Mike Taigman » EMS

Quality Management Books

Mike Taigman — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:47:17 +0000

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.

Benchmarking: The Art of Swiping Good Ideas

Mike Taigman — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 17:22:44 +0000

When you chat with people in most organizations about their sources of frustration some version of Communications is always in the first couple of things they list. I’ve yet to visit a place where people say they know too much about what’s going on or have too much input into their leadership team.

In the quality management world one of the things we do when faced with frustrations is look for other organizations that excel in the area we are struggling with. We will study that organization’s process to learn about things that might help us at home. This is called “Benchmarking” or swiping best practices.

When it comes to communications, letting people throughout the organization know what’s going on and providing a way for them to share their thoughts and participate there are not many shining examples of success. There is one small organization that seems to be on a path to implementing a world-class set of practices to address the communications frustration. Check out their website www.whitehouse.gov

Is it possible that those who lead other organizations could adapt some of these best practices?

And So It Begins

Mike Taigman — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:06:44 +0000

For the last several years people have been saying things like, “You really need a blog” or “I can’t believe that you’re not a blogger.” I thought blogger might some kind of insult hurled by British rugby players or some type of ugly birthmark. It might be both and finally I’m taking the plunge. I’m excited about having a soapbox on which to share random thoughts on EMS, leadership, quality management, and life in general. Thanks for checking in.