Lean Archives | Page 14 of 67

Learning from a Blogging Experiment Failure

By Jon Miller - June 21st, 2021

We’re about ten weeks into running an experiment in blog post writing. The purpose is to be less deadline-driven, allow time for quality checks and make the writing process less of a weekly struggle. It was going well until this week

GA 376 | Navigating Visual Management and the Obeya Method with Greg Woods

By Jessica Bush - June 17th, 2021

This week’s guest is Greg Woods. Ron and Greg talked about the various approaches to visual management, including physical and digital strategies. They also discussed the obeya method and what it entails. An MP3 audio version o

Respect for Soft Skills

By Jon Miller - June 14th, 2021

In lean circles we talk a lot about respect for people. Along with continuous improvement, it’s one of two core elements of the Toyota Way brand of lean thinking. In contrast to the tools and techniques of continuous improvement,

GA 375 | Ending Human Suffering with Process Improvement with Kyle Kumpf

By Jessica Bush - June 10th, 2021

This week’s guest is Kyle Kumpf. Ron and Kyle discussed Kyle’s experience using lean in engineering versus banking, and what he’s learned from the pandemic. Kyle also explained why he wants to use process improvement

How to Think Long Term

By Jon Miller - June 7th, 2021

One of the 14 Toyota Way principles is to think long term. In fact, it’s the first on the list. What does it mean exactly to base decisions on the long term, in the context of lean management? Reading carefully, we can see that n

GA 374 | Lean, Learning, and Karate with Kieran Dougall

By Jessica Bush - June 3rd, 2021

This week’s guest is Kieran Dougall. Ron and Kieran discussed Kieran’s manufacturing background and how he discovered lean. Kieran also described his experience with karate and how it relates to lean. A MP3 audio version of

The Surprisingly Positive Power of Deception

By Jon Miller - May 31st, 2021

Recently I wanted to persuade an acquaintance to try something. It was a simple solution that I was pretty sure would work for them. There was very little practical downside. And yet as anyone who has ever tried to present a solution t

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

GA 373 | Exploring Agile Kanban with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - May 27th, 2021

This week we’re releasing another solo episode by GA Co-Founder Ron Pereira. Ron talks a little bit about our new Agile Kanban course(s), and about the power of Agile Kanban in general. He then breaks down each of the four main p

Roundabout Lessons on Scaling Lean Solutions

By Jon Miller - May 24th, 2021

Traffic roundabouts are one of my favorite flow management devices. There is a physical WIP limit. They’re visual. Look to the left for oncoming traffic, if there is a gap, this is the “pull signal.” No oncoming car in the ci

GA 372 | Lean and Mental Health with Jessica House

By Jessica Bush - May 20th, 2021

This week’s guest is Jessica House. Jessica’s background is in both continuous improvement and mental health, and she explained to Ron how the two worlds intersect. This episode is another great example of the universal app

How to Solve Hard Problems with Kaizen Events

By Jon Miller - May 17th, 2021

Many people are familiar with kaizen as a philosophy and practice of continuous improvement based on making many small changes repeatedly towards a long-term ideal. Often this takes the form of a creative idea suggestion scheme, a simp

On Learning, Listening, and Wisdom

By Kevin Meyer - May 14th, 2021

I’ve long felt that the single best indicator of leadership success, especially at the executive level, is whether the person is a voracious learner. Bonus points if the person intentionally looks for opportunities to learn new

GA 371 | Adopting a Learning-Based Approach to Lean with Scott Keenan

By Jessica Bush - May 13th, 2021

This week’s guest is Scott Keenan. Scott described his continuous improvement journey, and the work he’s been doing with Alan Wire. Ron and Scott also discussed our Toyota Kata course, and Alan Wire’s experience with

Lessons from Twelve Years in Pursuit of Zero

By Jon Miller - May 10th, 2021

We often see a visual display of the safety performance metric “days since lost time incident” in workplaces. It’s common where the job requires physical labor or where there is injury risk. The more days, or the long

GA 370 | Improving Quality of Life with Lean with Rick Foreman

By Jessica Bush - May 6th, 2021

This week’s guest is Rick Foreman. Ron and Rick covered a lot of ground, including Federal Heath’s lean journey, and creating a strong culture of continuous improvement. Rick also gave some advice on “selling” o

How to Save the World Using Gantt Charts

By Jon Miller - May 3rd, 2021

There are many tools available to project managers for coordinating work and keeping their projects on schedule. Small and simple projects may use task lists or spreadsheets to track the status of work items. Teams working on longer te

GA 369 | Developing an Internship Program with Brent Weichers

By Jessica Bush - April 29th, 2021

This week’s guest is Brent Weichers. Brent, who has a ton of continuous improvement knowledge, shared how he developed two different internship programs. He also explained why having interns benefits everyone, and how you can sta

How to Avoid Zoom Fatigue

By Jon Miller - April 26th, 2021

Academics, executives, and mental health professionals are growing aware of something called Zoom fatigue. Zoom is a popular brand of online video chat, but the phenomena is not limited to that platform. People are reporting tiredness,

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

GA 368 | The Balance of Tools and Culture with Jonathan Jones

By Jessica Bush - April 22nd, 2021

This week’s guest is Jonathan Jones. Jonathan shared his background in the culinary, hospitality, and manufacturing industries. Jonathan also described his continuous improvement journey at Moog, his favorite continuous improveme

Going Out of Our Minds with Lean Thinking

By Jon Miller - April 19th, 2021

The expression, “walk a mile in their shoes before judging them,” means gaining understanding or empathy for another person’s experience or point of view. It’s mainly a mental exercise. But there are many practical

GA 367 | The Dichotomies of Continuous Improvement with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - April 15th, 2021

This week’s guest is Ron Pereira. Ron discussed two books by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, specifically their teachings on dichotomies and balance. Inspired by this, Ron described three of the dichotomies he’s observed in c

The Coaching Cycle Is Not a Judgement-Free Zone

By Jon Miller - April 12th, 2021

Planet Fitness famously calls itself a judgement-free zone. This is an effort to combat the image of gyms as aggressive, competitive spaces. Beginners or casual users may not feel as comfortable. We are all beginners at one time, and w

Uncovering New Perspectives

By Kevin Meyer - April 9th, 2021

We often talk about the importance of getting “out of the box” to supposedly free ourselves of bias and be better at making informed decisions and capitalize on new opportunities. In reality, we often just barely ease our

Lean

Start your improvement training today.