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Improving Performance: How to Manage the White Space on the Organizational Chart
Streamline the processes vital to optimum performance
With over 100,000 copies sold worldwide, Improving Performance is recognized as the book that launched the Process Improvement revolution. It was the first such approach to bridge the gap between organization strategy and the individual. Now, in this revised and expanded new edition, Rummler and Brache reflect on the key needs of organizations faced with today's challenge of managing change. With multiple charts, checklists, hands-on tools and case studies, the authors show how they implemented their Performance Improvement methodology in over 250 successful projects with clients such as Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Shell Oil, and Citibank.
With over 100,000 copies sold worldwide, Improving Performance is recognized as the book that launched the Process Improvement revolution. It was the first such approach to bridge the gap between organization strategy and the individual. Now, in this revised and expanded new edition, Rummler and Brache reflect on the key needs of organizations faced with today's challenge of managing change. With multiple charts, checklists, hands-on tools and case studies, the authors show how they implemented their Performance Improvement methodology in over 250 successful projects with clients such as Hewlett-Packard, 3M, Shell Oil, and Citibank.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published June 15, 1990
36 people are currently reading
293 people want to read
About the author
Geary A. Rummler
10 books4 followersDr. Rummler was President of the Kepner-Tregoe Strategy Group, specialists in strategic decision making; co-founder (with Thomas F. Gilbert) and president of Praxis Corporation, an innovator in the analysis and improvement of human performance; co-founder (with George S. Odiorne) and director of the University of Michigan’s Center for Programmed Learning for Business.
Dr. Rummler was the founding partner of The Rummler-Brache Group, an organization that became a leader in the business process improvement and management business in the 1980s and 1990s, and the founding Partner of the Performance Design Lab (PDL), where he was continuing his life-long work on organizational performance improvement in complex systems.
He was a pioneer in the application of instructional and performance technologies to organizations and brings this experience to the issue of organization effectiveness. His clients in the private sector included the sales, service and manufacturing functions of the aircraft, automobile, steel, food, rubber, office equipment, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, chemical and petroleum industries; as well as the retail banking, and airline industries. He also worked with such federal agencies as IRS, SSA, HUD, GAO and DOT. Dr. Rummler’s research and consulting took him to Europe, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, China and Mexico.
He received his MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He served as the national president of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD)
, and a member of the Editorial Board of Training Magazine.
Dr. Rummler was the founding partner of The Rummler-Brache Group, an organization that became a leader in the business process improvement and management business in the 1980s and 1990s, and the founding Partner of the Performance Design Lab (PDL), where he was continuing his life-long work on organizational performance improvement in complex systems.
He was a pioneer in the application of instructional and performance technologies to organizations and brings this experience to the issue of organization effectiveness. His clients in the private sector included the sales, service and manufacturing functions of the aircraft, automobile, steel, food, rubber, office equipment, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, chemical and petroleum industries; as well as the retail banking, and airline industries. He also worked with such federal agencies as IRS, SSA, HUD, GAO and DOT. Dr. Rummler’s research and consulting took him to Europe, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, China and Mexico.
He received his MBA and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. He served as the national president of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI), a member of the Board of Directors of the American Society of Training and Development (ASTD)
, and a member of the Editorial Board of Training Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 7, 2018
The Big Takeaway: The horizontal organization of a business and how one's products or services are produced from start to finish are often overshadowed by the vertical compartmentalization of different departments within a company.
As a newer associate to my current place of employment and to corporate world in general, I would have to say that this book would be of more benefit to a person in middle management or higher. Despite that, I still learned and expanded my understanding of the business world. The information would have had a greater impact on me had I had a higher level of corporate experience than my current station.
The author did a nice job of explaining how management needs to look past just the vertical structuring of their companies and focus more on how a product or service moves from section to section throughout the entire creation process. There are multiple angles to view the organizational, procedural, and worker/job levels to find out where one's strengths and weaknesses are. With this knowledge, companies can reduce the inefficiencies as products or services move between departments on their path to the end consumer.
A particular point that stood out to me was using these different analysis techniques to accurately pinpoint where there is room for improvement and not just following what management feels is the cause of this problem. In once section the author walked through a scenario in which upper management wanted to enact a training program for their employees. After careful review, it was determined that the true issue laid in the procedural level and required that middle management in different departments better communicate with each other. Corrective action was better allocated after this study instead of the original plan of giving more training to the workers which would have been redundant and prossibly demoralizing.
One final takeaway from this book is that anytime a weakness is identified, the follow up actions must be communicated to everyone as ways to improve, not as punishment for doing something wrong. That will have a bigger impact on how people perceive the change and their willingness to help detect future items that need improving.
Again, there was valuable information in this book and I was able to walk away with the big picture. Due to my limited experience in the corporate world, I was not able to fully appreciate the deeper details presented by the author since I could not apply them to current and limited work situation as an regular associate. When I get to more of a middle management position and start looking at the bigger picture of the work done at my company, this book will be beneficial for me to reread.
As a newer associate to my current place of employment and to corporate world in general, I would have to say that this book would be of more benefit to a person in middle management or higher. Despite that, I still learned and expanded my understanding of the business world. The information would have had a greater impact on me had I had a higher level of corporate experience than my current station.
The author did a nice job of explaining how management needs to look past just the vertical structuring of their companies and focus more on how a product or service moves from section to section throughout the entire creation process. There are multiple angles to view the organizational, procedural, and worker/job levels to find out where one's strengths and weaknesses are. With this knowledge, companies can reduce the inefficiencies as products or services move between departments on their path to the end consumer.
A particular point that stood out to me was using these different analysis techniques to accurately pinpoint where there is room for improvement and not just following what management feels is the cause of this problem. In once section the author walked through a scenario in which upper management wanted to enact a training program for their employees. After careful review, it was determined that the true issue laid in the procedural level and required that middle management in different departments better communicate with each other. Corrective action was better allocated after this study instead of the original plan of giving more training to the workers which would have been redundant and prossibly demoralizing.
One final takeaway from this book is that anytime a weakness is identified, the follow up actions must be communicated to everyone as ways to improve, not as punishment for doing something wrong. That will have a bigger impact on how people perceive the change and their willingness to help detect future items that need improving.
Again, there was valuable information in this book and I was able to walk away with the big picture. Due to my limited experience in the corporate world, I was not able to fully appreciate the deeper details presented by the author since I could not apply them to current and limited work situation as an regular associate. When I get to more of a middle management position and start looking at the bigger picture of the work done at my company, this book will be beneficial for me to reread.
June 29, 2009
Step-by-step performance improvement method
The more involved you are with process improvement, the more you will benefit from reading this book. Consultants Geary A. Rummler and Alan P. Brache focus your thinking on their process improvement method by including detailed diagrams, practical examples and flow charts. They demonstrate how the traditional use of hierarchical organizational charts creates silos, isolated corporate operations that are separated by white space on the chart and, thus, are literally unconnected. The authors’ “three levels” approach to management can mitigate performance issues within that organizational white space and avoid silos. They present their framework as a reliable method for upgrading organization design, improving processes and enhancing individual performance. Managing the “nine variables” that affect performance can help you develop a better understanding of your organization and build a strategic foundation for continuous process improvement, rather than wasting effort on ad hoc fixes. getAbstract recommends this book to thoughtful managers who don’t need lots of buzzwords.
The more involved you are with process improvement, the more you will benefit from reading this book. Consultants Geary A. Rummler and Alan P. Brache focus your thinking on their process improvement method by including detailed diagrams, practical examples and flow charts. They demonstrate how the traditional use of hierarchical organizational charts creates silos, isolated corporate operations that are separated by white space on the chart and, thus, are literally unconnected. The authors’ “three levels” approach to management can mitigate performance issues within that organizational white space and avoid silos. They present their framework as a reliable method for upgrading organization design, improving processes and enhancing individual performance. Managing the “nine variables” that affect performance can help you develop a better understanding of your organization and build a strategic foundation for continuous process improvement, rather than wasting effort on ad hoc fixes. getAbstract recommends this book to thoughtful managers who don’t need lots of buzzwords.
March 3, 2021
I loved this book, because I'm a natural bridger, connector across the white spaces of the organization chart.
It is also a difficult place to be though, because you don't fit neatly into one of the cubicles of the organization chart, that too many organizations want to put you in, especially as they get larger.
It doesn't mean the bridging role to manage the white space isn't needed.
It is just that there is a challenge in convincing hierarchical managers of the value of that position.
The lessons of this book will help with selling the value of managing the white space, but still don't expect it to be an easy sell.
It is also a difficult place to be though, because you don't fit neatly into one of the cubicles of the organization chart, that too many organizations want to put you in, especially as they get larger.
It doesn't mean the bridging role to manage the white space isn't needed.
It is just that there is a challenge in convincing hierarchical managers of the value of that position.
The lessons of this book will help with selling the value of managing the white space, but still don't expect it to be an easy sell.
October 9, 2007
There aren't many "aha!" moments in the world today, especially when it comes to business practice. But, I have to say that these two really know what they're talking about.
January 8, 2010
One of the best performance improvement books that I read.
March 24, 2010
The Rummler/Brache approach to managing performance of an organization is logical and elegant. This is an excellent book.
January 19, 2016
This book is the father of every process management knowledge. Mandatory to every and each good manager!
February 1, 2016
Indispensible tool.
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December 16, 2015Textbook used for -- TRDEV 503 -- Performance Consulting -- Fall 2015
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews