Move beyond local improvement and learn to lead complex, cross-functional change with evidence, governance and discipline.Lean Six Sigma Black Belt: Leading Complex, Data-Driven Projects is a practical guide for experienced improvement practitioners, operational leaders and managers who are ready to tackle problems that cross departmental, organisational and system boundaries.Building on the earlier books in The Lean Six Sigma Belt Series, Robert Porter takes the reader bey...

Nearly a year has passed since Jan Vale returned to Penraven, and life has finally settled back into something resembling normal. The library has found its familiar rhythm, another Christmas has come and gone, Jan has another birthday approaching, and Moss-older, greyer and supposedly wiser-is enjoying retirement, three walks a day and every treat he can persuade someone to give him.Then a young woman at the library makes an unexpected discovery.A chance encounter on social...

In Penraven, everybody knows everybody.Jan Vale knows what they borrow.At sixty-two, widowed librarian Jan Vale has settled into the familiar rhythms of life in Penraven, a picturesque Cornish town by the sea.She knows the regulars, the holidaymakers and the children who would rather be anywhere than staring at another screen. She knows which borrowers mistreat their books, which parents treat the children's library as free childcare, and which locals can turn a fiv...

Sixteen years after the world ended, survival is no longer something Alicen is learning. It is something she has become very good at.The infected still roam the ruins. Stranger things have emerged from the changed world. Food is scarce, clean water can mean the difference between life and death, and other survivors can be more dangerous than anything recorded in the Field Guide.Now older and alone, Alicen has made a life for herself at Land's End. She fishes, sets traps, sc...

When archivist María Álvarez builds an ofrenda for her late grandmother, she adds one photograph she cannot identify.By morning, the woman in the picture has crossed back into the world of the living.There is only one problem.Nobody remembers who she is.Not María. Not the historical records. Not even Santa Muerte.For María, every mystery should leave a trace: a name in a register, a photograph, a letter, something proving that a person once existed. ...

The politics of everyday life is to be found, time and again, in meandering movements, in making connections across and between things in the rough and tumble of the seemingly banal, fragmentary and quotidian experiences that make up our day-to-day existence. The key point of the book, ideally as well as practically, is to realize that there may be something potentially significant, and politically significant, in the very act of making such connections, of understanding the supposedly tri...

Shirakawa-gō, Japan, 1783.Fourteen-year-old Chiyo has spent her life beneath the steep thatched roofs of an isolated mountain village, where survival depends upon family, duty and the ancient bonds between neighbours. Winters are merciless, food is precious, and every household understands that no one survives alone.Then Chiyo begins to notice the ladybirds.The villagers call them tentōmushi - insects of Heaven's path. With their brilliant red shells and seven black...

UK Ticket Office and Gateline: Operations, Systems and Passenger Service is a comprehensive practical guide to one of the most visible-and often most complex-areas of railway station operation.Written by Robert Porter as part of The Practical Safety Series, the book takes the reader beyond the simple act of selling or checking a ticket. It explores the interconnected commercial, operational, technical, safety and passenger-service responsibilities that sit behind the ticket-office ...

Elemental Habits is a captivating guide that unveils the remarkable power of small, intentional actions to create significant change in your life. Packed with inspiring stories, practical strategies, and expert insights, this book will empower you to craft habits that align with your values, ignite your potential, and propel you towards a life of fulfillment and success. Discover the secrets to sustaining long-term progress, overcoming obstacles, and embracing a journey of continuous growt...

An ordinary novelist. A second-hand desk. A secret that should have stayed buried.Daniel Mercer is forty-eight, reclusive, spectacularly ordinary and perfectly content with a life consisting of dark-fantasy novels, an increasingly musty flat and Ernest, the goldfish who listens to everything Daniel says and understands absolutely none of it.Then his therapist suggests he should take more risks.So Daniel goes to London Waterloo Station.He intends to sit benea...

What does the world look like when you experience it four paws first?Dog doesn't know he is a blond cockapoo. He doesn't understand why Humans give everything names, why chocolate is forbidden despite smelling magnificent, or why a perfectly good piece of cheese sometimes contains a disgusting chalky pill.He does know the important things.Mum is warm. Cheese is ten out of ten. Squirrels cheat. Cats are suspicious. Hedgehogs require careful consideration. Outdoor ins...

A mother will do anything for her son. Jan Vale just happens to be rather good at asking questions.When Jan Vale receives an urgent call from her son Daniel, she leaves Penraven behind and travels with Moss to the Kent coast. Daniel has discovered the body of a woman he has been seeing-and the police have questions.The woman Daniel knew as Sophie was not who she claimed to be.As suspicion begins to settle around her son, Jan does what she has always done best: watch...