Tag: Toyota

Toyota Thinking: Leadership, Systems, and Continuous Improvement

Toyota is often cited as the inspiration for Lean, but its success is rooted in leadership behaviors, management systems, and a deep commitment to learning—not tools or slogans. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on Toyota’s approach to quality, continuous improvement, psychological safety, and respect for people. Many of these posts explore what leaders outside Toyota often misunderstand—and what truly matters if they hope to learn from Toyota rather than copy it.

“Do What I Say” Is Not Good Leadership — Trump and...

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TL;DR: Trump's "if I say do it, they're going to do it" reflects a command and control leadership style that even the military is...

Toyota Production System Explained: Why Philosophy Matters More Than Tools

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There's a triangle diagram on the TSSC webpage that describes an "integrated system" that consists of: technical methods, managerial methods, philosophy. All of this is "focused on people development," Jamie told me for the book. The model starts with people and human development in the middle, as "people are the most valuable resource," says Bonini.

Some of My Recent KaiNexus Blog Posts: Toyota vs. Google, Kaizen,...

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In addition to my blogging here, I write occasionally for our blog over at KaiNexus.com, where we have multiple contributors. I also do monthly webinars and the...

Toyota’s Japan Shutdown & Lessons for Hospitals (and Others)

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I wrote a new piece for LinkedIn that I hope would be of interest to you even if you’re in healthcare. Why? It’s a story about what an organization does when you don’t have enough (or any) direct work for your front-line staff to do. Toyota would continue paying employees and would put them to...

The Main Lesson That Businesses (and Hospitals) Can Learn From This...

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If you follow the auto industry, you might have seen headlines this week about how Toyota is being forced to shut down production in...

Is This The One Question That Determines If You’re Truly a...

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I get asked a lot, “How do you know if a hospital is truly ‘Lean?'” Nobody is ever perfect or “fully Lean,” but you could ask, “How do you know if somebody is on a legitimate Lean transformation journey?” If you could only ask one question...

The Shared Interests & Goals of Lean and the Patient Safety...

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Later today and tomorrow, I'll be attending the annual World Patient Safety, Science & Technology Summit that's produced by a non-profit called the Patient...

Taylorism vs. Toyota Lean: Why Healthcare Often Gets Lean Wrong

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In the midst of the discussion about the NEJM article, John Shook of LEI (a former Toyota employee) pointed me to this 1993 HBR article: "Time-and-Motion Regained" I believe it's freely available...

Cleveland Clinic Improvement Model, Part 2: Problem Solving & Standardization

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Yesterday, I wrote Part 1 of this post on the Cleveland Clinic Improvement Model. Part 1 covered the left hand half of the model, with...

No, Lean Isn’t Taylorism: Debunking the NEJM’s Misconceptions About Lean in...

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In the article posted today, Pamela Hartzband, M.D., and Jerome Groopman, M.D. (the later the author of the popular book How Doctors Think), rant about all sorts of things… some of which have nothing to do with Lean...

Humility is a Rare & Powerful Trait in Our Workplaces

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Humility is an important part of the Lean management philosophy... it also means being willing to admit that there is a problem. Humility means "we don't really know so we must understand and then try many things to see if we have the right solution."

Introducing the Toyota Kata Podcast or “KataCast”

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Today, I'm announcing a new podcast series called the Toyota Kata Podcast, or "KataCast" for short. As the Toyota Kata book and methodology have become more popular, I've been surprised that I haven't been asked "why don't you blog more about Toyota Kata?" [...]
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