change Books

This is an outstanding book, it distills ideas from other books into a step by step format! If you've read Gary Hamel's work, this books takes most of his insights and puts them in a how to format. Very insightful! It's great for startups also as it lays the foundations of the seeds to place. Buy it, read it, carry it with you and share it. No more excuses for not making innovation a daily conversation at your company.

I had read individual books by these authors and I was hoping for a cumulative effect. I was a bit let down. I expected the insights to be a bit deeper and profound, something along the lines of- "Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership by Joseph Jaworski, Betty Sue Flowers, and Peter M Senge" or "Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World by Margaret J Wheatley"

This is the best most comprhensible book on the future of business and evolution I have ever read. I can not explain in words how this book has changed my life and the way I am compeled to make a diffirence in the world... I feel this book is the power of now meets donald trump.... times 100... if you want to make a diffirence in something you do or somewhere you work you must read this book.

As CEO Coach, Poet and author of a leadership book that helps leaders unleash the genius of themselves and their business, I strongly recomend this book. Presence describes what many of us have know and used for years the credibility of the thought leaders of our day. Thank you Peter. Paul David Walker Unleashing Genius: Leading Yourself, Teams and Corporations

"Presence", as advertised, is indeed profound; but as a read is a very dense loaf. It seems more written for the change expert--who probably doesn't need to read it--than for those of us who put our shoes on one at a time. Dust off your thinking cap before you read this book; 'cause you are going to need it!

These are world class authors, each impressive, so this book held great promise. What a disappointment. I'm actually saddened to have read it because I've lost some respect for each of them. What could motivate this group of people to write in such an ego-centric, ill-disciplined and poorly referenced way? I can only imagine it was the clash of egos that allowed this book to sink to its lowest common denominator so often.
Yes, as other reviewers have said, there are nuggets here. The topic itself is profoundly important. So all the sadder that the message has been diluted, or perhaps polluted, in its delivery. Can do better...

I found this book impossible to read in one sitting. I would read through a few pages and have to either stop to contemplate or head online to research. What an informative guide to the importance of presence!

There is motion towards the exterior of the Cave. Its path is not without twists and turns. But we are developing the skills to navigate. These skills are evident in the increasing awareness and - more importantly - actions of individuals in understanding their role in the world and their impact on the world and its systems.

"Presence" is a stimulating observation this motion and the catalysts of change shaping the future. Cultivating this momentum - first locally with yourself and then your community - could yield the next great thinkers of humankind and allow our wisdom to catch up and lead our power.

It is true that I brought my own high expectations given the Title of this book and its authors. I was not disappointed. It offered less than I expected, in terms of new ideas, but those were deep.

Simply the notion of shaping the oncoming future elicits this poem:

The star that exploded yesterday,
let go so long ago, that no one waits
for the past to catch up.

The future, in all its wholeness,
in all its malleable mystery,
invites me to be ready.

Phil Connell

This outstanding book is about how to pursue group endeavors capable of changing organizations, communities and the world for the better. To that end, Senge et al explain the details of the path to be taken which they named as "The U Process". I would say that Presence's concepts pushes the envelop in organizational learning, visionary leadership and strategic thinking.

From conversations with my colleagues, this U Process appears to them as being so novel that it is perhaps way ahead of our times. Yet I would suggest that its far reaching implications are practical, useful and important. In my work in facilitating strategic thinking, the U Process helps people get in sync with the overall organizational environment. Furthermore, the U Process allows them to expand their consciusness of being a part of that same environment thus leading into a higher plateau for organizational learning. Nevertheless, it is worthwhile to note that going through a Presencing experience at a personal level might be a prerequisite to fully grasp its power for team and organizational learning.

Just as is often the case for many new approaches, Presencing experiences will contribute to enlighten disbelievers. For those of us that are putting this book's concepts to work, the adventure has already started to bring rewards.

Do you have any books in your library that have 200 tabs sticking out of the book marking passages of note? This is one of them for me. This book is so rich and so full of insights that I truly do not know where to start. First of all it is a conversation and my work is based on conversation so it speaks to me. Second, the examples and the passages create such thought provoking reflection that I can only say that you are missing so much if you do not read. Pick this book up. It is a must for any ones library.

Very interesting concepts that integrate various new age ideas. Makes you think, but too much "world peace" preaching.

Many of us unwittingly live lives like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day," thinking and acting the same way while expecting different results. Marilee Adams offers a straightforward yet profound narrative for avoiding this "trap." She makes our blindspots visible by exposing how the unconscious conversations we have with ourselves trip us up and lead to dead ends and provides us with a new set of eye-glasses which guide us toward learning, open us to relationships, and create growth. What questions are you asking yourself and what results are they getting you? If you truly desire to take responsibility for your life, move towards your best self and help others do the same, then read this book!

Self-Empowerment 101: Re-enchantment with our own capacity for empowering ourselves and others

As a life coach, empowering clients to question their reality is part of the challenge. Adams has done a superb job of providing great information through story. She has made a challenging process simple and easy for anyone to grasp the value of questions. Great job1

This book was required reading for a work related exercise. Great stuff. Highly recommend it for anybody no matter what you do. It applies to our attitudes, which the more I learn controls how you feel about things.

If given a difficult problem and 20 hours to solve it, I would spend 19 hours framing the question. This is a paraphrase from Albert Einstein. The way a person approaches life truly defines the outputs that they get out of it. Can 3-5 hours with a book change your life?

Marilee G. Adams found that she could generate positive changes in her behavior and productivity by changing the defensive questions that she previously asked in the face of adversity. Analyzing those protective questions showed her that she took setbacks and criticism too personally. Asking different questions enabled her to reframe each moment and create growth opportunities. Adams illustrates the problem-solving power of honest curiosity. Her "QuestionThinking" method generates practical ways to change your mind, literally. These are great ideas; however, their repetition within a fictional storyline may annoy some readers, while others may like this allegorical approach to telling the tale. The self-questioning techniques are easy to employ, and will help you examine situations from different points of view, which can come in quite handy. We recommend adding this set of tools to your interpersonal communication toolkit.

This book is excellent!! This book makes understanding the future almost as easy as a carnival card reader. This book isn't a book of prophesy. It is a book that teaches you how to formulate your own prophesy for your unique situation.

The author has a unique way to do this. He urges readers to seek keys. These keys are things in the environment which indicate other things will occur. The average reader after finishing the book will change their way of looking at the world. Through his explanation of how to make a scenario you learn how to gather information from unknown sources and focus on what is important. It is like an unveiling of magic keys to the world. These keys aren't of course magic but something new. The newness opens minds.

The book is dry in places but I think everyone will enjoy this book.

Heard THE ART OF THE LONG VIEW, written and read
by Peter Schwartz.

The book's subtitle caught my attention: PLANNING FOR THE
FUTURE IN AN UNCERTTAIN WORLD . . . I thought to myself,
"Wouldn't that be a great thing to do?"

Schwartz, one of the nation's leading futurists, actually
answers my question--showing how it can be done through
the use of scenario-building . . . this enables managers to:

* "invent and then consider, in depth, several stories of equally
plausible futures" so that they can make "strategic decisions
that will be sound for all plausible futures."

I liked the examples that were given, including many from his
work at Royal Dutch/Shell . . . the one describing the thought
behind a new natural gas field offshore from Norway helped
make the whole scenario concept much clearer to me . . those
involved at the time had to consider whether the U.S.S.R. would
continue to be an enemy of Western Europe and not ship
its own low-cost natural gas to that market.

This informative book was first published in 1991 and revised
in 1996 when it came out in paperwork . . . I'd be curious
to see a 2008 edition.

This book, written by Peter Schwartz, probes readers to take the time to map out their future, whether personal or business, by way of "scenario building." Too many of us go on expecting (or hoping) for things to just fall in to place- optimists! Schwartz, who worked for Shell during the energy crisis in the 70s, uses his experiences of using scenario building to teach the reader how to plan major decisions in their organizational and/or personal future. This craft isn't about predicting the future, but rather a way to formulate the probability of events and construct plausible futures that allow people to consider different futures so the can be prepared.
One thing that I did like was his idea of "reperceive." People are reluctant to see how the world really is and concoct this fantasy of how the world works, and in most cases it is just that, a fantasy-world. Before individuals plan for the future, they have to first "reperceive" it or "question their assumptions about the way the world works, so that they can see the world more clearly."
The negative points about this book had to do with how out of date it is. Written in the late 80s, I couldn't get past the many references to old technologies and political and economical events to be able to enjoy the book. In attempts to forecast the year 2005, scenarios are built on events and political situations of the 80s which makes for very boring reading because it entails a lot of detailed events that happened before I was born. While this future is not totally wrong, it is pretty generalized- anyone who is that vague about the future would be on point.
In all, this book was okay. It didn't knock my socks off- but it did bring back fond memories of the Sony Walkman.

The Art of the Long View is a good book for anyone who has just started a study of the various methods people use to look into the future. This book gives a great intro to scenario planning that is used by big corporations. With rich resources of information and time, the big boys can afford to use such a process. Unfortunately, for a small business, scenario planning is a time consuming affair that probably won't yield payoffs. While I learned something about the methods, I actually got more out of going to Peter's website for a better overview.

This is one of the books on the Navy's recommended reading list, which is why I picked it up. The author is touted as one of the world's leading futurists. I'm not sure how one gets the title of leading futurist, but I'm guessing it's not because of his accuracy or success in predicting the future. It's actually funny, because in his book he puts forward three possible scenarios for the world in 2005, none of which hit the mark. Of course, there are portions of all three which ring true, which is probably the biggest thing I learned from this book. If you want to be a leading futurist, the first rule is the same as that of any other fortune teller. Be vague! The second rule is: hedge your bets. Give lots of different possibilities.
This book is strikingly out of date, coming before the internet, wireless communications, the global war on terrorism, etc. One would think that a leading futurist might have predicted some of these in 1991, but he did not. He also displays a lot of the pessimism that was rampant in America in the 1980s, when Japan seemed to be the way of the future and America destined for decline. Mr. Schwartz missed the Japanese economic stagnation as well, in spite of being a leading futurist. He tends to let his political views seep through a little too much, his bitterness and hatred of Ronald Reagan and everything he did is palpable and Reagan is continuously cited as the cause of many of the nation's and world's ills.
I would say that the most valuable part of the book would have been the sources he used to glean upcoming trends and changes before they were generally known to the public. Unfortunately, they like the rest of the book, are sadly out of date. Many of the periodicals are no longer being printed, wiped out by the power of the internet. Without that, the book is really reduced to a process for creating some stories of the future, but without a glimpse of the major changes that are coming these stories, like Mr. Schwartz's views of the 21st century, will fall very short of the mark and will not be of much use to planners.

I strongly recommend this timely and instructive book to all those involved in developing talent in professional service firms or any business seeking to hire, retain and prepare their younger employees for leadership. Although much of the book discusses methods for retaining and promoting women, who now make up half of the graduates of our finest universities and grad schools, it also has great applicability to Gen X and Y men, many of whom would prefer to have part-time schedules and are as likely as women to work some hours from home. In place of the more widely accepted, rigid up and down, "all or nothing" ladder, the authors advocate a more flexible, option-providing lattice as a model for the workplace. Berko and Weisberg convincingly show that the lattice, or MCC, much better accommodates what they call the "sine curve" of a modern career - the different periods where employees can dedicate varying amounts of time to advancing within their firms.
The authors demonstrate that flexible work arrangements, such as permitting young mothers to "ramp up" after a maternity leave, are an incomplete substitute for a more comprehensive process that meets the interests of employees to modify and adjust workloads, where that work is performed and the opportunity to customize their careers to closely match their long-term objectives. Only a career-long methodology will address the overriding interests of the organization to hire and keep their best talent while providing enough flexibility, not just in dealing with maternity leave, but over a several decade career path.
The book is particularly helpful because it provides the reader with a framework for implementing MCC and case studies showing how well-respected firms have successfully customized MCC to recruit and retain their highly regarded employees while broadening their leadership pool.

An excellent book that squarely confronts a major challenge that businesses face today - how to address the core issue of retaining top talent. The book starts by outlining the six main demographic and cultural trends that are impacting the workforce. In a nutshell, the retirement of the baby boomer "bulge" cannot be replaced by the much smaller generations that follow (Gen X, Gen Y). In addition, the growing number of women in the workforce and the changing views of men in the workforce has made "work/life balance" possibly the single most critical factor in choosing whether or not to remain at a job - and even whether or not to take a job.

So, faced with a shrinking talent pool and the overwhelming economic advantage in keeping excellent people, rather than hiring and training replacements, what is an organization to do? According to Mass Career Customization, is to allow employees to customize their careers the same way they customize computers that are purchased from Dell. Giving employees the option to "dial up" for more intensity, increased learning experiences, more extensive travel when they are younger, or when their kids are older, or when their spouse is on a break and allowing them to "dial down" for a slower career advancement, reduced salary, and restricted opportunities when raising small children or caring for aging parents. By providing this option, in a way that is fair and companywide (which is the problem with well meaning flexible work arrangements - which are usually "one-offs") organizations allow people to customize their career and remain with the company as their life circumstances change.

I have seen the value of this in my own life, as my wife is now on the "intense track" (I think the dial broke off in her hand when she pushed it past 10 :) ), and my job is flexible and allows me to handle the child care (and read lots of business books). I think that this is an outstanding tool for companies to use in recruiting and retention - and, as the authors point out, it has tremendous "option value". That is, most of the employees (90-95%) will choose the "normal" path, but simply knowing that other options exist for them makes the company a very attractive employer.

Obviously, changing the corporate HR system to incorporate this in a "fair" way is where the challenge gets difficult. What I admire most is that the authors are working for a company (Deloitte) that is implementing this program - so the theory has been tested (at least a little) before being written about.

Of course, no book is perfect and I think this book shows an evolution in thought as the writing progressed - becoming a little more refined in thought towards the end. As a specific example, I think the early focus on the difference between a "corporate ladder" (up or out) and a "corporate lattice" (multiple paths) is not as valuable as the core aspects of customization (mid book) or the "option value" which is only touched upon at the end. Also, I would have simplified the model as I believe most of the factors that are measured (Pace, Workload, Location/Schedule, Role) are actually correlated. But those are quibbles - the demographic research is compelling, the conclusion is solid, and the problem addressed is excruciatingly relevant for employees and employers alike.

The sign of a great innovative breakthrough is that the moment you learn of it, it's easy to embrace. Everyone who reads this book will agree that it's time to think differently about the workplace; mass career customization is the future. The authors describe a new model and vision for career progression that will likely transform organizations. Mass career customization is a concept that can benefit individuals who need a new lens for thinking about their careers. This concept can also help organizations in their ability to attract, retain and develop talent. The authors present a new method of managing the myriad of preferences and career paths that employees desire; application spans from Gen X and Gen Y to working parents and everyone who wants to create a career path to fit their life.

I read this book as part of an honors seminar at my university called "Cyborgs, Transhumansim, and the Future of Mankind." This is a very good collection of the different possibilities of how the singularity could play itself out. The author assumes that radical evolution will take place, so it is not completely objective, but he does reference scientists of different viewpoints, in order to gain a balanced picture of how believers in transhumanism envision the future. Very good overview to spur further research and thought.

Well-researched, and beautifully written, Joe Garreau brings his well-honed journalism skills to bear on the most vexing question humankind has ever faced: what to do now that our genetic, robotics, information and nano technologies have begun to give us the ability to enhance our own evolution?

Garreau offers a glimpse at the mind-boggling technologies DARPA is already developing in support of our national defense, then convincingly extrapolates how the ever-quicking pace of technological innovation will likely lead to a Singularity event when humans invent something more intelligent than themselves. The remainder of the book considers whether the Singularity will lead to a Heaven state (technological nirvana), a Hell state (destruction or degradation of humankind) or a Prevail state, in which humans develop control mechanisms to avoid becoming slaves to technology.

The Heaven and Hell scenarios are set up as obvious strawmen for Garreau to knock down en route to the more likely middle outcome. Yet his analysis of the Prevail scenario loses focus, as the discussion veers off on a number of philosophical tangents and seems to conclude that adopting an iHippy group-love mentality will prove the key to our survival.

While I found this to be a stimulating read and especially liked how Garreau organized his material around key thinkers in the relevant technical fields, I wish he had more fully explored some practical ways of containing threatening technology, such as the adoption of more powerful international governing bodies with the regulatory teeth to outlaw certain technologies and the use of new media tools to blacklist undesirable practices. (The current push to be green, in reaction to the Global Warming crisis, shows the possibility of forming international positions on key issues.) I don't mean to suggest that it's possible to define the Prevail endstate with any real specifics, but I came away with the impression that Garreau turned away from his considerable analytical ability in the later parts of the book.

The future of mankind is directly controllable by man. This book explores the manifestations and ramifications of this concept from the point of view of those who are engaged in it; such as doctors, geneticists, computer programmers, politicians, and military researchers. The different chapters focus on the different views of man's designer future, and how different technologies such as genetics, robotics, and nanotechnology plays a part. The text contains a lot of quotes from experts in these areas; and so the reader gets numerous points of views on each subject. The author himself stays very objective, and instead of coming to conclusions, concludes many sections with posed questions that forces the reader to think. There are no figures, charts or graphs; everything is text. Interestingly, the author focuses mainly on technologies that have not hit the mainstream. The author should have spent more verbage examining how current medical practices such as plastic surgery, braces, laser hair removal, even vaccinations have affected norms of human society. This would have placed all the future scenarios in better context.

I'm a college student majoring in science, but I had to buy this book for a humanities class. It's a good overview of the various future scenarios proposed by scientists working in several major biotech fields. At the same time, while interesting, quite a few of the theories are pretty far-fetched. The author's own scenario Prevail to Transcend shows the most promise, but be warned--this book will take you on a wild ride, and make you imagine some weird and wacky situations. Overall a good, easy, quick read with enjoyable prose, and the author's dry humorous wit interjecting sanity into some of the crazier moments.

Just finished reading this book, and I must say that it is the perfect book for anyone who wants to read about cutting edge technology from the perspective of someone relatively unbiased. Unlike popular figures who promote or scorn the future of human science, Garreau explains the situation intelligently, using several examples from people with all different points of view. I recommend this book for anyone who wants a brush up on where technology is going, as well as anyone who might be interested in reconciling their current views with the other side. Everyone might not get the same things as me out of this, but thanks to Garreau's book, I'm beginning to come to terms with my place in where it looks like this world- and humanities role in it- might be going.

The Sustainability Revolution provides a broad portrait of a paradigm shift, as the sub title claims. Although I checked this out of the library, this is a book to own and refer to especially if you are interested in furthering sustainable best practices or even wondering what they are. Sustainability can be a challenge to get understanding and organized around and this book neatly categorizes it in 7 chapters and concludes with a substantial resource section; it is well referenced throughout for additional follow-up.

First we read about how sustainability's environmental roots were expanded to include consideration of the 3 E's, ecology, economy and equity; sustainability therefore looks at the interdependencies of the 3E's and engages a diversity of stakeholders when we broaden the undeniable scope of impact. Ecology is the environmental consideration in which we shift to a long term perspective, acknowledge and respond in turn to our dependence on our life support systems. Looking at economy we see a healthy environment and a healthy economy coexisting, not the opposition of these as is often still purported. The human well being requirement of the sustainability triangle is referred to herein as equity or equality as it acknowledges that the well being of the individual is dependant on the well being of the community and calls us toward a spirit of cooperation and ethics within the distribution of basic resources such as food, shelter and water and a greater emphasis on the value of education. The author then proceeds to describe sustainability principles in 5 basic categories, Community, Commerce, Natural Resources, Ecological Design, and the Biosphere with education as a key component of each as we weave our way into the sustainable path. Each of the respective principles are presented in a separate highlighted box within each chapter and then commented on by the author.

Sustainability and Community describes tools created by task forces and working groups to tackle the challenges of bringing the 3E's into balance by implementing long term systematic approaches at all levels, local, regional, national and international communities. These include the Ontario Roundtable on Environment and Economy (local initiative,) the Minnesota Planning Environmental Quality Board Principles of Sustainable Development for Minnesota (regional,) The Netherlands National Environmental Policy (national,) and the Earth Charter's Commission and ICLEI (international.) All told these community based principles integrate a diversity of perspectives and interests toward defining and working toward a shared vision for a sustainable future.

Sustainability and Commerce reveals how business practices and the long term health of our planet and all its life forms are advantaged when business mimics natural systems rather than destroys them. The precautionary principle is presented as an ethical standard wherein the company realizes that it must consider its investors and the community as a whole, igniting the conscience of business activity; if the best way for an individual to live is to do no harm, the same standard, already prevalent in other countries, must apply to the organization that has more power to do harm if precaution were not taken. The precautionary principle for example is about placing responsibility to avoid harm onto the manufacturer. It was implemented in 2003 in San Francisco at the municipal level. The Natural Step can be used by a company to assess its impact with respect to the laws of nature as it combines science and management best practices. The Houston principles links labor with environmental movements and offers the power of creative cooperation to bolster communities through jobs and healthy ecosystems. The CERES principles offer a voluntary approach to organizations that seek a conscience by providing a framework in which sustainability practices can be adopted in a supportive manner, and includes a risk reduction clause; in a sense the CERES principles leverage peer pressure and provide sharing of sustainable successes among its participants.

Sustainability and Natural Resources describes the challenge for industries directly benefiting from resource extraction, the fuel from the former industrial revolution, and our shared need for survival such that even the American Petroleum Institute calls for conservation and investment in renewables but continues to ignore equity in resource usage. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) wood is widely available and promotes sustainable forest usage while calling on each of us to consider where and how the products we consume are appropriated as does the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) that requires sustainable fishery. The Asilomar Declaration for Sustainable Agriculture practices speaks to the need to make our food systems sustainable; our broken system is witnessed in recent outbreaks of food contamination and the cost of food rising with the cost of energy as we grow our food large distances from the eating populations. Sustainable agriculture requires ethics for land usage and animal treatment and calls for a shift toward local food production, a recognition for the value of rural and farming lifestyles, heightened awareness regarding the true cost of unsustainable methods for growing food and the need to reduce government subsides that allow the mega corporate farm to continue in a manner that most would find unconscionable when its impacts are understood.

Sustainability and Ecological Design shows that nature holds the key to how we can design the new way of producing, living and working in balance as it considers the interaction of architecture, people and nature. The Hannover Principles require that decisions are made within the context of Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Spirit; considering these essential elements reveals humans as being a part of and interdependent with nature and requires responsibility for the consequences of design. A waste free holistic life cycle approach to manufacturing is described in detail by the Hannover founders in "Cradle to Cradle Remaking The Way we Make Things." The Todds' Principles of Ecological Design place nature at the center of the design process and incorporate energy, architecture, food production and waste management with "bio-regional" approaches. The Sanborn Principles further include the needs of communities bringing beauty and practicality into our living environments in the form of parks, culture and healthy buildings. The USGBC promotes its LEED standards to create and assure healthy and energy effective buildings a rising major area of focus in building and renovation because of the magnitude of long term benefits with minimal increase in short term costs.

Sustainability and the Biosphere calls each of us to reconsider our relationship with nature and each other, the crux of sustainability. Deep Ecology requires self realization to connect all human and non human life forms with the force that pulses through all life and cites diversity as a key value characteristic to remind us that we must act in line with the inherent value that promoting the well being of all life brings. The Charter for Rights and Responsibilities for the Environment extends Deep Ecology to all species further emphasizing interdependence with the natural world. The Biomimicy Principles as described in detail by Janine Benyus' book Biomimicry, reveal the lessons we can learn from nature such as the fact that nature recycles everything, nature runs on sunlight and nature uses only the energy it needs. I especially like the principle that nature taps the power of limits because it looks at nature's ability to leverage limits to its advantage such as seasonality instead of the 20th century human response to dare these limits into submission while breeding sickness. Permaculture Principles expands Biomimicry toward the integration of sustainability within economic, social and even political systems as these systems interact and can be designed to work with nature.

The final chapter, Future Pathways charts and links all these principles herein that I took the time lay out in as sense to honor the importance of this body of work and the contributors to the sustainable revolution many included in the "advance praise" intro. These principles in total call for stewardship, an intergenerational perspective and offer nature as our teacher and require that we reach far beyond `green,' as we forge the sustainable path. Concluding with a robust Resource section further affirms that you can read this book to get started or to keep going. After reading this book you will be able to answer the question "If the industrial revolution is over what's next?" and be able to describe, explore and embrace the opportunities and challenges that "the sustainability revolution" offers.

I good overview of the various different positions and definitions of what is sustainability. It's a little dry, but as a reference book this can't be beat.

This book is perfect way to grasp what has happened and why in the sustainability movement. Andres Edwards introduces all of the right resources and contacts for anyone who is vested in our sustainability on this planet. He covers business, community and governmental approaches. In this book he simply introduces all the major themes a very broad field. It can be a little text book, but is also a very interesting read. I am the director for Sustainable Fairfax and Andres has also been a wonderful speaker for our volunteer trainings.

I bought this book along with a more reputable book "For the Common Good" for a sustainability class I am taking. This book is poorly written and repetitive of other environmental books. The author uses the same arguments, poorly I might add, as every other environmentalst wanting to publish a book. The bok is filled with facts easily found on the internet. His conclusions are repetitive from every conlusion concerning environmetalism. The author has no real concept of economics and uses the suggestion of intergenerational justice as if it were true. Not worth even the recycled paper it is printed on.

Another reviewer called the book a "primer" on sustainability, and I would like to emphasize this quality. If you know very little about sustainability, this is a book for you. If you have been following the news in this area, this book will not enlighten you further. Another comment I had was that the author compares the "Sustainability Revolution" to the Industrial Revolution, and I don't believe the sustainability movement is at a revolutionary caliber yet - not that I don't want it to be.

I think I had the essence of this book by the time I got to page 30: Times have changed, and packing in a checklist of features is not enough to gain marketshare anymore.

They talk a lot about having an "experience stragegy". I understand this to be building a product by aiming to meet the user's needs. Google Calendar is a good example. They stole a large portion of the online calendar market, even though users were already heavily invested into Yahoo and Hotmail's email/calendar. They did this by sitting down with people who used calendars a lot, and finding out what they wanted in a calendar (not exactly rocket science, I know).

Kodak is another company that had a developed experience stragegy. When Kodak cameras first came out, they reduced the task of taking photos from one that required you to be a technician, to something anyone can do. They did this by selling the entire "experience" - you purchase Kodak film rolls (before this film was on expensive and fragile plates), put it into your Kodak camera, point & shoot, then send the film into Kodak for processing. Apple is another good example of a company that has an experience strategy.

There are lots of other interesting examples and an anecdotes sprinkled throughout the book. There is even a whole chapter on Agile Development, both from software and hardware perspectives.

In summary, the message of the book is that we need to design products and services that deliver a positive experience to the user (notice "user", they take issue with the word "consumer"). The book expounds on this with much detail and examples, but I believe this is the main message.

Unfortunately I found this book extremely hard to get through, due to the "dry" writing style. It made me feel as if I were listening to a boring professor's lecture. There may be better books on this subject, something from Seth Godin for example.

I was disappointed when I got my pre-order of this book. At a scant 160 pages, I was skeptical that it could offer very much insight.

On reading it, I was proven correct. Much of the book was nothing more than an extended advertisement for Adaptive Path. Case studies were too short to learn much from. The only case study really discussed in depth was of Target's new prescription bottles, which have been discussed more in depth and more usefully in too many other books.

The book's eight chapters are full of short sections; many of them read as though they are blog entries. They're strung together with little regard for content or context. The seventh chapter, a flawed discussion of agile development, is completely worthless. The book could have been so much better if the authors had taken the time and effort to better consider their arguments and write a more cohesive work.

If you can look past the book's many shortcomings, there are some interesting nuggets in there. Sadly, the useful bits comprise less than 10% of the book, but they're good enough to earn this book two stars.

'Subject To Change: Creating Great Products & Services for an Uncertain World' is a good book for thinkers, innovators, and product managers alike. Looking at different ideas throughout history, this book examines how good ideas come about and the work that goes into them. A lot of it is innovation, a lot of it is luck, but as with everything else in life, examining others fortunes and misfortunes is a good way to learn and make good decisions of your own. From looking at lots of case studies packaged in a nice hand held book and smooth writing, this is a good read.

**** RECOMMENDED

Sooner or later, every developer out there gets sick of the long hours, the process, the verification and the deadlines. Even if we've naturally gravitated towards leadership, the clarion call of management is strong- it's perceived as advancement (potentially into a C* role), comes with the benefit of fewer long hours, you have people you can boss around... all in all good things when looked at in the right light. Yet most developers end up in Development Management, which ends up being more about estimates and balancing resources (aka beancounting), rather than Product Management, which continues apace with the thing I love most about being a Developer: Building Stuff.

When my User Groups' book shipment from O'Reilly came in with a complementary copy of Adaptive Path's "Subject to Change" I was intrigued. From the title, the book is about "Creating great products and services for an uncertain world". It claimed to be a book book that seemed to be all about how to create and manage a product in the everchanging world of the internet. Now, it turns out that my initial enthusiasm was a little naive, since the argument presented in the book was substantially different than what I was expecting. In fact, one of its chapters is titled `Stop Designing "Products"`, which made me more than a little concerned.

Yet having said that, and taking into account the often blatant plugs for Adaptive Path, it turns out the book was exactly what I needed, even though it wasn't exactly what I was looking for.

Chapter 1 lays out the foundation of the argument, which is that customers aren't attracted to features, they're attracted to an experience. Note that this does not mean bells and whistles - I can have an experience at a circus, but that's not what I'm looking for in a laptop. Instead, it is critical to look at what your customer is actually trying to accomplish, and to make the experience of accomplishing that task as positive as possible. Layering on feature after feature is good only if the original intended task experience is not compromised, otherwise it simply adds noise to what should be an all-signal experience. In other words, good products are well designed, by which they don't mean pretty, nor that they have an elegant software implementation. Design is instead used in the inclusive sense- all aspects of the product, experience and execution are carefully considered and integrated into one seamless whole.

This foundation is then built on in Chapter 2 by presenting the idea that the aforementioned experience is a strategic decision, and then clearly defining what that does and does not mean. Those of you who are trying to achieve some flavor of competitive advantage (aka differentiation aka edge etc etc) should definitely read this chapter, because it provides a long list of clarifications given the context. Quite frankly, the whole thing reads like a snopes article that slowly dismantles many lessons learned in academic marketing classes. My favorite one is the ideal of Parity - the misconception that a product can be competitive simply by matching features with the competition. See, a feature is simply that: An implemented piece of functionality on a product spec sheet. If accessing and using said feature requires an advanced degree in astrophysics doesn't matter; the mere fact that the feature exists makes the product competitive.

With the supporting framework of their argument is clearly established, and Chapter 3 puts in context of previously established marketing approaches. When your focus is on the experience and the user's motivations, habits such as market segmentation rapidly get turned upside down. You can no longer assume that the consumer is some faceless drone who exists to give you money, but instead have to give that person a face, a background a motivation, and an objective. A segment rapidly evolves into a persona, and eventually loses its distinction altogether- you're no longer sculpting your message for a particular group or persona, but are instead approaching individuals to discover how you can best meet their needs and improve their experience.

Yet none of this can be accomplished without information, which is usually garnered by research (Chapter 4). Interestingly enough, the book does not necessarily go into individual research methods, but focuses more on the importance of qualitative over quantitative research and the need to involve every team member. Research, as is stated, too often happens in a strategy or research group independent of the team that will actually implement their findings, and thus the opportunity for consumer or persona empathy is lost within minutes of the powerpoint presentation. It is only by keeping everyone involved up front (though perhaps not directly contributive) that information gained is relevant, actionable, and provides durable insight.

Chapter 5 then takes us full circle back to the beginning, and really drives the idea that success is not driven by features, capabilities or marketing, but by the experience of the customer. It's not just the experience of completing a specific task that is meant here, but the entire support system ancillary to that task. You might have an iPod, but without an iTunes all you have is a pretty piece of plastic. Find out what the customer wants to accomplish, figure out what it'll take to perform all steps of that, and build a system to do so simply and elegantly.

At this point, the book could have ended and been a pretty effective piece on product design theory based on experience. It has taken us from the initial presentation of the idea all the way through the strategic advantage and full circle back to the beginning. Instead, it continues on and picks apart the actual implementation strategies, beginning with Design in Chapter 6. This is a beast of a chapter and not for the faint of heart, but is nevertheless utterly critical for understanding the depth of the argument. Design is picked apart by discipline, target, competency, strategic importance and implementation, and the chapter itself does a remarkable job breaking down common misconceptions. Design is necessary, strategic, and is presented as a mindset rather than a discipline, one that everyone must implement to properly contribute to the delivery.

Chapter 7 then goes into the nitty gritty of implementation by speaking about agile development methods. This is where the developer in me went squee, because for the first time I saw Agile presented within a strategic context rather than a reactive context. Too often when management hears "Agile Development" the first thing that comes to mind is "Development will be faster", or more responsive, and in many cases this is true. Even so, the book presents it as an integral part of experience based design, and discusses how its rapid iterative nature can be used to convert a design or motion prototype iteratively into a fully functioning application, while allowing user research and experience evaluation (and revision) at every step of the way. If you've ever had to say "That's what's written in the requirements, we can't change it now" this chapter is for you. Lets face it- issues and problems will arise during development no matter what happens, but if you keep everyone on deck (and not siloed into different expertise groups) you'll be able to confront it much faster.

And with that, Chapter 8 closes the book. I'd copy the two pages that compose it here verbatim if I didn't think there'd be conflict of interest issues, but safe it to say that it is the conclusion and summary of the entire book. The only thing certain is change, and here's how you deal with it.

Overall, a very good book, but I do have a few pointed comments. First of all, the cases presented within the book too often follow the pattern of "Here's company X, known as a genius at Y, and here's their process/methodology/etc." The academic in me chokes at statements like that, because they imply causality - that their process is the reason why they are so well known and respected, when in reality it could be something completely different. The book itself warns of making surface level assumptions like that, so I'm fairly irritated that they do so themselves.

The other one is the mixture of authoring tones. At times casual, at times formal, it's clear that more than one person wrote this book. When I'm reading a structured section about research and am suddenly approached in a conversational tone, my brain kicks me out of the narrative (and thus my experience with the book is diminished). Even so, I'd recommend this book to any marketer, strategist, developer... or, well, anyone who plays a role in a product production process. At 165 pages it's a light read, the ideas are straightforward and well explained, and though they aren't often supported as rigorously as I would prefer, the book itself make an excuse for that: If you spend too much time backing up your argument, you lose the time you'd spend on determining where your argument should take you.

I'm 100 painful pages in to this 160 page book that seems so far to be at least 100 pages too long. In a nutshell: think about design. Oh - and think different. There. You don't have to buy one. The "quotes-by-interesting-people" sprinkled throughout the book only serve to show you that meaningful ideas and insightful thoughts lie elsewhere - in other books that you've probably ALREADY READ. I am forcing my way through it just to see if there's a twist that reveals this isn't just an painfully long and patronizing Adaptive Path credentials presentation.

I wish I could give half star ratings sometimes. This book would have gotten a 4 and 1/2 rating if I could.
The only thing that I did not like about it was the Bible passages. To me they do not lift my spirit, but that is just because I am not of that faith. Otherwise this is a great book.

I've purchased many copies of this little book over the past year. They are great girl friend books or for any quote lover. I've keep one on hand for myself and often reference it when I need some inspiration. Buy two, one to give away and one for you!

I definitely enjoyed this quote book. I also recomend A Treasury of Spiritual Quotations, A Collection of Wisdom, and The Book of Positive Quotations

we write a quote in our elementary class each day and use this book as one of our references.

This is one of those purchases where I really felt like I got my monies worth. I refer to the quotes within this book on a weekly basis as I offer a "final thought of inspiration" to my yoga students. Since my family is a group of bathroom readers, Ive also been thinking about doing a bathroom wall of quotes. This book offers a variety of quotes nicely arranged in categories. Great to sit, read and ponder!