Today and tomorrow, I’m attending the Lean Startup conference in San Francisco (the event produced by Eric Ries, the author of The Lean Startup). I’ll be learning a lot of ideas by attending presentations and networking, which will be applicable…
The Thanksgiving weekend was a great opportunity to catch up on some reading and viewing that had accumulated in my browser and inbox. One thing I really enjoyed was a conversation (in advance of next week’s Lean Startup conference) between…
One of the more trivial things I saw on my recent vacation to Scotland and England was a badly designed toilet on a Virgin train. My wife and I were on our way to Birmingham to do a Range Rover…
I wrote a piece for Linkedin Influencers as a part of their series about people’s first jobs. Read my story about my paper route that I had in Livonia, Michigan. You can comment on LinkedIn or on this blog post.…
tl;dr: Most “Lean Six Sigma” programs teach a thin layer of Lean tools on top of a heavily Six Sigma-centric curriculum. If you want real Lean thinking, culture, and leadership, this format rarely delivers it. I had a conversation recently…
TL;DR: This post revisits the origins of lean production through John Krafcik’s 1988 article, reflecting on how lean manufacturing began as an integrated management system rooted in culture, leadership, and respect for people–and why those foundations still matter more than…
My guest for episode #186 is my friend Jon Miller, CEO of Kaizen Institute and a long-time blogger at Gemba Panta Rei. Today, we’re talking about his upcoming book, Creating a Kaizen Culture: Align the Organization, Achieve Breakthrough Results, and…
When I teach and coach people on the “Kaizen” style of continuous improvement, I emphasize that what I’m teaching them isn’t perfect and it’s not to be carved in stone. People can continuous improve their continuous improvement process in so…
Growing grapes and making wine is certainly an art… but when you look into it there’s a lot of process involved. As I wrote about a bit last week, my wife and I recently spent two days in Sonoma County…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post is by Michael Grogan, a native of Ireland who left his Lean job in the U.S. to follow his calling to help bring Lean healthcare to Tanzania. Read his blog post about his first 79…
Mark’s note: Today’s post is by a good friend in the lean healthcare world, Mark Welch (no relation to Jack). Today’s post is thought-provoking in terms of finding the balance between efficiency and building relationships in today’s workplace. He also…
Joining me once again for episode #176 is my mentor and good friend Norman Bodek, who has been a guest many times here. Today, we are talking about his latest book, The Harada Method: The Spirit of Self-Reliance.