ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

THIS BOOK WOULD NOT have come about without the help of a great many people.

First and foremost, we would like to thank the many front-line employees, managers, and senior leaders in the organizations we studied who gave so generously of their time and shared their information and stories so openly with us. A number of them deserve special mention: at Allianz China and Ayudhya Allianz, Wilf Blackburn (former CEO of both); at Alpha Natural Resources, Kevin Crutchfield (CEO), Rick McAlister (manager of Engineering Methods and Standards), and Randy McMillion (executive vice president of Business Excellence); at Brasilata, Antonio Texeira (CEO); at Big Y Foods, Donald D’Amour (CEO), Jack Henry (vice president of Employee Services), and Pat Shewchuk (manager of Employment Strategies and Inclusion); at the Clarion-Stockholm, Ulrika Bergstrom (Operations manager); at Coca-Cola Stockholm, Klas Bandmann (director of Continuous Improvement), Henrik Bennet (Strategic Planning manager), and Staffan Olsson (Operations Excellence manager); at Continental VDO, Gerhard Schadt (senior specialist, Coaching); at Graniterock, Bruce Woolpert (CEO); at HCSS, Mike Ryder (president) and Tom Webb (vice president); at Health New England, Peter Straley (CEO), Kim Kenney-Rockwal (director of HR), Jim Kessler (general counsel), and Joanne Walton-Bicknell (Business Improvement manager); at Hickory Chair, Jay Reardon (CEO); at the Maine Center for Disease Control, Dr. Sheila Pinette (director); at Pyromation, Pete Wilson (president) and Dan Atkinson (Operations manager); at Subaru Indiana Automotive, Tom Easterday (executive vice president), Denise Coogan (manager of Safety and Environmental Compliance), and Matt Green (manager of Integrated Services for Heritage Integrative Services on-site at SIA); at Task Force Tips, Stewart McMillan (president); at ThedaCare, John Toussaint (former CEO); at the University of Southern Maine, Brynn Riley (project director); at Whirlpool, Nancy Tennant-Snyder (vice president of Core Competencies and Leadership) and Moises Norena (global director of Innovation).

Both our home institutions, the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts and the College of Business at Valparaiso University, gave us strong support to write this book and have always been wonderful places to work.

Special thanks go to Louise Östberg, a Swedish friend and colleague, who helped us identify and work with a number of excellent companies. We are also indebted to Lars Nilsson at C2 Management for his openness and many introductions into leading Swedish companies.

The hardest part of our journey was writing the manuscript, which went through many drafts as we struggled to articulate our message. Gwen and J. Alan Robinson helped us immeasurably in this process, always challenging us to simplify and sharpen. We are also grateful to Michael Long, Scott Schenone, and J. D. Ward for their critical feedback on an early draft of the manuscript; to Lexie Schroeder for her counsel and creative work on our exhibits; and to Laura Larson, our highly talented copy editor.

We would never have been able to produce this book without the invaluable support of the incomparable team at Berrett-Koehler. Special thanks go to Neal Maillet, editorial director, for his steady encouragement, keen insights, and patient mentoring; to the Berrett-Koehler manuscript reviewers Wally Bock, Danielle Goodman, Jeffrey Kulick, and Lucie New-comb; and to Michael Bass of Michael Bass Associates for his kind and rigorous shepherding of the manuscript through to final publication.

Finally, and most important, we will never be able to express the debt we owe our families, who were with us every step of the way and cheerfully endured our lengthy and numerous absences, and our camping in each other’s houses for extended working visits. To our children Phoebe, Margot, Lexie, Liz, and Tori, and particularly our wives Margaret and Kate, we can only say: We could not have done it without you.