Organization

"This book has been such a journey. I started out with two ideas. The first idea was that organizational transformation must look and feel a lot like personal transformation. The second idea was that the values held by successful companies must be similar to the values held by successful individuals. These two ideas led me on a journey of discovery that gladdened my heart...This book...provides a road map and tools for those who want to travel the same path" (from the Foreward).

In this context, Richard Barrett, in Chapter 11, shows a comprehensive framework for building a visionary organization. Here, he defines a visionary organization as a long-living, successful organization that cares about its employees, its customers, the local community, the environment, and a society at large. According to him, visionary organizations take social responsibility very seriously, and they display six important characteristics:

1. They have strong, positive, values-driven cultures.

2. They make a lasting commitment to learning and self-renewal.

3. They are continually adapting themselves based on feedback from internal and external environments.

4. They make strategic alliances with internal and external partners, customers, and suppliers.

5. They are willing to take risk and experiment.

6. They have a balanced values-based approach to measuring performance that includes such factors as corporate survival (financial results), corporate fitness (efficiency, productivity, and quality), collaboration with suppliers and customers, continuous learning and self-development (corporate evolution), organizational cohesion and employee fulfillment (corporate culture), and corporate contribution to the local community and society.

Hence, he develops a three-phase process for building a visionary organization: (1) preparation, (2) implementation, and (3) maintaining an evolutionary culture.

Finally, during the process of building a visionary organization, he writes that "the critical factors in successful transformations are (a) the management team's commitment to modeling the new values and behaviors; (b) integrating the new values into the structural incentives of the human resource processes of the organization; (c) building psychological ownership by involving employees in defining the missiom, vision, and values and the Balanced Needs Scorecard objectives and targets; (d) helping employees to think like owners; and (e) assigning responsibilities and developing structural mechanisms to support innovation, learning, and cultural renewal."

Highly recommended.

In his visionary and hopeful book, Global Mind Change, The Promise of the 21st Century (1990), futurist Willis Harman observed that we are in the midst of the greatest social shift since the Middle Ages, a change in the actual belief structure of Western society. As the dominant institution in society, Willis felt business had an obligation and the potential to lead this shift. In Creative Work: The Constructive Role of Business in a Transforming Society (1990), he provided some benchmarks of new paradigm business and examples of a handful of leading companies.

Richard Barrett is clearly an inspired central figure in empowering the business world to take its place as an evolutionary and transformational force. Through his consulting practice, speaking engagements and now his powerful new book, Liberating the Corporate Soul, Richard presents the business world a gift of immense proportions providing a clear understanding of how to liberate the untapped creative brilliance, deep compassion and universal love that has been trapped within the prisons of old paradigm business models.

He challenges business leaders to "create strategic goals that call for quantum increases in performance that promote transformational thinking." "These improvements are achieved", he says, "only by taking a systems approach-a shift in basic assumptions that create a new way of being and doing - evolution". "Not doing things differently, but doing different things." Not shifting things around a table but creating a new table. "When individuals are asked to participate in transformational thinking they tap into their intuition and creativity. This type of thinking can only be maintained in corporate cultures that are built around trust, employee involvement and openness."

He cites the research of Collins and Porras whose book, Built to Last, proves that "contrary to business school doctrine, maximizing shareholder wealth and profits are not the dominant driving forces in most long lasting successful companies. Throughout the history of most visionary companies a core ideology existed that transcended purely economic considerations."

Quoting mystic poet Kahil Gibran, who said "work is love made visible", he goes on to say that "the challenge for companies in the twenty-first century is to create a work environment that encourages personal fulfillment-taking care of employees' physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs....to live out their passions and provide them with opportunities for service". According to a 1995 Newsweek article, 58% of Americans feel the need to experience spiritual growth. "What better place", Richard asks, "than through your work?

Building on the work of humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow, he finds that "most companies are stuck in the lower levels of consciousness he has identified as survival, relationship or self-esteem consciousness."

Barrett has developed the Balanced Need Scorecard and other powerful laser-like measuring tools to help organizations determine if the values they espouse are being embraced and lived. In the end, he believes "companies either operate from the fears of the ego or the love of the soul". Richard defines evolutionary leaders as "people who hold a vision and courageously pursue that vision in such a way that it resonates with the souls of people".

As the editor of an online publication that explores new paradigms in business and other disciplines, I would not risk entering the 21st century without reading, digesting and implementing the ideas contained in Liberating the Corporate Soul. Those companies that do will have a strategic advantage over those that don't. More importantly, it is unlikely that corporations will survive without creating transformational cultures that nurture and liberate.

New Book Provides Road Map and Tools For Building Visionary, Values-Based Businesses

(Washington, D.C. - December 1, 1998) You don't have to look far these days to witness the growing trend in business to nurture the corporate "soul." Once muttered in hushed tones of self-conscious reserve, soft-sounding words like "values" and "meaning" and "spirituality" are becoming as bold and common in the corporate lexicon as hard-nosed phrases like "bottom-line" and "return on investment." Until recently, though, the two vocabularies have struggled to come together in any cohesive, systematic process for guiding the strategies and actions of corporate America.

In a new book entitled Liberating the Corporate Soul (Butterworth-Heinemann publishers), author and business consultant, Richard Barrett, bridges that gap with an approach to organizational planning that will warm the hearts of human resources, corporate affairs and financial people alike.

The book begins with a review of Barrett's central thesis that "who you are and what you stand for are becoming just as important as what you sell." Next, Barrett describes his Corporate Transformation ToolsSM which is a set of measurement instruments for "auditing" individual and organizational values. Finally, the book provides a framework for using those tools to build a visionary, values-based organization.

Barrett's model is based partly on the landmark work of Abraham Maslow who defined the human "hierarchy of needs" on four main levels - security, relationship, self-esteem, and self-actualization. "Maslow himself concluded, however, that self-actualized individuals were actually motivated by higher states of consciousness, including spiritual needs," says Barrett. "But he never fully delineated what those states were."

Liberating the Corporate Soul expands on Maslow's work with a detailed explanation of Barrett's Seven Levels of Organizational Consciousness (survival, relationship, self-esteem, transformation, organization, community, and society) and Seven Levels of Leadership Consciousness (authoritarian, paternalist, manager, facilitator, collaborator, partner/servant, wisdom/visionary). According to Barrett, one level isn't necessarily superior to another. "All are relevant. It's really more a question of balance," he says. "However, it is at the higher levels of consciousness that organizations are meeting spiritual needs that focus more on the common good than individual self-interest."

The book's message and methodology are receiving acclaim from noted business leaders and authors throughout the world. Martin Rutte, co-author of the popular Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work calls Barrett's book "the bold, practical blueprint we need for moving business to the next evolutionary level. Sweeping, brilliant, a sense of the grandeur of the new paradigm of business." Marcello Palazzi, Co-Founder and Chair of the Progessio Foundation in The Netherlands says that "Liberating the Corporate Soul achieves the impossible: it integrates the intangibles of ethics, vision, and consciousness into a tangible measurement system."

Barrett began his search for a mechanism that would align an organization's actions and decisions with individual and social values when he was employed at the World Bank. In the early 1990s, he set out on a personal mission to move values to the top of the bank's business agenda. Through a series of determined steps - including the formation of the "Spiritual Unfoldment Society" at the bank - he managed to fulfill his mission and simultaneously formulate his values-based organizational development system.

Today, Barrett is head of his own consulting firm, Richard Barrett and Associates, LLC, and he is using his values-based system in working with organizations throughout the world. He is quick to point out that all of the organizations with which he works have values. The question is whether those values resonate internally with employees searching for deeper meaning in their work lives, as well as externally with a society increasingly favoring businesses that exhibit advanced levels of social consciousness.

The book cites revealing data from several research studies to support Barrett's claim of shifting trends in employee and social attitudes. The Cone/Roper Marketing Trends Report shows that 76% of consumers in 1997 said they would switch to brands associated with a good cause if price and quality were equal. That figure is up from 66% in 1993. On the employee front, a study conducted by Students for Responsible Business with 2,100 students at 50 graduate business programs found that 50% said they would accept a lower salary to work for a "very socially responsible" company. Perhaps more revealing, 43% claimed they would not work for a company that was not socially responsible.

Data like that is not being lost on some of the country's leading business figures. In his book, Barrett quotes Levi Strauss CEO, Robert Haas, as stating "In the next century, a company will stand or fall on its values."

None of the enthusiasm for this growing trend is much of a surprise to Barrett. "People naturally feel better about themselves and their companies when they see a clear sense of values, vision and compassion driving management decisions and actions," he says. And there's good news in that for the people watching the bottom line, because those positive feelings will translate into greater loyalty, stronger performance, and higher profits. It's a win-win outcome all the way around."

Liberating the Corporate Soul is now on sale at major bookstores across the country.

William Guillory has hit the nail squarely on the head. It is about time that someone has been able to give solid thoughts as to how one can adapt to the ever changing workplace, while maintaining and enhancing spiritual values.

With consolidation being the main focus of companies across North America, the pressures and anxiety are at extreme levels. William Guillory gives employees and executives a fresh insight into dealing with these changes.

This is a must read for anyone who is experiencing change or chaos in the workplace. It is a must read for everyone!

In THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS, Thomas Kuhn suggested that the evolution of science was marked more by epistemological shifts than linear developments over time that reflected unchanging truths and practices. After Kuhn's analysis, scientists would never again be able to do "business as usual." William Guillory's work represents a similar epistemological shift, and like Kuhn's REVOLUTIONS has the potential to change the way that business is envisioned and actualized, literally challenging the business of "business and usual," and introducing an element that has yet to be fully explored in the numerous works that articulate transformative business practices. The future of business, for Guillory, is defined by one idea/practice: spirituality. SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE: A GUIDE FOR ADAPTING TO THE CHAOTICALLY CHANGING WORKPLACE is William Guillory's contribution to the emerging conversation of how to effectively transform business and implement practices that will be responsive to, and inclusive of, empowerment, diversity, and organizational coherence. Guillory challenges some of our most sacred beliefs about difference and division: self and other, individuality and collectivism, and of course, spirituality and materialism. It is a book that offers a new vision of leadership, one that values intuition as much as observation, and the spiritual as much as the material. William Guillory's vision is, indeed, integrative, and reflects his own personal challenges and transformations. Guillory is the CEO and founder of Innovations Consulting International, and a highly sought after authority on facilitating organizational transformation, managing diversity, and creating contexts for individual empowerment. His work with organizational change and diversity led naturally to his own transformative self-reflections, reflections that moved him beyond the material concerns of a career to the spiritual possibilities of exploring his own deeply embedded life interests. He writes in the prologue of SPIRITUALITY of an experience in October of 1985 that changed both his life and his mind. "Words flowed through me at a rate with which I cold hardly keep pace. There were phrases and concepts I had never heard before, pouring into my consciousness." Those words and phrases, he relates, challenged one of our culture's most sacred division, the separation of the spiritual and the material. Guillory believes that this division needs to be understood, addressed, and ultimately healed if organizations are going to be able to adapt to accelerated change and potential crises. The multiple ways of addressing this division are revealed throughout the book, in both the titles and the contents of each chapter. Chapter one discusses "The Living Organization," and offers a biological metaphor for understanding organizational evolution. Chapter two "Spirituality as a source of wisdom," addresses directly the main focus of the book and offers both definitions of spirituality and examples of how it is reflected in specific business practices. Chapter three, "People--The Only Sustainable Competitive Advantage," discusses the difficulties of personal transformation within organizational contexts that privilege material over human resources, and illustrates how individuals can successfully empower themselves to become agents of change. Chapter four, "Service--An Unconditional Commitment to Others," points to the value of challenging and redefining our conception of ourselves in relation to others, and the potential that committing one's self to service can have for both individual and organizational transformation. Chapter five, "Organizational Self-Awareness--Know Thyself," explores the critical connection between communication and culture that defines the problems and possibilities of organizational change and development in an increasingly diverse and global business economy. Chapter six, Wisdom--Your Soul Connection," illustrates the importance intuition and personal self-reflection for overcoming limiting conditions and actualizing performance potential. Chapter seven, "The New Leadership--Spirituality," explores the critical need for visionary, transformative, and spiritual leadership, and how these approaches reflect both normative principles and practical outcomes. In the final chapter, "The Future--A Call for Action," Guillory challenges us to rethink the world of work and our place in it, and the impact of our personal and professional works on the world in which we live. Guillory paradigmatic shift invites us to consider what David Bohm described as the "implicate order" or reality, the many diverse and seemingly divergent principles and practices that implicate us in each other's lives and, ultimately, in the planet itself. Although the titles of Guillory's chapters suggest at first glance an exploration into the realm of the esoteric and the transcendent, the chapters themselves reveal concrete and down to earth discussions and examples of spirituality at work in the work place. The book is very accessibly written, and does an excellent job touching on many of the emerging theoretical discussions of organizational change and development without being "theory laden." The use of personal experiences and narratives also serve to make the book extremely practical in terms of presenting concrete examples of spiritual practices. Each of the chapters also offers exercises and measurement instruments for facilitating self-reflexive explorations of spirituality in the workplace and in our lives. While at first glance this may seem like a strange mixture of science and metaphysics, a kind of "lichert scale spirituality," the exercises if take seriously serve as provocative catalysts for further understanding, and recognizing the necessity of a paradigmatic shift toward the spiritual. Guillory suggests that the economics of self-interest and personal gain have placed the planet in a tenuous position, one requiring radical change and personal transformation. SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE offers an alternative paradigm for re-conceptualizing and re-creating the way we do business with each other, with the planet, and with ourselves. The articulation of a new paradigm is perhaps the most important contribution that this book makes to the literature on organization change and development. Unlike many of the texts in this genre, however, SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE forces us to delve deeper into the mechanisms of culture and consciousness that undergird our business organizations and economic institutions. This is an important and provocative book that will makes a significant contribution to our understanding of how organizational change and personal transformation will be the keys to business competitiveness and development in the 21st century.

Spirituality in the Workplace is a truly inspirational book that encourages individuals and organizations to incorporate their values and spirituality into their work endeavers. The powerful ideas inside this book show how we can align the spiritual, mental and physical components of our lives to become more fully functional in the workplace. Although the focus is on values and individual development, Bill also makes a strong business case for using these principles to create excellence within an organization. His real life examples and creative insights make this a interesting and motivating read.

The infinite dynamics of change are not readily evident when someone or an evaluation team sets out to forge a series of modifications in an individual, a group or an organization. When charging forward to create a new course-setting direction with fervor, some change agents are driven by tradition, expedience, budget restrictions or just plain misconceptions. The very best of individual and collective good intentions may be interspersed and circumscribed by a host of expected, but not easily attainable, intended outcomes. Small and large businesses, local governments and the most spirited educators are engaged in a never ending surge of personnel change processes that seems to work no catalytic miracles for the changes they are so diligently striving to accomplish. Fortunately, there exists an exciting new way to avoid the pitfalls of recruiting, selecting and appointing an individual to a new station in the organization and then seeing that very person fall from grace because the organization just simply did not put in place the correct strategy to use this vital human resource in the proper way. Dr. Charles H. Bishop has penned a timely treatise on one of the most important topics of our day. Dr. Bishop has brought forth a way to save time and money when organizations need to enact a significant personnel change for the good of the organization. What is the seemingly invisible assay that brings about real change with positive benefits for all? The "it" we are searching for has been refined by a shortlist of brave new world human resource people in some the nation's most progressive corporations. When one of these individuals (that is, Dr. Bishop) began to envision that changing organizations meant that the smallest unit or cog in the wheels of change had to be nourished, tested, refined and mentored by a new set of assumptions, a new distillation of personnel and leadership change factors became self-evident. In a phrase, the answer is "personal change capacity". As an education professor and practicum supervisor for prospective educational administrators enrolled for a northern Virginia private university, I have been reading with great interest the research literature associated with the role, purpose and mission of leaders for some time. When I read "Making Change Happen One Person at a Time", I knew I had stumbled on a set of solid statements related to making practical and proven personnel assessments. A careful study of Dr. Bishop's book began to unravel why some aspiring principals, or any future leader for that matter, seem to catch the vision of their place in schools or in other settings while, in contrast, other equally energetic and enthusiastic neophyte leader candidates faltered, floundered and ultimately failed to reach their leadership potential. Dr. Bishop reveals that when we attempt to place "successful" individuals in supposedly key positions in an unsystematic manner in order to cause positive changes, not only do the chosen ones typically underachieve, their failure sends a very a strong signal that we have inadvertently omitted crucial considerations of that individual's unique capacity to function in a new leadership arena. What are these crucial considerations and how do we put the important factors to use so that we make keener and crisper decisions that result in moving our visions and missions forward? Literally and figuratively, it is as easy as the following the ABCs. Dr. Bishop has formulated a schema that anyone might follow to identify pivotal players in any organization-even a small or large school. The scale of potential leaders begins with the A-players and concludes with the D-players. There are those among us that thrive on challenges and posses the wherewithal to meet and overcome the woes and throes of organizational stumbling blocks. At the opposite end of the leadership spectrum are the resisters who resemble the tares in the wheat field. They appear willing to change, but use a variety of ever-so-subtle tactical means to prevent the organization from reaching its objective. No matter the size and dimensions of an organization, everyone's desire is make the right personnel decisions in an appropriately researched manner. You will find your personnel pathways lined with practical signs and directions in Dr. Bishop's refreshing new take on the change agent's new role of assessing an individual's capacity to greet and welcome the inevitable and rapid changes coming down the organizational and external pikes.

An invaluable guide and a true eye opening experience. My small business means constant change and knowledge of my people. This book is very helpful and informative. As a small business owner it is critical that I find the right people and that they are in the best roles. This book has changed the way I look at my people and potential hires. If you want to improve your personnel assessment and feel confident facing the challenges of business life this is a must read.

I found this book informative. It really helped me evaluate each of my staff members individually as well as how they fit within my team.

There are a lot of books on change. It takes a lot for a book about change to stand out from the growing crowd of books on this increasingly important topic. Making Change Irresistible by Ken Hultman stands tall. The book starts right off by focusing on the primary reason why leaders have difficulty in making change happen in organizations-the failure to really understand human beings. He says that leaders who have crunched the numbers, laid out meticulous plans, and positioned organizational resources are often surprised by resistance and tend to see something malevolent or irrational in the resistance, rather than a natural human response that can be addressed in ways that do make change irresistible. My favorite chapter is the one on the practical ways of building trust-a pivotal topic that seems to be left out of most of the other books on change. I also appreciated the liberal sprinkling of self-assessment inventories and checklists because they made the book so specific and practical.

"This book is intended to serve as a strategic and tactical manual for battling resistance to organizational change." Covers the key concepts in understanding human behaviour and change and provides tools for diagnosing and overcoming resistance. First class. It uses a simple but powerful framework and offers several useful 'instruments' to diagnose core issues in gaining acceptance of change. The book is intended for anyone whose job it is to lead others through change. It is a useful, clear and well-organised resource and the instruments contained in it are also clear and well explained.

"Making Change Irresistible" is an engaging book with proactive tools and effective strategies that can help executives and managers alike through the murky waters of organizational transition. This book is the most comprehensive work available on the subject of organizational resistance to change. It led me to discover and rethink my assumptions about corporate change resistance. It presents a fresh perspective on a topic of concern to all of today's organizations, and is applicable to both academicians and practitioners. The Change Opinion Survey and The Psychological Need Fulfillment Inventory provide practical methods of preventing, diagnosing, and minimizing the impact of resistance to change in organizations. Both tools are essential for anyone in the process of managing change. Through an in-depth analysis of human behaviour and with techniques that promote personal growth, this book enables readers to become adept at diagnosing resistance to change. The book also helps readers to develop a more positive attitude toward change, while building a concrete plan of action to overcome resistance to change. In short, "Making Change Irresistible" is a must-read for those who study change, and for anyone whose job it is to lead others through the challenge of organizational change.

The husband and wife team has made another excellent book. I specially liked the way the authors moved the most important (from my viewpoint) topics first. I and probably hundreds of students here in Manila use their book and it's an outstanding source of information.

Used this book with a group of 18 managers on a management course. All acclaimed it as a very easy to understand book, very well written and comprehsive.

For business students this bok may give you an excellent updated view of Information Systems.

In his first book on Open-Book Management (OBM), the author builds the case for why a change in management practice is necessary, and why OBM in particular uniquely best addresses the issues needed for successful management today. Once one has read that book and is either interested enough to want to learn more or sold to the point he or she wants to implement it, then this book is the perfect follow-up.

This book focuses on the details, and they say the devil is always in the details. You could say the authors first book dealt more with the "WHY" and this deals more with the "HOW", though there is some crossover. By drawing experiences (both good and bad) from 100 companies, the reader can benefit enormously by not having to deal with as much trial-and-error personally. I highly recommend this book to those who are likely to implement OBM.

I recently re-read Case's Open-Book Management: The Coming Business Revolution (1996) and then this book (1999). Both are even more important now than when originally published. In this volume, Case develops his key ideas in much greater depth while examining more than 100 companies which -- to varying extent -- have implemented open-book principles. Perhaps without intending to, some reviewers have incorrectly suggested that these principles have relevance only to publicly-traded companies. In fact, I think they can also be of substantial value to non-profits as well as to privately-owned companies. Consider the over-used phrase "taking ownership" in the context of assuming responsibility for helping to reduce costs by completing more and better work in less time or in the context of assuming responsibility for making certain that a customer's problem has been solved. Heaven knows, what Case advocates will increase "business literacy" among everyone involved in a given enterprise but it can and should accomplish more, much more.

For example, effective application of open-book principles will create a "transparent" organization. That is, one in which everyone is kept fully informed of what is most important to the success of that enterprise. Such knowledge includes but is by no means is limited to financial information which explains, for example, how much it costs to open the door each business day or how much money is spent on training, overtime, postage, shipping, etc. According to Case, "Really the only way for a company to boost performance consistently over the long terms is to have employees who work enthusiastically and effectively and who take responsibility for their own work. Good systems -- meaning good procedures and equipment -- are indispensable. But what makes the difference in the end is whether the employees doing the job think about doing it just a little bit better and care whether they do or don't." At a time when competition is more ferocious than ever before, "battles" will be won or lost within what Case characterizes as "the human dimension of business -- the wanting, the caring, the enthusiasm, the problem solving and initiative taking." Open-book principles offer a new approach to management, one which starts from scratch with a new set of assumptions "about how people in an organization work together." In this volume, citing countless real-world applications of those principles, Case explains HOW...and, of equal importance, WHY.

If possible, read Open-Book Management first. You may also wish to check out Kaplan and Norton's The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action and then its sequel, The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment. Perhaps the Lone Ranger could prevail armed only with a silver bullet but the rest of us need a full arsenal of weapons. Many of them are provided by Case, Kaplan, and Norton.

One of the best books yet on Open Book Management. Full of practical advice for anyone trying to use Open Book Management in their business. As anyone involved in implementing OBM will tell you, you need all the help you can get. This book has given us a host of new ideas and lots of hands on stuff to help us to make OBM a reality in our business. We hope the next book isn't far away.

The best book about the institution founded by St. Escrivà de Balaguer. Messori, a well know italian journalist, explores with no subtilities the world of the first Prelature of the Catholic Church. The book discloses all the so called secrets of Opus Dei and presents a scenario that can be understood only from the perspective of the faith. Reading these pages one can approach both the goals and the structure of Opus Dei from the catholic perspective. A perception that can change everybody attitude towards this institution and its members.
Messori guides the readers into the daily life of both the governement and the common people of this institution. Rich of episodes and stories, the book is very easy to read and amusing. A perfect purchaise.

Finally..someone who openly explores the upoholders of orthodoxy in the Catholic Church today. A good book to bury the false assaults on Opus Dei.

I found this to be a fascinating book simply because it manages to circumvent, while yet explaining, much of the the hysteria often associated with writings critical of Opus Dei. The author is a highly respected Italian journalist who is NOT a member of "the Work". He looks at the roots of the movement in the 1920's and shows how its theology of the laity both pre-dated and clearly influenced the Second Vatican Council's "universal call to holiness." One is struck by the inspired founder and his vision of a lay-spirituality that is as fresh as it is ancient. Further, one is reminded of the zealous excesses of the early Jesuits or Franciscans and how a movement of this type reaches a maturation only after several decades. If you want to know why Opus Dei's membership continued to grow while that of almost all religious orders was declining during the turbulent 60's and 70's, read this book. Clearly, a chord has been struck in the hearts of tens of thousands of Catholics on every continent who are seeking a deeper life in Christ.

This is a great guide for the seeker or believer who has a heart to serve and needs a process to explore their personal uniqueness. The servant profile of passion, spiritual gifts and personality is a simple yet effective framework for facilitating a person to find pertinent ministry outlets. Having experienced the process personally, I found the design and flow of the course to be especially good, from the video vignettes to the huddle groups to the gift affirmation process, in which you have others help give perspective to your gifts. I also found the immplementation and leadership materials to be quite helpful in proposing and putting to work a gift-based ministry design in the local church. The only downside to the Network gift-based approach MIGHT be the "modernist" flavor that permeates the material. If you identify more with "postmodern" perspectives you might find Rick Warren's SHAPE process a bit more resonating. Overall though, a very good book that has had a signifigant impact in how churches are designing ministries and placing volunteers for service....I heartily recommend it.

Network is an amazing system and assessment tool that assists Christians in discovering and applying their spiritual gifts and talents to building God's Kingdom. These materials are definietly the means of growing transformed disciples who will transform the world through dedicated and enthusiastic service in God's Kingdom. This tool provides a three step process: 1) Discovery of an individual's Servant Profile which includes, spiritual gifts, Passion/area of minstry and personal work style, 2) Consultation and 3) Ministry placement. This system provides training modules for Teachers and Consultants and helps a church to define its minitry opportunitues for those looking to become more involved. The Leader's guide provides easy to follow teaching plans and the consultant guide gives the ins and outs of consultations with example phrases and detailed outlines. It provides a complete means of helping an individual understand his or her calling in God's Kingdom!

I just completed the class this book accompanies. This was a milestone event for my wife and me. Both of us were saying "No wonder I'm like this and you're like that." I would recommend this for you not only to find your place in church (which it can help you with), but also to find your place in life. This book can focus you in on your Passion (where you should be), your Gifts (what you should be doing) and your Personal Style (how you will be doing it). This book will shine a light on you. Stop fighting your innate makeup and tendencies. And figure out just exactly what you are and how God made you.

Oder of Battle: US Army, WWII is the way to start from. Covers all major formations during the war and covers the Combat regimental assigments during this period. As a general source of information this book can not be rivalled. This also gives the reasearcher a start on working on a day by day OB for the US Army in WW2. I highly recommend this book to all students of military history.

I found my copy of this large (9 1/2" x 12") and somewhat heavy (4 lbs or so), well-made, well-organized book in a military collector store in Pineville, NC for $20. I see now that it is out of print and is bringing $120 used. My copy is in excellent condition, save for a small tear on the dustcover jacket. Anyway, to the review.......... This book is the main staple in my enormous WW2 collection. At 604 pages, it stops at nothing to give you in painful detail the US Army organization in WW2. It's all here - divisions by number, infantry, armor, cavalry, tank destroyers, field artillery, coast and anti-aircraft artillery, engineers, campaign key codes, ghost and deception divisions, and color photos of infantry and armored shoulder patches. Every unit is broken down into unit history, camps and forts activated and stationed, casualty numbers, commanders (generals) and their service dates, and a play by play timeline of campaigns, areas of battle and battles fought. I'll never give up my copy of this book. It is my side-arm for knowledge. If you can find a means to pick one up, I strongly suggest it.

This book sets what should be the standard for all order of battle books. Units down to battalion level are detailed. Not only the composition of the units is given but also the location of the unit and campaigns participated in are listed. I have yet to see another o/b book this detailed.

I found this book to be very well organized; a plus for a book with this title. There are many good ideas; I especially like the personal notes shared by parents. I plan to hold on to this book as a resource, too, for when I move, if I have more children, and if I ever travel with little ones again.

I should have read this book sooner!!!! From A to Z this book will help you budget your time better and be more efficient. Thus giving you more time for your family and yourself. The suggestions and tips are very helpful.

A great reference book to keep on the shelf to pick up again and again.

This was a great book! As a busy mom with three kids, I need all of the organizational tips I can get! I think the kitchen tips and meal preparation tips were the most helpful!