Minnesota ISPI Book Banter 

Book Banter is the book reading club of the Minnesota Chapter of ISPI. Its mission is to help trainers, instructional designers, and other HR professionals stay current in performance-improvement technologies. Each month we read part of a new book, an article, or a classic related to our profession. Then we meet to discuss what we've learned and relate it to our own experiences.

It is nice but not a requirement that you have read the materials we are focusing on. Everyone is welcome and there are no dues.

Topic for Monday, July 7, 2008

In July, we will meet on the First Monday of the month to discuss:

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die By Chip Heath,Dan Heath

From Publishers Weekly: Unabashedly inspired by Malcolm Gladwell's bestselling The Tipping Point, offer an entertaining, practical guide to effective communication. Drawing extensively on psychosocial studies on memory, emotion and motivation, their study is couched in terms of "stickiness"—that is, the art of making ideas unforgettable. The authors credit six key principles: simplicity, unexpectedness, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories. They illustrate these principles with a host of stories, some familiar (Kennedy's stirring call to "land a man on the moon and return him safely to the earth" within a decade) and others very funny (Nora Ephron's anecdote of how her high school journalism teacher used a simple, embarrassing trick to teach her how not to "bury the lead"). Throughout the book, sidebars show how bland messages can be made intriguing. Fun to read and solidly researched.

Book Banter will meet at 6:30 PM, Monday, July 7 at:

Rockford Road Community Library
6401 42nd Avenue North
Crystal, MN
763-533-5010

Upcoming Books

The following are books we plan on reading in the near future. Click on a title to see details about the book or to order it.

A Manager's Guide to Improving Workplace Performance

By Roger Chevalier

Built to Last:
Successful Habits of Visionary Companies

By Jim Collins

Summiting:
The Art of Building and Sustaining Relationships with Customer Top Management

By Jim Hoverman

Improving Performance:
How To Manage The White Space In The Organization Chart

By Geary Rummler & Alan P. Brache

 

For more information about Book Banter contact Rob Janecek (612-278-8590).

Last updated: June 8, 2008 RXJ