Book Description
It's no secret that you can't improve your organization's performance without measuring it. In fact, every function, unit, process, and the organization as a whole, is built and run according to the parameters and expectations of its measurement system.
So you'd better make sure you're doing it right. All too often, performance measurement creates dysfunction, whether among individuals, teams, or across entire divisions and companies. Most traditional measurement systems actually encourage unhealthy competition for personal gain, creating internal conflict and breeding distrust of performance measurement.
Transforming Performance Measurement presents a breakthrough approach that will not only significantly reduce those dysfunctions, but also promote alignment with business strategy, maximize cross-enterprise integration, and help everyone to work collaboratively to drive value throughout your organization.
Performance improvement thought leader Dean Spitzer explains why performance measurement should be less about calculations and analysis and more about the crucial social factors that determine how well the measurements get used. His "socialization of measurement" process focuses on learning and improvement from measurement, and on the importance of asking such questions as: How well do our measures reflect our business model? How successfully are they driving our strategy? What should we be measuring and not measuring? Are the right people having the right measurement discussions?
Performance measurement is a dynamic process that calls for an awareness of the balance necessary between seemingly disparate ideas: the technical and the social aspects of performance measurement. For example, you need technology to manage the flood of data, but you must make sure that it supports the people who will be making decisions and taking action crucial to your organization's success. This book shows you how to design that technical-social balance into your measurement system.
While it is urgent to start taking action now, transforming your organization's performance measurement system will take time. Transforming Performance Measurement gives you assessment tools to gauge where you are now and a roadmap for moving, with little or no disruption, to a more "transformational" and mature measurement system.
The book also provides 34 TMAPs, Transformational Measurement Action Plans, which suggest both well-accepted and "emergent" measures (in areas such as marketing, human resources, customer service, knowledge management, productivity, information technology, research and development, costing, and more) that you can use right away.
In the end, you get what you measure. If you measure the wrong things, you will take your company farther and farther away from its mission and strategic goals. Transforming Performance Measurement tells you not only what to measure, but how to do it--and in what context--to make a truly transformational difference in your enterprise.
Customer Reviews:
The most crucial internal issue every business is facing today.......2007-08-17
After 10 years of development in operations finance and organization design, I am in a position to say unequivocally that Dean Spitzer has articulated my experience and conclusions on every page of his master work. Anyone who aspires to be an effective leader in today's market environment had better begin deepening their capacity to drive this kind of change, and Dean has offered a powerful set of insights, tools and guidelines that I intend to begin using immediately to support and augment my own toolkit. Bravo! Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.
Chief Measurement Officer.......2007-07-20
I confess bias on this subject, as I head up a software company laboring in process intelligence ... So as someone keenly interested in how measurement is used in the enterprise, I find Dr. Spitzer's book to be essentially the bible on the subject. It is extremely balanced, thoughtful, and in my opinion, prescriptively correct. Hopefully, in the near future, prompted by this book, there will be more than just a few, "Chief Measurement Officers." And each one of them will be indebted to Dr. Spitzer's pioneering. But, the future on measurement is by no means certain. Yet the future of data has never been more exciting. The "data web" is just around the corner, and soon we will be accessing data with the ease that we access documents today. Right now it seems that gaiting factor to exploiting the "data web" is our social organization around measurement. Let's hope Dr. Spitzer's advice is followed.
Getting Started with an Intelligent Measurement Program.......2007-07-06
This book is for any manager who has had difficulty getting started with measurements. (We know who we are...we want to start, but just can't get comfortable taking that first step!)
Dean Spitzer has you look at the business through the client's eyes and then gives you permission, encouragement, and guidance on how to start with emergent, learning measurements. These will get your program launched, and Spitzer then coaches you on a migration path to a set of intelligent, client-focused measurements.
The "Da Vinci Code" for success in the globalized marketplace .......2007-04-02
Dean's new and truly transformational management book is a must read / must implement for senior executives, especially in services firms. Unlike many management books, this one contains not just descriptions of what matters most, but practical step-by-step guidance on implementation. When you finish reading, you are not just enthusiastic to get started, but you know where to begin and how to proceed.
As pointed out in the book, the changes in measurement strategies suggested in the book will require strong leadership from the top of an organization as did Six Sigma programs implemented in manufacturing businesses. I agree with Dean that a new senior management position is warranted in most firms in order to make the changes become part of the fabric of management and organizational behavior. I have confidence that those courageous firms who follow Dean's well written guidance will rise to the top of their respective industries... and those who don't will suffer the consequences.
Mal Conway Review of Spitzer Book.......2007-03-30
DEAN SPITZER has produced a ground-breaking book that shatters long-held, deeply entrenched conceptualizations of measurement that have resulted in measurement dysfunction. Moving beyond classical measurement theory and the focus on technical measures, Dean challenges all who create, track, use and are affected by performance measures to move away from measurement dysfunction characterized by:
1. Excessive focus on rewards
2. Fear
3. Measuring the wrong things
4. Measuring `looking good,' rather than `being good'
5. Measuring too much
6. Sub-optimization (measuring in functional silos)
7. Cheating
His cogent, compelling, specific remedies for transforming traditional performance measurement are to focus instead on:
1. Context: Continuously improve how measurement is experienced. [We rarely think about the "measurement experience" in organizations!]
2. Focus: Focus on measuring the right things. Focus on the `critical few' transformational measures, rather than the `trivial many' routine ones.
3. Integration: Use measurement frameworks and cross-functional measures to break down barriers and align the organization.
4. Interactivity: Performance measurement is just a bunch of `metrics' if it isn't the basis for dialogue. Dialogue around measurement makes it come alive, makes it meaningful, and promotes organizational learning.
Dr. Spitzer's thoughtful book is destined to be a classic due to its focus on the human aspects of performance measurement. Kudos and my gratitude to him for producing this practical guide.
Malcolm J. Conway
IBM Global Business Services
Average customer rating:
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Rethinking America's Security: Beyond Cold War to New World Order (American Assembly Series)
Manufacturer: W W Norton & Co Inc
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ASIN: 0393030598 |
Book Description
Stunning shifts in the worldviews of states mark the modern history of international affairs: how do societies think about--and rethink--international order and security? Japan's "opening," German conquest, American internationalism, Maoist independence, and Gorbachev's "new thinking" molded international conflict and cooperation in their eras. How do we explain such momentous changes in foreign policy--and in other cases their equally surprising absence?
The nature of strategic ideas, Jeffrey W. Legro argues, played a critical and overlooked role in these transformations. Big changes in foreign policies are rare because it is difficult for individuals to overcome the inertia of entrenched national mentalities. Doing so depends on a particular nexus of policy expectations, national experience, and ready replacement ideas. In a sweeping comparative history, Legro explores the sources of strategy in the United States and Germany before and after the world wars, in Tokugawa Japan, and in the Soviet Union. He charts the likely future of American primacy and a rising China in the coming century.
Rethinking the World tells us when and why we can expect changes in the way states think about the world, why some ideas win out over others, and why some leaders succeed while others fail in redirecting grand strategy.
Book Description
Have globalization, virulent ethnic differences, and globally operating insurgents fundamentally changed the nature of war in the last decades? Interpretations of war as driven by politics and state rationale, formulated most importantly by the nineteenth century practitioner Carl von Clausewitz, have received strong criticism. Political explanations have been said to fall short in explaining conflicts in the Balkans, Africa, Asia and the attacks of 11 September 2001 in the United States.
This book aims to re-evaluate these criticisms by not only carefully scrutinizing Clausewitz's arguments and their applicability, but also by a careful reading of the criticism itself. In doing so, the contributions on this book present empirical evidence on the basis of several case studies, addressing various aspects of modern war, such as the actors, conduct and purposes of war.
The book concludes that while the debate on the nature of war has far from run its course, the interpretation of war as postulatedby Clausewitz is not as inapplicable as some have claimed. Furthermore, the label a war receives, such as civil war, does not necessarily say much about the way this war is fought. Civil wars are not always irregular or unconventional wars. Changes in the conduct of war have unmistakably occurred but change should not overshadow the important continuities that exist in the nature of war and warfare.
Customer Reviews:
Profound Thinking for the New Century.......2005-04-08
There have been numerous attempts to analyze war and the reasons for war. Clausewitz's On War, and Sun Tzu's Art of War are just two of the best known examples.
These books generally cover how and why countries go to war. They are not much help in make more sense of things like ethnic clensing in the Balkans, another genocide in Rwanda, or the 9/11 attacks. Another fundamental shift is the moving of wars away from the major powers to the developing world.
The conclusions reached by a wide selection of researchers and professors of international relations, military theory are mixed. It rather depends on how you intrepret On War, not the easiest book to read. But in any case this book provides some profound thinking on the nature of war at the beginning of the new century. All but two of the contributors are based in Europe. This brings an additional international aspect to the writing.
Book Description
Written in a clear and straightforward manner, Rethinking the Fifth Discipline makes significant and fundamental improvements to the core discipline of systemic thinking. It establishes crucial developments in the context of the learning organization, including creativity and organizational transformation. Key features include a review and critique of "Fifth Discipline" and systemic thinking, an introduction to the gurus (Senge, Bertalanffy, Beer, Ackoff, Checkland, and Churchman), a redefinition of management, a guide to choosing, implementing, and evaluating improvement strategies, and practical illustrations.
Customer Reviews:
A very readable and practical book on organisational learning.......2006-05-04
Being a fan of Senge's work I was sceptical at first, but Bob Flood build on Senge's work and puts into a larger context of thinking holistically and futuristically.
He adds complexity into the mix in that we must prepare for the unexpected and yet unknown situations using his diagrammatical perspective on scenario planning. I also enjoyed his pages on Satori, his bookshelf metaphor on Process, Structure, Meaning and Fairness (Knowledge-power as he coins it).
The bottom line of the book as he puts it:
* we will not struggle to manage over things, we will manage within the unmanageable;
* we will not battle to organise the totality, we will organise within the unorganisable; and
* we will not simply know things, but we will know of the unknowable.
Flood co-authored `Creative Problem Solving' with Jackson, but I recommend getting this book instead as well as Jackson's later book `Systems Thinking: Creative Holism for Managers'.
A challenging, thought provoking book!.......2001-04-17
This book will provide you value if you're looking for information and analysis of system thinking, and wish to better understand Dr. Senge's seminal book "The Fifth Disciple". However, just as an historical introspective over the last 60 years, it's worth the price of the book alone.
Mr. Flood examines the Fifth Discipline under the careful eye of an academic researcher, bringing into play some of great system thinkers of the past to make his points regarding Senge's five disciplines. As these great thinkers are brought forth, windows of opportunities for new knowledge open up, as do gaps of unspoken positions in Senge's work.
I enjoyed this book very much, probably because it was so unique and carefully laid out. After all, how often to you see a book which is basically a term paper of another book, written by the best professor at the school?
I came away with not only a better understading and appreciation of the Fifth Discipline, but also with a clearer understanding of the history of system thinkers, and how they've each brought us a unique perspective to consider.
Systems Thinking beyond Senge.......2001-04-07
A nice one for the academics. I don't think busy managers would like it. Nevertheless, Flood provides a neat summary and background to all issues involving systems and systems thinking in general. His view that complexity science is a strand of systems theory and not something entirely new is important, especially for those contemplating a new management program based on complexity theory. Flood makes a number of interesting observations and provides some useful suggestions, though some may not be candidates for immediate implementation they do get one thinking. His practical animation of his experience and research at the local police in York in the UK is boring. The essence of systemic thinking as Flood points out is not something that can be easily explained, the notion of wholeness should not be trivialised. To attempt to explain the world in terms of systems and sub-systems does to systemic thinking what analysis does to SATORI - it strips it of all essential meaning. In this sense Flood goes beyond Senge, and I liked it very much.
A funeral parlor read -- the patient has died........2000-06-01
20000531: I have to warn people away from this book, or at least suggest that it be read at a page-a-second clip. What's wrong with it? It's simply analysis that is so process conscious that all it's good for, after painful mastery, in my opinion, is to critique events or "systems" after the fact-if ever! I can see all the fresh bureaucrats now, gathered around their impressive conference tables, watching with barely flinching expressions as bespecktacled "Floodites" make the case for "A" using analyses "A - Z" and sub-positories (sic) "a - z" using an endless succession of highly intelligent flowing diagrams -- a virtual "flood" of absolutely stunning (literally) and pointless DATA, that is intended to let you, eventually, "wall-off," and decide what to "embrase," and group hug the "97 architypes." Perhaps this all sounds good in the quarterly. Flood can't be too sure because there's a lot more stuff by author's "a - Z," and that's just for 1994. But relax -- it's all about "systemic thinking." "Systemic thinking is at the core." So it's -- "systemic." I hate to trash a good man but I would prefer a massage and a tape of wooded sounds. Actually what the professor is describing is what a consciously balanced human brain is supposed to be able to deliver, but with a bit more vigor. I think the professor needs a few magic stones and a trip to Greece. Can anyone _really_ make sense of this erudition? (from title page of part 1): "Knowing oneself following a system of thought, will simply create a result, i.e., oneself, produced by that system of thought -- not knowing oneself." And those bureaucrats? What's in their fresh (collective) mind is a basic _fear_ that holds them tight to the professor and creates lions out of lambs: "Defend the professor with your _life_, because if he's wrong, then that means all of academic structure crumbles." That's what I thought I could hear them thinking as I was watching them. I tear down the work that Mr. Flood and his pedegree erect, to make room for systems that work at least a thousand times better. It pains me to knock anyone's success but with all sobriety I say that as a class, habitually unchallenged professionals like this are more problem than solution.
Original, profound yet easily understood and operationalised.......1999-10-17
The content of Professor Flood's latest book is original and profound, but easily understood and operationalised, therefore this book can be considered a "must have" by academics, students, interventionists, consultants and managers alike. It successfully elucidates how the concepts of Systems Theory, Complexity Theory, Organisational Learning and Organisational Intervention are inextricably intertwined.
There is a significant degree of emergent synergy that arises from the complementarist use of the Senge's approach (as described within the "Fifth Discipline") when used in conjunction with Flood's guiding> frameworks for organisational intervention and improvement. In isolation, Senge provided his readers with guidance on organisational learning - but provided no pragmatic steps to guide organisational analysis and the actual selection and use of improvement strategies. Conversely, Flood's previous writings provided a guiding framework for facilitating organisational improvement but lacked the organisational learning approaches that are simultaneously required if the need for organisational improvement (i.e. change) is to be recognised, validated, operationalised, reflexively critiqued and assimilated as part of a revised organisational paradigm. Empirical studies have clearly demonstrated that without the tools to facilitate organisational learning, it is quite likely that the need and desire to implement change strategies will be attenuated by organisational defence mechanisms. (See the work of Argyris in this regard). Therefore, the augmentation of organisational improvement frameworks with organisational learning offers interventionists an enhanced degree of success.
Thus, by effectively combining his interventional strategies with the Senge's organisational learning strategies, Flood has successfully created a pragmatic approach that is more potent than the sum of its constituent parts. The emergent synergy is not by any means a coincidental by-product of the amalgam. Flood clearly explains how the inescapable and tangible manifestations of Complexity Theory require us to "learn our way into an unknowable future". Flood's book also effectively prepares the reader for the adaptations that will be necessary in contending with a dynamically changing organisational landscape.
This book is highly recommended to all those with an interest in organisational learning, change management, systems theory and complexity theory.
Average customer rating:
- not my style of management
- Excellent content, useful resource
- Classroom Strategies That Make Sense
- Rethinking Classroom Management
- A Must Read!
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Rethinking Classroom Management: Strategies for Prevention, Intervention, and Problem Solving
Patricia Lee Sequeira Belvel , and
Maya Marcia Jordan (Knowles)
Manufacturer: Corwin Press
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ASIN: 0761945237 |
Book Description
"As a teacher and principal, I have found Pat Belvel and Maya Marcia Jordan's prevention and intervention framework to be the single most important resource to help teachers become consciously competent about their classroom management strategies and the positive effects they have on students."
Debbie Textor, Principal
Lincoln Elementary School
Cupertino, CA
"Traditional classroom management strategies do not encourage the development of basic social skills.
Rethinking Classroom Management is a desperately needed guide for educators about how to re-examine our own belief systems and change the way we attempt to manage and control students’ behavior. Every teacher should read and apply the ideas in this great resource."
Martha Kaufeldt
Author, Begin With the Brain: Orchestrating the Learner-Centered Classroom
Tomorrow's leaders will be reflections of today's teachers. The ideal classroom consists of positive relationships between teacher and students producing an environment resulting of beneficial, mutual fulfillment. In this empowering book, Patricia Sequeira Belvel and Maya Marcia Jordan demonstrate successful methods to achieve harmony, while transforming managerial teachers into leaders in the classroom. Educators are enlightened by classroom and personal "connections," enabling the teacher to be immersed in real-life classroom situations and encouraging readers to create meaningful connections from their personal experiences.
Key topics that help guide readers through this transformation are:
- Intrinsic motivation and personal beliefs and values as aids to making the shift from manager to leader
- Prevention strategies creating a caring community of learners
- Temporary intervention techniques that effectively differentiate between discipline and punishment
- Problem-solving strategies to help the student take initiative in creating constructive solutions for all
Rethinking Classroom Management is an innovative guide that illustrates an approach which has been used by successful educators for years, enabling teachers to evolve effectively into leaders and to create classrooms where students are more self-managing, and demonstrate mutual respect, self-esteem, and responsibility.
Customer Reviews:
not my style of management.......2004-06-13
I'm sure that this book has several excellent qualitites, but I was introduced to it by a professor who used these strategies exactly as they were outlined in the book. I constantly felt micromanaged, controlled, and manipulated. When I read the book after it was recommended by the professor, I saw exactly where these strategies were coming from. Since I as a student didn't like them at all, I wouldn't inflict these same strategies on my own students. I am a fairly new teacher with only about 4 years of experience, but I still feel like I know the difference between pressuring my students to behave in a particular group pattern and teaching them to think for themselves. I felt like this book took that power away from both the students and the teacher.
Excellent content, useful resource.......2003-07-10
As a 35-year career elementary teacher, I was surprised how often I turned to this book for help and advice. I did have the extra advantage of receiving training from the author herself. But the book, standing alone, is so clear and concise, with classroom anecdotes and other examples to make its points, that it is an invaluable resource for new and career teachers both. I recommend it to both new teachers and their administrators, as a blueprint for success in the difficult area of classroom management and student discipline.
Classroom Strategies That Make Sense.......2003-02-20
I have been a presenter for Classroom Management using Pat Belvel's materials for the past five years. Previously we had used a manual with mostly the overheads of the content. The wonderful aspect of this book is that it provides insights and adecdotes to which we can all relate. In this way, teachers can understand the strategies without extensive workshops. Although workshops with follow-up coaching is ideal. I recommend this book to new teachers as well as experienced. Within the workshop series, I have had new teachers comment about how they had never really thought about all of what goes into managing a classroom. Experienced teachers have expressed gratitude in reminding them of what works!
Rethinking Classroom Management.......2003-02-12
I am the co-author of this wonderful work and just want everyone to know that the paperback is exactly the same as the hardback, has an interesting, appealing cover design and costs much less.....This book is designed for veteran teachers and beginning teachers....Enjoy
A Must Read!.......2002-10-19
As a parent, I was quite interested to see if this book would assist me with my recent career as a full-time mommy. From the first words, I could tell that this was a gem of a book full of stories, analogies and practical strategies for classroom teachers and parents. The first story is about an extrinsically motivated class who didnt "behave" for subs. I put myself in the shoes of that teacher and thought. How come my children behave differently for babysitters than me? Immediately I applied what this teacher learned to my home life. This book is also deemed worthy of being on a university campus as a required text. Thanks, Vonny (teacher, grad student, happy mom of two)
Book Description
Professionals know that during the course of a game, the value of chess pieces change. And they use this knowledge to decide which pieces to exchange--and when. International grandmaster Andrew Soltis, the author of Bobby Fischer Rediscovered, helps pass this important information on to novices so they can benefit, too. He investigates why the traditional "chart of relative values" or computer analysis so often fails to explain why certain trades and sacrifices work and others just don't. All the typical decisions a player has to make, such as whether to swap two minor pieces for rook and pawn, receive detailed scrutiny. Players will appreciate the insightful analysis.
Customer Reviews:
Sound Material That We Have Seen Before.......2006-03-05
I am a tournament player (USCF 2140) looking for good books to help me improve. This book has sound material but little that is new. I kept running into ideas that I had already seen in many other instructional books.
The central point in RETHINKING THE PIECES is that you win chess games by making your pieces worth more than your opponent's pieces. Everyone gets that idea. But how do you do that? Soltis tries to answer this question thoroughly, giving plenty of clear examples of his points.
Soltis argues that your pieces are worth more than their normal value when they achieve great mobility, when they have ready targets, and when they coordinate their actions. Conversely, your pieces become worth less than their normal value when they lose mobility, when they lack targets, and when they fail to work together.
Soltis also maintains that your pieces are worth less than their normal values when they suffer from a change in board range and from redundancy. These ideas are certainly not that hard to grasp, as some examples will show:
An example of mobility: centralized pieces are usually worth more than decentralized ones, because they have many more moves in every direction and therefore can react quickly to needs all over the board. So fight to centralize your pieces.
An example of targets: in an endgame with a queen versus two rooks, the queen is worth more when the side with the rooks has unprotected pieces and pawns (targets), along with a king that is vulnerable to checking (the means to get to the targets), because then the queen becomes a terror, munching material ravenously through her double attacks. If you have the option of getting a queen for two rooks in such a position, then do so.
An example of piece coordination: a queen, bishop, and knight attacking the enemy king in concert are worth more than normal, and usually are worth much more than the enemy queen, rook, and knight wallowing on the other side of the board where they cannot coordinate their actions. If you can achieve this situation through an exchange sacrifice, then sac that exchange.
An example of a change in board range: when the only pawns left are on one side, then the board has in effect shrunk. All the targeting, all the action, takes place on one side. This makes knights and kings more valuable than normal, as they are no less effective in smaller areas. It also makes bishops, rooks, and queens less valuable than normal, as their long-range powers become superfluous. This explains the maxim that in the endgame, with pawns on one side of the board only, a knight usually is more effective than a bishop. In such a situation, then, if you have the bishop, usually you should trade it for the knight; and if you have the knight, usually you should avoid trading it for the bishop.
An example of redundancy: you have two knights but only one good outpost square. Your second knight has no good square, and is therefore worth less than normal. You should therefore jump at the chance to trade that redundant knight for an enemy piece of equal or greater value.
In sum, Soltis recommends estimating the changing values of the pieces based on mobility, targets, coordination, board range, and redundancy.
After laying out his criteria so clearly, Soltis illustrates how they operate to guide you through many choices at the board. For example, two rooks beat a queen when a) the rooks have files upon which to operate (mobility), b) the side with the queen has isolated pawns (targets for the rooks), and c) the rooks are protected and connected (coordination). So when deciding whether or not to take the two rooks against the queen, look for those factors. Another example: in the early middlegame, a bishop and knight are usually worth much more than a rook and a pawn because unlike a rook they do not require an open file to move about (mobility), they are busy attacking enemy pawns and pieces while the rook waits behind its own pawns (targets), and they coordinate beautifully with a queen (coordination). So avoid giving up a bishop and knight for a rook and pawn in the early middlegame.
Does it seem that you have heard all this before? Maybe you have. Plenty of these ideas have appeared in other instructional books, from Tarrasch to Capablanca to Euwe and Kramer to Silman. Yet Soltis has gathered them together in one place and tied them together nicely with a set of clear criteria.
If you are a fairly strong tournament player, say about USCF class A or better, then you probably know most of the points in this book already. You know that knights tend to outperform bishops with pawns on one side of the board; probably you know that the bishop pair gets stronger in the endgame; you learned long ago not to grab that pawn on f7, trading your knight and bishop for the enemy rook and pawn; and so forth. You may not see much in this book that is new to you.
But if you are below class A, then probably this book can help you improve, if you study it seriously. Its ideas are certainly sound and useful.
Good but not practical.......2005-12-28
It's a good book but it's not on the practical side.
The researched facts.......2005-10-06
Okay. First of all, we have to acknowledge the person writing this book. It's Soltis. He has a quality background. Thus, when I received this book as a present, I awaited a quality book, and was not disappointed.
One of my first thoughts, funnily enough, was how bad the cover is. I expected it, even from Soltis, to be a terrible book. The cover and the size of the book is nothing to gasp at (218 pages).
This, however, is not the point. As opposed to say, Garry Kasparov's "My Great Predecessors" (which are also, incidentally, wonderful books, don't get me wrong), which clocks in at 400 pages, here every page is packed full of priceless knowledge, brought about by the general agreement of the world's top players.
So, what's it all about? While the title clearly says "rethinking" the chess pieces, and true, it dispels many illusions, this book shows you how to use your pieces. In particular, what to exchange and when.
What can be said? It's a nice book. Soltis, I was suprised to find, still has time to inject a little humor into the book. I quote to list an example:
(diagram given, Kd4, Qe4, kd7, nd8, ne8, White to play)
White has a considerable material difference, a +2 or +3 according to the typical chart or computer. Normally, a +2 advantage is enough to win, and here White has an edge that is several times greater than the edge that Black enjoys after 7. Nxf7 in the first diagram. In addition, White's pieces are well placed and Black's knights are far from active.
Yet since Giambattista Lolli analyzed such positions in the 1760's, this has been known to be a dead draw. You can search for sophisticated explainations of why this is possible but there is an obvious one: the value of Black's pieces increase vis a vis White's simply because Black has two of them and White has one.
(If you add a third black knight, material would be roughly equal. Yet it's easy to see the queen has virtually no winning chances. The knights would have excellent winning chances - three against one - except that White can sacrifice the queen and draw due to insufficient mating material.)
End of quote. While it won't make you roar in laughter (it's a chess book, remember?!), it makes for an enjoyable read.
What level is this recommended to? If you promise me to read it thoroughly and be critical about it, the average player. You should probably know basic strategical themes and tactics etc, but in general it's not an advanced work. It better not be. A patzer like myself is hooked on it.
There are different kinds of chess books. Kasparov's works, as mentioned earlier, cover many things- careers, anecdotes, games themselves, theoretical contributions, etc. Here you will find much less of that, and much more pure chess instruction in these lovingly-written pages.
Happy hunting!
Understanding the dynamism of chess........2005-07-22
To start off I must say that this is a book for intermediate and advanced students. If you are not familiar with basic tactical and strategic ideas you will not benefit much from this book.
I really believe that this is one of the most important chess books for practical players written in the past 10 or 15 years. The reason why is that it covers aspects of the game that must be termed "occult." But this does not mean that Soltis' explanations are obscure in any way, they are not. This is not a book on the "hows" of chess but on the "whys." Why are two rooks so much stronger than a queen in certain situations? Why do exchange sacrifices work? By understanding these aspects of the game we are much more likely to approach our own games with a deep understanding of the strategic ideas behind the positions we reach.
One important example of this depth can be found in the third chapter: Board Range. In this Soltis discusses a variant of chess that was played on a board with fewer than 64 squares. It was found that the value of pieces changed due to the change in board size. The knight became easily as valuable as a rook and almost as valuable as the queen. This is a perfect concrete explanation for why a knight will dominate a bishop in endgames with pawns on only one side of the board. This may seem trivial but understanding how the range of the board which is available to our pieces affects their efficiency is essential for making decisions concerning the trade of pieces and pawns or even the advance of pawns. What good is a rook that will be forever entombed on your first rank? As he states in the book: "it's not what goes off the board, it's what stays on" and "value depends on range."
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- Attack cities only when there is no alternative
- The Way of War in the Future
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Future War In Cities: Rethinking a Liberal Dilemma
Alice Hills
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Terrorist Trail: Backtracking the Foreign Fighter
ASIN: 0714684945 |
Book Description
This book is the first full-length study of a key security issue confronting the west in the twenty-first century, urban military operations - as currently being undertaken by US and UK forces in Iraq. It relates military operations in cities to the wider study of conflict and security in an era of urbanization, expeditionary warfare and new power conflicts; its central process is urban operations, but its context is the changing security environment, whose features are revealed in conflicts within cities.
Within a framework analyzing conventional operations, the author identifies the contextual factors that affect operations in urban environments. She advances an explanation as to why questions of theoretical understanding and policy response are as important as tactical concerns, and why cities will represent a politically significant area in the future. In doing so, Alice Hills demonstrates that urban operations present a unique set of political and moral challenges to both policy-makers and military commanders. Future War in Cities offers a rethinking of the liberal dilemma associated with the use of force across the spectrum of conflict, from terrorist attacks to major conventional operations.
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Attack cities only when there is no alternative.......2005-12-18
"Attack cities only when there is no alternative," advised Sun Tzu 2500 years ago, and after studying recent urban battles, Dr Hills comes to the same conclusion. However two-thirds of the world now live in cities, many of which have a population of 5 million or more. And some of the cities are controlled by inhumanely cruel regimes, or by hostile and dangerous ones.
These regimes pose a dilemma for liberal Western nations. If they do not intervene, they are seen as condoning brutality, and they risk being harmed by large-scale organized crime, or by WMDs.
But if they do intervene, they often become involved in a war that makes existence for the regime's victims even more brutal, consequently increasing hostility towards the West.
Hills compares the response of highly trained British forces in Northern Ireland and Basra (with 3 months special training followed by only 4 months active service) with those of French in Algiers, the Israelis in Jenin, plus the Americans in Hue and Baghdad, and she makes a very detailed analysis of the Russians in Grozny.
These forces all began with rules of engagement calling for minimum aggression, to protect non-combatants and the urban infrastructure. But when the intervening soldiers started receiving significant casualties, their tactics became much more violent. Hills relates how entire Russian artillery batteries, with unlimited supplies of surplus Cold War ammunition, were used to level tenement buildings containing just one sniper. To little avail: the demolished buildings then impeded their armoured vehicles while their Chechen enemy were still protected in tunnels and sewers.
Despite the recent development of digitized technology that was so successful in the open country of Afghanistan, today's urban warfare remains surprizingly similar to that of three decades ago. GPS and sensors are not as effective as mouse-holing bars and mirrors on sticks. She notes that the most effective urban weapons are the controversial thermobaric rockets derived by combining WWII-style RPGs and flame throwers.
Western armies are developing tactics for urban warfare, but Dr Hills says that to date that there have been no strategic urban studies done in the West. She suggests that the critical strategic element is infantry with high morale, good NCOs, and relevant urban training.
The first section of this book is rather heavy going. Try dipping into some of the more descriptive chapters in the middle of the book first. And if you only have limited time, go to the last chapter and "afterword" where she has summarized all her thinking.
Dr Alice Hills was formerly a lecturer at the UK Joint Services Staff College at Shrivenham, and now lectures in conflict, development and security at the University of Leeds.
The Way of War in the Future.......2005-05-27
The fighting in Iraq has tought the US Army several things about MOUT (That's Army talk for Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain). The Army spent years thinking about, planning for, buying equipment for fighting the Russian Army coming through the Fulda Gap in Germany. Then they had to learn about fighting in jungle. Then they fought some in desert. Now all of a sudden they are getting killed one or two at a time fighting while trying to patrol a city.
In a city there isn't much need for the Abrams tank. But a Humvee isn't enough. The new Stryker armored vehicle that the Army is just now fielding used a new concept in armor for the Army (www.army.mil/features/stryker/default.htm) - although not for the Marines which have been purchasing this vehicle under the name LAV (Light Armored Vehnicle).
Equipment is just one of the points covered in this book which is a survey of current thinking from around the world. Other points include the general concepts of such operations, other technologies such as air power, the different types of operations from policing to warfighting and much more.
This is one of the first books to begin to define this type of fighting which has been largely learned by accident at troops have had to engage in fighting in cities around the world.
This is likely to be the way of war in the future.
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New Strategies for Public Pay: Rethinking Government Compensation Programs (Jossey Bass Public Administration Series)
Howard Risher ,
Charles H. Fay , and
& Associates
Manufacturer: Jossey-Bass
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0787908266 |
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The survival and success of public organizations depends on employee satisfaction and motivation to improve performance. New Strategies for Public Pay addresses one of the strongest motivators?compensation. The book outlines proven strategies, many of which are successfully used in private industry, that are also well-suited for government organizations. Specific programs are described and analyzed by experts from government, academia, think tanks, labor unions, and private business, running the gamut from merit pay to competency-based pay to gainsharing.
New Strategies for Public Pay introduces a range of alternative pay systems that show public sector managers how they can:
? Set standards that match the unique needs of individual organizations
? Stimulate desired new behaviors necessary to overcome the fear of change and business as usual mentality
? Energize employees and provide a fresh incentive for continuing improved performance
The decision whether or not to revolutionize pay systems is fundamental. The way compensation is addressed and managed can either hinder or help accomplish an organization's mission. New Strategies for Public Pay offers a useful framework for planning compensation programs that are in line with the times and that will help create more efficient, flexible, and responsive public organizations.
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- Every Pakistani must read this book
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Rethinking the National Security of Pakistan: The Price of Strategic Myopia
Ahmad Faruqui
Manufacturer: Ashgate Publishing
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0754614972 |
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Policy-makers in South Asia, the Middle East and the Asian Pacific, decision-makers in the OECD countries, organizations and specialists in academe, will all find this publication indispensable. It presents an integrated model of national security that emphasizes military and non-military determinants. In the light of this model, it analyzes Pakistan's defense policies over the last half-century and proposes a radical reform of Pakistan's military organization. In addition to offering a comprehensive look at national security, this book provides coherent, interrelated analysis of the key issues such as political leadership, social and economic development and foreign policy.
"Scholarly research is well melded with practical observation on what Faruqui so accurately calls the "strategic culture" of Pakistan. The future of the sub-continent depends on human development, not that of weapons and warfare. Faruqui makes his points tellingly and readably." Colonel Brian Cloughley, Defense Analyst, New Zealand
"Dr. Faruqui has written a persuasive and lucid account of Pakistan's current strategic situation; this wise book should be read carefully in Pakistan and by those who wish to understand how this important state might best negotiate its multiple security dilemmas." Stephen Philip Cohen, The Brookings Institution, Washington DC, USA
"Dr. Ahmad Faruqui pulls together hard economic and security data and cogent arguments to make a strong case for a thorough revision of Pakistan's security policies. Emphasizing the need of adopting an integrated approach to national security that takes into account military as well as societal security, his work presents an incisive analysis of Pakistan's security dilemma, economic development issues, the Kashmir problem and the size and strength of the military. The notion of expanded security involving social cohesion, political strength, economic development, diplomatic support and military readiness offers an alternative perspective that is expected to generate a debate on Pakistan's security approaches." HASAN-ASKARI RIZVI, Political and Defense Consultant, former Quaid-i-Azam Professor of Pakistan Studies, Columbia University, New York, USA
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Every Pakistani must read this book.......2003-07-04
Dr. Faruqui takes the reader through a very objective and un-biased analysis of how Pakistani politicians and generals have shaped the lives of its 150 million people, who are largely a silent majority in Pakistan. Dr. Faruqui calls out both the smart moves as well as the mistakes made by personalities in the governments over the years.
I was left wishing that the chapter on Organizational Reform in the Pakistan Military (Ch. 12) was given more depth and detail.
Overall excellent and readable synopsis for catching up on all that has happened in Pakistan to bring it to its current state of affairs. Every Pakistani, young and old, must read this book so they can begin to reclaim their destinies from the hands of army generals and incompetent politicians.
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