About this product: In "Collaboration", author Morten Hansen takes aim at what many leaders inherently know: in today's competitive environment, companywide collaboration is an imperative for successful strategy execution, yet the sought-after synergies are rarely, if ever, realized. In fact, most cross-unit collaborative efforts end up wasting time, money, and resources. How can managers avoid the costly traps of collaboration and instead start getting the results they need? In this book, Hansen shows managers how to get collaboration right through 'disciplined collaboration'. Based on the author's long-running research, in-depth case studies, and company interviews, "Collaboration" delivers practical advice and tools to help your organization collaborate for real results.
“This book is about small-group projects that work. It's about combining what we know about the research process, about thinking, and about people working together to create a structure that consistently supports kids to build knowledge that matters in their lives.”
- Stephanie Harvey and Harvey “Smokey” Daniels
Comprehension and Collaboration: Inquiry Circles in Action occurs at the intersection of comprehension, collaboration, and inquiry and serves as a guide for teachers who want to realize the benefits of well-structured, student-led, cross-curricular projects. Stephanie Harvey (Strategies That Work and The Comprehension Toolkit series) and Harvey “Smokey” Daniels (Literature Circles and Mini-Lessons for Literature Circles):
• lay the foundation for inquiry circles by chronicling the current research and practices behind comprehension instruction and classroom collaboration
• explain nine fundamental classroom conditions needed for active, small-group learning
• provide 26 practical lessons in comprehension, collaboration, and research
• offer how-to instructions for four types of inquiry circles - mini-research projects; curricular inquiries; extensions of literature circles; and open inquiry projects
• address characteristic management concerns, such as how to use the Internet for research and how to assess and monitor student achievement.
Throughout, chapters offer a mix of materials for you to grab and go as well as some big ideas to think through as you customize inquiry circles for your students. It is time for another stronger, more intentional era of education. Comprehension and Collaboration:Inquiry Circles in Action will serve as your companion and provide a guiding light on this important endeavor.
About this product: "I spend much time helping organizations capture requirements and even more time helping them recover from not capturing requirements. Many of them have gone through some motions regarding requirements as if they were sleepworking. It's time to wake up and do it right--and this book is going to be their alarm clock." --Jerry Weinberg, author of numerous books on productivity enhancement "In today's complex, fast-paced software development environment, collaboration--the intense peer-to-peer conversations that result in products, decisions, and knowledge sharing--is absolutely essential to success. But all too often, attempts to collaborate degenerate into agonizing meetings or ineffectual bull sessions. Ellen's wonderful book will help you bridge the gap--turning the agony of meetings into the ecstasy of effective collaboration." --Jim Highsmith, a pioneer in adaptive software development methods "Requirements by Collaboration presents a wealth of practical tools and techniques for facilitating requirements development workshops. It is suitable--no, essential reading--for requirements workshop facilitators. It will help both technical people and customer representatives participate in these critical contributions to software success." --Karl Wiegers, Principal Consultant, Process Impact, author of Software Requirements "The need for this particular book, at this particular time, is crystal clear. We have entered a new age where software development must be viewed as a form of business problem solving. That means direct user participation in developing 'requirements,' or more accurately, in jointly working the business problem. That, in turn, means facilitated sessions. In this book, Ellen Gottesdiener provides a wealth of practical ideas for ensuring that you have exactly the right stuff for this all-important area of professional art." --Ronald G. Ross, Principal, Business Rule Solutions, LLC, Executive Editor, www.BRCommunity.com "Gottesdiener's years of software development experience coupled with her straight-forward writing style make her book a perfect choice for either a senior developer or a midlevel project manager. In addition to her technical experience, her knowledge of group dynamics balance the book by educating the reader on how to manage conflict and personality differences within a requirements team--something that is missing from most requirements textbooks...It is a required 'handbook' that will be referred to again and again." --Kay Christian, ebusiness Consultant, Conifer, Colorado "Requirements by Collaboration is a 'must read' for any system stakeholder. End users and system analysts will learn the significant value they can add to the systems development process. Management will learn the tremendous return they may receive from making a modest time/people investment in facilitated sessions. Facilitators will discover ways to glean an amazing amount of high-quality information in a relatively brief time." --Russ Schwartz, Computer System Quality Consultant, Global Biotechnology Firm "In addition to showing how requirements are identified, evaluated, and confirmed, Ellen provides important guidance based on her own real-world experience for creating and managing the workshop environment in which requirements are generated. This book is an engaging and invaluable resource for project teams and sponsors, both business and IT, who are committed to achieving results in the most productive manner possible." --Hal Thilmony, Senior Manager, Business Process Improvement (Finance), CiscoSystems, Inc. "Project managers should read this book for assistance with planning the requirements process. Experienced facilitators will enrich their knowledge. New facilitators can use this book to get them up to speed and become more effective in less time." --Rob Stroober, Competence Development Manager and Project Manager, Deloitte &Touche Consultdata, The Netherlands "While many books discuss the details of software requirement artifacts (for example, use cases), Ellen's new book zeros in on effective workshop techniques and tools used to gather the content of these artifacts. As a pioneer in requirements workshops, she shares her real-life experiences in a comprehensive and easy-to-read book with many helpful examples and diagrams." --Bill Bird, Aera Energy LLC "Requirements by Collaboration is absolutely full of guidance on the most effective ways to use workshops in requirements capture. This book will help workshop owners and facilitators to determine and gain agreement on a sound set of requirements, which will form a solid foundation for the development work that is to follow." --Jennifer Stapleton, Software Process Consultant and author of DSDM: The Methodin Practice "This book provides an array of techniques within a clear, structured process, along with excellent examples of how and when to use them. It's an excellent, practical, and really useful handbook written by a very experienced author!" --Jean-Anne Kirk, Director DSDM Consortium and IAF Professional Development "Ellen has written a detailed, comprehensive, and practical handbook for facilitating groups in gathering requirements. The processes she outlines give the facilitator tools to bring together very different perspectives from stakeholders elegantly and with practical, useable results." --Jo Nelson, Principal, ICA Associates, Inc., Chair, IAF (2001-2002) Requirements by Collaboration: Workshops for Defining Needs focuses on the human side of software development--how well we work with our customers and teammates. Experience shows that the quality and degree of participation, communication, respect, and trust among all the stakeholders in a project can strongly influence its success or failure. Ellen Gottesdiener points out that such qualities are especially important when defining user requirements and she shows in this book exactly what to do about that fact. Gottesdiener shows specifically how to plan and conduct requirements workshops. These carefully organized and facilitated meetings bring business managers, technical staff, customers, and users into a setting where, together, they can discover, evolve, validate, verify, and agree upon their product needs. Not only are their requirements more effectively defined through this collaboration, but the foundation is laid for good teamwork throughout the entire project. Other books focus on how to build the product right. Requirements by Collaboration focuses instead on what must come first--the right product to build.
James W. Tamm and Ronald J. Luyet provide tools that will increase your ability to collaborate. You will learn to be more aware of others and how to problem-solve and negotiate. Collaborative skills have never been more important, and these skills are absolutely necessary for today's workplace.
Radical Collaboration is a how-to-manual for anyone who wants to create trusting, collaborative environments, and transform groups into motivated and empowered teams.
It is an eye-opener for leaders, managers, HR professionals, agents, trainers, and consultants who are seeking constructive ways of getting the results they want.
About this product: An updated edition of the national bestseller—now with a new introduction and a new chapter
Today, encyclopedias, jetliners, operating systems, mutual funds, and many other items are being created by teams numbering in the thousands or even millions. While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success.
A brilliant guide to one of the most profound changes of our time, Wikinomics challenges our most deeply-rooted assumptions about business and will prove indispensable to anyone who wants to understand competitiveness in the twenty- first century.
Based on a $9 million research project led by bestselling author Don Tapscott, Wikinomics shows how masses of people can participate in the economy like never before. They are creating TV news stories, sequencing the human genome, remixing their favorite music, designing software, finding a cure for disease, editing school texts, inventing new cosmetics, or even building motorcycles. You'll read about: • Rob McEwen, the Goldcorp, Inc. CEO who used open source tactics and an online competition to save his company and breathe new life into an old-fashioned industry. • Flickr, Second Life, YouTube, and other thriving online communities that transcend social networking to pioneer a new form of collaborative production. • Mature companies like Procter & Gamble that cultivate nimble, trust-based relationships with external collaborators to form vibrant business ecosystems.
An important look into the future, Wikinomics will be your road map for doing business in the twenty-first century.
About this product: Presented by The Drucker Foundation
"Austin has uncovered the common elements and key strategies that make for effective collaborations.... In The Collaboration Challenge, he illuminates these key lessons for all leaders, and makes it possible for each of us to meet the collaboration challenge." --Frances Hesselbein, chairman of the board of governors, The Drucker Foundation, and John C. Whitehead, founder, The John C. Whitehead Fund for Not-for-Profit Management, Harvard Business School
"Austin has performed a valuable service for nonprofit organizations and their corporate partners by illuminating the dynamics of successful relationships. His useful book deserves to be widely read by leaders in both sectors concerned about increasing the effectiveness of their social action agenda." --Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Harvard Business School, author of World Class and Rosabeth Moss Kanter on the Frontiers of Management
"The entire nonprofit sector has been searching for the expertise and tools this book provides. Nothing else like it exists." --Bill Shore, executive director of Share-Our-Strength and author of The Cathedral Within and Revolution of the Heart
In these complex times, when no organization can succeed alone, nonprofits and businesses are embracing collaboration for mutual benefits. Nonprofits are partnering with businesses to further their missions, develop resources, strengthen programs, and thrive in the competitive world. Companies are also discovering that alliances with nonprofits generate significant rewards: increased customer preference, improved employee morale, greater brand identity, stronger corporate culture, and higher innovation.
In this timely and insightful book, James E. Austin provides a practical framework for understanding how traditional philanthropic relationships can be transformed into powerful strategic alliances. He offers advice and lessons drawn from the experiences of numerous collaborations, including Timberland and City Year; Starbucks and CARE; Georgia-Pacific and The Nature Conservancy; MCI WorldCom and The National Geographic Society; Reebok and Amnesty International; and Hewlett-Packard and the National Science Resource Center. Readers will learn how to: * Find and connect with high-potential partners * Ensure strategic fit with the partner's mission and values * Generate greater value for each partner and society * Manage the partnering relationship effectively
Click here to read Chapter 8, Guidelines for Collaborating Successfully.
About this product: Collaboration is an everyday practice that many people find to be a frustrating, even exhausting, experience. How to Make Collaboration Work provides a remedy: five principles of collaboration that have been tested and refined in organizations throughout the world. Author David Straus shows that these methods can help any group make better decisions and function more effectively. The five principles are: Involve the Relevant Stakeholders, Build Consensus Phase by Phase, Design a Process Map, Designate a Process Facilitator, and Harness the Power of Group Memory. Each principle addresses the specific challenges people face when trying to work collaboratively, and each can be applied to any problem-solving scenario.
About this product: The most widely-used text on the topic of collaboration, Interactions is a guide for preprofessionals and professionals to help them understand and participate effectively in their interactions with other school professionals and parents. It addresses collaboration as a style, with accompanying knowledge and skills, that guides practices in many education efforts. Interactions provides a cutting-edge look at how teams of school professionals-- special educators, general educators and related services professionals--can effectively work together to provide a necessary range of services to students with special needs. As a result, future teachers learn how to collaborate with school professionals and families to help special education students who are more often being placed in general education settings.
About this product: The Summary
Evan Rosen has consolidated the latest ideas on collaboration and brought them together into an informative and practical book. Collaboration is becoming more and more important whether you are trying to manage a global workforce or just need to get stove-pipe departments to work together you will learn a lot from this book.
The Audience
The Culture of Collaboration is a practical guide aimed at anyone interested in fostering collaboration in their workplaces. Managers and leaders should definitely check this book out. The ideas around collaboration with a multi-cultural and global work force are extremely interesting to anyone leading off-shore initiatives. The book is full of practical advice that can be leveraged immediately.
The Details
There have been a number of books recently on collaboration from Group Genius, X-Teams to some older titles like `Organizing Genius' and `How Breakthroughs Happen'. There have also been many books on recent technologies that leverage the genius of groups i.e. wikinomics, the wealth of networks. Evan Rosen's book brings all these elements together from the technologies, tools, and theories around collaboration into a practical guide. This is not by any means a lightweight `how-to' guide, but more of a roadmap to not only understand the power of collaboration but also to leverage it in your organization.
Rosen explains the principles of collaboration through personal stories and examples from some new and unique sources. Other books on collaboration use examples from the usual suspects Lockheed's SunkWorks and IDEO but Rosen draws examples from the Mayo Clinic, George Lucas's ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), Boeing and Toyota. The choice of the Mayo clinic was surprising at first and then as Rosen explained the culture behind how the clinic was started and some of their collaborative practices; it became obvious that this was an important and often over-looked example of a collaborative and innovative environment.
While the first half of the book explores the current trends and the need for collaboration, the last few chapters bring the ideas of collaboration together into a practical guide that is worth the price of the book alone. How to use collaboration tools to foster the right culture, which tools to use to solve different issues and challenges and advice to managers and leaders on fostering collaboration.
The Ideas:
Rosen draws from some unique examples and there were many ideas that made me think:
- Presence - the use of tools like IM to foster collaboration across teams. Being able to tell if someone is available or not. The in-box culture is dead and now replaced by tools that incorporate elements of `Presence'
- Why Smoking can get you promoted - ok that wasn't the point that was made, but Rosen does explain that conversations and groups that form around stepping outside for a `smoke', can generate the kind of cross-functional and cross-hierarchical connections that companies need.
- Mayo Clinic's SPARC - as an example of collaboration at work. SPARC gets people out of their usual roles into cross-functional groups in a custom built innovative lab, an open area called the `program support space' which is fitted with everything any innovative group would need.
The Take-Away:
I can't emphasize the practical nature of this book enough. If you are going to read only one book on collaboration and you want to walk away with a guide to foster collaboration at work, then this is the book to get. This is a well written and engaging book and well worth the investment in time to read.
About this product: With Dougherty's PSYCHOLOGICAL CONSULTATION AND COLLABORATION IN SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY SETTINGS, 5e, you will see how human service professionals help others work more effectively to fulfill their work-related or caretaking responsibilities to individuals, groups, organizations, and communities. This practical text uses a proven generic model for application, surveys various approaches to consultation, examines the organizational context of consultation, and reviews the numerous ethical and professional challenges that today's consultants face. By following this book's structure, you can develop or refine your own personal model of consultation. Numerous new and proven case studies bring concepts to life. A new focus on prevention, more information on school-based consulting and working with non-mainstream families, and some of the latest qualitative data gathering techniques and evaluation methods more thoroughly prepare you for professional success.
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