GA 118 | How to Use Lean and Zen to Become a Better Leader with Kevin Meyer

By Jessica Bush - July 7th, 2016

Today’s guest is our own Kevin Meyer, Co-Founder of Gemba Academy. Kevin and Ron discussed Kevin’s new book, The Simple Leader, in which Kevin describes his career thus far and shares a lot of valuable insight related to

3 Gemba Academy Updates

By Ron Pereira - July 1st, 2016

There’s been lots happening here at Gemba Academy… so what I’d like to do in this article is highlight the latest and greatest! Gemba Academy Español First, we’re very excited to announce that Gemba Academy 

GA 117 | How to Stay Motivated on Your Lean Journey with Dale Crownover

By Jessica Bush - June 30th, 2016

Today’s guest is Dale Crownover, the CEO of Texas Nameplate. Dale is one of the keynote speakers for the upcoming AME Conference in Dallas. He and Ron had a great conversation about his experience with continuous improvement, i

So You Think You Need an A3 Template

By Jon Miller - June 27th, 2016

Problem-solving is a core part of continuous improvement and lean management. The so-called A3 problem-solving method has become mainstream popular. I’m often asked to recommend a template by the people that I coach. I’m re

GA 116 | How to Use Storytelling with Jacob Stoller

By Jessica Bush - June 23rd, 2016

Today we are excited to have Jacob Stoller back on the podcast. Jacob and Ron discussed storytelling and how it can be extra powerful in a continuous improvement context. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here. I

No Overburden, No Gain?

By Jon Miller - June 20th, 2016

In lean thinking we say there are three undesirable conditions related to any work: waste, variability and overburden. In Japanese they are muda, mura and muri. Of the three, waste is often the main focus of continuous improvement act

Safety In Numbers: What Message Are We Sending?

By Steve Kane - June 17th, 2016

Guest contribution by Jamie Parker “Don’t tell the team. I don’t want to be the reason our number goes back to zero.” These are the words a front-line team member shared with her plant manager after sustaining an injury. You se

GA 115 | Mastering Puppets with Filipe Marques

By Jessica Bush - June 16th, 2016

Today’s guest is Filipe Marques. Filipe has a very unique perspective on continuous improvement, and he shared some great examples of what he and his team do to stay on track. He even connected Metallica and lean. Don’t miss this o

How to Start a Fire

By Jon Miller - June 13th, 2016

Humanity’s ability to use fire at will has transformed the quality of life for our species. Fire provides warmth, light, protection from animals, slash-and-burn agriculture, and the ability to make our food tastier and easier to dig

Performance, Not Policy

By Kevin Meyer - June 10th, 2016

Few people realize how employee policy manuals, usually given to you on your first day and then mostly forgotten, shape an organization’s culture and thereby its fundamental performance. To give you a reference point, one company I

GA 114 | How to Apply Lean to Healthcare with Mark Graban

By Jessica Bush - June 9th, 2016

Today’s episode features Mark Graban, a recurring podcast guest and good friend of Gemba Academy. Ron and Mark discussed lean healthcare, the third revision of Mark’s book Lean Hospitals, and some of the main misconceptio

“Be Yourself” or Be Who the Customer Needs You to Be?

By Jon Miller - June 6th, 2016

Whether we are trying to be a better leader, team member, or individual performer “be yourself” is a common piece of advice these days. This can be good advice if one is trying too hard to do or be something that they are

How to Become a More Passionate Leader & Person

By Ron Pereira - June 3rd, 2016

Do you want to be part of an incredible culture at work? What about your personal life?  Well, in this article I’d like to explore a characteristic I believe to be extremely important for any person, or organization, seeking excelle

GA 113 | How to Utilize the Power Score with Jonathan Sands

By Jessica Bush - June 2nd, 2016

8 Attributes of Top-Performing Managers, According to Google

By Jon Miller - May 30th, 2016

One day when our lean consultants are bots, we will ask our smart devices what we need to do to be a top performer in our chosen work. For now, we’ll have to Google it. An interview in Knowledge@Wharton with Brian Welles, the

GA 112 | How to Pursue Greatness with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - May 26th, 2016

Today’s episode features a keynote speech, “In Pursuit of Greatness,” delivered by our own Ron Pereira at the TWI Summit in San Antonio, Texas. As you’ll hear, he thoroughly enjoyed the conference and learned a

Hello, My Name is Leanbot

By Jon Miller - May 23rd, 2016

Hello, my name is Leanbot. Don’t be afraid. At the moment I am just an idea in the minds of several lean geeks. Alas, my ability to interact with you is limited to the comment box below. Today I’m just a twinkle in a lean e

A Supervisor’s Strategy to Make Lean Stick

By Steve Kane - May 20th, 2016

By Steve Kane Michelle Trejo is a production supervisor for Specialty Silicone Fabricators, Inc. in Paso Robles, California.  She believes in Lean and she believes in her people.  Michelle has many leadership successes to her credit.

GA 111 | How to Teach Continuous Improvement with Dr. Bradley Miller

By Jessica Bush - May 19th, 2016

Today’s guest is Dr. Bradley Miller, a professor at the University of Houston. Brad explained to us how he teaches his students about continuous improvement, and how they then apply those skills to real life situations. An MP3

How to Solve Problems in Just Five Days

By Jon Miller - May 15th, 2016

How can we solve big problems and test new ideas in just five days? If you are at all experienced in lean, you may reply, “Run a kaizen event.” By various names, the five-day rapid improvement workshop has been helping comp

The Reward of Just Doing It

By Kevin Meyer - May 13th, 2016

A few years ago I starting playing around with a book concept that described several personal and professional leadership methods and habits I had developed over my three decade career. I collected ideas, supporting information, and wo

When Does Fermented Squid Go Bad? And Other Management Questions

By Jon Miller - May 9th, 2016

How long does shiokara, or fermented fish guts last? Just a pinch of it is enough to make a bowl of plain white rice burst with flavor. It starts out tasting, smelling and looking rotten. So how would you know? This is a good question

GA 109 | How to Leverage Toyota Kata with Brandon Brown

By Jessica Bush - May 5th, 2016

Today’s guest is Brandon Brown, the owner of Continuous Coaching Commitment LLC and an associate with the W3 Group LLC. Brandon shared his knowledge of Toyota Kata with us, and explained how it complements TWI. An MP3 version o

Lean Leaders, Darling Killers

By Jon Miller - May 2nd, 2016

Another very good article from Fast Company builds on the insights on how to change minds we highlighted in a previous blog post. The article further explains how the most successful people constantly question their strongest bel

GA 108 | How to Use Job Relations to Solve Problems with Oscar Roche

By Jessica Bush - April 28th, 2016

Today’s guest is Oscar Roche, a Director at the TWI Institute Australia and Visual Workplace Australasia. Oscar and Ron discussed TWI, with a particular emphasis on the JR, or Job Relations component.  An MP3 version of this epi