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.
Here’s one I came up with yesterday… having a discussion with supervisors about asking questions as leaders. There’s different tones of voice and different intents, when asking questions. The worst form would be, “Why the hell aren’t you following the…
YouTube – Improving the ER on ER I don’t always watch the NBC show ER, but this portion caught my attention when my wife was watching the final episode of the season and I clumsily taped it with my digital…
Shop Management Lean Manufacturing – The Lean Question: How Soon Can I Get Started? – 04/07 From the not-so-widely read “Moldmaking Technology” magazine (no offense to mold makers)… Here’s a good “get going” kick-in-the-butt for those who are only considering…
Here are the two most recent “Leading Lean” columns from Jamie Flinchbaugh: April 2007: Consistency Erodes Skepticism Here, Jamie maps out “a route through the terrain of skepticism” that we often face as Lean change agents. May 2007: Forging Your…
Seeing John Hunter’s post with data that says only 19% of companies are happy with their Lean results, here are my thoughts. Lean does not implement itself. Leaders implement Lean. Lean does not fail. Organizations fail. Rather than saying, “this…
SI.com – Writers – The Bonus: Bobby Valentine’s Super Terrific Happy Hour As a lifelong baseball fan (especially as a kid), I found the above article interesting when I saw it yesterday. It’s about former Rangers and Mets manager Bobby…
davidmaister.com > Passion, People and Principles > The War For Talent The linked blog post is about the war for consulting/professional services talent, but the framework reminds me of Lean and is something that could apply to any company. David…
Got this story during an email exchange, used with express permission: —————————– I saw my doctor yesterday and told him I was doing a lean publication, and he immediately started complaining about well-intended but impractical top-down measures being taken in…
USATODAY.com Former Chrysler chief Lee Iacocca has “failed” at retirement, he says. His latest project is a new book, Where Have All the Leaders Gone?. The book has made waves because of the political content (not the focus here), but…
NPR : American Airlines ‘Insources’ Maintenance Work Thanks to my friend Amber for passing this along. It’s too bad that management can’t empower the customer-facing staff at American the same way, which would undoubtedly improve their morale, as well. In…
GM Got Gamed (Or, How to Fudge Your Production Numbers to Keep the Boss Happy) TL;DR: At a GM engine plant, fear-based leadership pushed supervisors to falsify production data to avoid punishment. The numbers looked good, but real problems stayed…
In the Lead – WSJ.com The WSJ wrote Monday about the leadership styles of Tony Dungy and Lovie Smith, the Super Bowl coaches for the Colts and Bears. The Super Bowl should be required viewing for managers who think screaming…
