We love the performance, the big win, the ticking seconds of the clock as the game comes down to the wire. We watch games and cheer, sometimes to the point of obsession, but if we really wanted to see greatness--wanted to cheer for it, see it happen, understand what made it happen--we'd spend our time watching, obsessing on, and maybe even cheering the practices instead. This book puts practice on the front burner of all who seek to instill talent and achievement in others as well as in themselves. This is a journey to understand that practice, not games, makes champions.In this book, the authors engage the dream of better, both in fields and endeavors where participants know they should practice and also in those where many do not yet recognize the transformative power of practice. And it's not just whether you practice. How you practice may be a true competitive advantage. Deliberately engineered and designed practice can revolutionize our most important endeavors. The clear set of rules presented in Practice Perfect will make us better in virtually every performance of life. The "how-to" rules of practice cover such topics as rethinking practice, modeling excellent practice, using feedback, creating a culture of practice, making new skills stick, and hiring for practice.Discover new ways to think about practice. Learn how to design successful practice. Apply practice across a wide range of realms, both personal and professional The authors include specific activities to jump-start practice Doug Lemov is the best-selling author of Teach Like a ChampionA hands-on resource to practice, the rules within will help to create positive outliers and world-changing reservoirs of talent.

    The book debuted at this year’s College Art Association conference in Los Angeles, February 22 – 25.Art school is at a point of unprecedented popularity both as an enterprise and as an object of critical inquiry. This book examines the complex and often unruly state of art education by focusing on its signature pedagogical form, the assignment.Practical and quixotic in equal parts, the art assignment can resemble a riddle as much as a recipe, and often sounds more like a haiku, or even a joke, than a clear directive. From introductory exercises in perspective drawing to graduate-level experiments in societal transformation, the assignment coalesces ideas about what art is, how it should be taught, and what larger purpose it might, or might not, serve.The book is a written record of an evolving oral tradition. Bringing together hundreds of assignments, anti-assignments, and artworks from both teachers and students from a broad range of institutions, we hope it simultaneously serves as an archive and an instigation, a teaching tool and a question mark, a critique and a tribute.Draw It with Your Eyes Closed: the Art of the Art Assignment is the second in a series of small books by Paper Monument, a journal of contemporary art published in Brooklyn, NY in association with n+1, and designed by Project Projects. The first, I Like Your Work: Art and Etiquette, is now in its fourth edition, and has been featured by WNYC’s The Brian Leher Show, Frieze, and The Economist.For inquiries please contact: info(at)papermonument.com

    In this informative and motivating book, you'll discover: What it means to be The Innovative Admin How you can unleash your mind to think innovatively Techniques you can use to bring out the administrative leader inside you Ways you can tap into your creativity and initiative to get ahead The Innovative Admin empowers you to become the best you can be by enhancing your capacity for innovation. Read it and grow your administrative career to exciting new levels. Innovation isn't just for technology - it's the key to your career future.

    So, You’re A Creative Genius… Now What? is here to help you take control of your destiny, follow your own path, and open your own creative studio anywhere. Divided into two parts, YOU and THEM, this fun book teaches you how creative freelancing can bankroll your own artistic dreams. Whether you’re an artist, writer, filmmaker, or musician, So, You’re A Creative Genius… Now What? will help you conquer that Creative Genius within.

    That can be a liberating force, and many professionals dream of becoming independent, whether by starting their own businesses, becoming consultants or freelancers, or developing a sideline.But there's a major obstacle professionals face when they contemplate taking the leap: how to actually make money doing what they love. You may have incredible talent and novel ideas, but figuring out how to get started, building your reputation in a new realm, developing multiple revenue streams, and bringing in a steady flow of new clients can be a daunting prospect.Dorie Clark, a successful entrepreneur and author, has done it all. And in Entrepreneurial You she provides a blueprint for professional independence, with insights and advice on building your brand, monetizing your expertise, and extending your reach and impact online. In short, engaging chapters she outlines the necessary elements and concrete tactics for entrepreneurial success. She shares the stories of entrepreneurs of all kinds--from consultants and coaches to podcasters, bloggers, and online marketers--who have generated six- and seven-figure incomes.This book will be your hands-on guide to building a portfolio of revenue streams, both traditional and online, so that you can liberate yourself financially and shape your own career destiny.

    Imagine this scenario, you have a potential employer at a company and he's flipping through the applicants and comes across your resume. As he picks it up suddenly the one behind yours catches his eye because the applicant put that extra effort into making it look great. So he sets yours down and forgets about it forever.. The other applicant gets the job. This can easily happen even when you are more qualified than another person, if they stand out more than you then you might never get the call. So it's very important to spend time perfecting your resume. Many people realize this, but don't have any idea what to do to give theirs the extra edge. The truth of the matter is if you are having trouble creating a resume that will land you an interview it is because you are lacking effective techniques and strategies on exactly what to do. This book has step by step advice that will shoot your resume to the top of the list. A Preview of What You Will Learn ✔ How To Make Your Resume STAND OUT ✔ Visual Examples of Both Good and Bad Resumes and Cover Letters ✔ Ways To Express And Leverage Your Value ✔ Key Mistakes To Avoid ✔ The Top 5 Resume Building Tips ✔ Much, much more! Here Are Some Tips Straight From the Book - You have to keep your resume up to date, but it does not need to include everything there is to know about you. When you are sitting down and deciding what you are going to put in your resume you need to first understand that it is best if you only have one page if possible. - Ask yourself, if I were looking to hire someone would I consider someone with my resume. You need to understand that it is not the reader's intention to include your resume in the small pile of potential hires but to exclude it. For this reason you need to make sure that you are only including relevant information and that you do not look as if you are trying to build yourself up. - It all boils down to is knowing what the reader will be looking for. If you can successfully convey the exact message the employer wants to see, you will get the call.

    The tools and recipes in this book will help you uncover and solve hidden (and not-so-hidden) problems with your technology, your methodology, and those difficult "people" issues on your team.Project retrospectives help teams examine what went right and what went wrong on a project. But traditionally, retrospectives (also known as "post-mortems") are only helpful at the end of the project--too late to help. You need agile retrospectives that are iterative and incremental. You need to accurately find and fix problems to help the team today.Now, Derby and Larsen show you the tools, tricks, and tips you need to fix the problems you face on a software development project on an on-going basis. You'll see how to architect retrospectives in general, how to design them specifically for your team and organization, how to run them effectively, how to make the needed changes, and how to scale these techniques up. You'll learn how to deal with problems, and implement solutions effectively throughout the project--not just at the end.With regular tune-ups, your team will hum like a precise, world-class orchestra.ContentsForwardPrefaceIntroduction1. Helping your team inspect and adapt2. A retrospective custom-fit for your team3. Leading retrospectives4. Activities to set the stage5. Activities to gather data6. Activities to gather insights7. Activities to decide what to do8. Activities to close the retrospective9. Releases and project retrospectives10. Make it soA1. Facilitation suppliesA2. Debriefing activitiesA3. Activities quick reference matrixA4. Resources for learning facilitation skillsA5. Bibliography

    You know it could make a crucial difference for you, your organization, your community. You present it to the group, but get confounding questions, inane comments, and verbal bullets in return. Before you know what's happened, your idea is dead, shot down. You're furious. Everyone has lost: Those who would have benefited from your proposal. You. Your company. Perhaps even the country. It doesn't have to be this way, maintain John Kotter and Lorne Whitehead. In Buy-In, they reveal how to win the support your idea needs to deliver valuable results. The key? Understand the generic attack strategies that naysayers and obfuscators deploy time and time again. Then engage these adversaries with tactics tailored to each strategy. By "inviting in the lions" to critique your idea--and being prepared for them--you'll capture busy people's attention, help them grasp your proposal's value, and secure their commitment to implementing the solution.The book presents a fresh and amusing fictional narrative showing attack strategies in action. It then provides several specific counterstrategies for each basic category the authors have defined--including:· Death-by-delay: Your enemies push discussion of your idea so far into the future it's forgotten.· Confusion: They present so much data that confidence in your proposal dies.· Fearmongering: Critics catalyze irrational anxieties about your idea.· Character assassination: They slam your reputation and credibility.Smart, practical, and filled with useful advice, Buy-In equips you to anticipate and combat attacks--so your good idea makes it through to make a positive change.

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    It does, however, provide priceless tips for removing an ink stain, slicing a grapefruit, or painting a room. Inspired by a perennially popular Real Simple magazine feature, the book organizes its jiffy-fix tricks by activity that cover cooking, cleaning, decorating, entertaining, dressing, grooming, working, and more.

    This book is about giving yourself the space—the mental margin—to reconnect with your creative self by trying new things and, yes, even by failing sometimes. With lush illustrations, empowering interactive prompts, and inspiring personal stories, Give Yourself Margin is the perfect gift for anyone who is looking to rediscover their spark.

    But how do you build the best team organization for your specific goals, culture, and needs? Team Topologies is a practical, step-by-step, adaptive model for organizational design and team interaction based on four fundamental team types and three team interaction patterns. It is a model that treats teams as the fundamental means of delivery, where team structures and communication pathways are able to evolve with technological and organizational maturity.In Team Topologies, IT consultants Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais share secrets of successful team patterns and interactions to help readers choose and evolve the right team patterns for their organization, making sure to keep the software healthy and optimize value streams.Team Topologies is a major step forward in organizational design for software, presenting a well-defined way for teams to interact and interrelate that helps make the resulting software architecture clearer and more sustainable, turning inter-team problems into valuable signals for the self-steering organization.

    "Uncle Bob" Martin shows how to bring greater professionalism and discipline to application architecture and design.As with his other books, Martin's Clean Architecture doesn't merely present multiple choices and options, and say "use your best judgment": it tells you what choices to make, and why those choices are critical to your success. Martin offers direct, no-nonsense answers to key architecture and design questions like:What are the best high level structures for different kinds of applications, including web, database, thick-client, console, and embedded apps?What are the core principles of software architecture?What is the role of the architect, and what is he/she really trying to achieve?What are the core principles of software design?How do designs and architectures go wrong, and what can you do about it?What are the disciplines and practices of professional architects and designers?Clean Architecture is essential reading for every software architect, systems analyst, system designer, and software manager — and for any programmer who aspires to these roles or is impacted by their work.

    It’s a good thing to strive for more kindness and compassion. But wishing that humanity becomes entirely inoffensive is pointless because there’s always something that offends someone. Fortunately, there’s another path... The ancient Stoics observed that some things are in our control and others are not. We cannot control the foul language of people, opinions that oppose our own, and that there will always be a bunch of trolls that intend to trigger us for fun. What happens in our environment isn’t up to us. But what is up to us, is the way we handle it. Many choose to spend heaps of time and energy on the mere words of others, which withholds them to pursue meaningful goals and to be at peace in an unruly universe. What a waste! Unoffendable explores philosophical ideas backed by personal anecdotes to figure out how we can thrive in a world full of jerks, bullies, and people we simply don’t agree with.

    The computer programmer, the doctor, the artist, and even the parent and citizen all engage in a craftsman’s work. In this thought-provoking book, Sennett explores the work of craftsmen past and present, identifies deep connections between material consciousness and ethical values, and challenges received ideas about what constitutes good work in today’s world. The Craftsman engages the many dimensions of skill—from the technical demands to the obsessive energy required to do good work. Craftsmanship leads Sennett across time and space, from ancient Roman brickmakers to Renaissance goldsmiths to the printing presses of Enlightenment Paris and the factories of industrial London; in the modern world he explores what experiences of good work are shared by computer programmers, nurses and doctors, musicians, glassblowers, and cooks. Unique in the scope of his thinking, Sennett expands previous notions of crafts and craftsmen and apprises us of the surprising extent to which we can learn about ourselves through the labor of making physical things.