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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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