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.
NBA, Olympic coach Chuck Daly dies at 78 I grew up outside of Detroit during the Detroit Pistons “Bad Boys” era so I spent a lot of time watching Chuck Daly, who just passed away yesterday. Daly had a reputation…
Management Tip of the Day :: April 15, 2009 :: HarvardBusiness.org It’s nice to see HBR, for once, spreading the message of Dr. Deming. If you have tough financial circumstances in your company, one of their four tips includes: Don’t…
Back in February, I did a parody of a “Goofus and Gallant” cartoon, if you remember them from “Highlights for Kids” magazine that was in every doctor’s office and dentist’s waiting room. I was having some concerns about copyright infringement,…
by Jamie Flinchbaugh, co-author, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean I believe that NIH, or Not Invented Here, is one of the silliest cultural barriers to progress. What we’re basically saying is that there are good ideas out there, ideas that…
Toyota Poised to Make Shift in North America – WSJ.com Interesting WSJ comment from this recent piece about planned management changes in North America. Jim Lentz, Toyota’s head of North American sales, said Wednesday it was “premature” to talk of…
In Japan, more CEOs share the pain of tough times – USATODAY.com The USA Today, whether they’re trying or not, is doing a good job recently of highlighting issues at least somewhat related to Toyota and the Deming philosophy. While…
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…
