The Improvement Guide: A Practical Approach to Enhancing Organizational Performance, Second Edition, Gerald Langley, Ron Moen, Kevin Nolan, Thomas Nolan, Clifford Norman, Lloyd Provost. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2009

This book is for people who want to make improvements. It can be viewed as a survival guide for people who realize the importance improvement plays in keeping an enterprise viable. The book describes a system of improvement. The foundation of this system is the Model for Improvement, based on the three fundamental questions: 
1. What are we trying to accomplish? 
2. How will we know that a change is an improvement? 
3. What changes can we make that will result in improvement? 

Any effort to improve something should result in answers to these questions. The answers could be obtained in a variety of ways, depending on the complexity of the situation. The book, which focuses on developing, testing, and implementing, is structured in three parts, plus an appendix:

Part 1: Basic Methods for Improvement introduces the Model for Improvement and some of the skills needed to use the Model.

Part 2: Methods to Improve Systems is concerned with the core of the science and art of improvement: developing, testing, and implementing changes.

Part 3: An Integrated Approach to Improvement discusses the implications for leaders of the science and art of improvement.

The appendices, Change Concepts, contains a collection of ideas for improvement and applications, Tools to Support Improvement, and Other Models.

This new edition of this bestselling guide offers an integrated approach to process improvement that delivers quick and substantial results in quality and productivity in diverse settings. The authors explore their Model for Improvement that worked with international improvement efforts at multinational companies as well as in different industries such as healthcare and public agencies. This edition includes new information that shows how to accelerate improvement by spreading changes across multiple sites. The book presents a practical tool kit of ideas, examples, and applications.