The Q-Loop: The Art & Science of Lasting Corporate Change
Brian Klapper
bibliomotion (2013)

Here is a queue for achieving and then sustaining organizational excellence

In every organization, whatever its size and nature may be, there are people who directly and frequently interact with the given competitive marketplace. They are on the “front line” and often referred to as such, frontliners. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, an organization is only as strong as its weakest area and that must never be the front line. In this book, Brian Klapper shares everything he has learned during the last several decades about how to achieve and then sustain buy-in for change initiatives at all levels and in all areas of the given enterprise.

The title of this book refers to “a process that forms a complete circle – from ideation to complete implementation. It’s called the Q-Loop because, as the name suggests, it’s more robust than a simple circle. Far from going in circles, like so many strategies intended to implement change, the Q-Loop works every time. That’s because it relies on the real heroes in the trenches of your company, the ones who know how to get things done and to get people on board. Calling this process anything other than the Q-Loop simply wouldn’t capture the full measure of this sweeping system.”

These are among the dozens of passages that caught my eye, also listed to suggest the scope of Klapper’s coverage:

o How Leaders Must Handle Resistance (Pages 11-14)
o Why great Ideas Perish (19-23)
o Looking for Unorthodox Opportunities (32-35)
o Crushing Bottlenecks, and, Rewarding Innovation (36-39)
o A Brief Explanation of Collective IQ (48-49)

Note: Re the latter, In Tom Davenport’s latest book, Judgment Calls, he and co-author Brooke Manville offer “an antidote for the Great Man theory of decision making and organizational performance”: organizational judgment. That is, “the collective capacity to make good calls and wise moves when the need for them exceeds the scope of any single leader’s direct control.”

o Idea Quest (56-62)
o Idea Quest in Action (Although Amazon Didn’t Know It) (63-65)
o Getting Started (79-93)
o Overview of the Corporate Lab (102-112)
o [Project] Launch Day 130-139)
o The Ignition Process (174-184)
o Final Thoughts (199-201)

Klapper makes skillful use of various reader-friendly devices such as self diagnostic exercises (Pages xx-xxi, 14-15, 23-25, 40-42, 49-51, 71-73, and 170-172. Completing these exercises serves two separate but equal and very important purposes: They enable, indeed require the reader to interact with the most important material in the book, and, the responses reveal the nature and extent of the gap between where the given enterprise is and where it should be. Other devices include “Takeaway” sections at the conclusion of Chapters 1-7, “Ideas in Action” (i.e. applications) sections, and “Coming Up” alerts re next chapter. These and other devices will facilitate, indeed expedite frequent review of key material later.

I realize that no brief commentary such as mine can possibly do full justice to the quality and value of the material that Brian Klapper provides. However, I hope that I have at least suggested why I think so highly of his book. Also, I hope that those who read my commentary will be better prepared to determine whether or not to obtain and read the book. In that event, I hope what it offers will guide them a better understanding of “the art and science of lasting corporate change” and then help them to help countless others to develop that understanding, also.