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On December 15th, I’ll be providing a webinar on the topic of A3 problem solving. I’ve been spending a good amount of time lately helping leaders from various organizations improve their lean thinking by utilizing A3 problem solving. In the following few blog posts, I’ll answer some of the common

A frequent question that I get is how far to take standardization. This is particularly true for multiple locations. Then the question becomes how far do you go to standardize from site to site. As with anything, to key to avoid getting lost in questions like this is to get

What’s the least expensive way to education people in your organization? Get them reading. There are now x,000 number of lean books available – I don’t actually know the number, but it’s a lot. At the Lean Learning Center, we buy everything we find for our book shelves as these

This is the thought process behind the reactions from managers more often than the words are actually spoken. Even if it were true, does that thought process help you improve? Does it help them? No, it just deteriorates the situation. Of course Forrest Gump had the ultimate response: “Stupid is

I am working on my next Leading Lean column and as usual, found myself really constrained by the word length limits of the column. I am writing on the topic of developing a lean education plan. Of course, this probably deserves to be turned into an ebook based on how

  Did you lose your job? Were you anticipating doing so? Are you just looking for a better opportunity? I don’t think it will surprise anyone to know that in 2009 I had more people I know looking for a job than ever before. The list got so long that

The Twitter tradition (is Twitter old enough to have traditions?) of Follow Friday is the spirit of sharing who you like to listen to. I think it’s most effective when you also share why. I thought the blogging community, at least the lean blogging community, needed the same kind of

Jason Fried of 37signals is a true lean thinker. Here’s how I know: If anyone ever writes us with a complaint, our stance is it’s our fault — for not being clear enough or not making something work the way it should. and some more of his thoughts: We rarely

Many of you many know that I’ve been writing a monthly column for Assembly Magazine which you will find inside the back cover. The column, titled Leading Lean, is meant to explore issues and advice for those helping their organizations move forward on the lean journey. You can find all

For 79 rounds, John Hunter of Curious Cat Blog and various guest hosts have issued the Management Improvement Carnival, a roundup of interesting blog posts for the month. I am proud to take responsibility for #80. Although I definitely leaned on some of my favorite bloggers, I also thought I