This is a very practical and powerful guide for improvement.

1. The first revelation this book brings is: improvement is a change. From this viewpoint, the fundamental questions faced by the improver (e.g. Green Belts and Black Belts) are:

(1) What are we trying to accomplish? (Define phase)
(2) How will we know if a change will result in an improvement? (What are the key Y's?)
(3) What changes can we make that will result in improvement?
(What are the key X's and their settings to affect Y's)
Appropriate tools from '6-sigma' tool sets can be used to seek answers to (2) and (3).

2. The Guide emphasizes testing a change in small scale before full implementation so we can learn and improve the proposed change using the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. This significantly improves our typical 'trial-and-error' approach.

3. The Guide classifies improvement into 3 categories:
(1) Eliminate Quality Problems (the aim of many '6-sigma' projects)
(2) Reduce Costs while maintaining or improving quality (the goal of many internally focused improvement efforts)
(3) Expanding Customer Expectations
Specific advises and examples are presented for each of these categories.

4. Best of all is a list of 70 Change Concepts categorized under 9 sessions, e.g. standardization under Manage Variation, Synchronize under Improve Work Flow.
Using these change concepts can significantly reduce the time to develop the specific changes.

This book is very easy to follow and contains a lot of examples. It is a must read for all improvement practitioners including Green Belts and Black Belts.

Whether involved with improving products/processes within a business or coaching little league baseball, The Improvement Guide provides a practical and fundamental approach for improving performance. The book serves as an excellent reference for those involved with change, specifically, change that will result in improvement.

A few of the items from the book which ring in my mind continuously include:

Improvement can be viewed as a science (in fact, some of us do!).

Three questions provide the framework for improvement: 1.What are we trying to accomplish? 2.How will we know if we if a change will result in an improvement? 3. What changes can we make that will result in improvement?

While there are many opportunities to change, there are only 70 change concepts (included in the Appendix) available to us today.

Any system for improvement will include five activities: 1.Establishing and communicating the purpose of the organization/team. 2.Viewing the organization/team as a system. 3. Designing and managing the a system for gathering information for improvement 4.Planning for improvement and integrating it with business planning. 5. Managing individual and team improvement activities.

Leaders are required to implement change that will result in improvement and they draw their power from three sources (the informal leader gets his/her power from sources 2 and 3 below). 1.Authority or position 2.Knowledge 3.Personality and persuasiveness (caring about people)

These items and many more, are introduced in the book via an easy-to-understand model that uses proven methodology for developing, testing, and implementing change that produces specific, identifiable improvements.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming, whose management ideas and Profound Knowledge provide the theoretical underpinnings of this book, continually asked the question to anxious audiences: "By what method? How do you go about it?" As a professional in the quality sciences field, I believe this book has the answer to those questions as it relates to improvement. The Improvement Guide defines improvement and describes in complete detail workable, easy to use techniques that are effective and time-tested. The book is based around the Improvement Model, an expanded and improved version of the Deming-Shewhart cycle, whose historical roots trace are grounded in applications of the scientific method and applied scientists since Roger Bacon. The principle of testing on a small scale, learning using the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, and building knowledge sequentially using the Improvement Model are some of the most practical and useful aspects of the book. Part I is written on an introductory level and provides lots of simple examples that guide the beginner through theory and practice. The heart of the book, and some of its most useful content, describes ways to develop, test, and implement a change. The insights provided, based on decades of experience and knowledge of the authors, are invaluable. They are followed up by thoroughly documented and easy to understand case studies that ring true using real life examples related to manufacturing, services, health care, and a variety of standard business and educational processes. Finally, the third section describes an integrated approach to various standard improvement goals and useful strategies for achieving them. This section also includes extremely insightful guidance for leaders trying to promote and enable improvement, and an innovative and thought-provoking section suggesting techniques for expanding customer expectations to increase demand for products and/or services. This section, too, is replete with examples and case studies to support and illustrate methods and concepts.

This book should be studied by anyone, beginner or experienced professional, interested in a systematic method for improving processes, products, or services. I strongly recommend it.

I used the 23rd edition of Stobo for my internal medicine rotation as a 3rd year medical student and also as a quick reference for several other rotations. I think it is the best mid-size medicine text I have seen. The content is broken down into bite-size chunks that are easy to read in one sitting--the short chapters make it easier to retain the material. Each section begins with an introductory chapter that gives a concise overview of the approach to take when evaluating a problem with a particular organ-system. Each chapter also ends with a list of summary points that are very helpful. Excellent tables are easy to reference. The actual information contained in the book is in more than enough depth for MS3 level, and the text emphasizes pathophysiology in many chapters, which helped me learn to integrate what I had learned in basic sciences and apply it to seeing patients in the clinical setting. The last section also has some good summary chapters for things that fall outside the realm of each organ-system section. This is a truly outstanding book. I highly recommend it, and I can't wait for the next edition.

Easy to read, contains pertinent info in a concise fashion. Great to study from, easily read during a clerkship.

I started my 3rd year medicine rotation with Appleton and Lange's Current Medical Diagnosis and Therapy but soon found this book to be more appropriate. It clearly and concisely explained pathophysiology of disease as well as clinical aspects, such as presentation, diagnosis and treatment. I also really enjoyed how each organ system began with a general approach to the patient. I am now using this books counterpart for my surgery rotation.

The Ambassador From Wall Street is a fasciating tale of one of the great financial leaders of the 20th Century. As a retired New York banker who started work in 1950 and who held some quite responsible positions, I found the book contained messages for bankers that are as true today as they were in the life of Mr. Lamont, particularly on how to avoid undue risk and how to manage the inevitable messes when they occur. The book seems to have been well researched by the arthor, a Grandson of the subject,and takes us through the many economic and financial developments of the first half of the twentieth century. Its scope allows the reader to have a broad view of the financial world, a useful benefit in this age of globalization. I particularly recommend the book to young students of finance. The lessons learned will enhance their careers.

Alethea W. Hawley's review offers an excellent summary of a well researched account of the life and impact of Mr. Thomas W. Lamont and his importance to the major economic and political powers of his era and why this account deserves a five star rating.

This biography of Thomas W. Lamont, J.P. Morgan's Chief Executive is a thoroughly researched account of the legendary financier during the first half of the twentieth century, when the powerful banking firm was at the pinnacle of international finance. The author, his grandson has written this lively biography based on his independent research and his personal collection of family papers and Thomas Lamont's letters.The reader will become acquainted with the economic and political history of the period, the many crucial world events that were transpiring, as well as a full roster of leaders such as Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Wilson and Hoover, who all sought advice from Lamont. Along with all of the above, the author portrays the luxurious lifestyle of his grandfather, such as commuting from his home to Wall Street by yacht. There are social vignettes such as a house party at Lady Astor's Cliveden, as well as a Lamont soiree during which a Federal judge broke the nose of Walter Lippman's charming wife. The reader is also given glimpses of such luminaries as Charles Lindbergh and H.G. Wells, who were among Thomas Lamont's close friends. John Kenneth Galbraith praised this volume and characterized it as "affectionate and well researched...We are in debt to Edward Lamont for this literate and thoroughly interesting biography." Book List and Publishers Weekly contributed highly enthusiastic reviews, and recommended it for those interested in history, banking and foreign affairs. Written in a brisk and informative style, Lamont interjects his wit at just the right places so as to present a very balanced, straight forward, and informative piece of work.

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Whether you are a new student or an old hand to the world of advertising, you'll learn a lot from this text. The ability of the authors to take a subject of such complexity and break it down into terms that anyone can understand shows their immense knowledge of advertising. The integration of print, radio, television and alternative media along with the ongoing integrated marketing communications case sets this book apart from any other text I've read. Most text books put me to sleep where I found Advertising interesting and inspiring. The exhibits used to represent examples of different executions of advertising made it easy to comprehend the concepts. I found myself reviewing every ad I came in contact with in my personal life and assessing the target, direction and effectiveness of those ads. Great Job!

This has been an excellent book to clear your all doubts of the anatomy of the head and neck with the best figures i have ever seen and excellent discriptions.This book let u do all the anatomy within very short period of time just by looking at the figures.I find this book extremly useful in my studies and I want u all to know that this book is relly really helpful

This book is perfect for head and neck anatomy courses and for the National Boards Part I. The pictures are very clear, the complex anatomy is laid out methodically and logically. I've used other general anatomy books, but they fall short when it comes to head and neck. This book does not, and even includes clinical pearls for the future and current dental professional.

This is a very good, highly readable history of James J. Hill, his family and his numerous successful business adventures, and the Great Northern Railway in particular.

Of the four major biographies of James J. Hill, this one is the best and most detailed. If it has a fault, it is that it is too detailed for many readers. But for those interested in the financial history of the Great Northern Railway and the personal history of its builder, this is the classic.

Martin had full access to the James J. Hill papers, now open to the public. Pyle's 1917 biography was also based on those papers, but Pyle was an employee of Hill's and tried to whitewash the truth, which actually made Hill look worse than he was. Holbrook's brief bio was based mainly on Pyle and rumor. Malone's 1996 book on Hill is to Martin's what Holbrook's was to Pyle's--a good intro but not as detailed as Martin's.

This collection should get SIX stars. Having sampled one of Audio Connoisseur's other recordings, and being hugely impressed, I went out and purchased this one. I had always wanted to know a little about German literature, assuming that a nation that can build fabulous cars could also produce a few good authors. Before I say anything about the stories, let me just tell you that the narrator, Charlton Griffin, is probably the greatest reader now living. I say that in all honesty. Never have I encountered recorded literature in which ALL the characters, including women and children, have been performed with such utter believability and astonishing acumen. You will shake your head in disbelief that only one person is performing all these voices. I differ with the above AudioFile reviewer who castigates Griffin for his pacing. The pacing is perfect, almost stately. In the appropriate places it has a dreamlike quality. The stories are a very good cross section of German literature over a period of 150 years, beginning with Goethe and ending with Lampe. Every single one of these little masterpieces has a jewel-like quality and a sparkling intelligence behind them. I approached this subject with mild trepidation and came away astonished at the variety and depth of German writers. My favorites in this volume were the stories by Mann, von Hofmannsthal and Schnitzler. Not content with merely great stories, Audio Connoisseur has tastefully added music and sound effects...but only in perfectly suitable places and without distraction. They seem to fit in organically, as though a film were rolling in your head. If you are an educator, this would be an indispensable teaching tool. My admiration for Audio Connoisseur knows no bounds at this point. May they continue this level of quality forever.

If you enjoy Aristotle and Aquinas and would like to gain a better understanding on Aristotle's work titled "Physics," then this is definitely a book you need to own. While there are literally hundreds of titles in print and out of print (but able to be found) on Aristotle's physics, there is no book that matches this one. This is yet another example of the "dumb ox" rising to the occasion again. Aquinas takes Aristotle's "Physics" lecture by lecture (i.e. passage by passage) and comments on what Aristotle is espousing. This is 638 pages of great detail, philosophy, and comments by one of the greatest philosophers in philosophical history (Aquinas), about one of the greatest philosopher's work. The work is translated by Blackwell, Spath, and Thirlkel, and has a forward written by one of the most renown Thomistic scholars of our day, namely, Ralph McInerny. The translators have done a wonderful job of taking a difficult topic and language and making it easy to read and simple to follow. Aquinas breaks down all of Aristotle's arguments, writings, comments, etc. into helpful and easy to understand comments. Furthermore, Aquinas takes words/phrases that are used by Aristotle and explains their context, intent, and meaning. Anybody who is familiar with Aquinas knows that Aquinas can say more in less than most if not all of the greatest philosophers. Therefore, if you want a commentary that will exhaustively explain Aristotle's "Physics" then look no further.

This volume is one of a nine-volume series that makes accessible the rich variety of American Catholic experience from the earliest years to the present. Attending to the documentary history of Catholic experience on the frontiers and diverse regional developments in America from the 1780s to the 1970s, this collection affords the reader a revealing look at the shifting social and religious topography of American life. The significance of the Catholic imprint upon the American Frontiers and the role of the frontiers in the shaping of American Catholicity are revealed in an engaging manner through these sources which encapsulate the history of Catholics as they moved across successive Wests, from Kentucky to Hawaii and Alaska. We see how women religious, laity, bishops and priests; French, Anglo, Latinos and Native Americans create a new western religious identity, relate across various faith and cultural traditions to forge a unique Catholic peoplehood. This is a richly-textured documentary history of Catholicity in the United States amply footnoted and including a photo essay and bibliography containing reference to the most recent scholarship in the field. It is an excellent source for bringing to life the story of the church in this vast area and provides the reader with 221 pages of invaluable material!

I'm a doctor, a specialist of naval and tropical medicine. "Hunter's Tropical Medicine" is the most important publication which I need and use for my job.

This book is essential to practice developing world medicine. I'd be lost without it.

this book is well written by experts in their field, excellent book , used it as your bible. Most of the author are my former mentor at the John's Hopkins Univ.