Book Description
Mark Twain once observed, “A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth can even get its boots on.” His observation rings true: Urban legends, conspiracy theories, and bogus public-health scares circulate effortlessly. Meanwhile, people with important ideas–business people, teachers, politicians, journalists, and others–struggle to make their ideas “stick.”
Why do some ideas thrive while others die? And how do we improve the chances of worthy ideas? In Made to Stick, accomplished educators and idea collectors Chip and Dan Heath tackle head-on these vexing questions. Inside, the brothers Heath reveal the anatomy of ideas that stick and explain ways to make ideas stickier, such as applying the “human scale principle,” using the “Velcro Theory of Memory,” and creating “curiosity gaps.”
In this indispensable guide, we discover that sticky messages of all kinds–from the infamous “kidney theft ring” hoax to a coach’s lessons on sportsmanship to a vision for a new product at Sony–draw their power from the same six traits.
Made to Stick is a book that will transform the way you communicate ideas. It’s a fast-paced tour of success stories (and failures)–the Nobel Prize-winning scientist who drank a glass of bacteria to prove a point about stomach ulcers; the charities who make use of “the Mother Teresa Effect”; the elementary-school teacher whose simulation actually prevented racial prejudice. Provocative, eye-opening, and often surprisingly funny, Made to Stick shows us the vital principles of winning ideas–and tells us how we can apply these rules to making our own messages stick.
Customer Reviews:
Essential Reading for Ad Execs.......2007-10-18
Essential reading for ad execs. Gets to the heart of the matter. Gets inside peoples heads... Highly recommended... and no one paid me to say this!
Monumental.......2007-10-14
There are few books I will classify as good, even less as very good, and positively a very, very few books I would call great. This one falls into that last category.
It's simple, the question these two authors (and brothers) set out to answer: what makes some ideas so memorable that, across time and space, they are never forgotten? I grew up in west Africa and as a child, even I had heard the Kidney Story used as one example.
While the question is a simple one, it is not easy. After what I think must have been an incredible amount of research, the brothers Heath have answered in an elegantly simple way: according to them, there are a few characteristics (as a mnemonic, they spell SUCCES) of "sticky" ideas.
This is literally an eye opening book for me and I cannot recommend it more. I'll be rereading this book every few months.
A valuable tool for anyone who has to communicate -- that is, everyone!.......2007-10-09
As a general rule, I don't enjoy "pop-business" titles. But Made to Stick defied all expectations. Lively and useful examples illustrate the authors' different points. The advice is practical and applicable to a variety of situations. It's not just about writing better. It's an improvement on all ways of communicating: to an audience, to co-workers, to clients, etc.
Excellent work.
Too sticky to put down!.......2007-10-06
It's all in the details. Well worth the investment - especially if you need to make your message 'stick.'
Get Your Story Straight And Revolutionize Your Marketing.......2007-10-05
Jake, a young entrepreneurial friend of mine in the IT industry , was not seeing the results he expected from numerous and inventive marketing strategies. He had tried online, print and direct marketing with marginal results. His business wasn't faltering but wasn't soaring either. So after a slew of marketing books he came across this one- and it was all I was hearing about from him until I read it myself and the light bulb clicked.
Just like you were interested in Jake's story other people like stories, they want to relate to you and your product but if they can't they will find a company that they can relate to.
Chip and Dan Heath give great examples every chapter on how to improve your "Stickiness" with simple strategies. The most important being their coined,
"SUCCES" acronym:
S simple - don't lose your core message in a lot of pomp and circumstance
U unexpected - make your idea jump out and grab people's attention
C concrete - keep it easy to grasp vs. mind boggling statistics or huge numbers
C credible - is your idea believable?
E emotional - people react to emotion and it creates an empathetic bond
S stories - story telling is an age old form of communication
I have been able to use "Made To Stick" concepts in my business with great results. I used to feel that stories in real estate investing wouldn't interest anyone but I knew from the book that stories were useful, if not crucial, in creating and growing a business. Now by using my customer's concrete feedback blended with their credible testimonials and sprinkled with a little emotion I am able transmit their core experience (what they got out of working with us an how it translated to their bottom line) to reach a greater audience.
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Five years ago, Jim Collins asked the question, "Can a good company become a great company and if so, how?" In Good to Great Collins, the author of Built to Last, concludes that it is possible, but finds there are no silver bullets. Collins and his team of researchers began their quest by sorting through a list of 1,435 companies, looking for those that made substantial improvements in their performance over time. They finally settled on 11--including Fannie Mae, Gillette, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo--and discovered common traits that challenged many of the conventional notions of corporate success. Making the transition from good to great doesn't require a high-profile CEO, the latest technology, innovative change management, or even a fine-tuned business strategy. At the heart of those rare and truly great companies was a corporate culture that rigorously found and promoted disciplined people to think and act in a disciplined manner. Peppered with dozens of stories and examples from the great and not so great, the book offers a well-reasoned road map to excellence that any organization would do well to consider. Like Built to Last, Good to Great is one of those books that managers and CEOs will be reading and rereading for years to come. --Harry C. Edwards
Book Description
The Challenge
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.
But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
The Study
For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?
The Standards
Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.
The Comparisons
The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?
Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.
The Findings
The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:
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Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness.
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The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence.
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A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology.
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The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.
“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”
Perhaps, but who can afford to ignore these findings?
Customer Reviews:
Great.......2007-10-20
Two things I love about this book.
1. It is bang on in terms of the things that matter to a tech startup
2. It is short - half the book is methodology
Thorough analysis with actionable recommendations.......2007-10-20
This book was recommended to me by someone I respect so I didn't do much research before ordering. At first the easy reading style gave me the impression that it had little substance. However, after getting into the book I realized that there was a great deal of substantive research backing up the recommendations. Some of the reviews have indicated a concern that the rules may have changed since the research was conducted. I too had reservations that his research might be a bit dated. However after further reflection and observation of current organizations I would have to firmly disagree. Mr. Collins and his research team have uncovered timeless recommendations that I plan to put into action in my organization. Moreover, my company was listed as one of the "Comparison Companies" not considered "Great" during the time periods analyzed. Fortunately, a lot has changed since the analysis period in the book. We merged with a better company which resulted in a much stronger leadership team and more effective corporate culture.
From Good to Great to Best.......2007-10-19
This well researched book provides the principles to enable good companies to become great. The "first who, then what" concept contradicts the old "What first (Vision, mission, guiding principles, tactics, etc)". Having read Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self, I am convinced that there is an additional step required to experience organizational optimization - execution based on Optimal Thinking by individuals, teams, departments and the entire organization. When we choose, attract and retain the best, we stop settling for second best (which could be great). I recommend both books.
Greatness Revealed.......2007-10-19
As I was reading this book, I thought numerous times of how wonderful it would be if I was working at a company that was trying to transform itself from good to great. The reality, however, is that most people don't work at great companies. Instead, most of us work at mediocre companies fighting to stay alive in today's competitive business world, unsure as to the one thing the business could do better than anyone else.
This book is thoroughly researched and thought provoking. The ideas are timeless and, if followed, I am convinced that the results would speak for themselves. The eleven or so companies used as model companies in the book that changed from good to great are still thriving today, six years after the book was published, and the employees engaged in the work love it, I am sure. And who wouldn't? Working with a company determined to be successful would be exciting, if not challenging. I only wish I could bring up some of the practices described in detail in this book to those leaders of my current company. Until changes are made, its greatness will forever be on hold.
Outstanding Book.......2007-10-18
This is an outstanding book that is very interesting and fascinating reading. The fact that the book is based on five-years of research makes the research findings and conclusions credible and believable. This book answers a fundamental question: "Can a good company become a great company?" I also enjoyed the case studies inside it which greatly reinforced the author's message.
I especially enjoyed the topics on hiring (having the right people on the bus and on the right seats and the wrong people off the bus) and the Hedgehog Concept. The Hedgehog Concept basically says that if you can't be the best in the world at your core business, then it can't be the basis of a great company. You need to have a deep understanding and incredible simplicity. You need Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) sitting in the middle of your three circles. Another interesting finding is on leaders that drive great companies. Jim Collins identifies the Level 5 Leadership who typically is self-effacing, quiet, reserved, shy and have a blend of personal humility and professional will. They are ambitious for the company and what it stands for and do not seek personal glory or self-aggrandisement.
From the middle manager to the CEO, anyone involved in business management can find valuable leadership and business strategy tips, ideas and advice from this seminal work. Students or business persons seeking to truly understand what it takes to be a successful leader must read this book. The book teaches how even individuals can make the leap to outperform the market or the current market leaders. If you don't have time to read, get the audio book and listen. Jim Collins is extremely lively, interesting and easy to listen to.
One possible weakness is that the study and its conclusions could be dated. The rate of change in the business world is so rapid in the past 5 or so years that it is quite possible that there could be a shift on what makes good companies great. So the argument by Jim Collins that he has uncovered basic facts about human organizations that will be unchanging may ultimately prove not to be totally correct.
In case you have not yet done so, I recommend that you also read Jim Collins' other classic "Built to Last" which he authored with Jerry Porras.
Book Description
Because participants in our workshop series, Instruction for All Students, often ask, "Why didn't we learn this in college?" that question provided the inspiration for the title of this new book for teachers new to the classroom. This title is in no way meant to condemn those who direct our collegiate experiences. The realities are that we may well have studied these topics and earned a good grade on a test over the theoretical aspects of this information but had no classroom teaching experiences on which to hook the information, that we took an alternative approach to entering the profession, that our focus was elsewhere at the time or perhaps, in fact, it was not taught. Whatever the case may be, teachers new to the classroom clearly need support and a repertoire of effective teaching strategies during their first years of classroom work.
Why Didn't I Learn This in College? is based on the constructs that:
+ the best management program is a good instructional program,
+ if the end we have in mind is student learning, we do not want to concentrate on control and compliance but rather on building learning centered environments, and
+ we need efficient and effective organizational systems for ourselves, our students, and our classroom.
Customer Reviews:
Very Basic .......2007-05-15
This book did not meet my expectations. The information is extremely basic and is a review of college education courses. Although this book would be helpful, it could very easily be replaced with college texts.
Hidden Gem!.......2006-01-13
I happened to find this book while browsing the teaching section. It has truly been a great resource that every (new) teacher should have. Unlike most of our teacher ed. programs, this book gives practical information about how to run a classroom. You won't regret buying this book, it is a wonderful resource!
A great resource for any teacher!.......2004-09-30
My school district gave every new teacher a copy of this book. The new teacher that I am mentoring shared it with me. After reading through it I was excited to find a book that focuses on instruction instead of some silver-bullet discipline plan. The instructional strategies are written clearly and consisely. Both of us bring our copies of Why Didn't I Learn This in College? and use them as we plan our units and lessons every Monday for the following week. I highly recommend this book to any teacher.
An ESSENTIAL for All Educators!.......2002-09-15
Practical, positive, and pure Paula! WHY DIDN'T I LEARN THIS IS COLLEGE? is an ESSENTIAL professional resource for educators at all levels of experience! Paula Rutherford applies her 30 years of teaching and educational leadership to create this book of research-based teaching tips and user-friendly tools that will help increase student achievement in our classrooms. She offers a logical framework for creating learning-centered environments, planning "with the 'end' in mind", and organizing learners and professional tasks for positive results for students, parents, and teachers.
As a veteran teacher and coach for novice teachers, I use this resource as my NUMBER ONE traveling companion and "virtual" collaborator. Paula's pro-active and positive voice resonates through its pages as my teachers and I use this information to bring all students quality instructional programs and opportunities for maximum learning. Thank you, Paula, for being my constant "ride-along" learning buddy!
THE Best new teacher book ever!.......2002-08-28
As a long time mentor for new teachers, I have read many books for teachers new to the classroom. There are a lot of books out there that focus on everything but teaching. This book is all about helping teachers with great teaching strategies that they can use throughout their entire career. New teachers can try a new strategy every day. I am now buying this book for all of my new teachers!
Book Description
Contemporary and well written, this book serves as a good desk reference for business professionals who need to know about information systems. Chapter topics include database management, telecommunications, electronic commerce, information system ethics, security, and more. For systems analysts or general business professionals who need to know about information systems.
Book Description
With over one million novels in print, New York Times best-selling author Joel C. Rosenberg has been called "eerily prophetic" and a "modern Nostradamus" for his uncanny ability to write political thrillers that come true. In his first nonfiction book, this evangelical Christian from an Orthodox Jewish heritage takes readers on an unforgettable journey through prophecy and current events into the future of Iraq after Saddam, Russia after Communism, Israel after Arafat, and Christianity after radical Islam. You won't want to miss Joel's exclusive interviews with Israeli, Palestinian, and Russian leaders, and previously classified CIA and White House documents. Similar to the approach Joel takes in his novels, his desire is to draw readers into stories, anecdotes, and predictions in a way that builds confidence that allows Joel to share his faith in Jesus Christ and the reliability of Scripture as a guide to understanding the past and the future. Drawing on his experience in Washington, his own exclusive interviews with world leaders, and his astute political acumen, Joel makes sense of the events surrounding the Middle East. He connects information in a way that will make you understand and really care about the world's most important events and how they impact your life--from gas prices to your bank account.Epicenter is about: Change--big changes, dramatic changes, changes that will transform the world as we know it. Answers--what the changes are underway in the world's most important countries. Insight--readers will understand the trajectory of world events by being taken inside the governments of Iran, Iraq, Russia, China, and more. Accessibility--aimed for a wide audience in both the general and Christian markets. Faith--Joel shares his faith in Jesus Christ and the reliability of Scripture. Epicenter will answer questions like: Will Iraq go from bad to worse? Will Israel and her Arab neighbors find peace, or is another major Middle East war just around the corner? If the new, post-Soviet Russia is our friend, why is the Kremlin creating a new class of thermonuclear weapons and building an alliance with radical Islam?
Customer Reviews:
Epicenter.......2007-10-18
Terrific book based on scriptures but a little scary in it's revelations. I would highly recommend this book.
What the future holds!.......2007-10-17
This is a very infromative book and spot on about future events. The headlines daily prove the accuracy of this book.
Epicenter.......2007-10-17
For those who are willing to use the third len to view world events, this book is a must read. Joel Rosenberg has done a good job correlating the world events with Biblical prophecies. Those who have ears must listen.
Epicenter.......2007-10-17
A must read for anyone who wants to view future events relative to Bible Prophesy. I was especially moved to look into the mind of a Messianic Jew. The author is right on!
Epicenter.......2007-10-17
Interesting information - don't know how much is true. A lot of chest thumping by the author. The evangelical ending kind of turned me off. If I'm going to find Jesus, it will not be through reading a novel. I think that Mr. Rosenberg has some intertesting takes on some recent world event - all probably driven by some really unbelievable coincidences and turns of history. Broader picture?, I think he's on to something. Whether God comes and reaks havoc as decribed in the Bible is anyone's guess. Overall, not a bad read - but then you put the book away and go on to something else.
Book Description
"The Long Tail" is a powerful new force in our economy: the rise of the niche. As the cost of reaching consumers drops dramatically, our markets are shifting from a one-size-fits-all model of mass appeal to one of unlimited variety for unique tastes. From supermarket shelves to advertising agencies, the ability to offer vast choice is changing everything, and causing us to rethink where our markets lie and how to get to them. Unlimited selection is revealing truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it, from DVDs at Netflix to songs on iTunes to advertising on Google. However, this is not just a virtue of online marketplaces; it is an example of an entirely new economic model for business, one that is just beginning to show its power. After a century of obsessing over the few products at the head of the demand curve, the new economics of distribution allow us to turn our focus to the many more products in the tail, which collectively can create a new market as big as the one we already know. The Long Tail is really about the economics of abundance. New efficiencies in distribution, manufacturing, and marketing are essentially resetting the definition of whats commercially viable across the board. If the 20th century was about hits, the 21st will be equally about niches.
Customer Reviews:
Fabulos... indispensable para entender la nueva realidad de internet.......2007-10-08
Este es un libro estructural. Ayuda a comprender la forma en que trabaja la economia a la luz de los avances de internet.
Pero tambien es un placer leerlo, lenguaje claro, ejemplos relevantes. Un lujo.
Good article, stretched out to a padded book.......2007-09-26
This book started off as an article in Wired Magazine, and it was an excellent one. But Anderson must have decided to cash in, because the book doesn't add anything that wasn't covered in the article itself. It's not a complex concept.
Read the article on the Wired website. Then go spend your money on something from a tiny niche market.
One Trick Pony.......2007-09-09
This is one of those books that has one, keen insight and then takes one hundred + pages to say the same thing over and again. The keen point is indeed interesting. It just does not a complete book make. My $.02 !!
Good book for the startup entrepreneur in the 21-century .......2007-08-20
This is an insightful book into the today's world of retail business. Cool examples of how the Internet has leveled the playing field for many small businesses and artist.
Looking at it from the point of view of the producer and not the consumer or the retailer .......2007-08-16
I am not much of a business mind but I think I get the picture here. Instead of twenty percent of the product bringing in eighty percent of the revenue ninety- eight percent of the product is going to bring in all the revenue. Having so much available, and having ready access to it means sales no longer concentrate on a relatively few items. Freedom of choice abounds, niches multiply, Alvin Toffler is happy, future shock is no longer shocking, customization is here forever, and we all can have anything we want as long as we are able to pay for it.
Good. But I think of this in another way. Does this mean that 'value' also will not be centered as we ordinarily center it in the great works, the masterpeices, the few chosen ones? Does it mean our whole conception of valuing cultural goods will change, and a few big things will be less worshipped while many more appreciated? In other words will deTocqueville be happy here because 'equality' is in the saddle and mankind has many little good things, instead of the aristocracy only having a few?
And what does that mean for creators of culture? As a writer can I now happily post my unpublished writings with the thought that perhaps a few will read them, where before none did. In other words a moneyless long- tail is still a long- tail.
I don't know. But I do sense Anderson has hit on to a new truth here which will have all kinds of implications better business people than me will have to see.
Book Description
The future belongs to a different kind of person with a different kind of mind: artists, inventors, storytellers-creative and holistic "right-brain" thinkers whose abilities mark the fault line between who gets ahead and who doesn't. Drawing on research from around the world, Pink outlines the six fundamentally human abilities that are absolute essentials for professional success and personal fulfillment-and reveals how to master them. A Whole New Mind takes readers to a daring new place, and a provocative and necessary new way of thinking about a future that's already here.
Customer Reviews:
Art Teachers Summer Read.......2007-09-10
Great book to read while I consider my level of burnout. It was interesting and made me want to find out more. I would like to implement some of his straegies with my high school art kids. Thanks.
Faster than you think.......2007-08-28
We are undergoing enormous change and at a pace that seems to be getting faster all the time. This book is an invaluable tool for all of us if we know how to use it properly. He is pointing us in the right direction - now it is up to us to go and do something with the advice he has provided. I loved this book and would strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to have a whole new life.
Excellent tool for personal excellence........2007-08-15
What I love is when a book isn't just conceptual; it's practical. A Whole New Mind fits that bill nicely.
Dan Pink does a great job of not only laying out the essential principles to a well-rounded, complete way to bring your best to work, but he also gives excellent examples and resources to learn from and develop your capabilities.
Well researched, a great read, entertaining, and immensely useful. I highly recommend it.
Thought Provoking.......2007-08-14
What a fascinating take on the age of "Abundance, Asia and Automation." Pink's reflection on what these three realities mean to today's young people and what their future may be has really changed my outlook on my children's future. Among the most important and affirming things that Pink says is that we need "an artist in every room." Amen to that!
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future.......2007-08-12
Thought provoking. Right on in describing the transformation that our global economy is moving towards.
Book Description
A Mere Christianity for a new generation from a leading Christian scholar and Anglican bishop.
Customer Reviews:
Simply outstanding.......2007-10-19
N.T. Wright's "Simply Christian" is simply outstanding as a basic introduction to Christian faith. In my church we are using the book, along with a DVD program that can be separately ordered, for our class for new members as well as a weekday seminar with long-time members. Both groups find Wright's presentations insightful and helpful.
Scratches Where it Itches.......2007-09-23
A friend used to tell the story of being lost in rural Ireland on holiday. Stopping a local farmer, he asked the way to Dublin. The farmer replied, "Well now, if I were trying to get to Dublin, I wouldn't start from here."
The genius of this book, which I have found enormously helpful in clarifying what I think about Christianity, is that it starts from where I and, I suspect, many others Westerners find themselves. This is not a book which requires you to be on the wavelength of the already-committed Christian or to be familiar with her in-house vocabulary. The author is clearly used to addressing a wider audience.
I have to confess that I have little patience with the religious jargon or party-politics of the kind found in some of the other reviews on this page. As I try to understand what Jesus may have to say to me about God, I find the in-fighting of his followers over the precise meaning of words like "atonement" or debates about whether the Reformers or the Roman Catholics have it right, profoundly unhelpful and unattractive. Such discussions do not make me want to go searching for God if I have to do so in the company of those who enjoy splitting theological hairs or putting each other down.
Tom Wright, however, caught my attention immediately not only with his crystal-clear prose and fresh, provocative imagery but with the insight that the reader will know what he means when he speaks of the Echoes we have all heard which speak to us of the greater reality for which we are all looking. In the four short, brilliantly crafted and memorable chapters which make up Part 1, he explores four areas of human experience which preoccupy many of us: the search for justice in a world which seems incapable of providing it; the widespread interest in "spirituality" which has many of us caught up in wild goose chases; the universal need to live in relationship with others, with the created order and, Wright would add, with God; and the puzzle of beauty, what it might be and why it fascinates us. The first part of the book essentially asks the question, "Do these experiences ring bells with you?". Inevitably, the answer is "Yes", and the reader is then drawn into a explanation of why this might be so from a Christian perspective which is always illuminating, sometimes erudite, never patronizing. Parts 2 and 3 take a fresh look at the historical Christian faith under headings with which most Christians, from the evangelical to the orthodox, would be familiar and comfortable. They include "Jesus, Rescue and Renewal", "Living By the Spirit", "Prayer" and "Believing and Belonging".
One of the marks of a great teacher is the ability to simplify and distil complexity without becoming simplistic or imbalanced. Tom Wright has this gift in abundance. One senses the depth of his scholarship on every page and respects him for it, but the text which emerges from the depths of his experience is attractive and accessible enough to hold even a teenager's attention. One might almost say that, like many popular airport novels, this is a "page turner". Once hooked, you want to know what comes next.
The overview that he is able to offer of the key components of Christian belief is impressive. If nothing else (and it is a great deal else) this would make a first-rate revision course in Christian basics for jaded believers in need of refreshment. And for those who may have been misled without realising it. I have been a Christian for 35 years, have belonged to a number of different churches and have read countless books about the Christian faith; but I have been startled to discover in these pages that I hold assumptions which shouldn't be there. I am grateful to have been put right by a man who really knows what he's talking about and can demonstrate it with wisdom and gentleness from a deep knowledge of Scripture, theology and church history. If I may use a Wright-like image, the experience of reading this book has been, for me, a little like sitting in the chair at the optician's while he places a series of lenses in front of my eyes. As lens after lens is applied and adjusted, eventually the furniture in his office comes into clear focus and I see it and him as they were meant to be seen, without the blur.
If you are looking for a book which has a chance of reigniting your hope that the church may have something to say to the world after all, as long as it scratches where people are itching and speaks to them in a language that they understand, this may well be it. On the other hand, if you are trying to sort out which of the scandalously numerous Christian denominations has cornered the correct interpretation of this or that verse of the New Testament, you may be disappointed. There is an absence of bigotry here, as one would expect of a book written by a thoughtful disciple of Jesus. As the author Anne Rice has written, "This is a book about Christ that is full of the spirit of Christ himself".
A Great Overview of the Christian Faith.......2007-09-19
N.T. Wright, known for his scholarly work on the historical Jesus, writes for a more general audience in this book.
Wright begins the book by discussing four `signposts' of the divine; our desire for justice, our quest for spirituality, our need of relationships, and our apprehension of beauty. According to Wright, while such things do not necessarily point us to the Christian God, they do compel us to look beyond the purely physical universe to something deeper.
He then proceeds to go through the basic Christian story, from the beginning of the Old Testament to the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. He goes on to discuss the practical implication of this story for our lives, including an explanation of the relevance and importance of Christian disciplines such as worship, prayer, and Biblical reading.
One of Wright's main themes is to explain that, according to the Christian worldview, heaven and earth interlock. This is opposed to pantheism, where God and the universe are one, and Deism, where God is separated from, or at least not much interested in, the world. Wright points out that the beauty of living the Christian life is the ability to live where heaven and earth collide. Christians are not merely those who believe an abstract set of theological truths, they are people who are striving, individually and collectively, to live as a part of God's new creation-
"We are called to be part of God's new creation, called to be agents of that new creation here and now. We are called to model and display that new creation in symphonies and family life, in restorative justice and poetry, in holiness and service to the poor, in politics and painting." [236]
Simply Christian is an extremely accessible and readable book that will come as a breath of fresh air for many.
Vibrant Study!.......2007-09-10
The Episcopal Church my wife and I attend is using this book along with the Bishop's video and workbook in Christian Education. Very solid and uplifting! I truly recommend it! Grace and Peace!
A classic in the making.......2007-09-09
This was a wonderful book. The insights of the author were deep and encouraging. The book certainly would strengthen someone's faith. He deals with most of the common ideas of Christianity, such as worship, belief, transformation, but is not "out there" is his ideas. In fact, his ideas are fresh, without being strange. This is a great read with great insights. Certainly a book most people would enjoy and benefit from.
Book Description
For almost 1,500 years, the New Testament manuscripts were copied by hand––and mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions. Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself are the results of both intentional and accidental alterations by scribes.
In this compelling and fascinating book, Ehrman shows where and why changes were made in our earliest surviving manuscripts, explaining for the first time how the many variations of our cherished biblical stories came to be, and why only certain versions of the stories qualify for publication in the Bibles we read today. Ehrman frames his account with personal reflections on how his study of the Greek manuscripts made him abandon his once ultra–conservative views of the Bible.
Customer Reviews:
Good reading.......2007-10-18
This is a very good study into alternative views of how The New Testament was put together. I recommend reading this book.
Enlightening.......2007-10-13
Keep your bible handy when you read this book, no matter how familiar you may be with the New Testament. Ehrman is very convincing--the NT as we know it is a far, far cry from the original, but he makes no claim to knowing that original. His point is that the copies of copies of copies have introduced thousands of changes--some very significant. And he backs his claims with scholarly and very convincing arguments. The title is misleading, however. Jesus' words, as recorded in the NT, make up only a small portion of this work. It's thrust, instead, is how ignorant, prejudiced and sometimes well-meaning scribes altered the texts, time after time. Fascinating, interesting, enlightening and very readable.
good reading.......2007-10-04
Anything worth believing is worth questioning. This book will help you realize there is a lot more to know about the bible, than you have been told. I would recommend this to people who have never looked into how the NT came to be.
For those who take the Bible seriously.......2007-10-03
Whether you are a member of a Bible study group or a skeptic, this book should be read. The author is candid about his personal spiritual path, which allows readers some insight into his possible bias, but he is also scrupulous about his scholarship. If you believe every word of the Bible--whichever translation you read--is divinely inspired, you may have no interest in reading this book. However, if the idea that modern translations alter the meaning of the King James version on which you were raised has already occurred to you, you may have begun to wonder about other changes to the Bible over the years. This book is enlightening, and for anyone willing to study the Bible seriously, reading "Misquoting Jesus" will be important to your spiritual study. Because the author respects his readers enough to explain the painstaking nature of his field of study, the book demands a willingness to wade through some difficult passages, but the effort is worth it. I highly recommend this book.
Clear and respectful exposition of a hot topic.......2007-10-02
In spite of the provocative title, "Misquoting Jesus" is very respectful of Scriptures - so much so that it willing to tell the truth about them. Bart Ehrman does his typically great job of explaining a difficult topic -- in this case, the history, operation and findings of biblical textual criticism -- to a lay audience. Ehrman's journey as a textual critic has been a long and difficult one, and it seems to have knocked him off-balance, at least for a time. Starting as a fundamentalists of the fundamentalists (to paraphrase Paul) he decided to study scripture. His first epiphany was when he asked himself, if the Bible is God's word, then why do I have to learn Greek and Hebrew to understand it? This question led to others, culminating in a nuanced and complex understanding of the Bible and its history -- as told by the ways scribes have changed the Bible itself.
Ehrman discusses the history of the Bible's transmission through the centuries-- via scribes whose literacy was sometimes comprised only by their ability to copy the shape of letters from an old copy to a new, without understanding their meaning. This was eye-opening for me, but Ehrman supports his contentions with evidence that is sometimes funny and always persuasive. Ehrman helps us to understand the world from the scribe's point of view, as they miss and repeat words, misunderstand abbreviations and (as they listen to dictation) write down homonyms that sound the same but mean vastly different things.
Ehrman gives us a glimpse at the history of biblical textual criticism. We learn how we got the Vulgate, St. Jerome's 4th-century translation of scriptures into Latin, and about 16th-century scholar Erasmus's rush to be the first to print a Greek New Testament. Erasmus's slapdash work then became a basis for the King James Bible, a translation still considered sacrosanct and untouchable by many. Through Ehrman, we learn of the great men whose work lay the foundations for modern biblical scholarship. We also learn of the tens of thousands of variant readings of Scripture that exist. It is this variation that causes consternation for those who believe the Bible to be unblemished and inerrant, and prompts delight for scholars who use the variants to piece together the original words, and to determine the theological biases of the scribes who introduced the variants into the text.
Ehrman is not on a mission to destroy the sacredness, the authority of the Church or to downplay the teaching of Jesus. He seemed constantly poised to deliver a death blow to the basic authenticity of the Bible. But mostly, he delivered examples that show the conservatism of even the most interventionist of scribes. Most of the variants, Ehrman admits, are insignificant -- misspellings and such. Interestingly, the truly significant variants are mostly tentative add-ons to the text, where a scribe changed one unpalatable word, but left the rest of the text alone. Textual critics identify these "patches," note their mismatch with the surrounding text, and propose solutions that bring us closer to the originals. Ehrman shows how variants can tell us much about the struggle for ideas that was the history of the Church. Ehrman identifies texts that were used against heretics like Marcion, against Jews, against gnostics and against women. Difficult texts, says Ehrman -- those that contradict what we would like the Scriptures to say, may well be the most accurate. For instance, in Mark 1:40-45, Jesus encounters a leper hoping to be cleansed. Most translation say that Jesus, filled with compassion, touched and healed the man. But some variants say that Jesus grew *angry* before healing him. Which is correct, and why? Ehrman argues that the variant in which Jesus becomes angry fits better into Mark's overall presentation of Jesus, and may therefore be original.
Ehrman's greatest sin is the way he vastly overstates his case. Perhaps this is due to his extremely conservative starting point (one shared by his more vituperative critics and reviewers) which cannot tolerate even the suggestion of the hand of Man in the Bible. Perhaps Ehrman's seeming overreaction (and the consequent lack to deliver) is akin to the doctor who warns that a procedure will hurt, bringing relief to the patient when he delivers only a minor sting. More darkly, perhaps Ehrman really believes that his work brings the Bible into such disrepute that he has lost faith in its divine authorship. But one need not believe that God inspired the Scriptures by literally dictating his words to scribes. One need not believe, along with the simpleminded, that Jesus had scribblers in his entourage. There are solutions to the divine authorship of the Bible that don't require the unsupported belief in its inerrancy posited by the fundamentalists nor the utter rejection of atheists. Some sort of imperfect, mysterious divine-human cooperation is an alternative, supported by mainstream scholars, which Ehrman's work certainly supports.
"Misquoting Jesus" is a terrific primer to the obscure field of textual criticism, especially as applied to the Bible. Though it provides many examples to illustrate Ehrman's points, it is not an exhaustive study of the discipline, but ably and gently leads Bible lovers to a new level of understanding of their holy book. There is no question that Ehrman simplifies his presentation. For instance, he gives us little insight into which textual criticisms are generally accepted and which are hotly debated. Some might see this book as a way for Ehrman to rush his own opinions into print. But Erhman backs up each of his contentions with logic and plausible theories. At the very least, the reader gains enough knowledge to follow the argument.
Ehrman's book helps us to be more careful about selecting biblical translations, and helps us appreciate the work of the legion of scholars who try to parse out the real meaning in its many verses. It lets us see through the gauze of false piety to understand and appreciate the differing worldviews and intentions of the Bible's writers and scribes, letting them speak for themselves. Above all, "Misquoting Jesus" helps us to see that the Bible cannot be read apart from the personalities and world-views of those who wrote it, those who copied it, those who translated it or those who read it. As such, it is a living document.
Which when you think of it, may have been its Inspirer's idea all along.
Book Description
Too many companies are managed not by leaders, but by mere role players and faceless bureaucrats. What does it take to be a real leader—one who is confident in who they are and what they stand for and who truly inspires people to achieve extraordinary results?
In this lively and practical book, Goffee and Jones draw from extensive research to reveal how to hone and deploy one’s unique leadership assets while managing the inherent tensions at the heart of successful leadership.
Why Should Anyone Be Led By You? will forever change how we view, develop and practice the art of leadership, wherever we live and work.
Download Description
This is an enhanced edition of the HBR article R00506, originally published in September/October 2000. HBR OnPoint articles save you time by enhancing an original Harvard Business Review article with an overview that draws out the main points and an annotated bibliography that points you to related resources. This enables you to scan, absorb, and share the management insights with others. We all know that leaders need vision and energy, but after an exhaustive review of the most influential theories on leadership--as well as workshops with thousands of leaders and aspiring leaders--the authors learned that great leaders also share four unexpected qualities: 1) They selectively reveal their weaknesses; 2) They rely heavily on intuition to gauge the appropriate timing and course of their actions; 3) They manage employees with "tough empathy"; and 4) They capitalize on their differences. All four qualities are necessary for inspirational leadership, but they cannot be used mechanically; they must be mixed and matched to meet the demands of particular situations. Most important, however, is that the qualities encourage authenticity among leaders. To be a true leader, the authors advise, "Be yourself--more--with skill."
Customer Reviews:
Philosophical take on authentic leadership.......2006-11-23
Authors Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones provide a welcome balance to the many books advising that leadership is a matter of adopting this or that characteristic or technique. They emphasize the situational nature of leadership, the extent to which it depends on followers in a particular organizational context. They infer some basic principles for authenticity and leadership from what seems to be a solid body of empirical observation and interviews, including generally pointed, well-chosen anecdotes showing good leaders in action. We recommend this thoughtful book, which offers an insight that few books on leadership dare to voice. The authors unabashedly assert that even great leadership may not lead to good business results. They further state that an excessive emphasis on results is one of the great obstacles standing in the way of authentic, moral leadership.
No photocopy for leadership success.......2006-04-13
Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones' WHY SHOULD ANYONE BE LED BY YOU? WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN AUTHENTIC LEADER tells why simply copying leadership strategies isn't a guarantee of success - and how authentic leadership resides in individuals who display their authenticity to others. Examples throughout illustrate over twenty-five years of joint experience between the authors who use their research, consulting experience and leadership skills to argue for the merits of authentic leadership and how to achieve it.
Interesting book.......2006-03-31
This book is well-written. It is easy to read and keeps your interest in general, although it is sometimes a little repetitious and slow. I guess the author repeats the point to make sure you get it.
Some of the author's ideas are new and thought-provoking, but you have to wade through some material which sounds like every other book on this topic, as well. In any case, if you are patient you will take away some neat new ideas that you will find yourself using and referring to.
I like the examples and anecdotes he/she uses to illustrate his/her points - they are really interesting and I have found myself using the examples and referring to them in everyday conversations with people, which is great. I only wish that there were some more examples because it is not always easy to see the point when no example is offered.
The four qualities of inspirational leaders.......2001-10-15
Gareth Jones is director of Human Resources and Internal Communications at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and a former Professor of Organizational Development at Henley Management College in Oxfordshire, England. Robert Goffee is Professor of Organizational Behavior at London Business School. They are the founding partners of Creative Management Associates, an organizational consulting firm in London, England. This article, published in Harvard Business Review's September-October 2000 issue, discusses the research of the authors into leadership (as academics, consultants, and executives).
The authors argue that inspirational leaders share four shared (unexpected) qualities: Leaders show and reveal their weaknesses, rely heavily on intuition and associated timing, manage with tough empathy (passionately and realistically), and reveal (and capitalize on) their differences. Goffee and Jones discuss each of these qualities in detail, explaining why these qualities are so important and how leaders show them. There is a short history of leadership and a discussion of some popular myths about leadership: 'Everyone can be a leader', 'leaders deliver business results', 'people who get to the top are leaders', and 'leaders are great coaches'. In addition, there is a short discussion on female leadership, whereby the authors' advice is that female leaders should stay true to themselves. The final conclusion of the article is that the four discussed qualities cannot be used mechanically. Their advice to executives is: "Be yourselves - more - with skill."
This article is much in line with the latest thinking in leadership: Emotional intelligence (EQ/EI) is as important, or even more important, than traditional intelligence (IQ). I see big relations with the Harvard Business Review-articles by Daniel Goleman (What Makes a Leader?, 1998) and Jim Collins (Level 5 Leadership, 2001), which also emphasize the softer, emotional side of leadership. I did like this article and would recommend it to people moving into management and MBA-students. My main complaint is that the conclusion of this article is somewhat too simple. The article is written in simple English. Please note that this article runs on Acrobat eBook Reader software and is not a .pdf-file.
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