How should higher education (HE) institutions get started with Lean management? Should they follow the tried-and-true path used by for-profit manufacturing and service businesses, or should they create their own new path? Is the rationale for doing the latter sound and also capable of generating improvements in the areas that HE needs it most and […]

John Shook, Senior Advisor of the Lean Enterprise Institute, is among those who describe Lean or the Toyota Production System as being neither top-down management nor bottom-up management. It’s not about the boss telling people what to do, and it’s not a system where employees are empowered to do whatever they want. Instead, an effective […]

We all know that the human and technical aspects of Lean management are learned by doing, often with the help of a sensei or coach. Supplemental sources of information – books, training courses, conferences, etc. – can be helpful in providing additional details, generating new questions, and motivation for improvement. I, along with many other […]

The University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) will host the 2015 Lean HE Hub Conference from from 9-11 September. The theme of this year’s conference is Driving Lean Change in Higher Education. Conference organizers are inviting contributions for poster presentations, workshops, discussions or presentations on all areas of practical application of Lean in Higher Education. Presentation […]

Below is some material that I wrote, but didn’t use, in my book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. Give Permission to Learn Instead of Being Afraid The late Edgar Schein said organizational culture includes artifacts, values, and assumptions. One example of an artifact is a small card given […]

In a previous blog post, I defined Lean intellectualism as “substituting knowing for doing, an over-emphasis on thinking and under-emphasis on doing, which includes the ability to speak fluently about Lean management but without ever actually having done anything of significance.” Basically, to create an appearance of being intelligent about Lean and limit the conversation […]

Nothing is all upside. Even Lean management has downsides, perhaps more than we care to acknowledge. When Lean transformations fail, we say that the people in charge did not understand Lean and therefore did not do things the right way. When we encounter Fake Lean, we say the same thing. We try to tell leaders […]

It should be obvious that the purpose of higher education is not an instrument of the state or of private enterprise to prepare students for employment. That is a beneficial outcome for students, employers, and society. And, of course, teaching can be greatly improved to better prepare students for work and for life. I have […]

In a previous blog post, I said that the flaws in Lean “are actually generated by an anti-symbiotic relationship between experienced leaders and progressive management.” We have a bad relationship, and bad relationships call for a relationship counselor. For all our efforts, we have not made much progress in eliminating the bias against Lean among experienced […]

If you want Lean management to truly take hold in your college or university, you are going to have to get faculty involved. Experience has shown time and again that highly educated people doing work on the front lines push back hard on change. Faculty are united in pushing back on what they perceive to […]

Many people shy away from failure. There’s constant wonder and worry about what will happen to an individual when they fail, especially in their place of work. However, celebrating failure can and often brings unexpected success. I want to share a TedTalk by the Head of X (formerly Google X), Astro Teller, where he introduces […]

In the previous blog post, I explained how confirmation bias was Lean’s kiss of death. While it has been that way for more than three decades, it need not be that way forever. In that blog post, I said “[experienced Lean leaders] as well as independent voices such as professors who know Lean well must develop simple […]

My daughter is graduating from college in a few days, with high honors. She did it in 4 years! And, she has a full-time job that starts four days after graduation!! We were driving around the shoreline last weekend and talking about her college experience. She noted that important parts of her education in her […]

“Kaizen your political skills.” That was the advice from a well-known Lean coach to a person who was succeeding with Lean but found himself having to fight against corporate leaders’ demand that his division adopt corporate’s ERP system and purchasing practices. Corporate leaders were unconvinced that Lean management enabled the division to function better without the […]

If you were to ask me “What is the single most important Lean tool or method,” my answer would immediately be “genba kaizen” – with the understanding that no employee loses their job as a result of kaizen; i.e. “Respect for People” is operational in this and in many other ways. Why? It is because classic […]

“Make or buy?” is a question most companies have to ask themselves. Which parts or even products should you make yourself, and which ones should you outsource to a third-party supplier? The question itself is already difficult, but here again we run into the problem of cost accounting. If you go purely by the numbers, […]

Here is an article that I think you will find interesting: “‘Cuckoo managers’ are throwing out academy traditions” (Times Higher Education, 21 May 2015). The article correctly criticizes managerialism – what actually is better characterized as mismanagement of universities. However, it is unfortunate that academics generally have great difficulty discerning the difference between beneficial practices for managing […]

Sharing my third article for Forbes: The Two Kinds Of Visionary Leader You Can Be Very often, when a leader is highlighted in the press, “visionary” is used as a descriptor. But what exactly does that mean? We use it so often that, perhaps, it’s lost all meaning. Read More The post The Two Kinds […]

My co-authors and I have been working diligently over the last 10 months creating what we hope will be recognized as a very important book, one that defines the true essence of “Continuous Improvement” and “Respect for People.” Kaizen Forever: Teachings of Chihiro Nakao shares the mindset that created Toyota’s production method and their overall management practice. There […]

I’m happy to announce some special pre-order pricing! Just $2.99! The regular price will be $9.99. My upcoming book is The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. CLICK HERE –> PRE-ORDER NOW If you already pre-ordered it, don’t worry — you’ll also get the $2.99 price applied automatically since you’re […]

What is your emotional attachment to Lean? Is it healthy or unhealthy? We should talk about this. Emotional ConnectionDownload

You are likely familiar with my e-books on higher education, The Lean Professor for faculty and We Can Do It! for administrators. I’m happy to announce that I’ve made some important changes: The books have been re-titled Lean Teaching and Lean University. Both books have been corrected, updated, and expanded. They are now available only in paperback, […]

The Third International Conference on Lean Six Sigma for Higher Education was held at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, on 8-9 June 2015. The theme of the conference was “Making Higher Education Institutions Efficient and Effective through Lean Six Sigma Deployment.” The title of my keynote talk was: “Application of Lean to Teaching.” I discussed how I […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #478 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Shaunté Kinch. In 2022, Shaunté founded Empact Global, a consultancy that works with organizations to help them solve really BIG problems. Her more than 20 years spent implementing Six Sigma, LEAN, and design thinking […]

When you think about the core attributes of Lean management (i.e. Toyota’s management method), one cannot help but to be impressed: Lean is reality and fact-based. Lean improves communication, cooperation, and enthusiasm for work throughout the enterprise. Lean offers tangible opportunities for everyone to contribute in meaningful ways every day. Problem-solving is localized, rather than […]

Image Source: Pexels.com Only 21% of respondents in a recent Gallup survey strongly agreed with the statement that they trusted the leadership in their organization. And 34% strongly agreed their manager creates a trusting and open environment. These numbers are incredibly low considering the ultimate goal is for every employee to trust leaders, be inspired […]

I would like call call your attention to a small (98 page) but important book that I co-authored called Kaizen Forever: Teachings of Chihiro Nakao. While few in pages, the book is a giant in delivering to readers the mindset that created Toyota’s Production System and their overall management system.  Mr. Nakao co-founded the Shingijutsu […]

In his book, Toyota Production System (Toyota Production Method in the original Japanese) Taiichi Ohno said: “The tool used to operate the system is kanban, an idea I got from American supermarkets… A supermarket is where a customer can get (1) what is needed, (2) at the time needed, (3) in the amount needed…the supermarket is a […]

In recent years, healthcare providers increasingly want you to do an “online check in” prior to your appointment. I can see the benefits — when it works well. I’d rather type information into my phone or computer instead of writing it into paper forms. These paper forms are often badly designed, with lines and boxes […]

What does Lean teach? 👉 Get the facts, don’t guess. Irrational-FearDownload

“Respect for People” has come into vogue in the last year or two as people have finally realized, after decades, that focusing on Lean tools yields Fake Lean. The “Respect for People” principle and Lean leadership have been my area of interest for more than 20 years. These topics have been the central theme of […]

John Seddon has made an amazing discovery: Lean is failing! In a paper much anticipated by few, “An exploration into the failure of Lean,” Seddon and co-author Brendan O’Donovan “…show that the ‘Lean’ (Womack and Jones 1996) movement is based on a flawed interpretation of innovations” created by Toyota beginning in the 1950s. They argue that Lean […]

In December 2004, I wrote an article, “Lean in Higher Education,” about the future of higher education in the United States. I made the case that due to declining enrollments and other factors, “…some schools will go out of business, some will merge with other schools, and others will exist for a period of time as zombie […]

We all know that Lean must be led from the top. That means we must engage top leaders and convince them of the merits of Lean – REAL Lean. Progressive leaders might listen, but have you stopped to think about how business traditionalists view Lean management and its advocates? Business traditionalists are people who believe […]