Gemba Academy

Seven Policy Questions for Shaping a Lean Future

By Jon Miller - March 22nd, 2021

A Scientific American article from November 2020 looked ahead to how the election would shape the future of the U.S. and the world. The article asked seven questions related to how the election’s outcome would affect policies in

When to Stop the Coaching Conversation

By Jon Miller - March 15th, 2021

One of the challenges of being an effective coach is knowing when to stop coaching. After sharing some insight or giving a piece of advice that lands well, it’s natural for a coach to feel good. If we’re not careful, this f

Neuroscience Reframes Aging

By Kevin Meyer - March 12th, 2021

Exactly a year ago my wife and I were in Hawaii and I was trading emails back and forth with a few colleagues speculating on the impact of the virus on our businesses, conferences, and lives. We returned to California the day before

How to Shape Lean Leadership Culture Through Daily Management

By Jon Miller - March 8th, 2021

At the most basic level, a daily management system enables us to know each day whether we are on-track or off-track to meeting our goals. It provides a structure to expose problems and take corrective action. The system includes medium

Lessons Learned From a Flooded Office

By Ron Pereira - March 5th, 2021

As I pulled into the Gemba Academy parking lot Thursday morning, February 18th, I noticed something strange…there was ice everywhere. Now, as you may have heard, Texas was recently blasted with some crazy cold temperatures which

Better Lean Leadership through Novice Learning

By Jon Miller - March 1st, 2021

I read an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal titled, How to Teach Professors Humility? Hand Them a Rubik’s Cube. Professors at Furman and Denison Universities took on a challenge over a six-week winter break. They had to

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

Three Things to Stop and Start Doing for Better Lean Coaching

By Jon Miller - February 22nd, 2021

The act of lean coaching covers a broad range of formal and informal roles. We see lean coaching between managers on a gemba walk, a consultant overseeing kaizen teams, a kata coach and an IK learner, a black belt mentoring a green bel

Five Helpful Favorite Phrases for Continuous Improvement Beginners

By Jon Miller - February 15th, 2021

The topic of continuous improvement is broad and deep. It’s easy for beginners to get overwhelmed by the variety of methods, tools and practices available. Even after grasping the technical jargon and settling on a particular app

Humble Questions Before Setting Direction

By Kevin Meyer - February 12th, 2021

I’ve long been a fan of Ed Schein, and his book Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling is one of my favorite leadership books. I wrote about Schein several years ago and a colleague recently pointed me to

How Not to Fool Ourselves

By Jon Miller - February 8th, 2021

There’s a saying, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” The deceiver is at fault the first time. But the second time, the person being tricked is also accountable for being fooled. We should learn from our mis

Lean Thinking: A Flashlight, Mirror, and Sandpaper

By Ron Pereira - February 5th, 2021

I’ve been following “The Bible in a Year” podcast that’s hosted by Fr. Mike Schmitz. It’s wonderfully done for anyone interested in covering the entire bible in a year. During one of the recent episodes

The Continuous Improvement Apple Tree

By Jon Miller - February 1st, 2021

Apples are one of the most popular fruit. They are bright, sweet and the subject of children’s books, religious symbolism and business metaphors. Most people have an idea where apples come from. Grocery stores. They are readily a

Toyota Kata Crossword Puzzle

By Jon Miller - January 25th, 2021

One of my weekly responsibilities is to contribute a blog post. The hardest part of this is coming up with something to write about. I’ve managed to keep it up for quite a few years, but finding topics is starting to get challeng

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

How to Vaccinate 100 Million People in 100 Days

By Jon Miller - January 18th, 2021

This week the incoming U.S. President Biden announced his intentions use FEMA and the National Guard to establish COVID vaccination sites across the country. The goal is to vaccinate 100 million people his first 100 days in office. At

How to Have a Happy New Year

By Jon Miller - January 11th, 2021

The end of one year and the start of the next one is a time to reflect on a question; how can we make this year better than the last? What have we learned? What do we still need to learn to have a happy new year? Especially this past

Better Living through Algorithms

By Jon Miller - December 14th, 2020

I’ve been reflecting on an article from June of this year. It’s about Daniel Kahneman’s efforts to help organizations to become better at decision-making. He is a Nobel Prize winning psychologist and behavioral econo

Norman Bodek and Respect for People

By Kevin Meyer - December 11th, 2020

Yesterday I learned of the passing of Norman Bodek and I have been reflecting on the impact this great man had on my life and career – and the lean and business world in general. A quarter century ago I was a new operations manag

Simpler Definitions of Muri, Muda and Mura

By Jon Miller - December 7th, 2020

In the Lean lexicon are three Japanese words that describe the nature of losses in a system. They are muri, muda and mura. In English these are often translated as overburden, waste and variation. The seven types of waste are well-know

What is the Biggest Truth in Life?

By Ron Pereira - December 4th, 2020

Earlier this week one of my podcast guests turned the tables and asked me a few questions. I was fully prepared for a few traditional continuous improvement themed questions but, as it turns out, the first question, in particular, was

Gratitude as a Performance Metric?

By Jon Miller - November 30th, 2020

Each year during the November harvest festival, I take time to reflect on thankfulness. This year it’s less about appreciating the fruits of efforts, payoffs from sacrifices, or being grateful for seeds sewn long ago. It feels mo

Change Point Management, Accountability and the Seahawk’s Defense

By Jon Miller - November 23rd, 2020

In a few short years, the Seattle Seahawks’ defense has gone from being historically great to the worst ever in terms of yards allowed, through the first half of the 2020 season. Fans are agonizing over this, calling for the head

Lean Thinking and the Swiss Cheese Model

By Jon Miller - November 16th, 2020

This pandemic has introduced many new terms and concepts into the popular consciousness. We work to flatten the curve. Policies now state that some businesses and jobs as essential. We are aware of the dangers of asymptomatic transmiss

Five 5 Why Fallacies to Avoid

By Jon Miller - November 9th, 2020

I was updating a few old articles on problem solving and came across some notes from a few years ago. These notes were on topics related to root cause analysis that I’ve written or spoken about. I picked out a few old favorites a

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