Why Care?: How Thriving Individuals Create Thriving Cultures of Continuous Improvement Within Organizations

We live in an ever-changing world in which organizations find it increasingly difficult to stay ahead of the changes needed to be successful without thriving people. The authors believe that when people are valued and respected it improves their overall mental well-being and workplace experience, which in turn, makes them more motivated to help meet the purpose and objectives of the organization and adapt to external drivers.

This book explores how mental well-being and a culture of continuous improvement are intertwined and mutually reinforcing. The authors contend that to create a sustainable culture of continuous improvement there must be an organization-wide focus on mental well-being at the individual level. A culture of continuous improvement nurtured in the right way, however, will indeed support mental well-being and help create a thriving organization.

The key benefit of the book is demonstrating how important mental well-being is for sustainable organizational success. It explores this through many different lenses such as the individual, teams, leaders, and the organization as a whole, and explains the key elements needed for success. Leaders at all levels are able to understand why mental well-being is critical and how to nurture it in the workplace.

In addition, the book explains the importance of diversity, equality, inclusion, and belonging, and how this is integral to mental well-being and a thriving organization. This book provides unique insight into how mental well-being and a culture of continuous improvement are intertwined explaining how thriving people and a thriving culture of continuous improvement create a thriving organization.

Chris Warner is an author, speaker, and coach. He has been applying and teaching the Lean methodology within the automotive and mining industries for the past twenty-five years. His career has allowed him to work globally within numerous large multinational organizations. He received senior executive training and accreditation at the Toyota Motor Company on the Toyota Production System. Chris has been one of the foremost thinkers on the application of the Lean methodology within the mining industry. He authored the first book on Lean within the mining industry Flick The Switch: Five Principles to ’Flick The Switch’ from Good to Great within mining. Chris is a mental health advocate and has shared his own story dealing with mental health challenges to many people. As a co-author of Why Care? he seeks to help bring more awareness of the critical role mental well-being has in ensuring organizations create a thriving culture of continuous improvement. He can be contacted at www.flicktheswitch.com.au

Caroline Greenlee is passionate about developing people and partnering with organizations to learn together to achieve exceptional performance. She has extensive first-hand experience working as a Lean/ Continuous Improvement Coach, both inside and outside organizations, achieving double-digit improvements in quality and productivity, whilst also improving the working environment (Safety, Well-being) and empowering people. Her background in Lean is complemented by her work in Learning and Development and Organizational Development, and her Masters specialized in Management and Leadership, underpinned by the real-life experience of working as a leader for over 20 years. She is a qualified Executive Coach, a certified Systemic Team Coach, a member of the International Coach Federation, a member of the British Psychological Society, EFQM examiner, and Six Sigma Green Belt. She can be contacted at: www.sustainablepeopleperformance.com

Chris Butterworth is a multi-award-winning author, speaker, and coach. He is a certified Shingo Institute master-level facilitator and a Shingo Institute Faculty Fellow and examiner. He is the winner of the Best New Speaker of the Year Award for The Executive Connection (TEC) for his talk on Lean Thinking and the co-author of the widely acclaimed Shingo publication award-winning books 4+1: Embedding a Culture of Continuous Improvement and The Essence of Excellence and is also the editor of the Shingo Institute book Enterprise Alignment and Results.