The Pearls and Turds of Continuous Improvement
My wife and I watched the documentary Stutz for the third or fourth time last weekend. It's a unique story that always provides something new each…
RIP Steve Player, Budget Destroyer
We all know a couple people who have changed the direction of our lives and careers, even with very brief interactions. Something they said created an…
The Good Karma of Lean
Our Gemba Academy team was at The Association for Manufacturing Excellence annual conference in Dallas last week, the largest lean conference in the w…
Lean, Chess, and Techno-Solutionism
Those of us somewhat interested in chess, or perhaps curious thanks to blockbuster shows like The Queen's Gambit, have been following the chaos in…
Leverage the Power of Safety to Drive Cultural Transformation
Earlier this week our good friend Mark Graban at Lean Blog reminded me of an article on how former Alcoa CEO Paul O'Neill focused on improving wor…
Continuously Lubricating Processes
As I push through my later 50s I'm finding that I value flexibility and balance far more than strength and endurance. This is augmented in my cas…
The Value of Friction and Inefficiency
Our professional lives are generally consumed by trying to make our processes more efficient to reduce waste and help increase the value we deliver to…
Reconstructing Degraded Processes and a Yearning for Darkness
Yesterday I returned from almost two weeks in Iceland, which was tacked on to two weeks exploring Maine. Nearly a month away from the home and office,…