Why Simple Wins: Escape the Complexity Trap and Get to Work That Matters


Lisa Bodell - 2016
    Why Simple Wins helps leaders and their teams move beyond the feelings of frustration and futility that come with so much unproductive work in today’s corporate world to create a corporate culture where valuable, essential, meaningful work is the norm. By learning how to eliminate redundancies, communicate with clarity, and make simplification a habit, individuals and companies can begin to recognize which activities are time-sucks and which create lasting value.Lisa Bodell’s simplification method has several unique principles:• Simplification is a skill that’s available to us all, yet very few leaders use it.• Simplification is the right thing to do—for our customers, for our company, and for each other. Operating with simplification as our core business model will make it easier to be respectful of each other’s time.• Simplification drives culture, and culture in turn drives employee engagement, customer relations, and overall productivity.This book is inspired by Bodell’s passion for eliminating barriers to innovation and productivity. In it, she explains why change and innovation are so hard to achieve—and it’s not what you might expect. The reality is this: we spend our days drowning in mundane tasks like meetings, emails, and reports. These are often self-created complexities that prevent us from getting to the meaningful work that truly matters.Using simple stories and techniques, Why Simple Wins shows that by using simplicity as an operating principle, we can eliminate the busy work that puts a chokehold on us every day, and instead spend time on the work that we value.

When Can You Trust the Experts?: How to Tell Good Science from Bad in Education


Daniel T. Willingham - 2012
    While some of these products are rooted in solid science, the research behind many others is grossly exaggerated. This new book, written by a top thought leader, helps everyday teachers, administrators, and family members--who don't have years of statistics courses under their belts--separate the wheat from the chaff and determine which new educational approaches are scientifically supported and worth adopting.Author's first book, Why Don't Students Like School?, catapulted him to superstar status in the field of education Willingham's work has been hailed as brilliant analysis by The Wall Street Journal and a triumph by The Washington PostAuthor blogs for The Washington Post and Brittanica.com, and writes a column for American EducatorIn this insightful book, thought leader and bestselling author Dan Willingham offers an easy, reliable way to discern which programs are scientifically supported and which are the equivalent of educational snake oil.

Guiding the Gifted Child: A Practical Source for Parents and Teachers


James T. Webb - 1985
    For years, parents have referred to it as "the Dr. Spock book for parents of gifted children." Gifted children have unique social and emotional concerns, and this book provides the guidance that parents need to support them. Each chapter features problems or issues common to gifted children and their families. Topics include communication, discipline, friends, sibling rivalry, and educational needs.

How to Read a Person Like a Book


Gerard I. Nierenberg - 1971
    How to Read a Person Like a Book teaches you how to “decode” and reply to nonverbal signals from strangers, friends, and business associates, allowing you to: gain command of business and social situations; sharpen your negotiating skills; recognize signals of affection and attraction; enrich your knowledge of body language; and much more!Learn the clues that make reading people easy. Gerard Nierenberg’s proven techniques for gaining control of negotiations, detecting lies, or recognizing signals of affection and sexual attraction will dramatically improve your understanding of others, giving you the advantage of added insight into all social and business situations.

Memory Improvement: How To Improve Your Memory In Just 30 Days


Ron White - 2011
    * Have you ever walked into a room and couldn't remember what you went there for? * Have you ever grasped the hand of a potential client and then when the handshake broke, the name seemed to disappear from your memory? * Or have you ever left a prospect or an important meeting and as you drove away remembered a key point that you should have shared with them?The problem is NOT with your memory. The problem is with the "Filing System" your brain currently uses to store and retrieve memory items. Change the filing system and you'll double and even triple your memory comprehension.Two-time USA Memory Champion Ron White will teach you the same 2,000-year-old memory method that he has already taught thousands to:* Give presentations and speeches without notes...
 * Memorize chapters of books word for word...* Retain information from workshops or training classes…* Improve your grades and study skills…* Remember names and faces, even years later…* Routinely memorize 100 digit numbers after hearing them only once…* And lots more!--> Includes an offer for a FREE video of Easy As 1-2-3 Memory Tricks <--

The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control


Walter Mischel - 2014
    What will she do? And what are the implications for her behavior later in life?The world's leading expert on self-control, Walter Mischel has proven that the ability to delay gratification is critical for a successful life, predicting higher SAT scores, better social and cognitive functioning, a healthier lifestyle and a greater sense of self-worth. But is willpower prewired, or can it be taught?In The Marshmallow Test, Mischel explains how self-control can be mastered and applied to challenges in everyday life—from weight control to quitting smoking, overcoming heartbreak, making major decisions, and planning for retirement. With profound implications for the choices we make in parenting, education, public policy and self-care, The Marshmallow Test will change the way you think about who we are and what we can be.

The Blessing of a B Minus: Using Jewish Teachings to Raise Resilient Teenagers


Wendy Mogel - 2010
    Wendy Mogel shows parents how to navigate the challenging teenage years.When a child becomes a teenager, her sense of entitlement and independence grows, the pressure to compete skyrockets, and communication becomes fraught with obstacles. Dr. Wendy Mogel emphasizes empathy, and offers guidance over micromanaging teens’ lives and overreacting to missteps. She reveals that emotional outbursts, rudeness, rule-breaking, staying up late, and other worrisome teen behaviors are in fact normal and necessary steps in psychological growth and character development. With her signature wit and warmth, Mogel gives parents the tools to meet these behaviors with thoughtful care, offering reassuring advice on: · why influence is more effective than control · teenage narcissism · living graciously with rudeness · the surprising value of ordinary work · why risk is essential preparation for the post–high school years · when to step in and when to step back The Blessing of a B Minus is an important and inspiring book that fortifies parents through the teenage years.

Language at the Speed of Sight


Mark Seidenberg - 2017
    Little has changed, however, since then: over half of our children still read at a basic level and few become highly proficient. Many American children and adults are not functionally literate, with serious consequences. Poor readers are more likely to drop out of the educational system and as adults are unable to fully participate in the workforce, adequately manage their own health care, or advance their children's education. In Language at the Speed of Sight, internationally renowned cognitive scientist Mark Seidenberg reveals the underexplored science of reading, which spans cognitive science, neurobiology, and linguistics. As Seidenberg shows, the disconnect between science and education is a major factor in America's chronic underachievement. How we teach reading places many children at risk of failure, discriminates against poorer kids, and discourages even those who could have become more successful readers. Children aren't taught basic print skills because educators cling to the disproved theory that good readers guess the words in texts, a strategy that encourages skimming instead of close reading. Interventions for children with reading disabilities are delayed because parents are mistakenly told their kids will catch up if they work harder. Learning to read is more difficult for children who speak a minority dialect in the home, but that is not reflected in classroom practices. By building on science's insights, we can improve how our children read, and take real steps toward solving the inequality that illiteracy breeds. Both an expert look at our relationship with the written word and a rousing call to action, Language at the Speed of Sight is essential for parents, educators, policy makers, and all others who want to understand why so many fail to read, and how to change that.

Stop Saying You're Fine: Discover a More Powerful You


Mel Robbins - 2011
    This book will help you discover what it is, and how to win it back. Written by Mel Robbins, one of America’s top relationship experts and radio/tv personalities, this hands-on guide not only shows you how to put your finger on the problem, it reveals what to do about it.   Mel Robbins has spent her career teaching people how to push past their self-imposed limits to get what they truly desire.  She has an in-depth understanding of the psychological and social factors that repeatedly hold you back, and more important, a unique set of tools for getting you where you want to be.  In Stop Saying You’re Fine, she draws on the latest neuroscientific research, interviews with countless everyday people, and ideas she’s tested in her own life to show what works and what doesn’t.  The key, she explains, is understanding how your own brain works against you.  Because evolution has biased your mental gears against taking action, what you need are techniques to outsmart yourself.   That may sound impossible, but Mel has created a remarkably effective method to help you do just that -- and some of her discoveries will astonish you. By ignoring how you feel and seizing small moments of rich possibility –a process she calls “leaning in” – you can make tiny course directions add up to huge change.  Among this book’s other topics: how everything can depend on not hitting the “snooze” button; the science of connecting with other people, what children can teach us about getting things done; and why five seconds is the maximum time you should wait before acting on a great idea.   Blending warmth, humor and unflinching honesty with up-to-the-minute science and hard-earned wisdom, Stop Saying You’re Fine moves beyond the platitudes and easy fixes offered in many self-help books.  Mel’s insights will actually help vault you to a better life, ensuring that the next time someone asks how you’re doing, you can truthfully answer, “Absolutely great.”

Learn Better: Mastering the Skills for Success in Life, Business, and School, or, How to Become an Expert in Just About Anything


Ulrich Boser - 2017
    But this approach to learning isn’t nearly enough for the world that we live in today, and in Learn Better journalist and education researcher Ulrich Boser demonstrates that how we learn can matter just as much as what we learn.In this brilliantly researched book, Boser maps out the new science of learning, showing how simple techniques like comprehension check-ins and making material personally relatable can help people gain expertise in dramatically better ways. He covers six key steps to help you “learn how to learn,” all illuminated with fascinating stories like how Jackson Pollock developed his unique painting style and why an ancient Japanese counting device allows kids to do math at superhuman speeds. Boser’s witty, engaging writing makes this book feel like a guilty pleasure, not homework.Learn Better will revolutionize the way students and society alike approach learning and makes the case that being smart is not an innate ability—learning is a skill everyone can master. With Boser as your guide, you will be able to fully capitalize on your brain’s remarkable ability to gain new skills and open up a whole new world of possibilities.

The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels


Michael D. Watkins - 2003
    In this updated and expanded 10th anniversary edition, internationally known leadership transition expert Michael D. Watkins gives you the keys to successfully negotiating your next move—whether you’re onboarding into a new company, being promoted internally, or embarking on an international assignment.In The First 90 Days, Watkins outlines proven strategies that will dramatically shorten the time it takes to reach what he calls the "breakeven point" when your organization needs you as much as you need the job. This new edition includes a substantial new preface by the author on the new definition of a career as a series of transitions; and notes the growing need for effective and repeatable skills for moving through these changes. As well, updated statistics and new tools make this book more reader-friendly and useful than ever.As hundreds of thousands of readers already know, The First 90 Days is a road map for taking charge quickly and effectively during critical career transition periods—whether you are a first-time manager, a mid-career professional on your way up, or a newly minted CEO.

The Other Kind of Smart: Simple Ways to Boost Your Emotional Intelligence for Greater Personal Effectiveness and Success


Harvey Deutschendorf - 2009
    Now, he’s combining his proven techniques with engaging principles of storytelling and fun exercises to show readers how they can apply the principles of EI on the job to achieve greater success. Filled with real-life profiles of people who faced emotional intelligence dilemmas and easy-to-implement solutions, Other Kind of Smart offers tools that will bring results in as little as five minutes a day and teaches readers how to: develop stress tolerance, cultivate empathy, increase flexibility with coworkers, boost assertiveness, and resolve problems successfully. The difference between those who become successful in life and those who struggle is their ability to exhibit and leverage strong people skills. Complete with an EI quiz that will help readers measure their level of emotional intelligence and EI growth, this invaluable guide enables all professionals to improve their relationships and increase their effectiveness at work in a practical, accessible way.

30 Days to a More Powerful Vocabulary


Wilfred Funk - 1942
    All it takes is 15 minutes a day and this highly effective mini-course. Start boosting communication skills with a simple 12-minute quiz that highlights your current proficiency. Keep the pencil ready and go through the workbook which guides you in writing, saying, and using new words continually until they become second nature. Find out how to identify the etymology of a word, memorize odd words, use verbs and adjectives with remarkable power, choose a synonym, and create a personalized plan for vocabulary growth. It will increase your potential for success.

59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot


Richard Wiseman - 2009
    From mood to memory, persuasion to procrastination, and resilience to relationships, Wiseman outlines the research supporting this new science of rapid change, and describes how these quick and quirky techniques can be incorporated into everyday life. Think a little, change a lot."Discover why even thinking about going to the gym can help you keep in shape ""Learn how pot plants make you more creative ""Find out why putting a pencil between your teeth instantly makes you happier "" "'At last, a self-help guide that is based on proper research. Perfect for busy, curious, smart people' Simon Singh, author of Fermat's Last Theorem'A triumph of scientifically proven advice over misleading myths of self-help. Challenging, uplifting and long overdue' Derren Brown

The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life


Timothy Ferriss - 2012
    It’s a choose-your-own-adventure guide to the world of rapid learning.#1 New York Times bestselling author (and lifelong non-cook) Tim Ferriss takes you from Manhattan to Okinawa, and from Silicon Valley to Calcutta, unearthing the secrets of the world’s fastest learners and greatest chefs. Ferriss uses cooking to explain “meta-learning,” a step-by-step process that can be used to master anything, whether searing steak or shooting 3-pointers in basketball. That is the real “recipe” of The 4-Hour Chef.You'll train inside the kitchen for everything outside the kitchen. Featuring tips and tricks from chess prodigies, world-renowned chefs, pro athletes, master sommeliers, super models, and everyone in between, this “cookbook for people who don’t buy cookbooks” is a guide to mastering cooking and life.The 4-Hour Chef is a five-stop journey through the art and science of learning:1. META-LEARNING. Before you learn to cook, you must learn to learn. META charts the path to doubling your learning potential.2. THE DOMESTIC. DOM is where you learn the building blocks of cooking. These are the ABCs (techniques) that can take you from Dr, Seuss to Shakespeare.3. THE WILD. Becoming a master student requires self-sufficiency in all things. WILD teaches you to hunt, forage, and survive.4. THE SCIENTIST. SCI is the mad scientist and modernist painter wrapped into one. This is where you rediscover whimsy and wonder.5. THE PROFESSIONAL. Swaraj, a term usually associated with Mahatma Gandhi, can be translated as “self-rule.” In PRO, we’ll look at how the best in the world become the best in the world, and how you can chart your own path far beyond this book.