change Books

I really loved this book! Really learned so much about change...thinking I knew all that was needed...so wrong. Thanks to this author! Great read!

This book is about more than allowing God to change you. It is about hearing His voice in the scriptures. This is a book that changed my life and helped me to really hear God for myself.

We can spend a lot of time trying to get other people to do what is right. Sometimes we can accomplish that better by focussing only on our own walk.

This book will change your life and improve your spiritual walk with God. It has helped me deal with difficult situtions in my life in manner which is pleasing to God. I used it as a bible study in a prayer group and it changed all our lives. I hight recommend this book.

I received this book as a gift and I've read it (many times over). I've used it as a basis for women's classes and I have recommended it to many friends. It is one of the finest books written on the subject. It doesn't matter if you've just come to faith in Christ today or if you've been saved for thirty years, you will be able to understand and apply this book in practical ways. The Word of God relates to us at whatever level we come to it. The foundation of this book is the Word of God and that is the reason you'll relate to it personally. If you make this one of the first books you read when you begin your journey with Jesus, then the journey itself will take on a whole new dimension. It will take you closer to Jesus and you'll enjoy your walk with Him.

The author focuses on the crucial fact that we are unable to change anyone but ourselves. She stresses that God has given each of us a purpose and by reading and studying His word, we find His will for our lives. By changing our lives the way God wants us to, His love spills out from us to those around us. She also explains that nothing compares to God's wisdom (compared to sensual, earthly or demonic influences on our lives) and we must be careful to scrutinize any influences by His word. This book will open your eyes to the importance of going to the Bible first and not relying on our own "I thinks". I highly recommend this book. It's truly a life changer if the principles are applied!

I first heard a lecture by Victor Papanek about 20 years ago, shortly before this revised edition was released. He was a very impressive speaker, drawing from a seemingly bottomless well of ecological design ideas. His work has taken him far and wide and in the process allowed him to revamp many of his views on environmental design. This book is an extensively updated version of his seminal book on the subject. It has become a bit dated in the 20 years since its release, especially in regard to computer software design. But, most of the material he covers is still relavent to the present, as we have only begun to scratch the surface of sound ecological ideas.

Having read the more recent books on ecological design by Sim Van Der Ryn and William McDonough, I was surprised to see that neither mentioned Papanek, who prefigured many of the ideas they present in their current books. Papanek long ago advocated the lease/use principle, which makes much more sense in a rapidly changing technological world than does the buy/own principle that continues to dominate our social thinking. Papanek notes the many cultural and psychological blocks we have created for ourselves when it comes to ecological design, but also illustrates how we can overcome these blocks with methods such as bisociation, first proposed by Arthur Koestler. But, what really makes this book stand out are the great number of illustrations that Papanek uses to demonstrate his ideas. This is one of the most practical books written on environmental design.

While Papanek was an industrial designer, his ideas are equally germaine to the field of architecture and biology. He advocated a multi-disciplinary approach, feeling that our universities had become too compartimentalized and were stifling creativity, which needs cross-pollination in order to thrive. The book is as inpiring as his lectures. Papanek challenges the reader to explore new avenues, not continue to follow the status quo, which only results in creative dead-ends.

Papanek, like his mentor Fuller, took on a guru like status where rhetoric became more important than the reality. He bends facts and contradicts himself several places in this book.

Here are a few that jumped out at me

Misrepresentation of the facts -

Page 89 - The Hyatt collapse wasn't bad design rather the builder changed the construction and inspectors weren't doing their job.

281 - He talks about farm implement companies' negative reaction to his walking tractor proposal. Troy-Bilt Rototiller has around since 1937, was and is building a 10 HP tiller very similar to the one pictured.

Contradicts himself -

Page 6 he says, "Design must be meaningful. And meaningful replaces such semantically loaded expressions as ... "ugly"... "cute"...

Page 93 - he describes gum as "tawdry

Page 246 - He asserts that humidifiers are bad because they are "costly, ugly, and ... wasteful of water"

Granted there are a lot of dangerous, overpriced, impractical, and generally unnecessary products on the market, but except for ranting about what he considers to be wrong, he doesn't offer much in terms of direction to others who want to be socially responsible.

one of the best books on design ethics till date!

I first spotted this book while studying in Denmark last year, where my host parents had studied under Victor Papanek. I would have studied under him at the University of Kansas, if not for his untimely and unfortunate passing. This book is one of the best books on the principles and ethics of design. It illustrates both the designer's responsibility and the potential to affect real change in the world through design. This most renowned of works by Papanek focuses on industrial design in two parts: How It Is, and How It Could Be. Papanek encourages radical thinking in design, and most of the topics in the book are easily translated to architecture. To my knowledge, reading this book has never been a required part of the core curriculum at the School of Architecture and Urban Design here at KU, but in my opinion, it should be.

It has been many years since I read this important book. I hope this book will be made a compulsory read for all design students. If only more designers would adopt Mr Papanek's approach to socially-responsible design, the world will be a much better place to live in.

This was the first book I read by Antonin Artaud.
I was really moved by this man and he helped me
realize that one could an outsider yet still
remain in centricity of culture. I don't know
alot of it went over my head I guess but the
man is extremely interesting and offers neat
challenges to his time and to the reader.

that's the best way to put it: like condensed Proust. De Nerval's stories of place, love, and memory have found a permanent place in my heart. As other reviewers have noted, these stories seem the very definition of romanticism-- an unexpected quality in a writer often remembered most for his madness, eccentricity, and ultimately, suicide.

this edition by Exact Change Press is also worth remarking upon: the paper feels great, the design is perfect... hmm, running out of synonyms for "good."

all in all, a great volume by a lesser-known master.

I love Nerval's voice and his lush dreamy nostalgia. Many of these pieces are like looking at a Rococo painting and there's many of the classic Romantic themes, love of nature, nostalgia for a lost idyllic past and lost youth. I love literary surrealism so Aurelia was right up my alley but it has a more spiritual vibe which seems lacking in more modern surrealist works. After reading Nerval I can see why the surrealists considered themselves the prehensile tail of Romanticism.

simultaneously one of the saddest and most hopeful books i have ever read, this is an account of gerard de nerval's descent into insanity and his frantic search for something beyond what the positivists offer, a "spirit world". nerval obsesses over an actress who barely knew he existed, idealizing her to a seriously nutty point--but during all this he visits funerals, graveyards other places, apparently believing he is in touch with something metaphysical. i read this book awhile ago but i do remember his reference to his rejection by the woman, aurelia:"one's only option after these kinds of events is whether to die or go on living." touching, mystical, and sad.

Because this book shows what a real romantic means beyond the common meaning of "being in love". Because De Narval is a Romantic, he behaves trying to be the center of everything, no matter the price or the pride. He loves as a tool to make women move around him. His dreams are an extension of his life, so he can live any dream as real because the memorie of the real is the same as the memorie of the dream.

Do you want to change the education system or just improve your teaching? This book is for you.

In this short book (83 pages), Donna Walker Tileston had distilled the essential elements 10 research-based teaching practices that will transform student achievement. You will learn how to incorporate brain research findings of Eric Jensen and others with learning styles and learning standards to create a framework for teaching any subject area.
Each chapter includes a list of assessment tools and indicators of success. This is very helpful in developing powerful learning lessons and applying the 10 practices in the classroom.

This book is my teaching bible. It is helping me become the teacher my students need and want. Put this one next to Harry Wong's, 1st Days of School, Fay and Funk's, Teaching with Love and Logic. Essential for every new teacher. This is a book you will wear out.

This book has some very interesting facts about teaching and will be a great asset to any new or older teachers library. It gives new ideas about the changing times of children and the way they should be taught.

If you've been working with organizational change for decades, as I have, and have been frustrated by trying to convince upper management of the importance of the human factor in change processes, this book goes a long way to relieving that frustration. In fact,I'm planning on stocking up on copies to give as gifts.
Marshak makes it very clear why applying yet another logical argument will not reduce resistance to change. The prism model he and Judy Katz developed makes it easier to identify multiple perspectives and entry points into any change.Clear examples, lists, and processes for understanding and incorporating the human face of change round out this well-written book.

Hidden agendas, office politics and underlying assumptions can all work against attempts to restructure an organization to be more effective, so you need Covert Processes at Work: Managing the Five Hidden Dimensions of Organizational Change to understand these processes. Each chapters offers specific tools addressing specific processes and typical problems, blending case history examples with surveys of covert blocking factors, problems in addressing them, and maintaining focal points of change. Any business manager needs COVERT PROCESSES AT WORK.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Ah, if only the global leaders would read Marshak's book, Covert Processes at Work. Anyone who is a change agent, and that includes managers, consultants, community organizers, CEOs, and yes, Prime Ministers/Presidents should read this book. Why? Have you ever lived in an organization where you are being so rational but can't understand why no one is following your suggestions? This book explains how to go about seeing what is not there (under the table). Have you ever thought that the metaphors people use could be a gateway to gaining clarity? Dr. Marshak explains how this can be done. It provides a framework on how to handle politics and much more. In the chaotic and terrifying world we live in, Bob provides a roadmap to help us to become better interveners with an emphasis on ethics and experience. Every chapter has an application on how it is done in the real world. Buy this book now!

Explores the unseen, unspoken and unacknowledged processes and psychodynamics of organization behavior at the individual and group levels, including hidden agendas, blind spots, politics, mindsets, values, and individual reasoning and motivation, both conscious and unconscious, that account for behaviors, particularly regarding organizational change.

Beyond explaining, the author also tackles the challenge of identifying and addressing these hidden processes. Central to the book is an integrated framework or model for identifying overt and covert dimensions of organizational change and behavior and revealing the sources and manifestations of covert processes.

Much emphasis is placed on diagnosis of these covert processes, but over half the book focuses on how to engage, manage and address these hidden dynamics. Additionally, a chapter is devoted to reframing the reader's ideas about organizational politics. All of this rich content provides the 'thinking tools' needed to achieve desired results.

Anyone involved in leadership, or organizational analysis and change--which, as change consultants as well as reviewers, we are--will find this a fascinating, outstanding book that sheds much light upon the dark undercurrents of organizational life.

For the first time, we have a road map to help consultants and managers make discussable anything and everything that has long been considered undiscussable. Move over Chris Argyris. In deceptively simple prose, grounded in the best academic thinking on change management, Marshak presents a brilliant yet amazingly practical model of covert processes at work. No organizational change initiative can afford to ignore the power of unconscious dynamics among executives, managers, and employees. With this book in hand, your chances of success have just shot up a hundred fold.

Great book! Has a wonderful history of fundraising element to it that I was not expecting. It really is fantastic to feel as if the work you are doing for a non-profit is really making a difference, doing things Egger's way will get you there.

As a person inexperienced with community foundations or nonprofit organizations and now on a foundation committee, I found Mr. Egger's book to be colorful, amusing, down to earth and imminently practical. To think that someone in the seemingly shallow entertainment business could turn around and use his knowledge to change nonprofits and foundations into dynamic enterprises with enthusiastic participants at all levels is exremely inspiring.

Egger dismisses the work of fundraising revolutionaries like Dan Pallotta without really understanding what Pallotta was about. With Egger's "vision" non-profits would stay small, pay their workers miserly wages, and the next generation of fundraisers would be wise to look for better paying work. Pathetic lack of fundraising innovation.

Egger's book is an excellent combination of facts, cause-effect logic and practical suggestions on how to make charity much more life-changing for the recipients. As a Hurricane Katrina victim, I know first hand how little meaningful help comes from big not-for-profits and government. The system is crying for reform. Eggers has an approach that works better than many current ones. People in positions of authority need to listen and change behaviors.

Eighty-four Americans volunteer with a charity, and $200 billion is contributed every year. "Begging for Change" summarizes Robert Egger looking back on his experiences (first running successful night clubs, then a non-profit kitchen and training program) and offering his critique of the $800 billion non-profit world in general.

A key Egger point is that non-profits need to ask: "Are you perpetuating a cycle of need and dependency?" Today charity is governed by innumerable individuals and their egos, many of which are "business-as-usual" career do-gooders who've never run their own company. Many duplicate each others' services and fight each other for funding. They talk of how many were fed or sheltered, but not about how many got out of dependency.

There now are more than 1.5 million non-profits, and their latest evolution is to "realize" that they have to pay those at the top well to attract good people. Thus, in D.C. there are about 25,000 non-profits, requiring over $1.5 billion just for CEO and executive director salaries! Yet, over 70% have revenues less than $500,000/year, and neither government nor Adam Smith's "Invisible Hand" act to make those that are ineffective go away. Many should.

In addition, there is the needless complexity added by multiple funding sources and their frequent "strings." One non-profit gets its $20 million from 161 sources - think of all the attention required to mind all those masters!

Egger started a training program for cooks, food-handlers, and servers - thus, both offering them a "hand-up" (instead of just a "hand-out") and substantially reducing the need for full-time assistants. Many fail, but many more succeed; even a substantial number of those that fail initially (drug tests, absences) reform, come back, and later complete the program.

Another important Egger point is that companies interested in helping the poor should first focus on paying their own employees well enough so that they can succeed, rather than paying them so little that they cannot succeed and then wondering how to help others that are downtrodden.

Another Egger innovation was to realize that local catering services were always being leaned on by non-profits to provide deeply discounted services. Egger offered to take that business over with his staff in training - and thus relieved them of a burden while providing his trainees with an important opportunity to demonstrate their talents first-hand to society's higher-ups. He also briefly illustrates examples where organizations provide for-profit services while focusing on hiring those with checkered or limited backgrounds.

Egger points out that the aging Baby Boom will soon provide a test of our social services as they move into old age and increasingly require more services.

Finally, Egger suggests that "more" is not always "better." For example, if his organization held a fund-raiser to renovate or acquire new facilities, that would deplete resources available in the community for other needy organizations.

Egger's examples of systems thinking and sacrifice by those at the top (Egger took only a $50,000 salary while heading the D.C. United Fund) should be taken to heart by all non-profits (especially the Red Cross) and the government (with its many overlapping and conflicting programs).

When I do something purposefully meaningful to benefit another person I might call it "life-changing"...but when something has happened to ME as a result of someone elses' effort I announce it triumphantly as ... "enlightening"..."freeing"..."illuminating"..."life-giving"

Arterburn comes alongside the reader in a non-threatening, non-preachy way...sharing his own experiences, obervations and God-given beliefs. His wise and witty style encourages the reader to feel emotionally safe as well as positively challenged towards emotional health. This book came at the right time for me....I was truly sick and tired of being sick and tired...God used Arterburn to speak hope into my abused heart and new breath into my tired lungs.

If you are like me and have been prayed for, prayed over, and even annointed with oil...and yet the next day still find yourself closeted in emotional secret darkness and confusion.............this can be the key that opens the door. Halleluia ! FREE AT LAST FOR REAL

Reframing is a process of looking at the events of our lives from a new, broader perspective. It's based on the idea that the way we think, feel and act, and what we believe about ourselves & others is based on the frames we put around our life experiences - and by changing the frame, we consequently impact our current and future thoughts, feeling and actions in a positive way.

In "Reframe Your Life: Transforming Your Pain into Purpose", Mr. Arterburn explains the process of reframing - how to do it and why you would want - as well as the barriers that keep many people stuck in the same old patterns, even when those patterns are unfulfilling and hurtful. His use of quite a few examples, many of them personal, served to bring his point home even more.

Three things you should be aware of before buying this book:

1. It is an excellent resource for reframing

2. More emphasis is put on reframing major traumas vs. everyday stressors

3. It's very Christian-oriented, with scripture being either quoted or
alluded to in every chapter. Now, this isn't a "bad" thing, but I
realize that it may be a turn-off to some readers, so I think it's
important to mention.

Overall, I found this book to be a great resource for reframing, and would recommend it to those who are ready to let go of the past & change their future in positive ways.

This is an excellent, accessible book which introduces the Enneagram. Emphasis is on understanding how you can use knowledge of your type for personal growth. Affirmations and releases for each type hone in on the work each of us needs to do in order to push into our growing edges.

This is one of the "odd" little books residing in my self-awareness library. Yes, I do own this book. Don Riso is well known as one of the world's foremost experts on the Enneagram and he has written some of my most used books on the topic, but this slim volume (130 pages in mass-market paperback size)is quite a departure from his normal style. Gone are the deep psychological analyses of personality types and their behavioral patterns-- replaced by a set of 25 single-sentence statements (16 "Releases" and 9 "Affirmations") for each of the nine Enneagram types. There's also a final section with "general" affirmations relevant to all types.

And that's about it, folks.

So who would really benefit from this book? Well, if you're looking to learn about the Enneagram, this is NOT a good book. Get yourself Riso & Hudson's "Personality Types," instead. However, if you're already a student or fan of the Enneagram-- and are interested in some self-exploration/self-improvement in addition to learning-- this would probably be of interest, as it is a nice companion to more "scholarly" texts. If you're someone who enjoys daily affirmations as motivation-- and you do KNOW your Enneagram type, but *don't* care about the system, otherwise-- this might also be a good book for you, since the affirmations are accurately matched to your particular personality type and will seem remarkable "relevant."

Essentially, this is not much of an "Enneagram book," rather, it is a somewhat lightweight "self-help book." The real question you have to ask yourself is whether or not you're willing to pay "the price of admission" to get 25 "motivational insights," well matched to your particular personality.

Final thoughts: Recommended (8 out of 10 possible bookmarks), but only for the SPECIFIC audience outlined above. Otherwise-- to paraphrase Obi-Wan-- "This is NOT the book you're looking for."

I've had this book for years and have found it very useful. I'm not generally fond of the 'self-affirmations' approach to self help. But, the affirmations suggested here are truly on-target for your own enneagram type. A nice bedside table book. Read one page and you will take with you deep thoughts for a day.

I really think this information should have been included in one of Riso and Hudson's other books...For example it would have fit well into "The Wisdom Of The Enneagram: The complete guide to psychological and spiritual growth for th nine personality types."

I think that an individual who is already aquainted with the enneagram and who strongly benefits from the use of affirmations can get something out of this book...But otherwise I don't feel its worth the purchase.

This is a nice little book of affirmations to help one overcome one's enneagram compulsion. I know people who use it, and have even recorded the affirmations in their own voices to begin or to end their day. I like to go over it, however, this approach does not work for me personally. I highly reccommend it to anyone who listens to tapes, likes to repeat and has time for this. It's not for everyone, but for those who benefit from affirmations it will be a constant companion.

This book was a very enlighting experience. And now I look a people with any disease in a new eye opening light. It was very well written, and Lee Thomas seems like a wonderful man and person.

i brought four books with me to detroit over the christmas holiday, but picked this book up at a border's when i took my daughter there to get a book for school. its cover grabbed my eye (great cover), and i noticed it was under a "local author" sign. lee thomas, the author, is a detroit area news anchor. this is the story of his wrestle with vitiligo (pronounced vih-til-EYE-go), a skin disease where one's pigment disappears, over time. apparently, 1 - 2% of the population have this (according to the book), but it's hardly noticeable on people with lighter skin tones. of course, for an african american, like thomas, it means he's "turning white."

it's a compelling issue, and seems to set the mind wandering on a multitude of questions and issues, like:
- what does it mean to the identity of a black man to slowly turn white?
- what if that black man makes his living in a context that is constantly focused on his face, and broadcasting that face to millions of people?
- what role does any of our skin color play in our identity? what's the interplay of skin color, enculturation, and other factors?
- would it be better for the author (or another with the same disease) to suddenly and completely change skin color, or to gradually change, in splotches (it's not a gradual overall lightening, but more like growing patches of whiteness)?

unfortunately, the book doesn't address any of these questions. to thomas's credit, he says right from the start, that this is a book about a black man's skin, and not at all about race. but i was frustrated, on almost every page, by his unwillingness to go there. it seemed like an opportunity squandered, to address race from a completely different place. it was either a cop-out, an overly careful political-correctness (career cautiousness), or simplicity that would lead one to omit what could have been something so central to the issue (or, at least, that's what i was thinking as i read).

also, the book is horribly written and edited. really, i haven't seen a book go to print in a long time that is this poorly written and edited (and i've come, given my role, to blame that primarily on the editing, not the author -- some can write and some can't, but an editor's job is to not let the author reveal that he's a crappy writer).

so, yes, the book was deeply dissatisfying on multiple levels. but, somehow, i'm still glad i read it, because it's a real guy's story, dealing with a real life issue, that has all kinds of implications that caused me to think (whether the author was willing to think about those issues or not).

It was an interesting experience to learn how affect this illness to other persons. However, I thought I could find a method or medicine to cure vitiligo and it did not happen. Personally, I have had not that experience and I learned how to leave with it. What it really worries me is that lack of pigmentation makes you very vulnerable to the sun. In other words your skin gets burn when you are exposed for a long time to the sun.

This book is very well written and definitely from the heart. Mr. Thomas is an inspiration and his story is uplifting and full of hope for anyone struggling with Vitiligo. How wonderful of him to have brought this disease to the forefront to help foster understanding.

Only if we as people of this world can think like Lee Thomas, "Just Live!". The last paragraph of the book says it all; "We need each other to survive. I will never give up on loving life or sharing it with people." This book is very thought provoking, honest and informative.