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.
Dispatches from the Frontier: Innovation as Outcome This story also seems like it couldn’t be true, from the Harga-Blog: I once asked a class full of senior executives whether they wanted innovation. They all said yes. When I then asked…
Corner Office – Bad News or Good, Continental’s Chief Wants to Know – Question – NYTimes.com This interview with Larry Keller, CEO of Continental Airlines, had elements of “Like Lean” — ideas that are similar to Toyota Production System or…
Michael Lewis on A.I.G. | vanityfair.com I’ve been a big fan of Michael Lewis and his writing since reading “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” years ago. Great book and my first introduction to the Red Sox’s great…
From Lehman’s Wreckage, New Lives – WSJ.com: Disgraced Lehman CEO Dick Fuld says in this WSJ piece: “‘I spent too much time out of the office with clients and trusted other people to manage the risk,’ he told employees of…
Checking In With Denver Health CEO Patricia Gabow On A “Model” Health Care System – Kaiser Health News Dr. Patty Gabow has been one of the leading CEO voices talking about Lean in Healthcare, as shown in the article linked…
Ill. hospital execs find savings in Lean methodologies – Modern Healthcare It’s nice to see Modern Healthcare is doing some podcasts, or at least I am just discovering them. I’ve linked to a 5-minute podcast with a CEO and CIO…
by Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean [This is a continuation of a thread on Leading Lean topics from A-Z] When visiting companies that feel better about their lean journey than they probably should, perhaps the most common…
I recently invited questions for Michael Balle, the author of the Shingo Prize winning book The Gold Mine: A Novel of Lean Turnaround. He has a new book (published by LEI, my employer), recently published, called “The Lean Manager.” Here…
Mark’s note: Jim’s post originally started as a comment in response to my post “Where Did I Start with Lean?” but it exceeded the size limit for a comment, I believe. So I’m posting it here: By Jim Baran This…
A question came in from a blog reader — simple question with no simple or easy answers: Who are the Lean Thinking CEOs? My first thought is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, for his famous customer obsession and belief in long-term thinking…
Note: Welcome LEI visitors… you can check out my main blog page at www.leanblog.org, as I hope you’ll come back. Here are some other recent posts: Where Did I Start With Lean? One Purple Audacious Goal Caution! Warning Signs in…
This might seem like a post about football… but stick with me even if you’re not a sports fan. Many of you regular readers know I’m a Northwestern Wildcats football fanatic, from my days as an undergraduate. I was there…
