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# da Vinci - The First Lean Thinker?
- URL: https://www.kevinmeyer.com/da-vinci-the/
- Published: 2008-04-22T04:51:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-10T14:23:50.000Z
- Author: Kevin Meyer
- Tags: Historical Perspectives, #Migrated-1752356847400, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2025-07-12 14:48

I've been reading a fascinating book titled *How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day*. I originally picked it up to learn more about the guy, but it really isn't that great of a historical text. However the analysis of da Vinci's thought and analytical style was great. There are even a few exercises to develop that style, and apparently an accompanying workbook.

Author Michael Gelb's seven steps to da Vinci genius are:

- *Curiosita*: An insatiably curious approach to life.
- *Dimonstratzione*: A commitment to test knowledge through experience.
- *Sensazione*: The continual refinement of the senses, especially sight, as the means to clarify experience.
- *Sfumato*: A willingness to embrace ambiguity, paradox, and uncertainty.
- *Arte/Scienza*: The development of the balance between science and art, logic and imagination ("whole-brain thinking").
- *Corporalita*: The cultivation of ambidexterity, fitness, and poise.
- *Connessione*: A recognition and appreciation for the connectedness of all things and phenomena; "systems thinking."

Sound familiar? Think about the lean manufacturing analogies.

- Curiosity and testing knowledge through experience... going to the gemba.
- Using sight as the means to clarify experience... visual factory and 5S.
- Embracing paradox... the counterintuitiveness of pull manufacturing and one piece flow.
- Ambidexterity... cross training.
- The connectedness of all things... the value stream.

Was Leonardo da Vinci an early lean thinker?