Book excerpt: Is your college or university struggling with how to adapt to budget cuts, changing student needs, technology, or regulatory changes? Do you have a program or staff assigned to help coordinate change efforts? Are you ready to become more proactive in how you react to the changes that affect your institution? Structured continuous process-improvement programs have benefitted manufacturing companies for decades, but what works in manufacturing does not work the same way in education! This book, written by a higher education Lean practitioner using real examples from higher education, shows you how to create a continuous-improvement program specifically for higher education It walks you through the key steps for building your first-year continuous-improvement plan. It provides templates, checklists, and best practices to assist in your planning process. Whether you are a Lean novice or a current Lean/continuous-improvement practitioner, this book will add tools to your tool kit and lay the groundwork for successful change initiatives.