Focused Quality: Managing for Results

Focused Quality: Managing for Results is a book about using quality improvement as a means to enhance bottom line results. Written for managers in industry, services, healthcare and government, this important new book provides a focused approach on how to target critical improvement initiatives and insure their success. Prepare - Plan - Deploy - Transition are the steps in the improvement process that are covered in detail. Included are examples of how organizations have successfully accomplished each step. Practical lessons on how to and how not to implement quality and process improvement initiatives are given. Process assessment is crucial to identifying the importance of a process and defining the scope of what is involved in order to improve it. Before deciding to refine, redesign or reengineer an assessment is needed. Focused Quality: Managing for Results not only shows you how to do an assessment but also how to apply the results to improve the bottom line. Application is emphasized throughout the book with the focus on the managers role in leading the change effort. The authors have provided a set of questions that management should answer to determine if their organization is ready to effectively implement the improvement process. Realizing that even the best plans can go astray there is also a diagnostic check sheet to pinpoint the causes of and solutions for process improvement failures.

Table of Contents:
TABLE OF -PART I: MANAGING THE VITAL FEW1 Why Focused Quality Management? Where TQM Falls Short The Way It Is A Maze of Frustration The Way It Should BePART II: FOCUSED QUALITY MANAGEMENT: A FRAMEWORK FOR SUCCESS2 Prepare: Laying the Foundation Organize a Quality Leadership Team Envision the Organization Assess the Organization The Process Assessment3 Plan: Focusing Process Improvements4 Deploy: Making Process Improvements Happen Charter the Improvement Teams Improve the Process Test the Improvements5 Deploy: Making Organizational Improvements Happen Training: A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste Reward and Recognition: Credit Where Credit Is Due Measurement: If You Can't Measure It, You Can't Manage It 100 Communication: The Message Is the Medium 102 In Conclusion 1046 Transition: Making It Stick Introduction Applying Advanced Tools and Techniques Employee Empowerment Toward Process Empowerment Alignment and ReassessmentPART III: LEADING THE CHANGE7 Leading the Charge Leadership Commitment and Vision Individual Resistance and Skills Development Incentives Resources Action Planning8 Is the Organization Ready? Does the Organization Have a Vision? Have the Mission and Values of the Organization Been Developed and Clearly Communicated? Has an Organizational Assessment Been Done? Have Strategic Business Goals Been Identified? Have the Key Business Processes Been Identified? How Do Key Business Processes Affect Critical Success Factors? Have the Capability Gaps Been Identified? Do Employees Want to Do a Good Job? Do They Have What They Need to Do So? Is Quality Rewarded? Is the Organization Focused? Is the Organization Ready?9 When Things Go Wrong The Whole Is Greater than the Sum of the Parts Has the Vision Been Communicated? Do Employees Have All the Skill

Review :
"This is definitely a book you should read…that is if you want to get bottom-line results." C. Jack Grayson, Chairman, American Productivity & Quality Center "This book was written because we have seen a growing-in fact, an alarming number of organizations going down the path to total quality management, only to falter, fail, or worse, start drifting and blame TQM. In the process we've seen some organizations that have been very successful with TQM and benchmarking. We've seen bottom-line results. And we've seen smiling CEO's and workers. Something is wrong, terribly wrong... Upper management either is or is not involved. When upper management doesn't drive the TQM effort, the results are disappointing at best. That's why I encouraged the authors of this book to write it. They have created a philosophy and concrete methodology for producing results from TQM. And the best way to get quality results is to read this book" C. Jack Grayson (FOLLOWING REVIEW ADDED 7/22/98) "...an excellent resource and a very easy read... The parts that are especially good relate to the empowerment of employees and the new role of middle-level managers in supporting (focused quality management)." -Canadian Public Administration