The Change Agent's Guide to Radical Improvement [Paperback]

Ken Miller (Author), Robin L. Lawton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2002

What separates excellent organizations from the truly ordinary? What allows some organizations to rapidly change and continually reinvent themselves while others have trouble making even modest improvements? The fundamental ingredient is the presence of change agents. Change agents are individuals who have the knowledge, skills, and tools to help organizations create radical improvement. They achieve results through their keen ability to facilitate groups of people through well-defined processes to develop, organize, and sell new ideas. They are the invisible hands that turn vision into action.

The Change Agent's Guide to Radical Improvement is a comprehensive how-to book, packed with all of the information and tools necessary to make any improvement project a rousing success. Its unique methods integrate the best practices in organizational development, team building, voice of the customer, reengineering, problem solving, creativity, innovation, and project management.

The systematic change agent model introduced in this book will help you:

* Pick the right improvement projects to work on, by diagnosing the real issues effecting the organization.
* Organize the project so that it has the best chance to succeed, by uncovering the project's success criteria, securing management support, and building the right team.
* Select the best change process to improve customer satisfaction, reengineer a process, solve a problem or develop a plan.
* Generate innovative out of the box ideas that dramatically impact the bottom line.
* Navigate the politics of change; ensuring radical ideas become radical improvements.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ken Miller is a veteran change agent who has lead, facilitated, trained, and supervised over one hundred teams. He has put his concepts to work some of the most difficult environments. As Deputy Director of the Missouri Department of Revenue he lead the effort to transform a government agency responsible for collecting taxes and licensing cars and drivers, into a State Quality Award winner - one of only three government agencies in the country to receive such a distinction. He was then named Director of Performance Improvement for the State of Missouri. As a partner in a consulting firm Ken has worked with organizations in nearly every industry, but especially enjoys sharing his innovative concepts with the 85% of us that don't manufacture widgets.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Amer Society for Quality (January 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0873895347
• ISBN-13: 978-0873895347
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #655,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WOW!!, April 9, 2002

By 

"lane55" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Change Agent's Guide to Radical Improvement (Paperback)

Ken Miller has hit the nail on the head with The Change Agent's Guide to Radical Improvement. Whether you are a seasoned Change Agent / Quality guru, or somebody who often asks "Why do we do it this way?", you need to read this book. That experience alone will leave you energized and chomping at the bit to identify and begin projects that ACTUALLY DELIVER RESULTS.

Miller has provided us with a comprehensive "How-to" guide for making your organization (corporate, government, education, healthcare, Service) and yourself very valuable. The chapters are well-written, easy to understand and thought-provoking. From the proper diagnosis of a project to the implementation to the wonderful method of tracking results, it is literally the only book you need to drive change through your organization. Since reading the book and attending the author's academy, I've used many new, as well as old tools to more effectively run meetings, solve problems, improve processes and lead planning sessions. The big difference I've noticed with the use of the old tools is that I now use them in the proper situations. Miller also identifies the "Change Agent Body Of Knowledge," the features a person must have to be a successful agent of change.

Read this book. You won't regret it, and you might possibly change the way you approach your work. Appropriate for all levels of the organization, especially management.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Replace your entire Quality Library with this One Book!, March 6, 2002

By 

BJ B (Missouri USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Change Agent's Guide to Radical Improvement (Paperback)

If you are a student of improvement, then this book is an "All You Can Eat Buffet" of your favorite foods. It literally takes the best of thousands of quality principles and tools and combines them into one easy to read and use manual.

Ken Miller's book on tools for change agents has failed to find a prominent place on my bookshelf not because of content, but I simply have not been able to put the book away since I first opened it. It reenergized me as a team leader and has contributed greatly to the effectiveness of our improvement efforts.

Chapters are written using examples that are well suited for the subject matter and that the reader can easily relate to. At the end of each chapter are easy to follow tools that will quickly become an indispensable component in your facilitating arsenal. My personal favorites include the techniques for getting more out of brainstorming, and Ken's methods for analyzing projects.

This comprehensive book is a must have for everyone who wants to see their company grow! Before you start your next team initiative do yourself an enormous favor, READ THIS BOOK!

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've been waiting for this book...., June 3, 2002

By 

Kristin J. Arnold (Fairfax, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Change Agent's Guide to Radical Improvement (Paperback)

This book is the perfect marriage between process improvement methods and Rob Lawton's Creating a Customer-Centered Culture. Ken has provided a clear roadmap for organizations to get focused on the customer, measure things that the customer cares about, and achieve those results with the least amount of pain and agony.
I have already recommended this book to several of my clients who are starting (or are already on) the journey of using teams, focusing on the customer and improving their organizations. It has everything you need, so it's a great reference book as well.