How Do You Make Decisions?

By Ron Pereira - June 5th, 2009

One of things I’ve come to realize about myself is I can make decisions quickly. I don’t need to think about things for days on end… and when in a crisis mode, or a situation that requires an immediate action, I have no problem s

Leave No Buffalo Behind

By Ron Pereira - April 27th, 2009

Last week I wrote about how geese stick together through thick and thin. Well, I think it’s safe to say buffalo make geese look like a bunch of sissies.  Be sure to watch this all the way to the end. Just trust me when I say thi

The Way of the Goose: 5 Leadership Lessons

By Ron Pereira - April 21st, 2009

We humans can learn a lot from geese. Yes, that’s right, geese. In fact, in 1991 Angeles Arrien gave a speech called “Lessons from Geese” that was largely based on the work of Milton Olson. What follows is my take on the stor

Crowdsourced Leadership Standard Work

By Ron Pereira - April 19th, 2009

A few weeks ago I posted an article where I asked for your thoughts on what “leadership standard work” meant to you.  As is typical, you all blew me away with your comments. Steve Armitage, a reader of Gemba Academy’

No Fear and Big Girl Bikes

By Ron Pereira - April 9th, 2009

One of my favorite things about LSS Academy, aside from the thousands of awesome comments you’ve all left the past few years, is how I get to sneak in personal aspects of my life from time to time. I especially love to write about my

Walk On

By Ron Pereira - April 1st, 2009

The Greatest in the Kingdom

By Ron Pereira - March 12th, 2009

I was recently reading my all time favorite book and came across some comments that caused me to ponder a few of the articles I’ve recently written about being an expert and how many hours it takes to become an expert. Here’

An Expert State of Mind

By Ron Pereira - March 10th, 2009

A person going by the name of “ford” left a very interesting comment to my post about it taking 10,000 hours to become an expert at something.  Here was the comment: “The moment one gets into the `expert’ state of mind

10,000 Hours of Practice

By Ron Pereira - February 26th, 2009

10,000 hours. That’s precisely how long you need to practice something before you can even think about calling yourself an expert. Well, at least this is what Malcolm Gladwell claims in his newest book Outliers, which I must say is o

You’re Late. What Do you Say?

By Ron Pereira - February 24th, 2009

It’s 7:58 AM and beads of sweat are forming on your forehead. Your pulse rate is increasing as you grip your steering wheel tightly. And to make matters worse… you forgot your mobile phone at home. In 2 minutes you will officially

Smiling, Laughing, and Blow-out Diapers

By Ron Pereira - February 17th, 2009

A friend, who’ll stay nameless since it involves a family member of his, recently told the story of how his 8 month old child threw-up on him, smiled, laughed and then had a blow-out diaper. How’s that for imagery? Well, my fri

7 Practical Ways to Respect People

By Ron Pereira - February 2nd, 2009

How many times have you heard lean advocates ramble on about how respecting people is a key tenet of the vaunted Toyota Production System? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this AND written it myself here on LSS Academy. A

The Best Investment Advice

By Ron Pereira - January 26th, 2009

Note: This is the 400th article here on LSS Academy! I’ll take some time to reflect on this in the near future. But for now, I have a far more important topic to discuss. Read on. Times are tough. Real tough. You may have recently lo

The Secret to Success – Practice

By Ron Pereira - January 25th, 2009

What do Tiger Woods and Taiichi Ohno, one of the chief architects of the Toyota Production System, have in common? Well – besides making history in their particular fields of excellence – both of these men believe/believed

Full Court Press Time

By Ron Pereira - December 21st, 2008

“The heights by great men reached and kept, were not obtained by sudden flight. But they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow  Things are going to slow down f

Seek and Destroy (Muda)

By Ron Pereira - December 18th, 2008

(electric guitar plays) Alright! Scanning the scene in the city tonight We’re looking for you to start up a fight There’s an evil feeling in our brains But it’s nothing new you know it drives us insane. Back in the Da

Helping our Friend from Down Under: Part Two

By Ron Pereira - November 21st, 2008

If you had one story to “sell” lean or six sigma to over 1,000 employees what would you say? Well, that’s precisely the situation our friend Gail is facing Down Under. To get the full history of Gail’s story please check out pa

Leadership Lessons from the Cheesecake Factory

By Ron Pereira - November 12th, 2008

To celebrate my wife’s birthday, we went out to dinner at the Cheesecake factory. If you’ve never been to the Cheesecake factory you need to go.  The menu is massive, the drink selection amazing, and the food is out of thi

The Deadly Sin of Perfectionism

By Ron Pereira - October 13th, 2008

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” – Thomas Edison When it comes to my work I probably land more towards the perfectionist side of the spectrum. Of course I’m far from perfect… b

Authentic Continuous Improvement

By Ron Pereira - October 8th, 2008

From time to time a blog article absolutely knocks me out of my chair. This morning was one of those occasions. One of the blogs I always, without fail, read is Evolving Excellence which is written by my friend Kevin Meyer. Today, Kevi

4 Easy Ways to Learn New Things

By Ron Pereira - October 7th, 2008

I don’t think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday. ~Abraham Lincoln I’m severely addicted to learning new things. I haven’t always been like this. As a young boy school stressed me out. This probably ex

4 Hour Workweek versus Working Your Face Off

By Ron Pereira - October 5th, 2008

With all the news of our struggling economy (in America) and massive bail outs I couldn’t help but think of two people – Tim Ferris, author of The Four Hour Workweek and Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV fame. Four Hour Dream is B

I am, therefore I think

By Ron Pereira - September 10th, 2008

I believe René Descartes may have gotten it backward when he said, in Latin, “Cogito, ergo sum.” When translated this famous saying means: “I think, therefore I am.” I contend he should have said, “I am, therefore I think.�

Are You Ready For Lean?

By Ron Pereira - September 8th, 2008

I just skimmed through a short white paper that attempted to provide a checklist to help an organization decide if they were ready for lean. It was written by a person who works for a “human capital management solutions” company. Y

Step Away From the Dashboard!

By Ron Pereira - September 2nd, 2008

Here’s a question for you. Is the mission control center of your organization centered on a set of dashboards or balanced scorecards? In other words, when a crisis is about to hit (or has already hit) how do you react? Do you run to