Flinchbaugh

What will you see from me in 2011? I don’t plan to change a lot. I will continue to make adjustments as I learn how to provide this service better over time. However, there are a few things I would like to change. 1. A new column You might have

At the moment, I am teaching a Lean Experience at our Center for a group of mixed companies that include retail, transportation, micro-brews, and more. Recently, we delivered a private session at the company where lean blogger Matt Wrye works. Matt converted several of his lessons from the class into

Do you have problems in your organization? Does everyone agree on what they are? Teams worry about problem solving processes and problem solving skills. But if they can’t even agree on what would be a problem and what wouldn’t be, then what’s the point? Is the report or order being

I recently applied to refinance a mortgage. Of course, bad mortgages were the tracks which the economic train derailed from. New regulations are inevitable when that happens as elected officials want to show their constituents that they fixed it. I’ve gotten to see some of those new regulations and did

  If you were to calculate the actual time lost, meetings that don’t start on time is perhaps one of the single biggest generators of waste in organizations today. A meeting that starts 5 minutes late for 4 people waiting for 1 other person wastes 20 minutes. If it’s a

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

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

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

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

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