All You Gotta Do Is Ask [Paperback]

Chuck Yorke (Author), Norman Bodek (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0971243654 | ISBN-13: 978-0971243651 | Publication Date: February 1, 2005

Every worker has infinite creative ability to solve the myriad of problems around them. Management just has to learn how to ask people for their ideas and allow them to implement their own ideas to make their work easier, more interesting and to build their skills and capabilities. The book explains in detail how to build this marvelous system to empower people to become changemakers. Gulfstream went from .2 ideas per year per worker in 2005 to over 33 implemented ideas last year.

By sumanth tower (Arlington, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This book is the best one I have read on helping a company engage it's employees to move ahead of the competition.

Everyone in management should read this book. Even if you aren't in management, as an employee this book might be of use in helping you understand why your company needs your ideas, it is well worth the price.

As Alan Robinson, author of Ideas Are Free, states in the foreword, the book "explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from your employees, something most organizations do very poorly, if at all."

All You Gotta Do Is Ask is simple and profound, it should be read, heard, understood, and implemented. The main insight is that companies can compete more effectively by paying attention to their people's improvement ideas.

By V. Kumar "Yaniv" (Miami, Florida) - See all my reviews


This is an excellent book, and it is one of the best books that i have read. Unlike other books the authors of this book have done a great job in using simple "Lingo" for everyone to understand. I would strongly recommend this book to all levels of the management since they tend to make this topic more complicated than necessary. This book very simple to understand yet powerful enough to send the message across - "All You Gotta Do Is Ask".

By Vivi (Mauritius, Indian Ocean) - See all my reviews

This is a brilliant book and I would recommend every management, either big or small to read it.
This book takes you in a voyage of how you can get your employees to be more involved. As all of us know the economy is dropping and all the help that we can get from our own employee is a blessing.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A simple approach and a very powerful message.." -- David Veech, Manager, Lean Certification Programs, University of Kentucky

"Wonderful content, brilliant message. In my opinion you two have a winner" -- Mark Edmundson - President, Lean Affiliates

About the Author

Biographies

Charles J. Yorke
[e-mail]

Chuck Yorke led the process to involve all employees at Technicolor in improvement activities. Over 19,000 improvement ideas were received in the year prior to the publication of this book. Over 10,000 of those ideas were implemented (a 900 percent improvement over two years earlier), resulting in many process and safety improvements as well as significant cost savings. Chuck also implemented an ongoing lean enterprise coaching process for supervisors and hourly associates, promoting the transfer of lean tools and concepts to the plant floor. Prior to his work at Technicolor, Chuck worked as a consultant and trainer. He provided QuestOne Decision Science’s Constraints Management training for General Motors Corporation, Ford Motor Company, and other manufacturing organizations. He is also recognized as a certified Kepner-Tregoe program leader for Chrysler Corporation. Chuck has facilitated many workshops in problem solving, communication skills, systems thinking, and other programs. In addition, he has health care experience, with responsibility for operations of facilities with gross revenues over $20 million annually.

Chuck has a Bachelor Degree in Communications from Eastern Michigan University, and the following certifications:

• Instructor, situational leadership;
• Coach, The Team Learning Lab (Interactive Learning Laboratories, Inc);
• Instructor, Quick and Easy Kaizen;
• Certified by Development Dimensions International (DDI) as a master trainer for DDI’s learning systems;
• Certified by Development Dimensions International (DDI) as a facilitator for over 50 programs including: coaching, trust, leading effective meetings, communication;
• Program leader for Root Cause Analysis (Chrysler);
• Certified by Kepner-Tregoe. Program includes: situation appraisal, problem analysis, decision analysis, and potential problem analysis;
• Instructor, The Power of Focus Management using Outlook (Time/Design, PathWise)..

Norman Bodek
[e-mail]

Norman Bodek is the president of PCS Inc., a publishing and consulting company in Vancouver, Washington. In 1979, he started Productivity Inc. Press and published hundreds of management books on productivity, quality, and Lean manufacturing. At Productivity, he also developed and published numerous management training programs, training videos, ran major national conferences on productivity and quality, over 200 seminars and workshops a year, 50 study missions to Japan, and published five monthly newsletters. From his 60 trips to Japan, he met and published the works of the Taiichi Ohno, Dr. Shigeo Shingo, the co-creators of the Toyota Production System (Lean manufacturing), and many other masters in manufacturing improvement. He even reprinted and republished the 1926 book of Henry Ford Today and Tomorrow. He introduced to the West important Lean tools and techniques discovered in Japan: JIT, Jidoka, 5S, Value Stream Mapping, SMED, QFD, CEDAC, Hoshin Kanri, Andon, Kanban, and Poka-Yoke. He started the Shingo Prize and is a Shingo Prize winner.

Norman introduced Technicolor Corporation and other companies to Quick and Easy Kaizen. At Technicolor in Detroit, Michigan, prior to his workshops, the company received in the year 2001 only 250 suggestions with 113 implemented, while in the last twelve months (ending October, 2004) the company received 22,000 suggestions with over 12,000 implemented, resulting in over $10,000,000 in cost savings. He is a consultant and frequent speaker on Kaizen, Kaikaku, and Lean manufacturing. In 2004 he was invited to keynote the IIE Lean conference in Los Angeles, California and the Quality System Conference in Detroit, Michigan. In 2005 he will keynote conferences for APICS, ASQ and others. He has written close to 100 published management articles and is the author of two prior books, The Idea Generator – Quick and Easy Kaizen and Kaikaku The Power and Magic of Lean.

Product Details

• Paperback: 261 pages
• Publisher: PCS Press (February 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971243654
• ISBN-13: 978-0971243651
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All You Gotta Do Is Ask, March 7, 2005

By 

sumanth tower (Arlington, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All You Gotta Do Is Ask (Paperback)

This book is the best one I have read on helping a company engage it's employees to move ahead of the competition.

Everyone in management should read this book. Even if you aren't in management, as an employee this book might be of use in helping you understand why your company needs your ideas, it is well worth the price.

As Alan Robinson, author of Ideas Are Free, states in the foreword, the book "explains how to promote large numbers of ideas from your employees, something most organizations do very poorly, if at all."

All You Gotta Do Is Ask is simple and profound, it should be read, heard, understood, and implemented. The main insight is that companies can compete more effectively by paying attention to their people's improvement ideas.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars No more than the title, September 21, 2005

By 

Andrea Pinnola "Lean Reader" (Italy) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All You Gotta Do Is Ask (Paperback)

I was really interested in reading a book that promised to give a deep understanding on how to get people involvement and how to manage that process; also the authors' biographies were very promising.
So I was really surprised and puzzled when reading page after page I could extract only generic advice (already known) and couldn't find anything useful, with some exception (see interview chapter XXII). Just reading the title is enough to get the message.
Luckily, the companion book "The Idea Generator: Quick & Easy Kaizen" is much better.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All You Gotta Do Is Ask, March 7, 2005

By 

Suvir "Suvir" (Detroit, MI, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: All You Gotta Do Is Ask (Paperback)

As I read this book, I began to think of organizations in a new way. It opened my eyes to how businesses can improve. I always thought real improvement ideas needed to come from management, engineering, or a research and development department.

The authors have practical experience in transforming organizations by applying the principles described in this book. Real improvement comes through the people who do the work.

I strongly recommend this to anyone remotely interested in the survival of their organization.