Peter Block has taken the principles and Edward Demming and put them into a usable methodology that will not only help any business owner focus on the essentials necessary for success but will also inspire members of the team at all levels. Block, who has written two other books on management, focuses on the prime issue for a success business: that those who are doing are the one's who should be making the decision on how to serve the customer. He writes that the old way of doing business, that of patriarchy, can never succeed in today's world that demands business be able to move with the customer at a moment's notice. The books is insightful about how to go about implementing a pardign change in a business and in your way of thinking about how business is being conducted. Block speaks of bottom up management, where the key to success as a mnanager is not to be in control, yet still be responsible. It is a life-changing typoe of book for any manager who can see that this is a style of management which will set free the entire work force to become successful stewards of your business.

Peter Block read my mind, articulated my dream, and has captured the essence of my new consulting business, Revolution Consulting. I was profoundly moved to read that someone has so clearly articulated the things I struggle with every day in promoting a new order in business. The distinction between traditional or even new-age leadership and the possibilities that stewardship creates was crystal clear and brilliantly articulated. This book was an inspiration to someone that has taken up the cause in the real world. It will be an on-going source of inspiration and support.

Business consultant Peter Block is no stranger to controversy. A number of his previous works explored the reaches of transformational management, including his bestselling book The Empowered Manager. In an even bolder way, Stewardship - Choosing Service over Self-Interest offers a dynamic new organizational structure for our young century. Block defines stewardship as "the means of achieving fundamental change in the way we govern our institutions." He believes that stewardship is a choice "to preside over the orderly distribution of power." This means giving individuals at the bottom of the organizational structure the choice on how to best serve their customers, citizens and community". It also means accepting accountability at all levels. Block continues to define stewardship as being accountable to the larger organization by "operating in service, rather than in control, of those around us." His philosophy is centered on a need and commitment to service rather than self-interest.

Peter Block challenges the modern notion of strong leadership and suggests replacing the term with stewardship. His problem with leadership is that he does not believe it has the capability to create fundamental changes in our organizations. He also believes that leadership "inevitably becomes self-congratulatory and over-controlling. We expect leaders to choose service over self-interest, but it seems the choice is rarely made." Perhaps Block would have better made his point by discussing the various philosophies that pass as leadership rather than neatly collecting them all in one term. Indeed, leadership is often a vague and misunderstood term.

Stewardship - Choosing Service over Self-Interest is a book with three parts. The first part discusses the basic concept of stewardship. It highlights the promises offered by developing a passion toward stewardship in contrast to what we experience in traditionally managed organizations. The second part of the book discusses the redistribution of power in a practical way. This controversial section of the book butchers many managerial "sacred cows" and offers a vision of what stewardship can be like in action! Part three examines the reform process and explores how you and your organization can get from where it is today to an environment of stewardship.

If you are one who is not satisfied with the status quo, you will find this book exciting and refreshing. Sometimes written in almost theological terms, Block inspires the reader to expect more from our institutions and ourselves. This book should find itself on the bookshelf of every person interested in the study of leadership.

I have read ALL the Murder, She Wrote books and was not aware that this book had been printed before. That does answer my question about the fact that she did not know George Sutherland, when in fact she meet him before in the series. But that does not explain one paragraph that shows an inaccuracy to the television series. The book jacket states that the book (as well as all the books in the series) are based on the T.V. series. When talking with Maria about the difficulty making a life as an actress, she states that the only way she made it financially as a beginning writer was that her husband (Frank) made sure "the refrigerator had food in it" while she tried to sell her stories. NO!! She did not begin writing until Frank died!! And is anyone else bothered by the fact that she calls the sheriff MORTON when she called him MORT on the show? I LOVE MURDER, SHE WROTE, but I also like things to be accurate and consistent. It bothers me when an author claims to know the character, but forgets key historical factors.

This was once again a good book in her series of murder she wrote books. I have read all but the last one; Trick and Treachery. I have followed her tv series and books for many years and hope she continues to write more. When I read any of her books I can almost feel myself in the tv version, like I am there and one of the characters. Jessica Fletcher is a wonderful writer and I hope that she will be around for years to come, writing more of the Murder She Wrote series.

Having read all the Murder She Wrote books, I was quite confused with this one as I was reading it. I felt that I had read it before, but was confused because it stated she had just met Inspector Sutherland. I knew that she had met him before thru previous novels. Also, the title was one that had been used in previuos series. Now I found out that it is a reissue. The book should have stated this. The credit page did state that April 2000 was the first Signet printing but should have stated it was a reissue. This is what has bothered me. Still, love the entire series, each book is just as good as the one before. Own them all. Can't wait until the next ones come out.

After reading Emery's book, I must say he has an amazing grasp of the complex. It is rare that one author can provide such a gripping account of an event that is itself full of contradictory accounts. As the participants run for cover and attempt to discount each others testimony, Emery maintains one voice and keeps the reader on track.
This should be read by anyone who's knowledge of Watergate is limited to a viewing of "All the President's Men". Emery has done us a great service by producing such a readable account of THE American scandal.

I lived Watergate. I was a teen in McLean, Virginia when Nixon resigned. One of my classmates was a son of Robert Bork. Yet, after many years, I had to admit I didn't know much of what the fuss was about. This fine, objective book changed all that. Emery has consolidated the facts, identified the sources, and presented the alternate views that, within his sense of reason, deserve consideration. This is journalism as it should always be and, sadly, was not in the early '70s.

As you choose books about Watergate, consider this: When I started to read this one, in the Fall of 2000, I got only a few pages into it when I realized I was doing something important. I got out of my chair, locked my study door, turned off the phone, and sat back down to read. Only Shirer's book about the Third Reich has also induced such a feeling of moment.

Those three traits seem to be the overriding factor in the downfall of our 37th president. The sheer size of corruption exhibited at THE highest level of our executive branch of government is striking and terrifying. At times, I had difficultly believing that so many intelligent people participated in what seems like endless felonies. This book is thoroughly researched, from Nixon's tapes to Halderman's diary, and is HIGHLY recommended by this very satisfied reader. Well worth the price!!

This book is a wonderful way to firm and tone your muscles while achieving a balletic grace. I usually hate workout books or even using exercise machines because the routine seems so pointless. This book, however, gives a purpose to the exercises. It won't make you a professional dancer, or even an amateur one, but you'll feel more graceful and become more flexible.

Before you even start the exercises, you're inspired by the excellent photographs of the beautiful dancers. If you're as out of shape as I am, at first the stretches and exercises seem almost impossible, but after only just a few days they become easier as you regain flexibility and muscle tone. Most importantly, you develop an awareness of your body that stays with you long after you've finished your workout.

This is the best workout program I've ever used. I recommend it especially as a post-partum routine for women who want to regain their pre-pregnancy muscle tone and flexibility.

After a hiatus of my regular cardio workouts (usually biking and running), I recently decided to update my exercise regimen. In the meantime, I've been committed to regular weighttraining and maintaining my flexibility through yoga and calitsthenics. I evaluated my "old" cardio workouts and realized that constant, rigorous biking and running weren't great for MY body, so I danced because it came naturally for me. I found this book and was very motivated. The photography is beautiful, and the writing as straightfoward and fluid as the moves and exercises throughout. Now I enjoy a broader and more beneficial fitness schedule. Along with weights and regular lighter cardio exercise, the ballet workout elongates my muscles, so they're not only strong,but they're shapely, not bulky.

What a wonderful book! I just bought it and I can't wait to get started. I've read it from cover to cover a few times, and I'm more than pleased with my purchase. The magnificent bodies are marvelous and breathtaking. It's true that the first few pages are bios and frou frou, but their stories are inspiring and motivating. Plus, they discuss why dancers' bodies are more agile and sculpted than most athletes, as well as tips on getting started, how to listen to your body and optimize your workout.

The workout is divided into six sections. Warm up and Stretch, followed by Abs (14-20 minutes), Floor barre (12-16 minutes), Ballet center (16-22 minutes) and Legs (16-22 minutes). Although they say you can do the entire workout as time permits, they offer suggestions for 10 or 20 minute workouts, as well as specialized workouts to correlate with specific sports for strength and flexibility or body parts of concentration. The instructions are clear-cut and detailed and along with the music selections they recommend, you'll feel like a prima ballerina. Personally, I have a lot of fat to lose so I plan on using this workout as a supplement to an aerobic regimen. I'm looking forward to using this workout every morning to get my day started.

Richard H. Axelrod presents a model for creating more effective change in an organization by involving everyone in the change process from the beginning. He suggests setting up large conferences with cross-functional, multidisciplinary planning and implementation groups. As this implies, he advocates combining planning and implementation, rather than creating parallel processes. He argues that the top-down approach of having a leader who sells a vision to the organization doesn't work, although the leader should be involved in the conference process. It seems shortsighted to dismiss visionary leadership, with its successful track record in various settings, yet Axelrod has organized his ideas clearly. He provides tools for using his approach, including anecdotal success stories, how-to inserts, and guidelines for following this process. His model shares some characteristics of other conference planning approaches, including "Future Search." However, we [...] recommend this engagingly written book for its appeal to executives and top managers who seek intriguing planning and change strategies.

In his Foreword, Axelrod asserts that his "is the first book to challenge the widely accepted change management paradigm. It provides leaders at all levels of the organization -- all those who initiate, design,, and implement change -- with a set of principles for bringing about change in a turbulent world. It is not a methodology, nor is it a set of techniques; rather, it is a set of principles that everyone can fall back on when faced with new and different situations." In Part One, Axelrod identifies the problems with the current change management paradigm. In effect, he demythologizes conventional thinking on this subject. In Part Two, he examines four principles for producing an engaged organization, devoting a separate chapter to each. It is important to keep in mind that the nature and extent of production (or results) will be determined almost entirely by the nature and extent of engagement throughout an organization.

In Part Three, Axelrod shares his insights and suggestions which will assist his reader during the "Getting Started" phase of the process. Also, Axelrod discusses what he calls the "minefields" on the "road to [organization-wide] engagement." He concludes with a brief, especially valuable analysis of "eight specific issues the engagement paradigm can help you tackle, including the introduction of new technology, the increase in mergers, acquisitions, and alliances, and growing dissociation from communities."

If you are now involved in any of this or are about to become involved, I recommend this book highly. Carefully select those strategies which are most appropriate to your own organization's needs and interests. Axelrod can then help you to chart or to reformulate a proper course to implement those strategies.

Organizational change advocate Richard Axelrod challenges the commonly accepted change management paradigm in Terms Of Engagement: Changing The Way We Change Organizations. Axelrod draws upon his research, experience, and expertise to offer a practical and effective approaches he calls the "engagement paradigm", a system that will provide corporate leaders with a practical, principle-based strategy for creating successful change outcomes. Implementing the engagement paradigm will result in employees and managers grasping the big picture and align around a common purpose; fully distribute accountability; quickly identify performance gaps and thereby improving both productivity and customer satisfaction; spark creativity as employees, suppliers, and customers contribute their best ideas; create capacity for future changes to meet future challenges in the highly competitive and rapidly globalizing economies.

The book descriprion on this page is good and I enjoyed this edition of the book with the help of the glossary provided in this edition which contains definitions of sailing terms and and few archaic usages that are in this book. It made it much more enjoyable and understandable.

I liked the grueling portarit of life at sea, reading some first written observations of early California, a fine and admiring description of a very able-bodied seaman that Dana encountered and many other points.

I think to that this challenging adventure for Mr. Dana restulted in restored vision for his failing eyes after he removed himself from life perhaps largely behind a desk. Could the neccessity of challenge and needed to see have contributed?

There are many facets and admirable points in this book. I think you would enjoy it.

I waited 58 years to read Two Years Before the Mast! It was always on my list of books to read, but I had never reached it until recently, when my interest was sparked by a comment made by David McCullough (the author of the great biography of Truman) that this book greatly influenced him when he read it as a very young man. It is a a beautifully written book --- prose as good as any I have ever read. Dana's accurate and detailed narrative of his own life at sea on sailing ships in the 1830's, and his time spent on the coast of California,when it was true wilderness, is an unforgettable reading experience. The book has a personal intimate quality about; it is as if the author is a friend writing to you from abroad about his extraordinary adventure. This book deserves its esteemed place in American and world literature.

I'm a Californian who has seen the entire coast described by Dana. He has painted a remarkably true picture of that coast still recognizable. Jackson was president when Dana sailed in 1833. It was also the age of the Mountain Men some of whom were seen in CA while Dana was there. In San Diego Dana met professor Nuttal who taught at Cambridge and was known to Dana. Nuttal crossed the continent the hard way, as a naturalist, then made his way to CA, and eventually returned on the same ship with Dana to Boston. Both Dana and Nuttal, and their respective pursuits, were precursors to Manifest Destiny. Their trips also were descriptive of the times. Two years after his leaving Boston, Dana returned as an accepted 'foc'sle' sailor, a man cured of whatever ailed him when he left home. His exploits are remarkable for their daring. He never shirked his duty as a shipmate. His is a remarkable tale which could only have been told by one of his character. If read in conjunction with the landed history of the time, 'Across the Wide Missouri,' by DeVoto, it becomes a historical masterpiece significant for its truth, sadness, and moments of supreme beauty of expression.

The core premise of the book is that the key to achieving and sustaining significant change lies in changing people's basic ways of thinking. Those of us who have worked with organizations to achieve meaningful change, quickly come to realize that the central challenge is the engrained patterns of thought in the minds of people. That is the ultimate challenge that this work sets out to tackle.

The question one is left with, as with many books of this type, is not the value of the book (it is excellent), but How many leaders of change will read this volume, take its insights to heart, and ACT upon them?

The book is divided into three sections around the challenges of initiating, sustaining, and redesigning and rethinking. Within these sections are the ten key challenges to profound change. The notes from the field provide a record of organizational change initiatives and specific approaches taken by GE, Hewlett-Packard, British Petroleum, Ford, Dupont, and others. The book includes case histories, round-table discussions, team exercises, checklists, and solid guidance.

This work is densely packed with valuable insights, guidance, and developmental techniques. It offers enormous potential to receptive and motivated readers who are able to move from thought to action. Highly recommended. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

Of the FIFTH DISCIPLINE SERIES books, THE DANCE OF CHANGE is by far the most important for you to understand. THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE and THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELDBOOK are wonderful, valuable books, but they largely avoid the tough question of how to sustain a Learning Organization initiative. Based on lots of experiences in different companies, THE DANCE OF CHANGE is the most realistic, thorough, thoughtful work on achieving large-scale organizational change that has ever been my pleasure to read. I immediately found it helpful in overcoming some of my bad habits (including falling in love with my own jargon rather than using common English). Since I first read the book about 9 months ago, I have found it affecting my consulting practice by causing me to focus more on lasting change, than immediate change. That's an important lesson for everyone. Like THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELDBOOK, THE DANCE OF CHANGE allows you to focus on the areas where you need help the most. The beginning is a wonderful systems-dynamic analysis of how successful change occurs, and how it can be derailed. Like THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELDBOOK, you do not need to read THE DANCE OF CHANGE from front to back. I found myself skipping around, and enjoyed the experience. Even if you do not want to have a Learning Organization, you will find THE DANCE OF CHANGE very valuable for giving you direction on how to achieve permanent, valuable changes. On the subject of achieving the strategy you wish to implement, I strongly urge you to also read THE BALANCED SCORECARD. These books are good complements to each other. For picking up on your most important issues, you will find Peter Drucker's MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES FOR THE 21ST CENTURY to be invaluable.

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

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

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

The story of the sinking of the USS Indianapolis, is a sad memoire of senseless loss of life during war time. The first half of this book goes into details about the ship itself, the crew and even the frame of mind of the enemy submarines captain that torpedoed the Indianapolis. The hours and days that following the sinking were documented on the pages as well as statements made by survivors. The second half of the book recounts the proceedings of the court martial of the Indianapolis' Captain, McVay. So many things went wrong ,from the search and rescue,to the speed of the sinking and the inability of officers to call for "abandon ship". Of the 800 some odd men that made it off the ship, only slightly more than 300 survived the ordeal, which is what the book is here to explain. A good narative with shocking revelations, it's a fast and easy read.

This book tells the story of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and the tradgedy that befell its crew. Largely due to Navy blunders, the ship was sent out unescorted and was torpedoed by a Japanese sub. Many men were killed, not only in the initial attack but due to sharks. It was only sheer luck that a Navy plane happened to find the remainder of the crew. By that time, only about 300 men out of 1,200 survived the hellish experience. Trying to get a scapegoat for its own stupidity, the U.S. Navy court-martialed the captain of the ill-fated ship. This book is a great chronicle of a story so strange that Hollywood couldn't have come up with it. Read it and understand what it was like to go down on a ship and wonder if you'll ever be rescued.

What an awesome story! I very rarely read anything with military themes, but on a lark I picked up a copy of Abandon Ship! during a trip to the local public library, thinking I'd try it, but I probably wouldn't make it through the entire book. On the contrary, once I started the book, I couldn't put it down until I had read every word, including the afterward and the appendices, lingering over the roster of survivors. The book is a gripping and troubling tale of the loss of the USS Indianapolis to Japanese torpedos at the end of WWII, the Navy's failure to make any attempt to rescue the crewmembers for over four days, and the Navy's subsequent efforts to place all the blame for the incident on the shoulders of the Indianapolis's Commanding Officer, Charles McVay III, in order to avoid revealing the many blunders and oversights that led to the sinking and the grossly delinquent rescue effort (drunken officers ignoring SOS calls, failure to inform McVay of submarine threats, failure to track ship movement . . .) I was apalled that certain Navy brass would be so nonchalant about the Indianapolis's situation and that certain Navy brass compromise all integrity by punishing McVay for a trumped-up nonsense charge of failure to steer a zigzag course, in order to keep their own naval records unblemished. Even more unthinkable is the fact that the Navy called an unwilling but necessarily cooperative Commander Hashimoto, the captain of the Japanese submarine that sank the Indianapolis, to testify against McVay at his courtmartial. The book ultimately hints that the courtmartial of Captain McVay was an act of Admiral King, who was using the courtmartial of McVay to seek revenge against McVay's father, Admiral Charles McVay II, who had formally reprimanded King for an incident involving bringing women into unauthorized spaces when King was a junior officer under the senior McVay's command.

As an added bonus, the 2001 edition of the book contains a foreward and afterword that discuss the efforts of Hunter Scott, a schoolboy who took on the task of exonerating Captain McVay as a school history project aftrer hearing about the incident in the movie Jaws.

I recommend this highly to anyone who thinks that miltary brass always does the right thing. Many do, but the handful that do not can cause one to lose all faith in the system. Fortunately, a young schoolboy was able to vindicate Captain McVay four decades after the incident.

Black boy by Richard Wright. This book is about a black boy (Richard Wright) who grew up in the south in the 1900s. During the time of segregation. He has been stuggling all his life to become a man in the racist World. His father left him and his family to survive on nothing. Not shortly after that that his mother got very sick that she could not find the strength to support the family. Richard is very determine, ignorant, stubborn and on top of this a very strong individual. Richard who came from a poor family has endure alot of pressure and tension. These things made him even more stronger and even smater than he was. Growing up in the south at the peak of racism made him open his eyes wider and look at the world in a whole differnt way. I think this book is considered to be reallistic because it deals with the nature of how the world was in the 1900s. BY reading this book it made me face reality on a whole different level and also made me realized not to take things or people for granted.
To all the people who choose this book to read: I hope you enjoy this book as much as i did!

When I first picked up this book all I thought was just another reading assignment. However, Black Boy by Richard Wright affected me in ways no book ever has. This book is a touching autobiography describing the life of a young African American boy who struggles to find himself in such a prejudice society. He overcomes obstacles of religious, racial, and cultural segregation in the 20th century United States. During Richard's childhood, he faced many hardships with his family because of their low income, lack of a father figure in his life, and being raised in such a racist society. As he grew older the racism only continued to get worse and Richard began to learn how to cope with his surroundings. Whether with jobs or schooling, he began to alter his lifestyle to accommodate the changes of his environment.

This book is an integral depiction of what American society was like during this time period. The hardships and injustices that the African American race faced each day has become a significant part of our history. All of the incidents that occurred in this book represent the struggles that African American citizens did their best to conquer each and every day. The harsh and unjust treatment of African Americans is revealed through the author's own life experiences, all of which are reflected in Black Boy.

I found this book to be one of the best books I have ever read. It touched me and saddened me to know that this was a part of my history as an American. In comparison to a few books I have read about segregation, I have found Black Boy to be the most personal. This is because the way the author expresses the sentiment of human emotions and the intimate details of characters thoughts and beliefs. I would definitely recommend this book for those who are interested in the racial progress of our country.

I recently read Black Boy by Richard Wright and I must say it is an amazing book. The book is about Richard growing up in the South in the early 1900's. It may sound a little boring but believe me it's not. Richard had a hard life growing up and that's what makes the book so interesting. Burning up houses, killing cats, and becoming a drunk were just some of the things he did before reaching the age of eight. The thing I like most about him is how he grew up very poor, moved from place to place, including an orphanage, never completed two consecutive school years, and still managed to become a well-educated young man and a world-famous writer. Although the book was very interesting there were some parts at the end that I felt were a little boring, but maybe that's just me. Either way, I think Richard Wright was a very talented writer, and if you get the chance, you should read his autobiography, Black Boy. I recommend this book to anyone over the age of thirteen that is interested in learning about history or just likes to read about some hardships other people had to face growing up.