The stock-in-trade of Quality Consultants is lean transformations; and in the US and world-wide it is big business.  When it is done properly, a lean manufacturing system, is a powerful tool.  I tell people that installing the lean production system will make your firm

• a better money-making machine,

• a more secure  workplace for all your employees and

• the supplier of choice to your customers. 

However, too many of the lean transformations have lost their way and seem to be failures.  They are not failures in theory, they are failures in execution.  Specifically lean manufacturing is;  “The creation of a culture of continuous improvement and respect for people”.   And the “Means to Lean” is:

• Problem solving to reach the Ideal State

• Through the total elimination of waste;

• Using a fully engaged  workforce

And most managers focus intently on the ‘continuous improvement” aspect and ignore the “respect for people” element which is the engine that makes lean manufacturing, especially its sustainability.  More specifically, if only managers could focus on the 3rd element of the “Means to lean” and create a fully engaged workforce, they will have created a culture of “respect for people”.

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This book is precisely about that subject.  You now have the “bookends to a lean transformation”.  With “How To Implement Lean Manufacturing, 2nd Edition, you have all the cultural, managerial and leadership guidance to create and sustain a culture of continuous improvement.  Then “Sustaining Workforce Engagement – How To Ensure Your Employees Are Healthy, Happy and Productive “ takes over on the human element and takes a deep scholarly and practical dive into all that is required to create a culture of respect for people.

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Sustaining Workforce Engagement: How to Ensure Your Employees Are Healthy, Happy, and Productive explains the importance of employee engagement – It defines what it is, what it will do for your business, and how you can achieve it as well as sustain it. It covers the history of employee engagement along with why employees were formerly much more engaged with their work and company than they are currently.

 

The author explains, in depth, why employees want to be engaged but are not. He discusses the emotional, psychological and social forces that make engagement, the state that people naturally and continually attempt to achieve.  Furthermore, he makes a compelling case that engagement is not only natural, but, when achieved, it also creates a happy and productive workforce where employees are not only emotionally but also physically more healthy.

 

You will learn exactly how a business can not only cause this engagement to surface, but also how to sustain it.  He presents a complete discussion of the "basics and beyond" that are required to support a system of engagement. He explains engagement as a system and how to interpret and utilize a system diagram using the "high leverage points" to further fuel and sustain engagement.

 

The book then provides a critical and comprehensive series of discussions of precisely what management must do to unlock the power of a fully engaged workforce. In addition to learning how to measure engagement, there are detailed discussions, along with two confirming case studies, of how to improve your levels of engagement.Essentially, the author examines engagement from top to bottom integrating the theories of the scholars, with the experiences of the practitioners.  In so doing he can explain, in simple terms, how engagement can be achieved and why people try so hard to create a fully engaged workforce with both the best of intentions and a true passion to achieve it … yet fall short.

 

There is a simple reason -- achieving engagement is all about management and the many changes that must be made, and that raises the crucial question: Is management both willing and able to recognize, accept, and execute the needed paradigm shifts? The stark reality is that the changes that must first occur are in the thoughts, beliefs, and actions of the management team. This book gives you a path to follow that may achieve just that. And the remaining question for the senior management is: What are you prepared to do?

 

The mystery of achieving engagement is known, the science is known, the answers are not technically complicated, and now it comes down to a simple choice: Are you or are you not willing to change? And with that choice, there are resultant consequences. It is no more complicated than that.