For eight years, the San Francisco neighborhood of Bernal Heights was mired in controversy. Traditionally a working-class neighborhood known for political activism and attention to community concern, Bernal house a diverse population of Latino, Filipino, and European heritage. The branch library, beloved in the community, was being renovated, raising the issue of whether to restore or paint over a thirty-year-old mural on its exterior wall. To some of the residents the artwork represented ...

This clearly articulated statement offers a hopeful and workable approach to conflict—that eternally beleaguering human situation. John Paul Lederach is internationally recognized for his breakthrough thinking and action related to conflict on all levels—person-to-person, factions within communities, warring nations. He explores why "conflict transformation" is more appropriate than "conflict resolution" or "management." But he refuses to be drawn into impractica...

A leading M.I.T. social scientist and consultant examines five professions -- engineering, architecture, management, psychotherapy, and town planning -- to show how professionals really go about solving problems. The best professionals, Donald Schon maintains, know more than they can put into words. To meet the challenges of their work, they rely less on formulas learned in graduate school than on the kind of improvisation learned in practice. This unarticulated, largely unexamined process...

When breakdowns occur in organizational life, the tendency is to blame them on the personalities, motivations, and abilities of the individuals involved or on the specific characteristics of one’s organization. Barry Oshry demonstrates how everyday breakdowns stem from our failure to see how human systems shape our feelings about ourselves and our relationships with other individuals and groups. He shows how we can transform “system blindness” into system sight, enabling us to live and wor...

Listen to people in every field and you'll hear a call for more sophisticated leadership—for leaders who can solve more complex problems than the human race has ever faced. But these leaders won't simply come to the fore; we have to develop them, and we must cultivate them as quickly as is humanly possible. Changing on the Job is a means to this end.As opposed to showing readers how to play the role of a leader in a "paint by numbers" fashion, Changing on the ...

Critical Thinking is about becoming a better thinker in every aspect of your life: in your career, and as a consumer, citizen, friend, parent, and lover. Discover the core skills of effective thinking; then analyze your own thought processes, identify weaknesses, and overcome them. Learn how to translate more effective thinking into better decisions, less frustration, more wealth Ñ and above all, greater confidence to pursue and achieve your most important goals in life.

"This should be required reading by every school administator, every teacher, every board member and all university faculty involved in the training of teachers. There is no doubt that we need to squeeze all blame, all coerion and all criticism out of any people-related business. Not until we realize that schools are in a people business will we ever be able to make meaningful changes."--Dr. Albert Mamary, former superintendent of schools, Johnson City, New York

Building on lecture notes from his acclaimed course at Stanford University, James March provides a brilliant introduction to decision making, a central human activity fundamental to individual, group, organizational, and societal life. March draws on research from all the disciplines of social and behavioral science to show decision making in its broadest context. By emphasizing how decisions are actually made -- as opposed to how they should be made -- he enables those involved in the pro...

Modern culture’s worship of “how-to” pragmatism has turned us into instruments of efficiency and commerce—but we’re doing more and more about things that mean less and less. We constantly ask “how? and still struggle to find purpose and act on what matters. Instead of acting on what we know to be of importance, we wait for bosses to change, we seek the latest fad, we invest in one more degree. Asking how keeps us safe—instead of being led by our hearts into uncharted territory, we keep our...

Anyone who has spent time in an organization knows that dysfunctional behavior abounds. Conflict is frequently avoided or pushed underground rather than dealt with openly. At the same time the same arguments often burst out again and again almost verbatim. Turf battles continue for extended periods without resolution. People nod their heads in agreement in meetings and then rush out of the room to voice complaints to sympathetic ears in private. Worst of all when people areasked if things ...

Finally! A book that explains what is fundamentally wrong with the human race and then gives the answer everybody in the world is looking for to find purpose and meaning in life. The book offers many potential strategies to help groups (marriages, families, companies, governments, etc.) move forward achieving a better quality of life for everyone. It is written in very down-to-earth words that should be easy to match up with what we see in our everyday lives. This may be the greatest disco...