Blog

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean reviews

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-24-10

I am thankful for many things. One is the many great reviews that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean has received on Amazon.com Here are some of the highlights: “…one of very few books on lean enterprise on the market today that really, really “gets it”…” – Thomas Jackson “…it’s one

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Using internal blogging as a leader

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-22-10

How do I communicate with my organization? This is a challenge for any leader particularly as their organization grows. Leaders try to communicate through their staff to the rest of the organization, but the message is often distorted or diluted. Leaders try to communicate through lots of one-on-one conversations, but

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Control Point Standardization as a form of "leader standard work"

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-18-10

I recently recorded a podcast with Joe Dager of Business901. I’ve done a previous show with him on The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Lean. In this episode we cover Control Point Standardization after Joe read my recent Leading Lean column on the subject. Check out Joe’s website and my podcast with

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4 Lean Bloggers at the CONNSTEP Conference

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-15-10

Last Thursday I was delivering a keynote titled Changing Behaviors Through Daily Actions for CONNSTEP’s annual conference in Hartford, CT. It was a nice opportunity for 4 lean bloggers to meet and chat, and of course present. Here are the 4 of us. Yup, I’m feeling a bit short. From

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Changing Behaviors through Daily Actions

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-10-10

I am presenting at the CONNSTEP Conference today. I am happy to share my presentation with you here: Changing behaviors through daily actions View more presentations from Jamie Flinchbaugh.

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Why suggestion boxes are wrong

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-08-10

Last night just when I was arriving at the hotel, I flipped on the TV while unpacking and happened to catch the end of the Undercover Boss. I’ve written about this show before, and how it is directionally correct but wrong in execution. This episode included one of the owners

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The North Wind and the Sun

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-04-10

I’ve enjoyed connecting the fables of Aesop to lessons in lean and leadership. You can read my previous posts here. Here is a lesson about change management. How do you get engagement? How do you get compliance? The North Wind and the Sun A dispute arose between the North Wind

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Setting objectives through lean

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 11-01-10

I have a new post published on The Lean Edge. See the full article on that site. How do you set objectives with lean? I won’t start from the beginning, because there are already so many quality posts here in response to the question. I will try to add to

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Problems across boundaries require a different approach

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on

How do you engage other departments in problems? Most organizations do this at the wrong time. This is why efforts like value stream mapping exist. People we don’t engage across functions on an ongoing basis, we need over-the-top efforts to break in and start to solve those cross-boundary issues. But

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This is NOT a tree

by Jamie Flinchbaugh on 10-29-10

This is not a tree. Can you tell me what it really is? Time’s up. It is a picture of a tree. No, it’s not a stupid trick question…there is a point behind it. So often people confuse the real thing with the representation of that thing. This picture of

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