The companion follow-up to one of the bestselling Six Sigma books ever published An alarming number of Six Sigma projects are failing--not because of misuse of Six Sigma's statistical tools but because of internal politics and poor communication between team members and the rest of the organization. The Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Team Pocket Guide helps team leaders and members reverse this trend, explaining the interpersonal and political skills needed to make each Six Sigma project a success. Written in the "pocket guide" format that proved so successful with the first Rath &Strong guide, and based on the firm's popular Six Sigma training workshops, this handy reference will show Six Sigma team leaders and members how to: Get buy-in and cooperation from all levels of the organization Lead or participate in productive team meetings Plan the people/team side just as they would plan the technical side

TWO PROVEN TOOLS FOR SUCCESS IN ONE STEP-BY-STEP POCKET GUIDE Whether you've been using Six Sigma for years or are just starting to, you know it takes hard work to get it right. But WorkOut, developed by General Electric, can increase Six Sigma's success. Rath & Strong's WorkOut for Six Sigma Pocket Guide shows you how, with an action-ready game plan that you can apply to your initiative - right now. Learn how to: Set the stage for Six Sigma's success Find out if you're in trouble - and get back on track Make a good Six Sigma initiative even better See actual results--in less than three months "If you want to bring the power of WorkOut to Six Sigma, this pocket guide is an invaluable tool."--Ron Ashkenas, co-author of The GE Work-Out Six Sigma: A data-driven approach to meeting customer requirements, solving process problems, and achieving bottom-line results. WorkOut: The revolutionary problem-solving program that brings management and workers together to bust bureaucracy. Companies worldwide use Six Sigma to measure and improve performance. Others use WorkOut to get quick bottom-line results and empower their workforce. But few enjoy the enormous success General Electric achieved by combining these approaches. Rath & Strong shows you how to get that synergy, with a handy pocket guide full of charts, checklists, assessment tools, and cases that help you: Prepare for, reenergize, or enhance a Six Sigma initiative Use a fast, simple alternative to Six Sigma Make your culture more participative, data-driven, and customer-focused Engage your front-line workers in Six Sigma

Achieve unparalleled customer satisfaction and greater profitability with this essential handbook! Six Sigma is a proven and highly effective business initiative for improving customer satisfaction and increasing the efficiency of processes. Rath & Strong's Six Sigma Leadership Handbook highlights the critical factors that make or break implementation, offers key best practices for getting it right the first time, and offers real-life examples and case studies that light the path to success. With Rath & Strong, you'll get an overview of the tools, methods, approaches, benefits, and risks that are associated with each element of the methodology.

The 20th anniversary edition of Now, Discover Your Strengths comes with an access code to the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment. This updated assessment includes reports and resources that go far beyond the standardized reports of the older assessment by providing you with personalized insight statements unique to your specific combination of strengths. The original publication of Now, Discover Your Strengths in 2001 launched a worldwide strengths revolution. To date, more than 20 million people have discovered their strengths, and tens of thousands more are discovering theirs every week. Gallup Press has published numerous strengths-based books, and Gallup Strengths Center has become a worldwide destination for strengths-based development. Since the book's release, Gallup has continued to dedicate countless hours to developing our strengths science, the brainchild of the late Dr. Donald O. Clifton, who was named Father of Strengths-Based Psychology by the American Psychological Association. Part of that investment resulted in Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 -- a refined upgrade of the original assessment for discovering your strengths. To ensure that you have the best possible experience in discovering and developing your strengths, we have made Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 available to those who purchase the 20th anniversary edition of Now, Discover Your Strengths. The updated assessment includes new reports and resources, including the Strengths Insight and Action-Planning Guide. This guide goes far beyond the standardized reports of the older assessment by providing you with personalized insight statements unique to your specific combination of strengths. These highly customized Strengths Insights are an in-depth analysis of your top five strengths. They describe who you are in astonishing detail and provide you with a comprehensive understanding of yourself, your strengths and what makes you stand out. These updated resources, in combination with the 20th anniversary edition of Now, Discover Your Strengths, give you the best opportunity to soar with your strengths -- at work and in your life.

Applying this revolutionary management strategy to drive positivechange in an organization Currently exploding onto the American business scene, the Six Sigmamethodology fuels improved effectiveness and efficiency in anorganization; according to General Electric's Jack Welch, it's the"most important initiative [they] have ever undertaken." Written bythe consultant to GE Capital who helped implement Six Sigma at GEand GE's General Manager of e-Commerce, Making Six Sigma Lastoffers businesses the tools they need to make Six Sigma work forthem--and cultivate long-lasting, positive results. Successful SixSigma occurs when the technical and cultural components of changebalance in an organization; this timely, comprehensive book isdevoted to the cultural component of implementing Six Sigma,explaining how to manage it to maintain that balance. The authorsaddress how to create the need for Six Sigma; diagnose the fourtypes of resistance to Six Sigma and how to overcome them; managethe systems and structures; and lead a Six Sigma initiative. Thisbook applies the Six Sigma approach to business operations acrossthe organization--unlike other titles that focus on productdevelopment. Plus, it provides strategies, tactics, and tools toimprove profitability by centering on the relationship betweenproduct defects and product yields, reliability, costs, cycle time,and schedule. George Eckes (Superior, CO) is the founder and principal consultantfor Eckes & Associates. His clients include GE Capital, Pfizer,Westin, Honeywell, and Volvo. Eckes has published numerous paperson the topic of performance improvement and is the author of TheSix Sigma Revolution: How General Electric and Others TurnedProcess into Profits (0-471-38822-X) (Wiley).

The Six Sigma process improvement methodology demonstrates the critical importance of properly collecting and analyzing data. From its roots in the manufacturing environment, the power of Six Sigma has found its way into virtually all areas of business – regardless of product, service, industry, or profession. Companies everywhere are recognizing that they can save money using Six Sigma. Minitab statistical software, which has been used since the 1970s, has consistently proven to be effective in analyzing data in the context of Six Sigma methodology. Filled with figures and written in easy-to-understand language, this manual will help you: • use Minitab’s functions to follow the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) roadmap; • minimize the use of equations in explanations of data analysis; • maximize your understanding of Minitab’s data analysis outputs. There are different Minitab screens that are used to create graphs and perform data analysis, and you’ll also learn how to create these graphs and enhance displays for presentation purposes. Whether you’re just learning Six Sigma or need a refresher course, Applying Six Sigma Using Minitab is a reference you’ll use time and again to complete projects, save money, and accomplish your goals.

Satisfy Stakeholders by Solving the Right Problems, in the Right Ways In Beyond Requirements, Kent J. McDonald shows how applying analysis techniques with an agile mindset can radically transform analysis from merely “gathering and documenting requirements” to an important activity teams use to build shared understanding. First, McDonald discusses the unique agile mindset, reviews the key principles underlying it, and shows how these principles link to effective analysis. Next, he puts these principles to work in four wide-ranging and thought-provoking case studies. Finally, he drills down on a full set of techniques for effective agile analysis, using examples to show how, why, and when they work. McDonald’s strategies will teach you how to understand stakeholders’ needs, identify the best solution for satisfying those needs, and build a shared understanding of your solution that persists throughout the product lifecycle. He also demonstrates how to iterate your analysis, taking advantage of what you learn throughout development, testing, and deployment so that you can continuously adapt, refine, and improve. Whether you’re an analysis practitioner or you perform analysis tasks as a developer, manager, or tester, McDonald’s techniques will help your team consistently find and deliver better solutions. Coverage includes Core concepts for analysis: needs/ solutions, outcome/output, discovery/delivery Adapting Lean Startup ideas for IT projects: customer delivery, build–measure–learn, and metrics Structuring decisions, recognizing differences between options and commitments, and overcoming cognitive biases Focusing on value: feature injection, minimum viable products, and minimum marketable features Understanding how analysis flows alongside your project’s lifecycle Analyzing users: mapping stakeholders, gauging commitment, and creating personas Understanding context: performing strategy (enterprise) analysis Clarifying needs: applying decision filters, assessing project opportunities, stating problems Investigating solutions: impact and story mapping, collaborative modeling, and acceptance criteria definition Kent J. McDonald uncovers better ways of delivering value. His experience includes work in business analysis, strategic planning, project management, and product development in the financial services, health insurance, performance marketing, human services, nonprofit, and automotive industries. He has a BS in industrial engineering from Iowa State University and an MBA from Kent State University. He is coauthor of Stand Back and Deliver: Accelerating Business Agility (Addison-Wesley, 2009).

Now published in its Third Edition, Principles of Strategic Management by Tony Morden is a proven textbook that offers a comprehensive introduction to the study and practice of strategic management. This new edition covers the fundamentals of strategic analysis and planning, strategy formulation, strategic choice, and strategy implementation. It contains new material on leadership and corporate governance, and on the strategic management of time, risk, and performance. There is a new chapter on the key issue of crisis and business continuity management. The book retains the strong international flavour of its predecessors. The book is constructed in sharply focused Parts and Chapters. The text is then broken down into accessible Sections. The presentation is clear and reader-friendly. Principles of Strategic Management is ideal for use on undergraduate, conversion masters, and MBA courses in business and management. Its reader-friendly approach also makes it suitable for block-release type courses, distance-learning programmes, self-directed study, in-company training, and continuing personal professional development.