Gemba Academy

Six Month Reflection Questions

By Jon Miller - July 1st, 2019

A colleague recently suggested reflecting back seven years on what we learned and what we would do differently today based on that. Seven years is so long ago. It almost makes me dizzy to consider. The big issues and questions from bac

Standard Work for Solving Crossword Puzzles

By Jon Miller - June 24th, 2019

Lately I have been having fun solving daily crossword puzzles with my family. By reflecting on both mistakes and successful approaches, I have arrived at a strategy, even something like standard work, for solving crossword puzzles. Ste

Review of The Lean Sensei by Balle, Chartier et al.

By Jon Miller - June 17th, 2019

The Lean Sensei by Michael Ballé, Nicolas Chartier, Pascale Coignet, Sandrine Olivencia, Daryl Powell and Eivind Reke collects the co-authors’ wisdom to answer, “what is a lean sensei and what do they do?” The auth

3 Tips for Overcoming Confirmation Bias

By Ron Pereira - June 14th, 2019

Making decisions is an important part of being human. Some decisions, like which shirt to wear today, aren’t all that important. But other decisions, like which person to marry, are incredibly important. And, to be sure, we c

A Surprisingly Simple Gemba Story

By Jon Miller - June 10th, 2019

During a recent workshop, a customer asked me to share some inspiring Lean conversion stories. It was an impromptu request. I did my best but didn’t quite nail it. In hindsight, I think there is a difference between stories abou

Creating Range Through Exploration

By Kevin Meyer - June 7th, 2019

Last weekend I powered through David Epstein’s new book, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. The book has received rave reviews from the likes of Daniel Pink, who calls it “an essential read for bosses,

How to Choose a Continuous Improvement Approach

By Jon Miller - June 3rd, 2019

Most business leaders are at least familiar with one or more of the popular modern management improvement approaches such as BPM, TQM, Six Sigma and Lean. In many large organizations, several of these are being attempted at the same ti

Lessons Learned as a Kata Coach

By Steve Kane - May 24th, 2019

I first learned about Toyota Kata many years ago by attending a one-day workshop presented by Beth Carrington. A short time later, I read Toyota Kata and I began practicing. The practice as a new kata coach was difficult for me.

First, Make a Human Connection

By Jon Miller - May 20th, 2019

A recent conversation with a friend of mine who is a continuous improvement director at a sizable North American corporation yielded some personal insights for him and general ones about being a technical change leader. This story is s

An Introduction to Kaizen

By Jon Miller - May 13th, 2019

Kaizen (改善) is a Japanese word meaning “improvement”. The symbol kai means to change, to renew, to correct something that is wrong, and zen means “good” – there is no relation to Zen Buddhism. The w

Businessman with vampire fangs in the office

The Problem of Profit as a Purpose

By Kevin Meyer - May 10th, 2019

Just yesterday the Harvard Business Review presented an article by a London Business School professor suggesting that companies don’t always need a purpose beyond profit. I had to take a walk on the beach to get my blood pressure

The Pursuit of True Pull

By Jon Miller - May 6th, 2019

A couple of weeks ago I spent the day with Jeff Kaas at his company Kaas Tailored. We discussed their approach to hoshin kanri, gemba walks, visual management, creating flow in a high-mix low-volume environment, and how they are adapti

Ask These 4 Questions During Your Next Coaching Call

By Ron Pereira - May 3rd, 2019

A critical component of our Green Belt and Black Belt certification program are weekly coaching calls. We’ve learned that staying in close contact with our candidates is vital to their success. We’ve also learned that fou

Akio Toyoda Gets Real

By Jon Miller - April 29th, 2019

The New Year’s message to Toyota employees on January 8, 2019 by CEO Akio Toyoda’s was that times are changing. The automotive industry is in a once-in-a-century technological revolution. Products will need CASE: Connectiv

How to Balance Broad Deployment of Lean Tools with Development of Depth of Capability

By Jon Miller - April 22nd, 2019

During his keynote speech at KataCon 5, Jeff Liker shared a question that he is grappling with lately; how to balance the broad deployment of Lean tools with the development of depth of capability of people? By his own admission, his c

Resources for Personal Lean Leadership

By Kevin Meyer - April 18th, 2019

Lean, and continuous improvement in general, isn’t just for the professional world. The tools and concepts can also be used to clean your garage (5S), organize your pantry (kanban), set direction (hoshin), or reduce the time it takes

Harnessing Deliberate Reflection to Create Personal Improvement

By Kevin Meyer - April 12th, 2019

My favorite part of last week’s podcast with James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, was the last five minutes when he talked about a potential downside of good habits. When we decide to improve, and create a new practice with th

Building Lean Habits, in a Lean Way

By Jon Miller - April 8th, 2019

Our podcast with Atomic Habits author James Clear posed some interesting questions that we can ask ourselves when striving to practice and become Lean. Chiefly among them is, “Who is the type of person who could be Lean?”

Breaking Bad Habits is Hard to Do

By Ron Pereira - April 5th, 2019

I recently sat down with James Clear to discuss his must read book Atomic Habits. We released the full interview yesterday through the podcast so please give it a listen. I feel like it turned out more like a short audiobook than a p

Breaking the Weak Link in the Value Chain

By Jon Miller - April 1st, 2019

In the lean way of thinking, the value we deliver to the customer increases in proportion to effort when we connect processes and keep the activities moving along smoothly. Instead, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira wri

Avoiding the Productivity Paradox

By Jon Miller - March 25th, 2019

Lean thinking and practice have the potential to improve outcomes in healthcare, software development teams, government services, business performance and even individual growth and well-being. For something that is so powerful and eff

What’s the Follow Up Plan?

By Steve Kane - March 22nd, 2019

Covey said it best: “Begin with the end in mind.” The adoption of a lean practice sometimes starts with a problem to solve. Other times it starts with a new tool (“To a man with a hammer everything looks like a nail&#

Introducing the Value Stream Management Resources Page

By Jon Miller - March 20th, 2019

When Mike Rother and John Shook wrote the book Learning to See, it represented a major step forward in the awareness among practitioners in the lean community. Prior to the activity of Value Steam Mapping, it was more challenging for

Lean Literacy

By Jon Miller - March 18th, 2019

Michael Ballé wrote a thoughtful reply to the question of what should be included in an MBA-level course to teach Lean concepts. It is a tough question because as Michael points out, there are some deep differences that must be recon

What Meetings Reveal About a Leader’s Beliefs

By Jon Miller - March 11th, 2019

One of the simplest and most impactful things an organization can do in the pursuit of excellence is to reform how they hold meetings. And yet this is one of the most challenging changes. A recent conversation reminded me of this. The

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