change Books

I think that everyone interested in Lean is already convinced that Lean adds value. Therefore I found it annoying that the book is pushing on or selling Lean. This book is good for managers needing good coverage of the arguments and issues in lean. Although the subtitle of the book is "How to Change Your Business Into a Lean Enterprise", this is not really a how-to manual - there is no explanation of how to map value streams, implement 5S, TPM, or implement any other of the Lean techniques. Rather the book is giving an overview perspective of the issues.

I have been a Lean Practitioner for over twenty years and have had the privilege of learning from some of the original teachers of Lean in the United States. I have reviewed other publications on implementing LEAN Systems and this book is one of the few that have any value to the reader. If you are a company owner or President, I would recommend you also read "The Toyota Way" (the most enjoyable to read), or "Leading the Lean Initiative" by John W. Davis. If you are a Lean Champion "Lean Production Simplified" is the BEST introduction to the Toyota Production System and to LEAN Tools that exists today. If you have any responsibility for leading or implementing LEAN in your organization, this would be required reading for everyone who will be part of your own transformation. Lean Production Simplified is an excellent investment of your time and money. Another good introduction to LEAN is "Running Today's Factory". The series of shopfloor guides by Productivity Press is also helpful for your first "baby steps". Beyond that, find a real lean "sensei". A great place to find one is at your state's "MEP" (Manufacturing Extension Partnership) Center.

Extremely well written and easy to read, "Lean Transformation" does a great job of setting the scene for lean. It covers the issues and challenges you will face in moving to lean. As such it is a good primer or starter text for managers about the make the leap to lean. Although the subtitle of the book is "How to Change Your Business Into a Lean Enterprise", this is not really a how-to manual - there is no explanation of how to map value streams, run 5S events, or implement any of the techniques. Rather the book is giving an overview perspective of the issues. For more detail you will need to move to other books such as "The New Lean Pocket Guide", "The New Lean Toolbox", "Lean Production Simplified" etc. I recommend this for senior managers needing good coverage of the arguments and issues in lean. Senior managers should also read "The Toyota Way", and "Creating a Lean Culture".

Solid book. Filled with quality info, no fluff. I wish every book was of this quality.

I've noticed that I reach for this book in my Lean practice, more than any other. Coincidence or a great book? I think it's not coincidence. This is lean classic for the TOTAL ENTERPRISE.

The book is very choppy and has many subplots. Its almost as if Ms Moon was trying to wrap up the Esmay series, though it could be used as a bridge to take the universe she created into new directions. I enjoyed the prior books in the series, but this one seemed to try and end it all. Not very satisfying.

This is the first Moon book I read, and it will also be my last. I picked it up at an outlet mall because I liked the cover. The book is basically a series of vignettes involving a lot of different characters so there is no major plot to the book. The few sections with Esmay and Barin were probably the most interesting. Moon was apparently wrapping up a bunch of loose ends from her prior books. Unfortunately, as a whole, it was a big disappointment for me. I guess I would recommend this only for diehard Moon fans.

Other reviewers commented on the book's choppiness and loosely interwoven plots, subplots, and storylines. Unlike the previous books in the series, there is almost no action. All the storylines are left open, so one must read the sequel to get "closure."

What irked me most was the absurdity of three subplots:

The military has an advanced weapons research station that is NOT in a secret location. Even though the military is known to have undetected traitors, the research facility has only 34 soldiers headed by a major of questionable loyalty and no combat experience. Also, even though plain old ship repair facilities have self-destruct devices, the advanced weapons research facility does not. How believable is this?

Rejuvenation drugs were contaminated without detection for years, and key noncommissioned officers are becoming senile. Did they lose liquid chromatograpy-mass spectroscopy analyses in the future? Can we believe that no one performed quality control analyses on such expensive and important drugs for years?

During a political/business/family power struggle, the villains manage to alter (without detection) stock ownership and bank records of key political families, depriving them of almost all assets. This hardly seems possible. It would require hacking into personal financial records, broker records, stock exchange records, and tax records and all their backups at the same time.

I hope future books in this series are better written and less absurd.

My biggest disappointment with this book: I got to spend little time with Esmay Suiza, for whose sake I bought it. But that may not be a problem for other readers, particularly those who've read the Heris Serrano/Esmay Suiza books in order, because "Change of Command" begins a two-book process of bringing this political and family intrigue saga to its conclusion. Do NOT plan to read this one and stop, because you won't find out what happened without reading "Against the Odds" afterward.

What happens in "Change of Command"? Brun Meager goes home after her long captivity, and finds herself changed. She hasn't had time to get her bearings when her father's assassination throws the Familias Regnant into turmoil. Meanwhile, Barin Serrano's rescue of the Ranger families in "Rules of Engagement" is rewarded by Fleet's decision to take his pay - all of it - toward their support, since as far as Fleet is concerned they're not political refugees. They're the ensign's dependents. This complicates the already difficult situation Barin and Esmay face as they plan to marry despite opposition from both powerful families.

Moon's enormous cast of characters overwhelmed me at times, but I seldom had difficulty distinguishing and remembering each character once introduced. This book has some slow "set-up" passages that I found a bit of a slog, but when the action came it was well written and engaged me thoroughly. The uncomfortable questions this series asks set it apart from more conventional coming-of-age and military/political SF tales. What should age and youth offer to each other? Is one more valuable than the other; and if so, why? In our own era of genetic research and leapfrogging medical advances, these are issues it's difficult (if not impossible) for readers to dismiss as belonging only to the far, far future.

Once upon a time Moon wrote a great book, "Once A Hero." Get it and read it. It dealt with the concerns and exciting triumphs of a talented, growing woman of adventure. Then Moon wrote a story billed as a sequel, but which had little to do with Esmay or space adventure; i.e., the subjects than made the first book so interesting. Still, it was well done, about another remarkable woman, and dealt with issues (however, depressing and outside the mainstream)that are important and need to be dealt with. Now we have another supposed sequel, which has little to do with either of the main characters of the prior stories, in fact has no main character, is disjointed, little excitement, and no point. The worse thing is that characters you admired in previous books of the truly enjoyable Heris Serrano series now display stupid values, irrational loyalties, and confusion. The devoted reader feels betrayed. Moon still writes well, but the only interesting activity dealt with a woman taking revenge on the murder of her husband. Even this would have been more satisfying if she has spent less time unnecessarily kissing up to him. This book seems obviously turned out only for the December Xmas market, and only to cash in on fans of her earlier space series books (no one else could find any interest in it). The publisher has simply been dishonest in the cover design and teasers.

A lot people who read this book are baffled as to what exactly Semco and Ricardo Semler are doing that is so revolutionary. My simple answer is this:

They are treating their employees as "adults" and guess what? They are discovering that their employees behave as adults! Wow!

What's hard to understand for most people who are treated at their work as "children" (boss, may I do this, may I do that, etc., etc.), is that they actually behave as "adult-children"? All the resultant effects of the current and dying corporate system are totally predictable: low esteem, no initiative, fear, office politics, mismatch of talents and goals, etc., etc.

This is the revolutionary premise behind the success of what the 21st century "company" will look like.

Seven-Day weekend is the second (English) book by Richardo Semler, the CEO of Semco. Semco is a weird Brazilian company known for it's modern HR practices. The history of Semco and Ricardo Semler was explained well in his first English book: Maverick.

The author makes a point that the workweek has invaded the weekend via internet and email. Now it's time to abandon the standard week/weekend thinking and have weekend whenever we want and have week whenever we want. So we'll have a seven day workweek AND a seven day weekend.

The book is a collection of stories and opinions by Richardo which are organized according to the days of the week. Every day a couple of stories, mostly about Semco but also about other activities in which Richardo was involved in.

Some of the more interesting points and stories are, for example, where the author is questioning the need to always grow. In business it seems to be the purpose of the business to grow bigger. Richardo questions this purpose and asks why this is. Cannot companies stay small and then still be successful?

Seven-day weekend is certainly worth reading. It's a small book it takes maybe a day to read it. Its well written, it keeps you awake and the stories are interesting. Though, I personally found it less interesting than Maverick (which I had read first). If you need to chose between the seven day weekend or Maverick, I'd go for Maverick. If, after Maverick, you still do not have enough of Semler, then the seven-day weekend is for you.

I had read sound bites from Semler over the past few months, but finally got the book and devoured it over a holiday weekend. It did not disappoint. It presents some very non-conventional wisdom that challenges all sorts of corporate policies and norms with the question - why not do it differently? I wrote about several of these insights on my blog (http://creativeoutletlabs.wordpress.com/?s=semler). This book is highly rated as I am reminded frequently of several of the concepts in the books and I have recommended it to many others. You'll love this one!

Jennifer B. Davis
http://jenniferbdavis.blogspot.com

What an amazing story this book recounts. I kept reading of ideas they had and thinking - Well of course that would never work - and then read on to discover that they did indeed make it work. How I wish that all work was this democratic, this inspiring and this creative. When I had finished the book I felt a sense of excitement that the old methods of working, which seem unchangeable, could so easily be discarded. Well done Ricardo Semler and all the people who have helped to make your ideas reality. You are my heroes.

I really enjoyed this book because it seems to be the antithesis of so many standard biz books out there. No ex-consultant in-depth research of "best of breed" or new "growth paradigm" dreamed up by a college professor - just musings from a man who has created just what might be the best case scenario for the future of work.

The book is based upon is Semco, a diversified Brazilian company where Semler is the CEO and whose revenue has grown from $4 million in 1982 to $212 million in 2003. His basic theme is that in order harness the full power and talents of your workers they have to be truly engaged and this means they have the power to pretty much do what they want when the want - as long as it focuses on generating results for the company.

While many of the practices he implements might not work so well in your workplace, they will get you thinking of what might be possible and what we may hopefully be heading towards. Overall his approach is similar to Industrial Democracy whereby workers are involved in making decisions, sharing responsibility, and have equal authority in the company.

Below are just a few of my favorite quips from the book...

- Once you define the business you're in you create boundaries for your employees, you restrict their thinking, and you give them a reason to pass up on opportunities.
- Semco has no official structure, no CFO, no HR, no mission statement, no job descriptions, etc. it is a place where people are just considered adults and get their job done.
- Semco cares about the core of what an employee does for the company, not the boarding school behaviors like what time they came in. But it is sooo hard to give up control. People should be involved to the point they shout "yes"!
- You need to be willing to give up control. Like an entrepreneur who is flexible, intuitive, non-dogmatic, take risks, make money, and have fun.
- You must tap into your workers true talents. The best way for people to feel job satisfaction, to feel passion, is to get them doing their calling so that work is more like fun.
- If an employee has no interest in a product or project then it will never succeed.
- For a company to excel it must put the employees self interest first. An employee who puts his interests first will be motivated to perform.
- Without formal job descriptions people can wander into neighboring work activities without being chased away for trespassing.
- Workplace stress reflects the difference between expectations and reality.
- Unless we click with a worker, unless he latches onto something he is passionate about, our productivity won't be high. Few organizations make an effort to find out whether a person has a calling.
- A mission statement can be a beautiful document, and mostly useless if it is not driven from the bottom up. Mission and vision are just the first step and they mean nothing on their own. You are judged by what you do, not what you say.
- Privileged information is a dangerous source of power in any organization.
- Limit your plans to 6 months. 5 year plans are ridiculous and every 1 year plan has the stuff happening at the end of the year.
- If a discussion on salaries is taboo then what else is off limits? The only source of power in an organization is information, and withholding, filtering, or retaining it only serves those who want to accumulate power.
- It's easy to talk about diversity, tribes, and dissent; but it can be frustrating, slow, and cumbersome. So much easer just to take control and tell people what to do but then you don't get an employee who is inspired to do their best.
- Productivity stagnates when workers are waiting for someone to tell them what to do or following a formal plan.
- In most conventional organizations decisions are made at the top and the rank and file is asked to check their brain at the door which leads to hostile and extremist views among the workers.
- By giving up or sharing control of small nettlesome issues like dress codes, and of graver matters like factory closings and security, management creates a culture of self-government that has more resilience then my way or the highway.
- No one is required to attend any meeting at Semco. Everyone is invited and they can come and go as they wish. If someone isn't interested in a meeting, then their engaged time is spent better somewhere else. This way management knows which projects are worth pursuing.
- A full time employee only needs one requisite, to have a material connection with the heart of the biz. Their job had to be central part of the differentiation between the biz and their competitors. The connection between the biz and the job had to be intrinsic and obvious.
- In a group environment, the only way to get your idea off the ground is to lobby ferociously in favor of it. If no one buys into it, then leave it on the back burner and return to it later.
- The more informed people are, the better they are able to develop and follow their gut instincts.
- Harnessing the wisdom of people, the reservoir of talent. This only comes from freedom, from democracy, from asking why...

Last but not least, Wiki on Ricardo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricardo_Semler

This is a great follow-up to the Process-Experiential book "Facilitating Emotional Change". Well written, and user-friendly, this manual helps to make this approach usable. A therapy book that isn't too theory oriented, which is refreshing.

I would highly recommend it.

This book is a great first read for anyone interested in emotion-focused therapy or experiential therapies in general. It could also be a good read for more intermediate to advanced therapists newer to this area of therapy. It gives some good background on humanistic approaches to therapy and how this approach fits into the larger therapy landscape. The book does a good job of giving just enough theory to tie together the very practical and accessible style in which it is written. Highly recommended. There are suggestions for many further readings at the end of each chapter, which is a useful resource for those looking to delve deeper.

With the electrical wiring around homes and commercial buildings, I'd always wondered about the governing standards used by electricians. How safely did they really do things? So it's reassuring to read this update of the US electrical code. The diagrams are well done, in colour. The clarity of the schematics and of colour photos of equipment like fixtures is commendable. Clearly, the authors are aware that the background of readers will vary widely. Some might be journeyman electricians, who will need clear instructions and diagrams.

The text also demonstrates that the NEC codes are quite thorough. And, as the narrative makes clear, never complete. Every year, revisions are made. While this might not be the computer field, driven by endemic change and obsolescence, here too, innovation happens.

Good Book. It presents the reader with seveal different theories and I learned alot about how change takes takes place in the work place. Overall a good book to read for any leader.

This book would be useful if you do not practice as a manager. It provides an elementary overview. If you are a practitioner, I'd recommend Kotter, Beitler, or Bridges.

This is one of the most useful, accessible and instantly applicable books on change management out there!

It collates quite a few well-published theorems and methodologies in one place, demonstrates the pros and cons of each without going into too much detail, but leaves it to the reader to decide which is appropriate in a given situation and, as a whole, the authors provides you with an unsurpassed collection of tools and models to apply in any given change scenario.

You will find yourself referring back to this again and again.

I'm not sure it made that much sense. I was looking for a more practical book on how to do it - how to design an organization based on the needs.

If you are a practitioner you will not find this book very helpful. It has a number of interesting ideas, but they randomly presented. If you are looking for a more systematic or strategic approach, I'd recommend Beitler's Strategic Organizational Change or Kotter's Leading Change.

If you are looking for insight into a prayer life, you need this book. Becky's zest for the word of God and for prayer come through on every page. Very often as Christians we are not sure how to pray. Even if you don't follow her suggestions for an hour a day prayer time, the time you do spend in converstion with God will be more productive and joyful as a result. Writing prayers and having as set time has made it easier to get out of bed in the morning and face the day with hope and joy.

As I read this book, I became excited about the power of prayer. Becky's enthusiasm just leaps from the pages, you can tell how much her life has changed through her renewed prayer life.

Becky's dynamic personality and easy reading style makes this a great book to buy for yourself or give as a gift. She gives practical suggestions that WORK but is more concerned with you deepening your relationship with God than giving a bunch of to do's that just make you feel guilty. I would rate this one of the top ten Christian books that will really impact your life.

This book is fantastic. I have always prized my prayer life, but I wasn't even really praying until I read this book. Through her own spell-binding story, the great stories of others and practical ideas...Becky convinced me that prayer could change my life. AND IT DID!

Would you like to begin seeing powerful answers to prayer in your life? Would you like a life of excitement and fulfillment? Would you like to REALLY see God changing you from the inside out? Then READ THIS BOOK and use Becky's companion prayer notebook. I can tell you from personal experience, what Becky says about prayer is TRUE!! DON'T MISS OUT!!

As a therapist and as teacher of a graduate level family therapy course, I have used this book for many years. It's 26 years old now, but it remains one of the best therapy books ever. It is full of sound, therapist tested, ultra-practical ideas,and in my experience these ideas really work.

This is not a recent text, published first in 1982, but is one of the BEST on the topic. It explains accurately, with great case examples, the Brief Therapy model developed @ the Mental Research Institute. Am presently in process of developing a doctoral level course for clergy in counseling and will include this text.

I first encountered this classic in the eighties when I was finishing my graduate work and took a course at the Mental Research Institute - the BEST thing I ever did for myself. The tactics the authors describe could appear to be only for therapy, but I've used them in my coaching practice for more than twenty years. It's fundamental to this approach that problems occurring between people are situational difficulties - all parties are doing something to maintain the problem. Also, it's normal and appropriate to resist attempts by another to "fix" us; such so-called resistance is more usefully labeled as a source of energy with positive potential if you can find a way to use it. I have found a way, in business and personal coaching settings. As with all publications in the Jossey-Bass Social and Behavioral Science Series, this text is golden for anyone doing change work at any level: individual, group, or organizational.

North starts his book out emphasizing the important role played in economic development by the uncertainty of the future that impacts the decision makers whose actions will create technological and institutional change over time.This uncertainty is the uncertainty emphasized by Schumpeter,Keynes,Knight,Ellsberg,and Mandelbrot( or mild risk versus wild risk),as opposed to the risk emphasized by neoclassical economics in the form of the standard deviation of a normal probability distribution.Throughout the book North correctly emphasizes uncertainty and not risk as being the environment in which decision makers make choices that will determine future economic growth and change.Unfortunately,North devotes only one small paragraph on p.13 to this vital distinction(uncertainty versus risk).North needs to have spent much more time and pages carefully covering this distinction since it is crucial to understanding the process of economic change .North needs to provide the reader with at least two chapters devoted to covering the risk versus uncertainty topic.The only readers who will benefit from this book would be readers who have already read the relevant works of Knight ,Keynes,Schumpeter,Ellsberg,and Mandelbrot that deal with this topic.I would recommend that a potential reader first cover chapters 7 and 8 of Knight's 1921 book,Risk,Uncertainty and Profit ,and then read chapter 7 on the business cycle from Schumpeter's 1912 book The Theory of Economic Development.North needs to substantially revise the book .His preliminary chapter on cognitive psychology can be filled out more completely once he has added the chapters on uncertainty and its impact on the irreversible nature of investment in long run,long lived, physical,durable capital goods which is " cast in concrete " and essentially irrevocable.

The book's main conjecture can probably be best described backwards: at the end of a number of steps, the political and economic outcomes may be observed. These outcomes are the result of the behavior of a number of relevant actors. Their incentives are structured by the prevailing institutions, which, in North's understanding, consist of formal rules, informal norms, and their enforcement characteristics. Institutions themselves, however, are not exogenously given; they are created by humans who act intentionally. North argues that institutions are created based on the relevant actors' beliefs. If the results of the institutions people create are not as expected, people will update their beliefs--they will learn--and institutional change will continue endlessly. To understand the process of institutional change, then, one must understand how beliefs come into being, receive updating, and form the basis of human action. Such understanding is North's current goal....

North tries to deal with the question by delving into cognitive science. To understand how beliefs are formed and how humans learn, he asserts, we must first understand better how our brains work. Thus, he enters territory where, owing to the academic division of labor, economists are amateurs. However, rather than seriously engaging the relevant issues, he barely scratches the surface. Far from familiarizing the reader with the relevant issues by a thorough survey of recent discussions in cognitive science, he barely mentions two or three competing standpoints and then ends the chapter....

In sum, at the outset of my reading of this book, I hoped to find further substantial progress in the new institutional economics. While reading it, however, I realized that it lacked the rigor of the same author's previous books in this field of research. Instead of offering intriguing new arguments, North repeats questions without offering any real answers.

I think everyone interested in general business, economics or business strategy should read this book. For some a topic as big as the one Professor North is tackling here might require thousands of pages and a great deal of analytical complexity.

Most students of economics recognize Nobel Prize winner Douglass North and his work. As a specialized student of management, finance and accounting, I am not qualified to analyze the work in relation to its place in the professional field of economics -- although I understand its intentions and direction. My review rather focuses on the relevance of Professor North's statement in this book as a guide for my students of corporate strategy, business policy, finance and accounting; including as well my many clients in executive positions and the practice of law.

The systems view of economic change provided by Professor North casts light on long-term organizational thinking and helpful to our search for corporate and business strategy models in the increasingly efficient capital market environment revealed by modern financial economics.


More to follow....

this is a really good prayer book, it helps a lot helps you get closer to jesus.

This is an excellent book for those who are interested in a deeper prayer life. I received this book as a gift from a friend and it totally transformed my prayer life. At first I thought how on earth could I find the time to spend one hour each day in prayer. Yet as I committed myself to this time with Our Lord becaure of my desire to have have a deeper realtionsip with Him, I found that instead of one hour I was easily spending two hours and more in His Presence. Ms. Schubert's method of prayer is simple but very effective because she covers all the essentials of true praye. I have recommended this book to my prayer group members and have given several copies to others who have indicated an interest in praying more effectively. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to transform their prayer life.

This book teaches you different kinds of prayer to deepen your faith. You will feel such peace when using this book that you will want to pray more than an hour. It gives specific suggestions and examples of how to pray that is very helpful.

Annointed, and beautifully written. I use it morning after morning, when the Lord wakes me up. Now much of it has penetrated my heart, and I can pray anywhere, with or without the book. It seems to cover everything. Nothing is left out. My walk with the Lord has deepened with this special book.

This book is a wonderful display of how to pray effectively. It touches on all the strong points of prayer. I needed this book. I just got done with my first hour with this book. Actually, it was a hour and a half. I feel at peace with God. I look forward to a deeper meaning of my prayer life with the guidance of this book.