BOOK REVIEW:

Book Title: Thinking On Purpose For Project Managers: Outsmarting Evolution
Authors: Bill Richardson
Publisher: Multi-Media Publications, Inc.
List Price: US$ 39.95
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 9781554890255
Reviewer: Ray Rials, PMP
Review Date: May 2010

Introduction to the Book

This book takes the reader on a discussion regarding the human brain, how we think, and introduces the readers through key topics on the nature of thought including Plasticity, Emotions, Pattern Recognition, Biases and Assumptons, Mindsets. The author then explains how our thought processes can cause people to assume patterns exist that may not, apply our biases and mindsets to situations that can result in poor decision making.

After establishing a definition of the problem, the author then introduces the reader to the concept of AutoPilot thinking and On Purpose thinking. This section provides the reader a framework to move the aspects that make up our AutoPilot thinking and move this thinking up to our On Purpose thinking in order to control the autopilot thinking to serve our needs. The reader is then challenged to begin their journey toward changing the way a project manager thinks and as a result improve both their professional and personal life

The final section of the book focuses on the practical application of the framework introduced in the previous section through cases studies and an introduction to the TOP (Thinking on Purpose) Toolkit which are forty common tools to apply in the project management field.

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About the Reviewer: Ray Rials Ray Rials, PMP is a Product Manager of On-Demand Solutions for Convergys in Dallas, a leader in the speech voice recognition, voice/data convergence space and call center outsourcing. He has over 22 years in the software development domain with 15 years managing all aspects of product development lifecycles Scrum, Spiral, Evolutionary Prototype and Waterfall delivering commercial and internal products ranging from Eclipse-based Development tool, Backoffice ERP/CRM solutions, commercial products (B2B, B2C and Telecom) and in a consulting practice. He is a graduate of University Of Texas at Dallas MBA Program Management Program, member of Gamma Gammas Sigma, graduate of Sam Houston State University B.S. Computer Science. He received his PMP certification June of 2005. He lives in Dallas with his family and can be contacted at yarslair@gmail.com and can be found on twitter (yarslair), LinkedIn and yarslair.blogspot.com.