Jon Miller, Author at Gemba Academy

Jon Miller

Jon has dedicated his 25+ year career to the field of kaizen, continuous improvement, and lean management. Jon spent the first eighteen years of his life in Japan, then graduated from McGill University with a bachelor’s in linguistics.

1485 Articles

Lead with Virtue, Bind with Ritual

By Jon Miller - December 11th, 2017

Confucius is credited with many insights into human nature and moral governance by his followers who recorded his teachings. They still influence culture and society in many Asian countries today. Confucius observed “lead with

How to Avoid the Hazards of Habituation with Standard Work and Kaizen

By Jon Miller - December 4th, 2017

In an oddity of human behavior, we pay more respect to the unfamiliar than to the familiar. This is true towards people, processes and situations. When we meet someone new we are more likely to be polite to them than to a friend or a p

Applying the 6 Laws of Tech to Lean

By Jon Miller - November 27th, 2017

Melvin Kranzberg, a professor of the history of technology at Georgia Institute of Technology, came up with six laws to explain society’s unease with technology’s growing power and presence in our lives. This was in the 1980s

Wishing Everyone a Granular Thanksgiving

By Jon Miller - November 20th, 2017

Thanksgiving is my favorite American holiday. The football, the food, the time with friends and family. Part of the tradition is to remember and name things that we are thankful for. It’s an occasion to stop and reflect on our bl

15 Lean Failure Lessons from Software Development, 3/3

By Jon Miller - November 13th, 2017

Some say that as many as 95% of Lean transformations fail. How could this be? An article The Coming Software Apocalypse in the Atlantic Monthly about the software development world offers insights. This post is the third of a 3-part

15 Lean Failure Lessons from Software Development, 2/3

By Jon Miller - November 6th, 2017

Can it be true that as many as 95% of Lean transformations fail? If so, how? Challenges from the complexities of modern software development offer insights. This post is part 2 of a 3-part exploration, inspired by the article The Comi

15 Lean Failure Lessons from Software Development, 1/3

By Jon Miller - October 30th, 2017

Reading the Atlantic Monthly article The Coming Software Apocalypse helped me see the question of “Why do lean transformations fail?” in a new context. This question is usually preceded by statements like “95% of lean

Why Aliens Have Yet to Visit Earth

By Jon Miller - October 23rd, 2017

Space is big. The scale of outer space is so grand that humans can’t comprehend it. To boot, humans have difficulty with long-term thinking. This has resulted in an emerging tragedy of the commons, in orbital space. About 95% of

How Fresh Starts Motivate Us to Keep Improving

By Jon Miller - October 16th, 2017

When a method works, it works even when we don’t understand how. If we do understand, we can find wider application for the method. So it was interesting to stumble across a human behavior called the fresh start effect as a possi

Why Don’t You Try TPS?

By Jon Miller - October 9th, 2017

“We need to improve our operation.” “Why don’t you try TPS?” “We don’t make cars.” If I had a dollar for every time a client brought up the “we don’t make cars” objection to trying to learn from the Toyota Product

Jon Miller

Find Jon Elsewhere

Start your Lean & Six Sigma training today.