Think like a child. One of the things that attracted me to Toyota’s management practice years ago was the requirement that people must be respected in order for continuous improvement to take place. This includes all stakeholders – employees, suppliers, customers, inventors, and communities. Toyota’s management system is a significant break from the poor way […]

As an experienced PMP Consultant, I have witnessed the transformative power of effective mentoring on careers, teams, and organizations. Over my twenty-year journey, I have learned that mentoring is a multi-dimensional process that goes beyond merely sharing knowledge. It involves various aspects, including training, goal-setting, motivation, advice-giving, success-achieving, direction-providing, support-giving, and coaching. In this post, […]

Since my books Lean Teaching and Lean University were published in June 2015, Lean University has sold at 2.5 times the pace of Lean Teaching. What might these sales results suggest? Sales of Lean University over Lean Teaching indicate that university leaders are more interested in Lean for administrative work than they are for academic […]

Click on image to enlarge. I was recently asked an interesting question: “We want to introduce Lean to our workforce. What advice do you have for a president on the structure and content of an inspirational lecture to introduce Lean?” The word “inspirational” is what makes this question interesting to me. Lean is usually introduced […]

It’s not that universities don’t improve, it’s just that they improve far too slowly and therefore are not in step with the times. What causes that? There are many factors, of course, but let’s consider the role of accreditation on causing slow improvement in academic programs and administrative support. The various accrediting bodies publish standards. […]

Higher education has been steadily moving from it’s long-term position as a sellers’ market to a buyers’ market. College and university leaders seem slow to grasp this fact. They, as well as those who do grasp this fact, would be wise to adopt this mindset given current market conditions and to lead daily process improvement, […]

In my view, the United Kingdom has led the world in the advancement of Lean management in higher education (click here to learn more) – but with two important qualifications: Application has been mainly in administrative processes, not in teaching and other academic processes. An emphasis on measuring the results of improvement “projects.” I’d like […]

Many discussions about project management overlook the significance of the crucial early choices that shape the project execution approach. Decisions such as employing Agile or Waterfall methodologies, or choosing between prefabrication and on-site assembly, may not alter the expected project output, but they can greatly affect the delivery process and the project’s likely success. The […]

One of my great interests is reading books from the early 1900s that describe the troubles in higher education and the means by which people thought to eliminate problems and improve processes. The period 1910-1915 saw a lot of interest in applying the then-new Scientific Management to process problems in teaching and administration in higher […]

Click on image to enlarge. The image at right depicts the greatest unsolved problem in all of business: How to move CEOs and senior management teams from bottom to top – from conventional management to progressive (Toyota-style) management. The story begins around 100 years ago, when the proponents of Scientific Management began to realize that […]

Anyone interested in continuous improvement should be thoroughly displeased with how kaizen has been so effectively separated from Lean. It seems that most people simply don’t care about kaizen these days. That’s just terrible. Oddly, disinterest in kaizen is fueled by interest in Lean tools. Yet, many Lean tools are derived from kaizen itself or from […]

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 […]

A common feature of large organizations is to have many leadership development programs running in parallel. There is a corporate leadership development program, perhaps division-specific leadership development programs, and then many function-specific leadership development programs: finance, manufacturing, supply chain, engineering, IT, human resources, and so on. Leadership development programs can be “owned” by the training group, […]

A recent op-ed article in my university’s student-run newspaper, written by a soon-to-be graduating senior, questioned the wisdom of cumulative final exams (click here to read the article).  It’s great to see a student putting their critical thinking skills to use. Professors should do the same. The student, Lauren Lustgarten, said: “Instead [of final exams], professors […]

Continuous improvement tools and techniques play a huge role in a company’s lean manufacturing journey. That is to say, depending on which tools and techniques they choose to implement, this can lead to reduced errors, improved productivity, and overall, a greater profitability. There are various continuous improvement tools and techniques that can help a manufacturing […]

Click on image to enlarge. Most leaders introduce Lean by dryly articulating business needs, followed by a high-level explanation of Lean, and then present the technical details of the implementation plan. They leave out the social details, believing them to be unimportant. I call this the “Lean for Owners” method. I would not introduce Lean […]

Now available for download and reading: A PDF preview of the Introduction and Chapter 1 of my upcoming book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. This preview document has been copyedited but is not formatted like the actual print books will be. Click here to get the PDF preview […]

Will digital transformation of business doom Lean transformation? It might, for certain businesses, perhaps large corporations, but maybe less so for small- and medium-sized businesses that are more people-dependent and whose leaders understand the importance of having a human-centered management system. Corporate investment is increasingly shifting from traditional machinery and employees to robots and software. […]

How do we simplify culture change? How do we make it more accessible? How do we simplify that so that an everyday manager can really drive significant improvements in culture? Welcome to another installment of my author interview series in which I talk with Joshua Plenert about his book, How We Go: Culture-Centric Leadership, High-Functioning […]

Companies constantly seek ways to improve process efficiency and reduce waste in today’s rapidly changing business landscape. One approach that has gained widespread popularity is Lean Business Process Management.

In the previous blog post, “Digital Transformation vs. Lean Transformation,” I described the drift away from Lean transformation currently underway as digital transformation and data analytics increasingly gains the attention of CEOs. They are now on a path of seeing digital transformation and Lean transformation as either-or. The former is more difficult than the latter, and […]

Simon Elias, Director of Lean Competency System, recently wrote a blog post titled “Let’s Ban the Eighth Waste.” Simon questioned the addition of an eighth waste, “untapped human potential,” and identified five criteria to determine if something identified as waste actually is waste. So, as I sometimes do, I would like to critique excerpts of the […]

Here is an update on the production and publication process for my new book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. It’s been copy edited. The Kindle version is basically ready for release. You can even pre-order it now. Pre-orders for the print versions will be available soon. The page […]

This year, 2017, is the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). It is an organization that has inarguably been the most successful and influential in shaping people’s understanding of “lean,” due in part to the central role that its founder, James P. Womack, and his associate, Daniel T. Jones, have played […]

Introduction Greetings and welcome! Get ready to explore “The Comprehensive Roadmap to Project Management Excellence”! This guide covers all aspects of project management and provides you with proven strategies to enhance your skills as a project manager. Let’s embark on a journey towards developing your project management skills using these effective techniques. With dedication and […]

The language used by Taiichi Ohno to guide the development of the Toyota production system (TPS), and in his later descriptions of TPS (in Japanese), was precise (read Jun Nakamouro’s excellent article). In kaizen with sensei Chihiro Nakao, who was mentored and trained by Ohno-san, Nakao-san guides people on the precise use of language. He […]

In my previous blog post, Teachers, Trainers, Coaches, or Faculty?, I gave examples of imprecision associated with Lean that affects people’s understanding and practice, and which has a large impact on people, process, and outcomes. Among other things, I noted how Lean trainers are referred to as “faculty” by both the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) and […]

Most people who are interested in Toyota’s management practice have no interest in the history of progressive management ideas and practices that preceded it. Nor is there much interest in the problems and difficulties faced by those who worked to advance progressive management prior to TPS. I find the lack of curiosity to be unfortunate. […]

Great leadership is indeed a difficult thing to pin down and understand. You know a great leader when you’re working for one, but even they can have a hard time explaining the specifics of what they do that makes their leadership so effective. Great leadership is dynamic; it melds a variety of unique skills into […]

Given what we know today about the benefits of Lean management to organizations and people, it is surprising that Lean is not widely recognized as a much better alternative to conventional management. Neither CEOs nor workers demand Lean management as a solution to their problems. As a result, there is low demand for Lean from […]

Who would have ever thought that tenure’s undoing in public higher education would be caused by higher education’s failure to achieve one of its most fundamental objectives: Teach people how to think critically. There is a growing push to eliminate tenure for faculty in public higher education. Every argument that I have seen to support this […]

One problem that has long been a concern is how to turn managers into effective coaches when they have little or no practical experience with kaizen and have never personally engaged in basics such as set-up reduction, visual controls, creating a flowline or kanban system, etc.? This is in addition to the constraint we face […]

INTERVIEW – Cleveland Clinic has been on a lean journey for a few years now. In this interview, their Medical Director and Chief Nursing Officer talk continuous improvement, metrics, and sustaining results. Interviewees: Lisa Yerian and Meredith Foxx Roberto Priolo: When and how did the lean journey of the Cleveland Clinic begin? Lisa Yerian: In […]

Introduction When it comes to managing health and safety, risk assessment is the foundation. The process involves identifying hazards, evaluating risks, and implementing safety measures. Here’s a helpful five-step guide to conducting a thorough risk assessment. Step One: Spotting the Hazards The journey to risk assessment begins with a keen eye for hazards. These could […]