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.
Hi. I’m Mark. If you read this blog, you might already know me. I’m going to tell a story today that’s illustrated with Apple “Memojis.” That kinda looks like me. I’m not quite that grey. Yet. In the Lean community,…
A few years ago, my wife and I went to a highly-regarded (and oft-recommended) restaurant in the Orlando area (our now former home). I ordered a brined, bone-in pork chop. When it came out, looking somewhat like the photo below,…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients It’s been 20 years since To Err is Human, the seminal report from the Institute of Medicine, was released, estimating, to many people’s surprise, that almost 100,000 deaths per year in hospitals could be prevented. …
Mark’s Note: Today’s post is written by Ken Segel, the managing director of Value Capture, LLC. This is the first of what I hope will be many contributions from the Value Capture team. In the spirit of transparency, I should…
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been quoted as saying he will "school Toyota on Lean manufacturing."
OK, let's take inspiration and lessons from the apparent Tesla Way management system. What would happen if hospitals and other organizations tried emulating Tesla instead of Toyota? What are the methods and mindsets? The behaviors and principles? What's the management approach and culture?
As you might know, I have always enjoyed baseball and like blogging about ideas and statistics that come from the sport.
I loved this recent article from The Wall Street Journal and there are parallels to Lean and being an effective change agent:
"The Data Wonk Who Became a Coach"
Not all Japanese companies are the same. "Lean isn't easy" if you're a Japanese company. Toyota has created something special, since "Toyota culture" is not exactly the same as "Japanese culture."
The WSJ says the "model is cracking."
Do scandals involving quality and ethical lapses involving companies including those and Nissan tarnish Lean and the Toyota Production System? No. That's as silly as thinking the Wells Fargo banking scandal tarnishes Silicon Valley (although the Valley does enough to tarnish itself).
You might think that "command and control" leadership styles are a thing of the past. But, old habits die slowly and many leaders today still seem to have a mental model that longs for a workforce that would "just do what they're told."
What did former President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower say about leaders who are "hitting people over the head?" I blog about that here...
Last month, my wife and I had a chance for a week's vacation in Europe. As I've blogged about before, we enjoy doing some form of "gemba walk," if you will, at wineries and distilleries. At one restaurant, I was surprised to find a "chart" of sorts in the form of champagne and wine corks...
Cleaning out the backlog of stuff I wanted to blog about...
Not Being Lean Lemmings; Why Best Practices Don't Yokoten; Nissan Leaders Lead the Way, After the Problems
Hear Mark read the post (subscribe to the podcast): This is an elaboration on something I originally posted on LinkedIn. I saw somebody touting an approach that would guarantee “maximum efficiency for your management gemba walks.” Ah, the efficiency trap. Is…
I enjoy “gemba visits” (of sorts) to wineries and vacations often focus on this walking, tasting, and learning. I usually read the wine column that’s in the Wall St. Journal each Saturday, and this one stood out to me: “Do…
