Action with Traction

by Ronald Sarazin
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Work Improvement
Work improvement is about understanding work and how to improve it.  Action with Traction introduced the concept that work comes in three forms (tasks, projects and process), accomplishes three purposes (sustain mission critical and support work, develop new or better capabilities or recover from errors), and can be improved in four ways (control, streamlining, reengineering, and repositioning).    Below are links to articles that expand on the tools and techniques to improve work.

Links to books and articles of interest
Articles on Control:

Control topic videos based on Dr. Edwards Deming's teaching.  Dr. Edwards Deming was a brilliant man that introduced Japan to quality control.  Many of his concepts are at the base of the improvement technique I call control.  You can view several free (rather poor quality but worth watching) video clips of him explaining some of those concepts here.  My favorite is The 14 Points, Vol.2 clip.  All of these clips are taken from longer programs Management Wisdom, the holder of the site, wishes to sell.  In this clip, 'constency of purpose' is explained.  This is the idea that long term goals are typically sacrificed for short term gains, but in the long run, long term goals win (this is about strategy more than control, but the other clips are more about control).

Heart Healthy Waukesha County Breakthrough Collaborative Action is a health organization that has applied the idea of learning collaboratives and rapid improvement projects to improve outcomes.  An excellent description of the program and how cross-discipline action teams work together to takle specific health problems is described here.