Organizational culture isn’t what leaders say—it’s what people experience every day based on management behaviors, systems, and priorities. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on culture through a Lean lens, exploring how leadership decisions shape trust, psychological safety, learning, and performance. Many of these posts draw on lessons from Deming, Toyota, healthcare, and real organizations to show that culture is not a program to roll out, but an outcome leaders create—intentionally or not.
TL;DR: At GM, fear and poor leadership blocked bad news from flowing both up and down the organization. Executives were shielded from reality, frontline workers weren’t told the truth, and trust eroded as a result. Without leaders going to the…
Tomorrow’s blog post today… not that anyone will be reading anything non-Michael Jackson related. RIP. A modern tidbit… I learned about the news via a friend’s Facebook status update. The new, new media, I suppose. Communications Woes Show at Boeing…
Here’s another Lean Blog reader question from Joe, who writes: Last year I was part of an ERP implementation team at our company, and while part of that I became interested in lean manufacturing. For reference I manage our Field…
New Yankee Stadium a winner, team a big loser to Tribe 10-2 – USATODAY.com If you’re not a Yankees fan, let’s kick them while they’re down (losing 22-4 Saturday). As the kid Nelson from the Simpsons would say, Haw-HA! The…
leanblog.org | Lean Blog: Q&A With the Lean Dentist, Part 2 This is an old post from 18 months ago, but someone asked Dr. Sami Bahri about retention in his office. The response from Dr. Bahri: Employee retention is actually…
TL;DR: Toyota stands apart because every employee is empowered to improve their work every day. That combination of respect for people, daily improvement, and visible learning creates better quality, safety, and performance–and it works just as well in healthcare as…
By Adam Zak, Adam Zak Executive Search:I’ve been writing quite a bit lately about why respect for people, often vividly demonstrated when your team members are truly engaged in their day-to-day work, is critical to building and sustaining the Lean…
I’ve blogged before about the “20 things supervisors shouldn’t say.” I’ll throw out, for discussion, two phrases that are awful to hear in the context of any change management situation, such as Lean in a hospital or a factory. When…
I had a great conversation with a fellow healthcare lean thinker the other day. She shared my book, Lean Hospitals: Improving Quality, Patient Safety, and Employee Satisfaction, with the CEO and some other executives at a hospital she works with.…
Eliminating He Said, She Said « Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success I really like Quint Studer’s books, not just for healthcare, but as general leadership books (you can find his books on Amazon) In his most recent…
Top Small Workplaces 2008 – WSJ.com Today’s WSJ was well worth the $2.00. Yes, I subscribe to the online Journal, but there’s something nice about reading the regular print version while traveling. Maybe I should just buy a Kindle as…
Listen: Here is LeanBlog Podcast #40, an interview with a retired UAW/GM employee who wishes to remain anonymous, at this point. We have traded many emails over the past year, about Lean, and I’m impressed with this individual’s true passion…
