Book Description
Designed specifically for trainers, speakers, and group facilitators, this 400-page cookbook of playful group mixers helps to "break the ice" among participants at the beginning of any meeting, or to recharge participants on the brink of boredom. Complete with guidelines, these simple activities-like games, energizers, brain-teasers, and quizzes-require little or no preparation time, and most can be completed in less than 5 minutes. Also included are props and hand-outs that can be photocopied for the entire group to enjoy.
Customer Reviews:
Great conversation starter.......2007-07-03
Find Me: How Psychic Detectives from Around the World Have Banded Together to Find Missing People
I teach spiritual development classes and i use ths book for some of the beginnings of classes and workshops, to help people get to know each other. It has lots of great exercises.
Excellent!.......2006-07-26
I work in a school and this book has already helped me plan several fun activities for teachers, directors, and students. I highly recommend it!
Well written and has good variety........2006-07-14
While many of the activities might suit a business, I was able to find quite a few for small groups in our church. The instructions are thorough and handouts are well done. My only suggestion for the publisher would be to make the book so the pages could be torn out and put in a three ring binder.
Great for Residence Life staff.......2000-07-03
There are few books on icebreakers/teambuilders that I've found to be useful with college students ( I work in Student Affairs). This book, however, offered many activities that were useful not only for just 'breaking the ice' but also for applying them to the many educational workshops we do in this field. There was also a very helpful section called "Icebreakers for the Non-Icebreaker types" that was both interesting and practical. Because I work with such a diverse range of students, I struggle to find icebreakers that are not geared solely to the extroverted-types. This collection gives a number of activities that are beneficial to teambuilding while respecting the different learning/interaction styles we see in our students. Out of the 201 offered in the book, I have found at least 180 of them that I will use as integral parts of the next staff training. This book also offers activities for groups ranging from 8 participants (good for small staffs) to 400 participants (good for all-hall activities)!
Disappointing.......2000-06-29
It was disappointing to find so few ideas for a group of 100 business people who don't know each other. Most of the activities are far too personal for such a group, involving sharing personal information or touching. In addition, many of the activities have no "closure": they simply end, leaving us to wonder, what was the purpose of THAT? Many of the activities would be fine for very informal gatherings where being silly (marching in a parade, charades, making a human octopus) and getting personal are appropriate. But business people--even my lighthearted group--expect some degree of professionalism and purpose associated with such activities.
Book Description
Technical Communication represents the works of five highly respected authors, all writing in their areas of expertise. Scientific examples and assignments within a social context are used for a realistic view of communication issues. This is the only text to extensively address argument, including reasoning, credibility, persuasion, decision making, problem solving, and critical thinking. The topic of audience is also addressed more thoroughly than in any other text. The book covers the traditional parts of the technical communication course but has been updated greatly to respond to the demands that the computer places on communicating.
Book Description
Open Space Technology: A User's Guide is just what the name implies: a hands-on, detailed description of facilitating Open Space Technology (OST). Written by the originator of the method - an effective, economical, fast, and easily-repeatable strategy for organizing meetings of between 5 and 1,000 participants - this is the first book to document the rationale, procedures, and requirements of OST. OST enables self-organizing groups of all sizes to deal with hugely complex issues in a very short period of time. This practical, step-by-step user's guide details what needs to be done before, during, and after an Open Space event.
Customer Reviews:
Useful handbook of a counterintuitive approach.......2007-03-02
Open Space Technology is nearly identical to the "unconference" approach to workshop and event planning that's currently fashionable (see "Foo Camp" or "Bar Camp" or many other geek-oriented "camps). Basically, abandon a traditional agenda and force the workshop participants to self-organize a schedule, goals, and work. It's profoundly counter-intuitive, everyone assumes that a strict plan is necessary...but it turns out to work. People really enjoy participating in an event where their opinions matter, and where everyone's responsible for raising issues they find important.
This book can come across as annoyingly new agey and dippy at times (I see someone's tagged it "embracing group genius" here on Amazon...your mileage may vary a bit from that). It's probably more helpful in getting you the facilitator into the right mindset, and encouraging you not to fall back on the crutches of detailed schedules or keynote speakers. It's pretty dated when it talks about using computers in your event, but that doesn't really matter.
Bible of Open Space.......2006-07-12
This is a very good hand-book for open space newcomers.Easy to understand and easy to read.I strongly suggest this book for anybody who want to start learning open space technology
One of the most valuable books in the world.......2003-12-26
As Brookings revealed in 2000, most of the world's 10000 biggest organisations don't yet have the measures to govern the vast majority of value now produced in services and knowledge businesses because as our networking age blossoms value dynamics are mainly intangible, deeply woven into the human relationships we self-organise, not for precise planning and overpowering command and control from the top. Value multiplication is a core gravity which should be embedded in everyone's right to work, learn , behave openly.
Whilst some of those of the transparency communities interlinking at http://www.valuetrue.com open source the simplest maths of intangible systems, others have much more fun voting on what are the safest methods to protect your system from doing an Andersen or a NASA self-destruction of its greatest purpose. Open Space is voted as the number 1 method uniting transparency communities, and because of its simplicity I predict it will always be the gateway to anyone who prizes self-organising, a term which actually means making the most of everyone's time, learning and passions to make a diffeernce to our overall purpose. A very valuable book, which in my dreams would start any MBA course or any professional's training.
Open Space is now 21 years young and over 100000 experiences mature and networked by people who are both most open with their knowlhow and conscious that you learn something subly more about human relationship trust from every Open Space you particpate in. It is as near as organisations (seen as human relationship infrastructures) can get to a modern day miracle, and long may Harrison light up the open world. See his latest deep concerns with conflict resolution applications at http://www.practiceofpeace.com
a "How to" book.......2001-06-18
I recommend using open space tehcnology and/or other large scale intervention techniques to mine the collective emotional intelligence of a group of people (this may be your company, or people from an acadamic field you belong to).
This book gives you the details on HOW to organize and facilitate an open space meeting - (what kind of location you need, how to organize the room, how to use break up rooms, how to facilitate, ...). You'll also get imporatnt rules and lessons for making this technology work. In short, it's pretty good at doing this "HOW TO" part.
WARNING: If you want to know WHY it works and if you want some examples, there are 2 other books to take a look at:
- tales from Open space (Harrison Owen, Editor, 1995)
- Expanding our now (Harrison Owen, 1997)
Good luck!
Patrick E.C. Merlevede, MSc -- author of "7 Steps to Emotional Intelligence"
A Good Read!.......2001-04-24
Harrison Owen presents a hands-on, step-by-step manual for putting on an open space technology workshop. In OST workshops, participants basically set and facilitate the agenda with some guidance from a facilitator. Here, the book's examples are particularly handy. Owen suggests conference duration, agenda and techniques including how to set up a meeting, invite participants, prepare the logistics and meeting site, facilitate activities and more. While these workshops generally involve hundreds of people, you can also put on an OST event with as few as five. If you want to read gripping business philosophy, look elsewhere - this is a practical how-to manual, a task it accomplishes quite well. We [...] recommend this informative guided tour of the OST process to those who want to know how, because they already know why
Book Description
A step-by-step resource for clear communication of all types of policies and procedures.
Policies and procedures—they're what make a company run efficiently and legally. Now managers have a definitive guide to creating accurate policies and procedures documents. The book is useful for professionals in such areas as:
• health and safety
• human resources
• office management
• administration
• quality
• manufacturing
• customer service
• finance and accounting.
Readers will enjoy the unusually friendly, informal approach of this book. Loaded with examples, checklists, guidelines, quick tips, work plans, and forms, it is ready for immediate use. The book shows how to:
• write (and design) documents clearly (so employees will understand and follow the policies)
• plan, analyze, and research each element
• help employees increase efficiency, reduce mistakes and frustration, and save time and money—by providing clear guidelines to follow
• avoid legal mistakes that can get a company in trouble.
Customer Reviews:
Good writing tips but not applicable to dynamic workplace.......2007-03-13
Some of the basic writing tips regarding word choice, sentence length, reading level, and formatting are great. The rest might apply if your company has never documented its policies and procedures before or if you work in a static workplace (government office?) where policies or procedures are added or changed only a couple of times a year (do people really still print these on paper?) However, if you work at a dynamic, constantly changing company that must respond to thousands of different customer queries a day, much of the advice is not applicable.
A LONG history with this title..........2006-04-04
I have used this book frequently as a business consultant and teacher over the last 10 years. It is THE "How To" book on the subject. It goes very well with POLYPROC Policies and Procedures (also available on Amazon - search on Polyproc or Sarbanes Oxley).
Excellent. Easy to read or use as a reference........1999-11-09
No dry reading about theory here. Ms. Campbell has created a very useful tool.
Poorly Written, Hard to Understand.......1999-11-03
I found this book hard to understand and it didn't follow any great pattern or flow.
Useful, but a bit too general.......1999-05-18
The book is easy to read and understand. It provides helpful guidelines and background material to design procedures. It works a bit as a checklist, in order to remember all the elements in procedure writting. However, it's not meant for any particular industry, and is very general. I would have liked to find more specific examples, and maybe sections for particular industries.
Book Description
Designing with Models, Second Edition is the revised, step-by-step guide to basic and advanced design process modeling. This comprehensive text explains the process from start to finish, and has been expanded to include up-to-date information on digital modeling programs and rapid prototyping processes. The impact of this new wave of 3D modeling technology is examined through interviews and numerous examples from renowned architects. Along with many new student projects, this new Second Edition features more than 800 high-quality photographs and fully illustrated in-depth case studies and the latest information on mastering the modeling of curvilinear components with planar material and casting techniques, exploring ideas with mixed media, working backwards from model information, recording and communicating 3D design work, exploring the safe and effective use of power tools, and more.
Customer Reviews:
good quality.......2006-01-17
It took a while to get to me but not long and the book was practically new! I'm very happy with it!
with poor pix, this is too much.......2004-11-11
I was astonished with poor quality of BW pictures this book contains. And I paid $50 for this? The photos are poorly lit so the details are not clear, and not sharp enough for this kind of printing. Texts are rather sketchy too. Intrestingly, resources contain a section for books on presentation models. I found most of them are out of print.
I can just imagine this book's innitial run was so low that gave this hefty price tag to this book.
Unless you have a lot of money to waste, or you're advanced, you'll be surprised like me.
Designing With Models Designing With Models.......2000-06-06
From the standpoint of representation, and despite the advent of computer graphics and animation, the architectural model has persisted in being a privileged way of expressing architectural intentions. The irresistible iconic relation between the model and the building, and the intimacy witnessed through this association, has unquestionably contributed to this survival. Because in the model no extra interpretive energy is needed to grasp the intended, and because there is definitely a pleasure in seeing something big represented by something similar to it but smaller, the critical denigration of model-making has been minimum. This is unlike the case of the plan and other classical modes of projecting buildings where the conventional nature of representation has opened the gates for questioning their legitimacy. From the angle of making and performing, model-making has also remained a very powerful means of exploring ideas that have 3-d space as their support. The relative absence of a cognitive distance between intentions and their crystallization in the sensible realm, due essentially to the paramount role the hand directly plays in the shaping of a given design idea, has reinforced an interest in model-making as a means for expressing the immediate and the spontaneous. A closer relation the other visual arts has followed, and the architectural model has become a competent candidate not only for expressing design ideas but also emotions and feelings. The author, who is both an architect and an artist, seems to be implicitly alluding to these stands in one fashion or the other.
Now this Studio guide to making and using architectural design models begins with an introduction to the equipment, materials and model types. In detail, Chapter Two tackles basic techniques for assembling model components. Cutting, attaching, fitting, templating and finishing routines are provided with clear instructions and illustrations. Chapter Three, I think, remains the heart of the guide. Here the author explores a framework for conceiving and using models. As a pedagogic section, this chapter is full of tutoring guidelines and is a meticulously comprehensive investigation. Much of what is suggested in relation to scale, ideas, manipulation and development of models remains focussed. Mill's analysis here illustrates the paramount role models can play not only in representing defined architectural ideas but also as the prime generators of information without the aid of drawings or exact scales. The dialectical relation between sketch models and concept drawings is investigated nonetheless. But it is the stress on the idea that architectural thinking could be deeply investigated through model-making, with all possible alternatives, that is interesting. "Often, " Mill writes, " new directions emerge that do not follow the original intention. Instead of ignoring these and steering the design along preconceived paths, it can be profitable to let go of earlier ideas and follow the implications suggested by the model. This may involve following the design through a strong shift in direction or even returning to an earlier generation in preference to latter versions. " Other observations like these follow. In Chapter Four, the author applies a step-by-step case study of concepts and techniques in relation to the design of five cases: a residence, a multifamily house, a sculptural foundry, an office building and an urban park. These projects trace the evolution of design from early conceptual stages to finishing models. Many assembly techniques and strategies presented in Chapters Two and Three are shown to convey possible applications in the context of evolving designs. Chapter Five (Creating Curvilinear Forms and Special techniques), presents a range of techniques for making sculptural shapes. "Because sculptural elements are more often needed as components of a model, many of the examples present ideas for creating individual shapes. These can be expanded to entire models if desired." In Chapter Six, examples of model usage from the architecture practice are provided. The author reminds us that in practice, "modeling offers one of the strongest ways of understanding the impact of design decisions on the built work and is of particular value in working with complex geometries." The suggested projects offer examples of models from several types of practices. Many of the strategies discussed in Chapter Three and Four can be seen at work, as well as the connection between built work and the model history that helped form them. Finally, Chapter Seven provides useful advice related to alternative media, related models, transferring model dimensions, photography and detailed presentation models.
As a conclusion, Designing With Models contributes to the (modest) body of literature on model-making in a significant way. It is, to my knowledge, the first complete step-by-step guide to fundamental and well-developed modeling. One could not fault the visual clarity and graphic organization of the work. The black and white photographs do not stand isolated but are balanced by the supplemented comments. The text includes sufficient information for a thorough understanding of the proposed model-making techniques. Although some of it is concise, the text is for the most part well written, and to the point. The lack of a bibliographical section, however, is somehow disappointing, but then the book does not pretend to be a theoretical treatise or a scholarly work.
Design With Models: A Studio Guide to Making and Using Arch.......2000-05-17
Gives helpful methods of design methods intergrated with the model creation process. Things such as representation of materiality and techniques in the process of model creation are described. Very nice tool for those looking to branch their technique past 3D/2D computer and hand drawing design.
Customer Reviews:
Very inspiring, if not completely detailed.......2007-09-05
I loved this book because it has so many pictures. It is most interesting to see aspects of the rides that you might not get to view by visiting the park. The enthusiasm of this book is inspiring for anyone who is interested in theme park design. It does not get into anthing too technical, or show you what an Imagineer does from day to day on a regular basis. I would reccomend this book if you are interested in seeing Disneyland from another angle or if you want to be a theme park designer. It is a very good book if you aren't looking for technical advice, just to have fun and get excited!
Spectacular Book!!.......2007-07-11
Fabulous book!! Framable quality pages and chock FULL of amazing images. Details the making of films and has frame by frame development by the Imagineers. If the book seems a little spendy, it is. And it is worth it. Not just a coffee table book. You will page through it over and over again and find new things each time!
I admit it..........2007-04-02
...I didn't realize that Imagineering was going to be exclusively based on the Disney theme parks. I was... well, more than a little disappointed when I opened it up and looked for the many illustrations and stuff about the making of the movies, that I confess I thought would be there. The book in itself was nicely put together, and DOES look attractive, in terms of what was in there. I can clearly see why anyone would greatly enjoy it. Nevertheless, in my case it sits collecting dust on my shelf.
I blame myself: I should have looked just a little deeper in what the book was going to be about, before purchasing it. A technical explanation of the process of the theme parks' creation was... uh, boring. *laugh*
great book for the Disney fan.......2006-11-10
This is a beautiful informative book. My kids just enjoy looking at the pictures from their favorite movies and the theme parks. The accompanying stories are interesting and full of fun facts. So much is written about the imagineers it's nice to find one book that is first hand accounts and backgroundn info. If you've ever visited WDW or Disneyland this book gives you a whole new insight into what went into creating these magical places.
Any Imagineering Enthusiast Needs this Book.......2005-12-01
Anyone who has ever dreamed of being an imagineer needs this book. It has interesting construction photographs and artist renderings, however it doesn't have as much in depth and truly new information as I hoped it would. Overall, worth the money.
Book Description
Integrated Marketing Communications challenges business to confront a fundamental dilemma in today's marketing--the fact that mass media advertising, by itself, no longer works. This landmark book reveals that strategies long used to deliver selling messages to a mass culture through a single medium are now obsolete--and shows marketers how to get back on track.
The answer lies in customer-focused marketing, a key planning tool that can--in today's diverse, fragmented marketplace--explain the lifestyles, attitudes, and motivations of distinct buyer groups and predict their likely buying behaviors in the future. Schultz, Tannenbaum, and Lauterborn explain how, by beginning with detailed consumer information, marketers can build a synchronized, multi-channel communications strategy that reaches every market segment with a single, unified message.
This book also shows how to put an integrated program into practice, with expert guidance on planning, coordinating, and controlling the entire communications process. Along the way, the authors tackle those critical questions that too often impede marketing decisions, such as:
- Who should control the communications program?
- How should resources be allocated to advertising, sales promotion, direct response, public relations, and other marketing communications options?
- How can companies resolve "turf battles" and combat fears of budget loss?
- How should the different players--agencies and suppliers--be compensated?
- And most importantly, how can the impact of an integrated strategy be measured and made accountable?
Extensive examples and two in-depth success stories detail how top organizations are sharpening their competitive edge through integrated communications programs.
An incisive study of the barriers that confound today's marketing, Integrated Marketing Communications breaks new ground for all business thinkers and strategists.
Customer Reviews:
Eye opening!.......2000-11-17
They should be teaching this book in every university marketing class. Completely changed the way I look at B-2-B marketing and strategy development! After 12 years in the field, using Kottler's teachings -- this completely blows all that right out of the water! If you have an opportunity to hear Lauterborn speak -- do it. His concepts on 1-to-1 marketing are brilliant and he is an inspiring teacher. Absolutely one of the best books on B-2-B marketing ever written!
What makes an integrated marketing communications firm work.......1999-07-01
Integrated Marketing Communications describes the nuts and bolts of what makes an integrated marketing communications firm work: strategy, execution and measurement. The authors also go into detail describing common barriers - and solutions- to running an effective IMC orgainzation. The book is rather academic, but full of valuable information, especially for a beginner to IMC or any of its elements. The charts and graphs are often confusing, but usually help drive home a good point. Two case studies at the end of the book help bring everything into perspective and tie up loose ends.
Integrated Marketing Communications is an ideal book for anyone thinking about starting an integrated firm, junior employees and anyone who is new to the field of integrated communications.
After reading the book, our Cramer-Krasselt book club met to discuss the book and look at how it relates to what we're currently doing. The main discussion centered around the case studies, which proved to be the most useful part of the book.
Book Description
Communication within many organizations has been reduced to email, electronic file transfer, and hasty sound bytes at hurried meetings. More and more, people appear to have forgotten the value of wisdom gained by ordinary conversations. The Art of Focused Conversation convincingly restores this most human of attributes to prime place within businesses and organizations, and demonstrates what can be accomplished through the medium of focused conversation.Developed, tested, and extensively used by professionals in the field of organizational development, The Art of Focused Conversation is an invaluable resource for all those working to improve communications in firms and organizations.
Customer Reviews:
An Excellent Resource for Productive Conversations.......2004-11-24
I like books that are practical and have real-world application. This book does that. You get 48 pages of enough explanation that you can learn how to use the Focused Conversation model. Then, you get the skeleton of 100 conversations that you can adapt and use. If you want to know more, read on.
In the 21st century, those workplaces that share information to create value for themselves and their customers have a competitive advantage. On page 14 Stanfield writes "These days most people are tired of blaiming and demanding; they want to solve problems. They want to go beyond input to push an innovation through and take responsibility for making the desired change." The focused conversation model is a technique for capturing the wisdom of a group and helping it become accountable for doing more than complaining or "giving input."
The model's four parts consist of asking and answering questions. The questions at the "objective" level begin to uncover facts about the topic being discussed. The "reflective" questions uncover how the group is relating to the facts discussed in the objective level. The "interpretive" level allows the groups to discuss implications and options. The "decisional" level then creates action based on the discussion. This book also contains hints and guidelines for leading focused conversations: what to do when someone gives a long answer, or when people start arguing, or when someone dominates teh conversation...and more.
I've used several dozen of the 100 conversations in various work settings. I have gotten especially good value from the conversations on evaluating a seminar, planning a study group, coaching a colleague, mediating a difficult situation, reflecting on a choatic meeting...well, you get the idea.
If you're interested in moving toward gathering, processing, and taking advantage of group wisdom, this book provides excellent tools. Its straight-forward, gentle manner and high practical value earn it five stars.
Good Solid Model.......2001-10-04
Ultimately conversations are the working process of most leadership. This book expands upon the conversation techniques presented in "Winning Through Participation". The model is simple and useful. When distilled down, a focused conversation proceeds through four stages:
- objective / data
- reactional / feeling
- interpretive / meaning and
- decisional / action.
The model takes about 50 pages to explain and is followed by about 150 pages of examples of its application. Many will find that the 10 pages in "Winning Through Participation" had enough information to get going.
Simple and Powerful Concept.......2000-12-05
Brian Stanfield and colleagues have written a meaningful book that provides a profound, yet simple method to help groups effectively grapple and address any kind of issue.
In the book, they say, "For whole systems to operate effectively, information must flow in every direction, up, down, sideways, and diagonally." They go on to describe leaders as askers of questions and state that "the participatory principle requires the art of asking questions."
Canada's Institute of Cultural Affairs developed the focused conversation method as part of its Technology of Participation, which leads people through certain phases of reflection, enabling them to process their experiences as a group. A leader/facilitator asks a series of questions to elicit responses that take a group from the "surface of a topic to a topic to its depth implications for their life and work."
The focused conversation uses questions at four levels:
1. The Objective Level- questions about facts and external reality. 2. The Reflective Level - questions to call forth immediate personal reaction to the data, an internal response, sometimes emotions or feelings, hidden images and associations with the facts, when we encounter an external reality (data/objective) we experience an internal response. 3. The Interpretive Level - questions to draw out meaning, values, significance, and implications. 4. The Decisional Level - questions to elicit resolution, bring the conversation to close, and enable the group to resolve about the future.
The first third portion of the book provides an understanding of the concept of focused conversation and is followed by 100 meeting topics with specific examples of questions at the four levels that would be appropriate.
The book has helped me to re-think the types and the order of questions that I address to a group.
Book Description
Business Communication: Making Connections in a Digital World, 11/e by Lesikar, Flatley, and Rentz provides both student and instructor with all the tools needed to navigate through the complexity of the modern business communication environment. At their disposal, teachers have access to an online Tools & Techniques Blog that continually keeps them abreast of the latest research and developments in the field while providing a host of teaching materials. Business Communication attends to the dynamic, fast-paced, and ever-changing means by which business communication occurs by being the most technologically current and pedagogically effective books in the field. It has realistic examples that are both consumer-and business-oriented.
Book Description
Break the ice at your next meeting with The Big Book of Business Games!
In this exciting resource book, two of today's acknowledged games masters serve up a cookbook of activities that you can learn to use, guaranteed to generate a lively discussion, or simply give a group a "breather" from the monotony of a boring staff meeting or presentation. Each of the 75 group games and activities here is adapted from the best-selling Games Trainers Play series and shortened to suit the needs of managers and team leaders to use with their departments, staff, or committees.
Customer Reviews:
The Big Book of Business Games: Icebreakers, Creativity Exercises and Meeting Energizers.......2006-11-04
The ideas and activities in this book were varied and somewhat adaptable to a variety of audiences and meetings. I am always looking for fresh ideas to use in my presentations and workshops and this book has become a valuable resource and also sparks new ideas in myself.
Icebreakers Only.......2006-07-09
If I had the opportunity to flip through this book in a bricks-and-mortar bookstore, I wouldn't have bought it. I was looking for ways to communicate business and organizational lessons through the use of games and activities. This book is just a list of icebreaker activities without providing any of the "meat" of the lesson the activity should have delivered. Providing references for those of us seeking said content would have helped to fill that gap.
Many of the activities require visual aids. It would have been nice for the publishers to provide graphics to go along with these---perhaps a registration key for a website to download the visual tools? I would be far more likely to use the activities (and, of course, credit the authors) if the tools were easily accessible and not burdomsome to create.
I have every confidence that the book meets its intended purpose and the authors have done a good job. However, I don't feel that Amazon.com is presenting the book for what it is. I also believe the publishers could have done a better job of supporting this publication to make it truly useful to the purchaser.
In general, if you are completely at a loss for how to get people interacting with one another at a meeting or training session, this is a good "creativity sparker" to get you thinking.
Another "Big Book" that doesn't deliver.......2002-11-22
I took a chance and purchased five selections from the "big book" series. I titled a previous review "The Big Book of Disappointment." Too bad. I ought to have saved it for this publication.
Chapter two of "The Big Book of Business Games" is titled, "How to Use This Book." My suggestion? As kindling or compost. In the book you will find 54 activities. The nine dot problem and the human knot are examples of the many common activities found in countless other books.
You'll also find suggestions for "presentation boosters." One "booster" example: Display two flip charts. On one ask what things were valued about how the meeting was run. On the other ask how future meetings might be improved. As part of the description you are reminded to "tear off the flip charts and return to your office. . .celebrate your success and change something needing improvement." In the book, the previous activity actually merits a two page description.
Applying their exercise to their book, I'd say I valued very little if anything. How might future books be improved? Provide NEW activities or suggest creative variations for the countless recycled exercises. Also, be certain the content is relevant to a business audience. A skilled facilitator will find a way to successfully use most any of the activities in this book. However, a skilled facilitator is also likely to have a number of better selections in her bag of tricks to choose from.
Once again if the price entices you to purchase this book, I'd suggest you keep exploring. You will find a number of resource books available on Amazon.com that are significantly better.
The big Book of Business Games.......2001-11-30
Basically from the contents, it can be said to be a very practical book that any manager can use to liven up meetings and more importantly to get the members of the team to come together.
These exercises can be fun and purposeful for the the users and I think I would really like try out some of the great ideas put forth.I run meetings and workshops for my staff and certainly could use the ideas from the book.
Great for the Price.......2000-02-19
I've used a number of the games in this book and found they've helped me achieve my goals with the team. They stimulated converstaion and team building. One game I found particularly useful was the "Tie that Binds" in visually demonstrating how interdependent we are as a team. I found this book a real bargain and a good book for getting started at using games within meetings to build teams, emphasis concepts, and introduce topics.
Books:
- 201 Icebreakers Pb
- AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors
- Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business
- Apple Pro Training Series: Logic Pro 7 and Logic Express 7 (Apple Pro Training)
- Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty
- Best Answers to the 201 Most Frequently Asked Interview Questions
- Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire (Bpg-Other)
- Blackwell Encyclopedia of Management
- Building Communication Theory
- Bums No More!: The Championship Season of the 1955 Brooklyn Dodgers
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Sports and Entertainment Management
- History: Fiction or Science
- The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements
- Who Do You Think You Are Anyway
- Business Analysis and Valuation: Using Financial Statements, Text and Cases
- Earl Scruggs and the 5-String Banjo: Revised and Enhanced Edition - Book with CD
- Collaborative Process Improvement: With Examples from the Software World
- Paralegal Guide to Child Support
- The Works And Correspondence Of David Ricardo
- Yeast Cell Envelopes--Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Ultrastructure
General
| Business & Investing
| Subjects
| Books
Team-Building Activities for Every Group
Quick Teambuilding Activities for Busy Managers: 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes
The Big Book of Humorous Training Games (Big Book of Business Games Series)
The Big Book of Presentation Games: Wake-Em-Up Tricks, Icebreakers, and Other Fun Stuff
The Big Book of Icebreakers: Quick, Fun Activities for Energizing Meetings and Workshops
