change Books

You know this is not a subject that I know a whole lot about...though I do profess some interest and curiosity about the reasons why people choose gender reassignment surgery. Mostly I was interested in exploring the why's and if's about gender and the myriad of choices and ways of being that people encounter and deal with or embrace in their lives. I wasn't sure what to expect...and I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about this book, but I've finished reading it and it's time to write down my thoughts about it. First and foremost, this is a book that doesn't just rehash the same debates one sees nearly everywhere these days about how little Tommy can play with dolls and Sally can play with cars or how Molly can be a doctor and Biff can be a nurse...this goes beyond what's considered politically correct or "allowable" excursions outside the comfort zone of the tribe. In Gender Outlaw Borenstein really tries to examine why we need gender at all and how gender is really determined in today's societies, she looks both backward and forward with regards to this issue in a way that is both informative and entertaining. Gender Outlaw is a strange blend of biography and gender theory written with a theatrical flair. The author is really not looking to redefine gender so much as she is looking to toss it out altogether, in favor of a gender model that is more dynamic and fluid. Now for what I didn't like about the book...well, I do understand that the author is an artist and performer at heart, but I read because I LIKE to read and while I like most of what I read to be entertaining and informative, I DON'T like to have to struggle to read it because the author thought it would be interesting and creative to create columns and make the reader have to read from side to side skipping about on the page. There is a serious lack of continuity in the format of the text that makes it a bear to read. Everything does not have to be performance; everything does not have to be art. Sometimes a book should just be a book. Outside of that, I enjoyed reading Gender Outlaw, I think the author wanted to reach the mainstream and this book is certainly readable and accessible to the general public...now if we could just get them to read it and open their minds to the ideas presented. Borenstein certainly got there with me, as I had no quarrel with the gender I've been assigned, but it certainly gave me lots of food for thought and I'll probably never think of gender the same way again. I give it a 4 stars (3.5 really, but since Amazon doesn't allow ½ stars, I'll settle for 4, round up instead of down).

I so wish I had read this book at 30 years of age. I so wish everyone would read this book.
Kate Bornstein is right. There simply is no gender. Anima, animus.
Sometimes we do need to have our ideas challenged. I am happy to have had my old ideas changed by this book. It seems to have given me answers for so many vague questions I had in my mind.
Valuable book for heterosexual ppl and homosexual ppl. Valuable book for ppl.

Gender Outlaw is considered a classic and a step forward. And it is, annoyingly.

A lot of her fearless theory, proto-GenderQueer, I believe is totally right on - and certainly harmonizes with my ideal of Permanent Transition. Yet Bornstein, with her conventional SRS, might not the most compelling proponent of smashing the binary chains. Like Trotsky, Bornstein has a populist (often gimmicky) style in which to place her epistemology and, like Trotsky, Bornstein is a tireless self-publicist: Just how many times does the reader need to know she appeared on the Geraldo Show?

Kinda the right book, by the wrong author.

This is an amazing, amazing book. It's easy to read, engaging, and the tone is casual but the content is rich and nuanced - both accesible and intelligent. If you only read three books in your life, this should be one of them. I'm not exaggerating.

The format of this book makes it real hard to read and detracts greatly from the content. Your eyes have to dart from one side of a page to the other and back again then to the middle. The content is important but on the edge of the spectrum which makes it even more difficult to read at times with the far fetched concepts. I'm not a big fan of this one.

Fantasic for maximum information, insightful interpretations, and maintaining clear readings while encouraging intuition.
Better for people who already have experience with the I Ching and Chinese and Taoist philosophy.

Stephen Karcher's approach to translating and presenting the famed Chinese oracle "I Ching" appears to take on board Jung's famous invocation to "dream the myth onward". The result is a paradoxical conjoining of the ancient and the modern. For each hexagram, Karcher takes us on a penetrating exploration of its deepest roots in Chinese history and mythology, slowly unfolding each little symbol's big picture, and revealing the archetypal material the hexagram might encourage us to consider in context. The result is deeply psychological and gives the modern occidental reader unique access to the ancient oriental wisdom implicated in the oracle's poetry. If you use an oracle to divine, explore, and contemplate rather than to "tell fortunes", then I expect you'll come to marvel again and again at Karcher's wondrous work with this most intriguing old book, as I have.

If I could give this book six I would.

If you love the I-Ching; If you read every single one you can find; this book is simply eons beyond all the rest.

The other I-Chings I used to really like were the one by Alfred Huang, and the one by Rudolph Ritsema. This is like taking the best aspects of both of those two and combining them and making them even better.

Check it out!

This is one of the BEST I-Ching Translations I've ever read. I had found several before, most notably the Legge Version and the Idiot's Guide. These are awesome versions for the basic Divination Student, but the depth and wealth of connections, syncronicities, and interrelationships between all the Hexagrams is best related in this text. I highly recommend this one, as well as the Karcher I-Ching with Concordance, and the simpler How to Use the I-Ching by Karcher as well.

This is the 2nd book I have bought written by the author Stephen Karcher.This book is very indepth and offers more guidance on all matters.The advice is easy to understand but beginners might want to find suitable learning books before adding this book to your collection.The number of pages for each hexagram can vary from about 4 pages and some are up to 6 pages long.Thats a bit too much for my liking,but,some people might like it.Consider that factor before you buy this book.

The print in this book is smaller compared to the authors "Symbols of love" book.Both books are very similar but "Total I Ching" is for all matters.

I also recommend these books:
1)"I Ching:a new interpretation for modern times."By Sam Reifler.
2)"Practical guide to the I Ching".By Kim-Anh Lim.

This book has a great idea, which is to use maps to show how climate change is expected to affect various areas. The big flaw is that it lumps the entire United States together, rather than showing the changes expected in each region. Surely, climate change will have very different effects on Arizona, Maine, and Oregon. How about doing a book specific to the US?

Written to be a textbook, this book is a good introductory primer into the physical science behind global warming. There are also graphs and discussions on what each country is doing financially (by GDP) to help solve the problem and which countries emit carbon and at what rate. It utilizes an extensive amount of graphs and maps, which makes it very easy to visualize the various topics presented.

I am using this currently as a supplemental text book in a community college class in global warming and have found it to be wonderful. It is not, as some other reviewers have seemed to imply, the end all book on the subject and does not delve into extreme detail into any on particular aspect of global warming. In fact, at a mere 128 pages, I cannot see it as more than a light treatment of the subject. What is does is supplement other textbooks which contain more discussion and less visualization.

This would be a good book for those interested in global warming but that have a hard time visualizing the issues. Combined with other, more detailed books, this would provide excellent information. This would also be recommended as text for us in a high school or college introductory environmental science class.

This is an excellent book for those wishing to study the issue of climate change from a geographical standpoint. The maps are excellent - they show exactly where evidence is being found to support global warming, what aeas of the world will be most impacted by global warming, and which nations have committed resources to slowing carbon emissions.

It is a visual guide to global warming, giving a very graphic perspective of the earth as a whole. The scientific explanations of the interacting systems of global winds, ocean currents, atmospheric gasses, and how they are being affected by human alterations, are particularly easy to understand because of the clear diagrams and colorful maps.

As an instructor of physical geography, I find this to be an excellent book for the non-scientist to undertand the physical processes and the science of global warming. The detailed yet easy-to-understand maps and diagrams add another dimension to an often dry and theoretical topic.

This book enters the fray with a good overview relative to alternative energy as the answer - but, in my opinion, fails to embrace the "source" of today's dilemma. To precipitate a change in climate - we need a sea-change in the overall interaction of humanity with water. To achieve this, it would be wise for each of us to become conscious of how our daily decisions impact the world within our reach. What products we buy, how we use energy, the examples we set, what we say to others, how we help ease the burden of other life forms we come into contact with - all have an impact on water and the future of life in our biosphere. And, it is the condition of water within our biosphere that will determine the success or failure of our civilization.

My title says it all! This book is easy to read, pleasant to the eyes with its use of color and visuals, and food for the mind. At last, someone has taken pity on individuals who hear about climate change problems, but have not had the facts about it. I think this book is useful for everyone, and can be used in church, school, and living room settings.

Jay S. Southwick

This is my first time to order anything off of Amazon and it was a good experience.

I recommend this seller for more items. Seller was reliable and shipped product quickly. I would purchase more items from this seller. Plus, cost was low. :)

The service was great and the mailing fast.But with every page that I read I had a sigh of relief,feeling that my kid is much more obedient then I thought, because the problems that are shown how to deal with are pretty sever in my opinion.Anyway, it gave me a lots to think about and some nice suggestions to my minor troubles with my kid.

This book talks more about describing the bad attitudes instead of simple, easy techniques to stop them. Not easy to use, not easy to read.

Hey teachers! Struggling with some of those same old attitudes that seem hard to change? Dr. Borba's book "Don't Give Me That Attitude" has practical, insightful strategies that can be implemented into the classroom today! This book is parent AND teacher friendly, child centered, and a positive approach to repeat behaviors that have exhausted all your efforts. You'll notice a change in students' attitudes immediately, and a more positive, encouraging atmosphere in your classroom. A must have resource for your classroom!

I'm a real fan of Michele Borba's books so I must admit I've been waiting for Don't Give Me That Attitude! This one is one of her best. I'm a counselor and deal with kids with "attitudes" (though most parents would call them behavior problems) -- manipulative, defiant, cheating, arrogant, you name it. The problem is there really wasn't much out there in the way of specifics to help parents. But these makeovers for bad attitudes are realistic and specific. There are so many strategies and ideas .. checklists.. resources.. and stepby step guidelines. The only thing I'd caution a parent about is not to think you have to do it all. Just turn to the attitude you think needs tuning up -- and dig in. The book is a goldmine!~

I've read all of Michele Borba's books. To me, she stands for the kind of parent I want to be: you can't just sit back and expect everything to go well. You have to get engaged and if there's a problem you have to deal with it. I love my kid -- he's great-- but he's been home lately with a back talking attitude. I couldn't believe his flippant tone and I didn't know how to deal with it. And then I picked up Borba's new book. The great part is that I was able to go to contents, find the attitude, and immediately turn to the section and get point by point steps to do to turn it around. It's been only three days, but I'm already seeing a big change in my child. I've read alot of other parent books. Most are so filled with theory and vague generalities. The great thing about Michele Borba's books is that they are very specific and action oriented and give you real live activities you can do. Try it and you'll see.

This is a great book for anyone in business. It offers tools such as the Growing Pains Questionnaire that you can use in your organization to gather valuable information to work from.

Flamholtz (the author) does and excellent job of describing the various stages of organizational growth. In each stage he describes what an organization must be doing in order to grow into the next level. The book provides plenty of real-world examples that Flamholtz has himself been a part of. Flamholtz also does a great job of interjecting his business street smarts. The guy understands how to grow a business and he does an even better job of laying it out for the reader in this book through frameworks and human resource concepts.

After having spent three years working at a pretty disorganized dot.com, I wanted to learn more about the right and wrong ways that young firms grow up. This book presents a fair framework that charts a company's growth, though it assumes that the troubles start when too many orders pour in and sales do not result in profits. (Not the case at a dot.com)

Firms are classified into four stages of development, and the text describes the good and bad of each. Some methodologies are presented for "scoring" the company for an offhand appraisal of its strengths and situation. (Kind of like the CMM scale, I guess)

But the worst part about the book was how tedious it was to read. The author spends hundreds of pages explaining just a few core concepts. The text describes, on and on, what the author is going to say next, then says it, and then reminds you about it for page after page. Just get to the point!

This is a book about an important topic - the transitions compnies must go through, from the struggle for surival to becoming a large, mature company. It contains a very useful and credible model in the form of a pyramid depicting the 'normal' growth stages of a company, beginning with defining product/market and ending with establishing a corporate culture. Two noticeable shortcomings: the authors seem to largely ignore strategy and business models in their description of the growth path, and second, it is written in a very lieless and textbookish style. The management jargon rolls on and on, dulling the reader's mind, and making him wonder if he is reading the same page again and again. The entire approach is extremely conventional, with very little appreciation for more modern theories of management. Overall, a good book, not great.

This book is a must read for anyone in business. For the entrepreneur, it can be used as a guide. For the more experienced business person, it can be used as a dose of reality. Having just completed my MBA and writing my thesis on this very topic, I only wish I had read this book 6 months earlier.

The authors provide an excellent framework for growing a business along with relevant case studies. And while it may look like a typical text book, it is less theory than most. This is one to be kept for years to come!

This book is great! It is well written, easy to read, and put together in a logical manner. Everyone that has an interest in improving business processes should take the time to read the book.

For those that are new to the world of process it will be a real eye opener (and a bit of a page turner). For those that are self taught it will save you 20 years of trial and error. For those that are industry experts it serves as a great (and necessary) reminder that if you miss the big picture - your project is off track.

I attended a BPM conference in late 2006 and was amazed at how theoretical and up in the clouds many of the so called experts were. Alec is different, his approach is field tested, practical, and it works.

Good overall analysis and methodology for approaching process re-design projects. Very practical and well written. Includes strategies for avoiding common pitfalls.

I enjoyed this book because of:
1) clear, coherent logic
2) it's very practical from cover to cover - everything you need to know before modeling processes you can find here and use it in your work on the very next day
3) the language - it's plain and definitely supports better adoption of the tools described. I also like the authors' delicate humor :)

As a whole - two thumbs up, 5 stars.

I was recommended this book from BPMN Essentials course I recently took and just finished the book. It has a great deal of examples and suggestions for how to perform process modelling, which I like.

Everything started with the creation of a two days workshop: Workflow Process Modeling. The authors have continually improved the workshop with participants' feedback and ideas based on their own hands-on consulting work with many organizations. The book is very well structured and it is based on real world experience. The structure is simple with no unnecessary parts that usually fill other books with redundant content. The content is not a mere recount of personal experiences: there are plenty of references to other publications. Plus, you will find good humor in the book that makes it even more readable.

Although the authors declared their work aimed at application development work as a final outcome, the book is focused very much on the business side with emphasis on process workflow. Nowadays the specialization pushes further and further apart the role of a business analyst from the system analyst, while in the past some would refer to these roles as one. This book might not be very useful for a system analyst because it is not very technically oriented. You will not find yourself drown under zillions of diagrams created with a specific software package, but you will get instead a method of how to approach business analysis from a broad, yet practical, perspective. The book does not bother even to talk too much about UML. I found that refreshing and extremely useful. I have been searching for a book that is more like a thought provoking companion rather than a software tool manual and this book fits that description.

Workflow Modeling is a comprehensive book. It does not focus on a particular stage of business analysis. It provides an inventory of areas the professional business process consultant would have to consider and the rationale for each one of them. Some readers might not agree with the little amount of space dedicated to class modeling which is almost inexistent. On the plus side, the authors talk about approach in dealing with project stakeholders, pitfalls, team building and difficulties and what questions to ask in various situations. The authors appreciate the importance of the final delivery, how to map the road between the as-is process to to-be process and understand the structure of the organization. I found many things that were said here very realistic and valuable; I could relate them to my own experience. The book does not say much about class modeling, but it talks a lot about swimlane diagrams and use cases analysis.

You can use Workflow Modeling to design your own work template that suits your style and formation. You can come back , re-read some parts or the whole book (I have done that) and still get something out of it. I recommend the book as a good investment that will not go out of fashion very soon.

Brilliant! the book introduce a new approach to change. Out of the box thinking, to the point, and very insightful. Sharp writers that make a different in the way we think and operate.

In this easy to read compilation of business concepts to deal with constantly changing external environmental factors driven by the global economy, academics Lawler and Worley introduce their `B2Change' Model. Using the term identity, to describe an organization's core values, behaviors, and beliefs; the authors use several Fortune 500 examples to argue that continuously Strategizing, Designing, and Creating Value around the organization's identity are the primary contributors to organizational effectiveness. It is hard to argue with these descriptors of widely acknowledged, critical, organizational drivers.

The book follows the discussion of the B2Change Model with an overview of various structural options, information requirements and decision making processes, people management, and leadership thoughts before closing with a chapter on the features of a Built-to-Change Organization. During these discussions they promote; leadership teams as being more useful than a single hero-leader, team evaluations over individual performance appraisals, rewards that motivate performance, and a shift away from the job to the individual as the building block for an organization's design (the Me Inc. concept). All these and the many other ideas for adapting to change are often given life thru the use of business examples. The book is recommended for students of organizational change looking for an overview of management concepts that support change.

This is a very good book. For those interested in creating an organization that is designed to view change as "normal" business--this book is excellent reading. I teach organizational leadership--I have added this to the required reading list in a change management/research course.

This is a bold, fascinating and occasionally dangerous book, which we recommend to those who want to plan carefully and honestly for the future. Why "carefully" and "honestly?" Because authors Edward E. Lawler III and Christopher G. Worley are savvy enough to identify the kind of organization best suited for a business environment shaped by continuous change - and bold enough to prescribe the actions leaders must take to survive in this environment. These actions require care and honesty because they differ so fundamentally from many past business practices. For example, the idea of continually re-planning your market position sounds straightforward. However, to then eliminate all employees who have done great work, but whose skill base does not match the firm's new portfolio, is risky and requires great faith in your vision. As the authors repeatedly note, the future is difficult to predict, and impossible to predict completely. What's more, for individual managers to examine their organizations, see that they no longer fit and voluntarily step aside will require rigorous honesty and responsibility. They would need to have planned their careers and finances well enough that self-interest does not blind them. Many of this book's ideas have a similar nature. They seem good and right, but applying them successfully will require great discipline.

Obviously, if organizations are not "built to change," they cannot effectively respond to inevitable changes in their competitive marketplace. Moreover, they may be able to achieve some temporary success but cannot sustain it over a period of time. In the Foreword, Jerry Porras briefly but brilliantly explores two themes: "First, leaders must understand their organization's values, and work to shape them in such a way that those values guide and sustain needed changes rather than undermine them. Second, leaders must architect their organizations to embrace rather than resist change." Co-authors Lawler and Worley see this volume as a sequel to Jim Collins' Built to Last because, in it, they explain "what organizations need to do once they have developed the foundation for survival and want to increase their effectiveness over time." This seems to be the same objective which Collins set for himself in his own sequel, Good to Great.
What they call the "B2Change Model" consists of Environmental Scenarios (which describe a range of possible future business conditions an identifies "preferred futures") and three primary organizational processes which contribute to organizational effectiveness. Strategizing (a process by which to establish priorities so that by having a "strategic intent"). Only after concluding this process can an organization then initiate the other two processes, Creating Value through competencies and capabilities, and, Designing the structures and other processes that enable an organization to achieve sustained effectiveness enterprise-wide. Step by step, with both rigor and eloquence, Lawler and Worley explain how any organization (regardless of size or nature) can do this, guided and informed by the B2Change Model.

In the final chapter, they make several key points. First, that making the transition to a B2Change organization is much more difficult than operating one. Also, that each of the three processes is more changeable and more flexible than the prior one. However, the designing process is the key to developing the competencies and capabilities that are needed to implement a strategic intent. They identify five key initiatives on the road to becoming B2Change and then discuss them in the order in which they recommend implementation. (They are listed on page 287.) They also explain how certain key elements can support an organization's focus on its external environment so that everyone involved understands change as a natural process. "Creating a change-friendly identity is a fundamental step in becoming a b2change organization." Still another key point involves what Lawler and Worley see as the final initiative: bringing all of the prior processes together in a virtuous spiral. "Virtuous spirals - periods in the life of an organization - are characterized by critical configuration, proximity, and dynamic alignment. They are built and sustained by a series of temporary competitive advantages."

I am reminded of what Peter Drucker observed in 1963: "There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all." That is precisely why Lawler and Worley place such great emphasis on the first process of the B2Change Model, Strategizing. It is absolutely imperative that proper organizational priorities and an organization's strategic intend be established first. Otherwise, completion of the second and third processes may well be flawless but ultimately worthless.