Article
Can Lean Know-How Come Home?
When you decide to stop making things, you lose the ability to make things, argues Eric Buehrens: not just the displaced assembly workers who have…
View article
Article
How to Scale Up Positive Social Change
Far more households globally have access to a mobile phone than a toilet, notes Ann Mei Chang, a tech executive turned social innovator and author.…
View article
Article
Leading with Respect is Not a Soft Skill: An interview with Mike Orzen
By definition, a hard skill is a skill that can be defined, measured, and taught. Does that sound like it describes leadership? Probably not, but…
View article
Article
The Lean Genie Problem
"For leaders and CI professionals, it’s not practical to rely on the team you’re working with to institute every change that’s needed each time you…
View article
Article
Lead Lean by Being Lean
Lean just doesn't work if leaders don't actively, consistently demonstrate lean thinking themselves. In his first piece for the Post, lean coach Jim Luckman explains…
View article
Article
Sensing the Gemba
The next time you show up at the gemba to do a “go and see,” take a personal assessment of your level of focus, presence…
View article
Article
Enabling Change Through the Power of Story
Roberto Priolo, editor of Planet Lean, shares why not just reflection, but writing (and storytelling) is so helpful for the lean practitioner. In short, a…
View article
Article
Action Plan for Hard Times
Last week I pointed out that the big leaps in applying lean thinking have all been made in hard times. I therefore urged everyone to…
View article
Article
Why Toyota Won and How Toyota Can Lose
Simon & Schuster has just re-issued The Machine That Changed the World, which Dan Jones, Dan Roos, and I co-authored 17 years ago. Doubtless, our…
View article Article
What I've Learned About Planning and Execution
By the time I founded the Lean Enterprise Institute in mid-1997, I had been thinking for years about how organizations prioritize and plan. And I…
View article Article
Lean Beyond the Factory
I've been thinking a lot recently about just what a business really is. As a lean process thinker, my best answer is that a business…
View article Article
Why do the characters in your books struggle a lot with lean?
Dear Gemba Coach: I’m new to lean and I’ve just finished reading “The Gold Mine” and “The Lean Manager” and enjoyed them thoroughly – thank…
View article Article
Ask Art: Is There More to Becoming Lean than Conducting Kaizen Events?
Kaizen events may be a key part of lean transformation, but they're certainly not the only aspect of it. They're just one step on the…
View article
Article
What Do I Tell My Leaders When Experiments Fail?
When experiments fail, it's natural for a leadership team to get nervous. But in the context of lean, they shouldn't be - it's just a…
View article
Article
How to Develop Healthy Habits for Mindful Coaching
Powerful lean coaches help others create productive habits that over time produce a type of "muscle memory" that forms a foundation for long-term growth and…
View article
Article
In Search of Value Stream Architects
Recently I've been spending most of my gemba time walking through value-creating processes in organizations far away from manufacturing. And the further away I get…
View article