change Books

My title says it all. It's very informative and allows the reader to understand why she/he thinks about and responds to american culture in certain ways. Very eye opening.

This book's ideas need to reach more people. It seems we're inundated with stories of child molesters, drug pushers, and other threats to us and our children; but the 200 billion dollars spent by the junk food makers, pharmaceutical pushers, military recruiters and others to colonize the hearts and minds of our kids is often overlooked. Sadly, many of those who are learning to look critically at the commercial media are often more privileged economically. Maybe we can find ways to reach out to other sectors of our society through letters to editors, calls to talk radio, writing on message boards and so forth. Also, there are additional resources that we can use to share perspectives to help protect people (kids and adults) from the psychological warfare of Big Business. I'd recommend DVDs like "Deadly Persuasion" from the Media Education Foundation, which is an expose of tobacco and alcohol advertising presented by Jean Kilbourne. There is also the award-winning film called "The Corporation" available from Amazon. Subscriptions to "Adbusters" and "New Moon" are also very helpful outreach tools.

Jean Kilbourne has a great premise for "Can't Buy My Love": that corporations and the media use advertising to manipulate our emotions. And, throughout the book, she makes several insightful points about this phenomenon. However, Kilbourne's personal agenda, lack of self-awareness, humorless writing, and faulty interpretations quickly negate any good this book could do.

Kilbourne obviously has personal issues with cigarettes, alcohol, and sex/relationships. Unfortunately, she allows her subjectivity to color her writing, making "Can't Buy My Love" less thoughtful analysis and more personal diatribe. Kilbourne comes across as bitter, vindictive, and--most importantly in a book of this type--more full of opinions than of facts and research.

Many of Kilbourne's interpretations of various advertisements are faulty; she likes to "reach" with her interpretations, and in several cases, it's obvious that she has completely misread. Even more damaging to her case, Kilbourne rarely supports her own interpretations with any sources or even with any true commentary. Rather, she shows a picture of an ad and offers only a paragraph or two of her own interpretation before moving on. The book often feels unorganized and disconnected, especially when Kilbourne inserts a rant that is only vaguely related to the ads she's discussing--or even to advertising itself.

What really destroys the book, in my opinion, is Kilbourne's almost complete lack of humor. She doesn't recognize obvious humor or satire in certain advertisements, and she rarely lightens her vitriolic tone. She comes across as bitter, angry, and a little insane.

I would not recommend this book to anyone who wants an academic look at how advertising affects our emotions and behavior. Rather, you should read Stephen Kline's "Social Communication in Advertising: Persons, Products, and Images of Well-Being" or Judith Williamson's "Decoding Advertisements."

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In our culture of product placements, "ambient" advertising (ie sticker ads on fruit peels, cars wrapped in company logos) and "tie ins" between just about every form of entertainment and commerce, this book does an amazing job of looking at how commercial forces shape definitions of 'normal', 'beautiful' etc.

I found Can't Buy My Love (which is written by Jean Kilbourne, NOT Mary Pipher) packed with interesting, relevant, easy-to-digest content that was both fascinating (companies spend over a half a million dollars to produce commercials aired during the Superbowl?!) and maddening (the real reason some companies seem suddenly to support a minority group, ie teens, the gay community etc, is that they seem them as an emerging market)--but I guess the maddening part is good because it lays bare how the media operate and how we're subjected to their sophisticated selling strategies whether we want to be or not .

I had no idea how much I *didn't* know about media and marketing until I read this book.... and having read some of the other titles mentioned by other reviewes, I think Kilbourne's book does a superior job explaining how the media (and manufacturers who hire them) affect nearly every aspect of our daily lives...and what we can do about it..

Can't Buy My Love is an extraordinary book, insightful, critical, and without a doubt, an eye-opener. This book should be required reading by all Americans! Personally, it has played a pivotal role in my life. I would say I'm your average American citizen. I grew up in New York, immersed in the typical American culture. I watched plenty of television and movies and thus was exposed to an endless array of advertisements. As most people, I didn't think that my thoughts and actions were influenced by these advertisements. But after reading this book, I clearly saw how the messages and images of the media had a huge impact in my life. Until I read this book, I was sort of unconscious of this influence. I just went shopping as though it was a ritual and followed the mainstream culture. I went out drinking and pretended to have a good time while engaged in superficial conversations in loud smoky bars. Essentially, this book brought me to many realizations and my mentality started to shift for the better. I started to see things for what they are. Jean Kilbourne does an excellent job of analyzing numerous ads and clearly demonstrates the manipulation and false promises imbedded within these cleverly designed ads. Corporations spend millions of dollars on advertising and psychological research. As the targets of these ads, we as citizens need to be critical thinkers and media literate. In this day and age, we need to have an understanding of how the media industry works and in particular, the advertising industry, which constantly bombards us with messages on how we should live our lives and what is considered "normal." I highly, highly recommend this book. It's clear, concise, understandable, and will definitely have a positive impact in your life. I especially recommend this book to teenagers, who unfortunately have become the victims of massive amounts of advertisements. Profit-driven corporations have taken advantage of young impressionable minds and for that reason, I urge you to pick up a copy of this book for yourself and someone you care about! This one book was able to jump start a transformation in my life. I promise you won't regret reading it!

1. China is the world's source of personal savings used in the global capital markets and will be the second largest market for everything produced.

2. China's rise will not preclude America's decline. China's expanding production will come from mainly from developing countries. In 2003, America's global production was 23 percent and stable.

3. China's leaders will have little choice over the next decade but to unwind state owned banks and let western financial institutions take hold.

4. American system of job-based medical insurance will continue to unravel, until the number of uninsured working people reaches a political tipping point and a battle for universal healthcare.

5. America's lower energy taxes make energy less expensive than Japan and Europe. Growth in China, India, and Central Europe, and other developing nations will put upward pressure on oil prices. The lack of America savings will produce a dollar crisis and stall the American economy for a time.

6. China saves so much of its income and private businesses retain so much of its earnings - it comes to 40 of China's annual GDP.

7. China attracted $850 billion in foreign investment, mostly in modern manufacturing operations. Between 2002 to 2005, China attracted almost $333 billion in new direct foreign investments.

8. From its start, China's tentative embrace of capitalism was fundamentally a political choice, as its leaders sought to distance themselves from the palpable failures of both Maoism and Soviet-led communist movement and focus on driving economic growth and national power it conferred. Chinese leaders opened industries to foreign trade and investment and for the first time allowed the workforce to move from village to bigger cities where the jobs existed. Western joint ventures brought western technology and expertise to China and provided training grounds for the next generation of Chinese managers and entrepreneurs.

9. With so much of China's growth and progress based on transplants from more advanced economies, most of what makes China modern exists in a kind of economic vacuum without the strong, natural ties to everything else that help maintain intricate forms of economic balance. Jobs could move to India and Bangladesh and this vast disparity makes it much harder for China to develop the kind of integrated national economy that large countries need to maintain their growth and development.

10. China's state owned banks keep monopoly companies afloat, forcing banks to write off bad loans that drain the working capital from the deposits of ordinary Chinese.

11. Building a world-class manufacturing platform that produces things that most China's businesses and people can neither use nor afford is creating another pitfall for stable economic progress, since China has to use its high savings to finance a good part of the foreign demand for its own exports, especially to the indispensable American market.

12. The US economy is dependent on the central banks of Japan, China, and other nations to invest in US treasuries to keep American interest rates down.

13. China is a country that provides little medical or old age coverage. The Chinese people save a good part of what they earn for retirement. The personal savings are held in state owned banks and lend to hundreds of inefficient and often insolvent state-owned businesses. Extending basic social benefits will involve shifting billions of dollars from public works, slowing modernization, increasing consumption, belly-up many state owned enterprises, and depleting savings.

14. China has plenty of ambitious people eager to start their own businesses, but no modern banks to provide them financing. A perpetual credit crunch exists for small and medium size businesses.

15. Intellectual rights are constantly being violated or ignored in China.

16. China's interior highway and rail system are out of date. Materials and finished goods move slowly from place to place and often damaged along the way.

17. Most of China's pollution is linked to the state's energy -inefficient industrial plants.

18. The usage of soft coal provides cheap energy and the intense use of fertilizers made China food self-sufficient.

19. China has no equivalent of western consumer product-safety agency. Nor does Beijing have the administrative resources to create a central food and drug regulatory system.

20. The Russian leaders want to avoid the "Russian Trap" of quickly privatizing the state-owned enterprises.

21. In America high corporate earnings help nearly half of all Americans because 40 percent of US stocks are held by pension plans and personal retirement accounts. American workers are racking up impressive productivity gains - more so than the Japanese or Europeans.

22. One-third of all US doctoral degrees in the sciences and three-fifths of those in engineering are awarded to foreign or foreign born students. 40 percent of Silicon Valley startups in 1990s were found by Indian investment entrepreneurs.

23. If the United States is such a powerhouse in advanced technologies, why does it run large trade deficits in these areas? The data shows that technology companies are fully globalizing. Half of the imports driving high-tech trade deficit come from the foreign subsidiaries of US technology companies.

24. Japanese companies still base their employees pay and promotions on tenure and union rules. Labor laws and social conventions that sharply limit firms freedom to fire or reassign most workers ofte prevent them from reorganizing their domestic operations to make their IT investments work for them.

25. If Moscow is commited to serious structural reforms, because of Russian low wages, exports could be competitive worldwide. Every since 2000, the flow of direct investment out of Russia has exceeded the investment in. The Russian politician and oligarchs will not agree to terms of the large western oil companies and so new capital and technologies, and expertise voided from helping develop oil in Russia.

26. Russia has the lowest fertility rates and life expectancy and the highest rates of infant and youth mortality of any advanced or major developing society.

27. Between 2001 through 2008, 2.8 million jobs were sent overseas. These were manufacturing jobs, electronics, auto, and industrial computer. 600 plants were closed down.

28. Complex software allowed companies to breakup complex service and distribute parts to companies anywhere.

29. In the future distributed software communication types will cover wide areas of inventory control, medical diagnostics, engineering, and legal analysis.

30. What happens as competition heats up? Lower wages, less labor benefits, harder times raising price, and slower job creation.

31. China will use investment & technology transfers to become one of two indispensable economies by 2020. Million of farmers will leave the farms to work in the cities.

32. China and India will junk state monopolies, open to western investment, own domestic competition, attract capital to build modern factories, and abandon government crony selection of suppliers.

33. Heavy manufacturing will disappear in advance economies, such as, autos, steel, appliances, and electronics.

34. America and Japan are investing in China: knowledge, relationships, supplier networks, manufacturing in foreign transplants.

35. Europe is fighting shrinking domestic economies and experiencing slow growth and high taxes.

36. Americans accept harsh competition and spend ½ in ideas as production. These ideas provide new innovations and job creation and receive foreign investment.

37. Great conflicts between the US and Iran or North Korea are unlikely. China is two decades away from becoming an imperial power. Globalization cannot guarantee peace. Deep economic relationships have not precluded war.

38. India's GDP is small than Russia's or Brazils.

39. India success has been in software programming and generic pharmaceuticals and competitive with global leaders from Europe and America.

40. From 2000 to 2003, India accounted for barely seven-tenths of 1 percent of the world exports. 60 percent of India's population still works in agriculture, compared to 14 percent in Russia and less than 50 percent in China. The productivity of India's vast agricultural workforce is 1 percent that of American farmers.

41. The 20 percent held Indian Jobs in reasonably large businesses in manufacturing and services is about 15 percent as productive as that of Americans in similar jobs.

42. India is less open to foreign technologies and expertise and growth depends on domestic consumption rather than investments and exports.

43. In 2004, India received $5.3 billion in foreign investment and China received $60.6 billion out of $233 billion. India attracted less FDI than Poland.

44. India's dismal infrastructure and suffocating government regulation make it hard to generate profits in the subcontinent.

45. The national and state governments still own most of India's electrical power generation and distribution operations.

46. China has open its energy sector to American and European imports of thermal and clean power generating equipment, gas, hydropower, and wind turbines, large-capacity pump storage units, advanced nuclear power station equipment, gas desulphurization equipment, and middle and high voltage capacitors. China produces four times the amount of electricity as India. 40 percent of India power is given away or stolen. India's business sector is one of the least energy intensive.

47. India's banking system is more developed than China's. The Reserve Bank of India has direct 45 percent of all business loans be given to small and medium size-businesses. Businesses that help create a self-sustaining village.

48. India's national literacy rate is 146th out of 177 countries.

49. There are six thousand Indian institutions of higher education graduating 2.5 million people per year.

50. A recent survey of human resources managers at U.S. and European multinationals reported that just 25 percent of Indian engineering meet their standards and 10 percent of those with degrees in arts and science. India universities produce fifty to hundred graduates who compare favorably with their counterparts.

51. Japan's workers produce goods and services worth on an average of $34.40 per hour is 40 percent less than the average value produced by American workers, a good justification for higher US salaries, where incomes per person in Europe and Japan ranging from $29,200 to $32,700 compared to $42,000 in the United States.

52. Japan and Europe zoning make it harder to build factories or shopping mall suburbs, large-scale stores, and labor regulations preventing retailers from staying open in the evening and manufacturers from adjusting shift scheduling.

53. Japan send 49 percent in exports and receives 63 percent in imports.

54. Japan historically has legal prevented foreign investment. In 2000s, foreign investment as a share of GDP was one-seventh that of the US. Japanese laws still bar foreign companies from using their stock to buy a Japanese company, hostile takeovers are virtually impossible, and friendly bids are routinely rejected.

55. Japan walls off its domestic companies from contact with global leaders in their industries or sectors. The combination of extensive regulatory protections for tens of thousands of inefficient small companies and the absence of competition from companies from other advanced countries destroys the need to develop their own technologies and best practices, and adopt others. The US produces innovation.

56. Japan is the least productive advanced country.

57. Since 1990, Japan has spent more of its GDP on research and development than the United States, much of the difference is America's R&D in defense areas.

58. In America, every dollar sent abroad in foreign direct investment produces $1.14 gains at home.

59. Korea is the greatest small economy success story of the last half-century. When Korea War cease-fired, the South was one of the poorest places on earth. Korean's railroad, ports, hydroelectric dams, factories, and mines were all developed in the North, around the Yalu River; and by 1945, the factors and plats of the northern Korea accounted for one-quarter of Japan's industrial base, during Japanese occupation. In 1960, seven years after the armistice, South Korea's GDP was $2.3 billion and a per capita income of $79 were among the lowest in the world. By 2005, South Korean income had reached $16,800, a thirtyfold increase since 1960 and the country's GDP topped $800 billion, a fifty fold increase since 1960. The North's GDP was $30 billion, less than 4 percent of the South's.

60. The basic strategy of Korea's long line of dictatorial economic reformers - jump-starting selected industries by giving favored companies such as Samsung and Hyundai huge loans from state-run banks, special tax breaks, government contracts, and other bureaucratic favors - came from Japan.

61. From the 1960s, Korea opened its economy to imports of raw materials, parts and machinery, so its budding companies could use them to produce exports. The new Korean producers of steel, heavy machinery, autos, industrial electronics, shipbuilding, metals, and petrochemicals received 60 percent of all Korean bank loans. Since 2000, Korean exports have jumped to 40 percent of GDP, driven by global demand for many Korean products.

62. Korea didn't import modern industrial base from advanced global companies.

Talk about things moving fast... I was hoping that since this book was just released, that the recent financial issues(housing implosion, credit crisis, food/gas price inflation) etc. would be part of the "Futurecast".
I have read to the end of the fourth chapter, where details of how foreign holders of us $S MAY GET DISGUSTED AND PULL THE RUG OUT FROM UNDER US OVERCONSUMING AMERICANS and cause a run on the dollar and thereby a(guess what?) recession. Well....? didnt Bernanke just attest to the fact wee are in a recession now? and it's not because of the reasons given in this book so far.. Peter Schiff detailed the dollar run scenario in his "Crash Proof" book over a year ago, so I knew about that. I was hoping to see how, with the events of the last 6+ months Americans would fare in the coming years, vis a vis China and all the other forces at work on the Amercan and/or global economy. I will reaD ON, BUT I am very disappointed that recent events arent inclusive.

Overall, the author does a good job of describing the
megatrends he sees in our future. For instance,
globalization will shift labor intensive jobs to
areas of the world where labor costs are cheaper.
The USA and China will emerge as superpowers and
dominate globalization. As the number of working people
go down- the quality of life goes down and the various
social programs will be under funding strains as in
Europe.

The author sees overall challenges in health care,
globalization and climate change. The traditional
economies will experience slower growth with higher
taxes, more elderly and a shrinking labor force.
Globalization also encourages costly new medical
procedures due to technological improvements.
The government must find ways to control costs in
this area by merging partnerships with industry.

The USA will build and maintain global information
networks. This is our area of strength. The USA
labor force will grow decently over the next few
decades due to the current stock of immigration.
The new immigrants are needed to replace the labor
pool of retiring baby boomers. There will be no
baby boom in Sub Sahara Africa and Russia. These
countries may suffer for the lack of a labor pool.
In summary, Americans have produced more children
than Europeans or the Japanese. The price of the
baby bust is the end of strong growth in Europe
and Japan according to the author.

China must build its infrastructure and manage the
coastal information technologies with the needs of
inland China. Outsourcing does cause the loss of
some jobs; however, there is a counterbalance to
increments in productivity. I happen to believe that
outsourcing is not a panacea or cure-all for a
number of reasons. i.e. enforcement of corporate
standards is more difficult; Random Acts of G-d
can obliterate operations overnight etc.

The author poses the question concerning oil demand
and prices. Ultimately, oil prices will rise and
stabilize at various equilibrium levels. The new
technological advances may serve to keep oil prices
in check , if there is a serious effort to seek
new oil sources and build cars that are energy efficient.

The book provides a serious perspective on the
challenge we face in the future. Policymakers in
Washington, DC and elsewhere should take note !

Robert Shapiro, former Clinton Administration Under Secretary of Commerce presents his vision of the world in the near future. In his view, there are three important factors that will have an impact on the shape of the new world: globalization, demographics and the superpowers. None of this is surprising and most of the people agree with this view. His presentation is provocative though, and the simple review of facts that occurred in the recent past and their extension into the near future is challenging the mindset that most of us have. The world is fast evolving and we have to adapt.

It is difficult to grasp the massive dislocation brought to us by globalisation when you have countries like China and India entering the world stage changing completely the job market everywhere. In his view America will remain a superpower, but the rules are different. Robert focuses on US, China, Japan and Europe, with occasional touch on Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Italy and South Corea. The book has a lot of factual information and it contains, based on that information, predictions on future trends that are likely to occur until 2020. Suprisingly, there is not much about India, Canada and Australia (the last two countries have massive natural resources that have a key strategic importance in the evolution of global balance of power).

The main factors that Robert predicts will have a significant influence in the evolution of world order are demographic, economic and political. The demographic factors are staggering. For instance China will have by 2020 over 170 million people over 60. Or consider the fact that in Europe and Japan the elderly will represent over 50% of the working-age population. These developments will have impact on productivity, economic growth, social system, tax and welfare in general.

The story of China is interesting. The accelerated development is impressive, but there are huge risks lurking in the background. The eventuation of any of these risks has implications for the rest of the world. Robert Shapiro explains very well the connection between China and US as competitors fighting for leadership and partners sharing common interests.

Of course there are unanswered questions, but who can pretend or demand that they should or could be answered? This is one of those books that make people debate forever, and that is good. The book is a very interesting read.

Peter F. Drucker, born in 1918, is probably the 20st Century's greatest management thinker. He was Professor at New York University and currently teaches at the Graduate Management School of Claremont University, California. Drucker is the authors of numerous books and award-winning articles. This article was published in the March-April 1999 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

Today, knowledge workers outlive organisations and are mobile. The need to manage oneself is therefore creating a revolution in human affairs. Drucker gives advise on the management of ourselves. We need to ask ourselves the following questions: What are my strengths?; How do I perform?; What are my values? The authors provides advise on how to answer these questions> Once these questions are answered we need to find out where we belong and what we should contribute. According to Drucker, "we will have to place ourselves where we can make the greatest contribution." But because we need to work with others we also need to take responsibility for our relationships. This requires us to accept other people as much as individuals as ourselves and take responsibility for communication. The author also identifies that most knowledge workers are not "finished" after 40 years on the job, "they are merely bored". He identifies three ways to develop a second career: (1) start one; (2) develop a parallel career; or (3) be a social entrepreneur. And managing the second half of your life requires you to begin with it before you enter it.

Great article by the Master of Management on how we can manage ourselves. He recognizes the latest trend whereby knowledge workers are outliving organizations which result in them having/creating second careers. He provides advise on where to locate yourself based on your strengths, performance, and values. This article is an exerpt from his 1999-book 'Management Challenges for the 21st Century'. As usual Drucker uses his famous simple US-English writing style. Highly recommended, just like all his articles.

I set this book apart from typical management books, because this one provides basic step by step, concrete steps that someone needs to take in order to get a handle on "oneself".

I couldn't put this one down, and gleamed much wisdom from it. I would almost call this book "Drucker's personal insight on how to manage your life"

I have never read a Ben Mikaelson book I didn't like.....until now. Touching Spirit Bear is such a great book. This sequel is too cheesy and not very interesting.

This wasn't as good as Touching Spirit Bear, so I was a little disappointed. I am an 8th grade teacher & I read Touching Spirit Bear to my classes every year & every year they are on the edge of their seats. They love the gore & the message about healing & trying to break a cycle (of abuse). I am afraid they won't find this one as appealing or riveting.

This book is touted as a "resource" to the Fifth Discipline, but my view is that it could itself stand on its own steam as a handbook for change management. With articles contributed by a variety of authors, the book looks at the challenges of triggering, initiating, aligning and sustaining change and the various diverse ways to confront and solve those challenges.
The challenges that the book identifies are the challenges of:

Orientation, Generating Profound Change, Not Enough Time, No Help, Not Relevant, Walking the Talk, Fear & Anxiety, Assessment & Measurement, True Believers and Non-believers, Governance, Diffusion, Strategy & Purpose.

The book is choc-a-block with tools, explanation of jargon and
references to other resources. An orientation to Systems Thinking and looking at organizations as complex systems would help in clarifying the book more. Hence it is desirable to read "the fifth discipline" before you read it.
However, the delightful nature of this book ensures that you can flip open any page, read a little bit and keep it back, and feel refreshed and not thirst for more.
For people who look at organizations as communities, as networks and as human systems in addition to just being an economic entity this book will delight and scare.
For others, this book will act as a provoking way to look at change and organizations in search of equilibrium.

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When 'The Dance of Change' was published in '99, Senge's work was already reaching the end of it's relevancy. A brilliant thinker, he's had difficulty sustaining creative thinking since 'The Fifth Discipline'. Not surprising. With such a brilliant, breakthrough book like his 1990 masterpiece, one tends to get trapped by one's own fame. Thus is born The Fifth Discipline Industry.

The Dance of Change contained nothing new in 1999. By 2006 the ideas contained in 'Dance' are so passe for most industry. Many others have built upon Senge's work in far more effective ways and your time is better spent with them. While you can skip 'Dance', 'The Fifth Discipline' still is a must read, especially if you're working on organizational change in education or human services, two industries that remain stubbornly stuck in the 80's.


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This book is written as a resource book usable in conjunction with co-author Peter Senge's book, the Fifth Discipline. This book explores the challenges to sustaining momentum in a learning organization.

The authors of this book describe the processes that help to reinforce change and those processes that conflict with change, thereby limiting an organization's ability to make change. They begin this by reexamining and reviewing the "five disciplines" of learning from The Fifth Discipline: personal mastery, mental models, shared visions, team learning, and systems thinking.

In order to maintain the momentum for change, they expound on what they identify as the three fundamental reinforcing processes required sustaining real change: enhancing personal results, developing networks of committed people; and improving business results.

The main focus of this book is the ten challenges the authors see as the most likely challenges a company will experience when attempting to sustain change. These challenges are the challenges of:

1. control over time.
2. inadequate internal resources
3. relevance
4. management clarity and consistency
5. fear and anxiety
6. negative assessment of progress
7. isolation and arrogance
8. autonomy and power
9. the inability to transfer knowledge across the organization.
10. organizational strategy and purpose.

While I enjoyed this work and read it from cover to cover, it did begin to seem like too much of good thing. Some of the organization information seemed dated and some of the people who are offering advice are probably no longer held with such high regard in their former organizations. In any case, I would recommed it to anyone who is doing graduate or post-graduate work in organization and management or just wants some insight into how organizations really work.

In "Dance of Change", Peter Senge and his co-authors argue that the key to achieving and sustaining significant change lies in changing people's basic ways of thinking. This is a big challenge as organisations have to grapple with some deep seated ways of thinking. Peter Senge did an excellent job of confronting this challenge and suggesting some practical and useful ideas to achieve change in people's mindset and organisational practices. The book explains the processes that help to reinforce change and minimise resistance to change. This fascinating book explains and provides advice on how to initiate, sustain, and redesign and shape new ways of thinking.

The book methodically, step-by-step discuss the ten key challenges to profound change. The authors buttressed their arguments and conclusions with some notes on successful organizational change initiatives highlighting the specific approaches taken by the likes of British Petroleum, Ford, GE, Hewlett-Packard, and Dupont. The book also includes round-table discussions, team exercises, case histories, checklists, and helpful guidance.

Peter Senge is the renowned author of "The Fifth Discipline" which had a profound impact on the notion of organizational learning. The "Fifth Discipline" is still is a must read for receptive and motivated readers, especially those working on organizational change, training and human resource development in all industries.

In fact, "Dance of Change" starts with an insightful review of the "five disciplines" of learning from "The Fifth Discipline" namely personal mastery, mental models, shared visions, team learning, and systems thinking. Hence this book makes an excellent resource to the Fifth Discipline, although it is so well written and presented that it can stand on its own feet as a handy and useful handbook or reference material for effective change management.

This is amazing. I listen to this cd all the time. I started listening to the audio cd of 100 ways to motivate yourself about a year ago. He really helps you along your journey of self motivation...and it will change your life forever.

Create a vision, tell a true lie about yourself...a fantasy of what your ideal self is..work yourself into that ideal...

This book is insightful and loaded with practical ideas on how to get and stay motivated. It's easy to read and even easier to apply.

Jim Meisenheimer
www.meisenheimer.com

This is a great tool to keep you moving. Easy ideas that do work. Steve Chandler makes motivating myself so much more simple than and it is an easy read.

This man is a great person for making this into audio , my friend gave me this cd and as soon as I started to listen all my goals and thoughts became alive. I found my goals were not big enough and when I did make my goal as big as Mr.Chandler said My goals came into focus . My goal ? 5 Computer certs to make over $75,000 by the age of 27 im 26 and 90 % there with my recent raise.

The simple circle planets will have you go why Could I not have started this at age 18

Steve Chandler is an insistent, unabashed optimist, in the same vein as Norman Vincent Peale. He covers 100 motivational tips that stretch the imagination, factor in the impact of technology, and challenge you to evaluate your situation from different points of view. The choices you make can either motivate you or hinder you, so he provides a wide array of tips you can embrace, reject, or simply read and digest. You can implement the games and exercises to make working toward your dream goal more fun. Though much of the content is basic and available in other self-help books, we recommend this breezy paperback; you can carry it in your briefcase and open it up randomly if you're feeling low and want to get rejuvenated and motivated.

This is simply the best book for those analyzing longitudinal data (data measured at more than one time point). Singer's coverage of Hierarchical Linear MOdeling (HLM) is clear, well-written (sprinkled with humor, it's like a lecture by the most popular prof. at your school), and geared towards researchers who need their programs to run, not just learn the mathematical underpinnings. Singer and Willett (the coauthor, not listed above!) set the standard for presenting math/statistics book examples.

THe authors accomplish the latter by keying her examples to data located at a UCLA website; you can run the same programs on the same datasets used in the book (wow!), and compare your output, troubleshooting any problems you may have. Singer and Willett (her coauthor, not listed here!) provide outputs and programs correspoing to several of the most popular statistical programs, including SAS and SPSS.

SInger and Willet also explain the rationale for using HLM over more traditional techniques such as regression. Simply stated, regression aggregates at a level that cause one to lose information (and hence the power to detect differences.) HLM allows one to look at overall differences due to time, but also the trajectories of individual differences who are "nested" within those time points. It's the (relatively) new thing, and is increasing used by investigators, and desired by peer reviewers.

As supplements, I suggest using the UCLA website mentioned above, subscribing to an e-mail LISTSERV for interesting (though sometimes compicated discussions of "multilevel modeling" (MULTILEVEL@JISCMAIL.AC.UK), and searching for Judith Singer's website through Google or A9 (if you use A9--"Alexa"--enough you'll get a small discount at Amazon.com). Also, compare Amazon's and Judith Singer's (through her website) current prices on this book.

I find Professor Singer's Book to be a most informative and useful tool for anyone who wishes to better understand Multilevel Modeling.

This is an excellent book. Multilevel modeling and survival analysis are becoming increasingly important in psychological studies, but are pretty complicated procedures. Singer & Willet offer both a conceptual background and practical ways to do the analyses in a clear, understandable manner. The book is very readable and will be an important reference for future analyses!

Clearly written text... and usefull for researchers.
I would recommend it to anyone starting to learn about the subject!

This book does a particularly good job of explaining the substantive meaning of the equations involved in multilevel modeling analyses. It spends a lot of extra time explaining what the equations mean in real world terms using examples from actual data sets. I teach a graduate level course on HLM and I much prefer this book to the Raudenbush & Byrk book because it not only does a better job of explaining the math (for graduate students less comfortable with statistics) but the chapters are also sprinkled with incredibly useful advice on actually running the analyses (getting them to converge, interpreting them, etc.) The Raudenbush & Bryk book probably does a slightly better job of presenting the equations, but it falls short on explanation and practical advice. If you were only going to buy one HLM book, I would start with this one.

This tool is excellent if you're in the clinical field. This is great for group sessions addressing the benefits/consequences of changing behaviors related to addiction. Highly recommend it.

Fullan presents a well written account of educational change and the theories behind it. Well worth the read.

Why the hell is it that the more things change, the more things seem to stay the same? Educational change expert Michael Fullan takes a crack at this proverbial school reform conundrum in the third edition of his book, The New Meaning of Educational Change. According to him, "Reform is not just putting into place the latest policy. It means changing the cultures of the classrooms, the schools, the districts, the universities, and so on. There is more to educational change than most people realize" (p. 7). Restructuring schools and education has been relatively simple, says Fullan; re-culturing them has not. For change to be substantive and long lasting, improving and strengthening relationships among various stakeholders is the key.

Fullan divides his book into three parts: understanding educational change; change at the local level; and change at the global level. In the first part, he distinguishes between subjective and objective meanings of educational change, but in an awkward manner. Drawing from Dan Lortie's work on the sociology of teaching, his main argument is that teaching is a lonely profession without a well-developed shared technical culture, which leads invariably to widespread uncertainty, fragmentation, and haphazardness--all impediments to educational change. He does not explicitly describe the differences or importance of either concept, but leaves the reader with the ultimate impression that three dimensions undergird the implementation of change: "the possible use of... new or revised materials... teaching approaches... and the alteration of beliefs" (p. 39). According to Fullan, most educational reforms are ephemeral or shallow because they have grossly overlooked the importance of the third dimension (beliefs), unsurprisingly. He often distinguishes between change and the "process" of change with a 25/75 rule: educational change is 25% structural (ideas), 75% re-culturing (processes).

Fullan uses the last two parts to provide insights about adoption and implementation of policies geared toward educational change through the lens of the various stakeholders involved (teacher, principal, parent, student, school board, etc.). He is careful not to make sweeping generalizations, and has a nose for local idiosyncrasies. His most pronounced clarion call, however, is for the scaling up of whole school reform and professional learning communities (the latter fits well with his claim that beliefs are the hardest dimension to alter). Shared meaning of educational change is only possible through allowing stakeholders more transparency into each other's roles and promoting more collaboration between groups.

In each chapter, Fullan shores up his arguments with major research studies, and often expresses the findings axiomatically: For example, poorly performing schools showed "little or no attention to schoolwide problems" (p. 121). This is not a bad thing. It just makes the reader think, "Duh!?!?" Somewhat annoying was Fullan's tendency to whitewash other findings using fluffy, catch-phrases with no meat. For instance, in discussing the efficacy of the principal, he writes: "effective leaders are energy creators" (p. 149). Overall, however, for a book about a complex phenomenon like change, it is highly readable, consistent, and insightful. Those expecting a recipe book about wielding change in schools might be somewhat disappointed; however, those who just need a little inspiration and conceptual insight might find exactly what they are looking for.

The third edition of Fullen's book - "The New Meaning of Educational Change" came out to the readers in 2001 ten years after its second edition was published. Its contents have been greatly enriched and "`the meaning hypothesis' has become deeply confirmed." The "knowledge base" of change in this book is broadened and deepened by applying the advances of cognitive science and the chaos theory. Based upon this, the conclusion is made that "working on `coherence' is the key to dealing with the nonlinear fragmented demands of overloaded reform agendas". A variety of most recent research about educational innovations by Cohen, Elmore, Fullan, Hargreaves, Hatch, Oakes and other researchers are integrated into different chapters and themes. Some newly verified thoughts of educational change are also presented in the new book. For instance, "one of the keys to successful changes is the improvement of relationships-precisely the focus of group development," "you can turn around an elementary school in about 3 years, a high school in 6 years, and a school district (depending on size) in about 8 years."

The new edition maintains the key structure and context of its former editions. Part one is concerned with understanding the overview of educational change. Part two are designed to look at change at the local level. Part three deals with educational change at the regional and national levels. The book remains its focuses on understanding both the small and big pictures of change and maintains the theme of rendering complexity understandable and amendable to productive action. The author's in-depth insights about the contradictory and paradoxical nature of change and his illustrative and practical ideas about the procedures of change still greatly contributes to the values of the book.

If you want to equip yourself with the important, resourceful, and up-dated theory, research and practices about "what" and "how" of educational change, the third edition is your necessity.

This is one extremely ponderous book to read. The author makes several well intentioned points, only to get bogged down in his own research and wordiness. Read it if you must....be sure you have lots of time to decipher it once you have!

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in school change and reform. Fullan has provided a comprehensive overview as well as a host of unique ideas. This was not intended to be a casual read. It is a serious reference.