Jon Miller, Author at Gemba Academy

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

The Definition of Insanity

By Jon Miller - October 2nd, 2017

Insanity is thinking or behavior that is unreasonable or irrational. Albert Einstein is often credited with observing that insanity is doing the same thing over and over a again and expecting different results. This definition seems to

Lean Customer Experience Design

By Jon Miller - September 25th, 2017

Customers are front and center when it comes to lean transformations. We want to win them over, delight them, keep them, strengthen the relationship and grow the business, by continuously improving what we do. Too often for non-service

A Speedy Recovery to Houston, and a Lesson in Overburdened Systems

By Jon Miller - September 18th, 2017

Mura, muri, muda. Three words that someone should have taught the civic leaders of Houston decades ago. This trio explains how systems break, why we waste our resources, and why people suffer worse than we should from predictable disas

A Spymaster’s Guide to Lean Thinking

By Jon Miller - September 11th, 2017

A person works in intelligence told me a few things about that profession. Here is a summary of a few similarities between good spy craft and good business leadership that come with lean thinking. Go to the gemba. Intelligence gatherin

Chess Masters and Lean Thinkers

By Jon Miller - September 4th, 2017

I found an interesting parallel between lean thinking and game mastery in a book about the history of board games by Tristan Donovan titled It’s All A Game. In a section of the book discussing chess, the author introduced an insi

This Area Closed to Improvement

By Jon Miller - August 28th, 2017

An organization I visited recently surprised me. They are on a long-running and successful continuous improvement journey. They do many things right. They recognize where they have gaps and are open to outside help. And yet they have c

What Lean Leaders Can Learn from the Humanities

By Jon Miller - August 14th, 2017

Leaders in business tend to come with educational backgrounds in finance, business, engineering, medicine or law. It is less common that they bring backgrounds in literature, philosophy, the liberal arts. These fields are viewed as les

Solving the Engagement Equation with Tracey & Ernie Richardson

By Jon Miller - August 7th, 2017

The Toyota Engagement Equation: How to Understand and Implement Continuous Improvement Thinking in Any Organization by Tracey and Ernie Richardson has been published by McGraw-Hill Education. The book follows the experiences of Tracey

What it Means to Turn the PDCA Cycle One More Time

By Jon Miller - July 31st, 2017

A. It’s the first letter in the alphabet. It’s also the last letter in PDCA. Central to the scientific method, problem solving and continuous improvement, the PDCA cycle stands for Plan, Do, Check, and A is for Act, Adjust

Lessons in Problem Solving from Seattle’s Bike Share Fail

By Jon Miller - July 24th, 2017

In March of this year, the City of Seattle put an end to its taxpayer-funded experiment in bike sharing. The Pronto! bike share program allowed members to pick up and drop off one of 500 bikes from 50 stations across Seattle. When the

The Horse, the Carriage and the Carriage Fee

By Jon Miller - July 17th, 2017

The automobile has been with us for approximately a century. For the millennia prior to that, we had horses. Because horses were an important part of lives and civilizations for so long, they generated many idioms and proverbs. You can

Practicing Lean Repairs a Leader’s Brain Damage

By Jon Miller - July 10th, 2017

It’s a sign of how little power I pretend to enjoy these days when an Atlantic Magazine article’s alarming title Power Causes Brain Damage made me more curious than concerned. In it studies suggest that given power, lead

Advanced Lean is Paying Due Respect to Basic Lean

By Jon Miller - June 26th, 2017

I used to believe there was such a thing as advanced lean. Many people probably still believe this today. How about you? There are several ways “advanced lean” is used. In an educational context it means “not for be

Lean is a Floor

By Jon Miller - June 19th, 2017

American football is in its preseason. Teams have been holding training events for veterans and new players. Sports media commentators often speak or write about a players “floor” or “ceiling.” A rookie with

Headwinds, Tailwinds, Continuous Improvement and Respect for Humanity

By Jon Miller - June 12th, 2017

A Freakonomics Radio episode from March of this year titled Why is My Life So Hard? reminds us of the importance of gratitude, introduces the notion and Headwinds/Tailwinds Asymmetry, and offers a new way to understand Lean management

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