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Let Joy Power Your Organization's Flight
Joy is a powerful word in life and, as it turns out, in business too, says Rich Sheridan. A company that discovers the relevant principles…
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Tales Of Lean, Chapter One: Facing the Problem
What is the best way for a lean coach to support and guide her team? In this fictional tale of a lean leader, Sandrine Olivencia…
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The Virtue of Small Data
"Small Data can be found everywhere, with every customer transaction and interaction," writes LEI faculty member and Lean IT expert Steve Bell. "It is derived…
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Technology-Driven Improvement Initiatives (and Other Amazing Magic Tricks)
"In my experience, projects based on the scientific method are more likely to succeed than projects focused primarily on Information Technology (IT) improvements," writes Tim…
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Did Red Sox Lean on Lean for World Series Victory?
For starters (and for that matter, for relievers), this World-Series-winning Red Sox team was simply an outstanding and absurdly talented team from top to bottom.…
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Lean Roundup: Pull
A pull system links all production activity to actual customer demand--and creates what one lean thinker calls "an architecture for kaizen." Read more about this…
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Why the A3 Process Involves More than Filling in Boxes
As she details how to problem-solve using the A3 methodology, a veteran lean coach explains why it's essential to understand that completing an A3 problem-solving…
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Create Your Fantasy Island Organizational Culture
What would your dream organizational culture look like? What about your fantasy lean transformation? Tracey Richardson shares her advice for turning at least some of…
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One Simple Thing You Can Do To Improve Your Coaching
When you put people on the defense, you miss out on a lot more than improved performance and results. Tracey Richardson shares her insights on…
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People Are Not Cars
Tyson Ortiz's challenge in helping his son through a heart transplant clarified to him what a healthcare provider said: "People are not cars." And yet…
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Thinking About the Why of the What of Problem-Solving
When we talk about problem-solving, what we’re really talking about here is creating adaptive capacity, the deep capability of an organization to tackle anything that…
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Book Value: The Mental ABC's of Pitching
"With both the All-Star Game and our Lean Coaching Summit approaching, I got to thinking about ways that non-lean books offer insights into coaching and…
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Five Missing Pieces in Your Standardized Work (Part 2 of 3)
John Shook delves more deeply into two of the five most often neglected elements, demonstrating the importance of practice and the role of the leader,…
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Coping with COVID-19: Lessons from The Plague
In this time of pandemic, John Shook shares some ways this novel coronavirus is impacting him personally, noting "For Camus, hope is the enemy. But,…
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Back to Basics at the Lean Transformation Summit
John Shook reflects on the 2009 Lean Transformation Summit
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Is Lean Thinking Art or Science? Yes
Calling the recent book Lean Conversations a landmark initiative on lean and the arts, John Shook observes that "If Jean Cocteau’s famous observation that 'art…
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And You Forgot About Overproduction
John Shook discusses waste - specifically, overproduction
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Is Your Technical Person a Technical Problem or a People Problem ...?
John Shook discusses the need for both technical and social skills
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The Joys of a Brownfield
“Lean experience teaches us to enjoy and make the most of going to see. Go to the gemba, go there a lot, and learn to…
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Lead from the Front, Lead from Behind
In my last letter I alluded to a common view in the Lean Community – shared by the broader business community at large – that…
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