Planning Books

Let us stop talking about the environment and the need to protect it and start DOING SOMETHING, ANYTHING to achieve a better path towards a more SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY AND WAY OF LIFE! THE TIME IS NOW! I do hope its not too late.
Anselmo De Portu, Environmental Planner

Ray Anderson is the CEO of Interface Corporation, a manufacturer of carpet tiles for businesses and hotel chains. After reading Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce and Daniel Quinn's Ishmael, Anderson revolutionized his beliefs and how his company does business. He is now striving for 100-percent sustainability by having zero waste, reusing materials, not using non-renewable resources, such as petroleum, and by leasing his carpet rather than selling it. Why this is important: 1) The obvious reasons such as not being wasteful and polluting, 2) Interface is now a model for all industry, 3) Anderson shows how sustainability is more profitable, and 4) Anderson's model shows that it only takes changing minds to be a successfully revolutionary--not street protests, letters to the editor, petitions, meditation, spiritual consciousness, believing in God, lobbying Congress, protesting governments and/or corporations, and all the typically tried and often painfully slow ways to enact positive change. Brilliant.

This book deserves more than five stars.

Mr. Anderson has taken an important step forward in leading Interface Corporation towards becoming ecologically neutral. By that phrase, ecologically neutral, I mean taking nothing from and adding nothing to the environment. This concept has become a popular one in Europe beginning in Sweden, in the form of The Natural Step, but has been much more slowly adopted in the United States. Those who are interested in understanding the processes by which a company can pursue improved environmental performance will find many helpful examples in Mid-Course Correction.

What if you don't care about your company's impact on the environment? Mr. Anderson makes a powerful argument based on his experiences at Interface that you should. First, it is much cheaper to produce goods and services if you use less materials and waste less. This means higher profits. Do you care about profits? Second, the pursuit of sustainability attracts many new customers and better supplier relationships. That also means higher profits. Third, people feel better about themselves. Do you like to feel better about yourself? Fourth, perhaps you should rethink your position about the environment. Even if we have enough for now, if we waste it, we are robbing our own descendents at some point of a good quality life. Mr. Anderson describes many cases of where despoilage of nature from overuse has been very expensive and undesirable by anyone's standard.

He also cites many of the leading books on the benefits of an ecologically sustainable business world. In fact, this movement will become a disruptive technology by making those who waste unable to compete with those who do not. Think about it.

To me, the value in the book is in Mr. Anderson's fine example of how to lead towards becoming environmentally sustainable as a company. I have been aware of most of the arguments in favor of this (including The Natural Step), but could not imagine how an American company would go about pursuing this goal. I also could not imagine how it could be reconciled with public ownership of stock. So much for my tiny imagination. Now, with Mr. Anderson's book, I can understand (and so can you) that becoming a sustainable enterprise is simply good business as well as being a good citizen. That will make sense to almost anyone.

After you read this wonderful book, I encourage you to share you copy with another person and ask them to do the same. This message needs to be spread if our companies are to fulfill their potential, and we are to have a world that we can all be proud of and enjoy living in. Then, I urge you to take this one step further, and think about how your family could become an ecologically sustainable unit.

Do good and do well!

This is the personal and eco-spiritual journey of Ray Anderson - the CEO of Interface, Inc., the world's largest producer of floor coverings. The book chronicals Ray Anderson's mid-life "change of heart" concerning the negative impact his business was having on the eco-systems of earth. Moved by this new awareness, Anderson sets off on an intensive study of the topic (much of which he writes about here) and sets the audacious goal of transforming his company into the first truly sustainable enterprise (which is a work in-progess of course).

Admittedly, much of what Mr. Anderson writes here is an amalgam of the writings of the major environmental proponents of the 80's & 90's, but told in a personalized way as it relates to Interface's carpeting business. He forms a framework and rationale of why sustainable business is essential and gives many useful stories of how Interface struggled to define and achieve continuous improvement in the quest for sustainability - a journey Anderson likens to "climbing Mt. Everest."

Some highlights I found useful include:
+ A vision of prototypical sustainable company of the 21st century
+ The case how technology must move from being part of the problem to being part of the solution to non-sustainability
+ Interface's seven-front plan for achieving sustainability (nice color charts)
+ A great example of how Interface is moving from selling consumable products to be discarded (floorcovering) to providing an ongoing service (replaceable floorcovering that is taken back and recycled using zero-waste, solar-energy processes).

While this book is now 10 years old, it is still relevant and useful - although some concepts are dated (eg: solar is now economically realizable in many places but not written as such). For readers who like books that tell a story, there should be much inspiration here in the author's memoirs. And for those who look for the "how-to" lists, there is a wonderful, comprehensive list of 200-some practices a company can implement to achieve greater sustainability. Those with responsibily to implement sustainable practices should find these highly practical actions invaluable (worth buying the book just for this).

In any societal movement, true visionaries are needed to set the bar and define ultimate goals. Interface is one such organization. However, no organization, business or community is anywhere near being truly sustainable so far. Interface is no where near it, and their recyclable carpet "leasing" program has not quite been a big success - so far - as they miscalculated some customer behaviors needed to change. But it is better than it was years ago which is the basic journey towards truly sustainable products and operations.

I would highly recommend this book for those of you who are convinced big business will eventually destroy our earth.

I was impressed that a non-scientist/engineer would even attempt to write a book like this. His excitement about the potential for saving the environment came through in his text. He laid out the goals his company had set for achieving a state beyond zero waste, returning to the earth as much as was taken from it. I believe it takes a visionary to apply such abstract ideas and commit to making them real. And the fact that he was able to make a business arguement for sustainable development was reassuring because, realistically, if businesses can be convinced that this will help them make money, it is much more likely to happen. That's clearly what I saw with the pollution prevention movement and it just might happen here.

Terrific workbook...great to buy along with their other book, "You Have More Money Than You Think". Can't go wrong with these guys.

I bought 3 copies of this workbook - one for each of my kids. I love that it provides the basics for them to learn budgeting, etc. and how to support themselves!

David and Tom Gardner have once again succeeded at making something difficult seem easy. As an estate planner, I know that many people avoid financial matters out of fear . . . fear that they're not smart enough to understand them. The Personal Finance Workbook puts valuable financial planning information at your fingertips and the forms to keep track of your finances are right in the book. If you are just starting out after college, or a Baby Boomer beginning to think about retirement, or someone retired, this workbook will be immediately useful. On a more personal level, as a dad, I am glad that a personal finance book like The Workbook exists. Young people who take early action on managing their finances and developing good savings habits will be infinitely better off in the long run.

James Lange, CPA/Attorney and author of Retire Secure! Pay Taxes Later: The Key to Making Your Money Last as Long as You Do

I bought this book about a year after college, when I wanted to come up with a plan to get rid of some credit card debt and begin saving money. This guide is fun and interesting, yet informative. It guides you step-by-step through good personal finance habits, and allows you to prioritize what goals you have for the future. The most insightful to me was when it asks you to name the things you spend that LEAST contribute to your happiness and MOST contribute to your happiness. I.E. - it's not wasteful if the spending improves your quality of life - versus you're just spending to spend! The workbook section asks you to guess how much you spend on things each month and then actually track your spending for 6 months to help you develop a realistic budget & see how you did. It's definitely a wake-up call to people like me, who seemed to piddle their money away without realizing exactly where it's going. This exercise helps you find the answer to that question!

I got this book a few weeks ago to get a feel for personal finance (I just turned 23 and i figured it was time) and it was oen of the best book purchases I ever made! It was laid out very simply with helpful charts and graphs so the math doesn't seem so abstract. Highly recommended!

Dr. Abkowitz has delivered a unique and fascinating read that combines case studies of what went wrong, what went right, and lessons learned. He analyzes three classifications of case studies in his book: man-made accidents, terrorist acts, and natural disasters. Each case is structured to give a detailed yet concise description of what happened, an examination of what went wrong, actions taken following the event, and the likelihood of a similar event occurring again. After reading a few cases, the reader begins to notice risk factor similarities and differences between cases. Often times you will find yourself thinking 'wow, I did not realize how many little things went wrong along the way leading up to the big event.' The success story case studies at the end of the book give many examples of how employing risk mitigation techniques in practice can pick up the numerous 'red flags' that usually precede disaster. It shouldn't always take a disaster to spark action.

Dr. Abkowitz has put together a fascinating and compelling book that explains why some of the world's worst disasters have occurred. He does an excellent job of pulling the reader in with a detailed narrative of what happened and then giving a sensible, easy-to-follow understanding of why the event or disaster happened and how it could've been prevented. Some of my favorite chapters included the Bhopal accident, Hurricane Katrina and the United Airlines success story. Overall, it's clear that many of these events could've been managed much better with proper planning, communication, funding and less arrogance on the parts of people in command. A great read and extremely informative.

ON POINT! Dr. Abkowitz manages to engage the reader by using real-world examples and insightful analysis while providing an excellent read. This is a MUST for all who work in the field of risk/environmental management and a DEFINITE READ for anyone interested in obatining a "behind the scenes" look at some of the most horrific disasters of our time. Most importantly this book offers some valuable lessons in critical thinking that will assist anyone who must plan to prevent or respond to such risks in the future.

Mark Abkowitz has written a well researched and pertinent book analyzing and assessing different kinds of disasters: man made, natural, and terrorist. He has done an amazing job pinpointing areas that can be changed, what probably can't change and what we as citizens can do to incorporate these ideas into more safety for our country, our community and our planet.

I receommend this book to all who care about the next disaster and how it can be averted.

Abkowitz has compiled an impressive number of high profile case studies to illustrate our need to pay attention to the risks we have in our business operations, and for that matter, our personal lives. But unlike the multiple points of view found in the Harvard Business Review case studies, Abkowitz provides definitive analysis of "what went wrong" and allows us to see clearly what we might do in our own organizations to minimize operational risk.

This excellent book is broken into Four Parts, comprising several chapters each. Those parts are; Man Made Accidents, Terrorist Acts, Natural Disasters, and Success Stories. Then the final chapter brings things together in "Lessons Learned," while the epilogue gives us some ideas on where we might go from here.

Abkowitz notes in chapter one that there are 10 basic risk factors he considered: Design and construction flaws, Deferred maintenance, Economic pressure, Schedule constraints, Inadequate training, Not following procedures, Lack of planning and preparedness, Communication failure, Arrogance, and Stifling political agendas. Based on these, he analyzed many major disasters, summarized the results and gleaned some interesting lessons from the analysis.

There were 12 "Lessons Learned" presented based on the 10 risk factors spelled out in chapter one. The 12 lessons are:

1. Risk factors work together to generate an event with disastrous consequences
2. Communication failure is a risk factor in every disaster, irrespective of whether the event is caused by accident, intentional act, or nature
3. Take planning and preparedness seriously; it should never be short-changed
4. Economic pressure is a chronic problem that appears as a risk factor in most man-made accidents and natural disasters and in some intentional acts
5. Not following procedures is a significant problem in man-made accidents, and is also present in some natural disasters and intentional acts
6. Design and construction flaws are the bane of man-made accidents
7. Co not underestimate the significance of political agendas in creating high-risk situations
8. Arrogance among individuals and organizations is perhaps a far more significant risk factor than previously imagined
9. The lack of uniform safety standards across different nations creates an uneven risk management playing field, conditions ripe for exploitation
10. Regardless of how well risks are being addressed, "luck" can change your fortunes one way or another
11. It usually takes a disastrous event to convince people that something needs to be done
12. Risk cannot be entirely avoided; nothing can be designed or built to perfection, nor last forever

This book will be invaluable for those times when I'm searching for examples of why our organization needs to make a change. It should serve as a warning to all our leadership in private and public organizations that we must pay attention to and encourage proper planning and expenditures to mitigate our organizational risk.

Excellent book. A great answer to those they think that the customer is part of their graphs.

I bought this book because I was buying another one of Lior's books, and I am glad I did. This book is a great book if you want to change the way your company does business and how it treats it's customers. Like other reviews about this book have said this book gives you basic principals on how to build better customer "relationships" (not relations, notice the "ship" at the end) with your customers. I am an IT Director for a company, and have a side network consulting business and I have put the ideas in this book to use in both places. If you buy this book and don't get anything out of it, at least take this little nugget:

"Remeber your customer is the reason why you are in business." -- Lior Arussy, Passionate & Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail and 10 Steps to Do Them Right!.

Passionate & Profitable: Why Customer Strategies Fail and 10 Steps to Do Them Right has a rather simple premise - spending time and money on customer retention is of no value if it is not done in the context of having a well-defined execution strategy.

The goal of the book is to show the reader how to form strong, sustainable, and profitable relationships with customers. The challenge is that there are many critical decisions and trade-offs that have to be made, but many companies often make the wrong decision. Another issue is that many companies live by the credo of `Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door'. The problem is that even with the best mousetrap, the world won't come if you don't have a well-developed customer strategy. Passionate & Profitable is all about creating that well-developed customer strategy.

The book is worth it alone for the 25-question corporation-customer experience aptitude survey on pages 19-20. The survey examines the health of your relationship with your customers and is likely a good indicator of your profitability.

Another great section is pages 109-115 which goes into the organization-focused vs. customer-focused organizational structure. This section shows how many organizations are created with functional expertise via groups, i.e., engineering, R&D, sales, operations, etc. Arussy shows that a customer-centric organization must have the customer focused in the center, with the various groups supporting those customers. The beauty of a customer-centric organization is that all of the employees and functions are fully aligned around the customer cause.

Chapter 8 reiterates the importance of organizations training their employees and trusting them to make the correct decision. A focal point is that if you do not trust your people, do not hire them. And if you hired them, give them the tools to excel. After all, their success is your organizations success.

For those organizations that are serious about their customer strategy and looking for ways to improve it, Passionate & Profitable is a valuable book that can help achieve that goal.

I've had the pleasure of attending Lior's seminar and I was extremely impressed with his passion towards the subject of customer experience and focus. After the seminar I read his book and I was not disappointed - it's a goldmine - full with insights and concepts that are right on money. Share this book with your peers...I did - it helped me drive some great new ideas in my organization.

I've read all of Lior's books and been through his workshop. He always nails the topic and this book is no exception.

This book reminds us that innovation does not happen by accident but is the result of a well developed customer strategy.

I found the use of real life examples combined with surveys and activity sheets really helped me develop a servicing strategy that was right for my organization.

This is probably THE greatest book I've found for re-examining & inspiring your teaching. The author's tone is friendly, coversational, and humorous, and ideas are clearly outlined--you can read it page by page or skim it for a small dose of inspiration. I reread it every summer & frequently leaf thru it throughout the year--there's TONS of great ideas in here, and even if some wouldn't work for your program it might help you brainstorm something that will. It's an educational book without the academic jargon & without the over-flowery language of someone who doesn't understand the science behind teaching. It's by a band director who just wanted to give his kids the best possible education he could, and just reading through the book makes me wish I'd grown up in his program.

A must read. Anyone searching for that positive influencial attitude in affecting their students should read this and apply the techniques. Believe me, this book will inspire the most jaded of teachers.

Pathways is a really good book. I mean it. It helped me a lot.

Pathways assists teachers in running their daily music programs. There are lists of practical ideas, and ideas for doing things like taking roll to rehearsing - and everything in between. Depending on your teaching experience you may want to skip some of the information, for example a veteran teacher might want to focus more on creating music at a high level, while a new teacher might focus more on rehearsal technique. I used some of the techniques in this book in my class and found them to be effective and indeed they helped my students improve. Overall this book is good!

Simple, easy to use ideas and strategies that address real-life in-the-classroom issues of student motivation, attrition, and creating enjoyable and energetic learning environments. I have been using only a small handful of ideas and strategies listed in this book (about 5 of them right now out of thousands) and it has made a noticeable difference in my classes. This book should be required reading for any music education major, beginning or veteran teacher. IT'S THAT GOOD!!!

The book is not preachy or touchy-feely at all. It's just full of awesome ideas and really gets to the heart of what makes students tick. Worth it's weight in gold!

In the back of this book is a 13 page planning chart. It includes most or all of the perennials featured in the book with: zones, light req, soil moisture req, bloom season/length/color, height, and foliage color!

You can easily find all the, say, medium-height, yellow spring-blooming plants with purple foliage for zone 6 that like full sun and wet soil.

The text (meat) of this book is average and normally I'd just send this back to the library after stealing a good design idea or two. But I'm going to purchase this book because the chart is everything I've always wanted from a gardening book. It's well worth paying for!

I bought a half dozen new garden books for myself for winter reading, and including THE PERENNIAL GARDENER'S DESIGN PRIMER by Cohen and Johnson. I have felt I got my money's worth with the others, but found myself disappointed with this book. In time, I may come to appreciate it more, but if I was a new gardener, I would find it overwhelming. Too often, when we are filled with knowledge, we are tempted to share it, and too often, others cannot hear, let alone digest it. This book appears to be one of those efforts where everything but the kitchen sink was tossed in. To say these gals are knowledgeable is an understatement. I am surprised the book made it past the editor's desk. Undoubtedly, she fell asleep.

Oh there are some great photos by Rob Cardillo. For me, the best shot is the boot of a station wagon filled with plants. But the authors soon tell the reader that admiring this scene is a "no-no" How often have you gone nuts at the nursery and filled your car with plants then stood and appreciated the arrangement you made? When you got the plants home and planted them, did they look so nice the next year? The authors suggest that planning your garden on the fly can lead to disaster, and well it might, but I am of the "organic" school and I believe you can move plants if you don't like the arrangement at a later date. These gals are into control big time, however. They want you to draw the design (or better...hire a designer), and then follow your design to the letter. They even designed a "cottage garden" if you can believe that, although it comes out looking like knot garden to my eye. If I did what they suggest I would tie myself in knots. The best arrangements I have "created" are serendipitous choices nature made using the seeds tossed off by my perennials and accidental juxtapositions of plants from seeds dropped by the birds.

The next time you are tempted to undertake garden design, check this book out of the library. You will soon be singing, `Tis a joy to be simple.....

After seeing this book recommended as one of the year's best by "Fine Gardening" and seeing it as the #3 selection on Amazon . Com for bestsellers I bought the book. Both authors have been in the horticulture field for a combination of over 45 years and it shows. I Googled them. Stephanie Cohen has won some very prestigious awards from both professional groups and garden groups. Her co-author ,
Nancy Ondra, worked as a gardening editor as well as writing numerous top selling books. I liked there use of the newest and latest perennials. I liked the authenticity of using real gardens and the befores and afters.The photos are great. I liked the time-saving tips. The chart of flowers on the back of the book is a winner. However, the best thing about this book is the humor-I love it! Hurrah for a gardening book that shows real people wrote it!

I have purchased many Garden design books. I want something to just give me an idea and Ill go from there. This book does just that. The color ideas, what to plant with what. Has detailed sketched designs as well as many photographs of actual flower beds.
The quick reference Planning Chart has to be one of my favorite things about the book.
Would I buy it again? yes, I think I would

I am a Master Gardener, and I love this book. The design ideas are very helpful, there are beautiful color photos and interesting sidebars throughout. I'm reading it cover to cover, not only using it as a reference book.

What a great find! I am at a cross roads with my photography, and this book has really come in handy. It's precisely what I was looking for - like talking to a mentor. Highly recommend this book if you are looking for a bit of direction, inspiration or new ideas within yourself and your photographic passion.

Excellent! A great introduction for someone considering the study of photography. Takes an unusual, sort of psychologically analytical approach to the field, in addition to dealing with the specifics of education, equipment and the like.

It was after reading this book that I finally made the decision to study photography through the New York Institute of Photography where Chuck Delaney is dean. He came across as being a down-to-earth, no-nonsense expert in the field, and his NYIP course bore that fact out. Both his book and the course gave me more than they promised, something that is rare today.

The book takes a very holistic view of photography. Though this book isn't really designed to improve your ability to take a picture, it is aimed more at developing you as a passionate photographer. It ensures how you want to take pictures, develope style, and many of the nuances of photography.

This book could also be called "Zen and the art of being a photographer". So happy I decided to purchase this book. Chuck is encouraging, practical and humourous in his approach. This book generously answers the kind of questions you might ask a relative in the photo business before you launch in yourself, complete with the author's balanced views and opinions. Thanks Chuck.

I really liked the book. I'm a a NYIP student and it reads real close to the course. It's not 100% photography information as he also talks about some of his views on life. I subscribe to the same views so it didn't bother me. Overall, a great book. Lots of information for someone wanting a career in photography.

What initially drew me to this was the low-budget part. It turns out to be full of practical advice for anyone thinking of getting into making movies whether from the purely creative or the cold-hard-cash standpoint. Actually, this book makes an excellent point of connecting the money and the art especially in the field of filmmaking where the pursuit is hardly ever one-man or completely free of expense. This is not just about the low-budget film but about filmmaking in general discussed in a way you would discuss how to bake a lasagna. You realize that anyone can bake a lasagna. Whether or not anyone would eat it? That's another story.

This book is very readable - the author uses several anecdotes to engage the reader, and also provides lots of hard facts, and excellent suggestions. If you are planning a film - buy this book.

Planning The Low Budget Film by producer and production manager Robert Latham Brown draws upon the author's 30 years of experience to lay out the principles of solid film planning with strictly limited resources. Chapters discuss how to get into the low-budget film business, how to apply and adhere to a schedule, methods of calculating and keeping track of the budget. Of especial value is the meticulous step-by-step instructions for anyone who is brand new to the confusing world of financial recordkeeping. Written in down-to-earth, no-nonsense format, Planning The Low Budget Film is enthusiastically recommended for aspiring and professional film producers of all experience levels.

I found out about this book quite by accident on Wikipedia, as so many people rely on expensive computer budgeting programs now. I refuse to shell out more big cash on programs and books. The D.I.Y. film information industry has become so bloated, you could spend so much money on materials, you could've made a feature film instead of buying more books on HOW to do it. But this is a really good book from an actual teacher who knows how to communicate. It's a secret self-published book that I'm glad I stumbled upon. As word-of-mouth spreads, I imagine many more people will find out about it.

Anyway, now that the script is done five years later, I've been avoiding the idea of all this real work, hoping I could run a cute photo and a personal ad for a knight to ride in and save me. I didn't care if the knight was white or black or even abusive. But no dice. And since I have to do this anyway, I wanted to really learn the logic of how and why to break down and budget a script. It's a surprisingly easy read for such a dry subject and I'm carrying my copy around like a newly dog-eared pet, reading a little bit more each time. Good luck to both you and me!

Update: I broke down and not only had to buy a program (which I still can't figure out six months later--if only Scott Billups would write every manual!)--but I also took a pre-production class with Debbie Brubaker, the line producer. Man, she is rock n' roll.

If you are making your first legitimate movie where people besides your friends and family are depending on you not to screw up big time and you just searched Amazon for books on filmmaking and you need a no-nonsense step by step guide to help you through the behind the scenes process, this is the book for you!

I work with a comedy group in California, and we recently shot our first budgeted short film. As I am the most organized member of the group I was appointed the "Line Producer" and put in charge of making the whole thing come together on the back end. Coming from a theatre background, I knew what went into putting a stage performance together, but I was in the dark when it came to preparing for a film. After scouring Amazon (and a few other sites) this book seemed the most adequate to help me prepare for my job.

I've worked in film before, so a lot of the books I looked at about making a movie spend 2/3 of their volume explaining the difference between DV and Film and what a DP does, but I needed something that cut through that introductory fat, and would help prepare me for pre-production and detail exactly what went into pulling a film together.

This book is that book. It was my bible. It was glued to my side like Biff's Sports Almanac in Back to the Future 2.

Mr. Brown walks you through everything that goes into "making it happen." From breaking down the script into a functional shooting schedule to preparing an accurate budget to determing how far behind schedule you are to making sure there is a place for people to go to the bathroom, it's all in there. Additionally, the book even helped me to prepare for a lot of the basic legal and propreitary issues that we would encounter.

Brown also peppers the book with great anecdotes that help you avoid the pitfalls and roadblocks that he himself has encountered on large feature films like The Goonies. Yeah, The Goonies, you can't mess with someone who worked on The Goonies.

This book is essential. Bottom line. Read it. Love it. Use it.
Make well prepared movies.
Be a hero for your production.

Reviewed by Juanita Watson for Reader Views (8/06)

Pamela Harper is an internationally know speaker, author, and is the president of Business Advancement, Inc. She has over 20 years of experience as a consultant with companies ranging from small-business to Fortune 500. She is sought out by leaders in the business marketplace to transform their internal strategies and increase performance results.

The first part of "Preventing Strategic Gridlock" Harper reveals and explains seven of the most common hidden roadblocks that stall business growth. She outlines real-life examples of the step-by-step path to the downward slide giving readers a cut-and-dry visual of how this happens.

Part Two of "Preventing Strategic Gridlock" details Harper's six-step process for reducing the gridlock and enabling leaders to more smoothly integrate execution with strategic thinking and planning. Harper discovered these six principles and guidelines during her research and consulting experiences and research, and has formed U.N.L.O.C.K. to `unlock' performance.

Pamela Harper guides businesses to re-evaluate their strategies and enables leaders to run a more effective and efficient organization. Bottom line - Every business leader would benefit from having "Preventing Strategic Gridlock" on their resource shelf. It is educational, consistent, and proven effective, and will help leaders spot gridlock problems before they get out of control.

The other day, I came across a very interesting book called Preventing Strategic Gridlock, by Pamela Harper. Ms. Harper is the President of Business Advancement Inc., a consulting firm dedicated to helping leaders transform strategy into high performance results. Check out the link to the article entitled The Key to Aligning Strategy with Execution on her website.

I really like Preventing Strategic Gridlock.

Ms. Harper begins her book be describing what she calls the Seven Hidden Roadblocks that come about because leaders have mistaken assumptions about their organizations' reality.

The Seven Hidden Roadblocks are:
1. One size fits all -- The tendency to adopt previously successful solutions without regard to whether they can work in your organization now.
2. Management by lobotomy -- The tendency to rely on organizational "surgery (layoffs, reorganizations, budge cuts) to solve persistent organizational problems.
3. Act now, think later -- The tendency to assume that you have enough information to select strategies and intiatives to meet your organization's real needs.
4. Magic of the marquee -- The tendency to expect the organization to instantly accept change.
5. Roller coaster -- The tendency to assume that introducing a rapid series of new strategies and initiatives will move the organization forward.
6. Tin ear -- The tendency to preceive only one "tone" of reality.
7. Lighthouse -- The tendency to "stay the course" despite clear cut danger signs.

Ms. Harper goes on to explain how to U.N.L.O.C.K. strategic gridlock

* U -- Understand the full challenge
* N -- Negotiate key stakeholder buy in
* L -- Locate cultural 'advancers and 'blockers"
* O -- Organize priorities, goals and action plans
* C -- Communicate credibly
* K -- Keep adjusting

I won't go into more detail here. You'll have to read the book yourself. However I believe that any leader who wants to move his or her organization forward will benefit from reading and applying the concepts in Preventing Strategic Gridlock.

Several studies of strategic management have found that around 70 percent of all new strategies fail. The main culprit is that they are not effectively executed. In many cases, the strategies would have been all but impossible to execute because the organization was overburdened with other challenges, did not have the resources in place and poorly communicated what was to be done.

Preventing Strategic Gridlock aims at overcoming those problems by both selecting more appropriate strategies to implement and avoiding the common pitfalls of execution for strategies that could be executed well by an organization.

The book is divided into two parts. The first part looks at the main causes of strategic gridlock (assuming anyone can execute any strategy any way they want, continuing to restructure and streamline to address strategic and implementation issues, being too quick and not considered enough in reacting to new problems, thinking that everyone knows what to do if you just announce a new program, switching to the flavor of the week fix so that everyone is confused and dispirited, not listening to what's not working, and not considering immovable obstacles to progress).

I loved that section. It reminded me of the first part of the book I co-authored The 2,000 Percent Solution, in which we looked at the stalls to organizational progress. These hidden roadblocks are illustrated with very funny cartoons that make the point very clear, good examples that you will understand, underlying beliefs that can get you into trouble, how to uncover the problem, a check list to help you see how bad the problem is in your organization, and a list of questions and answers to issues that you will probably be concerned about.

In the second part, Ms. Harper describes a six-step process organized around the acronym UNLOCK. This process encourages you to understand the full nature of the challenge you face, negotiating the enthusiastic participation of those who need to implement the new direction, considering how your culture can help or hurt in the change, organizing to get the work done, communicating in ways that make sense and to keep adjusting in response to what you run into.

I thought that the process was not quite sufficiently detailed for what most people will need to follow this advice. That was the only significant weakness in the book. But the second part does a fine job of raising the right issues.

Again, I was struck by the parallel to The 2,000 Percent Solution where we describe an eight-step process to make progress in our second part.

After sleeping on my reaction to the book, I feel like Ms. Harper has produced a 2,000 percent solution for overcoming the problems of making strategic change. Nice stallbusting, Ms. Harper!

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about developing or implementing a new strategy.

Pam Harper's does a great service to the pervasive, male-dominated (and I'm a male) culture of business leadership that thinks strategy only involves "making the numbers". In an engaging style, she uses the first half of her book to describe 7 common, but hidden roadblocks that companies can easily hit when they are tried to implement strategic growth through changing elements of their business. I like the chapter on "Tin Ear", where management has a tendency to tune out the opinions and concerns of others. The company may have an open door policy, quality circles, and a suggestion program (with cash rewards!) but may miss the more obvious daily chatter from employees, customers and other stakeholders that are providing valuable feedback.

The second half of the the book presents the author's UNLOCK methodology for addressing strategic gridlock. It contains 6 steps, with steps 2 and 3 (Understand the Full Challenge and Negociate Key Stakeholder Buy-in) as highlights. The focus on seeing the complete job to be done helps get the timeframe and effort to be more realistic, and the buy-in step focuses on how to play both offense and defense as you are communicating and implementing important changes.

Having your management team familar with these concepts will allow you to sense and discuss when you may be hitting roadblocks or not doing all the work to unlock your organizations full potential.

Highly reccomended read before you set off on your next strategic change journey.

Obviously, it is highly advisable to identify and then eliminate potential problems before they occur. That is as true in business as it is in healthcare, athletic competition, and international travel. What we have here is a solid, well-organized, and well-written guide to preventing strategic gridlock. First, Harper carefully examines seven of the usual suspects which can cause it. Next, she introduces what she calls U.N.L.O.C.K., a system based on six principles by which to avoid or eliminate them. Finally, she shifts her reader's attention to countless real-world examples.

Obviously, an inappropriate strategy almost invariably results in conflict, confusion, acrimony, perhaps operational gridlock, and worse yet, chaos. Moreover, Harper fully understands that even a fundamentally sound strategy can fail because of internal resistance by those whom Jim O'Toole describes as being captive to "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." Or that strategy can become less effective or even ineffective because of market forces over which the organization has little (if any) conrol. Harper has absolutely no illusions about the complexity of these and other issues. She could easily have identified 14 or even 21 "roadblocks." Her U.N.L.O.C.K. system could have been based on 10 or even 15 principles. That's not the point. Rather, when crafting a strategy, decision-makers in any organization (regardless of size or nature) should identify and then prepare for what they perceive to be the potentially most formidable roadblocks to that strategy's success. (FYI, my personal preference is to view strategies as "hammers" and tactics as "nails.") Everyone must understand and support the strategy. What amounts to an "early warning system" is needed and everyone at least directly involved with the strategy and its tactics must be especially alert during the strategy's initial implementation.

Although I encountered no "cutting edge thinking" in Harper's book, I hold it in high regard because it fully serves the needs of decision-makers who need (perhaps urgently) a cohesive, comprehensive, and cost-effective system by which to avoid or extricate their organizations from strategic gridlock. Another major benefit of having an "early warning system" is that if the strategy is a dud, that will soon be obvious and Harper's book can assist with whatever adjustments may be necessary.

Those who share my interest in how and why even major corporations such as Ford, Coca-Cola, and McDonald's make bad strategic decisions, I urge them to check out Matt Haig's recently published Bad Brands.

This book was not easy to find. I have been searching Amazon for almost a year. I'm glad it was finally available.

I have to say it is a wonderful guide for anyone looking for information on Quinces/Sweet Sixteen celebrations. This book explained an easy way to plan, gave us the folklore of the traditions and helped us to explain to the traditions of the celebration to Daddy.

My daughter wanted a more traditional Sweet Sixteen celebration. This book has helped all around. We would recommend it to any familia, that is planning a Quince/Sweet Sixteen celebration.

'Quinceanera!' has got first hand accounts of moms and families who have been there..planning their own childrens coming of age. Some used party planners, some did it themselves with help from friends and family. This book has been VERY HELPFUL in planning my oldest daughter's quinces in 2002 and I've dug it out again to plan daughter #2's quinces in 2009.

The greatest book around to help plan for your daughters Quinceanera. It has help me see many traditions I did not know existed. Must have if you are planning a party.

This book was abousoulty the best information that I have found on quinceanera's out there. It takes you step by step giving great examples of menu's and ceremonies.

I am starting my own event planning business and this book has given me knowledge that I did not know previously.

I would recommend this book to anyone that is planning a quinceanera, it will save you a lot of stress and anxiety.

I started working on my daughter's quinceanera 1 year ago and found this book invaluable. It's very comprehensive and covers everything for all latin cultures. I incorporated a little of everything to create a customized quince for my daughter, with an emphasis on the religious aspect. This book gave me ideas and explored topics I didn't know existed. Thank you Michelle for writing this book.