Gemba means “the real place”—where work actually happens, problems become visible, and leadership behavior matters most. These posts explore what going to the gemba really means beyond symbolic walk-throughs, dashboards, or status updates.
Drawing from Lean, Toyota practices, healthcare, manufacturing, and knowledge work, this archive focuses on gemba as a leadership practice: listening more than talking, asking better questions, building trust, and creating the conditions for daily improvement rather than fear or performance theater.
Lean thinkers see the waste in healthcare when they are at the hospital “gemba“. I think this is true whether you are a Lean person who is new to healthcare or if you’re a long-time hospital person who has learned…
TL;DR: Effective daily huddles are short, visual, two-way conversations held in the gemba–focused on safety, performance, and surfacing issues, not solving them on the spot. A key cultural aspect of Lean is the “daily huddle.” Sure, this practice isn’t exclusive…
If you’re a regular reader of my Lean Blog, you might know more about preventing Hospital Acquired Infections than many healthcare CEOs do, says a report in the Washington Post: “Hospital infection deaths caused by ignorance and neglect, survey finds.”…
Mark’s note: Today is the first of a series of guest posts that will appear over the next two weeks from a variety of bloggers while I’m on vacation. Tracey Richardson is a consultant and LEI faculty member who previously…
I’m here at the Shingo Prize conference for the second year in a row. Lots of good networking and talks I’ll share a few quotes and highlights, along with a picture of my friend and sometimes guest blogger, Adam Zak.…
I heard a great line from an Emergency Department doc and physician leader yesterday. Talking about his hospital’s Lean efforts, he said, simply: “Data should create light, not heat.” Brilliant. Simply brilliant. What he meant was that data should be…
Mark’s note: I’m happy to welcome a relatively new friend, Mike Stoecklein, as a guest author here on my Lean Blog. We have shared interests in healthcare improvement and, particularly, in Dr. W. Edwards Deming, with whom Mike had personal…
Recently, I was able to visit VIBCO, a Lean manufacturing company in Rhode Island. Company President Karl Wadensten is the host of “The Lean Nation” radio show. It was my third time visiting the factory in the last six months,…
I have strong ties and connections to the state of Michigan, growing up in Livonia, starting my career there in Livonia, and having my parents and many friends in the area, although I moved away in 1997. I was thrilled…
Note: I edited the post title on April 3 to make it clear this was an April Fool’s Joke. Comments posted by readers on 4/1 and 4/2 may have been “fooled” – thanks for taking the joke in good spirits.…
TL;DR: NPR’s “End of the Line” on NUMMI reminds us that performance problems weren’t caused by “bad workers,” but by bad management systems. The same people who sabotaged cars under GM built world-class quality under Toyota. My experience with a…
Jim Womack visited Lantech, a manufacturer of stretch wrappers and other packaging equipment. While there and visiting the “gemba,” Jim was interviewed about Lean, what he saw at Lantech, and Toyota’s recent problems. You can see the interview here, in…
