There are many books on the change process but few address the learning that must occur by those who are changed. DiBella and Nevis provide a tool for you to analyze the learning capability of your organization, as well as to help you identify those learning leverage points that need to be tweaked for the organization to achieve its goals.

In my quest to learn about organizational learning, I have probably read the majority of what has been written on this topic. I have found this book by Anthony DiBella and Edwin Nevis to be the most useful in providing insights to capacity development while building on some solid theoretical foundations.

The authors build on the work of giants in organizational development, but their approach is considerably more pragmatic, consistent with the movement of organizational theorists to link their work to practice. They describe the importance of involved leadership and provide examples of how that would look. They note the difficulty of linking specific outcomes to learning inputs, because of the time lags that exist. They note that "learning itself becomes transparent over time, and we fail to recognize what we have learned or accomplished" (DiBella & Nevis, 1998, p. 199). Another feature is the acknowledgment that leadership is not vested in a single individual but rather "is exhibited both vertically and horizontally throughout any organization" (p. 76), a view that is espoused by enlightened leadership writers and valued by employees around the world.

They present organizational learning as a learning cycle, consistent with the beliefs of other theorists and practitioners. By using the learning cycle as a foundation, the authors set up a model of organizational learning as a continuous process, similar to continuous quality improvement processes or the widely recognized experiential learning model of David Kolb.

The authors respond to an identified need for tools to measure organizational learning and offer a variety of methods by which organizations can be analyzed and improved. Their model is grounded in theory, but it offers tools for translating the theory into organizational practice.

In addition to providing a meaningful model, describing organizational learning styles, and identifying facilitating factors (those factors that could be changed to enhance organizational learning capacity), the authors offer practical advice on how to enhance the factors that contribute to more productive organizational learning.

The DiBella/Nevis model is the most concrete and complete of all of the organizational learning resources reviewed. Unlike most of the writings about organizational learning, there is a research base, a research tool, and guidance on planning organizational interventions.

Their model makes sense with what we understand about learning. It also makes sense with what we know about the way organizations work. And helping organizations learn makes sense for individuals and society.

Director of the Center for Learning, Northwestern Michigan College

I am an organization consultant and have found DiBella and Nevis's book very useful. For instance, they provide a practical framework for assessing learning in teams. This book lacks the usual faddish gibberish surrounding learning organizations. I believe this book is significant, particularly for trainers and consultants. I chose this book to review in-depth for Training Media Review magazine. Solid, useful conceptual presentation.

This book has valuable lessons about life and can help one explore their own world.

I'm writing this in hopes that Mr. Day will come along and hopefully give me a HH this tri for pumping up his book.

Anthony Day teaches my english class at school. He is a good teacher, but this book is amazingly provacative. These parables are true to the stories of life and of growing up.

In this book two girls are competing agaist each other. One sells lemonade to beat the other at getting more money. But one has a ugly sign and the other has a nice one. They don't know what to do. Well, if you want to hear more about this book you should read it!
This book is the best book ever. If I could read this book again I would. This book was so splendid. If you already have a book, when you are finished check this one out!

I loved these books when I was little. This was one of my favouriites. It's a fantastic childrens book. It has symbolism, suspense, it's very descriptive, has a good plot, and conflict. Many things which are important in a book.

This book is very good.I've read it about 11 times.

Dunbar's plots are often zany but Tubby Dubonnet is a purely lovely man and I look forward to reading each new book about him. Makes me want to live in New Orleans just so I could run into him occasionally. Or Dunbar. Whatever.

This is the sixth Tubby Dubonnet book and we all know by now that these books are not about the plot; they're about drawing a picture of a certain New Orleans way of looking at life. What to eat is a very important part of that (and I'll get to that in a moment), but in this book we see something else.

Tubby's view of New Orleans is generally that area that stretches from the French Quarter to Riverbend. Even though it's a decidedly friendlier (read richer, whiter, safer) view of the world than most New Orleanians have, sometimes a deep weariness sets in. Tubby is thinking for many New Orleanians when he reflects on the pervasive trash in the streets, the cops double parked on St. Charles Avenue while attending to personal errands, and the general aversion toward doing an honest day's work. This is truly the city that forgot to care. Tubby, in his mind, was "crossing a bridge and leaving New Orleans behind." (Many have claimed that the best view of the city is the one you see in your rear view mirror, and I am not unsympathetic to that idea.) But Tubby is obviously locked in. No other state has laws like Louisiana; a lawyer can't just get another job somewhere else. But luckily for Tubby, no other place has restaurants like New Orleans. So here's where and what Tubby ate in this book:

Liuzza's - Appetizers were andouille gumbo, 4 shrimp, and 2 oysters each. Tubby had baked garlic oysters; his companion had barbequed shrimp.

Red Fish Grill - sweet potato catfish; andouille meat pie.

State Street Café - a bucket of boiled crabs, shrimp, crawfish, and potatoes.

Upperline Restaurant, JoAnn Clevenger's cheerful yellow cottage with giant Martin LaBorde paintings hanging above the front door. It was mentioned, deservedly so, in an earlier book as well - Appetizers: fried green tomatoes with shrimp remoulade; spicy shrimp with jalapeno corn bread. Entrees: roast duck, garlic-crusted Gulf fish, veal grillades with mushrooms, peppers, and cheddar grits.

Readers will have noticed that oysters frequently figure prominently in Tubby's meals. In an earlier book, Tubby stopped at a po'boy shop on Magazine Street (probably the one right across the street from the N.O. Academy of Fine Arts, and just a couple of blocks from Beaucoup Books, where Tony Dunbar books are always in stock). Watching the cook prepare his fried oyster sandwich, he "was thinking that oysters were really sort of unappealing when you met one by itself. The moon rock shell might be as big as your hand, and stuck fast to all manner of barnacles and calcified sea life. Grab it firmly and it would likely slice the heck out of your fingers. It took a character with a strong wrist and stout blade to open one, and then what you had was a moist pale creature void of form. Yet he could think of no superlatives adequate to describe the pleasures of consuming one." Now that's writing!

I have some predictions for forthcoming Tubby Dubonnet books: In "Lucky Man," there is a minor character named Frank Daneel. I predict that Tubby will meet him and someone named Greg Soniat for dinner at Gautreau's Restaurant. Clancy's, with its enormous selection of single malt scotches, is due for an appearance. My long shot prediction (because Mr. Dunbar loves to poke some fun) is a mention of the chocolate desert bar in the revolving restaurant atop the Hyatt.

I love the Tubby Dubonnet Mysteries. Tony Dunbar hits the nail on the head every time with his great New Orleans discriptions. Regional fiction is so enjoyable, especially if you've ever lived in an area that is written about.

You know who he is borrowing his characters from, you know where he is in the city and you can just feel the weather. There is no other place quite like New Orleans. It is really a seedy old city with it's own characters that would be hard to make up. Dunbar is as affectionate with his great characters as John Kenedy Toole was with Ignatius J. Reilly.

His stories are terrifically entertaining.

This seems to be pretty much aimed at the pre-teen market as an introduction to the character around the time of the TV series, but is useful to educate those of any age about the title character of the upcoming movie. You will notice that the original Hulk is a paltry 7 feet tall, not the 12 foot movie CGI. Anyway, the book reprints the three parts of the first Hulk comic book along with two later key episodes so that any not totally familiar with the character's development can catch up.

This book does *not* reprint the first 6 Hulks -- I have it, and it covers the first 3 parts of Hulk #1 (with the Hulk recolored green rather than his original gray), then jumps forward to two more contemporary (for the time) Hulk tales -- Roy Thomas' and Herb Trimpe's Hulk clash with the Absorbing Man from HULK #125, then Roger Stern & Sal Buscema's trip inside the Hulk's mind from HULK #227. Along with text passages in between. Makes a great read if you can find it.

This book is a large format (magazine size) reprint of the old Hulk issues (#1-6). I saw this book at a con, and probably never will see it again, but resisted the urge to buy it.
The quality of the pages is good--but you'd probably be better off trying to get a copy of the same material in a Marvel Masterworks hardcover.
I gave the book a "10"--not for this particular edition--but for Hulk #1-6. Some of the best comics ever!

I am an experienced police investigator having worked for over 20 years in the field of surveillance and undercover tactics. The book covers basic principles in respect to these tactics but uses old methodology. The book makes reference to American legislation and therefore a lot of the book is irrelevant to Australian enforcement procedures. If you are just getting started in the industry the book would be helpful but I would look for an Australian alternative first.

This is a very important book in my library, Thank you

This book is essential reading for any person entering the Investigations field. The information provided is realistic, down to earth and absolutely tried and proven.

Many current Investigators would be well served by reading this book.

I teach Investigators in Brisbane, Australia and will advise my students to purchase and read this book.

I came across Fanny Kemble during a chance visit to a Georgia plantation on the Altamaha River, near Butler Island, where Fanny wrote her journal. An acclaimed Shakespearean actress born into a theatrical family, she had been touring America with her father when she met Pierce Butler, a wealthy member of Philadelphia society with possessions in the South. He courted her with such persistence that she finally agreed to give up her career and marry him. (Needless to say, Philadelphia society did not smile upon the union.) After the birth of two daughters, she persuaded Pierce to take her and the children to Butler Island, where she learned firsthand about the source of the family's wealth: hundreds of slaves worked in the rice paddies on Butler Island and in the cotton fields on St. Simon's Island, where the prized long-fiber Sea Island cotton was grown.

Fanny had been in contact with New England abolitionists and was well aware of the slave problem; but she was unprepared for the appalling conditions she found in the slave quarters, in the fields, and especially in the infirmary. She prevailed on her husband to mitigate the harsh rules imposed by the overseer, procured blankets for the infirmary and sewing material for the women; taught them to make clothes and take care of their babies; and even tried to teach some of them to read - which was, of course, frowned upon. She found that some of the slaves were skilled craftsmen and suggested that they should be paid for their work like any artisan.

An accomplished horsewoman and energetic walker, she also learned to row a boat so she could explore, unchaperoned, the coastal waterways. Her unconventional, spirited life style drew reprimands from her husband, but earned her the respect and admiration of the slaves.

The journal she kept on Butler Island gives a lively account of her daily routine. For those who imagine the lives of southern plantation owners along the lines of Hollywood movies, this book provides a healthy dose of reality. With an outsider's keen and critical eye, she chronicled her own involvement in a dark chapter of American history. She did not publish the journal until 1863, when she was divorced from Pierce and had returned to England. It came out just before the battle of Gettysburg and may have influenced public opinion in England which had been drifting toward favoring the South.
Today, the Butler plantation no longer exists; but neighboring "Hofwyl" gives a visitor a fairly good impression of what plantation life may have been like before and after the Civil War.

I purchased this book from Amazon in September but just managed to finish it this weekend. Why the delay? The book is a hard and melancholic read. In page after page Fanny Kemble narrates the abomination and sheer evil of slavery. We are introduced to folks who pious in their ways and beliefs show absolutely no compassion or outrage towards sanctioned barbarism. There is the case of one little girl who cannot conceive or imagine the notion that she can be a free woman. Then there is the sanctimonious Mr. Butler who is supposed to be a "good massa" to the chattel that is his property. I cannot begin to chronicle the innumerable injustices done to fellow humans.

But then in the midst of this filth there is a bright shinning light. That light is Fanny. This brave and intellignet lady fought against big odds to somewhat improve the plight of the slaves on her husband's plantation. Often not taken seriously, or worse treated condescendingly, Fanny nevertheless kept at it.

The first five chapters are a delight to read. They narrate her journey to the plantation along with her experiences at stops along the way. But from then on be prepared for a long sad book. This is an important book that deserves your attention. The next time I visit one of those beautiful antebellum mansions with the aroma of magnolia's in the air I will remember the cost of human lives wasted. I will remember Fanny.

Fanny Kemble Butler was a remarkable woman. In a time, circumstance, and place which precluded her following her life's dream, she settled down into marriage with Pierce Butler, who had adamantly and ardently pursued her hand. She left a very successful career as an actress and gave up, for a time and at her husband's request, her ambition and even her beliefs. She strove to make this marriage work and to "save her husband's soul," when she discovered, after the marriage, the actual source of her husband's family's income, the rice plantations that lay in Georgia. They had two children together before she finally persuaded him to allow her to visit his Georgia rice plantations, where hundreds of negro slaves labored to support the family's wealthy lifestyle in New England. Fanny's heartfelt pleas to free the negroes not only fell on her husband's deaf ears, but he eventually forbade her to even tell him of their plight, and even went so far as to forbid her to continue the practice of helping out in their infirmary. Still, the slaves of her husband's two plantations temporarily benefitted from her visit, which must have been like a ray of light in a very dark existence. The stories speak for themselves, and Fanny makes it her duty to record every one in the slaves' own voices. This book affected me deeply, especially when I read of Fanny's eventual unhappy divorce from her husband, whom she still loved, and her enforced separation from her children. Scholarly reading for every student of the nineteenth century, in the subjects of enslavement, the plight of married women, and general attitudes toward women and slavery by men in power and the common people.

The book's jacket design is so inviting; however, inside its messages are confusing. This is primarily because of the way in which the material is presented. All text is handwritten, making it difficult to scan and read quickly (for this reader). There are many arrows and much cross-hatching. Reproductions of masterworks are dull and do not convey any of the power of the originals (and these comprise a large segment of the book). The format reminds me of an adventure book in which the reader must track the characters or plot through various segments using maps and arrows. The content is interesting once it is deciphered, but that was the problem: I felt as if I were deciphering a treasure map. Yes, a "treasure" map, because the book does offer good information. I did not have the patience to read it through, and prefer something more to the point with more clarity in the layout. For some reason, I think those who love Tolkein (_Hobbit_ and _Lord of the Rings_) and Adams (_Watership Down_) who want to learn more about painting would probably love this approach. I wonder if that's the case...

This book was excellent. Done in a handwriiten style with many colored drawings, it tells about all media, techniques, and history of art. No matter what your medium is, you should enjoy it!

I have never before seen a book on art like this one. It is a fascinating tour of art history - from prehistory to the modern day, as well as a highly accessible "how to" guide for people of all skill levels who have any desire to create art. The authors are so clever in the way they simplify what otherwise seems to the layperson to be such a complex process. Everyone in my family (ranging in age from 7 years to 77 years) has been enraptured with this book - it is already a family treasure!

And that is descriptions of longer treks.
There are a few described as 4-8 days long in this book, but when walking I found that that would have been at a snail's pace and the times given had to be halved. Even a quick look at the regional maps will confirm that all hikes described only cover relatively small areas.
So those planning a longer trek through the backcountry of Japan might be disappointed, but I understand there aren't many of those.
On the other hand, those looking for advice on short hikes in national parks or near the major cities will find lots of good ideas, and practical details that tend to be amazingly correct by guidebook standards!

I found that you really don't have much of a choice if you are going to Japan and are interested in recent comprehensive English hiking guides. There is a lot of information once you get to Japan on day hikes available from the tourist information places in each town. I found that for a survey trip, this book was just extra weight in my pack. (I ended up using this book thrice for 1-2 days trips on a 3 week trip to Japan, and that was pushing it.)

I did read it and looked at the pretty pictures to get an idea of where to go during my Japan trip planning phase. It is useful to the person focused on hiking around Japan. This may seem obvious, but it's basically a trail guide. It gives great information (including translations of hiking signs) that isn't found in other more general guide books. It tells you how to get to a trailhead, and where to go once you get there, and has some sections on floura, etc. native to Japan.

Although they are great (just because they exist), I found the trail maps lacking at times, especially (and surprisingly) for the everybody-does-it Mt Fuji trek.

Good reading if you're thinking about multi-day treks. Otherwise, skip it for a more general (regular Lonely Planet) guide since it will just weigh down your pack.

Very well written and detailed description of the trails of Japan. Excellent resource to prepare potential hikers and walkers for the task of exploring the hinterlands of Japan...

It's a great book for first year business students and all those who want to learn something about basic principles of macroeconomics and the influence it has on everyday business activities

In comparison with other macroeconomic texts around it should get 5 stars. It starts with a historical perspective of the crisis in economics at the time of Keynes, setting the picture for why anyone bothered to invent macroeconomics in the first place. It then rapidly proceeds to introduce the major schools of macroeconomics and to develop the relevant ideas and models. It is an ideal introduction for the interested or serious student and manages to be exciting as well as fairly comprehensive. If you're taking an introductory macroeconomics course, get this book instead of your text. If you're coming from outside the economics profession and have a mind of your own, this ones for you.

This is a classic Macro text used for many Intro to Macro-Econ.

I used a similiar text (many editions before) when I took my first econ class in college over 10 yrs ago.

This is a great book, easy to understand and fluid reading.

Thumbs Up!!!