Detroit, Michigan – August 2, 2023 – Modus Cooperandi Press’ change management book Change Questions by noted executive D. Lynn Kelley, PhD, with prominent Lean Management expert John Shook, was released with an event at Aretha’s Jazz Cafe here last night and is already an Amazon bestseller ranking number 1 in the categories of Lean Management, Agile Project Management, and Business Structural Adjustment.
The pace of organizational change has been increasing. Unfortunately, most change activities fail to deliver anticipated results, and those that do often fail to sustain. The Change Questions book addresses these critical issues by providing a proven process with a strong record of sustainment that can be used by anyone responsible for implementing organizational change.
The book includes a case study with examples and stories of transformation at Fortune 200 company Union Pacific Railroad over eight years. Using the Change Questions at Union Pacific resulted in a dramatic increase in operational performance and a 96% sustainment rate over hundreds of change initiatives.
The Change Questions represent a new way of thinking and acting characterized by an investigative process that creates a situational and customized approach to change. Whether the reader is a professional, a student, or someone asked to lead a significant organizational change for the first time, this framework is easily used to implement change that sustains successfully. The book includes meeting timelines, deliverables, and sample agendas. A digital workbook that is a self-guided tool for implementing change can be accessed by purchasing the book.
Author D. Lynn Kelley is currently a Senior Advisor to Brown Brothers Harriman Capital Partners and is actively involved in sourcing, investment evaluation, and providing post-investment value-added oversight to their portfolio companies. She was the senior vice president of Supply Chain and Continuous Improvement at Union Pacific Railroad from 2010-18. Earlier, Lynn worked at Textron, where she was vice president of Operational Excellence and was a member of the Executive Leadership Team. She had international responsibilities across all business units, including Cessna Aircraft and Bell Helicopter.
Lynn holds a PhD from Wayne State University in Evaluation and Research, an MBA from Michigan State University, and a B.S. in Business Management from the University of Detroit-Mercy. Lynn completed post-doctoral fellowships at the US Census Bureau and the American Society of Engineering Education. She has published 17 articles and three books on statistics and operational excellence.
John Shook learned about lean management while working for Toyota for 11 years in Japan and the U.S., helping it transfer production, engineering, and management systems from Japan to NUMMI and other operations worldwide. While at Toyota’s headquarters, he became the company’s first American manager in Japan. In the U.S., Shook joined Toyota’s North American engineering, research, and development center in Ann Arbor, Michigan as general manager of administration and planning. His last position with Toyota was as senior American manager with the Toyota Supplier Support Center in Lexington, Kentucky, assisting North American companies in adopting the Toyota Production System.
Shook co-authored Learning to See, which introduced the world to value-stream mapping. He also co-authored Kaizen Express, a bi-lingual manual of the essential concepts and tools of the Toyota Production System. With Managing to Learn, Shook revealed the deeper workings of the A3 management process at the heart of Toyota’s management and leadership.
