Product Description
Becoming skilled at doing more with others may be the single most important thing you can do to ensure that you remain employed in the emerging knowledge economy. Teamwork Is an Individual Skilloffers best practices, tips, and developmental activities for taking personal responsibility for the success of teams and other relationships at work. It equips you with a set of individual mental skills and behaviors that will help you create highly responsible and productive relationships. No longer will you find yourself complaining, "I got assigned to a bad team." Instead, you’ll know what to do to make teamwork work for you. This book aims to remove the ambiguity that exists around teambuilding by focusing on five abilities: (1) personal responsibility for productive relationships, (2) creating powerful partnerships, (3) aligning individuals around a shared purpose, (4) trusting just right, and (5) developing your collaborative mindset. Most importantly, Teamwork Is an Individual Skill shows that teamwork is an individual responsibility and skill set, not a group process, and shows how a person can be powerful when sharing responsibility to get things done. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (15)

There is an "I" in Teamwork
For years I have resisted the popular notion of "there is no 'I' in teamwork" because teams are a collection of individuals working toward a common goal. Each of us brings our own values and skill sets to the table. It is our choice to work together (or not) as a team.

Christopher M. Avery has captured this idea and more in this book. Chris suggests that individuals take responsibility for team success versus blame others. He challenges the reader to be proactice and work through team issues rather than avoid or accommodate others.

This is a perfect book for team members who have been on teams before. It will validate good team behaviors and point out areas to upgrade...in a gentle and non-threatening way. The book is easy to read with lots of stories and examples to highlight the key points.

Put this book in your leadership tool box!
I purchased my first copy of this book a number of years ago after it was recommended to me by my MBA instructor.I found it so valuable that in the past 3 years I have purchased additional copies to give to key managers in my organization.
Of all the team-building books on my shelf, this one is the most tabbed, highlighted, dog-eared and appreciated.Well done Christopher!You have created a road map to building highly functioning and effective teams.Not just a theoretical volume- real, practical, valuable tools to both challenge yourself and the teams you belong to or lead.
It will shift your perspective and allow you to never fall victim to the "I'm on a bad team" blues again.
Buy this book- and buy extras for anyone who has struggled with team dynamics. They will thank you!

Nicely Done.
I attended Christopher Avery's Knowledge Team Leadership course and came away very impressed with his grasp of Team Dynamics (note that I did not say "team building" with it's touchy feely connotations"). Teamwork Is An Individual Skill is another great tool for companies interested in organizational development.

Christopher takes a very practical approach.Just how does one get a group of already successful people who don't have formal authority over each other to come together as a productive team?In today's knowledge economy, time is a precious commodity.Agile, effective teams feel a sense of "shared responsibility" and urgency.If members of a team are not truly committed to a project, it is best to know that up front and adjust accordingly. Christopher shows us how to navigate these issues quickly.This book is well worth checking out.

Managerial Material
This book is a must for anyone who is managing an office. if your office is full of egotistical employees or employees who are not term players, this book will help you to help employess get on the right track.

This book featured in Fortune Magazine
Excerpt from Fortune Article: How to build a great team by Jerry Useem, FORTUNE, June 1, 2006: 3:31 PM EDT

........ The fact is, most of what you've read about teamwork is bunk. So here's a place to start: Tear down those treacly motivational posters of rowers rowing and pipers piping. Gather every recorded instance of John Madden calling someone a "team player." Cram it all into a dumpster and light the thing on fire. Then settle in to really think about what it means to be a team.

We're certainly not against the concept of teamwork. But that's the point: All the happy-sounding twaddle obscures the actual practice of it. And teamwork is a practice. Great teamwork is an outcome; you can only create the conditions for it to flourish. Like getting rich or falling in love, you cannot simply will it to happen.

We will go further and say: Teamwork is an individual skill. That happens to be the title of a book. Christopher Avery writes, "Becoming skilled at doing more with others may be the single most important thing you can do" to increase your value - regardless of your level of authority.

As work is increasingly broken down into team-sized increments, Avery's argument goes, blaming a "bad team" for one's difficulties is, by definition, a personal failure, since the very notion of teamwork implies a shared responsibility. You can't control other people's behavior, but you can control your own. Which means that there is an "I" in team after all. (Especially in France, where they spell it Equipe.) ... Read more

Product Description
Contemporary poets offer behind-the-scenes perspectives on the poetic process. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Delightful and Instructive at once
The joy of discovery is guaranteed: at minimum, the reader will find at least several new poets whose work she can pursue and will read many wonderful poems. Still further, the descriptions of the creative process are almost always compelling, joining inspiration and technique. I read each poem, then read the descriptions, then reread the poems. This procedure greatly enhanced both the understanding and the pleasure.
It became clear, however, that the poems exceeded what the poets said about them: there is no "intentional fallacy." While the value of this book for creative writers is obvious, I would also recommend it heartily to Continental philosophers for whom the poetry/philosophy relation is of great interest. In fact, I would recommend it to ALL general readers. The aim of Excelsior Editions of SUNY Press seems to be to delight and instruct such general readers (such as yours truly), and it fulfills this aim admirably. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Erin Murphy Nails It
What is a poet, anyway? It's someone who uses all the tools of language to observe and explain what we all wish and long for. In her first book of poetry, Erin Murphy nails it with the title, Science of Desire, two seeming opposing views of the world. Science, on the one hand, which has come to mean a systemization of knowledge divorced from philosophy. And, Desire, on the other, which is all about feeling and want.

But in the poet's world, through the careful play between words and images and people, everything is turned upside-down and great questions are answered.

In "Descartes Lover," the father of modern philosophy is left to wonder whether he would "think therefore I'm a yam, or a ham, or a jar of jam" if his dead child had lived. Perhaps Descartes could have "seen that perfection can come from things imperfect."

"Studies," a poem about Alzheimer's, shows how words lose their meaning when the victims of the disease lose their memory, "This you, I mean, then you, I mean...I don't remember what I mean." Or do words lose their meaning? Even though the "victims' pasts are erased entirely...You remember the way he screamed in a whiskey rage over your broken bike, then replaced it the next day, no apologies."

Or in "Satellite," where a child watches her father and the satellite that he constructed through the same lens, "quivering between fullness and the outline of a solitary zero." The eyes of her father that "blink slowly, never closing all the way but never really opening" are the movements of the satellite that "sift in and out of clouds the way a dolphin parts the waves."

And so in this very intelligent collection of poetry, Erin Murphy uses her craft, as only a great artist can do, to dig beneath the surface and elevate the mundane to a whole new metaphysical level where the unity of opposites can reign supreme. Bravo.

"Confident, surprising, and smart"
THE GEORGIA REVIEW was right on target when it said that Murphy's poems are "confident, surprising, and smart...entertaining [and] thought-provoking" and that she "elevates the anecdotal to an artform." A less sophisticated reader may miss the subtle epistemological questions and issues presented by these poems. The subject matter varies widely, from Descartes to "Studies," a poem that deals with the clinical and emotional effects of Alzheimer's disease. The title poem is a tour de force. Here's a teaser (in more ways than one!):

"There's a fine
line between causal
and casual.
Her spaghetti strap
hesistates on her
shoulder like
an unanswered
question. He is
thinking 'lingerie'
is the perfect
word: 'linger'
all dolled up
in French perfume.
Linger with
an attitude.
'Linger' like the
finger that will
help her silk camisole
make up its mind..."

(from "Science of Desire," p. 51) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Heard one poem from it!Great!
Her poem AMPHIBIOUS was read by Garrison Keillor and I laughed and cried.wonderful,I want to get it...Haven't read any other poems in the book, but what a beautiful insight into wonder and life! ... Read more

Product Description
This elegant journal provides space to record the day's catch, the stretch of river that produced so well, and what fly you used. Included are inspiring quotes to contemplate while you write from fellow anglers such as Norman MacLean, Harry Middleton, Izaak Walton, and many more. ... Read more

Product Description

Product Description
Americans have studied French for centuries.Some of them become teachers. Others become professors, teaching and writing about the language and its attendant literatures and cultures.Some become translators.Thousands of French majors graduate from¬ American colleges and universities each year, but most of them will not become teachers, translators or academics.How many will find fulfilling ways to use their fluency in French, as professionals?How many will find those hidden geographies where French is a daily feature of the landscape?How may will simply give up, letting their French rust away into their personal past?Ritt Deitz, who directs the University of Wisconsin-Madison Professional French Masters Program, has assembled writers who tackle these questions and others, Post-Francophiles who represent that large and diverse community of adult Americans committed to using French in ways that deepen both their careers and their lives as a whole.They are well past simply loving the language.Their stories suggest that, behind the shimmering pathway to sophistication that French long seemed to represent, there lies a set of useful professional tools. ... Read more

Product Description
With hundreds of new photos and updated values, this 'TV guide' includes cast listings, number of episodes, and peak rating positions. Collectibles from over 50 of the most beloved shows from the 1960s and 1970s are featured in this comprehensive guide. More than 1,300 color photographs of popular TV collectibles not found in any other guide fill its pages.Their passion for TV toy collectibles runs deep. REVIEW: From the Beverly Hillbillies to Wonder Woman, this book features collectibles marketed during 46 television shows' original runs. Not only does this book bring back fun memories and recollections of favorite television episodes, but it also educates collectors on the current values for these items. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

1960's and 70's TV Toys & Memorabilia Delight !
This beautiful, completely revised, latest edition, 296 page volume has colorful, laminated hard covers.There are over 1,300 full color, sharp, large photos of very type of TV toy and memorabilia.If you were around inthe 60's or 70's or enjoyed re-runs of some of these shows you'll reallyenjoy using and owning this book. Having the book is almost as good asowning the items!It includes shows from Beverly Hillbillies to FantasyIsland, to Happy Days, Laverne and Shirley, Partridge Family, Patty Duke,Welcome Back Kotter and Saturday morning shows. Estimated values are shown. Very, very nice book.

Greatest Book Ever Written
Tv Toys is the all time greatest book ever written for toy collectors.I haven't found anything that even begins to compare to this book.I wish that Mr Davis and Mr. Morgan would write more like it.Great job guys. Thanks

GREAT BOOK ON COLLECTING TV TOYS!!
This is a GREAT book for collecting TV Toys!! The book covers most hit shows from the 60's to the 70's.Ever see a Samantha doll from Bewitched?Ever see a Bewitched coloring book or a Brady Bunch Fan Club Kit?Well ifyou buy this book you'll see nice color photos of LOTS of TV Memorbilla!!The book has a nice forward in it by Erin Murphy who played Tabatha on the60's hit sitcom "Bewitched".The book even has price ranges forthe memorbilla listed.If you love classic TV or TV toys this book is foryou! So take a walk down memory lane and pick it up today!! Or for otherinformation visit the author's website atTVTOYS.com ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Fordham Urban Law Journal, published by Fordham Urban Law Journal on May 1, 2010. The length of the article is 14543 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Databases, doctrine & constitutional criminal procedure.
Author: Erin Murphy
Publication: Fordham Urban Law Journal (Magazine/Journal)
Date: May 1, 2010
Publisher: Fordham Urban Law Journal
Volume: 37Issue: 3Page: 803(34)

Distributed by Gale, a part of Cengage Learning ... Read more

Product Description
This is a story of a 13 year old girl who is uprooted from her happy life and move across country. The story follows how through sports she is able to make friends in her new home. ... Read more

Product Description
This digital document is an article from Creative Kids, published by Thomson Gale on September 22, 2007. The length of the article is 1041 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Gates of wardone.(Fictional work)
Author: Erin Murphy
Publication: Creative Kids (Magazine/Journal)
Date: September 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 26Issue: 1Page: 10(2)

Article Type: Fictional work

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

Product Description
Human Geography: Culture, Society and Space challenges students to think geographically across scale and across a wide range of geographical phenomena and global issues. The authors engage the students throughout the text by posing geographical questions that encourage students to think critically about their own locality, region, nation, and world. In the Eighth Edition, the authors reformat the text to 14 chapters, provide a clear outline of key questions for each chapter, integrate their own field experiences, and rewrite the text to guide students through answers to geographic questions. The Eighth Edition includes three new chapters: "Identity: Race, Ethnicity and Gender," "Local Culture, Popular Culture, and Cultural Landscapes," and "Geographic Networks." The concepts of globalization, identity, development, sense of place, and construction of scale are infused throughout the text. The author team draws from studies in geography and across disciplines to bring a broad and up-to-date perspective on the kinds of research geographers have done and are currently doing on a wide range of human geography topics.

In the Eighth Edition, de Blij and Murphy welcome new coauthor Erin Hogan Fouberg (South Dakota State University), who brings her expertise in geography education and political geography. The author team created a new pedagogy and writing style for the Eighth Edition that make the book more accessible to students and faculty. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Fairly interesting textbook
This book is very useful in the class I am taking. It is packed with all relevant information.

Interesting Book
This is an interesting book to read, and has a lot of great content.The book also has a ton of editing errors including spelling errors, incomplete sentences, and just a lot of editing mistakes.Otherwise a great purchase

AP Human Geography
My Grandson's high school does not allow this text to be brought home so I purchased one for him. With his addition of marginal notes and highlighting it has been a definite plus in his studies and his grades have improved.

Makes me wish I majored in human geography
Don't think textbook, think "National Geographic" meets "Travel and Leisure". The authors' choice of photographs brings alive the people, places and cultures of the world in this well written book.Detailed maps, insightful text and rich photographs make this book an informative and enjoyable read.

An interesting textbook! What!?
As a college student I always dreaded reading assignments, especially when the required reading came from textbooks. The goal for most texts seems simply to be to put the reader to sleep. This text, much to my surprise and delight, was the exact opposite of what I am used to reading! The content is well-written and easy to understand. The authors cover key geographical concepts and relate them to today's world. They relate this information in a way that is actually exciting for the reader. A great textbook and definitely recommended for students who have trouble understanding geographical concepts. ... Read more

Product Description
Human Geography gets general readers to think geographically across scale and across a wide range of geographical phenomena and global issues. All concepts and themes are touched on with the historical background one would expect, but also with current examples to make the reading more relevant. The content is written in such a way that it is approachable and appealing. It includes all of the important themes in a succinct and engaging narrative style that can easily be understood. From the Field boxes and opening vignettes help anyone who has not personally traveled much of the world. General readers will also find the latest data as they build their understanding of important concepts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

AP Geography
I purchased this for my Grandson as an adjunct to the text. It follows the text closely and serves as a good review. ... Read more

Product Description
Familial Forms is the first full-length study to examine how literary writers engaged the politics of genealogy that helped define the 'century of revolution.' By demonstrating how conflicts over the family-state analogy intersected with the period's battles over succession, including: the ascent of James I, the execution of Charles I, disputes over the terms of the Interregnum government, the Restoration of Charles II, the Exclusion Crisis, the deposition of James II, the ascent of William and Mary, and Anne's failure to produce a surviving hear, this study provides a new map of the seventeenth-century politics of family in England. Beginning with a reconsideration of Jacobean patriarchalism, Familial Forms focuses on the work of John Milon, Lucy Hutchinson, John Dryden, and Mary Astell. From their contrasting political and gendered positions, these authors contemplated and contested the relevance of marriage and kinship to government. Their writing illuminates two crucial elements of England's conflicts. First, the formal qualities of poems and prose tracts reveal that not only was there a competition among different versions of the family-state analogy, but also a competition over its very status as an analogy. Second, through their negotiations of linear and non-linear forms, Milton, Hutchinson, Dryden, and Astell demonstrate the centrality of temporality to the period's political battles. Though genealogy could serve as a source of monarchic authority, its unpredictable details always threatened to undermine royal power. For this reason, deployments of the family-state analogy often tried to contain, or sometimes even erase reproduction from their imagery. A particularly potent strategy for this difficult task entailed the isolation or elimination of maternity from the picture. Twenty-first century scholars have inadvertently replicated this omission by focusing on the family-state analogy and neglecting the importance of reproduction to seventeenth-century debates. Not only has this left us with a partial understanding of these political disputes in general, it leaves a particular gap in our understanding of the issues of gender in these conflicts. By investigating the intersection of the lineal and the analogical, the reproductive as well as the paternal, this study fills these critical gaps. Through close textual analysis of poetry, political tracts, parliamentary records, and non-literary genealogies, Familial Forms offers a fresh understanding of the seventeenth-century politics of genealogy. It also provides new answers to long-standing critical questions about the poetic form of canonical works, such as Paradise Lost and Absalom and Achitophel, and illuminates the political significance of newly-canonical works by women writers, including Aemilia Lanyer's Salve Deus Rex Judaeoreum, Hutchinson's Order and Disorder, and Astell's A Serious Proposal to the Ladies. ... Read more

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Poetry. "Erin Murphy's poems delight and teach by poking fun: at poets giving readings, Burger King signs, poetry contests, and men who say I'll take care of those wasps for ya, honey. If you're tired of poems that try to be a little too smart for their own britches, these'll take care of 'em for ya, honey"--H.L. Hix. ... Read more