• State and Federal Mediators:  Both offer some free services on some of the following areas:

           Interest Based Bargaining, Interest Based Mediation, Team Building, Reaching Consensus, Goal Setting,

           other topics may include, Stress, Violence, Problem Solving, Etc......   Contact your local State or Federal  

           Mediation Services to find out more about these services.  

•  THE MACHINE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
   The Story of Lean Production

James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones and Danies Roos

Harper-Collins Publishers

New York 1991.

 

This book like no other explains in concrete terms what lean  production is, how it really works, and – as it inevitably spread beyond the auto industry – its significant global impact. Drawing on their on depth study of the practice of ninety auto assembly plants in seventeen countries and their interviews with individual employees, scholars, and union and government officials, the authors of this compelling study uncover the specific manufacturing techniques behind Japan’s success and how western industry can implement these innovative methods.

• THE GLOBAL MANUFACTURING VANGUARD NEW RULES FROM THE INDUSTRY ELITE

Micheline Maynard, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

New York 1998.

 

This fairly recent book goes behind the scene of plants throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America to illustrate how vanguard members have effectively capitalized on their challenges – and offers advice on how other companies can do the same. With information and insight drawn from Maynard's extensive research and first-hand observations, the book offers a detailed blueprint that takes readers through several vital steps, such as creating executive vision, building financial strength, properly utilizing people, and, most significantly, developing a sound manufacturing process unique to a company's own culture.

• LEAN THINKING
  Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation

James P. Womack and Daniel T Jones

Simon – Schuster New York 1996

 

Most companies in North America, Europe, and Japan are still stuck, searching for a formula of sustainable growth and success. The problem according to Womack and Jones is that managers have lost sight of value for the customer and how to create it. Their solution is lean thinking. The first part of their book will help managers clearly value, to live up all the value creating activities for a specific product along a value stream, and to make value flow smoothly at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection. The rest of the book provides a step-by-step action plan that will help managers to make the lean leap in their firm.

• LEAN WORK EMPOWERMENT AND EXPLOITATION IN THE GLOBAL AUTO INDUSTRY

Edited by Steve Babson

Wayne State University Detroit Michigan 1995

 

The book is based on the selected and revised proceedings of a conference titled “Lean Production and Labor: Critical and Corporative Perspectives” held at Wayne State University, Detroit Michigan, May 1993.

•  STEWARDSHIP CHOOSING SERVICE OVER SELF-INTEREST

Peter Block Berrett – Koehler Publishers, Inc.

San Francisco 1993

 

In this controversial yet popular book, Block unveils new models of stewardship – both for entire organization and for individual managers and employees to replace current concepts of leadership and management. Block advocates that real change requires replacing the traditional management tools of control and consistency, with offers of partnership and choice to employee at all levels as well as to their customers. He proceeds to spell out where reforms are needed and demonstrates how applying the concept of stewardship will radically change all areas of organizational governance and management.

 

• REINVENTING GOVERNMENT
  HOW THE ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT IS TRANSFORMING THE PUBLIC SECTORS

David Osborne and Ted Gaebler

Addison Wesley Publishing Company, Inc.

New York 1992

 

Reinventing Government is both a cal to arms in the revolt against bureaucratic malaise and a guide to those who want to build something better.  It shows that there is a third way; that the options are not simply liberal or conservative, but that our systems of governance can be fundamentally reframed; that  a caring government can still function as efficiently and productively as the best-run business.

• THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE FIELDBOOK STRATEGIES AND TOOLS FOR BUILDING A LEARNING ORGANIZATION

Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

New York 1994

 

This “fieldbook” describes the experimentation, research, writing and invention of hundreds of people. It is a must read for anyone serious about building communities of common purposes collective action and continuous learning.

 

The field book is an intensive pragmatic guide. It shows 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. The stories in this book show that companies, business, schools, agencies, and even communities can undo their “learning disabilities” and achieve superior performance.

• THE TEAM HANDBOOK

Peter R. Scholtes, Brian L. Joiner, Barbara J. Streibel

• WORKING DETROIT: THE MAKING OF A UNION TOWN

Steven Babson. Paperback (May 1986)

   

This 250 page book covers the history of Detroit's workers up to the 1980s. Contains nearly 300 photographs.

• CONFRONTING CHANGE: AUTO LABOR AND LEAN PRODUCTION IN NORTH AMERICA

Steve Babson and Huberto Juarez Nunez

 

This 550 page book examines lean production and its impact on workers and unions in Canada, the United States and Mexico. $15.00

• THE UNFINISHED STRUGGLE: TURNING POINTS IN AMERICAN LABOR, 1877-PRESENT

Steve Babson

 

A comprehensive and accessible history of the modern American labor movement. $12.00

• DEMOCRACY UNBOUND: PROGRESSIVE CHALLENGES TO THE TWO PARTY SYSTEM

David Reynolds

 

Examines the history of third parties and the potential of today's progressive coalitions to challenge the two party system. $15.00

• LIVING WAGE CAMPAIGN: AN ACTIVIST'S GUIDE TO BUILDING THE MOVEMENT
  FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE

David Reynolds

 

A complete guide to the strategies and tactics of winning and enforcing a living wage. $15.00

• EMPLOYEE PARTICIPATION & WORKPLACE FORUM

Mark Anstey

Juta & Co. Ltd. 1997

P.O. Box 14373 Kenwyn 7790

 

Recognizing that cooperation cannot be imposed, Employer challenges union  and employer to move by and adversarial by using the opportunities afforded by at Labor Relations Act that leaves plenty of room for strategies play by both parties this work focuses on an consideration of enterprise participation, tapping international experience and research. 

 

• POLARITY MANAGEMENT - IDENTIFYING AND MANAGING UNSOLVELABLE PROBLEM

Barry Johnson Ph.D

H.RD Press Amherst

Massachusetts 1-800-822-2801, 1992 

 

A different paradigm, Polarity Management, is a helpful compliment to your problem-solving skills. This book will enhanced your ability  to manage polarities, by offering a model and a set of principles as an alternative to problem solving.

 

Polarities to manage are sets of opposites which can't function well independently. The objective of Polarity Management is to get the best of both  opposites which avoiding the limits of each.

• EDUCATION FOR CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESSES

Paulo Freire

The Seabury Press , New York, 1993 

 

The authors' central message is that one can know only to the extent  that one "problematizes" the natural, cultured and historical reality in which they are immersed. To "problematize" in his sense is to associate an entire populace to the task of codifying total reality into symbols which can generate critical consciousness and can empower them to alter their relations with natural and social forces.

 

• BETTING TO YES NEGOTIATIONS AGREEMENT WITHOUT BIDING IN

Roger Fisher and William Ury

Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston 1981 

 

The best selling book presents a clean, concise and proven method of negotiations - a method that will ring true to your experience and your deepest common sense. The authors give you a straight forward, no-nonsense strategy for firmly pursuing your own interest while still getting along with those whose interest conflict with yours.

 

• THE STIRRING OF SOUL IN THE WORKPLACE 

Alan Briskin

Jossey Bass Publisher, San Francisco 1996

 

In the workplace we have become paralyzed between managing the outer organization - work process, organizational objectives, managerial structure - and the inner organization of people - emotional attitude, mental processes, cooperative spirit. Following a path with soul suggest an approach that borders both worlds but is not contained by them.

 

The powerful book  is a look at how we have fragmented work and people from the deeper regions of soul and what we may still be able to do about it. This will help those individuals who seek a way of joining their own spiritual path with the realities and expectations of the workplace.

 

• THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE - THE ARTS & PRACTICE OF THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION

Peter M. Senge

Doubleday, New York 1990

 

In the Fifth Discipline, Peter Senge draws the blueprints for an organization where people expand and their capacity to create - the results they truly desire, when new and expensive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and when people are continually learning how to learn together.

 

• INTENTIONAL REVOLUTIONS - A SEVEN POINT STRATEGY FOR TRANSFORMING ORGANIZATION 

Edwin C, Nevis, Joan Hancourt, Helen G. Vassallo

Jossey Bass, San Francisco 1996

 

Creating a new organizational reality - a fundamental shift in attitude and behavior at every level within the organization - is the critical component required to achieve long-lasting, transformation change. Intentional revolution offers a unique approach to implementing a successful transformation with a powerful seven-point strategy for influencing and innovating behavioral change.

 

• THE DEMING MANAGEMENT METHOD

Mary Walton

Putnam Publishing Group, New York 1986

 

This book outlines the fourteen points that make W. Edwards Demming's philosophy of management designed to improve both profits and productivity. Dr, Demming's management technique are all carefully explained in this detailed step by step treatment of his 14 major part and their practical application to everybody business life.

 

• KNOWLEDGE - DRIVEN WORK UNEXPECTED LESSONS FROM JAPANESE AND
  UNITED STATES WORK PRACTICES

Joel Cutcher - Gershen - Feld et Al

Oxford University, New York 1998

 

This book provides an in depth look at eight Japanese. Affiliated manufacturing facilities operating in the United States, combined with examinations of their sister facilities in Japan. The authors organize their finding into six categories: the cross-cultured diffusion of work practices, team based work systems, Kaizen and employee involvement, employment security, human resource management, and labor-management relation.

•  THE PLANNING OF CHANGE 

Edited by Warren G. Bennis, Kenneth D. Benne, Robert Chio Holt

Rinehart and Winston Inc., New York 1969 edition

 

Perhaps the best book on the process of planned change that has been written. The book examines how change is created, implemented, evaluated, maintained and resisted. The exploration fans out into the various dimensions of change processes (from brainwashing to introducing change in a classroom or a factory), into the social and psychological consequences of change into the antecedent conditions for effectively planning change, into strategic leverage points for effecting change.