Off Topic Archives | Page 2 of 10

“I Didn’t Teach the Dog Anything”

By Steve Kane - June 23rd, 2017

The Dog is a Handful I have a Jack Russell Terrier named Kirby. Kirby has some–how should I put it–less than desirable behavioral traits. He’s a great dog most of the time. Other times, he can be a handful. Fo

Following Their Moral Compass

By Steve Kane - April 28th, 2017

By Steve Kane As an aviation enthusiast and airplane pilot, I take an interest in pretty much all kinds of flying. YouTube provides seemingly endless entertainment for people like me. I recently started watching lots of videos on p

McProcess

By Steve Kane - February 17th, 2017

I recently saw the movie “The Founder”— the story of Ray Kroc and the McDonald’s empire. The movie does a good job of illustrating what one can do with the right opportunity, enough drive, and a lot of moral flexibility. We’l

How Do I Teach My Team?

By Steve Kane - January 20th, 2017

I like to think that a large part of a leader’s job is to teach, coach, mentor and inspire. And, working for people who do this well is often a great experience. The trouble is that there is typically little, if any, training

Lean Lessons from Tough Mudder

By Steve Kane - October 21st, 2016

By Steve Kane May 2016 I had the bright idea that I’d register for the Michigan Tough Mudder Mud Run, then find a way to get in shape (ready, fire, aim). I had seen ads and social media posts from finishers and thought t

Protect the Process

By Steve Kane - September 16th, 2016

This article is a continuation of the series based on best practices from the Gemba Academy community. Part 1: Don’t Let Perfect Get in the Way of Good Part 2: Create a Learning Path It’s easy to get consumed with KP

Don’t Let Perfection Get In the Way of Progress

By Steve Kane - July 15th, 2016

The Gemba Academy team is in a great position to interact with many lean practitioners around the world. With a thousand or so subscribing organizations and presumably hundreds of thousands of Gemba Academy users, we’re able to see

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

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

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

Off Topic

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