This book was a labor of love. I tried to take a realistic, honest, straightforward, conversational approach (with “Italian passion”) to quality (Demingslant) with the emphasis on statistical THINKING (not techniques) as the “anchor” for a healthy quality effort (Not only special “projects,” but hidden opportunities in EVERYDAY work)–for use in the REAL WORLD.

The key emphasis is looking at ALL work as a process and understanding variation. This also includes the process of how data in general are used in organizations and the resulting rampant unintended damage (and “crazy-making”) caused by inappropriate reactions to variation. Eight common statistical “traps” are exposed to help you transition to a philosophy of “Data ‘Sanity.'” Sorry, folks, but did you know that whether or not you understand statistics, you are already using statistics? The good news: You can forget practically everything you’ve learned in the required “Statistics from Hell 101” course (and you probably already have!). Oh,and by all means, please hand a copy of this book to your managers. It’s for them, too!

No sanitized examples or platitudes here! I’ve included many varieties of examples and exercises (excruciatingly detailed solutions provided) with real data that have routinely come across my desk. There is thorough discussion, IN ENGLISH, of data plotting & charts (including some critical control charts) appropriate to service industries and medicine. For those of you who have to communicate results to mathematically-impaired audiences, I also discuss an intuitively simple, less-threatening alternative to control charts–a run chart.

I tried to put together an extensive reference list and have also included a chapter on dealing with “those darn humans.”

No statistical “overload”–I PROMISE!…

Just a dose of counter-intuitive common sense.

My background: BS Chemical Engineering, MS in Statistics. 20 years as a statistical consultant, including 7 years at 3M. Transitioned to healthcare /service industries in 1992. In 1995 I was part of a team that consulted with 80 healthcare leaders from Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Israel, and Jordan and did individual follow-up work with the Palestinian Health Improvement Project in 1997. I now work as an independent consultant.