learning

What will be more useful in the future, knowledge or learning? Knowledge changes, sometimes rapidly. Machines make knowledge more accessible, both in terms of who and when. How we learn, I suggest, has much greater leverage. That is why I’ve been on a mission to define lean as the ultimate

One of my favorite ways to give back is teaching and coaching on campus. This is especially true for entrepreneurs. When I was an Entrepreneur in Residence for Lehigh University in 2006, I mentored 4 student-run companies. Although I won’t claim it was because of my mentoring, 3 of the

I encourage lean learners to have multiple sources of learning. Podcasts are a very useful part of the learning portfolio. I have contributed to several podcasts, particularly one of the originals, Mark Graban’s podcasts, and more recently, Gemba Academy’s podcasts. For Mark, I am numbers 5, 6, 10, 64. Mark’s

Leadership development has gone by many names over the last century and has evolved in many ways. It has come in the form of apprenticeships, to purposeful rotational assignments, to training, and executive coaches (which are about as generic today as accountants). But through this entire evolution, leadership development has

Ford has come an incredibly long way in time since Bill Ford Jr. courageously stepped aside to bring in lean thinker Alan Mulally. Lately, they’ve been hampered by the embarrassing problems in relaunching the Lincoln brand through the MKZ. But, in the face of these problems, they are doing their

I read plenty of disturbing statements about lean, but I read one recently that really caught my attention because it seemed to rip the core of lean out of lean, and then almost claim credit for putting it back in. I was reading a copy of AME’s Target Magazine from

My latest column for Industry Week, Lessons from the Road, titled Don’t Waste Your Metrics has been posted. Here is the intro:   Most every company has metrics permeating every meeting, discussion and decision. Metrics are as ubiquitous as email and problem solving and taken for granted to an equal level.

My latest column for Industry Week, Lessons from the Road, titled Experiment Your Way to Success has been posted. Here is an excerpt:   The heart of most effective continuous improvement is experimentation. Experimentation is the mother of all learning methods. It drives learning throughout an organization based on what

Experimentation is at the core of lean improvement. It is what PDCA: Plan Do Check Act is all about. It’s what drives learning, and knowledge development. But what happens when you’re experimenting outside the boundaries of known experience and knowledge. We build knowledge and experience from our own experiments, but

Guest Post: Shawn Patterson is the Senior Director of Corporate Services at DTE Energy where he is responsible for the Supply Chain, Fleet, Facilities, and Continuous Improvement organizations. Shawn has held numerous positions in multiple industries and is passionate about influencing lean transformations in organizations. In light of recent financial