5 comments about The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook: A Quick Reference Guide to 100 Tools for Improving Quality and Speed.

1. Worth a lot more than I paid for it. Two copies on my desk. One loaner. It gets lots of mileage. THIS IS A GREAT DESK REFERENCE.



2. The book was received quickly, in the condition described and at significant savings over the campus bookstore.



3. It is a handy reference book that packed with tools and key points. In view of its approach and its size, I would say it reasonably include the information. Yet, if would be better (a) if its size be reduced in view of its contents; or (b) expand the contents a little more for giving more details; plus samples would be better. The book contains samples but are very brief. Don't read it as a reference book, it is not. Neither don't regard it as a textbook. If you want to have a briefing or general idea, then, this is quite a good book. If you are new to Six Sigma, I also recommend it to you for its size and contents. May be some other people with in-depth knowledge of Six sigma would tell if it is also good for them for revision.



4. I teach Lean Six Sigma and have used this book for the Black Belt certification course. It has just the right amount of detail to serve exactly as the title suggests. It's not a beginner's how-to book - think of it as the condensed version of your LSS course, for when you know there's a tool for something you want to do, but can't quite remember the details. Or, when you think you remember but just want a quick check and an example to give you confidence in using the tool.
   
   I've also used it in my consulting work and have heard only rave reviews from clients. This handy tookbook should be in every Lean Six Sigma facilitator's library.



5. A well-organized, bullet-pointed listing of the big elements of the Lean Six Sigma processes. A great tool to have handy for referencing when the big kahuna wants to talk about the program. It's the size of a typical paperback novel and organized in a logical, intuitive fashion.

5 comments about McGraw-Hill's GED : The Most Complete and Reliable Study Program for the GED Tests.

1. If you've put off getting your GED because you haven't got time to go to a class, don't worry and stop putting it off now! Get this book, refresh your mind, start using that "grey matter" again and pass the GED test with flying colors! This book is great, it has everything you need to prepare for taking your GED test and KNOW you'll pass. I did it and couldn't be happier.



2. This time we got more that we bargained for. Thank you!
   
   GOD BLESS AND KEEP YOU ALL ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!



3. This resource book was very thorough and the tests included very hepful to my daughter. She was able to study the subjects she was weak in without going through the entire book. I believe it helped her in successfully passing the GED test the first time.



4. I have been very pleased with my purchase!! It arrived very quickly. It is both easy to use and very informative. Anyone interested in a self- study method of obtaining a GED is sure to find this book to be a treasure!



5. I was under the impression that i ordered the book with the cd and it showed that when i entered it bit only recieved the book!

5 comments about Primal Leadership: Learning to Lead with Emotional Intelligence.

1. I've read a number of leadership books, and Primal Leadership is among the best I've picked up. Goleman and crew outline a well balanced understanding of the different facets of leadership and the important skill of reading and capitalizing on the emotional state of the organization which one leads. This book is filled with numerous stories and cases where the principles advocated for are illustrated quite nicely.
   
   This book is worth your time if you are seeking to develop your own leadership capabilities.



2. I ran across this book on a Listamania list that highly recommended this book. While the subject matter is of great interest to me, I felt somewhat disappointed that it didn't deliver in the way I was anticipating. I personally believe that 6 styles of leadership is about 4 more than we need. I also disagree with the styles being interchangeable. Situations may change but great leaders maintain their leadership style. That's one of the reasons why they are great versus mediocre.
   
   While some parts of the book are thought provoking, it does not provide any specifics on constructing an action plan for getting from point A to B. While the authors are well-meaning and did research a lot of data, I believe their academic background got in the way while writing this book.
   
   I hope you find this review helpful. Michael L. Gooch, SPHR - Author of Wingtips with Spurs



3. This is the first time I have purchased a CD (audio book). I am doing an MBA and the reading is overwhelming. I felt this would be a break from reading to listening to the book.
   Well, what a great choice. This book is an excellent book and the medium for delivery even greater.
   I play it over and over again, I have shared it with friends (all are buying theirs)
   Very impressive structure and research in this CD book. Goldman proves again that clear sight into people and management of people (including yourself).



4. Great book! Can be used to take an assessment of yourself inside and outside of the business world. A must read.



5. "Leaders have always played a primordial emotional role [...] Quite simply, in any human group the leader has maximal power to sway everyone's emotions" (5).
   
   Daniel Goleman, author of the bestseller Emotional Intelligence, explores the power of EQ in leadership and shows how we can apply these proven principles to "excel not just through skill and smarts, but by connecting with others" (Cover). Studies of star performers have shown that 85% of the difference in success is attributed to emotional intelligence factors rather than cognitive abilities like IQ or technical abilities. In today's competitive world, the art of relationships is more indispensable than ever.

5 comments about Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques (2nd Edition).

1. I have about 400 books in my library and Thinkertoys (with Thinkpak) is the best book I've read so far. The book is full with creative tools and puzzles to play with. The book comes to me at the right time since I am about to start my own business and the book provides a lot of insight, ideas and techniques. Thank you Mr. Michalko for creating the "toys".



2. As a consultant, I am regularly engaged in combined sessions with clients. This book gives an excellent overview of the tools and techniques to use, but is more broad than deep. For me, it works fine. For someone who wants to do very specific creative activities, it doesn't give enough examples and practical application.



3. i just got this a few days ago and my first impressions, without actually trying any of the techniques, were that it wasn't looking very practical. but the author cautions not to just go through each technique (among dozens) in the order presented but to try a couple that look like they might interest you most and play around with them and then go on from there.
   
   so after scanning awhile i saw what is supposedly salvadore dali's image generation method. yeah right, i thought. well, that worked the first time i tried it. and i sketched it out and it didn't look like a dali, but it was the most imaginative sketch i've ever come up with. it was a man riding through the air on a hobby horse above a pavilion tent. and he was thinking about how glad he was that he didn't crash into the tent. i added more adults in the air playing with childrens' toys (jump rope, pogo stick, tricycle etc.) and the children down outside the pavillion wanting their toys back. beats going out to the park and 'copying' as van gogh called it.
   
   so next i took those words associated with the image and i plugged them into a technique that looked to me like one of the most impractical in the book. and i got an idea that i've been looking for. that idea rendered a cool poem. most of the examples in the book look to be "business/career challenge" oriented but at least some of these techniques will also inspire raw creativity. be creative about using the toys.
   
   take it from a skeptic. this stuff rocks. but you have to actually use it, not just read about it. i'm so thrilled that i have this book. YAY!



4. I was taking a class at University named "Creative Thinking"; and I started to like the subject, so I decided to find a related book at Amazon.com
   
   This book was one of best rated, so I ordered one. I have been reading it for a couple of days and until now all ideas are easy to understand and they encourage you to be creative and not think in the box.
   
   This book is great for people who would like to open their minds.



5. This book, together with my treasured Roger von Oech books, sit prominently on my bookshelf when working on a variety of problems - software development, film production, creative writing for scripts or novels, and developing opportunities in this mediacentric age. These books break open your mind from the restrictive fences imposed on our thinking by the conventional world that we are surrounded by. These fences need to be torn down. If you are an older person (probably older than 30!), then your thinking will become ossified. Just like using your muscles, you need to rework your brain and your thinking with effort to create opportunities and connections to emerging technologies and new developments.

5 comments about Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk.

1. Risk Management has always been interesting to me, and learning about the history of it through this book has increased my understanding tremendously. The book is written very well, and it reads very easily for the material being discussed. I was pleasantly surprised as I delved further and further into the book.



2. There are two things that I really liked about this book, and one thing that I didn't. The good things:
   
   1) The author's vast knowledge of the financial markets, from most of a century of experience.
   2) His extensive and entertaining history of risk analysis.
   
   The bad thing:
   
   His attempts to explain math concepts that he apparently doesn't understand very well.
   
   His history of risk analysis was a pleasure to read -- from Fibonacci and Cardano, to Markowitz and Sharpe. My favorite, was his coverage of Francis Galton, the man who measured everything.
   
   Above all, the greatest value in this book is that it's packed with the author's knowledge of finance, from 63 years of experience. He's 89 years old now, and appears to still be going strong.
   
   This book is well worth reading.
   
   My favorite quote from the book:
   Today's hero is often tomorrow's blockhead.(pg 297)



3. Against The Gods is a popular account of the history of financial risk management. The author takes us through a journey of discovery spanning almost a thousand years, from the introduction of Arabic numerals and the concept of zero, to the most sophisticated derivative instruments of modern finance. At each point in history when a great leap forward was made, the personalities involved are introduced, and the advances they are credited with are explained. All throughout, mankind's age-old struggle to measure and control uncertainty is seen to stumble time and again against the same, seemingly insurmountable problem: There is no guarantee that what happened in the past will continue to happen in the future.
   
   The book is highly recommended for anyone seeking to understand the origins of modern risk management and what the concept of risk really means.



4. My friends and colleagues have a hard time believing that one of the most entertaining books I have ever read is about risk management and probability. Yet, Peter Bernstein's masterpiece bestseller is just that. By tracing the development of risk through the ages, he sets the personalities of the key innovators against the background of the times, and shows the practicality of what they did and how it changed the way we look at the world.
   
   Most of my favorite mathematicians are profiled here, in witty and digestible bites of prose that often read more like a novel than a business book. The chapter titles themselves bear witness to the delightful style of the author: The Man with the Sprained Brain, The Measure of Our Ignorance and The Fantastic System of Side Bets are just a few examples. The segues between chapters and sections are also very well-done - creating a bit of suspense and making this quite a page-turner.
   
   With apologies for seeming trite, there is a high probability, at little risk, of reaping a great reward from the story told by Mr. Berstein.



5. I read this when it came out and thought it was pretty good. The first half, about how people figured out how probability worked, was really entertaining. The end, about how the geniuses on Wall St. conquered risk, is so wrong it's hilarious. Bernstein is a victim of what Taleb calls the ludic fallacy -- mistaking well-defined games like craps for the truly unpredictable.
   
   So go read "The Black Swan" or "Fooled by Randomness" instead.

5 comments about Stock Investing For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)).

1. Like it says, it's stock investing for dummies. Not only will you get explanations for key terms that you will encounter, you also will be taught how to look at numbers on a balance sheet, and decode what story the balance sheet is telling you. The way this book is written is very novice-friendly, you won't have to worry about being lost or not being able to understand some words. I can see how the more "advanced" investors might flip through the pages going "I already know that...." But like the title says, It's for dummies. If you know nothing about investing and want to know more, this is a great start. However, If you want to take it to the next level, I recommend a successful mentor.



2. This book is fantastic. It covers all the basic fundamentals, provides resources to learn more about every area, and covers every broad aspect of evaluating a company. You learn about company fundamentals, accounting formulas, economic indicators, political signs, trends, and much more. Probably the best beginning book on stock trading I've read, and I have read many.
   
   Not only that, but the author's results speak for themselves. The 1st edition was written in 2005, and he made several predictions, every one of which came true. In the book he mentioned that according to his research silver would be in very high demand in the next few years - then showed the indicators to prove it. Silver then went on to go from $7 to $17 currently, over 30% annual growth. He accurately predicted the internet stock bust in 2001, the housing bust, the rise of silver, the rise of oil, the collapse of financial service companies, and the rise of commodities.
   
   Obviously results alone don't mean anything, but when taken with the strategies he teaches, it's very clear that this guy knows what he's doing.



3. I liked the book and thouht it was really good, some stuff I didn't think about was menioned in this book, even though its for Dummies :-)



4. It has basiclly very much everything to know about stocks. For newbie like me, I'm glad that I got this book. It shows u from buy to sell stocks and what matters would happen.



5. Time is an important asset. Invest your time in this excelent masterpiece, it will be your first good investment of many.
   
   Two considerations:
   
   Specalutors are not welcome here, this is pure investment for dummies. Aggresive tactics only in a conservative macro-enviroment.
   
   Investment could be very hard if you like, but like all things in life, it is best to keep it simple. Paul's book will be always in your hands when your strategies became too complex, heping advanced investors return to the basics.
   
   
   (Sorry for my english, is not my primary language)

5 comments about The Secrets of Economic Indicators: Hidden Clues to Future Economic Trends and Investment Opportunities, 2nd Edition.

1. Very good book to get an idea about all the economic indicators that can make or break the economy.



2. This is an esaly introduction to economic indicators, mainly the american ones. It contains some interesting tips about indicators, like "thumb rules" in some cases. It briefly introduces each of the most important indicators to the US economy (as well to other major economies) and it's effects on the markets. Those interested in detailed information of some indicator will need to go deeper looking for it's original sources.



3. Secrets of Economic Indicators is an excellent book on what drives and affects the economy and the markets. From inflation,consumer spending,unemployment,housing, to the Federal Reserve. Each section explains market sensitivity and why. Would not recommend this book for market-timing necessarily but to understand why the markets go up and down. The last 2 chapter have websites for U.S. and International Economic Indicators for further information. Well done.



4. This book really made market indicators simple and easy to understand. I appluad the author for his format. If you need to understand all of those fancy indicator lingo this is the book to read.



5. This book offers nothing that can't easily be obtained by a simple internet search. The book reads like a manual with no soul whatsoever. I could have written the same book with mere copy and paste technique. The high reviews given to this book were given by 10 year olds. Don't waste your time and definitely your money!
   
   I wish I could give a 1/2 star on this!!

5 comments about The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal.

1. The Power of Full Engagement by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz is great book that offers good information and practical recommendations which are easy to implement. The authors share real examples throughout the book that almost anyone can relate to their own daily life. I love the balance of energy - physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. If you aren't happy with your life - feeling stressed, overworked, down on power, missing something, ... - read this book! With an open mind and a desire to change, you will find useful information that you can immediately begin to use to change your life.



2. Since we hear so much about the challenges of time management, I really enjoyed the "paradigm" of energy management. The authors' use of illustrations with professional athletes helped drive home the point about how business professionals can apply the same principles. While reading, I took the free energy management inventory and recommend that others do, too. I found taking the exercises at the end to be quite beneficial to my own discernment and definition of purpose. Make the time to read this book!



3. I've shared this book with about 7 other people. Great book to give to friends who have lost their work/life balance - and a good reminder for myself.



4. The 4:8 Principle: The Secret to a Joy-Filled Life
   
   The Power of Full Engagement definitely makes the The 1% Club's Top Ten List!
   
   Ambition without peak energy is useless. This book by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz uses an athletic metaphor to illustrate how easy it is to mismanage our energy reserves, but also, how this can be corrected. This has been required reading form my clients since its release in 2003.
   
   You will find case studies that are easy to relate to and simple, straightforward action steps to address the real energy crisis. This book is loaded with great content and has excellent chapter summaries and a complete recap at the end of the book.
   
   Here is one key point that you should study further: "Most of us are under trained physically and spiritually (not enough stress) and over trained mentally and emotionally (not enough recovery)." Grab the highlighter!



5. Time is potential freedom. Energy gives you real liberty. The true currency of our life is not the hours, but what we put in those hours. We can systematically increase our capability and productivity by increasing our energy. This book shows you how.
   
   A great myth of our society is that humans are supposed to function as machines--working constantly, simultaneously, and consistently.
   
   In reality, humans work by having energy expenditure periods and energy recovery periods. It is like working out. You have to stress the muscle sufficiently to make it grow. Then, you have to allow time for it to actually recover.
   
   If you stress the muscle too little, it won't ever grow. If you stress the muscle too much, it will get injured. You have to find the right amount. Happiness is always a stretch outside your comfort zone.
   
   It is doing our recovery periods that we actually grow. Most people work for 8 hours at 50% capability. It is better to work in 90 minute cycles of 100% productivity with 30 minute rest periods in between. Three cycles of short sprints will give you 4.5 hours of 100% results compared to 4 hours with the 8 hours at 50%.
   
   Life is a marathon, and interval training (full sprints and full rest) is the best way to run it.

5 comments about Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story.

1. Presenting to Win is a terrific book. I got a clear, structured, sensible system to create presentations that will skyrocket the level of mine. I will keep this handy every time. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, Jerry.



2. We've all sat through presentations that dragged on forever, but led nowhere. What's worse, we've probably even given a few. As the author puts it, "The problem is that no one knows how to tell a story...and no one knows that they don't know how to tell a story."
   Author Jerry Weissman boils it down to telling a compelling story. That's easy to say, but hard to do. With this book's guidance, you can become an effective communicator--whether convincing employees of the need to change, persuading prospects that you have the best solution or leading skeptical community groups to support your cause.
   
   Presenting to Win overflows with practical advice on how to engage an audience by telling your story with a focus on what's important to them. You become an `audience advocate' whose concern for your listeners' needs puts them at the heart of your presentation. As Weissman describes it:
   "Persuasion is the art of moving your audience from Point A, a place of ignorance, indifference, or even hostility toward your goal...navigating them through an unbroken series of Aha!s...to Point B, a place where they will act as your investors, customers, partners, or advocates, ready to march to your drum."
   
   By following Weissman's detailed roadmap, we can learn how to tell stories that move and motivate our listeners by keeping them engaged from a compelling start to a big finish.
   
   Silicon Valley Presentation Guru
   
   Weissmann's first career was as a Hollywood producer and screenwriter. His friendship with venture capitalist, Ben Rosen, led him to his second career as a presentation guru. In 1988, he launched a business that taught high tech executives to move from feature-laden, techno-speak dissertations to engaging, listener-centric presentations. Yahoo, Intuit, Cisco, Microsoft, and Intel all benefited from his teachings.
   
   The Opening Gambit is Just the Beginning
   Weissman offers plenty of real world anecdotes, how-tos, and helpful graphics that convey how to grab and keep your audience. His opening gambit concept typifies his approach. He first offers the rationale, supports it with multiple success stories, and describes a broad range of opening gambits.
   To engage an audience, an opening gambit pulls them out of a state of disinterest or suspicion about you and your presentation. Asking questions is one of seven such gambits discussed. In 1993, Scott Cook founder of Intuit (maker of Quicken and QuickBooks) faced a jaded audience of investment bankers. Rather than launch into a feature packed discussion of his new product, he asked two questions:
   * How many of you balance your own checkbooks?
   * How many enjoy doing it?
   After a round of chuckles, he continued, "You're not alone. Millions of people around the world hate balancing their checkbooks. We at Intuit have developed an easy-to-use, inexpensive home finance tool named, Quicken." With this `Aha' moment, Cook was off and running.
   Beyond the Opening Gambit--Components of Successful Presentations
   Equally insightful chapters on presentation essentials provide a level of detail and clarity that leaves nothing to chance. They include:
   * Story development
   * Graphic design
   * Delivery skills
   * Tools
   * Q & A techniques
   In each case, Weissman
   
   Presenting to Win: A Blueprint Worth Following
   
   Weissman demonstrates that even those of us who aren't naturals can present to win. Learning what he teaches requires significant effort because his approach contains such a broad range of interrelated elements--and includes variations that differ depending on purpose, topic, and audience. Making it easy for our audience is hard for us. But, as Microsoft, Intel, Cisco, Intuit, and Yahoo learned, the effort is well worth it.



3. Jerry Weissman is one of those rare people who has written an authoritative sounding book about how to present and has the real experience and background to justify every claim he makes.
   
   The book starts with the premise that the presenter must focus on the audience and that he must make them focus on him. He must understand the mental point they are at (Point A) and moves them to Point B. He must understand what is in it for them (WIIFY) and constantly use it as he constructs every slide to walk them to Point B. He must also understand the setting of the audience, and his main points of argument. Finally, he must tie those points together with a flow structure that fits his argument.
   
   That's the first half of the book and as someone who has through some awful presentations, I can only wish reading this book were the equivalent of a driver's license for public speakers.
   
   The back half of the book draws on his background in television and employs standard cinematic techniques to improve the appearance of PowerPoint. It's easy to overlook this part, but it makes a huge difference as well.
   
   I've now had a chance to see people who have used these techniques for years present, and it makes a huge difference. I have also seen someone present in a tough situation using these techniques for the first time. This person is level-headed and not given to fads. His comment? "I wish I had run to Jerry's book ten years earlier."
   
   If you speak in public, this is the one book you have to read, and re-read. It is common sensical, based in fact, and surprisingly intuitive.



4. This book is about making CONSCIOUS decisions for balancing the story board itself for hard facts, visual, ethical and psychological aspects, politicily correctness etc. but of course doesnt stop there.
   
   The book shows and discusses which elements you need to convey your story and why you use certain presentation technics over others to achieve your goals.
   
   The book is devided in 14 chapters. Each chapter is focused on either
   
   a) How to create or develop your basic story or on
   b) How to enhance it
   
   (by using the described technics and its implications and reactons it will provoke).
   
   What makes this book standing out is the careful analyzation of the aspects that came into play when giving an presentation.
   
   That obviously includes the analytical skills itself but also the time and effort to explicitely mention and discuss (dis)advantages of each element.
   
   
   The carefully chosen presentation samples will be disassembled throughout the book and taken apart into its peaces, analyzed, explained and put back together.
   
   Where required, the example will be (dis)assembled several times to bring the points across.
   
   Its the analysation of those presentations and its aspects to a granular level and putting the gained knowledge into a conscious presentation creation process that make the book so valuable.
   
   Most books tell you just how to use software to make graphics etc. but this book tells you what you have to present to your adience to actually win them over.
   
   The fact that the many aspects are explicitely explained helps you visualize the options you have at your disposal and the reason why you chose one presentation form over another.
   
   While this book focuses on presentations that show off your assets and the art of persuasion. There is also a companion book "In the line of Fire" which focuses more on the defense to hardball questions.
   
   I do also want to recommend a third book - "Dan Roams: Back of the Napkin" which focuses more on the technical aspects of how to find your story, and a strong focus on visualizing it fool prove and providing rock solid hard facts that wont be beaten.
   
   What Jerry*s books does express very well is the fact that giving a presentation is like being an athlet.
   You will have to exercise "verbalize" regularly to be in top form when it counts.
   
   Good luck to you !!



5. This book is an excellent tool. It focuses very specifically on effectively creating a business presentation. The tips were valuable to be and I have been creating presentations for several years. It will also be very easy to reference in the future.

5 comments about The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization.

1. The Fifth Discipline contains some great concepts which are very usable in the day to day management of an organization.
   
   Unfortunately, the author is very long-winded and over-explains concepts repeatedly - taking what should have been less than 50 pages of information and turning it into a 400 page behemoth that is difficult to slog through.
   
   Several people to whom I have recommended this book have suggested that one order the fieldbook instead, as it contains all of the original work's raw information and models in a 17 page executive summary at the beginning. Most people seem to find that more usable than this book.



2. The book indeed brings some refreshing observations on the topic of the learning organization. However, on the very beginning of my reading I had an impression that the Author came up to most of the conclusions in this book through meditation. This aura is covering the complete book. There are a lot of nice ideas and comments but it is very blur for understanding. I would say, that structuring of the chapters themselves was not done in the best possible way. This book would have a nice potential and could have gained a much broader audience if it was written in a more comprehensible way. For example third discipline "Mental models" should be a part of a first discipline "Personal Mastery" and not a separate one.
   
   What the Author is trying to explain is that organization is like a mathematical function. If you influence on one of the function variables, function will give a different result. Therefore you should be very careful before making any decisions significant for the organization. Sort of an Organizational process engineering if you ask me, but in some abstract form.



3. Systems thinking is vital for success in business in and life. Anyone in an organization or leadership position can observe the ripple effects across board from a seemingly simple event. Mr Senge does provide some good pointers and lessons in The Fifth Discipline to understand particular systems. Unfortunately, and most tragically, his explanations to their nature are so weak that he does a tremendous disservice to this new science. I would recommend this book only on the condition that one read Appendix 2 for the archetypes models and chapters 17 and 18.
   
   I could write a ten page essay on the good and bad points of this book. Instead, I will focus on the fundamental error: this is philosophical topic - which the author implicility acknowledges - without a consistent philosophy to back it up. By philosophical, I refer to epistemology, the theory of knowledge. Systems thinking is the conceptual means of observing the interrelationships among actions and phenomena. To explain this, Mr. Senge falls back on a hodgpodge of philosophies, all meshed together, each to rationalize his work. To the layman of philosophy, his work sounds complex and esoteric; to those familiar, confusing and mostly contradictory. Basically, he tries to "prove" an objective, scientific process, such as systems, using empircal data with mysticism (knowledge by a non-objective means or process). Systems are, more or less, a series of sequential logical effects initiated from a cause. Reading Senge, he portays them as some autonomous Hegelian archetype floating around, dominating people and process. The reason we do not see systems is because, according to him, western thought is "linear" (no satisfactory explanation is provided for how and why). Expecting us to agree with him, he moves forward by answering the next logical question: How are we then to understand systems? Through eastern mysticism (Senge is very sympathetic to Buddhism). In other words, we must rely on a system of ideas which is openly hostile to logic, this worldly knowledge, and especially individualism and materialism. This is very strange considering business is grounded in those very things.
   
   Ironically, Senge is a self-proclaimed pragmatist (this comes from an interview he did after this book). Pragmatism is a western philosophy which states certainty is impossible, nothing is absolute, and what is true today will not necessarily be true tomorrow. He ascribes the West's deficiency in system thinking due to its the short-range, concrete bound mentality, i.e. those who only see "snapshots" of life. Believe it or not, this is the very epistemology which pragmatism promotes! It should be then no surprise he rarely defines any of his terms. He substitutes objective definitions for barrages of concrete bound examples.
   
   Had Senge realized that systems thinking even applies to the field of ideas, in particulary philosophy, he might have recognized his contradictions, such as interpreting an objective science with mystical lens, and condemning western ideas despite being its very product. However, since he is a pragmatist, and only concerned with "current reality" (a phenomena which he speaks of multiple times and does not define), contradictions are not an issue. All this is presented in an unnecessarily long, confusing, and tedious book.



4. I won this book in a lottery and it was on my bookshelf for several years. I thought it would be one of those repetitive bestsellers about management and leadership, so common in this genre. Belonging to this genre, this book could not escape its being repetitive, but the content far outweighed this minor flaw. It was mainly about systemic thinking or systems theory, which is the 5th discipline. I had read about systemic thinking (in a text book by Adalberto Chiavenato), but very superficially. He only made the reference that the organizations are systems similar to living organisms, in the sense that they interact with their environment.
   
   In this book you can find the main structures of systems that scientists have discovered, exemplified with good metaphors and helpful drawings and diagrams:
   
   Self-reassuring growth loops (snow ball effect), growth loops combined with a restraining loop of limitation of resources, restriction loops combined with a mitigation loop, in which symptoms are attacked instead of the root cause, thereby undermining the organization's ability to detect and react to the real problem. In reality several of these loops combine to produce more complex systems and when you add the effect of time, meaning when a delay occurs between the cause and its effect, the cause can get really difficult to grasp. The book explains you the mechanisms behind these loops and how to react once you have discovered them. The only shortcoming of the book is that it does not help you to detect them, it only says that you need practice, ok but where or how to start? Maybe the handbook offers some training examples.
   
   The first four disciplines are not new in management literature and although the chapters on systems thinking are a perfect introduction to the topic, I felt the knowledge on systems thinking that this book transmitted me was still not deep enough. I will try to find more literature on the topic, but I highly recommend this book as a very good start.



5. An inspired book on management that puts people really at the center of the stage. From a methodological point of view broad use of System Thinking as a practical tool to interpret reality.