Reset: How to Change What's Not Working Hardcover – January 21, 2025

Very insightful and I enjoyed the stories. I felt like I learned a lot that I can apply to work and life. Highly recommended!

As an operations management professor, I will be enthusiastically recommending this book to my students, the lean community, and anyone passionate about improvement. Dan makes improvement practical, engaging, and even fun. The book is beautifully written, with examples from both business and life. I also loved Upstream—another outstanding contribution to the field of operations. All of us in operations management can learn from Dan’s ability to make our discipline more practical, accessible, and impactful.

Poorly functioning organization results in waste, downtime, waste that adds work, slows down. The author recommends to learn quickly , get the right information at the right time, map the system, install simple checks whether people are happy or not, (by asking simple questions: What matters most to you and what is getting in the way? ) in real time (Post-it notes) to be able to agilely move resources where something is not working, test paper pilots in sprints and practice teamwork, allocate resources instead of dysfunctional user support and create an expert advisory team that responds competently to a selection of queries.

This is by far the funniest business book I have ever read. Here's the thing: to find the jokes, you have to read the footnotes, because that's where Dan hides most of them. And if you're reading the footnotes, might as well read the whole book!That would be a great idea, because this is pretty much a perfect business book. It teaches you a specific skill set succinctly, via resonant stories, and repetition of key concepts in memorable context. For example, Dan quotes health care expert Paul Batalden: "Every system is designed to get the results it gets." And then the idea shows up over and over again, until you say, "Ohhh, I get it now. The dysfunction *is* the function." Or: defining 'waste' as "any activity that doesn't add value for the customer." So simple, yet so profound in its implications.Dan -- whom I will address by first name not just because we're besties, but because he wouldn't want his brother Chip to get unearned credit for not writing this book -- divides the book into two main sections. First is "Finding Leverage Points", where you seek the small actions that can yield disproportionate results:1) Go and see the work.2) Consider the goal of the goal: Identify alternate pathways to your ultimate destination.3) Study the bright spots: Who's getting great results? Emulate that.4) Target the constraint: Assess the #1 force that is holding you back.5) Map the system: Rise above the silos to spot promising targets for action.The second half of the book, Restack Resources, exhorts you to implement the insights gleaned from the first half into six strategies for change:1) Start with a burst2) Recycle waste: Discontinue efforts that don’t serve the mission.3) Do less AND more: Shift resources from lower-value work to higher-value.4) Tap motivation: Prioritize the work that’s required and desired.5) Let people drive: Give your team the autonomy to lead the change efforts.6) Accelerate learning: Get better, faster feedback to guide your work.In the process, you'll find out why Chick-fil-A has the most effective drive-through on the planet; how to think not just outside the box but outside the *planet* when trying to detect methane leaks; and how a moribund library turned around to become the toast of the town of Pottsboro, Texas.Each chapter contains conceptual gems that would each be worth the admission price (e.g. the "Miracle Question" for relationships, and "cluckwork"). I am also inordinately fond of the Whirlwind Reviews at the end of each chapter, summarizing the key concepts. And drawings! Note that Dan's strategies are equally applicable to personal life, not just business problems. As such, I heartily recommend this delightfully concise book to all of you problem solvers out there. Get "Reset" for proven strategic gems that solve real-life problems, whether you want to mitigate climate change or to get your kids to clean their rooms.-- Ali Binazir, M.D., M.Phil., Happiness Engineer and author of The 5 Hidden Love Questions: Radically Simple Strategies to Date Smarter, Own Your Power, and Flourish, and The Tao of Dating: The Smart Woman's Guide to Being Absolutely Irresistible, the highest-rated dating book on Amazon for 8 years

Dan Heath wrote it, so it's an automatic purchase for me. Love his stuff - insightful and practical. That's a combination that is surprisingly difficult to find in books like this one.It's not rocket science -- find the inefficiencies, make sure you know the root cause of said inefficiencies, then fix it. The trick is to map out and carefully analyze what you are doing now. Ramp up on the parts that are working and fix the bottlenecks. What makes is good is that Heath is excellent at explaining and illustrating the concepts.

This book has some really interesting ideas for how to improve processes in the workplace. Everyone who is interested in doing things well should read this, even if you aren't a manager or leader in your company. It's a breeze to read and the examples in each chapter make the points easy to grasp.

Love every one of the Heath books and this was no exception. Except for the fact that I'm retired and don't really have an application for the info. Good reading and learning anyway.

Great relatable and practical stories. Good summaries at the end of each chapter. Good ideas to leverage and move the boulder called change.