Lean Reading & Learning: Fill Your Bookshelf with Lean Knowledge

There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.

~ Colin Powell

Learning is all about acquiring new knowledge or reinforcing existing knowledge. Behavior, skills, values, or preferences lead to a change in processing information, depth of the knowledge, attitude or behavior relative to the type and range of experience. Learning does not happen all at once, but it builds upon and is shaped by previous knowledge. To that end, learning may be viewed as a process, rather than a collection of factual and procedural knowledge. Learning produces change and the change produced is relatively permanent. Highly successful business professionals understand that learning never stops. It is an ongoing, necessary process which creates innovation and success. When you stop learning, your forward progress slowly grinds to a halt. You will find yourself left behind in a profession that you no longer understand.

One of the most effective modes of learning is reading. Most successful professional devour books. Their minds crave new thoughts and provocative ideas that are presented in books. They push away the temptation of media that doesn’t make them smarter, richer or more successful in their profession. You should set aside at least two hours every day to read and learn. We have identified five books that you should add to your bookshelf of professional development in Six Sigma.

The Toyota Way – The 14 key principles that define the Toyota style of management.

The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvement – Learn how bottlenecks in the manufacturing process hinder the company from meeting its goals.

This is Lean: Resolving the Efficiency Paradox – The book has brought greater clarification to the essence of lean and revolutionized top executives and employees understanding of what lean actually is.

Managing to Learn: Using the A3 Management Process – This Lean management book provides an introduction to the A3 process as well as methodologies to discover the root cause of a problem.

The Principles of Product Development Flow: Second Generation Lean Product Development – By focusing on eight major areas that help product organizations achieve flow, the author uses data and practical methods to guide product organizations to this new approach to delivery processes.

**Note** This list is not an endorsement of the author or is it a ranking of importance or relevance.