Books by Karen

Karen is a two-time Shingo Research Award winning author who’s known for breaking complex content into digestible, practical bites.


Clarity First

In Clarity First, Karen provides methods and insights for achieving clarity to unleash potential, innovate at higher levels, and solve the problems that matter to deliver outstanding business results. Eliminating ambiguity is the first step for leaders and organizations to achieve strategic goals. Learn how to gain the clarity needed to make better decisions, lead more effectively, and boost organizational performance. […]


Value Stream Mapping

The first of its kind—a Value Stream Mapping book written for those in service and office environments who want to improve their operations. Value Stream Mapping is a practical, how – to guide that helps decision-makers improve value stream performance in virtually any setting, including construction, energy, financial service, government, healthcare, R&D, retail, and technology. […]


The Outstanding Organization

After two decades in the trenches of helping companies design and build better, more efficient operations, Karen Martin has pinpointed why performance improvement programs often fail: chaos, the sneaky but powerful force that frustrates customers, keeps business leaders awake at night, and saps company morale. […]


Metrics-Based Process Mapping

Metrics-Based Process Mapping (MBPM), developed by Mike Osterling and Karen Martin, is a tactical-level, visual mapping approach that enables improvement teams to make effective, data-based decisions regarding waste elimination and measure ongoing process performance. The mapping technique, typically used to drill down from a value stream map, integrates the functional orientation of traditional swim lane process maps with time and quality metrics that are essential for designing improved processes. […]


The Kaizen Event Planner

The Kaizen Event Planner is a practical how-to guide for planning, executing, and sustaining rapid improvements in office, service, and technical environments. Geared to continuous improvement professionals and leadership teams, this book provides the methodology and practical tools for generating measurable results, while building a motivated workforce and creating a culture with an integrated focus on customer value, quality, cost, and service. […]


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