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This originally appeared on the Lean Career Compass blog. Lean is a human system. And human resources deals with humans, right? So HR should have a pretty active role in lean. In most cases, I see them sitting on the sidelines. This is sad. It’s not that they don’t want

..and other such troubling headlines and comments have been popping up everywhere throughout the news cycle and the blogosphere. The major Toyota recall has stirred up activity every where, from a common leading story on the nightly news, to blog articles of all sorts.

I don’t know if the show will last, but the Undercover Boss certainly has an interesting premise. Leaders of organizations go undercover in their own organizations to do front-line jobs, learning what is really going on. This is a great idea, and one consistent with lean where we talk about

Most organizations don’t spend time in reflection. It seems wasteful. But it’s vitally important in an organization trying to make progress. Without learning, courses aren’t corrected and lessons aren’t internalized. A favorite quote of mine by Soren Kierkegaard speaks to this point: “Life can only be understood backwards, but it

This month I have a featured article in Kevin Meyer’s Superfactory Newsletter. I’ve been a subscriber for many years, and Kevin does a great job. My contribution is titled 25 Problems..or how to focus on the right systems. I hope you’ll give a read, and sign up for the Superfactory

Should you start lean in a difficult period such as this? But shouldn’t I wait things out? Shouldn’t I take it slow? Or keep my head down? No. I think this is a great time for companies to be focused on a lean journey. Here are my reasons. Companies will

First, let me state that I don’t celebrate failure. But I do, as I wrote about last week in Fail, Learn, Lead, celebrate the learning that comes from failure. Blogger Jason Markow started the idea of #FAILweek with the idea that people can share their failures, their lessons from failures,

I have a new post published on Assembly Magazine. See the full article on that site. A great lean thinker has a lens for value…. Continue reading….

What’s your definition of lean? There are many. Personally, I think you shouldn’t focus too much energy on developing definitions. Perhaps the most common definition however is “doing more with less.” It’s cute, short, and to the point. It’s says a lot, but still leaves a little to the imagination.

On our LinkedIn Group we get many good discussions and questions. We had one from Roger Cook that I thought was worth repeating and expanding upon. Here is the question: I’m curious if any of you have foolproof ways of insuring your metrics (which lean folks are famous for measuring