Posting Delay

I have not put a summary up in almost 2 months. That does not mean I am not reading…I have read 2-3 books in the meantime, but none of them lent themselves to summarizing. They were all about the history of International Development and the need for (or lack there of) such organizations. I recommend one particularly good book to you if this topic interests you…Lords of Poverty by Graham Hancock. Warning: if you are already skeptical of International Aid Organizations (especially the big ones like the IMF, World Bank, USAID, etc)…this won’t help.

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job

Good story…perhaps one of Lencioni’s best.  It’s down to earth and more realistic for those of us who are NOT working in Fortune 500 companies.  The suggestions he has are simple, and easy to implement.  They are tied more to human nature and basic needs than they are lofty and strategic business ideas.  Enjoy the short summary.

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job – MSWORD

The Three Signs of a Miserable Job – PDF

Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars

Good book.  Not as captivating or as well written as many of the other books by Lencioni, but still worth a look.  The concept is the same as presented in his Frantic Family book, but it is applied here to businesses.  This book was written first, and then the book applying it to family was written afterward.  I think the family oriented book is better overall, and the application can be made easier on both sides.  Again, the summary (4 pages) is provided in MSWORD and as a PDF.  I created 2 diagrams to help explain the main concept.  Enjoy

Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars – MSDOC

Silos, Politics, and Turf Wars – PDF

The 3 BIG Questions for the Frantic Family

This book was not Lencioni’s best, but it was a good application of the many business principles into a family situation.  I think the tool provided at the end, which you can find saved in the supplemental, PDF document below, can be very helpful in finding clarity for our families.  I wished he would have provided some more practical help in actually relieving ourselves of many of the activities we find create this frantic state.  There is no question, that we cannot keep up with everyone else, and remain sane.  We have to pull back.  We have to say no.  The problem is that we lack the courage and ability to do so.  It would have been helpful to have some more discussion along those lines.  Nevertheless, it’s a good application, and I think you’ll find the summary below to be both succinct, yet robust enough to be helpful.

The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family_MSWORD

The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family_PDF

Frantic Family Model

Missionary Methods: St. Paul’s or Ours

All I can say about this book is “WOW!”  Classic does not begin to describe the contents of this book and how he nails the issues on the head.  Contemporary does not begin to describe how in touch he seems to be with the current struggles within missions…and he wrote this in 1912.  He admits in the introduction that the church would not be ready to receive his message until the middle of the century.  Many are still not ready.  If you are involved in missions, be it church planting or para church work, by sending money, giving money, on the field….if you know how to spell missions, you need to read this book.  I cannot believe no body recommended this to me earlier.  Having said that, you will not like many of the probes that Roland Allen uses to touch the soft spots.  You may even find yourself getting angry at certain portions.  Got your attention!  Good.  Read the book…or the summary.  Just be warned, the book is not an easy read.  It’s twice as short as most of the books I read, and it took me at least twice as long.  You can’t be distracted when you read this book.   You could get through my summary in about an hour or so, but if you plan on reading the whole book, you’re going to need a good 10-12 hours…if you want to digest it.

One last comment….the principles in this book apply to more than just missions…international business, child-rearing, etc.  The principles and observations are timeless.

Missionary Methods – St. Paul’s or Ours_ MSWORD

Missionary Methods – St. Paul’s or Ours_PDF

Death By Meeting

Great book.  Very clear, and fairly concise.  I have condensed the summary down to about 6 pages, but I reproduced a diagram from the book, and added another table of my own in at the end that shows a comparison of time spent in meetings if we do it Lencioni’s way, and the typical way most organizations do it now.  Curious?  Download the summary and read it.  It’s free!  The story he writes is well written.  But, what are summaries for?  If you don’t have time, you can still get the jist and detail of the main purpose of the book, which is to avoid killing people with pointless meetings, by reading the summary.  As always, the summary is available in MS WORD or PDF format.

Death By Meeting – MS WORD

Death By Meeting – PDF

The ASK

“The ASK” is a long read.  A little too long.  The summary is long as well, because there is a lot of good detail in the book, but also alot of fluff.  Each chapter has Exhibits which summarize some main points.  Then the author goes into too much detail of each one, sometimes not providing much more clarity than the summarized list provided.  But, the examples and general overviews of the various types of asks is helpful.  For planned giving, much more detail is needed for those not already familiar with the technical issues related to the various planning giving vehicles.  Over all a good book, and worth a read for those interested.  I do not agree with every perspective she takes, but there are different approaches when it comes to asking people.  It cannot be a perfect science.  Enjoy the summary!

The Ask – WORD FORMAT

The Ask – PDF Format

Submissions

As much as I wish I could read a book a day and post each summary, it doesn’t quite work like that. I do have reading time worked into my work schedule because it is an important part of what I do…but some days it slips through the cracks. At any rate, if anyone is interesting in having their summaries posted on this site for others to use, that can be arranged. Please follow the same format you see me using, submit to me a WORD and a PDF format and I will review it, post it if applicable, and contact you to let you know it’s posted. Please look at the Reach Us page to find the email address.

The Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards

This short book by Panas is another good one. It’s hard to go wrong with Jerry Panas. His excitment, enthusiasm, and experience are all helpful. There is overlap from book to book of his, but each one is helpful in it’s own way. This time I decided to break the summary down by chapter because each one was sort of a self contained topic. I took only the main points from this book, and there are even a few chapters where the title says it all, and you will see none of my personal notes under those. If you feel the summary is not enough, you can always by the book by clicking on the visual link below. But, you might as well give the summary a try…it will only take you 5 minutes to read!

Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards – MS WORD

Fundraising Habits of Supremely Successful Boards – PDF

ASKING: a 59 minute guide…

This book is small, but well written, and very helpful.  It is a nice mixture of encouragement and inspiration (desperately needed for the work of fund raising), with plenty of helpful conversational tips, appointment tips, asking tips, etc.  I have summarized and recorded the most significant and best examples in the summary.  Jerry has a certain style and mode to how he does things.  I think having a formula or rule that you follow is very helpful, so long as it’s understood there will be exceptions.  The same is true for the tips in this book.  The role playing and conversations provided will be very helpful 70-80% of the time.  In other cases, things will go very differently.  Having these “conversations” in your head however, can be very helpful in replying to most objections or handling most situations.  Check out the summary.  The book is not cheap, especially given the size, but please buy it if you feel the summary is too small (which, is kinda the point of a summary, right?)  Can’t convey everything in there.  Over all…4 stars our of 5 on this book, for the purpose it was written.

Summary Of ASKING – MS WORD

Summary Of ASKING – PDF

Fundraising Realities Every Board Member Must Face

This is a good book. Easy to read and full of fairly helpful tips and encouragements for boards facing the challenge of fund raising (which is a challenge every good board should be facing). I have recently read a handful of books on the board’s involvement in fund raising, and this is one of the best and simplest. I hope my summary can do it justice. This summary is different from most of my others because it is not organized in the same way the book was written. I categorized my summary by topic and theme, rather than the order the ideas appear in the book. Like always, there is both a WORD and a PDF version.

Fundraising Realities Every Board Member Must Face – MS WORD

Fundraising Realities Every Board Member Must Face – PDF

Achieving Excellence in Fundraising

This book is nothing less than excellent!  It’s HUGE, yes, and very detail packed.  If you are preparing to launch into a significant fundraising effort, and you are the person responsible for making it happen, this book will likely be very helpful.  And, given the scope and size of the book, the price is not bad at all.  I was fortunate to receive the book as a gift from a specialist in the field (Thanks Rose!)

I have to confess, I did not create a summary for the entire book, because there are sections that simply were beyond the scope of why I was reading the book.  I focused mostly on the sections pertaining to large one-time capital campaign preparation.  Again, enjoy the summary below as a starting point.  It is a fairly detailed one, but does only cover those sections most related to capital campaigns.

Achieving Excellence in FundRaising – MS WORD

Achieving Excellence in FundRaising – PDF

How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money

Not sure how to say what I want to say about this book. Don’t get me wrong, this is not a bad book. I learned some very useful tips and mindsets from reading this. In fact, right after finishing it, I had occasion to revise a case statement for a capital campaign I am involved in, and having read this book, I approached that revision very differently. But, the writer of this book, does not write in a very easy to read style. Which is ironic, because it is a book about effective writing.

On a more positive note, he does a very good job of distinguishing between donors, prospects, and suspects, and how to approach all three. He also helps us define the types of target audiences we face, and how to speak to their various brains (or ‘ears’ as he calls them). Tom also does a decent job of defining and discussing branding and the issue of writing to be “donor centric”. The book is also helpful in the many lists of considerations he provides for all the various topics he addresses. I know that sounds specific, but there are too many to go into detail here…but most of them are in the summary below.

Perhaps the best part of the book are some of the actual re-vision examples he gives of poor writing and good writing. In some cases I have attempted to recreate these in my summary. Two particularly helpful that parts I could not re-create were a large letter sample and a list of replacement words in the back of the book. I could not recreate these because of their size and for copyright purposes. These lists might be worth the price of the book; maybe. Enjoy the summary.

How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money – MS WORD

How to Write Fundraising Materials that Raise More Money – PDF

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

I really like the way Patrick Lencioni captures crucial issues within a story and draws them to practical, implementable steps that can be taken to produce change. He’s a decent author, and understands the issues. His books lend themselves to being summarized because of the nature of their fable/practical breakdown. His books are worth a read (the Amazon link is below), but if you want the practical part without the fable part, take a look at my summary below (either WORD or PDF version). Besides The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, I will soon be posting summaries of Lencioni’s other Leadership Fables as well. Enjoy.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – MS Word Version

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – PDF Version

Good to Great and the Social Sectors (non-profit)

This book is a follow up to Jim Collins’ Good to Great, which focused only on the business realm. In this version he applies the same observations, yet with the perspective that a non-profit would need to approach them from. Since I work primarily with non-profits, I found this body of work to be particularly helpful. His insights into the fact that getting the right people on the bus for the non-profit organization is even more important because non-profits generally cannot simply buy good help. Again, there is a Word version and a PDF version of my summary of this book below. If you are interested in buying the book, clicking on the image below will take you there.

Good to Great for the Social Sector – MS Word

Good to Great for the Social Sector – PDF

Good to Great

Good to Great is a modern day business classic.  Chances are you’ve read it.  Even so, this little 3 + page summary I’ve posted is a great refresher of the main points.  This was one of the earliest “self-imposed book reports” I ever did, so it’s light (very light) on the diagram reproductions and visuals. G2G is well written and type A personalities like myself appreciate the data deep approach to their well-drawn conclusions.  Read about the Flywheel and the Doom loop.  Discover what it takes to be a Level-5 leader, and what it means to pursue the Hedgehog Concept.

Take the Word Version if you want to add, delete or personalize my summary, or take the PDF if you want it clean and simple.

Good to Great Summary – MS Word

Good to Great Summary – PDF Version

The author Jim Collins has lots of other good info and details about many of his other books (which I will be reviewing and summarizing as well in time) on his website www.jimcollins.com

my introduction

New blog.  First post.  Books.  I like them.  I like to carry them.  I like to smell them.  I like to stack them.  I like to open them, close them, and organize them.  I like to read them and I like to write in them.  I also have a minor love affair with an instrument commonly known as the hi-lighter.  I like blue and yellow hi-lighters the best.  Orange hi-lighters are lame.  One of the reasons I like to hi-light and write in my books is because I want to remember the best stuff, without having to read them again.  Not that I don’t want to read them again, but it’s just that I can’t.  There are so many other books out there waiting to be read and I feel responsible to spread the love.  If you love books, you know what I mean.

Some books I read for pleasure.  Some I read only for knowledge.  Many I read for both.  But, there are some books I would simply skip if I could get the knowledge in some other way; in a way that costs less time and money.  Books are expensive, so my wife reminds me.  She’s probably right.  So what do you do when you just need knowledge but don’t have the time or the money for the book?  You read my summaries, that’s what.

“How can I trust your summaries?”, I hear you asking.  Well, I don’t know how to answer that.  Except, maybe to say that I have been writing my own book reports for many many years now.  I do it for my own personal benefit, not yours.  Therefore, when I read a book I try to capture the best, the crucial, the meat, the protein, so that I can digest it again.  So take confidence that I have done my personal best to extract the pure juice from each and every book I read.  And I invite you to learn with me, if you fancy.