Join Greg Jacobson, MD, co-founder and CEO of KaiNexus, and me for another episode of the KaiNexus Continuous Improvement podcast. 

Here are the dozen images that I posted on LinkedIn every day from 20 to 31 October in the run-up to Halloween 2023. Also shown are the words that accompanied each post. When I first posted the texts and images, most of the comments were (oddly) a defense of the concept, tool, method, or practice […]

Sometimes it frustrates me that people misunderstand my intentions and the work that I do to advance progressive leadership and management. First, there are the noisy people who are so wildly off base in their personal criticism of me and of my work that their main aim is clear: To discredit and discount my work, […]

In this edition: From Melbourne to Manchester; Adaptive Organisation workshops; Adaptive Organisation online; More free sessions; Train-the-Trainer / Facilitator (TTT/F) and alternatives; Top posts From Melbourne to Manchester It was a privilege to open the inaugural Kanban Australia – congratulations to Daniel Ploeg and the team there for putting on such a great event! The […]

With the KPI groups safety, quality, productivity, and cost, this series on the Toyota KPI dashboard has covered the main topics. However, there is more. Not always but often you can also find a section on human resources (HR) development. Yet, these are usually not KPI, but more organizational topics that may be part of […]

Encouraging a Growth Mindset and Human Connection in High-Performance Organizations What does it really take to create a thriving organization  – one that is not just focused on delivering results, but doing so by engaging people’s minds and hearts to collaborate, innovate, and solve problems as the way to get to those results? If you’re […]

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of October 2023.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.     From Punishment to Improvement: Transforming Workplace Culture – Mark Graban explains why it is important create a culture of learning and innovation instead of fear and punishment.   The Strategy […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) Number 1 daughter, who studied Law at McGill University, spent a lot of time in court, and is appalled at the hassle & confusion. “It’s awful, Dad! I spend hours trying to find and make sense of things – and I’m a Law student! How do regular folks feel?” We’ve had […]

The Fall season is my favorite time of year. It is a special time of the year, especially in New England. The trees produce a stunning explosion of color as the leaves change from green through yellow, orange, red and then turning to brown before falling to the ground. Trees are a wonderful example of […]

Image Source: Pixabay Whether you’re a new leader or an experienced one, there’s always more to learn. This is especially true if you don’t get formal leadership training — which most leaders don’t. In one study, almost half of leaders with 10 or more years of management experience said they’d had nine total hours of […]

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on […]

For my Facebook fans you already know about this great feature. But for those of you that are not connected to A Lean Journey on Facebook or Twitter I post daily a feature I call Lean Tips.  It is meant to be advice, things I learned from experience, and some knowledge tidbits about Lean to […]

Welcome to Chain of Learning: Your Leadership Connection to Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement Listen now! The pressure to get results and outcomes, to deliver value for customers, and to stay ahead of the competition remains paramount for organizations to survive into the future. But what if the way to not just survive –  […]

Teamwork is the often underestimated tool that drives every successful business. Without a well-managed team, a company might not meet its full potential. Each person on your team has the ability to bring their unique skills and talent to the table, but teamwork is required to truly take advantage of that. Putting your employees into […]

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on […]

Creating engaged and productive employees starts with fostering a system of appreciation and rewards in the workplace. Employee rewards are an important part of any company culture, regardless of the industry you work in. In this article, we briefly discuss the importance of rewarding your employees and list four top employee rewards you should offer. […]

“Today’s manufacturing systems have become more automated, data-driven, and sophisticated than ever before. Visit any modern shop floor and you’ll find a plethora of IT systems, HMIs, PLC data streams, machine controllers, engineering support, and other digital initiatives, all vying to improve manufacturing quality and efficiencies. That begs these questions: With all this technology, is […]

In Episode 42, Jamie Flinchbaugh visits Mark Graban and they get to record an episode in-person. This was the origin of the show – getting together in-person, enjoying whiskey, and talking about lean stuff. The last episode we did an experiment that was inconclusive – sometimes that’s how it goes. We had moved the whiskey […]

Photo by 2H Media on Unsplash   https://hbr.org/2023/10/5-questions-to-get-your-project-team-on-the-same-page Above is the link to the HBR article.  I believe anyone can get access. Here’s the opening paragraph: When a misaligned project team succeeds, it’s an accident. Without alignment — that is, a shared understanding and commitment — team members work at cross-purposes and doom projects to failure. […]

  In this episode of the “People Solve Problems” podcast, host Jamie Flinchbaugh sits down with guest, Cindy Hinds, the Global Director of Enterprise Excellence at A.O. Smith. Cindy brings with her a wealth of knowledge, boasting over 25 years of experience in implementing Lean principles within organizations. Their conversation explores the essence of coaching, […]

Maybe Albert Einstein was talking about continuous improvement when he said, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Too often, we see organizations struggling to measure only those things that can be tied to a dollar amount and they, unfortunately, […]

In my series on the Toyota KPI dashboard, after safety, quality, and productivity, we finally arrive at cost. While for some companies it is the number one factor, for Toyota it is far behind safety, quality, and productivity. The argument is that if safety, quality, and productivity are in line, it is likely that cost […]

Recently, I sold my Sears Craftsman tool chest, which I bought 47 years ago, and in doing so I downsized my collection of tools. To do that, I asked myself these questions: 🛠 Which tools do I really need?🛠 Which tools do I use often?🛠 Which tools do I know how to use well?🛠 Which […]

I witness this breakdown in critical thinking far too frequently. Just because a person or an organization is highly respected and capable, does not mean that we should judge all of their decisions, actions, and opinions based on that respect. We should be skeptical. We should challenge. After all, Aristotle is one of the people […]

Earlier this year, I was invited to give a recorded virtual presentation for a conference in Malaysia on the subject of Lean in healthcare. More specifically, they asked me to present on the theme of “Spearheading change toward a lean healthcare organization.” I used this as an opportunity to experiment with a relatively new PowerPoint […]

Is it time to get rid of value stream maps? The first-ever value stream map of a value stream mapping event reveals mountains of waste. The lead-time to achieve actual improvement has increased by 425 percent! It’s worse than anyone thought. Some are calling this a “Lean crisis.” Others are calling it a “Lean disaster.” […]

Recently, I sold my large Sears Craftsman tool chest, which I bought 50 years ago, and in doing so I downsized my collection of tools. To do that, I asked myself these questions: 🛠 Which tools do I really need?🛠 Which tools do I use often?🛠 Which tools do I know how to use well?🛠 […]

Listen: In Episode 42, Jamie Flinchbaugh visits Mark Graban in northern Kentucky and they get to record an episode in person. This was the origin of the podcast series — getting together in person, enjoying whiskey, and talking about Lean stuff.  In the last episode, we did an experiment that was inconclusive — sometimes, that’s […]

Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. Insights about improvement, innovation, and leadership… Operational Excellence, Improvement, and Innovation Bureaucracy is GROSS Bureaucracy can creep in over the years and eventually consume your […]

Have you ever had a problem that kept on recurring no matter what you did to try and prevent it from coming back? Stubborn or recurrent problems are often symptoms of deeper issues. While “quick fixes” might seem convenient, they often only solve the surface issues. Moreover, they also waste resources that could otherwise be […]

Announcing: The immediate availability of the Leading with Outcomes Adaptive Organisation workshop And closely related to that: Adaptive Organisation (II): Between spaces, scopes and scales, v2.1 beta Updates on Leading in a Transforming Organisation, Manchester New experience/practice sessions begin next week 1. Announcing the immediate availability of the Leading with Outcomes Adaptive Organisation Workshop This […]

Here are some recent videos that I’m sure you will enjoy. Lot’s of great learning for improvement! “What Have We Learned in 50 Years of TPS and 35 Years of Lean?” with Calvin Williams of Impruver.com. Dr. M Vodcast: “From Shop Floor Kaizen to Speed Leadership“ “Transitioning to Lean Management,” an interview by Ashutosh Garg, […]

Having studied the thinking and actions of top business leaders for some 30 years, many things stand out as characteristic of most top leaders. Given that they tend to emulate one another and share most of the same preconceptions of their social group, it is not surprising that a discernable pattern, or recipe, emerges. This […]

Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #488 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is D. Lynn Kelley, Ph.D. She is the author, with John Shook (who has been a guest here many times), of the new book, Change Questions: A Playbook for Effective and Lasting Organizational Change. Lynn […]