I

f you’ve been sweating what to get your quality colleagues this holiday season, you might want to pass up that tin of gooey chocolate in favor of a new international self-help standard.

Published on Nov. 1 by the Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO)—the same people that gave us the popular ISO 9001 quality standard—ISO’s latest contribution to the quality movement comes in the form of an international how-to guide for achieving “sustained success” through established quality principles.

Many helpers

The timing couldn’t be better because the global economy is still somewhat less than robust—and frankly, everyone secretly yearns for a good self-help page turner around this time of year. This one stands out because it was written by experts from about 35 countries as opposed to a single author locked in a room with potato chips and diet cola.

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