You are likely familiar with my e-books on higher education, The Lean Professor for faculty and We Can Do It! for administrators.
I’m happy to announce that I’ve made some important changes:
- The books have been re-titled Lean Teaching and Lean University.
- Both books have been corrected, updated, and expanded.
- They are now available only in paperback, in response to many requests for that format and so that the images can be read more easily.
Lean Teaching is printed in color and contains 48 informative images. These images help give readers a much better understanding of how I designed and delivered my courses over the last 15-plus years. It is your guide to the Lean teaching pedagogy.
Lean University is printed in black-and-white and contains 15 images. It is intended for all levels of university administrators. It describes how to lead a Lean transformation in higher education and provides hundreds of important and helpful details. Administrators will find it to be a great help in assuring a smooth transition.
I appreciate your support in telling your colleagues about these books. Thank you.
BOOK REVIEWS
Here is a review of Lean Teaching by Professor Gloria McVay:
“In this book, Bob Emiliani addresses all of the facets of university teaching and makes both observations (from his own teaching) and recommendations (from his own experiments) for continuous improvement in course content, design, and delivery. If every professor seriously adopted a practice of continuous improvement as recommended in this book, the change to higher education would be nothing short of revolutionary. It takes being willing to really evaluate your teaching practice and realize that any single improvement in and of itself is not major. It is when you make many small improvements, knowing there is no end to improving, that you begin to understand the revolutionary power of lean in higher education. I found many good ideas that I will personally try out in my teaching practice. The big question then is – how do we create an environment which fosters this type of continuous improvement on a large enough scale to achieve a major breakthrough? For some of Bob’s thoughts on this challenging and broad-scoped topic, I recommend Lean University – another excellent book on Lean in higher education.”
Here is a review of Lean University by Mark Graban:
“Bob Emiliani is a most-credible source for this book, targeted at leaders and staff members in higher education. As a long-time industry practitioner of lean management practices, Bob has served as a faculty member at Central Connecticut State University, so he knows what he’s talking about with both lean and higher ed. This book is a succinct primer on how to apply lean management to higher ed. As Bob points out, Lean is not about easy cost cutting or doing anything that harms stakeholders – faculty, students, support staff, etc. Lean management combines continuous improvement with the equally important ‘respect for people’ principle, as Bob highlights throughout the book. Lean management is about creating the best quality education, while reducing costs (by eliminating waste, not by cutting heads). Bob dispels many of the common misperceptions about Lean, shares lessons learned and mistakes to avoid, and covers the role of leaders in transforming an organization’s culture.”