GA 116 | How to Use Storytelling with Jacob Stoller

By Jessica Bush - June 23rd, 2016

Today we are excited to have Jacob Stoller back on the podcast. Jacob and Ron discussed storytelling and how it can be extra powerful in a continuous improvement context. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here. I

Safety In Numbers: What Message Are We Sending?

By Steve Kane - June 17th, 2016

Guest contribution by Jamie Parker “Don’t tell the team. I don’t want to be the reason our number goes back to zero.” These are the words a front-line team member shared with her plant manager after sustaining an injury. You se

GA 115 | Mastering Puppets with Filipe Marques

By Jessica Bush - June 16th, 2016

Today’s guest is Filipe Marques. Filipe has a very unique perspective on continuous improvement, and he shared some great examples of what he and his team do to stay on track. He even connected Metallica and lean. Don’t miss this o

GA 114 | How to Apply Lean to Healthcare with Mark Graban

By Jessica Bush - June 9th, 2016

Today’s episode features Mark Graban, a recurring podcast guest and good friend of Gemba Academy. Ron and Mark discussed lean healthcare, the third revision of Mark’s book Lean Hospitals, and some of the main misconceptio

How to Become a More Passionate Leader & Person

By Ron Pereira - June 3rd, 2016

Do you want to be part of an incredible culture at work? What about your personal life?  Well, in this article I’d like to explore a characteristic I believe to be extremely important for any person, or organization, seeking excelle

GA 113 | How to Utilize the Power Score with Jonathan Sands

By Jessica Bush - June 2nd, 2016

GA 112 | How to Pursue Greatness with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - May 26th, 2016

Today’s episode features a keynote speech, “In Pursuit of Greatness,” delivered by our own Ron Pereira at the TWI Summit in San Antonio, Texas. As you’ll hear, he thoroughly enjoyed the conference and learned a

A Supervisor’s Strategy to Make Lean Stick

By Steve Kane - May 20th, 2016

By Steve Kane Michelle Trejo is a production supervisor for Specialty Silicone Fabricators, Inc. in Paso Robles, California.  She believes in Lean and she believes in her people.  Michelle has many leadership successes to her credit.

GA 111 | How to Teach Continuous Improvement with Dr. Bradley Miller

By Jessica Bush - May 19th, 2016

Today’s guest is Dr. Bradley Miller, a professor at the University of Houston. Brad explained to us how he teaches his students about continuous improvement, and how they then apply those skills to real life situations. An MP3

GA 109 | How to Leverage Toyota Kata with Brandon Brown

By Jessica Bush - May 5th, 2016

Today’s guest is Brandon Brown, the owner of Continuous Coaching Commitment LLC and an associate with the W3 Group LLC. Brandon shared his knowledge of Toyota Kata with us, and explained how it complements TWI. An MP3 version o

GA 108 | How to Use Job Relations to Solve Problems with Oscar Roche

By Jessica Bush - April 28th, 2016

Today’s guest is Oscar Roche, a Director at the TWI Institute Australia and Visual Workplace Australasia. Oscar and Ron discussed TWI, with a particular emphasis on the JR, or Job Relations component.  An MP3 version of this epi

GA 107 | How to Leverage TWI with Patrick Graupp

By Jessica Bush - April 21st, 2016

Today’s guest is Patrick Graupp, Senior Master Trainer at the TWI Institute. Patrick gave us an overview of TWI, or Training Within Industry, including a brief breakdown of the three main components. TWI is a very powerful tool

Inspiring a Bias for Action

By Steve Kane - April 15th, 2016

Jamie Parker practices Lean and is passionate about learning and sharing Lean leadership. She has 15 years’ experience in operations management / leadership across retail, service, and manufacturing environments. Jamie serves as

GA 106 | How to Understand the Nature of Transformation

By Jessica Bush - April 14th, 2016

Today’s guest is Dr. Darlene Dumont, the Public Service Program Director for LEI, or Lean Enterprise Institute. Darlene shared some of the projects she’s worked on throughout her impressive career and explained the value of

GA 105 | How to Improve Your Business with Change Management with Paul Brand

By Jessica Bush - April 7th, 2016

Today’s guest is Paul Brand, a change management consultant from the Netherlands. Paul wrote a book called Change Your Mind, Change Your Business, and he shared with us why he wrote it, what it’s about, and how change man

GA 104 | How to Apply Lean to Your State with Alison Fisher

By Jessica Bush - March 31st, 2016

Today’s episode features Alison Fisher, the Program Director of Lean CT. Alison oversees the lean efforts for the entire state of Connecticut, which is obviously no small feat. It was fascinating to hear her take on how lean can

GA 103 | Our Favorite Episodes

By Jessica Bush - March 24th, 2016

Today’s episode is a little different. We asked the Gemba Academy team to tell us their favorite episodes to date, and compiled some powerful excerpts to share with all of you. This is truly a diverse set of stories, advice, an

More Than Metrics

By Steve Kane - March 18th, 2016

By Steve Kane I’ve had some conversations recently about what a successful lean journey looks like.  Of course, we talked about key performance indicators and monitoring metrics.  As the saying goes, not everything that can be coun

GA 102 | Sustaining Your Lean Journey with William Harvey

By Jessica Bush - March 17th, 2016

Today’s guest is William Harvey, a former U.S. Marine with over a decade of experience in the printing and consumer packaging industries. William and Ron discuss strategy and culture, specifically what it takes to keep a lean jou

GA 101 | How to Implement a Lean Culture with Steven Leuschel

By Jessica Bush - March 10th, 2016

Today’s guest is Steven Leuschel, author of Lean Culture Change. He and I discuss the contents of the book, which focuses on the critical people component of lean. This An MP3 version of this episode is available for download her

The Other Flow of Csíkszentmihályi

By Kevin Meyer - March 4th, 2016

Those of us in the Lean world are accustomed to discussing “flow” – where work is performed in an even manner to reduce mura. Activities are synchronized, layouts are optimized, resources are available exactly where a

GA 100 | How to Survive with Matt May

By Jessica Bush - March 3rd, 2016

Today’s episode marks a very special milestone for the Gemba Academy podcast. To celebrate our 100th episode, we brought back our first ever guest, Matt May. Matt shares the story of how he died (yes, you read that right), told f

GA 099 | How to Motivate People with Ron Pereira

By Jessica Bush - February 25th, 2016

  Today we’re sharing the audio version of a keynote presentation Ron gave to The Woodbridge Group, a Canadian company and Gemba Academy customer. This episode contains a lot of great information on both motivation and cultu

Say No

By Steve Kane - February 19th, 2016

By Steve Kane I’ve recently committed to more short-term responsibilities in and out of work than I should have.  We’ve all be in this situation before, leaving ourselves with insufficient time to meet all the demands we’ve put

GA 098 | How to Apply Lean to Sales and Marketing with Joe Dager

By Jessica Bush - February 18th, 2016

Today’s guest is Joe Dager, President of Business901, a firm that specializes in helping companies apply lean to their sales and marketing departments. Joe and I discuss the many ways continuous improvement can be used to improve