Who will you hire?

By Ron Pereira - March 10th, 2010

Which do you feel is more important – hard work and hustle or brains and intelligence? In other words, if you had to choose between the following two people to run your family business… who would it be? Person 1: Average intell

The Goal: A 2 Second Improvement Each Day

By Ron Pereira - March 4th, 2010

Another hat tip to Jon Miller for first posting this video of Paul Akers and the FastCap team practicing lean thinking. What you think of this process? Do you do something similar at your place of work?

3 Life Lessons P90X Has Taught Me

By Ron Pereira - February 25th, 2010

I awake to the sound of my iPhone alarm clock ringing. It’s 5:15 AM. Are you kidding me? I lay there for about a minute. Then, my dog Lexi, who is 15 years old and losing her mind, comes to my side of the bed and begins her ritualist

The Ultimate Sacrifice: Serving Others

By Ron Pereira - February 16th, 2010

Note from Ron: This might be the most significant article I have ever written on this blog. Please read it all the way through as I need your help. Someone close to me and my family has recently re-deployed to Afghanistan… for the fi

3 Ways to Stop Failing at New Years Resolutions

By Ron Pereira - January 4th, 2010

As we start off the new year one thing is for certain… there will be lots of resolutions stated. Everything from weight loss to improving the way money is managed will be focused in on for, at the very least, 7 to 10 days. Yep. 

Cardinal Virtues and Leadership Series: Justice

By Ron Pereira - November 30th, 2009

The other day my 5 year old daughter said… OK, to be more accurate she whined, “She [referring to her 7 year old sister] got candy… why don’t I?” Ah yes, my children often remind me of how important fairness and justice are.

Cardinal Virtues and Leadership Series: Prudence

By Ron Pereira - October 27th, 2009

“In everything consider the consequences.” – La Fontaine A few articles ago I proposed the idea that successful leaders, in addition to being humble, should also practice the 4 Cardinal virtues. I also committed to ex

Cardinal Virtues and Leadership

By Ron Pereira - October 15th, 2009

Our most recent article, Level 5 Leadership, created quite the discussion in the comments section (18 comments as I write this). As is normally the case, I learned a lot from all the comments. I agreed with some of them and disagreed w

Level 5 Leadership

By Ron Pereira - October 8th, 2009

In his classic business book Good to Great Jim Collins introduces what he refers to as Level 5 Leaders, our topic in this article. Humility To start with, Level 5 Leaders are humble. In other words, those that Collins and his team of r

The Versatile Leader – Part 3

By Ron Pereira - August 23rd, 2009

So far in this series we’ve discussed the directing and coaching leadership styles. In this article we’re going to move onto the last two leadership styles – encouraging and empowerment. The Encouraging Leadership Style The encou

The Versatile Leader – Part 2

By Ron Pereira - August 20th, 2009

“That’s what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that’s great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.” -Mike Krzyzewski, Duke University In part 1 of

The Versatile Leader – Part 1

By Ron Pereira - August 18th, 2009

There’s one thing I know for sure… being a leader of people is hard work. No matter if the “people” are those you work with or your children at home… knowing how to best inspire and move them to greatness is no easy task.

If Lean Is So Great, Why Is Toyota Struggling?

By Ron Pereira - August 9th, 2009

Balaji, a reader of LSS Academy, recently sent me the following question/comment via email: Toyota, GM, and Ford are experts in state of the art assembly technology and in implementing Lean and Six Sigma process improvement methods and

Dream Big… Start Small

By Ron Pereira - July 19th, 2009

My youngest daughter, who turns 1 this coming weekend, recently took her first steps and is a much happier little girl as a result. My wife and I think she just wanted to go, go, go as she watched her older brother and sisters run arou

5 Practical Ways to Climb out of Any Slump

By Ron Pereira - July 14th, 2009

Are you, or have you ever been, in a slump? Do you ever find yourself feeling unmotivated, uninspired, and just flat out crappy? Or maybe you feel a little overwhelmed as there is so much to do and you’re not sure where to start? Sou

Parenting and Lean Six Sigma

By Ron Pereira - June 15th, 2009

I am the father of 4 wonderfully perfect children. I love them more than words can describe and couldn’t imagine my life without them. And, recently, I’ve been thinking about how much having children helps me to sharpen my lean and

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