Leadership

Learning happens in the classroom. Coaching happens through a formal mentor often away from our work. At least that’s what we’ve been lead to believe. But that view has many limitations. As it applies to learning, learning is never internalized in the classroom. There is a difference between information, which

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

Recently I posted the first video series on Cultural Transformation and described the formula H x V x F > R. I received a response on a different formula, which we turned into a guest post by Rob van Stekelenborg. Rob is working with IG&H, a Dutch-based consulting firm that

  Do you have a lot of room in your organization for people to learn? Or as soon as they step out of their comfort zone, do things get a little scary? What you do as a leader has a huge impact on the behaviors of others in terms of

This post originally appeared on the Lean Career Compass community run by Value Stream Leadership. “Respect for people” – This tenant has been thrown around a lot within the lean community in the past few years. It’s been used to challenge every company that’s ever done a layoff or anyone

How do you set goals? Think about it. If you actually had to describe it, how do you do it? Most people that set them don’t really know. Something goes in both inside and outside their brain, and goals come out the other side. Last week I posted on Forget

Creativity103 Are you waiting for your annual GM and Chrysler report? I would assume as a shareholder that we’ll all get one. No? OK, I won’t wait by the mailbox (since technically we’re not shareholders). Fortunately there are plenty of people trying to offer an explanation of progress, or lack

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

Over on the Lean Blog Mark Graban wrote a post titled Innovation Is as Innovation Does? Besides channeling Forrest Gump, this makes a great point. Innovation is an outcome, but without a process we won’t get it. And that process includes culture, skill, systems, methods, and so on. Mark makes

Many organizations have formal recognition methods within their organization that are used to highlight people and their accomplishments. Other organizations practice recognition more informally, in team meetings and even in hallways with simple “thank you for ____” statements. Neither of these are wrong, as long as you are practicing some