While I am an unabashed proponent of learning by doing, I have a list of books that have been essential to me over the years as a framework for experiential learning.

Most of these books were written before 1990, and one of the most insightful, Managerial Engineering (Productivity Press, 1983) by Ryuji Fukuda, was first published in English more than 40 years ago. I think it was the very first book published by Productivity Press (publisher of Shigeo Shingo’s and Taiichi Ohno’s books as well.)

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