Leadership Institute

Taking Action® Handbook

Learning Format: Reference Book

Order No. TQHB

Continuous improvement requires ready answers to problems or questions as they arise—answers based on data, not hunches or guesses. Using tools that uncover the data and provide the answers helps ensure successful improvement efforts.

The Taking Action® Handbook is designed to serve as a reference guide for teams and individuals involved in continuous improvement.

Do You Face Any of These Issues?

  • Is process improvement a part of employees’ daily work lives?
  • Do employees understand the value of data, basing decisions on data, and measuring success?
  • Do employees know which quality techniques are most appropriate to use?

Performance Objectives

Helps associates:

  • Improve quality by understanding how and why to base decisions on data and measure the success of efforts.
  • Use appropriate quality techniques to collect and analyze data as they progress through the ACTION cycle.

Primary Competencies Developed

  • Continuous Improvement
  • Decision Making

Secondary Competencies Developed

  • Information Monitoring
  • Quality Orientation

Handbook Overview

  • Introduction: Describes how the handbook can help learners succeed in improvement efforts and explains how data collection fits into the ACTION Cycle and the overall pursuit of quality.
  • Basing Decisions on Data: Explains the importance of data when making decisions about a continuous improvement effort.
  • Using Data to Involve Others: Features the benefits of getting others involved in collecting data and provides some do’s and don’ts of involving others.
  • What to Measure: Helps users understand the role of measurement in continuous improvement and the three major areas of measurement: cost, timeliness, and variation. This section also features lists of measures that learners can use.
  • Selecting a Quality Technique: Contains information on how to choose the right quality technique for collecting, analyzing, and displaying data.
  • Quality Techniques: Features an in-depth review of 18 quality techniques to collect, analyze, and display data. This section also contains a technique selection grid based on the ACTION cycle.
  • Glossary: Lists commonly used terms in data collection, measurement, display, and analysis.

Video Segment Summaries

  • No video.

Handbook Details

  • Target audience: All employees and leaders.
  • Facilitator certification: DDI certification not required.
  • Prerequisites: None.
  • Series: Suitable for all environments.

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