How to Succeed with Continuous Improvement: A Primer for Becoming the Best in the World

I read this book from cover to cover in a few hours and felt really empowered when I was done. The real-life case study of the book really brought continuous improvement and its many benefits to life. I, for one, think that business books written in a story-telling style with some very practical examples open up interest across a broader audience and that is fundamental. If you ask me, reaching a critical mass of engaged employees is crucial if you want to succeed with CI. I think the many unique and quite funny concepts of this book is a great source of inspiration in achieving that.I see now that we have complicated things in the company I work for. Using a few, easy-to-use but effective tools is the way to go if you want to make continuous improvement everyone’s business. The final chapter about cultural pitfalls was a nice wrap-up, but it felt a bit awkward to realize that my organization unknowingly has gotten stuck in more or less all of them. I rarely do recommendations but I highly recommend this book to just about anyone working in any type of organization.

For people starting their journey Joakim gives you a great simple understanding of what continuous improvement is all about. For people that are experienced and in a "old" journey he explains why journeys fail and how to recuperate. For those in the middle a good heads up on what to avoid. In other words this book has something for everyone.

This book captivates the essence of working with continous improvements without mentioning a single japanese term. It's written in a very easy to melt style and that is why it's so good. A problem working with continous improvement is that we tend to speak a certain language, we love different complex models to calculate on waste reduction etc and that works fine when we communicate with our peers. However, it's usually not that crowd we need to get on board on when working with improvements. I have used the described way of working with improvements in my team for nearly a year now, and so far in I've never before seen this high level of commitment from my coworkers. After setting goals in group, following up and celebrating success I've spent exactly zero time on motivating my staff to reach our goals. It's an excellent book and I highly recommend it to everyone!

This is not a technical book, it's more about the story of how a company shifted their mind into a goal oriented mind set, teamwork and continuous improvement.There is value in this book, easy to read and you read it all in no time. A couple of techniques I found interesting and I'll definitely try in my organization; the 10 mins silent coaching and the 6 legs spider coaching format. Again, this book doesn't go about explaining these concepts in great detail, it just presents the concept and how they used it. However, these are easy to understand, adapt and implement most of the time.This book is not in my top list to be used as coaching and training resources, to me it's more like a big picture book to help you understand how several continuous improvement tools come and work together aligning forces whiting the organization. This is not a book where you will become an expert of some lean tools.Good purchase, I enjoyed reading it and I'll recommend it as people in my organization get more proficient in specific tools and they need help to see the a broader continuous implementation picture.

This book is a great source of inspiration to anyone wanting to succeed with actually creating continuous improvement. Apart from other textbooks in the field, it has a fundamentally human perspective: how to create improvement through your everyday work habits. It's not about Lean Tools, Six Sigma Black Belts or Strategic Improvement Programmes. It's about how to engage everyone in change and improvement, every day, one little step at a time. The narrative is compelling, the reflections are thoughtful, It's a good read and an easy one, making it the perfect book for distributing all over your organization. Do so, and you will be able to involve everyone in continous improvement, from day one!

Joakim has written this book to show how to create a high performing improvement culture. It is not only a book for leaders. If you ask me, just about everyone working in any organization would benefit from reading it. I have read some of Joakim’s other work on continuous improvement and I have seen him talk at conferences so my expectations were high, but they were exceeded. I enjoyed the story-telling format and like the focus on achieving results through continuous improvement and respect for people. I think that this book, in its simplicity, can play a crucial role in creating widespread commitment to continuous improvement.

Might be the best continuous improvement primer out there! I like the story-telling format which also makes it easier to see how to practically apply the concepts. I consider this an easy-to-follow guide to change mindsets that proves that increasing commitment and achieving results does not have to be complicated. After reading it I am strengthened in my conviction that the key is to keep it simple and focus on the essentials to make sure you reach a critical mass of committed colleagues. And if you succeed with that you will also succeed with continuous improvement.

This book does an excellent job of presenting one of the fundamental thought of continuous improvement - the largest improvements lay between the processes, not inside of them. The business novel approach the author uses helps the readability of the subject and increase the potential of the ideas to sink into the mind of the reader.

I bought this on the strength of the 5 star reviews and because there are relatively few books on the subject out there. A useful tool, up to a point but the relatively narrow focus, the narrative style and lack of examples outside of the author's own experience was disappointing. I also get annoyed frankly with publishers who sell content like this at a premium price point with so few pages in the book. Having read The Lean Start up at the same time, that was far more illuminating and showed you how a book on this subject should look.

Well written book easy to follow and made the subject exciting and energising.

I read a lot of business and coaching books and have always found books on continuous improvement dry, too detailed and difficult to absorb for someone who has an interest but doesn't want to become a guru. As other reviewers have said, the style of the book, explained through a story of implementation at an company made the topic so accessible I really enjoyed it. I can really see how I can use this within my organisation and get results quickly. One of the most practical books I have read in a long time.

Excellent choice for my daughter

Excellent book, CI explained simply.