Tag: GM
What GM Failed to Learn from NUMMI — And Why ‘Management...
TL;DR: A re-aired episode of This American Life on NUMMI highlights enduring lessons about leadership, learning, and Lean. While critics like Labor Notes frame...
How Do You Deliver Quality and Value Faster? Steve Spear on...
Editor's note (2026): In an era of AI, dashboards, and real-time data, Spear's reminder still holds: information only matters if it changes behavior.
TL;DR: Steve...
Throwback Thursday: 23 Tweets I Might Have Sent in 2002
I have been going through some old papers recently and I found two sheets of paper with hand-written thoughts or "truisms" that I had scribbled...
Why Telling Employees to “Check Their Brains at the Door” Destroys...
Here's my latest cartoon collaboration with a skilled artist (and medical assistant), Carrie Schurman.
You can see the whole series via this link.
A Common Workplace Message:...
Throwback Thursday: GM Got Gamed & The Original Intent of Their...
Continuing the "Throwback Thursday" theme for the 10th anniversary of my blog, today's post looks back at and builds upon one of my favorites...
Fear of speaking up is a broader problem, not just in...
Announcement: Dr. Greg Jacobson and I are doing a new webinar for KaiNexus on "More Leadership Behaviors That Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement'"...
What’s Up With Neckties in Healthcare?
It's a simple question: what's up with so many men wearing ties in healthcare? Are you / they wearing them because you like to,...
GM CEO Mary Barra Celebrates Employee Kaizen
Time magazine recently featured GM's relatively new CEO, Mary Barra, on the cover and in this story:
"Mary Barra's Bumpy Ride at the Wheel of GM"
Also,...
This Date in Lean Blog History: August 6
My blog will turn 10 years old in February 2015. You're probably either thinking, "Wow, that's awesome!" or "Get a life, dude." :-)
Here's a...
Why Automakers Overproduce: Lean Lessons on Inventory, Overcapacity, and Waste
TL;DR: Automakers often overproduce because incentives reward shipping cars to dealers, not matching real demand. Excess capacity, revenue rules, and "channel stuffing" drive inventory...
GM’s Speak Up for Safety Program: Why Listening Is the Harder...
TL;DR: GM's "Speak Up for Safety" program targets the wrong problem. Employees spoke up about the ignition switch for more than a decade. Leaders...
Putting Quality First at GM: The Day I Almost Got Fired
Following up on yesterday's post that talked about "the old GM" putting cost ahead of quality, I sometimes get flashbacks to my days working for...
