Want a preview of what you'll learn from Tom Devane & Associates? The firm's CEO and namesake has written a powerful book that helps readers at all levels integrate best practices in “hard” (technical) and “soft” (people) aspects of performance improvement to achieve sustainable results and instill an attitude of continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Integrating Lean Six Sigma and High-Performance Organizations: Leading the Charge Toward Dramatic, Rapid and Sustainable Improvement (Pfeiffer/A Wiley Imprint, 2004, ISBN: 0-7879-6973-7, $45.00) offers the principles, tools, and guidance you need to solve common problems and create an environment that fosters High-Performance. This book offers:

· A description of proven principles and a set of tools that help leaders focus on high-leverage activities that generate cost-effective, rapid, sustainable improvement
· Practical suggestions for integrating “hard” and “soft” aspects of performance improvement
· Templates and "lessons learned" analyses that can be used to develop effective plans and implement them
· A wealth of pragmatic solutions that can be consulted on an as-needed basis

Best of all, Integrating Lean Six Sigma and High-Performance Organizations is packed with colorful, real-life stories from a wide range of companies—stories that readers can easily apply to their own circumstances. If you are a manager or executive seeking sustainable improvements, an organizational change agent, an organization development or human resources professional, or a consultant, this book will help you lead your company to the next level of performance.

Endorsements

Tom Devane has provided a straightforward, practical guide for leaders striving to improve their business results. Moving quickly from the theory to pragmatic tips and time proven tools, Devane offers a leader's roadmap for performance improvement in today's rapidly changing business environment.

Karl Schmidt
Vice President Process Excellence
Johnson & Johnson
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This is the book that I've been really looking for until now! Why? Because it exactly guides us through a practical methodology and concepts that any business enterprise would benefit from. From my experience as a business practitioner and quality trainer, it is vital to integrate and harmonize "the hard part", which helps to improve the current processes and products -- tackling the vital few causes of the problems -- and "the soft part", which helps to obtain the buy-in from the key stakeholders and the employees for a change. This book is a wonderful roadmap for innovation in the combination of productivity, interactive communication, and customer satisfaction.

Takashi Masumoto
Regional leader and Six Sigma Trainer
General Electric, Japan
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This is a break-through synthesis of the best of cutting-edge practices for improving organizational performance. Tom Devane has developed a practical handbook for leaders, internal change agents, and consultants, clearly laying out the key principles and methods for achieving improvements that are both dramatic and sustainable. He describes an integrated, comprehensive approach that achieves greater results by building ownership for the change throughout the organization, while implementing process improvement methods and tools, and building the core competencies required for implementation. The result is a road map for successful change that will work the first time around, start producing results quickly, and continue to work reliably into the future of the organization.

Saul Eisen, Ph.D.
Coordinator
Psychology Master's Program in Organization Development
Sonoma State University
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Development of a high potential organization requires dedication, innovation and a set of proven processes. Tom Devane has given the tools to any company that wants to become a high quality and performance organization.

Gary Hunt
Vice President Human Resources, Administration, and MIS
Operational Management International, Inc
Winner of the Baldrige Award in 2000

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Devane is also co-author (along with Peggy Holman) of The Change Handbook: Group Methods for Shaping the Future, a book that explores proven change strategies for tapping human potential in organizations and communities. It showcases 18 tried-and-true methods for facilitating change in a group situation, each explained by an expert who developed or elaborated on the method. Here are a few comments from professionals who reviewed this book:

Margaret J. Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science, co-author, A Simpler Way
"An invaluable guide to the most promising change work being done in organizations today. This book is a genuine gift to all those seeking to create workplaces that truly welcome people's commitment and creativity."

Peter Block, author, Flawless Consulting and Stewardship
"This book is about great ideas written from the experience of great people. The methods lovingly detailed in the book are for those who want to change the world 60 to 600 people at a time. The practical techniques are based on an optimistic, affectionate view of human nature and a faith in the capacity that resides in each citizen. The authors are radical in that they believe in democracy, they know that the answer that we seek outside really resides within, and they each have given their lives to perfect the strategies that they describe. Reading this book will place you in great company, regardless of where you sit in the grand scheme of things. If organization and community change is what you care about, and hope is what you long for, this book offers a doable path to both. It is a good book, nicely edited, delivered in bites that you can swallow."

Tom White, Senior Executive Vice President - Market Operations, GTE Corporation
"Lots of change management books tell you how things work in theory. This one also shows how the culture change process at GTE and other companies worked in practice. It's a good resource for any leader looking for both ideas and proven results."

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