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.
By Adam Zak, Adam Zak Executive Search: “Respect for people: Very few businesses start up only on the backs of the sole founder. It takes a team.” Jamie Flinchbaugh Earlier this week, Jamie blogged about the Lean Entrepreneur. With layoffs…
Here is LeanBlog Podcast #64, again with Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean: Lessons from the Road. Jamie explains the difference between coaching people toward a solution versus coaching them in the method, and why both approaches have…
OK, so here is episode #1 of the “beta” (if you will) LeanBlog Video Podcast. Our guest is our good friend Jamie Flinchbaugh. I guess I’m jumping on the video bandwagon — have you seen the new sample videos from…
I stumbled across these notes I had taken about 8 or 9 years ago based on a video lecture from Dr. Deming: W. Edwards Deming – The Role of a People ManagerLecture Notes 8/13/1990 A manager and his people understand…
Taking the Wheel as Toyota Skids – NYTimes.com Toyota’s Cost Cutting Plan to Include Buyouts for Factory Workers Toyota famously has avoided layoffs of permanent employees since 1950 and they’ve also taken extraordinary measures to avoid them in recent downtimes.…
By Adam Zak, Adam Zak Executive Search: As a LeanThinker I am most unabashedly a free market advocate. Free trade, absolutely. Love those imported fresh Mexican tomatoes in my sandwich on a freezing January day. Open skies, no question. I…
Ga. peanut plant has history of problems – Food safety – nbc.com NY Times article There was a lot of focus in the news yesterday about this peanut contamination being an “FDA problem”, with President Obama pointing at a lack…
Lean as a Cultural Transformation at Porsche A 2009 FORTUNE profile of Porsche CEO Wendelin Wiedeking offers an instructive case study in what a serious Lean transformation can look like when it is led from the top and treated as…
by Dan Markovitz In a refreshing change of pace for the auto industry, Akio Toyoda, who was just named as the new president of Toyota, did not ask for government loans. Nor, in his first public statements, did he express…
My guest for LeanBlog Podcast #57 is Alfie Kohn, an author and lecturer in the fields of education, parenting, and human behavior. His books include Punished By Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes…
Rod Dreher: What it means to lead | Dallas Morning News | Opinion: Viewpoints “Authority is responsibility. Authority is accountability. It is not power.” That sounds like a good motto for leaders. Is this the latest from a Toyota leader,…
Eliminating He Said, She Said « Sharing thoughts, ideas and suggestions on hardwiring success I really like Quint Studer’s books, not just for healthcare, but as general leadership books (you can find his books on Amazon) In his most recent…
