Book Description
Asking the old questions, according to authors Dick Whitney and Melissa Giovagnoli, means getting the same old answers. And that can be deadly for any group or company that wants to move ahead. Instead, they offer 75 outrageous, thought-provoking questions that clean out the corporate cobwebs and get workers’ minds working in new and productive directions. Drawing from their own experiences as top international business consultants, Whitney and Giovagnoli provide field-tested "cage-rattlers" that can help improve leadership, resolve on-the-job conflicts, stimulate innovation, facilitate better communication, and much more. Additionally, the guide benefits individuals as much as it does teams, small groups, small businesses, and larger corporations.
Customer Reviews:
Well worth the price.......2006-11-03
I'm the author of "Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques" and pretty much read everything that is published in the creativity field. I find this book useful, entertaining and enlightening. Buy it. It's well worth the price.
Makes you fully aware of the pitfalls of patterning in our minds & to encourage you to constantly challenge your assumptions!.......2006-10-21
75 Cage Rattling Questions to Change the Way You Work: Shake-Em-Up Questions to Open Meetings, Ignite Discussion, and Spark Creativity
by Dick Whitney, Melissa Giovagnoli
This book has been around for almost a decade. I have found it to be a very good book as it teaches readers how to break the normal thinking patterns in the mind. To use a popular neuro-linguistic term, how to do a 'pattern interrupt'!
Patterning is one of three principal operating principles of the human mind. (The other two: selective recognition & self-organising.)
The good thing about patterning is that you don't have to relearn the same pattern if you are comfortable with it or it works for you, e.g. riding a bike or driving a car or using a piece of software. The bad thing about it is that you may get stuck with it, especially when the old pattern doesn't work any more. In the same vein, the patterning makes it hard for a new idea to get fair treatment in your mind.
Edward de Bono, the father of lateral thinking puts it very beautifully: "The mind is habitually uncreative - it is usually preoccupied with organising masses of incoming data into convenient patterns. Once the pattern is established, then the mind tends to rely upon that pattern in future situations, in order to facilitate decision making & action in an otherwise complex world."
Dr David Perkins, author of 'Outsmarting IQ: The Emerging Science of Learnable Intelligence', explains further: "...As we go through life, puzzle out problems, & gain experience, we store up patterns that work well for us. In meeting new situations, we automatically try to make a match to what we know & select a pattern from our storehouse that might apply. This matching process gets influenced not only by what patterns we have stored up, but also by our goals, prejudices & passions."
So, how does one break old patterns or get out of complacency? On workable method is to pose to ourselves challenging, thought-provoking questions. Better still, wild & crazy ones!
Why such questions?
Well, for one thing, they set off processional effects that have great impacts beyond your imagination. Questioning your limitations is what tears down the walls in life - in business, in relationships. I believe growth & progress are often preceded by new & challenging questions.
This book offers 75 outrageous, thought-provoking questions that can clean out the cobwebs in your minds & get you working in new & productive directions.
The essence of the book is not so much using the 75 field-tested "cage rattlers" to shatter the complacency. I feel that the primary objective of the two authors is to make you fully aware of the pitfalls & dangers of patterning in our minds & to encourage you to constantly challenge your assumptions!
This book has 75 short chapters, fully corresponding to the self-described 'cage rattling' questions. Each chapter opens with the question, provides you with some ways to use the question, shares a war story & gives you further tips for using the particular question.
Frankly, I would encourage readers to formulate your own list of 'cage rattling' questions to be used in your own different situation. Certainly, you can make use of the book's questions as a springboard.
Sometimes, the questions to be asked don't even have to be 'cage rattling'. All you need to do is to reframe the question. For example, in problem solving, I always like to ask myself, 'what else can I do?' instead of 'what can I do?'; 'what has not yet happened here?' instead of 'what has happend here?'...
Questions and More!.......2006-05-06
This book has 75 short chapters, one for each of the self-described "cage rattling questions." Each chapter opens with the question, provides you 3-5 ways to use the question, shares a "war story" and gives you some tips for using this particular question.
I have long been a proponent of, and encouraged people to build lists of questions they could use in different situations. This book would be a good place to start your list if you are a trainer, consultant, facilitator, or team leader. You will find many of these questions useful to spark conversations, trigger new ideas and build synergy.
Look at it this way... if you got only one great question that you use to great advantage it would be worth the cost of the book. I'm sure you will get at least several more than that
You can come up with these.......2000-12-19
I wouldn't disagree with any of the other reviews, but it's a matter of personal preference where I spend my money. I wouldn't spend it on this book. Once you focus on what you want to accomplish (ie., "shake-em-up"), you could come up with a lot of these challenges. "If your company were a car...If your company were a footbal team.." and so on. In a word, analogy. I've found in workshops I've conducted, whether they're on Creativity, Problem-Solving, Leadership, or other topics, I'll use this "provocative" technique maybe once or twice in a full day. Beyond that the novelty has worn off.
Much of the text that accompanies each question is also a little repetitious - the "war stories" all start to sound alike.
Actually useful.......2000-09-09
I was surprised at how useful this book is. When I first looked at it, I thought the questions looked obvious and simplistic, but they work very well to start off team meeting sessions. The authors provide lots of good ideas about how to use them, and little anecdotes to inspire you to believe that the questions can actually change the way you do business. I've used them for meeting kick-offs and to jump-start moribund discussions.
Book Description
Be Your Own Boss and Sell Your Expertise
Did you ever think you might be able to make money leading seminars to teach others what you know? Or promoting a dynamic speaker who motivates the crowds? Many people pay top dollar to attend seminars that teach them how to do something faster, better, more easily or more profitably-which gives you a great opportunity for profit.
This hands-on guide, completely updated with the latest trends and newest information, details how to plan seminars, webinars, and teleseminars for yourself or someone else from start to finish. Learn how to:
- Negotiate for great deals on halls, hotels and conference rooms
- Promote a business with almost no cash investment
- Use ingenious PR tactics that will draw attendees-and profits-like a magnet
- Test-market your subject matter before spending a dime
- Develop and sell CDs, books and other profitable materials
People who promote and produce seminars are making huge profits-and so can you! Get in on the action in this booming field today.
Customer Reviews:
Great service!.......2007-01-04
This product gives very good information.
The book was received promptly and in excellent condition.
Thank you.
Average customer rating:
- Great Discussions!!!
- 101 Meeting Starters: A Guide to Better Twelve Step Discussions
|
101 Meeting Starters: A Guide to Better Twelve Step Discussions
Mel B.
Manufacturer: Hazelden
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Serenity: Inspirations by Karen Casey, Author of Each Day a New Beginning
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Fearless Relationships: Simple Rules for Lifelong Contentment
ASIN: 1592853692 |
Book Description
A friendly, first-ever guide to making the most of Twelve Step meetings. For millions of people around the world, attending Twelve Step meetings is essential to their recovery from addiction. Twelve Step meetings are confidential forums for people to share the experience, strength, and hope that sustain sobriety. Sometimes, however, meetings get sidetracked by irrelevant topics, dominant speakers, or other distractions, leaving attendees feeling frustrated and unfulfilled. Here, for the first time, is a collection of dynamic Twelve Step "meeting starters" designed to generate spirited, meaningful, and gratifying group discussions. Each meeting starter includes a brief script for the moderator to use in introducing the selected topic. Mel B., who has been in recovery for more than fifty years, drew from his participation in more than 10,000 Twelve Step meetings to develop 101 thought-provoking topics, including: "Dealing with Rejection," "Attracting Trouble," "Happy Coincidences," and "Live and Let Live."
Customer Reviews:
Great Discussions!!!.......2007-05-12
This book contains what you need to get the meetings started. Very helpful in gaining serenity and a wonderful way to fellowship!!!
101 Meeting Starters: A Guide to Better Twelve Step Discussions.......2007-03-09
This book does exactly what it says it will do, help make better 12-step meeting discussions. This tiny book will last more than one lifetime. There are so many good ideas that it's hard to get through ten of them. Great book.
Book Description
Learn to produce dynamic programs with this practical guide!
Finally, a step-by-step guide to maximize your efforts and create the kinds of learning experiences participants will rave about. Designed for first-time as well as veteran event planners, this practical hands-on guide is full of concrete strategies, tips, and suggestions for creating dynamic events. Highlights include:
- Nine principles of effective meeting designers
- Key issues in site and date selection
- Strategies for designing audience-centered programs
- Marketing for optimal participation
- Managing the conference for effectiveness
- Collecting data and evaluating results
Book Description
Step-by-step instructions to plan and carry out exciting, successful community fourms that will educate the public, build consensus, focus action, or influence policy.
Customer Reviews:
Another solid Wilder publication.......2006-10-03
Another reviewer said it best, the plain language of the Wilder field guides make them one of the best sources for manangment information. Even though written with a focus on noprofits, this guide on Cummunity Forums has much information that is easily adaptable to government agencies...and I suspect even a few private companies.
Three aspects that were most valuable for me are 1) the acutal design of a community forum; 2) the types of Adult learner and how to structure your forum to communicate to them all, and 3) constructing a budget (including ideas about 'Forums On A Shoe String")
I used this book with my staff in their planning for a series of forums which produced above average results.
.
Community Forums Can Benefit from this Nonprofit Field Guide.......2005-02-26
Conducting Community Forums: Engaging Citizens, Mobilizing Communities, authored by Carol Lukas and Linda Hoskins, adds to a rather small selection of guides on conducting community forums.
Having spent over 15 years in the area of conducting forums and discussions for small and large communities, almost always in a nonprofit setting, I learned a great deal about needs assessments for nonprofits trying to reach into the community. In the beginning, there was almost nothing available to us, and only in recent times did true technical assistance become an attainable resource.
Times have changed in a great way. I realized how far we had come after reading this very creative and helpful reference guide. What I really loved about the book, was how even the most important information presented was put in a simple and understandable format that was engaging and interesting. Finally, a comprehensive "Field Guide" that makes total sense and offers the many tools necessary to educate your audience (the public community), help build consensus, dramatically influence policies, support any public debate and allow the voice of any community to be heard.
Whatever your needs, let this great guide act as an important instrument in allowing you to successfully engage the community and then powerfully engage them. The authors filled each page with incredibly useful information that is based on experience, scientific research, and successful implementation of the many constructive tools that they have used in the field.
Happy Reading to ALL!
Peter Cannice from Scottsdale, Arizona
Email: Horsepete@aol.com
Conducting Community Forums.......2004-07-03
Conducting Community Forums Engaging Citizens, Mobilizing Communities
Carol Lukas and Linda Hoskins
Published 2003 by Wilder Publishing Center
Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
St. Paul, MN
112 pages including appendices
Reviewed by
Jan Tunnell
Tunnell & Associates
Community forums are powerful tools to educate the public, build consensus, influence policy, support public debate, and get the community voice heard. Forums are a mechanism to engage citizens and organizations, and serve as a vehicle for community initiatives. This book is designed to help readers:
o Determine if a forum is the best way to achieve their goals
o Clarify the desired outcomes for a forum
o Decide who needs to be involved
o Identify resources needed to support their forum and how to obtain those resources
o Manage the logistics of event planning and execution
o Support follow-up action
o Conduct exciting, successful events that accomplish the established goals
Organized in four chapters plus very useful appendices, the book is a basic but thorough guide to achieving community goals and making good use of scarce resources in facilitating the forum.
The first chapter describes and defines the types of forums; community education, community engagement, and community action - distinguished by the goals they attempt to accomplish. The advantages and disadvantages, uses, and caveats of each are detailed and a chart shows the overlap of the three types. Forums can provide benefits in addition to the basics, including public exposure and increased community involvement. The complete process of planning a forum is given. The reader is led through the decision, or not, to have a forum, establishing a planning group, designating responsibilities, group selection, group size, leadership, and structure. Specific agendas for different time periods are charted. Other charts show in detail the design formats that can be used, with examples of events in varied communities. Every aspect to be considered is explained.
Chapter Two explains how to plan for your forum. Steps are outlined: creating the agenda, identifying resource people, logistics, publicity, and evaluation. Paying attention to the details is stressed.
Orchestrating the event is the subject of the third chapter. All of the possible stumbling blocks are presented, with tips on how to avoid them. Topics such the coordinator, volunteer management, registration, packets, the facility, and food are discussed, with suggestions and ideas. There is a section on troubleshooting, identified as a key to success.
Chapter Four defines change and shows how to sustain the results of the event. The energy and commitment to action that emerges from a successful forum needs to be captured and transformed into concrete action. Understanding the ingredients to bring about change is important after the forum. Pre-planning is part of this process as well as activities for after the event. The forum is only the launching pad for attention or action on an issues or changes in policy and is only one part of a strategy.
Each chapter has a summary; this can be reviewed to determine if what you need is under this section topic. Included at the end of each chapter are ideas on utilizing all possible resources to reduce costs. The four chapters are a gold mine of information, and provide useful, specific directions for accomplishing your goals. As valuable as the information is, the appendices are even more useful. Need a budget form, training for facilitators, evaluation format - they are all here and more. This is a basic but most useful book; easy to read and assimilate, carefully thought out and well documented. Definitely recommended for community activists.
Average customer rating:
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Evolution on Islands: Originating from contributions to a Discussion Meeting of the Royal Society of London
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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| Zoology
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| Botany
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General
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ASIN: 0198501714 |
Book Description
The study of patterns and processes of evolution on islands has played an important role in the development of general theories of how and why evolution occurs. Small, discrete pieces of the environment, islands are frequently isolated from the continental processes of gene flow. They are often inhabited by unique species, like the Komodo dragon, dodos, or daisies as tall as trees. They may display remarkable rapidity of diversifying evolution - nearly 1000 species of fruit-fly were formed in the Hawaiian archipelago in only a few million years. Thus, it is easy to see why islands have been referred to as 'natural experiments'. Such studies are continuing to yield exciting new fields for investigation as theoreticians attack questions of genetic change in island models and empirical biologists seek explanations of adaptive radiations in archipelagos. This unique book surveys our current knowledge and understanding of island evolution in eighteen chapters written by experts on various aspects of microevolution, speciation, and adaptive radiation. They cover the major trends and processes displayed by plants and animals, on tropical and temperate zone islands, and in lakes and tropical forest refugia. The book closes with a discussion of several unresolved issues that deserve further study. No other book has been published that focuses solely on the evolutionary processes that occur in islands. This will be of interest to all students and researchers in the fields of ecology and evolutionary biology.
Average customer rating:
|
Thinking Together: Making Meetings Work
V. A. Howard , and
J. H. Barton
Manufacturer: Quill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Business & Investing
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Management
| Management & Leadership
| Business & Investing
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Running Meetings & Presentations
| Skills
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Memory Improvement
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ASIN: 068812576X |
Book Description
People have all sorts of contradictory ideas of who God is and what he might be like. The very idea of God might seem abstract or unknowable. After all, no one has ever seen God. So how can we know what he's like, or if he even exists? But imagine if we could actually get to know God. Can we really meet God in the flesh?In this guide, Don Everts offers you eight discussions exploring episodes from the life of Jesus and reactions from the people who encountered him. Who was this Jesus? Was he God? Come take an honest look at his life and decide for yourself.This guide serves both as an independent resource for groups investigating God as well as a companion study guide for the book God in the Flesh.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Defense Transportation Journal, published by Thomson Gale on August 1, 2005. The length of the article is 629 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: A-35 expansion.(National Defense Transportation Association's National A-35 Committee Forum management)(Column)
Author: Lori Leffler Brooks
Publication:
Defense Transportation Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: August 1, 2005
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 61
Issue: 4
Page: 4(1)
Article Type: Column
Distributed by Thomson Gale
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