Lean Archives | Page 12 of 67

GA 398 | Lean Storytelling Part Two with Adam Lawrence

By Jessica Bush - November 18th, 2021

This week’s guest is Adam Lawrence. Adam is back this week to tell a few more inspiring lean stories we didn’t get to last time. Be sure to check out Episode 393 for Part One! An MP3 audio version of this episode is availab

What’s Lean All About?

By Jon Miller - November 15th, 2021

I’ve been working on refreshing and enhancing our learning resources related to Total Productive Maintenance, or TPM. People may be familiar with these letters as they appear in kaizen bursts on a value stream map. In this contex

Thinking Beyond the Brain

By Kevin Meyer - November 12th, 2021

I recently finished one of the more remarkable books I’ve read in a long time: The Extended Mind – The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain, by Annie Murphy Paul. This is a well-researched (over 250 journal citations) yet

GA 397 | Lean Leadership, Respect for People, and the Military with Michael Austin Giles

By Jessica Bush - November 11th, 2021

This week’s guest is Michael “Austin” Giles. Austin explained what it’s like to practice continuous improvement in the military and how military leadership is similar to lean leadership. He also shared a great a

Going to Gemba Isn’t Sufficient

By Ron Pereira - November 5th, 2021

As I’ve mentioned before I’m one of several coaches for a high school football team here in Texas. Like just about every other high school football team (and many middle school teams) we film every game and carefully dissec

GA 396 | The Barriers to Developing a Lean Culture with Sara Ann Todd

By Jessica Bush - November 4th, 2021

This week’s guest is Sara Ann Todd. Sara shared her thoughts on continuous improvement and organizational culture, specifically creating a culture of lean. She and Ron also discussed Respect for People, dealing with self-doubt, a

Five Lean Questions for Rethinking Work

By Jon Miller - November 1st, 2021

The pandemic has caused many people to rethink their relationship to work. A record number of older workers are retiring early. More mid-career people are starting their own businesses. Both new and veteran members of the workforce are

GA 395 | Implementing Tiered Huddles with Sarah Cook

By Jessica Bush - October 28th, 2021

This week’s guest is Sarah Cook. Sarah broke down the concept of tiered huddles, why they’re worth doing, and how to get started. Be sure to check out our Lean Daily Management series for more on this topic. An MP3 audio ve

Lessons in Lean and Agility from United Airlines

By Jon Miller - October 25th, 2021

Plans are worthless, planning is everything. Failing to plan is planning to fail. Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face. These and similar adages have been repeated by strategists, generals, and prizefighters over the

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

GA 394 | Practicing Kind Leadership with Karyn Ross

By Jessica Bush - October 21st, 2021

This week’s guest is Karyn Ross. Karyn has been on the show quite a few times and each conversation is packed full of lean insights. This time, Karyn discussed her new book, The Kind Leader, and what it means to practice kind lea

Is Problem Solving a Team Sport or an Individual Effort?

By Jon Miller - October 18th, 2021

Have you ever wondered, “Is this particular problem one that a team should tackle, or one that an individual should handle?” A Knowledge@Wharton article shared the results of an experiment attempting to answer this question

GA 393 | Lean Storytelling with Adam Lawrence

By Jessica Bush - October 14th, 2021

This week’s guest is Adam Lawrence. We’ve had Adam on the show a few times before and have come to love his engaging and thought-provoking stories. This week Adam shared several different ones, each with a different message

How Would Taiichi Ohno Leverage Bezosism?

By Jon Miller - October 11th, 2021

An article in the Wall Street Journal titled The Way Amazon Uses Tech to Squeeze Performance Out of Workers Deserves Its Own Name: Bezosism argues that the way the company manages its warehouse workers is not people-friendly. Safety in

GA 392 | Using Lean on a Horse Farm with John Knotts

By Jessica Bush - October 7th, 2021

This week’s guest is John Knotts. John is our newest Gemba Academy employee, and he shed some light on engagement and change readiness. John also owns a horse farm, and he explained how lean applies to that environment. An MP3 au

Continuous Improvement Storyboards

By Jon Miller - October 4th, 2021

Lean management has a positive bias for making things visible. This ranges from large and abstract things like performance, progress toward strategic goals, and problem-solving projects down to smaller concrete things like the correct

The Power of Neutral Thinking

By Ron Pereira - October 1st, 2021

“It’s okay to have emotions… just don’t be emotional.” – Russell Wilson One of the great joys of my life has been the ability to coach many of my children’s youth sports teams. It all started b

GA 391 | Discovering the Power of Toyota Kata with Ron Pereira & Friends

By Jessica Bush - September 30th, 2021

This week we’re sharing a few different audio clips on the power and benefits of Toyota Kata. The videos they come from will be available to view on our website without a subscription, so be sure to check them out. An MP3 audio v

The Current State of Grasping the Current Condition

By Jon Miller - September 27th, 2021

During a conversation the other day with my friend and colleague Ron Pereira, he mentioned an interesting point. This was in regards to the current state of the continuous improvement community’s understanding of the term current

GA 390 | Exploring and Using VAVE with Valorie Hendrix

By Jessica Bush - September 23rd, 2021

This week’s guest is Valorie Hendrix. Valorie told us all about VAVE, what it stands for, and what its benefits are. Valorie also explained how VAVE can be applied in less traditional lean settings, not just manufacturing. An MP3

Visual Management of Our Readiness

By Jon Miller - September 20th, 2021

One of the most accessible and basic continuous improvement tools is a workplace organization and visualization practice known as 5S. It has roots that go back perhaps 100 years. The 5S as we know it today seems to have roots in the CA

GA 389 | People Solve Problems with Jamie Flinchbaugh

By Jessica Bush - September 16th, 2021

This week’s guest is Jamie Flinchbaugh. Ron and Jamie discussed the contents of Jamie’s upcoming book, People Solve Problems. This episode is full of incredible insights on lean, leadership, problem solving, and more. An MP

How Important Is Physical Presence on the Gemba?

By Jon Miller - September 13th, 2021

Nearly thirty years ago when I first ventured into the field of kaizen, continuous improvement, and what’s come to be known as lean management, there was no commercial internet. This meant that if you wanted to talk to someone, y

The Value of Friction and Inefficiency

By Kevin Meyer - September 10th, 2021

Our professional lives are generally consumed by trying to make our processes more efficient to reduce waste and help increase the value we deliver to our customers. Our personal lives are similarly consumed by trying to find time on

GA 388 | Your Brain and a Parachute with Chandan Dey

By Jessica Bush - September 9th, 2021

This week’s guest is Chandan Dey. Chandan provided some valuable insight on 3P, including advice on deploying it within your organization. Chandan also explained how and why the human brain is like a parachute. An MP3 audio versi

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