Teams Books

This is a wonderful book and a must have for anyone looking to strengthen their organization. It is full of clear, logical instructions on how to make everyone come together. This book was worth the money and time!

"Beyond Teams" is an excellent reference for anyone interested in charting or changing results in their collaborative networks. From the standpoint of anyone involved in Organizational Behavior/Organizational Development, from manager, practitioner, academic, consultant or team member, this book provides many useful insights and has the feel of actual fieldwork used in its writing. The book is laid out in such a manner that it can be applied in any given situation. The ten guiding principles are structured and repeated in various collaborative work settings consistently. This allows the reader to apply the principles in their unique setting. The ten guiding principles are then explained for each general situation with a short description given for when the principles are not working and, more importantly, when they are working. Too often in this field books are written from a purely academic viewpoint or "this is how you fix it" approach. This book is different in that you can sense the fieldwork in the research and you see how things are supposed to work as well as when they are not working. This gives the reader the option of working on a group's deficiencies while complementing their achievements. This book is a "must have" for anyone interested in improving team communications.

This is one of the better sports books that I have encountered.

Shapiro was well positioned to write it, having covered the team extensively for many years as a newspaper reporter and editor and having known the coach personally, early in his career.

What stands out is the extensive detail. The author did his homework and provides a lot of information about Thompson's high school and college days, brief pro career, high school coaching career and finally, about his first two decades at Georgetown as the head basketball coach where he took a non descript team and raised it from obscurity. Shapiro interviewed players, opposing coaches and others to really flesh this book out, and it reads very smoothly.

He presents both sides of the issues and provides a lot of interesting information about the former coach and about the many different ways others reacted to, interacted with and perceived him.

Even though I am a huge John Thompson and Georgetown fan, this book looks at both the positive and negative sides of John Thompson. It goes into his childhood, his days at Providence, on to the Boston Celtics, with St. Anthony's High School, and ending with Georgetown. It covers the recruiting process, racial hurdles, and academic regulations John Thompson is know for. It talks about his days as the Olympic assistant and also the controversial head coach in 1988. Takes you on the ride through the early and mid-eighties with Patrick Ewing and ends with the signing of Alonzo Mourning and his first two seasons. This book provides you with information to let you decide if you like John Thompson or not.

I bought the book for my cousin, he and myself love it. Is very easy to read and funny

Is baseball good? Truly a thought to siphen, nor weary and lasting is the prime thought. I'll concede Senor David Ortiz is great, but only if you stop waiving that violin in my face.

I consider myself lucky to have a hardcover copy of this book. It reads like fiction while still providing quite a bit of insight into the world of a professional blackjack team. While casino conditions have changed, most of the presented information is still valuable for any serious blackjack player.

Back in the late 70's and early 80's, Ken Uston was the king of blackjack. The Big Player is a story of his adventures where he gets recruited into a team of card counters to play and win blackjack against the casinos. This book does not present any card counting systems. It is a book about the stories he had after going up against the casinos.

He had a wild ride and discusses the never ending battle between his teams and the casinos. How they'd get barred, different tactics and strategies they used, team play, etc.

If you are interested in card counting of blackjack, you'll love this story.

Bionic eTeamwork carves new ground for me. Dr. Kostner has proven herself knowledgeable and well connected, given the array of businesses who have shared their stories with her. Her access to how teams in the virtual age have succeeded is very useful.

Her main point is: technology without the human element can never reach its potential. But if we merge human priorities with technology, you can achieve the "super" leverage of the bionic. Not all of us will be Steve Austins, obviously, but we can certainly use this book to make our team collaborations much more effective -- faster.

Another significant point is the challenge of speed - how can distance teams work as fast as teams sitting within the same conference room? Dr. Kostner shows how distance teams can achieve at least the same speed of decision making and collaboration as on site groups - and may even work with greater productivity.

Dr. Kostner's style is well paced - she gives down to earth, doable guidance. This is a must read for leaders and team contributors who are looking to up their own ante in terms of their collaboration and team effectiveness.

Dr. Kostner latest book, Bionic eTeamwork is much different from her last one, Knights of a Teleround Table. In the last one she wrote a business novel about King Arthur mentoring someone across time on virtual teams. A quick and entertaining read, it delivered a good message, but lacked the practical application I look for.

In her new book, Bionic eTeamwork, she has abandoned the business novel and gone to telling stories of successful eteams that have really achieved extraordinary results. Her theme is similar (the importance of the human element), but she seems a lot more inclusive of the technology. As she states at the beginning "we have the technology" ala Steve Austin and she goes on to tell us we need to humanize the way we use it.

I'm more of a left brained person so let me tell you what I really like about this book. Whenever I go through a business book I like to highlight it and then I pull all the highlights out and type them out for later review (sort of my own cliffnotes). Almost every page has a a sentence or two of an important statement on the margin in a grey box. Basically she has done it for me. Just by reading this you get the jist of what the message is and after you've read the book, you've got a quick review.

The message is still keep the humanity going, but she has added some features I really found useful. Almost every chapter has one or more summaries entitled "Things you can do today to..." or "eteamwork Checklist." From these we get such suggestions as "Designate a technology champion" to "stop trying to collaborate by e-mail with attachments. Those methods are in the Dark Ages. Get up to speed with Adobe Acrobat Exchange." In summary, you have a quick easy read with a lot of practical advice.

Mr. Cowboy, Bob Lilly, combines his love of photography with the story and personalities that made the Dallas Cowboys America's Team. Using his own personal photo archive and stories, Lilly traces the development of the Cowboys. Personalities from past Cowboy teams come to life in the book. The photos and accompanying commentary from Lilly cover everything from training camp and coaches to off the field antics. For an up close and personal look at the Cowboys during the formative years, buy this book. I can't wait for the next one; there have to be more pictures!

If you have followed the Cowboys since you were in Jr. High School, you gotta have this one. There is more Cowboy's memories in one place here than you can find any place else. Bob Hayes, Calvin Hill, .....all the greats that made the Cowboys who they were in the Landry days. Many years of insight and rememberances, Bob Lilly has completed a personal work from his viewpoint.

If you've ever wondered HOW Bostonians became the most passionate fans in the country, this explains it. It's amazing to think it just started with a few people in a bar. Just like any religion, it spread until it went worldwide. And that's where we are today.
This book is the only one out there that gives you that story. Thanks to Pete Nash! -- Andy Wasif, author Green Monster University: Creating Die-Hahd Fans Since 1901

Buy this book for one reason -- the author is Pete Nice. Dig it. 3rd Bass, y'all.

I bought this book for my nephew and he loved it! It's a nice hardcover and had great pictures.

I just finished Jim Sumner's book. It's called "Tales From The Duke Blue Devils
Hardwood". It's a great read and nearly impossible to put down. The Book Chronicles Duke Basketball history beginning with Wilbur "Cap " Card a Trinity College graduate from 1902 who returned to introduce basketball at Trinity in 1906 and culminates with the Blue Devils 15th ACC title in 2005.
The majority of the book was taken from interviews from the likes of Mark Alarie,Tate Armstrong, Gene Banks, Joe Belmont,Vic Bubas, Tom Butters, Johnny Dawkins,Randy Denton,Danny Ferry, Mike Gminski,Bernie Janicki,Jack Marin,Dan Meagher,Gary Melchionni, Jim Spanarkel and Robby West to name a few.

Words can't really describe the impact this small but powerful book has had on Cleveland's football fans. Given up for naught in 1995 and 1996, the spirit of the Browns was secured in our hearts with the emergence of Browns Memories in late 1996. Browns fans all over the country latched onto this work as "chicken soup" for a Browns fan's soul. It's pure Browns, through and through...not about the move, not about the politics, but why we all became and remain Browns fans. Right time and the right book, it got us all through the tough times. Great work and very enjoyable.

Words can't really describe the impact this small but powerful book has had on Cleveland's football fans. Given up for naught in 1995 and 1996, the spirit of the Browns was secured in our hearts with the emergence of Browns Memories in late 1996. Browns fans all over the country latched onto this work as "chicken soup" for a Browns fan's soul. It's pure Browns, through and through...not about the move, not about the politics, but why we all became and remain Browns fans. Right time and the right book, it got us all through the tough times. Great work and very enjoyable.

I find myself flipping through this book at least three times a month. The author, Scott Howard-Cooper, did a wonderful job. I've seen several of the memorable games he selected. After reading his book, I feel as though I've seen all 100. Bravo, Scott.

I got lost in this book, just flipping page by page and remembering stuff I'd forgotten and reading stuff I never knew about Wooden and Bibby, Baron and Goodrich, Harrick and Hazzard... I loved the way the author interspersed the GIANT games that everybody remembers--the 1968 loss to Houston, all of the national title games, Tyus Edney over Missouri--with the little moments that really make you think and wonder. About Wooden's first game as coach, about Rafer Johnson's first start in 1958, about Cal's Pauley Pavilion upset in 1995, about Reggie Miller and Kris Johnson and Pete Blackman, about Gene Bartow and Harrick's firing and Ed O's goodbye... about some incredible things and some sad things and always memorable things. You can read this book from start to finish, or just drop in and out, from game to game, and relish the details. From Kareem's foreword to the great stat package in the back, and all the great, evocative story-telling in between, this is a tremendous book.