The Change Agent's Guide to Radical Improvement

by Ken Miller and Robin L. Lawton

What separates excellent organizations from the truly ordinary? What allows some organizations to rapidly change and continually reinvent themselves while others have trouble making even modest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873895347
• ISBN13: 9780873895347
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: ASQ Quality Press
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 2.00 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Perfect Marriage

This book is the perfect marriage between process improvement methods and Rob Lawton's Creating a Customer-Centered Culture. Ken has provided a clear roadmap for organizations to get focused on the customer, measure things that the customer cares about, and achieve those results with the least amout of pain and agony. The Change Agent's Guide is a comprehensive how-to book, packed with all of the information and tools necessary to make any improvement project a rousing success. Ken integrates the best practices in organization development, team building, voice of the customer, reengineering, problem solving, creativity, innovation, and project management. The systematic change agent model introduced in this book will help you: * Pick the right improvement projects to work on, by diagnosing the real issues affecting the organization. * Organize the project so that it has the best chance to succeed, by uncovering the project's success criteria, securing management support, and building the right team. * Select the best change process to improve customer satisfaction, reengineering a process, solve a problem or develop a plan. * Generate innovative out of the box ideas that dramatically impact the bottom line. * Navigate the politics of change; ensuring that radical ideas become radical improvements. I have recommended this book to several of my clients who are starting (or are already on) the journey of using teams, focusing on the customer and improving their organizations. It has everything you need, so it's a great reference book as well.

Excellent book!

I second what's been said on the other 5 star reviews. This book is great for new change agents and for experienced ones. For the new, it's a great tour of important skills, tools and techniques written in a no-nonsense way that won't steer you wrong. For the experienced, it's a great reminder of things we may have forgotten. I've been an organizational consultant for 15 years and it's been great for clearing the mental clutter I've accumulated over the years and reminds me to return to the basics. It's also introduced me to fresh ideas I have not experienced before. I also run a leadership program for teens and share concepts from this book with them. They get it! So, what you have is a rock solid practitioner's guide written by Ken Miller.

I've been waiting for this book....

This book is the perfect marriage between process improvement methods and Rob Lawton's Creating a Customer-Centered Culture. Ken has provided a clear roadmap for organizations to get focused on the customer, measure things that the customer cares about, and achieve those results with the least amount of pain and agony.I have already recommended this book to several of my clients who are starting (or are already on) the journey of using teams, focusing on the customer and improving their organizations. It has everything you need, so it's a great reference book as well.

WOW!!

Ken Miller has hit the nail on the head with The Change Agent's Guide to Radical Improvement. Whether you are a seasoned Change Agent / Quality guru, or somebody who often asks "Why do we do it this way?", you need to read this book. That experience alone will leave you energized and chomping at the bit to identify and begin projects that ACTUALLY DELIVER RESULTS. Miller has provided us with a comprehensive "How-to" guide for making your organization (corporate, government, education, healthcare, Service) and yourself very valuable. The chapters are well-written, easy to understand and thought-provoking. From the proper diagnosis of a project to the implementation to the wonderful method of tracking results, it is literally the only book you need to drive change through your organization. Since reading the book and attending the author's academy, I've used many new, as well as old tools to more effectively run meetings, solve problems, improve processes and lead planning sessions. The big difference I've noticed with the use of the old tools is that I now use them in the proper situations. Miller also identifies the "Change Agent Body Of Knowledge," the features a person must have to be a successful agent of change. Read this book. You won't regret it, and you might possibly change the way you approach your work. Appropriate for all levels of the organization, especially management.

Replace your entire Quality Library with this One Book!

If you are a student of improvement, then this book is an "All You Can Eat Buffet" of your favorite foods. It literally takes the best of thousands of quality principles and tools and combines them into one easy to read and use manual.Ken Miller's book on tools for change agents has failed to find a prominent place on my bookshelf not because of content, but I simply have not been able to put the book away since I first opened it. It reenergized me as a team leader and has contributed greatly to the effectiveness of our improvement efforts.Chapters are written using examples that are well suited for the subject matter and that the reader can easily relate to. At the end of each chapter are easy to follow tools that will quickly become an indispensable component in your facilitating arsenal. My personal favorites include the techniques for getting more out of brainstorming, and Ken's methods for analyzing projects.This comprehensive book is a must have for everyone who wants to see their company grow! Before you start your next team initiative do yourself an enormous favor, READ THIS BOOK!