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Three Most Important Metrics in a Continuous Improvement Culture

By John Knotts - June 17th, 2022

How many things do you measure in order to tell you how you are doing in business? I have seen organizations that measure everything and anything. Many times, what is being measured is not something the business can do anything abo

Speed Will Come

By Steve Kane - May 27th, 2022

The US Navy SEALs are credited by many with coining the expression “Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.” The idea here comes from training people to perform technical tasks correctly in an environment where there is no room

Why Traditional Measurement Approaches Do Not Change A Culture

By John Knotts - May 20th, 2022

If you are a student of business, then you have probably heard all the quotes around measuring what you do. The bottom line is if you are not measuring what you are doing, you cannot improve it. Trust me…many organizations that I

The Hierarchy of Action

By Steve Kane - April 22nd, 2022

Ryan McCall is a continuous improvement engineer at FECON. He and I have been collaborating on continuous improvement and leadership over the past couple of years. We’ve explored the works of Mike Rother, Simon Sinek, Jocko Willi

Engaging Partners and Suppliers on Your CI Journey

By John Knotts - April 15th, 2022

In my first blog on the subject of Continuous Improvement, I highlighted the proverb, “many hands, make light work.” The concept of a culture of continuous improvement is to orient everyone in the organization toward one common g

Developing Leadership Through Tours

By John Knotts - March 18th, 2022

In my last article, we had a great discussion, in our continuing series, regarding Continuous Improvement Development for Leadership and Professionals. Leadership development is extremely important if you are trying to change or create

Continuous Improvement Development for Leadership and Professionals

By Steve Kane - February 25th, 2022

This article was written by John Knotts. John is a senior coach at Gemba Academy. If you have studied anything about change management, you will have seen some type of change model; I embrace the change continuum model shown below bu

Building A Culture Of Continuous Improvement Part Two

By Steve Kane - January 28th, 2022

This article was written by John Knotts, a Senior Coach here at Gemba Academy. This is the fourth in a series of five articles written by John. The previous three are hyperlinked below: Over the last three months, we have covered th

A Culture of Continuous Improvement Begins with Leadership

By Steve Kane - October 22nd, 2021

This is the second article, in a series of five, from Gemba Academy Senior Coach John Knotts. The remaining articles in this series will be posted over the next several weeks. Last month, we began our journey of Building a Culture of

Don’t Change the Culture, Change the Cultural Inputs

By Steve Kane - August 27th, 2021

Company culture, loosely defined, is a set of shared beliefs, values, purpose, practices, behaviors, artifacts, language, goals, and attitudes within an organization. Changing culture continues to be a hot topic in the workplace. While

The Value of Lean Certifications

By Steve Kane - May 28th, 2021

It’s often argued that certifications are not required to practice Lean. This is absolutely true. Lean and other continuous improvement methods can and should be practiced by anyone in any organization without a certification or

Break the Habit of Breaking Good Habits

By Steve Kane - April 23rd, 2021

There are countless books, YouTube videos, and other media on topic of building good habits and breaking bad ones. So often the desire to change our ways comes light because of our realization that a problem exists. We learn and we fin

Did Standardized Work Originate Thousands of Years Ago?

By Steve Kane - March 26th, 2021

Armies around the world and throughout history have many common practices and traditions. One practice, in particular, started thousands of years ago and is deeply rooted in what we today would characterize as Lean practices. This prac

Coaches Have Obstacles Too

By Steve Kane - February 26th, 2021

The purpose of coaching is to help people get from where they are to where they want to be. It’s a process of inquiry that provides clear structure to thinking that, ideally, diminishes uncertainty by exposing obstacles and illum

What are Lagging & Leading Indicators? How are they related? Why are they important?

By Steve Kane - January 22nd, 2021

David Barber is CFO of Omni Industries in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. David and the rest of the senior executive team at Omni are leading a lean transformation. He wrote this article for Omni’s company newsletter to help people at

Stop Being the Expert and Be a Coach

By Steve Kane - October 23rd, 2020

I wrote the article below a few years ago and wanted to revisit it and include some thoughts on how this relates to coaching. “If I am wiser. . . it is because I know that I do not know.” ~ Socrates Is it possible that expe

5 Tips for Choosing a Lean Certification Course

By Steve Kane - September 25th, 2020

There are many Lean certification courses available from a wide variety of organizations. Choosing the right one to suit your specific needs can be a bit tricky. Here are some tips and considerations to help you find the right one for

Team Learning vs. Individual Learning

By Steve Kane - July 24th, 2020

Gemba Academy has been helping people gain proficiency in Lean and Six Sigma through Green Belt and Black Belt certification courses for several years. These certification courses have always included one-on-one coaching via phone or v

What Does Leadership Look Like?

By Steve Kane - May 22nd, 2020

I spoke at a Lean event last year. The audience was about 250 accomplished Lean practitioners. My session was at about 2:00 PM, which was right at the beginning of the afternoon lull. Folks were starting to feel sluggish after a lunc

Be Deliberate About Your New Normal

By Steve Kane - April 24th, 2020

We’re at a point with the world’s current events that some governments are beginning to relax isolation orders and business restrictions. It would be easy to think that we might be getting back to normal soon. The harsh rea

Give People a Sense of Certainty Through New Routines

By Steve Kane - March 27th, 2020

The Power of Routine So much of our daily activity is performing routines, even though we may not be aware of it. Getting out bed and ready for work; picking up the phone, wallet, and keys on the way out the door; stopping for coffee;

It’s Your Duty to Make Things Right

By Steve Kane - January 24th, 2020

I completed US Army basic training at Fort Dix in May of 1990. Immediately after, I went to advanced individual training (AIT) at the US Army Intelligence Center at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Drill Sergeant Smith was my platoon drill se

Remain Detached from the Outcome

By Steve Kane - December 27th, 2019

I’ve been working on my Black Belt certification for several months. The past few have been devoted to a project related to understanding how improvements over the years have impacted business performance. Many of the improvement

Leading Lean from the Middle of the Organization

By Steve Kane - November 22nd, 2019

This article was originally posted a couple of years ago. Questions about getting other people to change their thinking come up fairly regularly, so I thought I’d revisit the topic here. A common struggle in the lean community

A Place to Find a Better Way

By Steve Kane - September 27th, 2019

I spent the first part of this week in Riverside, California at the Global Lean Leadership Summit hosted by Rick Eglin of Fireblast Global and Angel Sanchez of Phenix Technology. The second part of the week I was in Ann Arbor, Mich

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