While the concepts laid forth in the book are for mid to large companies, the strategies and goals can be applied to all levels. Comprehensive but still written in a fairly conversational tone, a must read for those who job or goals are to make the organization work better. And convince others they are right. Human Performance Improvement (HPI), what it is and how to make it work for your organization. The plan is clearly laid out. As someone who designs, delivers and sells technical training, Mr. LaBonte's book provides me with more than just buzz words, the book delivers a clear plan, a clear path on how I work with my customers, so I can help them achieve their goals. Standing in the trenches, striving to improve operations, it is great to have a road map that can resolve real problems for both internal and external customers. Thanks.

When Tom LaBonte decided to write Building a New Performance Vision, he created a template for moving training organizations "out of the outsourcing zone." But more importantly, he shared a secret weapon for companies to flourish even in the midst of mergers, reorganizations and technology change. That secret involves working across functional silos to partner, identify performance issues and enhance the organization's performance. LaBonte calls thus structure for change the Human Performance Improvement (HPI) organization. HPI organizations start by building support from the CEO of a company. They then organize for success by forming cross-functional teams with new roles, skills and knowledge. Building a New Performance Vision guides the reader through the entire process - from organizing to implementing performance improvement solutions.

If you are an HR leader, a line manager, a consultant or a practitioner, spending a few hours with this book will dramatically change the way you think and work within your company. Appendices include a glossary of terms, job descriptions and core competencies for Performance Consultants, Human Performance Improvement organizations and an organizational model for structuring a Human Performance Improvement department. Tables, charts and key points at the end of each chapter make the book easy to skim and navigate. But you will probably want to read it from cover to cover anyway!

Whether you are at an entry level position or a seasoned HR professional, this book is an excellent guide for promoting and maximizing total company quality and development. LaBonte takes you step by step through the process of integrating HPI into your company to pave the way for organizational success.

This book will definately assist those of us who practice medicine in third world environments. Well laid out and laden with useful tips for coping with the conditions encountered in the field. Thank you!

This is more than a reference, it is a handbook and diagnostic guide good for the EMT to doctor. My only complaint is that it should have been a hard cover for the price.

This is a very good, highly readable history of James J. Hill, his family and his numerous successful business adventures, and the Great Northern Railway in particular.

Of the four major biographies of James J. Hill, this one is the best and most detailed. If it has a fault, it is that it is too detailed for many readers. But for those interested in the financial history of the Great Northern Railway and the personal history of its builder, this is the classic.

Martin had full access to the James J. Hill papers, now open to the public. Pyle's 1917 biography was also based on those papers, but Pyle was an employee of Hill's and tried to whitewash the truth, which actually made Hill look worse than he was. Holbrook's brief bio was based mainly on Pyle and rumor. Malone's 1996 book on Hill is to Martin's what Holbrook's was to Pyle's--a good intro but not as detailed as Martin's.

While i know this subject fairly well i took a class on this subject and the class used this book. It was very good for me because i learn visually so this was good for me because there are a LOT of illustrations and pictures.

This is an excellent book for learning Excel 2000 at your own pace. Features full color examples and Problems at the end of each project.

As a civil war buff who enjoys touring, I unexpectedly lucked onto this rare,out of print,1991 edition in a major bookstore recently.It was the only copy on the shelf. I devoured it in conjunction a Blue & Gray magazine trilogy about John Singleton Mosby's exploits during the war in Virginia. This Evans/Moyer book is loaded with neat little tid-bits of information about the man, himself, his many facinating associates and opponents, their controversial engagements and the multitude of specific locations where his "Rangers" operated from 1863 to 1865.Fortunately, many of these sites are still available in beautiful, historic, north-central Virginia. I give it 5 stars even though it's map/diagrams are confusing and can only be understood with the assistance of updated, fully detailed maps. Despite these defects the book deserves such a rating.

Thoroughly researched and entertaining, this rare and compelling book is a must have for Civil War enthusiasts. Bravo!!

Thanks to these volumes I was able obtain a great of information on my French-Canadian ancestors corroborating material I had found before and filling some missing blanks.

"Our French-Canadian Ancestors" by Thomas J. Laforest is an excellent resource on the early French Canadian history. It includes genealogical information of the early settlers and a little about the lifestyle of about 20 different families. It's got a great historical reference about the King's Daughters. I was fortunate enough to find many connecting links to a family tree of my ancestors. Excellent resource to begin a collection of French Canadian information.

Those practitioners looking for a good overview of many dermatological conditions, with up to date treatments have found a pear in this Habib edition. This book stays on my desk or in a room - where I peruse through pictures or show patients pictures of others with their condition. Most dermatological atlas or text are incredibly expensive. The price makes this edition a MUST BUY.

Contains the most information I've seen in a derm paperback. Great reference. Excellent images and diagrams.

This fine addition to the Disney Sketchbook series has many of the wonderful sketches done by Disney's animation department for Peter Pan, including many pieces from the storyboards, and several sketches of scenes that never made it into the final film.

Artists that would like to study the Disney style of drawing and animation should find this volume a terrific addition to their collection despite its rather high price. As a student of art, and a fan of the Disney style, I highly recommend any of these books for your library.

This is an exquisitely made book and if you are at all interested in animation or disney art, this or any of the sketchbook series books are a must. Each character has it's section where various sketch drawings are shown. There are also some background pictures. No text, but a delight to flip through. Beautifully designed and packaged.

Thomas Jefferson once said something to the effect that the end of American democracy will come when people figure out they can use the system to vote themselves money out of other people's pockets. Today, that's precisely what the American political system has become, as political economists James T. Bennett and Thomas J. DiLorenzo make clear in this excellent book. The examples are, by now, somewhat out of date. But they outrages they report on have, if anything, only gotten worse.

In many ways, the State has become little more than an engine for the forced redistribution of money. People vote for politicians who will give them things, hoping what they get from picking their neighbors' pockets will be greater than what someone else, in turn, takes out of their own. Politicians flog the system for all it's worth, and are rewarded according to their ability to hand out loot they have no right to in the first place.

Of all the ways this is done, the most egregious, at least in Bennett and DiLorenzo's minds, is the pouring of tax dollars into organizations that then use that money to lobby for specific policy agendas. Again and again, Bennett and DiLorenzo give us chapter and verse (and dollar amounts) of how labor unions, environmental radicals, anti-market and pro-socialist, 'anti-poverty,' 'civil rights,' and other pressure groups pocket free money at taxpayer expense. Conservative, industry, and pro-business groups aren't spared their time in the spotlight either. Nor are the politicians (many of whom are still in office today) who receive hefty campaign cash from the same groups to whom they funneled those tax dollars.

George Will has written that anyone who wants to understand how American government works shouldn't read the Constitution, but rather open the Washington, D.C., phone book and observe all the organizations, associations, and lobbies with the word 'National' in their name. Bennett and DiLorenzo provide an invaluable service by exposing this racket fully. Even seventeen or more years after its first publication, 'Destroying Democracy' is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand what politics and the State are really all about.

Buckley and Feuring have written a concise and understandable presentation of the essential mathematics involved in artificial neural nets (fuzzy and conventional), in fuzzy expert systems, and in hybrid systems employing both techniques. The book is most valuable for those seriously interested in such systems whose mathematics is primarily of the engineering variety. A real virtue is that the options available in the design phase are spelled out; it is not assumed that the system designer will follow the conventional well-trodden path. The example given of a fuzzy teaching machine illustrates choosing among these options. The treatment of neural nets is especially good; I would wish that the treatment of fuzzy expert systems had been expanded beyond bare necessity. Useful adjunct reading is Earl Cox's Fuzzy Systems Handbook and von Altrock's Fuzzy Logic and NeuroFuzzy Applications.

While much of the basic mathematics is available in other books such as Klir and Yuan, it is quite difficult to locate what one needs to know in these books. Buckley and Feuring's presentation has the great virtue that the math is organized in a fashion appropriate to the system designer's needs. I know of no other book which fills this niche.