One of my Quality Management grad students asked me to recommend the 10 best quality oriented books for his library. Here’s the list I gave him:

#1 Data Sanity by Davis Balestracci

#2 Hardwiring Excellence by Quint Studer

#3 The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance by Langley, Nolan, Noman, Provost, and Nolan (This is the primary text book for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Improvement Advisor Course)

#4 The Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge

#5 Out of the Crisis by Edward Deming

#6 Escape Fire by Donald Berwick

#7 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig ( I know it sounds strange, but this may be the first good book on quality management ever written)

#8 Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman (This is the single best book I’ve ever read on systems thinking)

#9 A Systems View of Education Concepts and Principles for Effective Practice by Bela Banathy (This is a very difficult book to read, however it provides you with set of mental models through which you can view systems that’s hard to beat.)

#10 Process Consulting Revisited: Building the Helping Relationship by Edgar Schein

There are quite a few others that are great, but there’s only so much room on a top 10 list.