Since the grand awakening of the Lean community to the “Respect for People” principle in 2007, and especially post-2014, it has been interesting to see how it has been both used and misused. When used correctly, in its proper context — the management of business enterprise, in the workplace — wonderful things happen. With these […]

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 […]

It is common knowledge that the biggest management consulting businesses go from company to company “solving” the same problems using the same or similar “solutions” whose trade names change over time. The long-lived success of top tier consulting’s business model is significantly aided by the short-lived tenure of CEOs who think the problems they face […]

WEB SERIES – Episode 3 of our docuseries on lean in Brazil takes us to the second largest bank in the country. Learn how Bradesco is striving to improve its processes to provide more value to its customers using Lean Thinking. Scripted, edited and narrated by: Roberto Priolo In January, I visited Bradesco in its giant […]

Our most ardent promoters of Lean have great expectations that business leaders will magically see the need to care for people — employees, customers, suppliers, and communities. That they will develop employees through the coaching and improvement katas rather than treating them as disposable assets, that they will put customers first rather than viewing them […]

So much chatter these days about “Respect for People,” developing people, learning, worker appreciation, and so on. All good stuff, but do people correctly understand the context? Yes, perhaps, but only superficially, in my view. Mr. Taiichi Ohno was a senior executive of a large corporation — not just an “operations guy” focused on process […]

What is Operational Excellence? Executing a business strategy more effectively and consistently than the competition is called Operational Excellence. Ideally, every employee can see the flow of value to the customer and fix it when the flow is interrupted. We are often asked if continuous improvement and operational excellence are the same. They are not, […]

It’s not so much the word “Lean” that is the problem. It is the word “thinking” that is the problem. “Thinking” is a chronic problem among non-Lean people, but it includes Lean people as well. We cannot or do not want to think. Or we think we think, but we do not think. On top […]

In “Beyond Strategic Kaizen: Performing Synchronous Profitable Operations,” Mihai Posteuca provides a fresh perspective on the concepts of Kaizen and continuous improvement by integrating them with the principles of synchronous operations. The result is a compelling blend of Eastern and Western management philosophies that promises to reshape how organizations approach productivity, profitability, and employee engagement. […]

“Can’t see the forest for the trees.” An expression [describing] someone who is too involved in the details of a problem to look at the situation as a whole. (Source: Dictionary.com) Click here to learn the context for this post. I continue to be confounded by the supposed great problem recognition (observation) and problem-solving skills […]

At KaiNexus, we practice what we preach when it comes to continuous improvement. One thing I do for the software company is managing the continuous improvement webinar series, playing the role of host and moderator. As I blogged about recently, we started some experiments around providing a more engaging “audience view” for our webinar presenters, […]

The late 1970s and 1980s were an exciting time for those who studied Toyota’s production system and Japanese management practices. Authors such as Monden, Cusumano, Schonberger, Suzaki, Hall, Imai, Womack, Jones, Fujimoto, and others — particularly the great Norman Bodek (1932-2020) who published classic works by Ohno, Shingo, Sekine, Hirano, and others that will forever […]

People often talk about their “Lean journey,” a never-ending quest for learning and improvement. But if you look closely, you will see that there are actually two Lean journeys. Most people are on the Lean Journey 1. It is a quasi-random journey with some success and laden with hype. But it is largely a journey […]

There are seven very distinct elements or clusters to put in place in the Fundamental Phase. The elements are in a natural “make sense” order; some can be completed simultaneously with available resources. The last one, “Basic Maintenance Management,” can and should be inserted at the right time to aid the other clusters’ success. We […]

Everyone who has engaged in kaizen using industrial engineering methods to analyze work always finds there is more of this or that than is necessary to do the work. Steps are added to a process whenever problems occur. Constant worker, supervisor, and middle-manager turnover assure that problems are always “new” to someone and need something […]

What is a culture war? “A culture war is a cultural conflict between social groups and the struggle for dominance of their values, beliefs, and practices.” If you have paid close attention over the past twenty years, you may have noticed some actions that promulgated a bit of conflict within the Lean community. I assume it is not intentional. But the effect […]

Many people in the Lean and systems thinking communities wholeheartedly believe that today’s leadership and management of organizations is based on Taylorism (also called “Super Taylorism” or “Neo-Taylorism”). They believe that Frederick Winslow Taylor’s innovations in progressive management are responsible for leaders viewing workers as machines. They call it the “machine paradigm” and sometimes the […]

Shadow boards are a visual management tool used in manufacturing and industrial settings to help reduce waste by ensuring that tools and equipment are always in the right place and good condition. They visually represent where each tool or equipment should be stored and how it should be arranged. Shadow boards are typically made of […]

Every day we face challenges and problems in life, both big and small, and so it’s very important to be good at tackling them. However, that can be easier said than done, and if we make one of these mistakes when trying to solve a problem, we might make the situation worse instead. Finding the […]

As you may know, I have written much to explain in detail why leaders resist and reject Lean management from social, economic, political, historical, philosophical, business, and spiritual perspectives. There is another interesting social aspect that deserves some attention. It is the human spectacle that comes with classical management. Because of poor processes throughout classically […]

In classical management, social status and status-seeking is understood to be both good and right. It is an integral part of the history of success of humans individually and the human race (humanity) whether in business, government, military, or religion. There is a very long, multi-millennia, history associated with status and status-seeking in most human […]

I stumbled across this article the other day, on the important issue of medication errors: Medication Errors: The Year in Review “Preventing medication errors is an essential component of caring for patients and must be a core mission of every pharmacy. For medication error prevention efforts to be effective, they must be a priority.” It […]

Lean people believe that a Lean culture is superior to the culture found in classically managed organizations. The belief is based on facts gained through experience, though for some it is based on reports found in books and articles. It is often informed by having worked in different places where one directly experienced both types […]

The SOAR (Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results) Analysis model is an innovative, strengths-based approach to change management that fosters collaboration, discovery, learning, and innovation. This model can be applied across various contexts, from strategic planning to personal development. In this blog post, we will explore the fundamentals of the SOAR model, its applications, and some […]

I couldn’t help noticing that the upcoming Leading with Outcomes: Foundation and Adaptive Organisation (I) & (II) (London, 20-22 June) overlaps somewhat with Leading with Outcomes: Train-the-Trainer/Facilitator (TTT/F). In particular, it will cover: All of Leading with Outcomes: Foundation (that’s day 1) An Agendashift Assessment (running through days 2 and 3) and its debrief (day […]

Times have changed since the term “Lean” was first introduced to the world in 1988, 33 years ago. Back then the need for Lean was in relationship to national and corporate competitiveness, cost reduction, quality improvement, and reducing the time from order to delivery. These things remain important, but two things are emerging that are […]

Environmental sustainability is a critical issue facing the world today. While there are many ways to address this issue, continuous improvement offers an effective approach to help individuals and organizations achieve long-term sustainability goals. Continuous improvement involves constantly assessing and improving processes and systems to achieve better outcomes. By using continuous improvement principles to address […]

Toyota is widely regarded as the Lean community’s “True North,” the compass guiding us on who we should be and what we should do as a Lean community. Twenty years ago this past April, Toyota Motor Corporation published “The Toyota Way 2001” internal document. The basic ideas contained in the document, shown in the image […]

Leaders who want to develop a culture of rapid continuous improvement have many tools at their disposal. So many that it can be challenging to keep them all in mind when deciding how to execute an opportunity for improvement or address a difficult challenge. Most organizations don’t use all of these techniques simultaneously, but each […]

On 14 July 2021, The Lean Enterprise Academy (LEA) posted the image shown below (left side) on LinkedIn. My comment to the post was: “Birth of TPS.” Meaning, the title of the book, The Birth of Lean was incorrect. Many people agreed with (“Liked”) my comment, which is historically and factually correct based on the […]

One of the main hindrances for proper lean manufacturing is, in my view, management by numbers. While few managers actively do management by numbers, a quantitative measurement is still often preferred. The problem is if you can measure the cost but not the benefits of something…which often happens in lean manufacturing. Now let me rant […]

After five years, I decided it was time to refresh my web site. It has a new look and a new area of focus. In addition to my books, you will notice four unique online courses: Speed Leadership Strategy Hardening Creative Kaizen Conquering Barriers I invite you to have a have a look at the […]

Apparently this (the title) is a Ryan Holiday quote. (He wrote a somewhat famous book: “The obstacle is the way”.)   Today I want to talk about the OPPOSITE. Many of us believe that “the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”.  NO, no, I did not really mean that.  Although no doubt […]

By Pascal Dennis (bio) I wrote a book called Getting the Right Things Done about protecting your core business. GRTD found an audience and my team & I have helped a lot of companies implement the methods I described. They’re a practical, and proven way to bullet-proof your company. But that’s no longer enough. Today, […]