New Our Bookshelf

From time to time, publishers send us books they want our readers to know about.  We skim all of them and read many.  Here are some that have arrived recently and a few we’ve purchased as well.

• Alliances, Collaborations, and Partnerships – Joan Roberts, New Society Publications, (250.247.9737, info@new-society.com).  Trans-Organizational System (TS) - In a well researched treatise, Joan describes what they are, and how issues for leadership, collaboration, power and trust fit.  Her Tri-Process model includes processes for trust building, collaboration and governance.

• On Target: How to Conduct Effective Business Reviews – Michelle L. Bechtell,
  Berrett-Koehler  Publishers, (415.288.0260, www.bkconnection.com).   Michelle describes a structured review process that details how to identify measures, set up early warning systems for problems, accelerate the change process, and more.  This model fits well in the Learning Organization.  Forms and samples are included.  (Note:  Doug really liked this book.  It tested well against his personal management and consulting experience.)

• The Success Case Method, (Find Out Quickly What’s Working and What’s Not), Robert O. Brinkerhoff, Berrett-Koehler Publisher (415.288.0260, www.bkconnection.com).  The subtitle tells the story.  The book presents a method for developing information about the best and worst happening as a result of organization change through stories that are both interesting and reliable.  It uses stories, backed up by documentation.

• Approved!  Everything I Need to Know About Sales, I Learned From My Garden, Alan Vengel & Greg Wright.  (Berrett-Koehler Publisher 415.743.6477, www.bkconnections.com).  Beat a sales slump and build consistent sales results with this model.  Users a garden analogy and tells some interesting stories.  Very readable.

• How to OD… and Live to Tell About It.  William Becker, xlibres (888.795.4274 x27, www.xlibris.com/WilliamBecker.html).  Chapters include such topics as determining readiness, diagnosing, and validating commitment.  The resource sections include forms for interviews and diagnosis, and a description of an alignment conference.

• Innovation at the Speed of Laughter:  Eight Secrets to World Class Idea Generation, John Sweeney and the Brave New Workshop.  Expert Publishing Inc. (877.755.4966, www.expertoublishing.com).  Sweeney overviews eight strategies used at the Brave New Workshop, management strategies like Deferring Judgment, Yes First!, and Perceiving Change as Fuel.

• Be a Star Facilitator or Presenter Trainer: A Performance Support Handbook, Stella Cowan (xlibris Corporation, 888.795.4274).  Cowan provides a series of worksheets, checklists, tip sheets and other tools to help presenters improve their training sessions.

• The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry, Sue Annis Hammond, (Thin Book Publishing Co.,  888.316.9544).  Hammond overviews this important methodology describing its underlying assumptions, the differences between it and problem solving.  She includes sections on the inquiry interview and provocative proposition.

• The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: A Practical guide to Possible Change.  Diana Whitney and Amanda Trosten-Bloom.  (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 415.288.0260).   This is a substantial book that contains all the background and theories of AI along with the basic “How to do its.”  The menu of approaches provides flexibility for design.  There’s a chapter on each of the four D’s – Discovery, Dream, Design, Destiny.

• The Appreciative Inquiry Summit:  A Practitioner’s Guide for Leading Large Group Change,  Diana Whitney, Bernand Mohr, and Thomas Griffin.  (Berrett-Koehle Publishers, 415.288.0260).  If you’re thinking of using the AI process in a short period of time or with a large group, you’ll appreciate these practical tips, agendas, and the practical approach here.  It goes further too, offering help for after the summit.

• Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination, Jane Magruder Watkins and Bernard Mohr.  (Jose-Bass Pfeiffer a Wiley Company, 415.433.1740).  With clear descriptions and agendas, this book clarifies how AI works and how to make it work for many kinds of groups.  The case studies are numerous, and clearly demonstrate how the process can work.

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