Book excerpt: Presenting an unusual and unique system for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI), this new book is geared for executives who want or need to support quality improvement in their organizations. It is the contributions made by CEO's and upper management that moves the quality process forward, and because of this structure, The Executive Guide to Implementing Quality focuses on the concepts, thinking, and systems necessary for management to operationalize the CQI philosophy. Because quality is not a management problem but rather a problem that involves and requires all people working together at all levels to participate and cooperate, management must engage the organization in the processes that will improve the quality of their goods or services. It is, however, management's job to lead, organize, structure, motivate, and involve the organization in those strategies and systems that will ensure quality improvement. This book explains how to do that. Readers are given a series of exercises and explanations that will help them master the skills and understanding required to identify the management systems they need to support their quality improvement. After reading about a concept, they are asked to contribute to exercises designed to inspire creative and innovative thinking and the exploration of multi-functional options. And because it is the job of management to initiate the quality movement, this book shows how to change defensive thoughts like "that won't work for me" into "what is there that will work here." In addition to showing management how to take the lead in installing CQI in their organization, it also shows how to install the concepts through leadership teams, how to bring out the best in people, how to get top performance from employees and become a world-class organization, and how to reinforce the behaviors necessary to achieve the visions and goals of the organization. This workbook is an easy-and-quick-to-use guide that shows how to identify the support systems that generate desirable outcomes and reinforces them through positive actions.