Asking tough questions about the current state of project management, The 12 Pillars of Project Excellence: A Lean Approach to Improving Project Results provides groundbreaking techniques to achieve excellence in project leadership that can result in six sigma type results or failure-free projects. It unveils novel solutions and breakthrough concepts—including project culture analysis, the five powers of project leadership, the power of visualizationTM, the science of simplicityTM, dynamic risk leadership, and dynamic project failures analysis—to help you chart the most efficient path to the pinnacle of project leadership. Winner of a 2013 Axiom Business Book Award The author provides the cutting-edge methods based on decades of personal practical experience, valuable lessons learned, and authoritative insights gained from leading over 300 projects to successful conclusions. Complete with powerful tools for organizational- and self-assessment on the accompanying CD, this book will not only transform your approach to project management, but will also provide you with the tools to develop effective leaders and consistently achieve exceptional business results. Some Praise for the Book: ... a highly pragmatic guide to project management. ... lays out the way of thinking that underpins success... a book that everyone could benefit from. —Mikel J. Harry, Ph.D., co-creator of Six Sigma provides the most significant contribution for leaders to mitigate project risks, assure sustainable growth, and guarantee survival... . —Carlos Alberto Briganti, general manager of Eaton Europe and Japan, 2001-2003; vice president of Eaton South America 2004-2007 ... one of the BEST books I have ever read on project leadership. —John Salazar, CIO Department of Work Force Solutions; former CIO of Department of Taxation & Revenue, State of New Mexico ... a comprehensive guide that will assist any business leader within an organization to consistently achieve excellent business results! A ‘must buy’—get it now! —Billy Billimoria, director, customer applications, BAE Systems; program director, Lockheed Martin; project engineer, Space Shuttle and Support Equipment Design

Asking tough questions about the current state of project management, The 12 Pillars of Project Excellence: A Lean Approach to Improving Project Results provides groundbreaking techniques to achieve excellence in project leadership that can result in six sigma type results or failure-free projects. It unveils novel solutions and breakthrough concep

Marketing is about placing a new product or service into the market. Projects are about delivering new products and services. The merger of these two fields holds great promise for delivering value to organizations and their clients. Project managers can serve many markets ranging from investors who fund projects to that of clients who use new products and services. Marketing Projects is a guide for helping project managers have projects funded or deliver value to end users. It is also a guide for marketing managers new to the world of project management. The book begins by presenting the basics of both marketing and project management and highlights the aspects that are unique and relevant to both areas. It then explores marketing project feasibility and presents tools for assessing feasibility, which include the 6Ps of project management strategy: The project 4Ps: plan, processes, people, and power PRO: pessimistic, realistic, and optimistic scenarios POVs: points of vulnerability POE: point of equilibrium POW: product, organization, and work breakdown structures PWP: work psychodynamics This book illustrates how to use these tools to market new projects to potential sponsors and investors. It then explores marketing projects to end users. Crucial to the success of projects are the relationships between project managers and clients and the way marketing experts implement their strategies. This book explains how project managers can develop meaningful relationships with clients to foster trust and have positive interactions. Project managers excel at managing the processes for delivering new products and services. Marketers are keenly aware of latent, or unconscious needs, as well as those developing and emerging, and can provide project promoters and managers with exciting ideas. This book will help improve the mutual understanding between marketing and project managers, an effort ultimately benefiting end users, whether they be investors or customers. A better work atmosphere and a closer fit between marketing and project management objectives can only serve the interests of investors and end users, for whom marketers and project managers conceive and realize projects, one way or the other.

This book presents a set of tools that will aid in deciding whether a project should go ahead, be improved, or abandoned altogether by pinpointing its vulnerabilities. It offers a review of project feasibility analysis, and more critically, psychodynamic aspects that are often neglected, including how stakeholders interact. It provides a complement to the common techniques used for analyzing technical, financial, and marketing feasibility. The goal is to identify "hidden truths" and eliminate those gray areas that jeopardize the success of a given project. The focus is on uncovering points of vulnerabilities in four key aspects of a project: People, Power, Processes, and Plan.

Explaining how to implement and sustain a top-down strategy for manufacturing excellence, The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence: A Leader’s Guide to Achieving and Sustaining Excellence provides a comprehensive, proven approach for delivering world-class performance while also cultivating the right culture through leadership and mentoring. Tapping into four decades of leadership experience, 35 years of it in the manufacturing industry, Larry Fast explains how to achieve vertical and horizontal alignment across your organization. He details a clear pathway to excellence via the 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence and provides a method for tracking progress—plant by plant and function by function. Emphasizing the importance of using Lean and Six Sigma tools to improve your business, the book: Integrates strategy and leadership development Paves a path for culture change–Operator-Led Process Control (OLPC)—that prepares hourly employees to take control of their processes and prepares management to enable them to do it Details an audit process for tracking progress and ensuring sustainability Includes a CD with color versions of the images in the book as well as a sample Manufacturing Excellence Audit, a sample Communications Plan, and a sample Training Plan that can all be easily customized for the reader’s use This resource-rich book will allow you to spell out leadership expectations and provide your employees and associates with a clear understanding of their individual roles. Helping you keep everyone in your organization focused during the quest towards sustainable manufacturing excellence, the accompanying CD supplies the tools you and your team will need to pursue it with passion, confidence, and urgency. Listen to what Larry Fast has to say about his new book, The 12 Principles of Manufacturing Excellence. Part One — Part Two

This handbook’s intention is to gather into a single reference the information related to the joint lean certification program of SME, AME, The Shingo Prize, and ASQ. This book will enhance your understanding of the certification’s Body of Knowledge (BOK) as a whole and give you a more holistic look at lean. This comprehensive handbook covers all the topics included in the BOK: cultural enablers, continuous process improvement, consistent lean enterprise culture, and business results. Written by a team of lean experts with years of experience in the field, it will be indispensible to anyone interested in implementing and sustaining a lean initiative. The book is written, by design, at the Bronze Level for certification knowledge. This means that the weightings used in the Lean BOK for the Bronze Certification were considered for the depth and breadth of material considered for each rubric. By addressing the Lean BOK at the Bronze Level, this book provides a basic understanding of the lean principles, systems, and tools at a tactical level to drive improvements with measureable results. Material from several lean practitioners with differing backgrounds and experience has been gathered to create this handbook, which serves as an ideal starting point for practitioners who want both a holistic view of lean in general and also specifically the BOK of this groundbreaking joint certification program.

Fear is powerful, and it has a presence in whatever we do in life-whether that is passing our exams, keeping peace in our homes, or simply adjusting to the constantly changing world. In Fear, author J. Ibeh Agbanyim offers a guidebook that portrays fear as a healthy emotion-as long as it is well managed. Demonstrating practical ways that fear can work in our favor instead of working against us, Agbanyim focuses on the importance of using fear as a healthy emotion to achieve goals on a daily basis. He discusses techniques for believing in constructive fear, evaluating the quality of fear, adjusting to the conditions of life, and entertaining the notion that even Jesus feared. Through a step-by-step process, Agbanyim offers ways to - believe that a change of feeling is a change of destiny; - constructively adjust to changing conditions; - embrace the inconvenient truth; - learn how to forgive; and - learn how to sing a song when in the valley of tears. Fear presents valuable tools, practical techniques, and relevant advice for anyone willing to experience new vision and information for self-discovery that can lead to living a life of impact.

Master the 12 disciplines of powerful leadership and lead your organization to greatness We've all heard the phrase "born leader." Leadership experts Brian Tracy and Dr. Peter Chee are here to debunk the myth that you either have it or you don't. That leadership is a talent bestowed on some and not on others. That in order to lead effectively, you have to have it in your genes. The authors assert that great leaders are made, not born. Everyone has the ability to shape himself or herself into the kind of person who enables and uplifts others to reach their highest potential--and in 12 Disciplines of Leadership Excellence, they reveal exactly how to achieve it. It all starts with discipline. In this groundbreaking book, the authors break down great leadership into 12 disciplines, including: Clarity . . . about who you are, where you are going, and how to get there Control . . . build and bolster your sense of personal responsibility and self-mastery Character . . . dedicate yourself to passionately build trust with honesty and integrity Competence . . . commit to constant never-ending improvement and learning Caring . . . because when you care, your people care in building great working relationships Courage . . . moving out of your comfort zone to embrace change and make tough decisions One at a time. Don't try to take on too much at once. Choose a discipline and live it until it becomes a habit of excellence. Then move to the next one. It will take time--but all life-improving endeavors do. Read this practical, inspirational guide and every day you will take one more step to becoming a highly effective leader.

Driving Excellence tells the inspiring story of one man who, with no formal business training, turned an entire industry on its head. Mark Aesch proves that we really can run government like a business, and provide value to taxpayers and shareholders alike. When Aesch took over the Rochester Genesee Regional Transportation Authority in 2004, it was operating with a 27.7-million-dollar deficit, and was poised to raise fares, lay off employees, and slash service. Under Aesch's leadership, those deficits have been eradicated and replaced with multimillion-dollar surpluses; reliance on taxpayer subsidies has been reduced; demand for service has increased at rates three times the national average; and in an unprecedented move, the fare at the Authority's two largest subsidiaries were actually reduced. In Driving Excellence, Aesch shows readers how to create a culture built around selflessness rather than ego, and get employees invested in saving the company. In describing the transition from an ailing business to one that enjoys stunning success--lower fares, multi-million surpluses, and the highest ridership and customer satisfaction levels in twenty years--Aesch offers powerful principles that any organization can implement to achieve exceptional results.

Social Excellence is a philosophy--a lifestyle. Characterized by handshakes, deep, meaningful conversations, and heart-to-heart connections, people who choose Social Excellence understand that human connection is the key to changing the world. This book, overflowing with real-life examples of Social Excellence in action, is not a book to be read in quiet solitude. It is a book that dares the reader to engage with the people and society around them. The authors describe how to build masterful social skills, tell stories of how people have changed the world through interpersonal connection, and challenge readers to push their social comfort zones to the max through edgy Social Dares. Social Excellence: We Dare You is written to inspire community leaders, organizational members, non-profit volunteers, religious congregations, business leaders, political advocates, high-performing students, and anyone who is seeking a way to truly matter in the world.