Leadership Archives | Page 31 of 36

Perseverance & PDCA

By Ron Pereira - March 13th, 2012

“Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1). The ability to persevere through the tough times we experience as lean and six sigma practitioners is extremely important. In fact, the ability to persev

And with your spirit

By Ron Pereira - January 3rd, 2012

Roman Catholics around the word recently saw a huge change to the way Mass is celebrated. Specifically, there were several changes to the prayers we say. For example, prior to the change if you walked up to any Catholic and said, “Th

The Courage to Try

By Ron Pereira - December 1st, 2011

I was recently speaking with a Gemba Academy customer who’s looking to start a small lean consulting company. I’ll call this person Bob for the sake of this article. About Bob Bob explained that he doesn’t have a college degree b

How to Not Demotivate People

By Ron Pereira - October 31st, 2011

Here is a short, but excellent, video on how to not demotivate workers. The person speaking is Jim Collins, author of the bestseller Good to Great. I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on whether you agree with everything Mr. Col

Training Wheels

By Ron Pereira - August 30th, 2011

My son, who just turned 5 years old, recently taught me a valuable lesson. Like most young people my boy was itching to take the training wheels off his bicycle. We had told him that Daddy would take the training wheels off this weeke

3 Things You Can Do When Your Manager Doesn’t Support Continuous Improvement

By Ron Pereira - August 2nd, 2011

We lean bloggers like to preach the importance of senior management support as it relates to continuous improvement. To be sure, having senior management support is extremely important and without it the hill to continuous improvement

Help! No Management Support!

By Ron Pereira - July 19th, 2011

Most will agree that having top management support is crucial to succeeding at any form of continuous improvement – lean, six sigma, TOC, etc. But what happens when management isn’t behind the employees who are attempting to use le

3 Ways to Break Through Productivity Ruts

By Ron Pereira - July 12th, 2011

We’ve all been there… stuck in rut. Unmotivated. Bored. Possibly even a bit down in the dumps. And, to be sure, when we’re in this dip it’s easy for our personal productivity to hit rock bottom. With this said, here are 3 thing

Hustle

By Ron Pereira - July 6th, 2011

It’s 12:43 AM and I’ve been in the zone working on some Gemba Academy projects. I can’t explain it… but I love working late into the night from time to time. I do think getting adequate sleep is supremely impo

Great, here comes Mr. “Oh – No!”

By Ron Pereira - June 28th, 2011

As I mentioned in a recent article I had the great honor of meeting Mr. Masaaki Imai, the founder of the Kaizen Institute and author of several lean related books. As it turns out, Mr. Imai knew Mr. Taiichi Ohno – the chief architect

What Challenges Are You Facing?

By Ron Pereira - June 7th, 2011

A quick question… what challenges are you currently facing as it relates to building a culture of continuous improvement within your organization? These challenges can be related to people, processes, or anything else in between.

Character & Integrity

By Ron Pereira - May 30th, 2011

Those that follow American college football likely know that Jim Tressel, Ohio State’s football coach, resigned today. It’s a sad, although not totally unexpected, day for Buckeye nation. Of course the rest of the college football

The Secret to Living a Happy Life at Home and Work

By Ron Pereira - April 27th, 2011

I’m confident that I’ve found the secret to living a happy life. I’m serious. I really do think I’ve figured it out. You see, I know many people who are unhappy since they spend most of their lives at jobs they don’t lik

Let’s Dance

By Ron Pereira - April 11th, 2011

A few months ago I wrote about my experiences coaching my daughter’s U7 soccer team. Specifically, I shared how lots of practice and hard work resulted in our girls winning their indoor league championship. Well, I’m very excited

Leader Standard Work – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - March 18th, 2011

Here is part 1 (of 7) of Gemba Academy’s Leader Standard Work course. If you’re reading this via email or RSS reader you’ll likely need to click through to the website in order to watch the video.

Stealing Monkeys

By Ron Pereira - February 16th, 2011

I love learning new things… as such yesterday was a very good day as I had the privilege to hear Mike Wroblewski deliver training on Leader Standard Work, TPM, and Time Observation. For those interested, all of this live training was

This is the worst it’s ever been

By Ron Pereira - February 10th, 2011

I’m typically a glass is half full kind of guy. But I also believe the phrase “This is the worst it’s ever been…” just may be the mission statement successful people and organizations live by. You se

Does Master Yoda Wisdom Contradict Lean Thinking?

By Ron Pereira - February 4th, 2011

In this famous Star Wars Dagobah swamp scene Master Yoda challenges Luke to raise his sunken starfighter with the power of his mind. I’ll Try Luke replies like many of us might when he says, “I’ll try.” Master Yoda then sco

Practice Makes Champions

By Ron Pereira - January 31st, 2011

A few months ago I wrote about my soccer coaching experiences with my daughter’s U7 team. To conclude that article I mentioned we were about to start playing indoor soccer. Well, that indoor season ended Friday night… and I’m hap

Vote “YES” for the American Innovator

By Ron Pereira - December 13th, 2010

Paul Akers and Jon Lussier are lean thinking business leaders I admire immensely. For the past year they have brought their energy and enthusiasm for lean and business to the AM radio show called The American Innovator. This show run

The Soccer Coach

By Ron Pereira - November 23rd, 2010

I recently completed one of the most humbling experiences of my life… I coached my daughter’s U7 soccer team. The main challenge for me was that I never played soccer growing up. As such, I had a lot of learning to do before I coul

The Problem With Gurus

By Ron Pereira - November 15th, 2010

Gurus really bother me. These gurus come in many different shapes and sizes. They may think they know all there is about lean, or six sigma, or cooking, or coaching a sports team, or raising a family. You see, gurus are everywhere and

6 Ways to Ensure Fear Doesn’t Win

By Ron Pereira - November 8th, 2010

How motivated are you right now? Very? A little? Not much? The honest answer to this question might explain how happy and fulfilled you feel as a person. Let’s explore why this is. Defined, motivation can be said to be the psychologi

Facing Adversity – Ron Washington Style

By Ron Pereira - October 25th, 2010

I live in the Dallas Fort Worth area… as such, I’ve been completely consumed with the excitement of the Texas Rangers making the World Series. And while there are so many amazing story lines with this young team… the aspect I wa

Should we Pay for Performance? What do you think?

By Ron Pereira - October 3rd, 2010

Dan, a reader of LSS Academy, recently emailed me this excellent question. I was hoping to get your help as I formulated a response. Here is Dan’s question. Ever since I studied process improvement at BYU I learned about E. D

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