method Used by Subject to Handle Others".

Book Two gets into handling people who want help with Dianetics, what a practicioner needs to watch for and so on. Book Two is especially useful to those who have already read the Dianetics book and want more info on helping others.

Even here, you can glean data that helps you with employees, friends, smart guys, shy girls, etc., etc.

An expanded index, glossary and appendix section rounds out its 679 Pages!

You could read the whole book or jump around to areas where you may need help or are simply curious. Good book for psychology majors and those wanting an alternative view.

happy reading!