The Wild Idea Club: A Collaborative System to Solve Workplace Problems, Improve Efficiency, and Boost Your Bottom Line Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Marilyn, former school counselor
"The Wild Idea Club" presents an excellent format for brainstorming. While the book aimed at solving problems in the workplace the ideas would be equally valuable in an educational setting. Brainstorming is an effective way to discuss what to do about bullying, having more time for recess or lunch or getting along with teachers etc. Wish the book had been available when I was moderating group sessions with students.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Wild Idea Club: A Collaborative System to Solve Workplace Problems, Improve Efficiency, and Boost Your Bottom Line

Imagine a workplace where employees don't complain about problems but instead work together in idea-generating clubs to present positive solutions.The Wild Idea Club will help you get there there, by providing managers with an easy, step-by-step approach that harnesses the collective genius of their people to drive innovation, improve efficiency, and increase morale.In tough times like these--with managers facing increasing pressure to get more done with fewer people and less money--encouraging employees to work together to tackle tough issues on their own is not a luxury, but a survival tool.When people start seeing possibilities instead of problems--and can present their solutions to decision-makers who care--something amazing happens: They find themselves actually working together toward a common goal that benefits everyone and their organization.The Wild Idea Club is a guide, a method, and a tool that provides:* Everything a manager needs to get a Wild Idea Club (or three) up and running in his or her organization--and keep it going.* Tips and techniques to help your people generate ideas and select the best ones.* The best ways to capture, record, research, and follow through on the solutions generated by a Wild Idea Club.* Strategies to help your people pitch their ideas.* And much more.Written in a loose and light style, each chapter presents one facet of the concept, illustrated through a story based on real-life examples of Wild Idea Clubs in action. This book will help anyone learn exactly what's needed to create a club in his or her company, no matter its industry, size, or history.

Click here for more information about The Wild Idea Club: A Collaborative System to Solve Workplace Problems, Improve Efficiency, and Boost Your Bottom Line

Read More...

I'd Rather Be in the Studio Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Artists starve because they don't market themselves. And even if a budding artist wanted to promote herself, Where to begin? What to do? Well, says Alyson Stanfield early on, break the spine of this book and start using it - start with a chapter that looks appealing, or deals with your biggest excuse for not advancing your art career. The book's organized around eight common excuses she's heard as an art business coach who's helped several thousand people get out of their studios and get down to the business of self-promotion. This is not about running a business. It's not about how to advertise. It's about defining success for yourself and making a plan that will get you there. It's about organizing your artists' life with routines, writing your artist's statement (this is a biggie), doing newsletters, getting a Web presence, writing a blog, polishing your image, getting out there and letting the world know you're here. Among other things, Ms. Stanfield's intent is to get you back into the studio so you can do what you want to do, which is art. This little book is an enormous tool box, full of detailed how-to's and rich with resources, including - other artist's websites and on-going support at her own website. Taken as a whole, this book is overwhelming - where do I start, what do I do first? Ms. Stanfield deals with "the overwhelm" by saying start with whatever fits best and do a few things at a time. Each chapter ends with a summary (a "no-excuse principle") and a gentle nudge (a "no-excuse action"). Beyond all that, the book's really accessible - the writing's clear and direct and personal and the book's design is gorgeous. It's a very friendly book. Ms. Stanfield wears many hats here - teacher, muse, occasional nag, coach, friend, facilitator - and she wears them well. Do yourself a big favor and buy this book. Better still, use it

Click Here to see more reviews about: I'd Rather Be in the Studio

I'd Rather Be in the Studio! The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion offers practical approaches that help you sell more art and build an art career that lasts. Alyson B. Stanfield, the art-marketing guru behind ArtBizCoach.com, shares self-promotion tools that have enhanced the careers of thousands of artists. You'll learn how to: (1) Introduce yourself as an artist so people want to know more; (2) Nail your artist statement to discover the right words for all of your marketing messages; (3) Expand your mailing list and use it to cultivate collectors; (4) Create marketing materials that outshine the competition; (5) Become a media magnet so buyers come to you; (6) Take advantage of your Web site and blog to build a bigger audience; and much more.It would be great if there were a precise formula for getting your art into galleries, museums and private collections. But every artist's path is different. That's why I'd Rather Be in the Studio! provides easy-to-follow self-promotion practices that help you find your way at any point in your career. Match Internet marketing strategies with sincere personal skills to take charge of your career.

Click here for more information about I'd Rather Be in the Studio

Read More...

The Shift: The Transformation of Today's Marketers into Tomorrow's Growth Leaders Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Davis spells out perfectly a leadership roadmap for marketers seeking to join the C-suite and influence a growth agenda for business.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Shift: The Transformation of Today's Marketers into Tomorrow's Growth Leaders

Click here for more information about The Shift: The Transformation of Today's Marketers into Tomorrow's Growth Leaders

Read More...

The Innovator's Way: Essential Practices for Successful Innovation Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)There are many books out there that have the word "innovation" in the title. THIS one was satisfyingly different in that it actually took me through the process of innovation. Other books talked ABOUT it, and this one was prescriptive and applicable with every chapter. The authors are incredibly well versed on the topic, and bring a rigor that I was not expecting to find with the recent trend of "light business books." This book is certainly not light, it was informative and entertaining while giving practical step-by-step suggestions.
This was time well spent...I'm curious where the authors will go from here.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Innovator's Way: Essential Practices for Successful Innovation

Innovation is the ruling buzzword in business today. Technology companiesinvest billions in developing new gadgets; business leaders see innovation as thekey to a competitive edge; policymakers craft regulations to foster a climate ofinnovation. And yet businesses report a success rate of only four percent forinnovation initiatives. Can we significantly increase our odds of succeeding atinnovation? In The Innovator's Way, innovation experts Peter Denning and RobertDunham reply with an emphatic yes. Innovation, they write, is not simply aninvention, a policy, or a process to be managed. Innovation is a personal skill thatcan be learned, developed through practice, and extended into organizations. Denningand Dunham define innovation as the art of getting people to adopt change. They drawa distinction between invention and innovation: many inventions never becomeinnovations, and many innovations do not involve an invention. They identify anddescribe eight personal practices that all successful innovators perform: sensing,envisioning, offering, adopting, sustaining, executing, leading, and embodying.Together, these practices can boost a fledgling innovator to success. Weakness inany of these practices, they show, blocks innovation. Denning and Dunham describeinnovation at scales ranging from the private (a family organization of chores andallowances) to the planetary (the invention and adoption of the World Wide Web).They provide a detailed account of the eight practices and how to accomplish them;and they chart the path to innovation mastery, from individual practices to teamsand social networks.

Click here for more information about The Innovator's Way: Essential Practices for Successful Innovation

Read More...

How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Some things are easy to measure. Time, money, exercise, calories, location - all of these are relatively straightforward to repeatably determine or calculate.
But how does one go about measuring happiness? What about compassion, or public influence, or creativity? These are more intangible, harder to pin down to a number that means anything.
Douglas Hubbard has written an impressive work called "How To Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business."
While it's written primarily for business people, the lessons transfer smoothly to self-experimenters. Hubbard begins with a compelling case for why to measure intangibles:
"Often, an important decision requires better knowledge of the alleged intangible, but when a [person] believes something to be immeasurable, attempts to measure it will not even be considered.
As a result, decisions are less informed than they could be. The chance of error increases. Resources are misallocated, good ideas are rejected, and bad ideas are accepted. Money is wasted. In some cases life and health are put in jeopardy. The belief that some things--even very important things--might be impossible to measure is sand in the gears of the entire economy.
Any important decision maker could benefit from learning that anything they really need to know is measurable."
He goes on to explain in detail how to measure intangibles, including sections on how to clarify problems, calibrate estimates, measure risk, sample reality, and use Bayesian statistics to add to available knowledge. He also describes his Applied Information Economics (AIE) Approach that ties together several threads of his ideas:
"The AIE approach addresses four things:
1. How to model a current state of uncertainty
2. How to compute what else should be measured
3. How to measure those things in a way that is economically justified
4. How to make a decision"
I'm working my way through the book, and am incredibly grateful to Douglas Hubbard for writing it.

Click Here to see more reviews about: How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business

Click here for more information about How to Measure Anything: Finding the Value of Intangibles in Business

Read More...

49 Marketing Secrets (That Work) to Grow Sales Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)So many marketing books are business fodder and fantasy. Clever words penned by ladies and gentlemen who are more impressed with themselves than with the need to get good information in the hands of people who need it to grow their businesses.
If there's one thing that sets this book apart from those types that I mentioned, it's the practical, valuable nature of the information inside. There's more in here, in terms of actionable value, than in many seminars I've attended that cost thousands of dollars. This book is a true bargain for the business builder.

Click Here to see more reviews about: 49 Marketing Secrets (That Work) to Grow Sales

49 Marketing Secrets is a book that was conceived to fill the void on marketing books that is tailored to the small business owner. Many of the problems I have solved with my clients are marketing problems: they don't understand marketing, they don't know who to trust, they don't know what to do. The objective of the book is to provide an inexpensive and safe place for mall business owners to turn to receive trusted advice from people who have been there. The book was written by marketing experts and business owner and it describes what they implemented to grow their business. We can all become great marketers. In this book you will discover: 9 Winning Marketing Strategy 8 Branding and Corporate Image Strategies 6 Media Strategies 3 Networking strategies 9 Technology-Based Marketing Strategies 6 Event Strategies 8 Sales Strategies.

Click here for more information about 49 Marketing Secrets (That Work) to Grow Sales

Read More...

Teaching Middle School Language Arts: Incorporating Twenty-first Century Literacies Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I was honored when the author asked me to write a preface for this splendid book. I have been teaching for about 30 years, but I learned a tremendous amount reading it. Ms. Roseboro's concrete examples and illustrations about teaching language arts will help teachers of all ages and subjects. She has learned by doing, by trying creative approaches and then refining the ones that worked the best.
I've always thought that language arts (I teach communication) is one of the most interesting topics to teach. Language arts is about people and relationships, and about stories that can enrich our lives and build common understanding for the good of community and society. Reading this book renewed my love affair with the field. Ms. Roseboro's own enthusiasm is infectious. I can understand why she is an award-winning teacher and a national board certified instructor.
I especially hope that new teachers will consider the ways that Ms. Roseboro has integrated deep pedagogical insights with practical teaching skills. It's easy as a new teacher to get so overwhelmed with daily preparations and classroom activities that one loses track of the theories behind one's instructional approaches. When it comes to teaching language arts with new literacies in mind, this kind of theoretically disconnected teaching becomes very problematic. Teachers fall prey to the latest "media" fads that are both unproven and usually a waste of time.
I'm grateful for Ms. Roseboro's inspiring book. I am honored to have written the preface.
Quentin J. Schultze, Ph.D., author of How to Write Powerful College Student Resumes and Cover Letters: Secrets That Get Job Interviews Like Magic

Click Here to see more reviews about: Teaching Middle School Language Arts: Incorporating Twenty-first Century Literacies

Teaching Middle School Language Arts is the first book on teaching middle school language arts for multiple intelligences and related 21st century literacies in technologically and ethnically diverse communities. More than 670,000 middle school teachers (grades six through eight) are responsible for educating nearly 13 million students in public and private schools. Thousands more teachers join these ranks annually, especially in the South and West, where ethnic populations are ballooning. Teachers and administrators seek practical, time-efficient ways of teaching language arts to 21st century adolescents in increasingly multicultural, technologically diverse, socially networked communities. They seek sound understanding, practical advice, and proven strategies for connecting diverse literature to 21st century societies while meeting state and professional standards. Teaching Middle School Language Arts provides strategies and resources that work. Roseboro's book provides an entire academic year of inspiring theory and instruction in multimedia reading, writing, and speaking for the 21st century literacies that are increasingly required in the United States and Canada. An appendix includes supplementary documents to adapt or adopt, and a companion web site is designed to continue communication with readers.

Click here for more information about Teaching Middle School Language Arts: Incorporating Twenty-first Century Literacies

Read More...

Minitrends: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This book serves as a great guide to identifying and even handicapping new technologies and technology trends within larger social and economic contexts. I apply these principles to competitive assessment, but they would apply equally well for entrepreneurs or venture capitalists. This book works well because these days discerning new trends, especially small ones, is not as straightforward as it might seem. In fact, the sheer number of emerging technologies has made discerning smaller but nevertheless significant technology trends something of a lost art. I recommend this book to anyone who wishes to learn the principles that futurists apply to assess emerging technologies. The payoff will be the competitive advantage that will result from understanding how specific technologies and trends are likely to play out.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Minitrends: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends

Find, Evaluate, Profit! MINITRENDS provides a practical formula for extracting business opportunities from major trends that have a realistic chance of becoming profitable in the next 2-5 years. Minitrends are of a scope and importance to offer attractive business opportunities to individuals and organizations that are alert enough to recognize them, perceptive enough to appreciate them, and clever enough to take advantage of them.Readers learn:
How and where to search for Minitrends
How to evaluate the business attractiveness of a Minitrend
How to develop an effective Minitrend Explotation Scheme
How to turn the scheme into a profitable business opportunity
Based on author Dr. John H. Vanston's more than 30 years of experience in identifying and applying technical, social, and business trends, the book shows:
Individual entrepreneurs how to identify, assess, and exploit new business opportunities
Decision makers in small and mid-size businesses how to gain advantage by recognizing and utilizing emerging trends
Innovative thinkers in large businesses how to distinguish themselves by their special perceptiveness
Investors how to uncover attractive new investment opportunities
In addition to how-to advice, MINITRENDS provides background, current trends, and business opportunities for several attractive Minitrends.Combining advice, instructions, and examples, MINITRENDS assists the reader in launching their own exciting, profitable "Minitrend Adventure" using their imagination, logic, innovative nature, and basic good sense. This book is an amazing resource for ambitious individuals who seek to start new ventures or keep existing businesses innovative and competitive."MINITRENDS presents a set of practical-but-powerful tools and mindsets...HEROIC!"--David Pearce Snyder, Strategic Forecaster, Contributing Editor, The Futurist

Click here for more information about Minitrends: How Innovators & Entrepreneurs Discover & Profit From Business & Technology Trends

Read More...

Staying Power: Six Enduring Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation in an Uncertain World (Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Professor Cusumano's "Staying Power" is a major contribution in the field of business strategy.
I am in the business of technology and management strategy consulting and think his ideas have enormous value to any executive grappling with the implications and opportunities of cloud-computing enabled business. His six principles are easy to grasp. They are deceptively simple and are particularly powerful in a commercial and public sector business climate of austerity where new business models are emerging that will fuel our next growth cycle, but are disrupting incumbents. The introduction of cloud computing is beginning to have a disruptive effect on a wide range of business. Living through that disruption in day-to-day business can make it hard to see the bigger patterns at play and think through what the future state will look like. Professor Cusumano's elaboration of the platform/complementer services model with his excellent historical context and current market analysis makes it much clearer where we are headed in my industry and to seize emerging opportunities.
I purchased the book based on an Amazon recommendation and I am very grateful I did. The book is written in a more academic style than is typical of the more popular style business and management books. In fact, I picked it up and sat it down several times before committing to the book. It is not a book designed to skim. It requires concentration and focus to understand how Professor Cusumano has reached the conclusions he has. His ability to characterize the current disruptive innovation cycle in the information technology business using his analysis of the history of both the information technology and automotive industry is excellent. It is a fascinating story leading up to today's new business models.
Once I started really focusing on the book, I could not put it down. My copy is full of highlighter pen marks and 3M stickers. Kudos to Professor Cusumano for a valuable tool for business executives trying to figure out how to proactively take advantage of the cloud-enabled business models that are emerging. I hope that he extends this work with additional video and supplementary blog or presentation materials to continue to expand on his ideas and share more examples of the ideas in action. I have already begun converting his ideas into execution in my business.

Click Here to see more reviews about: Staying Power: Six Enduring Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation in an Uncertain World (Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies)

Business news tends to focus on the travails of a handful of giants: Apple's iPad, the Toyota recall, the controversy over Google's book-digitization program. Whatever the day's headlines, though, most of these firms have been there before--up and down, written off and overpraised--yet they endured and triumphed. What is their secret? What is it that has lifted them to preeminence and allowed them to come out of each crisis stronger than before?In Staying Power, Michael A. Cusumano provides the answers. A bestselling business author and leading scholar, Cusumano has spent a quarter of a century studying the world's most successful companies--many of them from the inside, by serving as an advisor to more than one hundred firms. He identifies six critical principles that have driven the success of today's foremost companies, including Google, Intel, Apple, JVC, Toyota, and Microsoft. He argues that companies today must develop distinctive organizational capabilities, not just business strategies; focus on platforms and services, not just products; pull information from the market, responding to real-time changes in demand and competitive conditions, and not just push products out; achieve economies of scope, not just scale, by creating efficiencies across all a firm's activities; and acquire flexibility, in addition to efficiency, to quickly adapt to a volatile marketplace. Drawing on real-life examples, he illustrates how the best companies put these principles into practice, identifying precisely how these ideas have lead to concrete success time after time.Business books, the author notes, often promote short-lived fads in management thinking. But Staying Power is different. Written by a bestselling international expert, this book focuses on lasting success, analyzing the fundamental elements common to the leading competitors in the world today.

Click here for more information about Staying Power: Six Enduring Principles for Managing Strategy and Innovation in an Uncertain World (Clarendon Lectures in Management Studies)

Read More...

The Art Teacher's Book of Lists, 2nd Edition (J-B Ed: Book of Lists) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)When I first saw this book something clicked. I love lists and I love art. Helen Hume's combination of the two proves extremely helpful as a resource and as a jumping off point. It seems pretty extensive.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Art Teacher's Book of Lists, 2nd Edition (J-B Ed: Book of Lists)


A revised and updated edition of the best-selling resource for art teachers

This time-tested book is written for teachers who need accurate and updated information about the world of art, artists, and art movements, including the arts of Africa, Asia, Native America and other diverse cultures. The book is filled with tools, resources, and ideas for creating art in multiple media.Written by an experienced artist and art instructor, the book is filled with vital facts, data, readings, and other references,
Each of the book's lists has been updated and the includes some 100 new lists
Contains new information on contemporary artists, artwork, art movements, museum holdings, art websites, and more
Offers ideas for dynamic art projects and lessons

Diverse in its content, the book covers topics such as architecture, drawing, painting, graphic arts, photography, digital arts, and much more.

Click here for more information about The Art Teacher's Book of Lists, 2nd Edition (J-B Ed: Book of Lists)

Read More...

The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write Foolproof Proposals for the Visual, Literary, and Performing Artist Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The book arrived very fast. It has good advice and is well written. I'm not sure its going to boost my chances of receiving grants, but she has a lot of good points. Reading this is time well spent.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write Foolproof Proposals for the Visual, Literary, and Performing Artist

The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing is designed to transform readers from starving artists fumbling to get by into working artists who confidently tap into all the resources at their disposal. Written in an engaging and down-to-earth tone, this comprehensive guide includes time-tested strategies, anecdotes from successful grant writers, and tips from grant officers and fundraising specialists. The book is targeted at both professional and aspiring writers, performers, and visual artists who need concrete information about how to write winning grant applications and fundraise creatively so that they can finance their artistic dreams.

Click here for more information about The Artist's Guide to Grant Writing: How to Find Funds and Write Foolproof Proposals for the Visual, Literary, and Performing Artist

Read More...

AN Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next?" Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I really enjoyed this book! It is very readable and offers a very informative look at some of the most important future technologies. It's based on the author's travels and interviews with the top people in the various fields. I find it interesting and surprising that a professional comedian would write such an insightful book on these subjects.
The book looks at genetics/biotech engineering, robotics and artificial intelligence, transhumanism (merging people and machines), nanotechnology, the commercial space program and technology to battle climate change. The last part of the book focuses on how all this might affect people, society and culture. As the title suggests the book has a generally optimistic take on these technologies, but it does offer some balance, and the author keeps up his sense of humor (British humor) even when writing about existential treats from things like engineered viruses or nanotechnology grey goo.
Highly recommended for anyone who wants to get an idea of what might be coming in the next few decades. The book didn't talk alot about the economics of all this, and one thing I wonder about is unemployment from advanced robots and artificial intelligence. For more on that also check out The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future, which is also an easy and informative read and talks about many of the same technologies more from an economic point of view.
If you really want to delve into the technology and especially transhumanism there is also Ray Kurzweil's (who was interviewed in this book) classic, The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (but that is a much more challenging and technical read that this book).

Click Here to see more reviews about: AN Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next"

In the tradition of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, a smart and entertaining guide to the future of civilization When unexpectedly confronted with his own mortality, Mark Stevenson-a writer, deep-thinker, and stand-up comedian-began to ponder what the future holds for our species. "The past is a foreign country," writes Stevenson. "By my analysis it's a bit like France-in that I've been to parts of it and eaten some nice food there. But the future? The future is an unknown territory-and there isn't a guidebook." Thus, his ambition was born. Stevenson set out simply, asking, "What's next?" and then traveled the globe in pursuit of the answers. Along the way, he visited the Australian outback to visit the farmers who can save us from climate change, met a robot with mood swings, and talked to the Spaniard who's putting a hotel in space. While some might be overwhelmed, or even dismayed by the looming realities of genome sequencing, synthetic biology, a nuclear renaissance, and carbon scrubbing, Stevenson remains, well, optimistic. Drawing on his singular humor and storytelling to break down these sometimes complicated discoveries, An Optimist's Tour of the Future paints a wonderfully readable, and completely enthralling portrait of where we'll be when we grow up- and why it's not so scary.

Click here for more information about AN Optimist's Tour of the Future: One Curious Man Sets Out to Answer "What's Next"

Read More...

School for Startups: The Breakthrough Course for Guaranteeing Small Business Success in 90 Days or Less Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I wish this book had come out years ago; it would have saved me both capital and pain. The authors simply and concisely lay out a pathway to successful entrepreneurship that anyone can follow. Most importantly they do it through teaching risk avoidance and low cost entry. If you are dissatisfied with your current job, out of work or just ready to be your own boss, get this book!

Click Here to see more reviews about: School for Startups: The Breakthrough Course for Guaranteeing Small Business Success in 90 Days or Less


The Beginner's Guide to Low-Risk Entrepreneurship

You want to start your own business, but "risk" isn't your middle name. You're not alone. Many successful entrepreneurs are averse to risk--but they have learned the tricks to working around it. And now you can too, with School for Startups.

This practical guide shows you how to build a business the smart way--without risking major assets such as your house, savings account, or health insurance.

You'll learn how to increase your chance of success by:
Funding your venture without investors
Entering international markets
Taking full advantage of tools on the Web
Marketing your product or service for little or no cost
Deploying a third party to package and ship products
Taking control of an existing business or franchise

The authors present hundreds of the best ideas for new businesses, along with case studies proving the effectiveness of their approach. Also included with the book is a code you can use to register for The Entrepreneur School (www.theentrepreneurschool.com), where you can access exclusive webinars and supplementary material.

Click here for more information about School for Startups: The Breakthrough Course for Guaranteeing Small Business Success in 90 Days or Less

Read More...