Learning: Adult Learning | Childhood Education | Cognitive Sciences & Brain-based Learning | Experiential Learning | General Education | eLearning, Online Learning | Learning Culture | Learning Disabilities | Learning Styles | Motivation | Pace, Time, and Learning Environment | Teaching & Home-schooling | Training Business | Whole-body Learning

Organizational Practices: Leadership & Management | People-focused Organizations | Planning & Strategy | Productivity & Human Performance Improvement

Design & Communication: Graphic Design | User Experience, UI, Web Design, Human Factors & Usability | Visual Learning | Writing, Reading, Speaking

Some of Our Favorite Books

Some of these are new, some old, all excellent!

Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head. Carla Hannaford  (Great Ocean Publishing, 1995). This compelling heartfelt book explains how mental processes are accessed through physical movements and can be significantly improved with little or no difficulty. It offers both the science and the exercise to help become more aware of how movement enhances learning and your capacity to learn. See more on whole-body learning.

Serious Play: How the World's Best Companies Simulate to Innovate. Michael Schrage (Cambridge, Harvard Business School Press: 1999). A compelling examination of how companies develop prototypes to create better products. See more on Planning & Strategy.

A Mind at a Time. Mel Levine M.D. (Simon & Schuster, hb March 2002, pb January 2003). Levine’s book addresses the individualized learning and social needs of children. He writes in the style of a comforting medical doctor dispensing sage advice. I spent some time with Dr. Levine several years ago and I was very impressed with his ability to turn complex scientific research into practical suggestions that help children succeed. See more on childhood education.

The Power of Mindful Learning. Ellen J. Langer (Persius, 1998). This book explains that real learning takes place in a mindful environment, one that provides a context for the subject you’re studying and allows you bring something of yourself into the process. Full of terrific examples and suggestions, this is a book I return to, mindfully, all of the time. See more on Adult Learning.

Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things That Really Matter. Elaine St. James (Hyperion, 1994). This is the single most influential book in my life. Quick to read, long to influent. Thank you, Elaine! Also, Inner Simplicity: 100 Ways to Regain Peace and Nourish Your Soul. Elaine St. James. (Hyperion, 1995)

Spiritual Serendipity: Cultivating and Celebrating the Art of the Unexpected. Richard M. Eyre (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997). How to approach life with a sense of wonder, light-heartedness, and faith. Also, Lifebalance: Balancing Work With Family and Personal Needs, Balancing Structure With Spontaneity, Balancing Achievements with Relationships. Linda Eyre, Richard Eyre (Fireside, 1997). See more on Balancing Life.

A User’s Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain. John J. Ratey, M.D. Vintage Books, 2002. From one of my favorite medical writers, this book offers tidbits from neuroscience research and plain common sense to suggest how the brain develops and manifests personality and behavior. See more on cognitive sciences & brain-based learning.

Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine. Donald A. Norman (1993). Also, The Design of Everyday Things Donald A. Norman (Currency Doubleday, 1990 reissue). See more on User Experience, UI, Web Design, Human Factors & Usability

The Monster Under the Bed: How Business is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge for Profit. Stan Davis, Jim Botkin. (1994). See more on productivity & human performance books

Adult Learning

The Adult Learner: The Definitive Classic in Adult Education and Human Resource Development (5th edition). Malcolm S. Knowles (Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing, 1998). This book takes you through all of the major educational theories in a clear and no-nonsense style. This book is by no means easy-reading but very thorough and a terrific primer for anyone interested in learning more about adult and traditional education. Also see The Modern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy. Malcolm S. Knowles (1980).

The Book of Learning and Forgetting. Frank Smith (Teachers College Press, 1998). This book explains the mistake teachers make by using rote learning instead of helping make learning  enjoyable and remembered for a lifetime.

The Emergence of Learning Societies: Who Participates in Adult Learning?

Helping Adults Learn. Alan B. Knox, 1986.

How Adults Learn. J.R. Kidd. 1978.

How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. John D. Bransford, M. Suzanne Donovan, and James W. Pellegrino, editors. (Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2000) This heavy book bridges the research and practice on how children and adults learn and includes information on the role that technology can play in helping people learn.

Human Learning, 4th ed. Jeanne Ellis Ormond. (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 2006) This textbook offers a deep, thorough, and contemporary study of all aspects of adult education—written especially for people interested in how to apply theories and principles to educational practices.

Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide (2nd edition). Sharan B. Merriam, Rosemary S. Caffarella (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1998) An excellent textbook that combines the most important contributions to adult learning in the last decade. The text examines the context of adult learning, the nature of adult learners, aspects of the learning process, and theory in adult education.   Also see The New Update on Adult Learning Theory: New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education #89. Sharan B. Merriam. The Profession and Practice of Adult Education: An Introduction. Sharan B. Merriam (Jossey-Bass, 1996) and Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education. Sharan B. Merriam and Phyllis M. Cunningham, editors (1989)

Learning How to Learn: Applied Theory for Adults. Robert M. Smith (1982). This book is out of print but you can sometimes find copies through Amazon.com's used-book listings. You might want to check out Smith's other book, Helping Adults Learn How to Learn. Robert M. Smith (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1983)  

Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality in the Sufi Way. Idries Shah (Penguin, reprint 1996). Using the Sufi tradition, this book demonstrates how your basic assumptions and conditioned thinking prevent you from learning and how changes can help you remain attentive and receptive to learning new things.

Learning To Learn. Gloria Frender (Incentive, 1990)

Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach: The Power of Dialogue in Educating Adults. Jane K. Vella (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997)

Learning Together and Alone: Cooperative, Competitive, and Individualistic Learning

The Making of Mind. A.R. Luria

Master it Faster. Colin Rose.

The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain's Untapped Potential. Tony Buzan. Plume, reprint 1996. This is the classic text on how to create mind maps that can help you organize your thoughts in order to learn and create in new and powerful ways. See more on innovation & creativity and visual learning.

The Mind of a Mnemonist. This is the book that inspired Oliver Sacks' writing.

Peak Learning: How To Create Your Own Lifelong Education Program For Personal Enlightenment And Professional Success by Ronald Gross. (J. P. Tarcher, reprint 1999). This book offers readers chapters of tips on how to be more creative and productive, written primarily for business people and the efficiency-minded. The author has a reputation as a stellar educator, the book is frequently cited as great book for adults to learn about learning, and covers a broad range of work-related topics.

Self-Directed Learning: A Practical Guide to Design, Development, and Implementation. George M. Piskurich. Jossey Bass, 1993.

Transformative Dimensions of Adult Learning. Jack Mezirow. Jossey-Bass, 1991. This book offers an in-depth analysis insight of how your perceptions are transformed by learning.

Understanding and Facilitating Adult Learning: A Comprehensive Analysis of Principles and Effective Practices. Stephen D. Brookfield. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, reprint 1991) This classic covers adult motives and learning processes, self-directedness, andragogy, the facilitator's role, learning in informal settings, learning in formal settings, program development, and evaluation.

Ageless Issues

Age Power: How the 21st Century Will Be Ruled by the New Old. Ken Dychtwald. J. P. Tarcher, 1999. This book reminds us that in the 20th century, the number of Americans ages 65 and older increased from 3 million to 33 million and that this number is likely to double by 2035. The author also cautions that we are woefully unprepared and offers a wakeup call on how to prepare ourselves and our society for the change this shift will bring.

Age Wave: How the Most Important Trend of Our Time Will Change Our Future by Ken Dychtwald (Bantam, reissue 1990). Based on 15 years of research by a world-renowned expert on aging, this the book explores the profound effects our aging population, and the changing demographics that go with it, will have on every aspect of society, and on our personal plans and dreams for the future — with a section on how we will need to rethink the cycles of schooling and work. You can also visit the accompanying website.

Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old. Deepak Chopra, M.D. Three Rivers Press, reissue 1998. This book offers exercises and an Eastern philosophical approach to the issues of aging that are insightful and worth working through.

Cycles: How We Will Live, Work, and Buy by Maddy Dychtwald. The Free Press, 2003. This book explains in easy-to-understand terms the pivotal aspects of the lifecycle revolution and their impact on you, on society, and on business-at-large. An entire chapter is dedicated to the new need for lifelong learning.

Geeks and Geezers. Warren G. Bennis, Robert J. Thomas. Harvard Business School Press, 2002. This book tells the tales of 40 successful leaders, young (aged 21-34) and old (aged 21-34), to evaluate the effect of era on values and success. The two groups vary in terms of their ambitions, heroes and family lives, but members of both sets share one common experience: all have undergone at least one intense, transformational experience, that they have learned from and that influences their work each day. A terrific read!

Generations at Work: Managing the Clash of Veterans, Boomers, Xers, and Nexters in Your Workplace. Ron Zemke, Claire Raines, Bob Filipczak (AMACOM, 2000)

Harold and the Purple Crayon. Crockett Johnson. (Harper, Reissue 1981) A classic for all ages!

Learn to Remember. Dominic O'Brien. Chronicle Books, 2000. In this beautifully illustrated and clearly written book, you will learn many learning strategies to improve your memory no matter your age.

Never Too Late: My Musical Life Story. John Holt. Perseus, reprint 1991. This book offers a glimpse into how the educator and educational reformer, John Holt, continued to learn throughout his own life with truly inspirational stories and heart-felt challenges.

Balancing Life

Anatomy of Spirit. Carolyn Myss.

Crossing the Unknown Sea: Work as a Pilgrimage of Identity. David Whyte.

Inner Simplicity: 100 Ways to Regain Peace and Nourish Your Soul. Elaine St. James (Hyperion 1995). This book offers a path to the simpler life through meditation, solitude, making spirituality a regular part of the day, and getting in touch with your creativity. I carry this book on every trip I take because the beautiful style and message in this little book always reminds me what’s most important in life and how to de-clutter what’s around me and inside me.

Leadership and the New Science: Learning About Organization from an Orderly Universe Margaret J. Wheatley, 1999. This beautifully written has been a favorite of mine for years. Completely revised you'll thoroughly enjoy this book if you missed it the first time around. If you read it in 1994, you might want to look again!

Living the Simple Life: A Guide to Scaling Down and Enjoying More Elaine St. James. Hyperion, 1998.

Living Your Best Life: Discover Your Life's Blueprint For Success. Laura Berman Fortgang (J. P. Tarcher, 2002)

Peripheral Visions: Learning Along the Way by Mary Catherine Bateson. Perennial, reissue 1995. This first-person narrative offers the authors journey to find her own path, learning as she went. A beautifully written book that offered as much detail as it offered insight.

Self-Help Stuff That Works. Adam Khan. A no-nonsense collection of principles that cross many themes.

A Simpler Way Margaret J. Wheatley, Myron Kellner-Rogers. 1996. Outstanding!

Simplify Your Life: 100 Ways to Slow Down and Enjoy the Things That Really Matter. Elaine St. James. Hyperion, 1994. This is the single most influential book in my life. Quick to read, long to influent. Thank you, Elaine!

Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How to Create a More Peaceful, Simpler Life from the Inside Out.

Spiritual Serendipity: Cultivating and Celebrating the Art of the Unexpected by Richard M. Eyre (Simon & Schuster, 1997) This book is about life, thought, feelings, intuition and faith without ever being sermon-like or preachy. In this book, the author convinces you that serendipity is a way of life and an attitude that can help you bring together happy accidents with a sense of understanding for what should be. This book describes and helps you create a life filled with the creativity, fun, happiness, joy, and productivity so many of us miss. This book provides a way to feel connected in a world with far too many steps and not enough direction.

Start Where You Are by Pema Chodron

Take Time for Your Life: A Personal Coach's Seven-Step Program for Creating the Life You Want. Cheryl Richardson. Broadway Books, reprint 1999. This books teaches you how to become your own life coach, showing you how to switch from being stressed, unfulfilled, and overworked, to living a life you love. See more books on coaching.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility. Toni Weschler. Should be required reading for all women

Aveda Rituals: A Daily Guide to Natural Health and Beauty. Horst Rechelbacher Owl Books, 1999.

The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. Don Miguel Ruiz. This simple books point out that the key to changing your life is making 4 agreements with yourself. This easy read can give you a whole new, very liberating, perspective.

The Invitation Oriah Mountain Dreamer. Harper, 1999.

Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui. Karen Kingston.

Turn It Off! How to unplug from the anytime, anywhere office without disconnecting your career. Gil E. Gordon. Three Rivers Press. 2001. This book offers a framework that anyone can use to divide the week’s 168 total hours into three zones determined by how much we're willing to be “on duty” at any given time so you can attend most to what matters most to you. If you’re feeling overwhelmed by your job creeping into your personal life, this book is for you.

Intuitive Healer. Marcia Emery.

Time and the Art of Living Robert Grudin

Lifebalance: How to Simplify and Bring Harmony to Everyday Life—Balancing Work with Family, Balancing Structure With Spontaneity, Balancing Achievements With Relationships. Linda Eyre and Richard Eyre (Fireside, 1997) In sharp contrast to the slew of books available that urges you to make the most of every moment of your day, this book espousing an approach to living that emphasizes balance between personal and professional demands. This is one of my very favorite books and one that does a terrific job of helping you create a schedule right for you.

First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy by A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill, and Stephen R. Covey (Fireside, reprint 1996). This was the first book I read on goal-setting, and even though I have read many since it’s the one I always come back to.

Balanced Life and Leadership Excellence Madan Birla. Balance Group, 1997. Birla tells how he has gained balance and taught leadership even while working at often stressful FedEx. He has a wonderful writing style and a terrific book.

Reclaiming Higher Ground: Creating Organizations That Inspire the Soul Lance H. K. Secretan, Hardcover 1997.

A Year to Live: How to Live This Year As If It Were Your Last by Stephen Levine (Bell Tower, 1977). This sobering but life-enhancing book helps you make choices that really matter by living this year as if it were your last.

The Working Mother’s Guide To Life: Strategies, Secrets, And Solutions. Linda Mason (Three Rivers, 2002)

How Much Joy Can You Stand: A Creative Guide to Facing Your Fears and Making Your Dreams Come True (Revised, updated, and with new chapters). Susanne Falter-Barns. Wellspring, 2000.

Call to Connection: Bringing sacred tribal values into modern life: by Carole Kammen and Jodi Gold (1998).

The Hungry Spirit Beyond Capitalism: A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World. Charles Handy. Broadway Books, Reprint edition 1999.

Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage. Bill Jenson. Persius Books (pbk), 2000. Business information doubles about every three years. In other words, if your job is complex now, in three years you'll have twice as much noise to sift through just to get your work done. If you're looking for a new way, you'll enjoy this great contribution to the business literature. Read some Simpler Bites. Link updated 12/18/01

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey (Fireside, Reprint 1990, c1989)

The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism by Richard Sennett, Norton 1998. Business Week review.

Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership. Joseph Jaworski, 1996

The Five Tibetans: Five Dynamic Exercises for Health, Energy and Personal Power Christopher S. Kilham

The Herbfarm Cookbook: A Guide to the Vivid Flavors of Fresh Herbs by Jerry Traunfeld.

Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An inquiry into values Robert M. Pirsig, 1984 reissue. One of the most influential books I have ever read and one I revisited recently, finding more valuable than ever.

Also check out Amazon.com's Video Yoga Center.

How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life by Alan Lakein (NY: Dutton, 1974)

Power Sleep by James B. Maas (NY: Harper Collins, 1999)

The Time Trap by R. Alex MacKenzie (NY: AMACOM, 1997)

Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997)

Childhood Education

When I grow up I want to be me. Sandra Magsamen. Orchard Books, 2002. Written specifically for 4-8 year old girls, this beautifully illustrated, activity-packed book helps children reflect on who they are and what values they hold in a cheerful, positive, and encouraging way.

All That You Are. Woodleigh Marx Hubbard

Discover Your Child’s Learning Style: Children Learn in Unique Ways—Here’s the Key to Every Child’s Learning Success. Mariaemma Willis, Victoria Kindle-Hodson. Prima Publishing, 1999. This workbook helps parents take into account a child’s talents, interests, preferred learning environment, and disposition in an easy to understand and written in practical way. See more books on learning styles & personality types.

The Essential 55: An Award-Winning Educator’s Rules For Discovering The Successful Student In Every Child by Ron Clark (Hyperion Press, May 2003)

Baby Minds: Brain-Building Games Your Baby Will Love. Linda Acredolo, Susan Goodwyn. Bantam Doubleday, 2000. This book is a delightful guide for parents based on the most up-to-date research of how babies discover the world. It is a great source of useful ideas for constructive fun to have with baby from 0 to 3 years.

Rhythms of Learning : What Waldorf Education Offers Children, Parents & Teachers (Vista Series, V. 4) Rudolf Steiner, Roberto Trostli (Paperback)

Learning All the Time by John Holt (Perseus, reprint, 1990). This book for parents and teachers challenges many widely accepted classroom-practices and offers specific suggestions for alternative ways to help encourage children to learn in settings inside and outside a classroom.

A Mind at a Time. Mel Levine M.D. (Simon & Schuster, hb March 2002, pb January 2003). Levine’s book addresses the individualized learning and social needs of children. He writes in the style of a comforting medical doctor dispensing sage advice. I spent some time with Dr. Levine several years ago and I was very impressed with his ability to turn complex scientific research into practical suggestions that help children succeed.

The Myth Of Laziness: America’s Top Learning Expert Shows How Kids And Parents Can Become More Productive. Mel Levine M.D. (Simon & Schuster, hb 2003, pb will be released January 2004. In a follow-up to A Mind at a Time, this book helps readers understand motivation. See more on motivation

Schoolproof: How to Help Your Family Beat the System and Learn to Love Learning the Easy Natural Way. Mary Pride

Coloring Outside the Lines. Roger C. Schank. Quill, 2001. One of my favorite learning pundits shatters several myths about how children learn and offers candid advice for parents who want to raise kids with gumption, ambition, creativity, inquisitiveness, and analytic and verbal proficiency.

The Complete Guide to the Learning Styles In-service System Rita Stafford Dunn, Kenneth J. Dunn.

How to Implement and Supervise a Learning Style Program. Rita Stafford Dunn. Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 1996. This slim easy-to understand book offers guidelines and tips for introducing a learning styles program in your workplace or at school, taking into account the cognitive, physiological, and sociological aspects of learning. Also see adult learning.

Learning How to Learn. L. Ron Hubbard

Evolution's End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence Joseph Chilton Pearce

How Your Child Is Smart: A Life-Changing Approach to Learning. Dawna Markova and Anne R. Powell. Conari Press, 1992. This book takes an in-depth look at visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning and teaches parents how to identify their child’s pattern so they can help them think, learn, and communicate to the best of their ability. The book also provides specific guidelines to enhance communication with children of each pattern.

C Is for Curious: An ABC of Feelings/2 Is for Dancing: A 1-2-3 of Actions (2 Books in 1). Woodleigh Hubbard Marx

Coaching & Mentoring

Coaching for Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose, (3rd edition). John Whitmore. Nicholas Brealey, 2002. This book is a comprehensive guide to practical coaching practices, complete with techniques that readers can adopt in their own careers.

The Handbook of Coaching: A Comprehensive Resource Guide for Managers, Executives, Consultants, and HR. Frederic M. Hudson. (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999). This book offers a guide and resources for working and aspiring business and lifestyle coaching.

Take Time for Your Life: A Personal Coach's Seven-Step Program for Creating the Life You Want. Cheryl Richardson. Broadway Books, reprint 1999. This books teaches you how to become your own life coach, showing you how to switch from being stressed, unfulfilled, and overworked, to living a life you love. See more books on balancing life.

Cognitive Sciences, Brain-based Learning, and Thinking Skills

Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises. Lawrence Katz, Manning Rubin (Workman Publishing, 1999). This small book does a great job introducing readers to fun and unusual activities which are suppose to strengthen neural pathways and therefore improve your brain-power.

The Brain Book Peter Russell. (New York: Plume, 1979).

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind Shunryu Suzuki, Trudy Dixon (Editor)

The Art of Thinking Allen F. Harrison, et al

A User’s Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain. John J. Ratey, M.D. (Vintage Books, 2002). From one of our favorite medical writers, this book offers tidbits from neuroscience research and plain common sense to suggest how the brain develops and manifests personality and behavior. See more books on attention & learning disabilities.

Brain Power: Learn To Improve Your Thinking Skills by Karl Albrecht (Simon & Schuster, 1992)

How Brains Think: Evolving Intelligence, Then and Now. William H. Calvin. Basic Books, 1997. This book offers an evolutionary perspective on how consciousness, abstract thought, and communication develop.

The Einstein Factor: A Proven New Method For Increasing Your Intelligence by Win Wenger, Richard Poe (Prima, 1995).

The Memory Workbook: Breakthrough Techniques To Exercise Your Brain And Improve Your Memory by Douglas J. Mason, et al (New Harbinger, 2001)

Mozart’s Brain And The Fighter Pilot: Unleashing Your Brain’s Potential. Richard M. Restak, M.D. (Three Rivers Press, 2002).

The Owner’s Manual for the Brain: Everyday Applications from Mind-Brain Research, 2nd ed. Pierce J. Howard. Bard Press, 2000. This accessible but not overly simplistic language, this book offers fascinating research and applications of how the human brain works. The Owner's Manual for the Brain (1st ed)

Unleashing the Ideavirus. Seth Godin. Download the book for free from Godin's website [requires Acrobat .pdf ] Godin wants to prove that ideas, like viruses, can become contagious and that information can spread most effectively from customer to customer, rather than from controlling marketer to the customer. He's also selling it in book form for $40 and expects it to sell.

Socrates’ Way: Seven Master Keys To Using Your Mind To The Utmost by Ronald Gross (J. P. Tarcher, 2002)

The Meme Machine

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks

The Memory Bible: An Innovative Strategy for Keeping Your Brain Young. Gary Small. Hyperion Books, 2002. This book offers a simple memory assessment that lets you focus a program of memory training that fits your needs and lifestyle. It gives practical tips on what you can do to improve your memory now, ranging from a healthy-brain diet to mental aerobics and simple stress-reduction techniques.

The Mind Map Book: How to Use Radiant Thinking to Maximize Your Brain's Untapped Potential. Tony Buzan. Plume, reprint 1996. This is the classic text on how to create mind maps that can help you organize your thoughts in order to learn and create in new and powerful ways. Also see innovation & creativity.

Training Complex Cognitive Skills: A Four-Component Instructional Design Model for Technical Training. Jeroen J. G. Van Merrienboer. Educational Technology Publications, June 1997.

Art of Memory Francis A. Yates

The Cerebral Code: Thinking a Thought in the Mosaics of the Mind. William H. Calvin. Bradford Books, 1998.

Conversations With Neil's Brain: The Neural Nature of Thought and Language. William H. Calvin, George A. Ojemann. Perseus Press, 1995.

How Brains Think: Evolving Intelligence, Then and Now. William H. Calvin.

How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Everyday Genius. Michael Gelb. Dell Books, reprint 2000. This book describes da Vinci’s life, accomplishments, and theories on approaching each day, and then suggests how to apply these principles to your busy life through exercises and thought-provoking stories. Also see innovation & creativity.

How We Know What Isn't So: The Fallibility of Human Reason in Everyday Life. Thomas Gilovich.

Irrationality: Why We Don't Think Straight! Stuart Sutherland. 1994.

Judgment Under Uncertainty Daniel Kahneman (Editor), et al.

Jump Start Your Brain Doug Hall & David Wecker. 1996.

Making Choices: A Recasting of Decision Theory. Frederic Schick. 1997.

Memory and Attention: An introduction to human information processing Donald A. Norman, Wiley 1969. <This book is no longer in print, but if you find a copy, get it!>

Mindmapping Joyce Wycoff. Berkley Books, 1991.

The Muse in the Machine: Computerizing the Poetry of Human Thought. David Hillel Gelernter. Free Press, 1994.

The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making Scott Plous. McGraw-Hill, 1993.

Research on Judgment and Decision Making: Currents, Connections, and Controversies. William M. Goldstein, Robin M. Hogarth (eds). 1997.

Teach Yourself To Think Edward de Bono

Thinking for a Change Michael J. Gelb. 1996.

How to Think About the Great Ideas: From the Great Books of Western Civilization. Mortimer Adler.

Tools for Thought: The History and Future of Mind-expanding Technology (2nd edition) by Howard Rheingold (MIT Press, 2000). The original version of this book can be found online at Rheingold.com

Community

In Good Company: How Social Capital Makes Organizations Work. Don Cohen, Laurence Prusak. Harvard Business School Press, 2001. This books offers compelling reasons why organizations should invest in having people learn from one another just as they invest today in physical infrastructure.

Satellite Sisters’ Uncommon Senses. Monica Dolan, Sheila Dolan, Liz Dolan, Julie Dolan. Berkley Publishing Group, 2002. This book tells the tales of four sisters who came together to launch a radio show and recount what they learned together while growing up. It’s a terrific volume of big-family wisdom to the range of experiences and issues we face in our grown-up lives. Visit the Satellite Sisters’ radio show website at www.satellitesisters.com.

Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future. Margaret J. Wheatley. Berrett-Koehler, 2002. This beautifully written book is devoted entirely to the role of conversation in healing everything from personal relationships to organizational dysfunction to world discord, offering specific suggestions for how people can use conversation to tackle the biggest challenges they face. Also see Writing, reading, and speaking.

Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity by Etienne Wenger (Cambridge University Press, 1999). This book presents a theory of learning that suggests that engaging in social practices and community is fundamental to all learning and developing who we are. Visit the accompanying website at www.cpsquare.com

Community of the Future. Drucker Foundation, Paperback, 1998 (Hardcover)

Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities John Hagel and Arthur G. Armstrong, 1997.

Joy of Conversation: The Complete Guide to Salons Jaida n'ha Sandra. Lens Pub Co., 1997.

Hosting Web Communities Cliff Figallo. John Wiley & Sons, Paperback 1998. Want more info on this book? Check out this book's online site. View a review.

Interface Culture: How New Technologies Transform the Way We Create and Communicate by Steven Johnson. (San Francisco: Harper, 1999)

The Cluetrain Manifesto. Highlights the conversations and the emerging power of both customer and employee communities.

Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. Howard Rheingold. New York: Addison-Wesley, 1993. Note: This book is hard to find, but the author has an online version available on his web site!

New Renaissance: Computers and the Next Level of Civilization. Douglas S. Robertson. 1998.

Different Drummer: Community-making and Peace. M. Scott Peck, M.D. 2nd Ed. 1998.

Community Building on the Web: Secret Strategies for Successful Online Communities. Amy Jo Kim. Addison-Wesley, 1999.

Building Learning Communities in Cyberspace: Effective Strategies for the Online Classroom. Rena M. Palloff, Keith Pratt. Paperback, 1999.

Creating Learning Communities: A Practical Guide to Winning Support, Organizing for Change, and Implementing Programs. Jodi Levine & Nancy Larson Shapiro. Paperback 1999. See Note with Building Learning Communities (just above).

Release 2.1: A Design for Living in the Digital Age. Ester Dyson. Paperback, 1998. (Hardcover 1997. Release 2.0)

In the Community of Others: Making Community in the modern world. Claude Whitmyer (ed.) 1993.

Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Wealth Creation in the Era of E-Business. Don Tapscott, Alex Lowy, David Ticoll (Eds.) McGraw-Hill, 1998. (Paperback)

Bowling Alone. Robert D. Putnam, 2000.

Community Building: What Makes It Work. Paul Mattessich, Barbara Monsey, 1997.

Great Good Place. Ray Oldenburg.

Complexity & Life in Chaotic Time

Nobody in Charge: Essays on the Future of Leadership by Harlan Cleveland (Jossey-Bass, 2002). This book brings together a lifetime of essays on personal leadership and organization written by an incredible man who weaves his special interest in education through the themes of every chapter.

Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos by M. Mitchell Waldrop (Simon & Schuster, 1992). This book introduced me to complexity theory in a surprisingly easy-to-read way that can offer you insight into the interrelationship of not only our body and mind, but also our work and the environment around us and all living matter.

Birth of the Chaordic Age by Dee Hock. Berrett-Koehler, 1999.  If you've ever felt in your heart that modern-day organizations are not meeting the needs of those they serve, know you are not alone. Dee Hock, Founder and CEO Emeritus of VISA International felt that way for years and did something about it. He developed the concept of a global system for the exchanges of value and a unique new concept of organization for that purpose. This wonderfully irreverent book offers a deeper understanding of Dee's work written from 3-different perspectives, challenging, inspiring, and funny. It's a cohesive, very honest look at modern organizations and a new model for the next millennium.

Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot (Perennial, reprint 1992). This books explains the theory that despite its apparent tangible reality, the universe is actually a kind of three-dimensional projection and is ultimately no more real than a hologram, a three-dimensional image projected into space. This is one of those books that gets me to rethink everything I think I know about reality and perspective which means I try to read at least some of it at least once a year.

Powers of Ten: A Flipbook by Charles and Ray Eames (1998)

Wholeness and the Implicate Order. David Bohm. Routledge, 1996. All of Bohm's books are great; this is a good place to start.

Post-Capitalist Society Peter F. Drucker, Harper reprinted 1994. Quick read, worth every minute! Go to other productivity & human performance improvement books

The Art of the Long View: Planning for the future in an uncertain world. by Peter Schwartz (1996). Schwartz pioneered scenario based planning at SRI in the 1970s and 1980s. He's now President of the Global Business Network. Also see planning & strategy.

Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor. Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Fischetti (Contributor). Harper, September 1999. (Paperback, 2000)

Discipline of Market Leaders: Choose your customers, narrow your focus, dominate your market Michael Treacy and Fred Wierseman, Addison-Wesley 1995

Competing for the Future Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad, Harvard Business School Paperback 1994

Scenarios: The art of strategic conversation. Kees Van der Heijden, Wiley 1996

Future Perfect Stan Davis, Paperback 1997

Learning from the Future: Competitive Foresight Scenarios Liam Fahey (Contributor) and Robert M. Randall (Editor)

Breakthrough: Everything you need to start a solution revolution. Debbe Kennedy (Leadership Solutions Publishing 1998)

Future Edge: Discovering the New Paradigms of Success. Joel Arthur Barker. Hardcover, 1992. Link updated 12/18/01

Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future. Joel Arthur Barker. Paperback, 1993

Strategic Planning Plus: An Organizational Guide. Roger Kaufman. 1992.

Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation Don Tapscott, Hardcover 1997.

Being Digital Nicholas Negroponte, Marty Asher (Editor), Paperback 1996.

Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-tech Products to Mainstream Customers Geoffrey A. Moore, Paperback. Newly updated in 1999.

Net Gain: Expanding Markets Through Virtual Communities John Hagel and Arthur G. Armstrong. Harvard Business Press, 1997.

New Rules for the New Economy: 10 Radical Strategies for a Connected World. Kevin Kelly. Paperback. Penguin USA, 1998. (Hardback)

The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st Century Capitalism. Robert B. Reich.

The Cluetrain Manifesto. Highlights the conversations and the emerging power of both customer and employee communities.

The Social Life of Information. John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid. Harvard Business School Press, 2000.

Flawed Advice and the Management Trap: How Managers Can Know When They're Getting Good Advice and When They're Not. Chris Argyris

The New Pioneers: The Men and Women Who Are Transforming the Workplace and Marketplace Thomas Petzinger Jr. Simon & Schuster. 1999. Wall Street Journal columnist, Thomas Petzinger, shows how a new breed of innovative leaders is changing the way successful companies do business through risk-taking entrepreneurism and a return to communitarian values.

The Guru Guide: The Best Ideas of the Top Management Thinkers. Joseph H. Boyett.

Simplicity: The New Competitive Advantage. Bill Jenson. 2000. A great contribution to the business literature. Read some Simpler Bites.

Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy Stanley M. Davis, et al. Paperback. Little Brown, 1999. (Hardcover, 1988)

Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling High-tech Products to Mainstream Customers. Geoffrey A. Moore. Updated 1999.

Blueprint to the Digital Economy: Wealth Creation in the Era of E-Business. Don Tapscott, Alex Lowy, David Ticoll (Eds.) McGraw-Hill, 1998. (Paperback)

The Digital Economy: Promise and Peril in the Age of Networked Intelligence (hardcover) Don Tapscott 1995 (paperback Digital Economy, 1997)

The Digital Estate: :trategies for Competing, Surviving, and Thriving in an Internetworked World. Chuck Martin, et al, 1996.

Inside the Tornado: Marketing Strategies from Silicon Valley's Cutting Edge (hardcover) Geoffrey A. Moore. 1999, HarperCollins (paperback Inside the Tornado, 1998)

Growing Up Digital: The Rise of the Net Generation Don Tapscott, Hardcover 1997

Rethinking the Future: Rethinking Business, Principles, Competition, Control & Complexity, Leadership, Markets and the World. Rowan Gibson.

Thriving on chaos Tom Peters. Harper and Row, 1987.

Organization of the Future (Drucker Foundation Future Series) Drucker Foundation. 1997. Great collection of insights from business leaders and thinkers.

The Corrosion of Character: The Personal Consequences of Work in the New Capitalism Richard Sennett, Norton 1998. Business Week review.

Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy Carl Shapiro, Hal R. Varian

Net Future: The 7 Cybertrends That Will Drive Your Business, Create New Wealth, and Define Your Future. Chuck Martin.

Enterprise One to One: Tools for Competing in the Interactive Age. Don Peppers, Martha Rogers.

Customers.Com: How to Create a Profitable Business Strategy for the Internet and Beyond Patricia B. Seybold, Ronni Marshak Times Books. Hardcover, 1998.

Management Challenges for the 21st Century Peter Drucker. HarperBusiness, 1999.

Customer Service on the Internet: Building Relationships, Increasing Loyalty, and Staying Competitive. Jim Sterne. Hardcover, 1996

Unleashing the Killer App Digital Strategies for Market Dominance. Larry Downes, et al.

Real Time: Preparing for the Age of the Never Satisfied Customer. Regis McKenna.

Burn Rate: How I Survived the Gold Rush Years on the Internet. Michael Wolff. Touchstone Books, 1999.

Frontiers of Management: Where Tomorrow's Decisions Are Being Shaped Today Peter Drucker. Penguin USA, 1999. Paperback.

Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy. Philip Evans, Thomas S. Wurster. HBSP, 1999.

E-Business: Roadmap for Success Ravi Kalakota, Marcia Robinson. Addison-Wesley, 1999.

JobShift: How To Prosper In A Workplace Without Jobs. William Bridges. Perseus Books, 1994.

Creating You & Co.: Learn To Think Like The CEO of Your Own Career. William Bridges. Perseus Books, 1997.

Managing Transitions: Making The Most of Change. William Bridges. 1991, Perseus Books

Transitions: Making Sense of Life's Changes. William Bridges. 1988, Perseus Books

The Witch Doctors, John Micklethwait & Adrian Wooldridge, 1997

The Guru Guide, Joseph Boyett & Jimmie Boyett, 1998

The Ultimate Business Library, 50 Books That Shaped Management Thinking, Stuart Crainer, 1997

First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently Marcus Buckingham, Curt Coffman. Simon & Schuster, 1999. Hardcover.

Permission Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends, and Friends into Customers Seth Godin, Don Peppers. Simon & Schuster, 1999. Hardcover.

The Brand You: 50 Ways to Transform Yourself from an 'Employee' into a Brand That Shouts Distinction, Commitment, and Passion! Tom Peters. Knopf , 1999. Hardcover.

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Jeff Cox. North River, 2nd Ed. 1992. Paperback.

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies James C. Collins, Jerry I. Porras. Harperbusiness, 1997. Paperback

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies. Jared Diamond. Norton, 1999.

Non Zero: The Logic of Human Destiny. Robert Wright. Pantheon Books, 1998.

Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership. Joseph Jaworski, 1996

Education General

From Plato to Piaget: The Greatest Educational Theorists from Across the Centuries and Around the World. William, Ph.D. Cooney, et al.

Pedagogy of the Oppressed Paulo Freire, Myra Bergman Ramos (Translator), Donaldo P. Macedo (Introduction). Reissue, 2000.

To Know As We Are Known: Education As a Spiritual Journey. Parker J. Palmer. Harper, reprint 1993. This book does a terrific job of explaining the difference between education and schooling, and the conditions of how to create an environment for learning in all that we do.

Total Quality Education: Profiles of Schools that Demonstrate the Power of Deming's Management Principles, Michael J. Schmoker & Richard B. Wilson, 1993.

eLearning, Distance Learning, Online Learning and Web-based Training

The Computer Training Handbook: for Helping People to Learn Technology. Elliot Masie, Rebekah Wolman. 1998.

Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime. William Horton. 2000.

Distance Training: How Innovative Organizations Are Using Technology to Maximize Learning and Meet Business Objectives. Deborah Schreiber, Zane Berge (eds.). 1998.

eLearning: Strategies for Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age Marc Rosenburg. To be published fall 2000.

Engines for Education Roger Shank & Chip Cleary. Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc., 1995.

How to Design Self-Directed and Distance Learning: A Guide for Creators of Web-Based Training, Computer-based Training and Self-Study Materials. Nigel Harrison.

Technology-Based Training: The art and science of design, development, and delivery. Kevin Kruse, Jason Keil. 1999.

Virtual Learning: A Revolutionary Approach to Building a Highly Skilled Workforce. Roger Schank. McGraw-Hill, 1997.

Web-Based Training: Using Technology to Design Adult Learning Experiences. Margaret Driscoll, Larry Alexander. Hardcover with CD-ROM. Jossey-Bass, 1998.

Web-Based Training Cookbook Brandon Hall. Paperback with CD-ROM. John Wiley & Sons, 1997. Learn more about Brandon.

Web-Teaching: A Guide to Designing Interactive Teaching for the World Wide Web (Innovations in Science Education and Technology); David W. Brooks

Adult Literacy and New Technologies: Tools for a Lifetime, Office of Technology Assessment US Congress, 1993. <out of print>

Experiential, Action, and  Simulation-based Learning

Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation. Jean Lave, Etienne Wenger.

Situated Learning Perspectives.

The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies are Turning Knowledge Into Action by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton (Harvard Business School Press, 2000). This book describes the discrepancy between understanding something and taking action on it, largely caused by fear, and profiles successful companies that overcome them. While not called experiential education, that's what this book is about.

Experience and Education by John Dewey (Touchstone, reprint 1997). I reread this tiny book at least once a year, every year, to reground myself in how people learn and the importance of experience. Also see Art As Experience by John Dewey.

Failing Forward: How to Make the Most of Your Mistakes by John C. Maxwell (Thomas Nelson, 2000). This book offers inspirational advice for turning life's difficulties into stepping stones. It also offers examples from people who persevered after encountering adversity, learning from the failures instead of letting the mistakes derailed them.

Don’t Just Do Something, Sit There: New Maxims to Refresh and Enrich Your Life. Richard Eyre. Simon & Schuster, 1995. IN this light-hearted and insightful little book, you’ll learn how to rethink common clichés such as, “If a thing is just barely worth doing, then just barely do it,” so you can begin to challenge the ways you think about things and instead consider how they truly can help (or deplete) your life.

The Fifth Discipline Field Book: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning Organization. Peter M. Senge, Art Kleiner, Charlotte Roberts, Rick Ross, Bryan Smith. Doubleday, 1994. The pragmatic guide shows you how to create an organization of learners where memories are brought to life, where collaboration is the lifeblood of every endeavor, and where the tough questions are fearlessly asked.

Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. David Kolb.

Do It and Understand: The Bottom Line on Corporate Experiential Learning. Christopher C. Roland, Richard J. Wager, Robert J. Weigand. Kendall/Hunt, 1995. I met the authors of this book in the early 1990s at an AEE conference. At the time, I was quite impressed with their perspective and insight to the field. Many years later, when I stumbled upon this book, I was thrilled to find that the book equally conveyed their depth of knowledge and understanding of experience.

The Experience Economy. B. Joseph Pine, James H. Gilmore. HBSP, 1999. Read an excerpt.

Flow: The psychology of optimum experience. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. Harper and Row, 1991. Also see Finding flow. Basic Books, 1997.

Quantum Learning: Unleashing The Genius In You. Bobbi Deporter (Dell Trade Paperback, 1992)

Graphic Design

Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works. Erik Spiekermann, E. M. Ginger. January 1993. A classic!

The Elements of Typographic Style. Robert Bringhurst. Paperback 1997

The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book: One-Of-A-Kind Projects, Expert Tips, and Hard-To-Find Sources. Chuck Green

Roger C. Parker's One-Minute Designer Roger C. Parker. 1997.

Coloring Web Graphics.2 Lynda Weinman, Bruce Heavin. New Rider, 1998. Ever get stuck trying to come up with a great color scheme? This book will help you get over it fast. Outstanding examples, helpful suggestions, wonderful tools. CD-ROM with color palettes included. Also see www.lynda.com and www.stink.com.

How to Boss Your Fonts Around, 2nd Ed. Robin Williams.

Innovation & Creativity

Discover Your Genius: How to Think like History’s Ten Most Revolutionary Minds. Michael J. Gelb. Quill, 2003. This book helps you find both your own potential for greatness and a meaningful role model to provide focus from 10 outstanding learners beginning with Plato and ending with Einstein, meeting Brunelleschi, Christopher Columbus, Copernicus, Elizabeth I, Shakespeare, Thomas Jefferson, Darwin, and Gandhi in between. Each chapter highlights a few specific achievements while analyzing the methods and motivation of each genius.

Breakaway: Deliver Value to Your Customers—Fast! Charles L. Fred. Jossey-Bass, 2002. Even though this book appears to be all business, the heart of this book is about how people learn, master new information, and how approaching personal competencies can improve your working and business relationship with anyone.

The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity. Julia Cameron. J. P. Tarcher, revised 2002. This book is a wonderful journal-based program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with confidence and productivity.

The Inner Game of Work: Focus, Learning, Pleasure, and Mobility in the Workplace. W. Timothy Gallwey (Random House, 1999)

The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail Clayton M. Christensen, Hardcover 1997

The Creative Priority: Putting Innovation to Work in Your Business Jerry Hirshberg. HarperBusiness, 1999. Paperback.

Seeing Differently: Insights on Innovation by John Seely Brown, editor (Cambridge, Harvard Business School Press; 1997)

Uncommon Genius: How Great Ideas Are Born

The Playful World: How Technology Is Transforming Our Imagination. Mark Pesce. Ballentine, 2000.

On Creativity David Bohm, Lee Nichol (Editor), Paperback 1998

Creative Whack Pack/Book and Card Deck Roger Von Oech. United States Games Systems, 1993. Also see the Creative Whack pack web site!

The Circle of Innovation: You Can't Shrink Your Way to Greatness by Tom Peters (Vintage Books, 1999).

Being Digital Nicholas Negroponte, Marty Asher (Editor), Paperback 1996

Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Its Inventor. Tim Berners-Lee, Mark Fischetti (Contributor). Harper, September 1999. (Paperback, 2000)

Markets for Technology: The economics of innovation and corporate strategy. Ashis Arora, Andrea Fosfuri, and Alfonso Gambardella. MIT Press, 2001.

In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best-Run Companies Tom Peters, et al, Paperback 1988

What Will Be: How the new world of information will change our lives. Michael Dertouzos, Hardcover, Harper 1997.

The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life. Robert Fritz. Fawcett Books, 1989. This book helps you understand the role of certain learned patterns of behavior and thinking in your life and how to turn these old patterns into new, powerful, and more effective pattern.

Diffusion of innovations Everett M. Roger. The classification scheme for adopters of innovative technology has a long history. This is the classic text in the field, now in its fourth edition. The story of the classification of adopters into the categories of "innovators," "early adopters," "early majority," "late majority," and "laggards" is told in Chapter Seven, "Innovativeness and adopter categories," pp. 252-280. This is the source of the categories that Geoffrey Moore used in Crossing the Chasm.

Innovation: Breakthrough thinking at 3M, DuPont, GE, Pfizer, and Rubbermaid. R. M. Kanter, K. Kao, and F. Wiersema. (Eds.) New York: HarperBusiness, 1997.

Innovation and entrepreneurship: Practice and principles. Peter Drucker. New York: Harper & Row, 1995.

Learning Culture and People-focused Organizations

The Pursuit of WOW! Tom Peters. 1994.

The Art of Possibility: Transforming Professional and Personal Life by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander (Cambridge; Harvard Business School Press, 2000). This delightful book compares the dynamics of an orchestra and every-day life to help you practice and become ready for any opportunity and ultimately creativity and transformation.

The Dance of Change Peter M. Senge, et al. Doubleday, 1999. Paperback.

The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Ikujiro Nonaka, Hirotaka Takeuchi. (Oxford University Press, 1995)

The Springboard: How Storytelling Ignites Action in Knowledge-Era Organizations. Steve Denning.

Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know. Nancy M. Dixon. (Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press, 2000)

Second to None: How our smartest companies put people first. Charles Garfield (1995) paperback.

The Fifth Discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. Peter M. Senge (Doubleday, 1990).

The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. Peter Senge, Charlotte Roberts, R. Ross, B. Smith, and Art Kleiner. Doubleday, 1994

The Learning Edge: How Smart Managers and Smart Companies Stay Ahead. Calhoun W. Wick and Lu Stanton León (New York, McGraw Hill: 1996)

The Knowledge Evolution: Expanding Organizational Intelligence Verna Allee, Paperback.

Riding The Waves of Culture: Understanding Diversity in Global Business Alfons Trompenaars, et al

If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice by Carla O'Dell, Nilly Essaides, C. Jackson Grayson Jr.

Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management Harvard Business Review, Paperback, HBSP 1998

Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know Tom Davenport and Laurence Prusak, Hardcover, Harvard Business School Press 1997

Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations Thomas A. Stewart

Information Ecology: Mastering the Information and Knowledge Environment Tom Davenport and Laurence Prusak, Hardcover, Oxford University Press 1997

The Tree of Knowledge: The biological roots of human understanding. Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela, Shambhala Publications 1992

Knowledge Creating Company: : How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Ikujiro Nonaka & Hirotaka Takeuchi, Oxford University Press 1995

The Monster Under the Bed: How Business is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge for Profit. Stan Davis and Jim Botkin

Information Architects. Richard Saul Wurman. Watson-Guptill 1997. See Wurman's website.

Meeting of the Minds: Creating the Market-Based Enterprise. Vincent P. Brabba. HBSP 1995

Cultures and Organizations Geert Hofstede

Knowledge engineering. G. Steven Tuthill. Blue Ridge Summit, PA: TAB Books, 1989. <Out of print, but worth ordering or looking for at your local used bookstore>

Knowledge for action. Chris Argyris. Jossey-Bass, 1993.

Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation. Dorothy Leonard-Barton.

The Knowledge Evolution: Expanding Organizational Intelligence. Verna Allee.

Envisioning Information Edward R. Tufte

Learning As a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent Whitewater. Peter B. Vaill (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1996)

Life and work in a technological society. Sandra Kerka. ERIC Digest No. 147. Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, OSU, 1993. (ED 368 892).

Learning Disabilities & Attention Deficit Disorder

Honey, Are You Listening? (Minirth Meier New Life Clinic)

Beyond ADD: Hunting for Reasons in the Past & Present

Rising to the Challenge: A Styles Approach to Understanding Adults With Add and Other Learning Difficulties

Daredevils and Daydreamers: New Perspectives on Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

ADD and Creativity

Change Your Brain, Change Your Life: The Breakthrough Program for Conquering Anxiety, Depression, Obsessiveness, Anger, and Impulsiveness Daniel G. Amen

Rising to the Challenge 2: A workbook

You Don't Outgrow It: Living With Learning Disabilities

Out of Chaos!: Understanding and Managing A.D.D. and It's Relationship to Modern Stress

In the Mind's Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People with Dyslexia and Other Learning Difficulties, Computer Images and the Ironies of Creativity. Thomas G. West. Prometheus, updated 1997. This book offers an incredible study of how visual learners struggle and succeed in a word-based world. I met the author many years ago, when he was just beginning to write this book, and find myself referring to back to his notes and insights whenever I work with visual learners.

ADD-Friendly Ways to Organize Your Life. Judith Kolberg, Kathleen Nadeau Brunner-Routledge, 2002. This books deals directly with the problem of disorganization and how anyone can clear organizing habits that can help anyone become more focused and organized.

View from the Cliff: A Course in Achieving Daily Focus. Lynn Weiss. Taylor Publications, 2001. This book categorized over 50 separate challenges people face when they try to focus and offers specific and often novel ways ways to regain that focus.

You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?! A Self-help Book for Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder by Kate Kelly and Peggy Rumundo (Fireside, reprint 1996). This book is the indispensable reference for anyone who faces the challenge of having ADD or feeling you’re having a hard time focusing on a daily basis.

The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You. Elaine N. Aron. Broadway Books, reprint 1997. This book is for anyone who feels easily overwhelmed, startled, or needing to withdraw from other people because of what seems to be overwhelming stimuli, noise, moods, or situations. This book helps people who are sensitive understand themselves and their sensitive trait and its impact on personal history, career, relationships, and inner life.

Learning Outside the Lines. Jonathan Mooney and David Cole. Fireside: 2000. Two Ivy League Students with Learning disabilities and ADHD Give you the Tools for Academic Success and Educational Revolution. This book offers practical, down-to-earth, funny, and irreverent tips on how to address most every school and study situations from not-so-traditional approaches to taking notes to cramming like a pro, and what to do if you oversleep before a test. This is the guide I wish I had while trying to make it through school.

Journeys Through ADDulthood. Sari Solden. Walker & Co, 2002. This book asserts that many adults, whether diagnosed or not, are suffering needlessly from ADD symptoms, which include difficulty focusing on certain tasks, meeting deadlines, and interacting with people and offers suggestions on how to work through these situations and learn more from life.

Women With Attention Deficit Disorder: Embracing Disorganization at Home and in the Workplace by Sari Solden

Shadow Syndromes. John J. Ratey M.D. and Catherine Johnson.

Learning to Learn. Carolyn Olivier.

Driven To Distraction: Recognizing and Coping with Attention Deficit Disorder from Childhood Through Adulthood by Edward M. Hallowell MD and John J. Ratey MD (Pantheon, 1994)

Leadership and Management

Gung Ho! Turn on the People in Any Organization by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles. A beautiful, compelling story with a wonderful message.

Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't by Jim Collins (Random House, 2001) Also available and recommended in audio format.

Leader of the Future: New Visions, Strategies, and Practices for the Next Era from the Drucker Foundation, Hardcover 1996 (Paperback 1997)

Leading at the Edge of Chaos:  How to Create the Nimble Organization by Daryl R. Conner (John Wiley & Sons, 1998)

On Becoming a Leader by Warren G. Bennis. 1994. THE classic.

The World According to Peter Drucker by Jack Beatty and Peter F. Drucker (1998)

Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration by Warren G. Bennis and Patricia Ward Biederman (Perseus, 1998). This compelling and well-organized book, provides wonderful examples of how people work together to create something extraordinary.

The Manager's Bookshelf: A Mosaic of Contemporary Views by Jon L. Pierce and John We. Newstrom (NY: HarperCollins)

Learning Styles &  Personality Types

Specifically for Children

How Your Child Is Smart: A Life-Changing Approach to Learning. Dawna Markova and Anne R. Powell. Conari Press, 1992. This book takes an in-depth look at visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning and teaches parents how to identify their child’s pattern so they can help them think, learn, and communicate to the best of their ability. The book also provides specific guidelines to enhance communication with children of each pattern.

Discover Your Child’s Learning Style: Children Learn in Unique Ways—Here’s the Key to Every Child’s Learning Success. Mariaemma Willis, Victoria Kindle-Hodson. Prima Publishing, 1999. This workbook helps parents take into account a child’s talents, interests, preferred learning environment, and disposition in an easy to understand and written in practical way. See more books on childhood education.

The Way They Learn. Cynthia Ulrich Tobias  (Focus on the Family Publications, 1998)

Specifically for Adults

Now, Discover Your Strengths. Marcus Buckingham, Donald Clifton. Free Press, 2001. This books helps you focus on enhancing people’s strengths rather than eliminating their weaknesses and offers a self-assessment to help identify your own strengths so you can use them to the your own advantage and in the organizations where you work.

Accelerated Learning for the 21st Century: The Six-Step Plan to Unlock Your Master-Mind. Colin Penfield Rose, Malcolm J. Nicholl, Dell, revised 1998. This book is chock full of practical tips and suggestions for speeding up your learning in both personal and professional settings. It uses a series of clever exercises and acronym-organized steps to help people learn about themselves, work with other people, and understand the value of emotion and memory on the process of learning. It also goes into additional learning style-related materials such as Multiple Intelligences, mind maps, and memory devices.

The Way We Work: What You Know About Working Styles Can Increase Your Efficiency, Productivity, And Job Satisfaction. Cynthia Ulrich Tobias (Broadman & Holman, reprint 1999)

What Type Am I? Discover Who You Really Are. Renee Baron (Penguin USA, 1998)

For All Ages

How to Implement and Supervise a Learning Style Program. Rita Stafford Dunn.

Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century. Howard Gardner. Basic Books, 2000. In this update to his classic book, Frames of Mind, the author explains his theory that we each have many different types of intelligences and that when we can align learning with our intelligences, we can learn and succeed. Multiple Intelligences is an incredibly powerful model of how to look beyond conventional measures of intelligence and success in school. Also see Frames of Mind. Howard Gardner.

Who Are You? 101 Ways of Seeing Yourself. Malcolm Godwin. Penguin, 2000. If you enjoy looking at all the different ways that people can categorize themselves and learn about their nature, this book addresses numerous ancient as well as modern traditions used to uncover how you think, feel, relate, and physically move, all explained in one beautifully illustrated book.

Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types (5th edition). David Keirsey and Marilyn Bates. Prometheus Nemesis, reprint 1984. This book offers a though and easy to understand introduction to the Myers-Briggs personality typing that isn’t specifically about learning, but offers terrific insights into all aspects of your behavior.

Motivation

Punished by Rewards: The Trouble With Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes by Alfie Kohn (Houghton Mifflin, 1995). One of my favorite authors challenges the notion that incentives, rewards, and competition are effective motivators and instead asserts that teamwork, meaningfulness, and autonomy are the best motivators of all.

The Inquiring Mind: A Study of the Adult Who Continues To Learn (3rd Edition). Cyril O. Houle (Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. Republished 1988) Originally written in 1961, this book was one of the first attempting to develop an understanding of adult education by studying the motivations of people involved in the learning process rather than institutions they attend for learning. It asks the question "What motivates the adult learner to continue to seek education and knowledge after their formal education?" In the years since no book has answered this question any better.

Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn. Raymond J. Wlodkowski, (1985)

Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation

The Adult's Learning Projects. Allen Tough (Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1979)

Homework Without Tears: A Parent’s Guide for Motivating Children to Do Homework and to Succeed in School. Lee Canter. HarperCollins, 1993. Full of helpful charts and checklists, this book helps parents create an un-stressful learning environment at home and motivate their children to succeed in school.

Movement & Exercise

Brain Gym: Simple Activities for Whole Brain Learning. Paul E. Dennison, Gail E. Dennison. Edu-Kinesthetics, 1992. This book offers page after page of seemingly goofy and far-fetched movements that gave me the most wonderful feeling of alertness, relaxation, and zest for learning. I can’t articulate the feeling more than to suggest you might want to try these simple exercises yourself or with your family or those you work with and see how for yourself how they work! Also see whole-body learning.

No Need for Speed: A Beginner's Guide to the Joy of Running. John Bingham. Rodale Press, 2002. This books offers both practical information on how to find the right running shoes for you, when to enter a race, what to eat before a run and inspiration to help you focus on where you are instead of where you want to be, accepting the body you have, and the beauty of being realistic about goals. The author writes in a very approachable style that had me up and running before getting through the very first chapter.

Mind over Matter: Personal Choices for a Lifetime of Fitness. Susan Cantwell. Stoddart Publishing, 1999. This book offers practical help on how to develop and stick with an exercise program for the rest of your life.

Office Yoga: Simple Stretches for Busy People. Darrin Zeer, Michael Klein (Illustrator) Chronicle Books, 2000. This handy little book can set on your desk and offer you suggestions on how to stretch and move in any office or learning setting. The exercises are described clearly and are accompanied by terrific illustrations on each page.

Desktop Yoga: The Anytime, Anywhere Relaxation Program for Office Slaves, Internet Addicts, and Stressed-Out Students. Julie T. Lusk. Perigee, 1998. This book explains an easy to do breathing exercise and simple yoga stretches organized by body part — neck and shoulders; face; arms, wrists and hands; back; legs and feet.

Pace, Timing, and Learning Environment

Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind: How Intelligence Increases When You Think Less. Guy Claxton. (Perennial, 1999). This book argues persuasively that unconscious intelligence is just what you need to handle complex situations, and that our culture's misplaced emphasis on logic and reason to the exclusion of all else is foolish, and even hypocritical, as most scientists will readily admit to abandoning their left-brains on occasion for bursts of nonlinear, inspired thinking. But his prose is never preachy; in fact, he sounds as warm and wise as the Buddhist monks he has studied with. If you're looking for a new way of thinking about thinking, you'll enjoy this book.

Time Shifting, Creating More Time for your Life. Stephan Rechtschaffern, M.D. Doubleday, 1997. This book teaches you how to move in rhythm with others, stretch the present, and practicing mindfulness to learn more in life.

Inner Time: The Science of Body Clocks and What Makes Us Tick by Carol Orlock (Birch Lane Press, 1993). This book tells a compelling story of how your internal body clock influences all aspects of your life. This book was re-released as Know Your Body Clock: Discover Your Body's Inner Cycles and Rhythms and Learn the Best Times for Creativity, Exercise, Sex, Sleep, and More by Carol Orlock (Birch Lane Press, 1995)

The Biology of Success. Robert Arnot, M.D. Little Brown, 2001. This book covers a wide range of internal and external environmental factors that influence how you learn, work, and feel every day. It’s an easy-to use reference that offers useful information for anyone in interested in feeling their best. Also see whole-body learning.

The Chair: Rethinking Culture, Body, and Design. Galen Cranz. W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. This book illustrated the history, anatomy, ergonomics, and problems of chair seating so you can adapt your environment and furniture to improve how you work, learn, and live.

Clear Your Clutter With Feng Shui by Karen Kingston (Broadway Books, 1999). This books asserts that you can sort out your life by sorting out your junk and offers practical advice on how to de-clutter and free up space in your thoughts and wherever you spend time. I was amazed on how much better I felt after following the advice in this book. Also see balance.

Nurture Bear: The Treasure Hunt. Sarah Hendred, Claudie Phillips. Lauren M Davies (illustrations). Long Hill Productions Inc, 2003. This book takes a child through a journey, teaching how to identify healthy and nurturing food. www.shortmountains.com.

Planning & Strategy

The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning: Re-conceiving roles for planning, plans, and planners. Henry Mintzberg (Free Press 1994)

The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization. Thomas Friedman. (Anchor Books, a Division of Random House, 2000)

Flawed Advice and the Management Trap: How Managers Can Know When They're Getting Good Advice and When They're Not

Productivity and Performance Improvement

Coaching for Performance: People Skills for Professionals, 2nd edition. John Whitmore. Nicholas Brealey, 1996. This is the book on coaching I recommend to people most frequently.

First Things Fast: A Handbook for Performance Analysis. Allison. Rosset. 1998

Getting to Yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in. Roger Fisher & William Ury. (1991)

Handbook of Human Performance Technology: Improving Individual and Organizational Performance Worldwide, 2nd Ed. Harold D. Stolovitch, Erica J. Keeps (eds.) ISPI. 1999.

Made in America: Regaining the Productivity Edge. Michael L. Dertouzos. MIT Press, 1989.

In the Mind's Eye: Enhancing Human Performance. Daniel Druckman, Robert A. Bjork (eds.) National Research Council, 1991. Paperback.

Peak Performance: Aligning the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees. Jon R. Katzenbach. Harvard Business School Press, 2000.

Peak Performers: The New Heroes of American Business. Charles A. Garfield. 1991.

Performance Consulting Moving Beyond Training. Dana Gaines Robinson, James Robinson. 1996.

The Trouble With Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity Thomas K. Landauer, Paperback.

Teaching & Home-schooling

Teach Your Own: The John Holt Book of Homeschooling. John Holt and Patrick Farenga. Perseus Publishing, revised 2003. Rather than proposing that parents turn their homes into miniature schools, this book shoes how ordinary parents can help children grow as social, active learners that I suspect will be of interest to all parents, whether home schooling or not, as well as to teachers.

Teacher. Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Teaching With The Brain In Mind by Eric Jensen (Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development, 1998). Also see cognitive sciences and brain-based learning.

Teaching from the Heart. Jerold W. Apps. 1996.

The Making of an Adult Educator. Malcolm S. Knowles, 1989.

Mastering the Teaching of Adults. Jerold W. Apps, 1991.

Training Business

Corporate Universities: Lessons in Building a World-Class Work Force Jeanne C. Meister. Irwin Professional Pub. Hardcover. Revised, 1998.

Figuring Things Out: A Trainer's Guide to Task, Needs, and Organizational Analysis. Ron Zemke, Thomas Kramlinger (con.) 1998.

Running Training Like a Business: Delivering Unmistakable Value. David Van Adelsberg, Edward A. Trolley; Hardcover. Berrett-Koehler, 1999. Take an assessment from Forum.

Training Complex Cognitive Skills: A Four-Component Instructional Design Model for Technical Training. Jeroen J. G. Van Merrienboer. Educational Technology Publications, June 1997.

Transfer of Training: Action-Packed Strategies to Ensure High Payoff from Training Investments; Mary L. Broad, John W. Newstrom

Travel and Business Travel

Cooking Without A Kitchen Peter Mazonson. Spiral-bound. 1999. A coffee maker cookbook

User Interface, Web Design, Human Factors & Usability

The Design of Everyday Things Donald A. Norman. Currency Doubleday, 1990 reissue (former title Psychology of Everyday Things).

Designing Business: Multiple Media, Multiple Disciplines. Clement Mok. Book and CD-ROM, 1996.

Designing Websites With Authority: Secrets of an Information Architect. Jakob Nielsen. 1998.

Developing User Interfaces: Ensuring Usability Through Product & Process (Wiley)

The Desktop Publisher's Idea Book: One-Of-A-Kind Projects, Expert Tips, and Hard-To-Find Sources. Chuck Green

Information Architecture. Rosenberg. O'Reilley & Associates.

The Inmates are Running the Asylum: Why High Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How To Restore The Sanity. Alan Cooper. 1999.

Interactivity by Design: Creating & Communicating With New Media. Ray Kristof, Amy Satran. 1995

The Invisible Computer Why good products can fail, the personal computer is so complex, and information appliances are the solution. Donald A. Norman. 1998.

Memory and Attention: An introduction to human information processing. Donald A. Norman. Wiley 1969. <This book is no longer in print, but if you find a copy, get it!>

Multimedia and Hypertext: The Internet and Beyond. Jakob Nielsen. 1995

Timeless Way of Building Christopher Alexander.

Tog on Interface Bruce Tognazzini. A classic with a wonderful question/answer format.

The Trouble With Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity. Thomas K. Landauer.

Usability Engineering Jakob Nielsen. Very best book on Usability, worth reading often.

Usability in Practice: How Companies Develop User-Friendly Products

Visual Interface Design for Windows Virginia Howlett. Clearly written, beautifully illustrated.

Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Edward R. Tufte. Graphics Press, 1997. In this book, Yale design teacher Edward R. Tufte helps you explain the world visually to other people through compelling and amusing examples. This is the third book in a series, with the first two focused on graphing and charting numerical data, and cartography and mapping.

Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites

Visual Learning

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (2nd ed). Betty Edwards. J.P. Tarcher, 1999. I would strongly recommend this book to any beginners interested in improving their ability to draw what they see.

A Picture’s Worth 1,000 Words: A Workbook for Visual Communications. Jean Westcott. Jossey-Bass, 1996. Designed to be reused, this workbook can help you gain the skills and confidence to express your ideas with pictures.

Fundamentals of Graphic Language. David Sibbet. Grove Consultants International, 1993. This workbook introduces a way to draw and convey meaning with simple iconic images and easy to learn drawing techniques. The author and his consulting firm, Grove Consultants International, offers workshops on visual approaches to process facilitation and group graphics training classes. Learn more at www.grove.com or by calling them at 800-49GROVE or 415-561-2500.

Mapping Inner Space: Learning and Teaching Mind Mapping, 2nd ed. Nancy Margulies. Zephyr Press, 2001. This beautifully illustrated workbook teaches you a set of visual icons and mind mapping techniques to paring down thoughts to key words and pictures.

The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Whole-body Learning

Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All in Your Head. Carla Hannaford. Great Ocean Publishing, 1995. This compelling heartfelt book explains how mental processes are accessed through physical movements and can be significantly improved with little or no difficulty. It offers both the science and the exercise to help become more aware of how movement enhances learning and your capacity to learn.

Molecules of Emotion: Why you feel the way you feel. Candace B. Pert. Simon and Schuster, 1997. In a surprisingly easy to read style, this book explains how science is moving away from the concept of an “electrical brain” to a new paradigm of a “chemical brain” where peptides travel long distances throughout the body and cause changes in cells whose receptors they hang onto. Written by the former chief of brain biochemistry at the National Institutes of Mental Health, and current research professor at Georgetown Medical Center in Washington, this book also helps you see some of the history in bringing about this shift and the politics involved in challenging the established scientific community. Fascinating reading.

Your Body Believes Every Word You Say: The Language of the Bodymind Connection, 2nd ed. Barbara Hoberman Levine. WordsWork Press, 2000. In this inspirational book, the author offers her personal journey surviving cancer and puts into simple, non-medical terminology how you can improve your health and wellness by attending to your thoughts and even the words you say. In this book, she also offers an extensive resource list, index, and instructions for practical exercises.

Evolution’s End: Claiming the Potential of Our Intelligence. Joseph Chilton Pearce. Harper, 1993. This provocative critique of childrearing and schooling synthesizes twenty years of research into human intelligence and offers some new possibilities for the next step in human evolution.

The Biology of Transcendence: A Blueprint of the Human Spirit. Joseph Chilton Pearce Inner Traditions, 2002. Drawing on research from a wide range of the physical, social, biological, and medical sciences, this book weaves together an argument about the fundamental relationship between culture, childhood development, physics, neurology, and biology to help you discover the underlying principles of your own human nature.

The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life. Joseph Ledoux. Touchstone Books, reprint 1998. This book offers a comprehensive examination of how systems in the brain work in response to emotions, particularly fear, and offers a compelling read about the mysteries of emotions and the workings of the brain.

Brain Gym: Simple Activities for Whole Brain Learning. Paul E. Dennison, Gail E. Dennison. Edu-Kinesthetics, 1992. Also see movement & exercise.

The Scent of Eros: Mysteries of Odor in Human Sexuality. James V. Kohl, and Robert T. Francoeur. iUniverse, 2002. This easy-to-read, yet scientifically supported book offers an incredible amount of information human pheromones far beyond the issues of their human sexuality but rather covering their influence on all types of behavior and what this might mean for our society.

The Heart’s Code: Tapping the Wisdom and Power of Our Heart Energy: The New Findings about Cellular Memories and Their Role in the Mind/Body/Spirit Connection. Paul Pearsall. Broadway Books, reprint 1999. This fascinating book tells of heart transplants and how the background of a new heart could affect its recipient. For example, one man began to yearn for spicy foods and to study Spanish before he knew that his donor had been Hispanic. Documenting the stories with medical and psychological literature, the book asks if science and education research hasn’t been too brain-focused and has not listened enough to what the heart has to offer.

Bodymind. Ken, Dychtwald. Random House, 1977. This book integrates modern theory, first-hand experience, and ancient belief about how the human body works. It’s funny, factual, and full of wonderful insights into how we learn and live.

Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain. Antonio R. Damasio. Avon Books, 1995. This book does more than challenge philosopher René Descartes’ assertion that “I think therefore I am” and that the mind and body are separate entities. This book is not an easy read, but offers strong evidence and a compelling argument.

Inner Knowing: Consciousness, Creativity, Insight, and Intuition. Helen Palmer, editor. J. P. Tarcher, 1999. This book offers first person narratives from a wide range of public and private people about their own inner knowing and learning

Power Hunch. Marcia Emory, M.D. Beyond Words Publishing, 2001. This fun book explains how you can become expert at intuitive problem solving by trusting your intuition on small things and letting your confidence grow with practice. I confess to having been skeptical about the power of intuition until I read one of Dr. Emory’s earlier books, but she turned me around (or should that be inside out) and now I wouldn’t miss anything she writes. All her books are practical, easy to read, and fun to apply to everyday learning and working.

Learning With The Body In Mind. Eric Jensen (Brain Store, 2000)

Writing, Reading, and Speaking

Adios, Strunk and White: A Handbook for the New Academic Essay. Gary Hoffman.

Communication Skills Profile Elena Tosca

Go Ahead, Proof It! K. D. Sullivan

How to Read a Book. Mortimer Adler, Charles Van Dorn. Simon & Schuster, revised 1972. This book is one of my favorites because it introduced me to a practical approach to reading books that allows me to take in more from what the author wanted me to know and how to apply my own experience to the concepts and materials presented. If you are an avid reader—or someone who would like to get the most from every book you read—I encourage you to read this fascinating book.

How to Speak, How to Listen. Mortimer Adler. Collier Books, 1997. With the same care and attention as How to Read a Book, this small text offers specific suggestions and ample theory on how to get the most from speaking and listening with other people.

Listen and Learn. Cheri J. Meiners. Free Spirit Publishing, 2003. With simple words and inviting illustrations, this book introduces to 4–8 year olds what listening means, why it’s important, how to listen well, and the positive results of being a good listener.

Metaphors We Live By. George Lakoff, Mark Johnson. University of Chicago Press, reissue 2003. This book is an engaging, accessible compilation of examples and a variety of metaphors we live with each day.

Money Talks: How to Make a Million As a Speaker. Alan Weiss.

Rapid Reading Made E-Z. Paul R. Scheele. Made E-Z Products, 2000. This book offers a straight-forward method to increase your reading speed and compensation.

Super Reading Secrets. Howard Stephen Berg. Warner Books, revised 1992. In this book you can discover the reading and learning strategies of the man who held the record of the world’s fastest reader. It’s a novel approach I find works for many people.

The Thin Book of Appreciative Inquiry (Thin Book Series) Sue Annis Hammond

Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future. Margaret J. Wheatley. Berrett-Koehler, 2002. Also see community.

We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs. Paul Bausch, Matthew Haughey, Meg Hourihan. (John Wiley & Sons, 2002). This book shows you how to write and publish online as easily as you can read online for personal or professional use.