Organization

If you are serious about systemic change that addresses the root causes of racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and xenophobia, then this book offers you a framework and process for creating real change. Sections of the book go through the identification and selection of issues using a social justic lens, working with emerging constituencies, running campaigns and taking action, research, and, most critically, framing our struggles and organizations to address systemic oppression. Readers will get a clear sense of the unrelenting human movement toward freedom through profiles of extraordinary groups that continue to win both concrete change and a reordering of power in our society. Kudos to Rinku Sen for taking the time to describe the growth, development, and work of the racial and social justice movement to the world!

Nice thing is, there are elements in this book that most simply living declutter books do not addess (aside from Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin) like preparing for death or planning for obstacles. This is where the adage "hope for the best, plan for the worst" becomes a reality lesson. And the "Do a trial run" where Ms Hicks reminds the reader of the big value of laying out the items you need for cooking, putting together toys or furniture etc, and reading ALL the directions as well as visualizing realistically what the finished item or project. And the value of doing good research before jumping into any project. That so many people become discouraged and easily give up when they are not fully informed and prepared.

I also love her suggestion besides lists, of writing life goals, monthly and weekly goals down. I also value keeping a personal journal at the end of the day and reflecting on things done and lessons learned, because weeks, months and even years later they can be an excellent reminder of just how far I have come.

And then there are the many words of wisdom she shares from how to maximize errand time, travel time, and how not to procrastinate. How to know when to ask and accept help from others and the value of laughter and creativeness.

And of course I loved the Lao Tzu's quotes interspersed between the pages.

Another unique illustration for time management is to step back and reevaluate the task on our to do list. Break it down in steps, writing down step-by-step instructions if need be, as if we were teaching a child how to do it. Using this system helps us see that a big task is really made up of little ones, and that's how we should approach it, one little step at a time. Before we know it, the job is done.

Using common time management tools may seem obvious to some, but they are often overlooked by many - we're just too busy! Streamline repetitive tasks, creating a system or form for mail, communications, grocery lists, and other routine jobs. Rule of thumb: if it's done more than once a week, streamline it! We are surrounded by time-saving tools, so why not use them? Paper shredders, universal remote controls, rubber stamps, paper sorters, and a kitchen timer -- all of these inventions can save valuable time in our lives and free us to do more important things during our day.

Time management and clutter control are not separate issues in our busy lives, but intertwine and overlap. Managing our time, honoring it, unclutters our minds and daily actions and diminishes much of the clutter around us. By reading this book, you'll learn how to manage both, and I think that's a wonderful time-saver!

This book provides useful advice from the get-go, translating conceptual principles into plain language, as in "Swiss-cheesing the overwhelming.... poking a few holes in the task by getting on with what you can do now."

The authors also do an excellent job of synthesizing and building upon the work of others, as seen in their 'Checklist for a Well-Designed Job'.

Lastly, I found it most useful that they not only stress what to ideally 'do and attempt' when facilitating change, but also include advice on what to avoid doing, with a list of 'Common Trip Points' at the end of each chapter.

This book is mainly about how to switch on the employees and customers become inspired, passionate and alive, so that the organization could earn profits. Thus a question would be raised, how to create such a passion in an organization?

The answer would be regulating employees and customers by the leader in the organization. There are both the internal side and external side.

Internally, a leader should guide the values system, promote leadership in all levels, renew them regularly and care everyone in the organization. In an organization, a strong foundation should be built and a goal should be set. Also, it should simplify the structure of organization and make use of technology to measure and enhance the efficiency of process, so that the organization could run smoothly. The organization should also need to nurture their employees to build a winning team, the head and heart should be hired by the organization, thus the organization should provide resources for them to learn and compensate their contribution. Moreover, the organization should try to make everyone feel special, so that the workforce would able to work hard and loyal to the organization.

Externally, it¡¦s not easy for the organization to tackle with the customers as each customer has their unique emotion, needs and desired. Thus the organization should employ a new rules, present the choices for customer to choose, provide customerized service and develop personal relationship with them.

Comment:

I think this book is really great as it¡¦s easy to understand and I get many feelings after reading the book.

For the leader part, I agree that it¡¦s really a hard job to be a leader as the leader should be a person who is able to energize the team members, able to be divided the job equally according to their strength and wants. There is no ¡§perfect¡¨ person in the world, so a leader should contain both competent, able to deal with personal relationship that include dealing with the conflicts between the team members.

Also, a leader needs to energize the others. Just as Horst Schulze in Ritz-Carlton said, ¡§he said a leader is hardly to find someone to energize himself.¡¨ Thus a leader should energize by renew themselves.

In real life, I have tutorial with a 7 years-old girl and I¡¦m just like a leader whereas she is just like an employee. It¡¦s not easy to control her as she thinks that learning is a difficult and hard job for her. If she finishes two works today, she needs to work three in the other days. Thus, she would not like to finish the work and shows a very slow speed, lack of passionate attitude to me. It¡¦s really annoying to me as I do not know how to deal with her.

Thus, after watching this book, I learn something. I try to let her know that homework is her responsibility as a student. She plays happily in school with her friends and so she also needs to do her homework, happy and homework is together. No matter how difficult, she needs to finish all for everyday. Of course, it is not an easy to let her understand as she is just 7 years-old girl. So I use many examples to illustrate, e.g. I tell her what¡¦s the responsibility for me, her parents, etc. Also, her friends are able to do her homework without the others¡¦ help, so she is lucky that there is somebody helping or accompanying to do the homework. Moreover, I try to increase her interest to do the homework by giving her stickers. I design a table to make record. I hope that these all tools could help me to solve the problem.

Dow and Cook have found the ingredients to successfully attract, excite, and retain employees focused on customer-centric goals. Having read their insights, I now know why companies such as Marriott and Schwab are so successful. An excellent, must-read.

This book (acutally an 8.5 by 11 manual), originally published in 1994 and based on 1980's readings, is somewhat dated and has been only marginally updated. It falls into the second rank of the four books that made the cut from among the many available. Helen Little's "Volunteers: How to Get Them, How to Keep Them" stands alone as the single "must buy." This book is co-equal to two others, each recommended as supplementary reading because each has something to offer at a secondary level: Sue Vineyard and Steve McCurley's "Best Practices for Volunteer Programs" and Jarene Frances Lee with Julai M. Catagnus, "Supervising Volunteers: An Action Guide for Making Your Job Easier."

There are two aspects of this manual by Susan Ellis that I did not see in the other books: first, her emphasis on casting a wide net and reaching as many potential volunteers as possible....("Most people do not say 'no'; they simply never knew you wanted them to say 'yes'.) While I am skeptical of wasteful advertising programs in this time of diminishing leisure hours, there is something to this. The other vital chapter that this manual offers is the one addressing the importance of image, i.e. the public perception of the organization seeking volunteers, the reputation that it can specifically draw on as a resource.

There are a few flakey notes (e.g. one vignette about recruiting people to call parents and offer support as they are getting kids out the door to school. Any normal parent, especially if one parent is absent or has an early work start, would be furious at any volunteer daring to call in the midst of the chaos that charactizes getting three kids out the door to three different bus pick-up times.)

This manual does have an index. Bottom line: dated, some nuggets, if volunteers are vital to your success, worth getting.

Ms. Ellis strategy is to have you think about what you want to acocmplish before soliciting volunteers, and also to think about how your group can push it's boundaries and think creatively about who it's members are, who it's constituents are, and untapped resources for volunteers. I mention members a lot, because a lot of what she says could transfer to either kinds of recruitment, depending on your need.

A lot of the volunteer information is a little more oriented towards groups that need or could use lot of volunteers (say a social services group, or hospital). But a small group like ours which is all volunteer run, can also benefit from this book.