Leadership isn’t about titles, charisma, or quick decisions—it’s about creating systems where people can do their best work and continuously improve. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on leadership through a Lean lens, drawing on ideas from Deming, Toyota, healthcare, and real-world management practice. The common theme: leaders shape culture, influence behavior, and own the systems that produce results—for better or worse.
TL;DR: Paul O’Neill showed that safety isn’t a metric–it’s a leadership obligation, and the foundation for what he called habitual excellence. It was a sad weekend, hearing about the passing of Paul H O’Neill, Sr. on Saturday. He was 84.…
This is an article that I originally published on LinkedIn back in 2014. It was also picked up and re-published by Entrepeneur.com. Other than this silly video that I created, this article is probably the second most-read piece of content…
Joining me again for Episode #365 is Dan Markovitz, now a five-time guest (but he doesn’t get a special jacket like SNL). You can find past episodes here. The reason for getting together was to chat about his latest book,…
Joining me for Episode #364 is a returning guest, Mitch Cahn, the president of Unionwear, a Newark-based company. Back in Episode #234, we talked about how Lean manufacturing has helped them be competitive in the labor-intensive apparel industry, sewing goods…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Healthcare and hospital staff around the world are working tirelessly to provide care during this crisis. I thank everyone that is selflessly sacrificing in service to…
For Episode #363, I’m joined by Crystal Davis as we discuss: What are you seeing in terms of how Covid19 is disrupting businesses? How do we move from crisis mode, to survival mode, to recovery mode? Why do we need…
My guest for Episode #362 is Adam Lawrence, managing partner with Process Improvement Partners LLC. He’s an industrial engineer who had a long career working with TQM, Six Sigma, and Lean at Thomasvile Furniture and other Armstrong World Industries companies.…
TL;DR: When staff invent workarounds to cope with shortages or failures, the real problem isn’t their behavior–it’s the system leaders allowed to fail. This blog post is a collaboration with a Lean healthcare consulting friend of mine, who heard another…
TL;DR: In a crisis, what leaders do matters more than what they say–and inconsistency at the top quietly undermines trust, safety, and compliance. I believe that leaders need to lead by example. This was true in my “Lean manufacturing” days…
Today, I’m sharing a preview (in podcast and transcript form) of a webinar that Steve Kane, from Gemba Academy, will presenting on April 8th as part of the KaiNexus webinar series. Coaching Strategies for Leaders It’s free and I hope…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Running controlled experiments for evaluating interventions in healthcare is usually infeasible – the presentation of patients can be random and most factors are impossible to control. However, experimenters can benefit from the quasi-random assignment…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Developing a culture of patient safety requires the ability to raise risks without fear of reprisal. This post from leanblog.org about a nurse who failed to report a critical incident for fear of being immediately…