The subtitle of this accessible guide to facilitation, "Practical Wisdom For Developing Effective Groups", accurately describes the book's scope and utility. In four parts and thirteen chapters, Schwarz provides an overview, with countless meaningful examples, of how facilitators can most effectively help groups develop their capacity for improvement. He distinguishes between two types of facilitation: (1) Basic facilitation, which aims to help a group "solve a substantive problem"; and (2) Developmental facilitation, which accomplishes basic facilitation while helping a group learn "to improve its process". He argues that three core values underlie effective group and facilitator behavior. The first is "valid information", which means that relevant information is shared by group members and that all groups members can validate and understand the information. The second is "free and informed choice", which means that group members define their own goals and methods of achieving those goals using valid information. The third is, "internal commitment to the choice", which means that group members take responsibility for their decisions by making informed choices based on valid information. Using a basic or developmental approach, facilitators most effectively intervene by making explicit and modeling these core values. These values are maintained by a group agreeing and sticking to essential ground rules, which Schwarz lists on p. 75 and treats extensively throughout the book.

In the heart of Schwarz's book are seven chapters on intervening effectively in groups. In those chapters, he advises the reader on, among other things, how to intervene, meeting management, group problem-solving, following ground rules, and dealing with emotions. He closes with wisdom on serving as a facilitator in your own organization and on the facilitative leader. His opening sections on how facilitation helps groups achieve their goals and establishing the foundation for facilitation lay the groundwork for his later chapters.

In the opening chapters, he includes two models worth mentioning. In his "group effectiveness model" (p.23), Schwarz shows how group processes (the primary concern of the facilitator) interact with group structure and organizational context to contribute to a group effectiveness. Group effectiveness is assessed through three criteria: (1) The group's services or products meet or exceed the expectations of the clients; (2) The processes and structures used to deliver services or create products enhance the group's capacity to work together; and (3) The group's experience is satisfying, not frustrating, for the group's members. In the second noteworthy model, Schwarz presents the "diagnosis-intervention cycle" (p. 68). In this cycle, there are three diagnostic steps and three intervention steps. In the diagnostic phase, the facilitator observes behavior, infers meaning and decides whether to intervene. In the intervention phase, s/he describes observations, test her/his inferences, and helps the group decide whether and how to alter behaviors. Understanding and using these models are critical for effective facilitation.

For the would-be facilitator or group leader, this book provides exactly what the subtitle promises.

I picked up this book because I needed to read up on how better to sell facilitation and exactly what facilitators should be doing. This book explains this and more. However, if you are looking for a simple overview of what a facilitator should, could and would do incertain situations, this is NOT your book. If you are a manager trying to be a better facilitator, do not buy this book unless you want in-depth information.

That said, if you are a facilitator looking to improve your skills, combine theory and practice or simply go back to the basics of what makes some facilitators great, this is your book.
Also, if you are a manager who really wants to become an effective facilitator/mentor, this is your book. But don't think that you can simply read the material and be more effective. The ideas and theory will take practice. Luckily, the book also gives many examples to make the ideas and theories practical and concrete.

As I said, I bought it to become better at selling professional facilitation. It gave me that and much more. I will keep it as an invaluable resource and make sure all of my facilitators utilize the practices described in detail.

Roger's book is a unique hybrid of theory, practical exercises, examples, and personal stories. It works! The art and science of facilitation (to make easy or easier) is presented clearly, concisely, and completely. And, that is what I enjoyed about Roger's book so much. He gives it to you with "the bark on." He makes you aware of the good, the bad, and the ugly relative to the practice of facilitation.

I had used this book for several years in my work as a trainer, facilitator, and manager. Then, I had the pleasure to attend a workshop conducted by Roger. He lives what he teaches. While I was fortunate enough to have my company pay for the workshop, it is one of only three workshops I have ever attended that I feel like I would pay my own money to attend.

Keep this book nearby. It is THE best read on this subject out there.

Highly interesting and useful book with a simple but effective history: put the whole history of civil rights struggle in one line, since the Revolutionary war. The result shows immediately the tiding of the struggle for racial equality, and the correlation of eras of advance with the periods of major war, the Revolutionary, Civil, and Second World Wars to be exact. Too often we see the efforts of abolitionists in the generation before the Civil War without seeing the similar history during the Revolutionary period, and then the falling away of advance into retrogression in the early nineteenth century. And then again after Reconstruction. The rise of the Civil Rights movement after the Second World War, next also to the need to repair the image of the American system in the Cold War, falls into place therefore as the next incremental advance in an undertow of resistance, backsliding and the Jim Crow curse. We seem to be, or have entered, another of the doldrum eras, and the prospect seems alarming, although each period of advance maintains some portion of its gains. At a period of neo-liberal machinations made in Texas we need hardly bother to wonder why affirmative action is under attack, etc...
One has to wonder, finally, at the botched legacy of the Constitutional era. It seems less than fully convincing all at once that the founders were unable to resist compromise. The results have been a horrendous series of obstructions.
As the dot.gov goes into action in Iraq, it is worth wondering if they are qualified. American history shows one way to blow it. Vigilance.

When I read this book, I was surprised to find a almost completely accurate depiction of the African-American experience and race relations. Klikner and Smith validate the claim of Black separatist groups such as the Nation of Islam that the Black man is considered a citizen during wartime and tax time. Their analyzing of race relations during The American Revolution, The Civil War, World War II, and The Cold War show that the status of African-Americans was changed by each war. However the nation took 2 steps back when the attitudes of the White majority changed during hard economic times and developed a reluctance to expand the social revolution that was spurred by the war. The book offers a challenge to all who desire racial and economic equality to continue a unfinished social revolution.

Civil Rights leaders supposedly described their achievements in these terms and thus give the authors the title for their book. Such footwork can only be described as THE UNSTEADY MARCH. Klinker and Smith highlight the periods of progress and retreat through a broad sweep of US history. Beginning with the era of slavery (1619-1860), chapter 1 titled "Bolted with the Lock of a Hundred Keys" obviously describes a period of zero progress. According to the authors there have only been three periods of progress and each can be identified by the presence of specific factors. The thrust of their argument throughout this book is that the special circumstances and the effort, energy, and enthusiasm associated with these factors has both a beneficial and deleterious impact on black progress. Beneficially these are not short-run periods of gain. Indeed the third era of progress beginning with WWII and covering the Cold War (inclusive of Vietnam) from 1941 to 1968 "framed an extraordinarily prolonged period" of gains.

It's not coincidental that this period included WWII, the Cold War, and Vietnam because progress has come only "in the wake of a large-scale war requiring extensive economic and military mobilization of African-Americans for success." This statement by the authors made me think about the message of AMERICAN PATRIOTS: "The Story of Blacks in the Military from the Revolution to Desert Storm". If gains by blacks is conditional on wars the treatment of blacks in those wars is a high cost to pay for progress as Gail Lumet Buckley shows in her book. Gaining support for these wars usually means invoking our inclusiveness, egalitarianism, and democratic ideals; elements which the authors identify as another precondition for progress. The third critical factor is that a political protest movement must emerge and be "willing and able to bring pressure upon national leaders to live up to that justificatory rhetoric by instituting domestic reforms."

Progress has been a continual dance of advances and retreats but in their penultimate chapter "Benign Neglect?" the authors express concern over the current climate of complacency. Rather than a threat from any direct action or program of retrenchment, acceptance of present trends is a far greater impediment to continued progress. Through a series of parallels with periods of increased segregation they make a compelling case for overturning the historical pattern and replacing it with a movement towards sustained economic justice and racial equality.

This is one of the most important books for our time. Both diplomacy and power politics in the conventional sense are consistently failing the world. The major powers have only one goal, which is to project their narrow national interest-- usually at the expense of others, whose needs are entirely ignored. The United Nations, once the beacon of hope and a cradle of impartiality, is hopelessly corrupt and driven by a Security Council that is no longer representative of today's realities.

It's high time for a comprehensive change in our approach to foreign policy, and Roger Plunk, with great humility and sound reasoning, shows us the way. If you're concerned with where the world is heading, buy this book and give copies to your friends!

Roger Plunk began a lifetime of wandering as a child. He did stay put long enough as a young man to earn two law degrees, then he began working for the U.S. State Department. He learned that his calling was to be a mediator and that he had the ability and desire to work for peace one-on-one with world leaders.

The Dalai Lama was the first to utilize Plunk's special talents. In The Wandering Peacemaker, his first book, Plunk describes mediation efforts between Tibet and China. From there, he travels to India and Pakistan, Burma, and then to Afghanistan. He not only analyzes the political situation in each dispute, he describes the history of the area and the people involved. Readers get a clear understanding of both sides.

Plunk holds strong spiritual beliefs and says "the common thread running through the stories [in his book] is the dynamic relationship between government and spirituality." Plunk was guided by his belief that one person can make a difference. He says, "I was one person on a very low budget engaging in large international issues [and] I did manage to get my message across."

Is there a place for spiritual insight in the political arena? Plunk says yes, and his stories demonstrate the power of spiritual healing in international relations. Readers concerned with human problems and world peace will find The Wandering Peacemaker engrossing, and encouraging. Like a modern Johnny Appleseed, Roger Plunk is planting seeds of peace worldwide. One person can make a difference.

I love it, very enlightening, especially when Plunk writes about Afghanistan, his work with the Northern Alliance, and his captivating discussions with the Dalai Lama. Plunk writes with great clarity, about his journeys as an independent international mediator, venturing into some of the most complicated and violent political conflicts on the planet to connect directly with the leaders and people of Afghanistan and Tibet, to name just a few of his stops. The Wandering Peacemaker is written with a piercing intelligence and a poetic touch that comes staight from the heart as he shares insights from his own spiritual journey. The bowing gesture of devotion, with forehead to the ground, is a perfect metaphor for this book, as Plunk reminds us with every stop along his path to place the heart higher than the head in our common journey towards peace.

Susiesunshine, this message is for you. I have read Sherry's book and I found it to be very informative and helpful. She has so much knowledge in a field where only few doctors have even explored. Honestly, I feel Dr. Rogers may be the only doctor in the world than can help me. I would highly recommend her book, and would appreciate anyone's help regarding contacting Dr. Rogers. Thank you. wildwolf777@hotmail.com

Sherry Rogers was my doctor for a number of years. She was always ahead of her time and now it shows! All of her books are wonderful, informative, easy to read and life saving. I hope everyone gets as much from this and all her books as I have. You'll be amazed at how much you DON'T know about your body, the environment and how we are killing ourselves until you read these books. Trust me, I am only a consumer here, but I pass these books on to everyone I care about and have for years! I'm going to post this to all the books I have read by Sherry. I just can't say enough about this woman. She literally saved my life (allergies, life and health threatening mineral and vitamin deficiencies) and my husband's too (bladder cancer). Love, Susan Manchester

This book, which I dearly wish was not back ordered, is an excellent look at our polluted environment and how that pollution is effecting our health. It also helps the reader find ways to overcome the toxic pollutants in our environment, to lessen their effect on our bodies.

Hercule Poirot was a short, fat, dapper detective who solved his cases by exercising his "little grey cells".

"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" was Christie's fourth Poirot novel, while "Murder on the Links" was her second. In both Christie adopts the motif of narrating the story from the point of view of someone who undertakes to assist Poirot in the solution of the mystery. Christie introduces the cast of suspects, gives each of them a dark secret and a motive to lie, and piles up the circumstances in such a way that the flying fickle finger of suspicion points to every one of them at some time or another. She compounds the confusion by supplying false leads and deliberatly glossing over hot clues.

In each case Poirot holds his cards close to his vest, tantalizes the reader/listener with cryptic comments, and finds the most inconsequential-appearing facts to be highly significant. Eventually Poirot airs everyone's dirty laundry, explains his chain of deductive reasoning, reconstructs the crime in all its improbable complexity, and gets a confession. The stories are less mysteries than they are sliding block puzzles. Though extremely short on realism, they are long on entertainment value.

Although the BBC radio play had excellent production values, audio cassette may not be the best way to enjoy a Poirot mystery. I listen to radio plays as I drive on business, and I find the Poirot plays hard to follow because of the large cast of characters and the complexities of plotting. Poirot could probably be enjoyed more readily in print. You could then read, re-read, take time out to mull over the complexities, and follow the story much better. Probably the best way to enjoy Poirot would be to read the story first, and then listen to the radio play.

The mystery is beyond our imagination. The background and characters truly victorian, and above all the narrative very gripping! Oh! I am re-reading and every time I enjoy even though I know the mystery! Once again, Poirot at his best with his passion for order and method.

As a Christie addict, having read all of her Poirot and Marple stories many times over, I can only say that "Roger Ackroyd" stands out as the best of the best. Even now, knowing the ending, I enjoy rereading the book, with all the delicious and subtle (but misleading) hints to the grand conclusion. And to the first-time reader, the ending comes as quite a surprise. The fabled Miss Christie leads the reader down so many lovely garden paths before the perfectly logical denouement! Delicious! The audio version is beautifully performed, and does proper justice to the book.

This is one of the most exciting books that I have ever discovered. The way this author writes makes you feel like you are on board flight 37 with the other passengers waiting to be saved.
I don't understand why this book has not been picked up by an agent and made into a movie. THIS BOOK IS FANTASTIC!

Angels on my Wings is a well-written story that will leave you in a cold sweat. A commercial airliner suffers a high-altitude decompression, leaving flight controls damaged. A fatal crash seems imminent, placing everyone on board in a life-threatening situation.

You feel as though you are actually in the airplane, experiencing what the book's characters are going through. The author builds the tension, page by page, and so holding the reader's attention to the very end.

Will the plane crash or land safely? You must read this exciting book to find out the answer.

Review by Bobby Ruble

very good book, full of twists and
turns. very entertaining.

Gary Heerkens' Briefcase Book: "Project Management is informative and excellent reading whether you're a novice project manager or an executive. Gary leads you step by step through the experiences, tools, methods and expectations of good project management. Included in the following of Brad the "mythical pm", are many helpful hints, good tips drawn from experience and checklists to keep your project on track.

This book is a down-to-earth, hands-on guide for new project managers as well as for those who are experienced, but still struggling with attaining successful implementaiton of projects in their organization. It provides a very "grounded" approach--the author's extensive "real life" experience was obvious. The book focuses largely on the technical aspects of projects, but also very nicely brings to light the key human elements (effective team leadership, stakeholder management and communication) that are critical for project success. I also liked how it mixed the strategic and tactical elements of project management into a kind of "best practices" guide to project managers. The layout and storyline are designed to be a quick, easy reference and a fun read.

From the perspective of both consulting and project management within my own firm, but also in my experience of working with clients who struggle with understanding and implementing successful projects, this is an excellent resource for them.

Judith H. Barnes
Vice President & Senior Consultant
Strategic Management Group, Inc.

Gary Heerkens has done an excellent job of breaking project complexities into direct and understandable terms. This book is useful for both the new and experienced PM. For new PM it is clear and understandable. For the experienced PM it shows useful approaches that we have forgotten (or do not want to admit we never knew). This book gets to the important and useful info and cuts through the bull.

My fiance got this cookbook for Christmas, and has already made four recipes from it - all of which turned out perfectly! He's generally one to "test" new recipes on me before making them for friends, but these were all spectacular on the first try. Especially wonderful so far has been the risotto with butternut squash and the ravioli stuffing with butternut squash and mascarpone cheese. Absolutely amazing. When you can make cooking fun, it's definitely a triumph - and Rogers & Gray have completely succeeded in that respect. BENE!!

Fabulous, concise, expansive, enjoyable! Rogers and gray make it possible for my friends to think I am a kitchen God!!!

My boyfriend and I are good cooks and food mavens who nonetheless don't cook a lot. We know from great food and the recipes in this book are superb. In no other book have I ever found recipes which consistently yielded such high--i.e., restaurant-quality--results. Another great thing is the fact that many of these recipes don't require a lot of expensive/hard-to-find ingredients. We cooked out of this cookbook and its sequel, these two books alone, for a year and a half. Then we visited the restaurant in London, which is sublime--but that is another story.

In this fascinating book, British Philosopher (and former university professor) Roger Scruton looks at the West and the Islamic world, and examines what has brought on the present crisis. It is his contention that the both the Western and the Islamic worlds are in a state of crisis. In the Islamic world, the increase in population and the concomitant urbanization has produced alienation, while the march of globalization has brought it face to face with a Western world that it both envies and hates. In the West, the whole of Western culture is under assault from an elitist, post-Modernist "Culture of Repudiation" that wishes to tear down the culture, but has nothing to erect in its place.

Along the way, Mr. Scruton treats the reader to a profound and highly enlightening look at the foundations of modern Western and Islamic political ideology; where they came from, where they are going, and what has produced such hostility. The conclusion of the book is small, with some suggestions to "constrain" the process of globalization, thus minimizing the threat perceived by the Muslim world, but nothing more far-reaching than that.

I found this book to be both enlightening and somewhat frightening. Mr. Scruton's analysis suggests that the roots of the present hostility emanating from the Middle East are very deep indeed, and not likely to be ameliorated by any simple or easy solution. If there was one book that I would urge everyone to read, so as to understand the present world, this would be it! Please read this book.

Roger Scruton, who has written more than twenty books, including: LAND HELD HOSTAGE: LEBANON AND THE WEST (1987), has summarized the philosophical background of political thought supporting western forms of government and enterprises, on the one hand, and the most menacing forms of opposition threatening their existence, on the other. The index is quite useful for locating significant figures, where they appear in the text most pertinently. Nietzsche only appears once, on the way to explaining "the appeal of those recent thinkers--Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Richard Rorty--who owe their intellectual eminence not to their arguments but to their role in giving authority to the rejection of authority, and to their absolute commitment to the impossibility of absolute commitments." (p. 75). Former opponents of the Western world as we know it in this book include Karl Marx, "Shortly after the family had been iconized by Hegel, it was satirized by Marx and Engels in THE HOLY FAMILY. But the real intellectual war against the family is a product of the late twentieth century, and part of a great cultural shift from the affirmation to the repudiation of inherited values." (p. 70). "Like Marxism, feminism purports to show us the world without ideological masks or camouflage." (p. 72). Marx is later criticized more philosophically for starting this ball rolling. "All distinctions are `cultural,' therefore `constructed,' therefore `ideological,' in the sense defined by Marx--manufactured by the ruling classes in order to serve their interests and bolster their power. Western civilization is simply the record of that oppressive process, and the principal purpose of studying it is to deconstruct its claim to our membership. This is the core belief that a great many students in the humanities are required to ingest, " (p. 79) at least until men stop signing up for liberal arts classes because they find them so offensive.

On the other hand, revolt in Western societies seems to play right into the hands of what the poet, Robert Bly, calls a sibling society. Instead of a society dominated by adults able "to induct young people into the national culture, when loyalties no longer stretch across generations or define themselves in territorial terms, then inevitably the society of strangers, held together by citizenship, is under threat." (p. 82). The vast media domination, assuming the primary influence of entertainment values in areas that used to be under the sway of intellectual thought, produces a society which is easily seen by the rest of the world as dominated by "a dissipation that is both cause and effect of the sex-and-drugs lifestyle of the modern teenager." (p. 82).

The fundamental point in Chapter 3, "Holy Law," is perhaps stated most forcefully later, in Chapter 4, "Globalization," considering how the common financial situation determining the future of the demographic explosion has not escaped ancient attitudes. "There is no such entity as Iraq, only a legal fiction erected by the United Nations for the purpose of dealing with whichever individual, clique, or faction is for the moment holding the people of that country hostage." (p. 135). Any authority which previously existed in that area takes "no responsibility, and can be neither praised nor blamed, but exist merely as shields and weapons in the hands of those whose advantages they secure. This was made explicit under the Leninist system of Communist government, which was . . . shadowed by an office of the `vanguard party,' which exercised all the power but was wholly unaccountable for doing so.
"This too casts some light on September 11. The attacks were designed to wound the United States in its decision-making part." (pp. 135-136). September 11, 2001, was a near miss for the political parties who send people to the U.S. Congress. Only those who lack political clout in the ruling party would want to point out that the financial structures and Pentagon civilians harmed in that attack were among those least likely to throw lives away in the kind of fights which previously seemed unlikely for a government which normally, "When it fights on their behalf it does not drag them into conflicts that are none of their business but involves them in conflicts of their own." (p. 138). So when I look at the news, I'm still checking to see if the oil wells are safe, and who wouldn't? This book explains things that were in the news much longer than most people have worried about them, and some of the truth in this book hurts.

Roger Scruton is not only the leading conservative intellectual of the Western world, he is also published in philosophy, political philosophy, aesthetics, fiction and opera.

His work _The West and the Rest_ is a must-read.

The bookclub I'm in put this book on the reading list. It was very exciting and kept us on the edge. It made you want to continue to read just to find out as soon as you could "what happen". Ms. Rogers did an excellent job of mixing the characters. Since they were "everyday" people, we were able to relate to them in our jobs and day to day experiences. This is a MUST read for every person in Corporate America.

..."Every Two Weeks" is a mind gripper while slowly building to a glorious climax. Mikki's depiction of corporate life shows a definite potrail of how good people choose different paths for living. Her characters have a special realism that we all appreciate and the more colorful ones just spice the story line with humor, whit and tragedy.

If you want to read a little at a time for the first 1/3 of the book, that'll be ok, but later...please take time for the remainder because your senses will be challenged, titallated, and spirited to new levels of literary enjoyment!

Sharing this reading experience with other "$236" readers will produce some exciting "amens."

236.52 EVERY 2 WEEKS IN COPORATE AMERICA IS A NOVEL WORTH READING, NOT ONLY FOR COROPRATE AMERICA, BUT FOR ANYONE THAT'S IN THE WORK FORCE TODAY. THIS BOOK IS FATASTIC ! IT GOES DEEP DOWN INTO THE SEEDY OPERATIONS OF WHAT GOES ON IN COROPORATE AMERICA FROM JEOLOUSY, PREJUDICE, MURDER, ETC. TO LOVE AND HAPPINESS. CONGRADULATIONS TO MS ROGERS ON A JOB WELL DONE.