The Book that Changed Me: “Understanding Variation”

For my latest “LinkedIn Influencer” post, I was asked to participate in a series about “The Book that Changed Me.”

I chose to highlight not a book about Toyota or Lean or a book by Dr. W. Edwards Deming… but rather the amazing book Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by Professor Donald J. Wheeler.

Get the book. Read it. Study it. Use it. It's that good. It's that helpful.

It's a wonderfully powerful book… basically, it's all about how to use “Statistical Process Control” (SPC) principles to make better management decisions… and it's the basis of my Society for Health Systems Conference presentation this February.

Check out my LinkedIn article here:  “Understanding Variation”: How I Learned to Ignore the Noise in Data and Focus on Fixes

And the book:

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Mark Graban

Mark Graban is an internationally-recognized consultant, author, and professional speaker who has worked in healthcare, manufacturing, and startups. He is author of the Shingo Award-winning books Lean Hospitals and Healthcare Kaizen, as well as The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. His most recent book is the anthology Practicing Lean that benefits the Louise H. Batz Patient Safety Foundation, where Mark is a board member. Mark is also a Senior Advisor to the technology company KaiNexus. His latest book has been released as an "in-progress" book, titled Measures of Success.