Bookshelf 4. For your
own professional development
Create! A toolkit for creative problem solving in the not-for-profit sector
By Mark Butcher
Pub DSC 2005 ISBN 1903991579 £14.95
The author describes creativity as the critical (and often ignored) element in the successful application of the management skills. “Creativity enables you to see beyond the accepted, usual, normal ways of acting and behaving – in order to find a better, more effective or quicker way of achieving the results you need.”
It is a wonderful resource with an enormous range of powerful ideas presented in an accessible and friendly manner. There are practical exercises to try out with well-reasoned explanations of why it is worth giving them a try and each chapter includes examples of creative ideas put into practice within the voluntary sector. A very valuable toolkit. Review
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Action Learning for Managers
by Mike Pedler
Pub: Lemos Crane 1996 £7.99 ISBN 1898001286
Small and compact, and very practical in its approach, this book explains the how and why of action learning sets. They are shown to be a valuable method of problem solving and also provide support and development for individuals in a management role. Checklists, diagrams and questionnaires included.
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A Manager's Guide to Self Development
by Mike Pedler, John Burgoyne and Tom Boydell
Pub: McGraw Hill New Edition 2001 ISBN 0077098307
Treat yourself to this one, and it could change your life... A practical workbook to help you sort personal goals, career plan, it also offers a wide variety of interesting ideas for management practice. Challenging and thought provoking. Review
Power Up Your Mind: learn faster, work smarter
By Bill Lucas
Pub: Nicholas Brealey, 2001, ISBN 185788275X
An eclectic mixture of bright ideas for the busy manager interested in their own learning. Useful stuff about switching on, tuning in and the importance of being in a learning state. Sections cover remembering, resilience, harnessing your creativity and learning at work. Review
Hare Brain Tortoise Mind: why intelligence increases when you think less
By G Claxton
Pub Fourth Estate 1997 ISBN 1857027094
The human brain will do a number of unusual, interesting and important things - if given time. As described in this book, there is evidence from cognitive science and elsewhere that it will learn patterns of a degree of subtlety which normal, purposeful, busy consciousness cannot even see, let alone master; it will make sense out of hazy, ill-defined situations which leave everyday rationality flummoxed; and it will sometimes come up with solutions to complicated predicaments that are wise rather than merely clever. The book explores these slower ways of knowing and explains how we could, or should, use them more often and more effectively.
Lend Me Your Ears: All you need to know about making speeches and presentations
By Professor Max Atkinson
Pub Random House 2004 ISBN 0091894794
This author has attitude – and the result is a book that grabs your attention and, in an easily digestible way, gives plenty of very useful advice on making presentations – primarily intended for a work setting, but covering social occasions too. It includes using visual aids, and covers imagery metaphors etc. There are exercises to help you put it all into practice.
The Elephant And The Flea: Looking backwards
to the future
By Charles Handy
Pub: Hutchinson £17.99 Hardback
A great book from
the most arts-management-friendly guru on the planet.
Handy adopts a simple, friendly, autobiographical and
anecdotal style in this, his latest, management book
in which he explores the future of everything –
education, work, capitalism, management and society.
If you haven’t read any Handy yet (and if not,
why not?) then this is a great one to start on –
as he provides a summary of his earlier important big
ideas as well as his latest thinking. This rates
next to Age of Unreason as one of the most important
management books around. Review
Available here at SAMs Books
Fish: A remarkable way to boost morale and improve results
By Stephen C Lundin, Harry Paul, John Christensen
Pub Hodder & Stoughton 2001 ISBN 0340819804 £5.99
This little parable is an easy read (under an hour) and has some simple but profound messages on how to create a playfully productive atmosphere at work. It all starts with choosing the attitude you bring to work – and remembering that there is always a choice about the way you do your work, even if you cannot choose the work you do. You’ll have to read it yourself to find out what the other 3 steps are – or I’ll spoil the story for you!
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A Peacock in the Land of Penguins : Fable about Creativity and Courage
By B J Gallagher Hateley & Warren H Schmidt
Pub: McGraw Hill 2002 ISBN 1576751732 £9.99
A delightful illustrated fable that looks at valuing
difference and creativity, now with added tips and tools
for teaching penguins to fly! Treat yourself to this
one and enjoy. “There once was a time in the not
so distant past“.
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Who Moved My Cheese?: An amazing way to deal with change in your work and in your life
By Dr Spencer Johnson
Pub: Random House 1999 ISBN 0091816971
One of those slim easy-read “buy at the airport” books which uses a simple story to get across a powerful message about our reactions to change.
Drawing on the Artist Within: How to Release Your Hidden Creativity
By Betty Edwards
Pub: Harper Collins 1986 ISBN 0006372643
The results of an art teacher becoming fascinated by the problem of helping people to learn how to draw and finding out about new brain research into the functioning of the right and left hemispheres of the brain. This book is both an impressive system by which to teach yourself to draw and provides evidence-based arguments on a new look at the art of seeing. The author explores how looking at things in order to draw them accesses a different way of seeing and thinking and this can then be applied more generally. A beautifully illustrated classic, very impressive.
Bookshelf 4
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