Management Books

• The Leader's Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done by Peter R. Scholtes
  Absolutely wonderful book - we give it our highest recommendation.

• Ackoff's Best: Timeless Observations on the Life of Business by Russell L. Ackoff
  From managing teams, maximizing the effectiveness of information systems, and problem solving, to creativity, crime, and the role of the corporation in a democratic society, these writings are a cornucopia of insights, observations, and powerful lessons that will help you improve the effectiveness of your organization.

• Understanding Statistical Process Control: 2nd edition by Donald J. Wheeler, David S. Chambers
  Describes how to use count data effectively, the right way to assess process capability and the right and wrong ways of computing control chart limits. Provides information on flow charts and pareto charts.

• Beautiful Evidence: by Edward R. Tufte
  Tufte explores how to best displaying evidence: mapped pictures; sparklines; links and causal arrows; words, numbers and pictures together, the fundamental principles of analytical, corruption of evidence and more.

• The New Economics: For Industry, Government, Education by W. Edwards Deming
  Second Edition (reprint). The best of Deming's books for learning about his system for management. Packed with great thoughts but not as easy to read as the best books. This is a great book, but often it is best for managers already committed to finding new ideas.

• Six Sigma Beyond the Factory Floor:: Deployment Strategies for Financial Services, Health Care, and the Rest of the Real Economy by Ronald D. Snee, Roger W. Hoerl
  Recommended. The book is authored by two of the leading practictioners and they do an excellent job of providing their experience and insight on implimenting Six Sigma.

• Human Side of Enterprise: 25th Anniversary Printing by Douglas Mc Gregor
  Originally published in 1960. Great book. A classic that is still very worthwhile.

• Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by Donald J. Wheeler
  An excellent guide to what you must understand about variation to effectively improve your organization.

• Workplace Management: Taiichi Ohno by Taiichi Ohno
  "If you insist on blindly calculating individual costs and waste time insisting that this is profitable of that is not profitable, you will just increase the cost of your low volume products. For this reason there are many cases in this world where companies will discontinue car models that are actually profitable, but are money losers according to their calculations. Likewise, there are cases where companies sell a lot of model that they think is profitable but in fact are only increasing their loses." page 32

• Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change for Your Technology Business by David Anderson
  The book provides specific and useful guidance to those attempting to adopt kanban management in software development. The books is very well written and presents the material in a very easy to digest manner. It is so packed with information it is very difficult to mine even a significant portion of the value in one read. The organization allows for easy reference as you need to focus on any specific topic to find that topic and get an excellent review in minutes.

• Statistics for Experimenters: An Introduction to Design, Data Analysis, and Model Building by George E. P. Box, William G. Hunter, J. Stuart Hunter
  See new Statistics for Experimenters - Second Edition
  Or view this classic text used widely in universities and corporations for over 20 years.

• Fourth Generation Management: The New Business Consciousness by Brian Joiner
  An excellent book for those who wish to begin the transformation to "Fourth Generation Management" and for the experienced as well. We give this well written and easy to follow book this book our highest recommendation.

• The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance by Gerald J. Langley, Ron Moen, Thomas Nolan, Cliff Norman, Lloyd Provost
  Second edition of this great handbook for process improvement. The best resource for applying the plan-do-study-act cycle to improvement. Highly recommended

• Toyota Talent: Developing Your People the Toyota Way by Jeffrey Liker, David Meier
  Toyota Talent walks you through the rigorous methodology used by this global powerhouse to grow high-performing individuals from within. Beginning with a review of Toyota's landmark approach to developing people, the authors illustrate the critical importance of creating a learning and teaching culture in your organization. They provide specific examples necessary to train employees in all areas-from the shop floor to engineering to staff members in service organizations-and show you how to support and encourage every individual to reach his or her top potential. Toyota Talent provides you with the inside knowledge you need to * Identify your development needs and create a training plan * Understand the various types of work and how to break complicated jobs into teachable skills * Set behavioral expectations by properly preparing your workplace * Recognize and develop potential trainers within your workforce * Effectively educate non-manufacturing employees and members of the staff * Develop internal Lean Manufacturing experts

• Statistics for Experimenters: Design, Innovation, and Discovery by George E. P. Box, William G. Hunter, J. Stuart Hunter
  Second Edition of this classic.

• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information: by Edward R. Tufte
  The source for learning about displaying information. An excellent book for anyone who must use data to make decisions, convince others and educate others.

• The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporate America by Warren Buffett
  Great book in Buffett's own words on investing and management.

• Management Matters: Building Enterprise Capability by John Hunter
  The book provides an overview for viewing management as a system. It is largely based on those of Dr. Deming, along with natural outgrowths or extensions of his ideas such as lean manufacturing and agile software development. To achieve great results there must be a continual focus on achieving results today and building enterprise capacity to maximize results over the long term. Managers have many management concepts, pactices and tools available to help them in this quest. The challenge is to create and continually build and improve a management system for the enterprise that leads to success. The book provides a framework for management thinking. With this framework the practices and tools can be applied to build enterprise capacity and improve efficiency and effectiveness.

• The Essential Deming: Leadership Principles from the Father of Quality by W. Edwards Deming, Joyce Orsini
  The book is filled with articles, papers, lectures, and notes touching on a wide range of topics, but which focus on Deming's overriding message: quality and operations are all about systems, not individual performance; the system has to be designed so that the worker can perform well. Published in cooperation with The W. Edwards Deming Institute, The Essential Deming captures Deming's life's worth of thinking and writing. Dr. Orsini provides expert commentary throughout, delivering a powerful, practical guide to superior management. With The Essential Deming, you have the rationale, insight, and best practices you need to transform your organization.

• The Birth of Lean:
  The Birth of Lean explain, there was no master plan—TPS came about through experimentation, trial and error, and an evolution of ideas that shaped Toyota’s structure and management system. This is an honest look at the origins of Lean, written in the words of the people who created the system. Through interviews and annotated talks, you will hear first-person accounts of what these innovators and problem-solvers did and why they did it. You’ll read rare, personal commentaries that explain the interplay of (sometimes opposing) ideas that created a revolution in thinking. In The Birth of Lean, you’ll get a glimpse inside the minds and thought processes of the system’s creators and innovators: • Taiichi Ohno—the man who envisioned a way of working that would evolve into the Toyota Production System • Eiji Toyoda—the former Toyota President and Chairman who oversaw the development of TPS and the inclusion of TQC at Toyota • Kikuo Suzumura—the Toyota manager recognized as the most influential in translating Ohno’s ideas into actionable items • Michikazu Tanaka—the manager and executive at Toyota affiliate Daihatsu who adapted TPS to his organization • Kaneyoshi Kusunoki—the former head of Toyota’s production engineering organization who refined the buffering system in use in Toyota’s operations • Masao Nemoto—the Toyota executive central to the deployment of TQC at Toyota

Management Articles

• Going Lean in Health Care by Jim Womack
  "Lean principles hold the promise of reducing or eliminating wasted time, money, and energy in health care, creating a system that is efficient, effective, and truly responsive to the needs of patients ? the 'customers' at the heart of it all."

• Warren Buffett's Letters To Berkshire Shareholders by Warren Buffett
  Every Investor should read these. Letters going back to 1995 give you insight into Warren Buffett's ideas on investing, the economy and business.

• Dee Hock on Management by M. Mitchell Waldrop, Dee Hock
  Absolutely great - definitely read the article. Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. Without integrity, motivation is dangerous; without motivation, capacity is impotent; without capacity, understanding is limited; without understanding, knowledge is meaningless; without knowledge, experience is blind. Experience is easy to provide and quickly put to good use by people with all the other qualities.

• No More Executive Bonuses! by Henry Mintzberg
  "Don't pay any bonuses. Nothing. This may sound extreme. But when you look at the way the compensation game is played-and the assumptions that are made by those who want to reform it-you can come to no other conclusion. The system simply can't be fixed.

• Leaders of People: Some are Wonderful, Some are Clueless. The Rest are Somewhere In Between. by Peter R. Scholtes
  Excellent short article by the author of the Leader's Handbook and the Team Handbook.

• 101 Ways to Design an Experiment, or Some Ideas About Teaching Design of Experiments by William G. Hunter
  A great article sharing ideas on teaching and learning about Design of Experiments (DoE), a powerful and greatly underutilized tool. 6 simga efforts have greatly increased the use of DoE.

• Does anybody give a hoot about profit? by W. Edwards Deming, Henry R. Neave
  Dr W. Edwards Deming gave a short presentation to some 25 executives from major European companies. This document is a transcript prepared and edited by Henry Neave.

• Improving Problem Solving by Ian Bradbury
  A good overview of common problem solving practices. The report also includes advice on how to improve results in you organization though problem solving and system improvement.

• My First Trip to Japan by Peter R. Scholtes
  Report on trip to Japan to learn about how Japanese management focused on quality and productivity improvement to meet and exceed customers needs and expectations.

• Interview of and by Dr. Ackoff and Dr. Deming by Russell L. Ackoff, Clare Crawford Mason, W. Edwards Deming
  Great stuff. The transcript spells Dr. Ackoff's name wrong (Akoff). They discuss the important of viewing organizations as systems and a fair amount of time on the problems with business school education in the USA. And they touch on a huge number of management topics. Dr. Deming "When one understands who depends on me, then I may take joy in my work." Dr. Ackoff "If there isn't join in work, you won't get productivity, and you won't get quality."

• Keys to the Effective Use of the PDSA Improvement Cycle by John Hunter
  "The PDSA cycle is a learning cycle based on experiments. When using the PDSA cycle prediction of the results are important... The plan stage may well take 80% (or even more) of the effort on the first turn of the PDSA cycle in a new series. The Do stage may well take 80% of of the time - it usually doesn't take much effort (to just collect a bit of extra data) but it may take time for that data to be ready to collect."

• Small Business Guidebook to Quality Management
  The aim of this guidebook is to help small businesses make the transition to a quality culture. While the focus of the guidebook is small businesses the information is helpful to anyone transforming and continually improving their organization.

• Disruptive Innovation by Clayton Christensen
  Excellent long article (a book chapter) on the topic by the expert. "Disruptive innovations, in contrast, don’t attempt to bring better products to established customers in existing markets. Rather, they disrupt and redefine that trajectory by introducing products and services that are not as good as currently available products. But disruptive technologies offer other benefits—typically, they are simpler, more convenient, and less expensive products that appeal to new or less-demanding customers. Once the disruptive product gains a foothold in new or low-end markets, the improvement cycle begins. And because the pace of technological progress outstrips customers’ abilities to use it, the previously not-good-enough technology eventually improves enough to intersect with the needs of more demanding customers."

• Transformation and Redesign at the White House Communications Agency by March Laree Jacques
  Originally published by the American Society for Quality in the Quality Management Journal, Volume 6, Issue 3, 1999.

• A Little Book of F-laws: 13 common sins of management by Russell L. Ackoff
  Laws include: The more time managers spend trying to get rid of what they don.t want, the less likely they are to get what they do want; Managers who don.t know how to measure what they want settle for wanting what they can measure. Great, highly recommended.

• Why Lean Programs Fail by Jeffrey Liker, Mike Rother
  "a large survey conducted by Industry Week in 2007 found that only 2 percent of companies achieved their anticipated results... When we look at lean in this way it is not only a set of techniques for eliminating waste, but a process by which managers as leaders develop people so that desired results can be achieved, again and again. That means coaching people in practicing an improvement kata every day."

• Reward and Incentive Programs are Ineffective -- Even Harmful by Peter R. Scholtes
  "The greatest management conceit is that we can 'motivate' people. We can't. Motivation is there, inside people. Our people were motivated when we hired them and everyday, when they come to work, they arrive with the intention of doing a good job."

• Managing Our Way to Economic Success: Two Untapped Resources by William G. Hunter
  "American organizations could compete much better at home and abroad if they would learn to tap the potential information inherent in all processes and the creativity inherent in all employees."

• The Art of Discovery by George E. P. Box, John Hunter
  Quotes by George Box in the video: “The scientific method is how we increase the rate at which we find things out.” “I think the quality revolution is nothing more, or less, than the dramatic expansion of the of scientific problem solving using informed observation and directed experimentation to find out more about the process, the product and the customer.” “Tapping into resources: Every operating system generates information that can be used to improve it. Everyone has creativity. Designed experiments can greatly increase the efficiency of experimentation."

• Doing More With Less in the Public Sector: A Progress Report from Madison, Wisconsin by William G. Hunter, Jan O'neill, Carol Wallen
  "The new quality improvement ideas can help public officials combat the effects of decreasing budgets just as they help private businesses increase productivity." Published in Quality Progress, July 1987.

• From Mechanistic to Social Systemic Thinking by Russell L. Ackoff
  An excellent article based on his presentation to the Systems Thinking in Action Conference.

Management Web Sites and Resources

• Curious Cat Management Improvement Articles by John Hunter
  Hundreds of useful management articles hand selected to help managers improve the performance of their organization. Sorted by topic including: Deming, lean manufacturing, six sigma, continual improvement, innovation, leadership, managing people, software development, psychology and systems thinking.

• The W. Edwards Deming Institute Blog by John Hunter
  

• Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog by John Hunter
  Blog by John Hunter on many topics to to improve the management of organizations, including: Deming, lean manufacturing, agile software development, evidence based decision making, customer focus, innovation, six sigma, systems thinking, leadership, psychology, ...

• Lean Manufacturing Blog by Mark Graban
  News, articles and podcasts on the the lean manufacturing with a focus on health care by Mark Graban.

• Institute for Healthcare Improvement
  IHI works to accelerate improvement by building the will for change, cultivating promising concepts for improving patient care, and helping health care systems put those ideas into action. White papers available online on topics such as: Planning for Scale: Going Lean in Health Care, A Guide for Designing Large-Scale Improvement Initiatives, A Framework for Spread: From Local Improvements to System-Wide Change, and Seven Leadership Leverage Points for Organization-Level Improvement in Health Care.

• Evolving Excellence by Kevin Meyer, Bill Waddell
  Excellent and opinionated blog focused on lean manufacturing by Kevin Meyer and Bill Waddell.

• Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections by John Hunter
  The aim of Curious Cat Management Improvement Connections is to contribute to the successful adoption of management improvement to advance joy in work and joy in life. The site provides connections to resources on a wide variety of management topics to help managers improve the performance of their organization. The site was started in 1996 by John Hunter.

• Langford for Learning by David P. Langford
  Quality learning achieved through continual improvement of systems which aim to produce the optimum state of personal, social, physical, and intellectual development within each individual. It is a commitment to excellence by each individual and is achieved through teamwork and a process of continual improvement and/or redesign. The site includes worthwhile articles.

• Jamie Flinchbaugh by Jamie Flinchbaugh
  Blog on lean culture, transformational leadership, and entrepreneurial excellence. Jamie is a consultant and co-author of The Hitchhiker.s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road.

• Gemba Academy Blog by Jon Miller
  Great blog on lean manufacturing topics by Jon Miller and others.