Gemba Academy

The Horse, the Carriage and the Carriage Fee

By Jon Miller - July 17th, 2017

The automobile has been with us for approximately a century. For the millennia prior to that, we had horses. Because horses were an important part of lives and civilizations for so long, they generated many idioms and proverbs. You can

Combating Shallow Information with Page-Turning Statistics

By Kevin Meyer - July 14th, 2017

Over the past decade or two I’ve become very aware of the importance of depth of knowledge, and how technology has changed our ability to obtain that depth. Reading books and newspaper articles has been replaced with news sound

Practicing Lean Repairs a Leader’s Brain Damage

By Jon Miller - July 10th, 2017

It’s a sign of how little power I pretend to enjoy these days when an Atlantic Magazine article’s alarming title Power Causes Brain Damage made me more curious than concerned. In it studies suggest that given power, lead

Drive Out Fear

By Ron Pereira - July 7th, 2017

Drive out fear. Dr. Deming told us this many years ago when he published his famous 14 Principles. Most of us have heard these words. Most of us probably think we understand these words. And, I bet, most “actively practicing

Advanced Lean is Paying Due Respect to Basic Lean

By Jon Miller - June 26th, 2017

I used to believe there was such a thing as advanced lean. Many people probably still believe this today. How about you? There are several ways “advanced lean” is used. In an educational context it means “not for be

“I Didn’t Teach the Dog Anything”

By Steve Kane - June 23rd, 2017

The Dog is a Handful I have a Jack Russell Terrier named Kirby. Kirby has some–how should I put it–less than desirable behavioral traits. He’s a great dog most of the time. Other times, he can be a handful. Fo

Lean is a Floor

By Jon Miller - June 19th, 2017

American football is in its preseason. Teams have been holding training events for veterans and new players. Sports media commentators often speak or write about a players “floor” or “ceiling.” A rookie with

Scalable Learning, with a Lean Twist

By Kevin Meyer - June 16th, 2017

Last week John Haley and John Brown penned an interesting piece in the Harvard Business Review titled Great Businesses Scale Their Learning, Not Just Their Operations. They began with a bit of history on how scalable efficiency used

Headwinds, Tailwinds, Continuous Improvement and Respect for Humanity

By Jon Miller - June 12th, 2017

A Freakonomics Radio episode from March of this year titled Why is My Life So Hard? reminds us of the importance of gratitude, introduces the notion and Headwinds/Tailwinds Asymmetry, and offers a new way to understand Lean management

Lean Thinking from Itchy Toes to NASA

By Jon Miller - June 5th, 2017

About a month ago I consulted a physician about itchy toes, for the third time in about a year. Through this process, I was able to reflect on Lean thinking, organizational culture, how we present problems, and what this means for th

Get the Facts

By Ron Pereira - June 2nd, 2017

Without sounding overly dramatic I’m fairly certain my content development team and I are working on the most important Gemba Academy course we’ve ever produced. This new course will be focused on the Job Relations (JR) as

Purpose for Asking “Why?”

By Jon Miller - May 29th, 2017

At its heart, Lean is about problem solving. Closing gaps. Overcoming obstacles. Making things better. The basic difference between organizations that succeed long-term with Lean and those who don’t can be gauged by how well they

Lean Outside of Manufacturing

By Steve Kane - May 26th, 2017

There are so many examples of lean in manufacturing that it can be easy to understand how well-suited the methodology is for that industry. Folks in other types of organizations and roles often comment that it is difficult to transla

Brain Science on How Lean Works

By Jon Miller - May 22nd, 2017

How does Lean work? There are rational, that is to say scientific, explanations. It works because when outputs are increase and inputs decreased, profit follows. Lean works because flow, pull and visualization remove waste and expos

Waste Whack-a-Mole

By Kevin Meyer - May 19th, 2017

Today is garbage day in my neighborhood, and like most people in California and probably most of the U.S. if not the world, our trash is neatly segregated into green, blue, and gray containers for pickup – yard waste, recyclables

Visual Management Mind Trick

By Jon Miller - May 15th, 2017

Talk about thinking outside of the box. Each spring crows entered the abandoned lower floors of the research center. They stripped away pipe insulation for their nests. They left behind feathers and droppings. What did the researcher

New Videos: TWI Summit 2017

By Kevin Meyer - May 10th, 2017

Gemba Academy has just released a new Gemba Academy Live! series with the videos from the 2017 TWI Summit that was held in San Diego. In these videos you’ll see Roger Bilas discuss TWI and brain science, learn how TWI can used

New Videos: Practical Problem Solving in Spanish

By Kevin Meyer - May 10th, 2017

We just released our fifth course in the School of Lean in Spanish, Practical Problem Solving. Going beyond Spanish subtitles, which are already available on all School of Lean and School of Six Sigma courses, these new courses use n

Lean is Not About Principles

By Jon Miller - May 8th, 2017

Lately I’ve been involved in several conversations of “Is lean about tools or is it about principles?” Hardly anybody argues for the tools. The popular consensus is that Lean is about principles, but it is a vague and loos

Will Gemba Academy Put You Out of a Job?

By Ron Pereira - May 5th, 2017

Over the years we’ve been fortunate enough to talk to a lot of people about how Gemba Academy could add value to their organization’s lean and/or six sigma journey. Many times these conversations start as sales calls. Fol

The Lean Journey: It’s in the Name

By Jon Miller - May 1st, 2017

While attending a recent event showcasing the ongoing lean transformation at a local hospital, I was reminded of the meaning of “journey”. Those of us practicing continuous improvement for our personal benefit or on behalf

Following Their Moral Compass

By Steve Kane - April 28th, 2017

By Steve Kane As an aviation enthusiast and airplane pilot, I take an interest in pretty much all kinds of flying. YouTube provides seemingly endless entertainment for people like me. I recently started watching lots of videos on p

To Lead with Respect, Stop Boring People

By Jon Miller - April 24th, 2017

One of the greatest challenges for leaders of an organization is to keep people engaged in the work. Annual Gallup polls tell us that less than a third of U.S. workers are engaged. People who are engaged deliver better quality, produc

Ensconcing Paranoia in Rules

By Kevin Meyer - April 21st, 2017

Silly boy you got so much to live for So much to aim for, so much to try for You blow it all with, paranoia You’re so insecure you, self-destroyer paranoia, they destroy ya It’s been over a week since the United incident wh

Why Won’t Senior Leaders Attend My Lean Training?

By Jon Miller - April 17th, 2017

Nothing focuses the mind like… Most words that end this sentence are rather unpleasant. The hangman’s noose. Being shot at. Impending death. What these have in common is that they limit our future options. They are constr

Gemba Academy Blog

Blog Archive