Customer Reviews

Change the Way You See Everything through Asset-Based Thinking

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

At first glance, this book seems quite exciting, judging from its colourful presentation format, with visually appealing photographs, breezy light text & catchy phrases. After perusing it, I regret to find that it offers neither breakthrough ideas nor revolutionary approach.

In the field of business writing, the concept & philosophy behind ABT (what I would term as perceptual sensitivity or acuity) was first broached by Edward de bono in the early 70's with his series of lateral thinking books, starting from the ground-breaking `Mechanism of Mind.' His former discipline, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson from Down Under went on to expand his former mentor's ideas by introducing the CVS2BVS equation in his book, `Software for Your Brain.' He even created a web-based School of Thinking to teach his stuff.

Many business consultants/authors have since then come out with their own insightful interpretations. They include, to name just a few, Joel Arthur Barker (`Future Edge'), Jerry Wind (`The Power of Impossible Thinking'), J Philip Kirby (`Thoughtware'), Moshe Rubinstein (`The Minding Organisation'), Mark Brown ('Dinosaur Strain'), & Luc de Brabandere (`The Forgotten Half of Change'). A few others even introduced some creative twists to the original concept, e.g. Wayne Burkan's "Wide Angle Vision' (or 'Splatter Vision')& George Day's `Peripheral Vision.'

Coming back to this book, I would like add that I actually enjoyed reading the inspiring stories of real people & also doing the workouts & reflections, some of which seem absurd to some readers. At the end of the book, the authors have provided some ABT cards which one can pull out & create laminated cards for sharing the ideas with others. The authors have also incorporated one last visual challenge at the end of the book, What Do You See?.

I am particularly intrigued as to why the authors did not include a bibliography or references at the back of the book.

On the whole from the standpoint of enhancing perceptual sensitivity or acuity, I would rate this book a 4 for its colourful presentation, brilliant simplicity & catchy phrases, although I am quite inclined to rate it a 3 in the light of what I have just reviewed.

For those readers who have not read any of the books mentioned in this review, this book is therefore still worthwhile to be read & played with.

Additionally, I would recommend:

- Playful Perception, by Herbet Leff;
- How to Use Your Eyes, by James Elkins;
- The Playful Eye, by Julian Rothenstein;

for those readers who are keen to explore further.

There is a massive industry of self-help books, cds, dvds, seminars, and training courses. The common thread through all this media is that the authors and promoters make a ton of cash "inspiring" and "instructing" others, using generic, vague, high-level truisms about goals, attitude, and life in general.

"Change the Way You See" is no different. It has slick packaging, pretty pictures, thick glossy papers but it substantively offers nothing more than broad, sweeping generalizations, rehashed ideas, needlessly technical terminology, and obfuscated common sense. Is it brilliant and profound to write in letters on one empty page something like, "focus + distance?" Or is it an easy way to fill space in a $25 book?

Much like "The Secret," Change the Way's brilliantly "different" attitude boils down to positive thinking.

THINK POSITIVE. There, I saved you $25 and 45 minutes.

No New Year's resolutions for me. Every spring I like to take stock and re-focus my attitude. Lucky me. I found "Change the Way..." extremely positive and upbeat while packed with serious thoughstarters and guidelines. I had fun reading it. I never felt beaten down with heavy self-help negativity but rather uplifted by the light style and photographs. "Change the Way..." actually practices as it preaches! I'll go back to this book again and again to reflect, refocus and re-enter my life. I highly recommend it.

This is an entertaining book with a creative approach to concepts in Positive Psychology. Its style and content is a reflection of the combined efforts of a psychologist (K Cramer)& a creative advertising executive (H Wasiak).

The presentation of concepts is clear, simple and straightforward. It breaks down into categories of: How you see yourself; How you see others; and How you see Situations. The main concept promoted is to use Asset Based thinking as oppossed to Deficit Based thinking (which parallels many concepts of positive psychology)

The chapters and concepts are enhanced with thought provoking visual pictures,interesting charts, some personal stories, and great graphics. This presentation makes it easy to read, and even useful if you want to use material for lectures or classes.

For a rigorous clinician or coach, the exercises they recommend throughout the book are not especially powerful or unique. In addition, they make very few references to psychological studies to support claims about the effectiveness of Asset Based Thinking.

Although it takes a simplistic perspective, the ideas are very powerful and can be applied instantly to produce dramatic results in daily living.

I have hundreds of books on management, motivation, self-development and business. One of the things I really liked about this book is it's wholistic approach to life and living.

It gives you the mentality that any problem can be looked at in a better light and as a result will produce favorable outcomes. One of the ideas it poses is about approaching problems. Instead of asking yourself Why do I have to deal with this now? You should ask, "How can this be the best problem I've had?"

If you honestly use and think about the ideas, they can give you more power and a positive attitude to tackle just about anything you're dealing with in life.

This book truly brought positive and new insight into my life. As a person who often veers towards a path of perfection the wisdom of this book reminded me that trying to do everything flawlessly is not the key to success. Instead, taking the "magnify what's best and focus on what's next" approach has opened up a whole new world of possibilities and happiness for me. The simple but powerful messages, accompanied by the inviting photographs found inside the book will engage all readers and help them to make the most of their assets.

I find it fascinating when I read conflicting reviews on books, so I bought this book to see what it was all about. After reading it, I can see that the David J. Murray is a glass half empty kind of guy. It's more than just positive thinking. It's positive lifestyle changes, positive attitude changes, and positive thinking changes. I think that it may seem thin to people like David, because it's so simple. I suggest you give it a whirl. The best money I have spent o a self help book in a long time.

I enjoyed reading this book and recently purchased it for many of my sales reps. Its an easy read and gives you quick straight forward ideas on how to look at life, work... everything, with a positive and productive slant. Too quickly we respond with negative emotions as a way to protect ourselves from confrontation, disappointment or stress. This book helps you remember we have the natural skill set to handle these sorts of things while maintaining a positive attitude and gives you ideas on how to tap into that natural positive resource. I really liked this book.

Not only does this book have beautiful, fun pictures, but it is addictingly positive! The best picture book I have ever read! And I'm a teacher, so I read picture books all the time!

I read a great book today - "Change the way you see everything through Asset Based Thinking (ABT)" by Kathryn Cramer and Hank Wasiak. The main thesis of the book is that we should focus on our assets and not our liabilities or weaknesses. They say that most people are DBT not ABT (Deficit based thinkers not Asset based thinkers)

Of course that resonates with me. I have long believed that the greatest results can be achieved by focusing on strengths. I spend a lot of my time in self discovery. The more I know myself, the better I can focus on my strengths. I also spend a lot of time polishing my strengths. You know from this blog that I focus on efficiency and time management. I actually manage to get quite a bit done so might be fairly good at it but I still take the time to focus on it and study it.

"ABT is not blind optimism or magical thinking". "ABT puts the power of personal, interpersonal and situational assets in your hands so that you can make progress and create the future you desire".

Part of the theory is about reframing (one of my favourite techniques). Rather than say a situation is bad, rather look at what is good about it. In many cases this is as simple as changing the talk about it. Rather than "That's impossible" - "what is possible" or "how could it be possible".

The book includes a series of vignettes about people who use ABT. It also has some exercises. Even with these, it is a fast read.