The Center for Agricultural Partnerships draws on a wide range of ideas, approaches, disciplines, and literature to create and conduct its programs. Many of these resources are outside the typical scope of work for people in agriculture. Listed below are publications and links from management, marketing, organizational theory, and policy that are thought-provoking and have provided valuable insights for our work in agriculture and the environment.

Publications

Diffusion of Innovations (4th edition)
by Everett M. Rogers. The Free Press, 1995.
In our opinion the book on innovation and the most comprehensive book on the subject.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
by Malcolm Gladwell. Little, Brown, 2000.
A very coherent view of why some ideas spread and what can be done to help them.

First Things First
by Stephen R. Covey. Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1994
For people who are always too busy to get anything done.

The Change Agent's Guide (2nd edition)
by Ronald G. Havelock. Educational Technology Publications, 1995.
A manual to stimulate thought for people who run projects.

Mail and Telephone Surveys: The Total Design Method
by Don A. Dillman. John Wiley, 1978.
The authoritative work on surveys.

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas A. Kuhn. University of Chicago, 1970.
Still the most insightful book on the nature of public ideas and science.

The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
by Michael E. Gerber. Harper 1995.
A plan for going beyond the limitations of being highly competent.

The Change Monster: The Forces That Fuel or Foil Corporate Transformation and Change
by Jeanie Daniel Duck. Crown Business,2001.
Why a new organizational chart, work plan or Request for Proposals doesn't change very much.

No More Teams: Mastering the Dynamics of Creative Collaboration
by Michael Schrage. Doubleday, 1989.
"At a job interview, a friend was asked if he was a team player. Yes," he replied, "team captain." p. xi.

Interesting Links

Positive Deviant
by David Dorsey. Fast Company, December 2000. www.fastcompany.com/online/41/sternin.html
A great article on creating change.
"The traditional model for social and organizational change doesn't work ," says Sternin, 62. "It never has. You can't bring permanent solutions in from outside." Maybe the problem is with the whole model for how change can actually happen. Maybe the problem is that you can't import change from the outside in. Instead, you have to find small, successful but "deviant" practices that are already working in the organization and amplify them. Maybe, just maybe, the answer is already alive in the organization -- and change comes when you find it."

Food and Agricultural Policy:
Taking Stock in the New Century. USDA 2001.
A clear and informative, if somewhat under-appreciated, report on farm policy.
Available at:
www.usda.gov/news/pubs/farmpolicy01/fpindex.htm
http://epa.gov/oppbppd1/patnerships/
www.sustainable.doe.gov/database/1122.html