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| We All Fall Down: Goldratt's Theory of Constraints for Healthcare Systems | 
 enlarge | Authors: Julie Wright, Russ King
Publisher: North River Press
Category: Book
List Price: $27.50
Buy New: $17.22
You Save: $10.28 (37%)
New (14) Used (8) from $16.86
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 574545
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 353
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 1.1
ISBN: 0884271811
Dewey Decimal Number: 650
EAN: 9780884271819
ASIN: 0884271811
Publication Date: January 31, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 6-8 of 8 | | « PREV | | |
 A Great Business Book April 30, 2006
Although this book makes reference to the NHS, there is plenty of management guidance within the pages for businesses of all sizes to benefit.
We All Fall Down is very well written with just the right amount of humour. Whether you work within the NHS, a large corporation or for yourself, there is something to learn from this book.
I really enjoyed it and would recommend it highly.
Diane Stafford
How to change? Start where you are April 4, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
There's a lot to like in this book. It's written in the tradition of the business novel, in which we live the character's problems and then learn the solutions with them. In that sense it is following in the footsteps of similar books, "The Goal" by Eli Goldratt (and, for that matter, any of his novels), "Great Boss Dead Boss" by Ray Immelman, "The Gold Mine" by Michael and Freddy Balle, and "Who's Counting?" by Jerrold Solomon to name a few. But there is one very key difference between "We All Fall Down" and all of those books-the main change agent is not a senior manager or executive who has significant amounts of position authority. Indeed, the main character, Beth Seager, is a low level manager who must deal with her boss's and other departments' conflicting goals and metrics. She faces rebellious employees and cruel hearted senior managers alike-at least that's how it looks to her initially. Over time she begins to see things differently as she takes a more systemic view of the situation.
Another key point brought out in the book is that there is seldom a safe mechanism for employees to critique management decisions and that often decisions are made without any consultation with the people who have to carry them out. The higher up the decision is made (the closer it looks to a major company strategy) the less employees are able to critique and comment on it. No matter what the change, this destroys trust and significantly increases implementation difficulty.
This is at heart a Theory of Constraints book and the main character learns and uses basic TOC principles and tools to solve the problems she faces. Unlike similar books, it takes place in a not-for-profit hospital; this is one of the few cases where the system goal is NOT to make money and it shows that the approach is just as valid for non-profit organizations.
This book highlights the need to start where you are and makes the point that you don't have to be the CEO to make positive changes. I believe that there are far too many people in business who see themselves as victims of a system they're powerless to influence. It's a disease that is passed from one person to another and we need a vaccine for it. Part of that vaccine is in "We All Fall Down."
A Service to the Theory March 10, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having researced using TOC in service industries I was delighted to find out that this book was coming out. The business novel style, as per Goldratt's original "The Goal", is just so much more fun to learn from than a textbook! Julie & Russ' story definitely hits the spot! I read it in little over a day, marking up choice passages and new distinctions as I went along.
If you are new to TOC, then its an enjoyable intro to the subject. If you're familiar, then there's still enough insight to make it worthwhile. I certainly have a much greater understanding and appreciation for the challenges that the UK's healthcare system faces, or more importantly the stress the staff are under. And I daresay many of the symptoms and causes will work on other service orientated environments too.
So if you're tired of being a witch-doctor with sticking plaster solutions, pick this up and learn how to be a decision-making surgeon!
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