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3D cover render of Mindset Architects: Breaking Down Organizational Walls to Drive Workplace Excellence by Debra Shumar.

Breaking Down Organizational Walls to Drive Workplace Excellence

Mindset Architects

Debra Shumar's Mindset Architects: Breaking Down Organizational Walls to Drive Workplace Excellence draws on her four decades leading transformations from the manufacturing floor to the C-suite to make one argument: Sustainable change in manufacturing starts with mindset, not tools. Through case studies like a $15 million Wisconsin plant turnaround and the White Shirt Initiative in Brazil, Debra shows leaders how to identify the invisible "walls" — resistance to change, siloed functions, and fear of failure — that keep good plants from becoming great ones, and how to build the behaviors that tear down those walls for good.

Available at the following retailers

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What You'll Learn

  • 01Why tools alone never fix a culture problem
  • 02How to spot the walls dividing your teams, and Debra's "Belief Window" framework for understanding what's really driving resistance
  • 03A practical framework for lasting alignment, built around Debra's Quality Mindset and Operational Mindset triangles

About the Author

This book is essential reading for manufacturing executives, operations and quality leaders, plant-floor supervisors, and anyone responsible for driving change in an industrial setting. See Debra's full story for the experience behind it, or bring her in to speak or consult live on these same ideas.

Frequently Asked Questions

About Mindset Architects

Mindset Architects: Breaking Down Organizational Walls to Drive Workplace Excellence argues that sustainable change in manufacturing organizations starts with mindset and behavior. Her work reaches beyond tools and techniques to reveal an accessible framework for identifying and removing the cultural walls that block performance.

It's Debra's framework for the barriers, including resistance to change, siloed functions, fear of failure, and inadequate communication, that stand between a manufacturing organization's current state and its future performance.

Debra Shumar is a manufacturing executive with over 40 years of experience, including serving as Senior Vice President of a $13 billion company overseeing 197 plants in 27 countries. She's the author of Mindset Architects and founder of 3P Partners, a manufacturing consulting firm.

Mindset Architects is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and the Simon & Schuster book page.

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