Gemba Academy

Why We Need Standard Work on Vacation

By Jon Miller - August 27th, 2018

For over twenty years I traveled a lot on business and got pretty good at it. These two things almost must go together. A person who travels a lot and does so badly won’t be able to sustain it for very long. It becomes exhausting, st

You Want Me to Do What!?!

By Steve Kane - August 24th, 2018

I coach a variety of teams in diverse industries in the area of continuous improvement. A common struggle is overcoming an obstacle that is often perceived as resistance to change. Improvement is Inherent Change for the better s

An Argument in Favor of Jargon

By Jon Miller - August 20th, 2018

When a group of people use jargon, or specialized language to express ideas or concepts, it can make communication more efficient. On the other hand, Jargon can be difficult for people outside of the group understand. People who use j

How a Little Compassion Improves Outcomes

By Jon Miller - August 13th, 2018

In an inspiring TED video Stephen Trzeciak, a critical care doctor at Cooper University Health Care in Camden, N.J. explains How 40 Seconds of Compassion Could Save a Life. He begins, “In healthcare we in the midst of a compas

Why Do We Need to Set a Hypothesis?

By Jon Miller - August 6th, 2018

Why do we need to set a hypothesis? Because that’s how the scientific method works. Why do we need to follow the scientific method? Because that’s how we solve complex or novel problems most effectively. Why is that true? B

When Noise Masks the Problem

By Kevin Meyer - August 3rd, 2018

Last week I was reading Mark Graban’s latest book, Measures of Success, which does a great job of discussing how to use data to effectively lead and manage an organization. With new technologies it has become so easy to capture

Review of The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle

By Jon Miller - July 30th, 2018

The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle examines how groups of various sizes and shapes form into great teams. He offers practical pointers on what we can do to improve our relationships within coopera

New Videos: Lean and Sustainability at Texas Nameplate

By Kevin Meyer - July 25th, 2018

Gemba Academy just released a new Gemba Academy Live! video series where we visit Texas Nameplate in Lancaster, Texas. Dale Crownover, CEO of Texas Nameplate, has spoken at numerous lean and continuous improvement conferences, include

When Fish Fly

By Jon Miller - July 23rd, 2018

For more than 20 years fish have been flying through the middle of downtown Seattle. Locals come to the Pike Place Fish Market to buy fresh fish. Tourists come for the novelty of seeing the fishmongers throw 10-pound salmon to each oth

How to Set a Rational Frequency for Earnings Forecasts

By Jon Miller - July 16th, 2018

In June of this year, financial titans Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffet argued in the Wall Street Journal that short-termism is harming the economy. They called on public companies to reduce or even eliminate their quarterly earnings guid

Thinking About Thinking

By Kevin Meyer - July 9th, 2018

For the past several years I’ve been fascinated by how we think – and how that affects us, our leadership, and the organizations we’re a part of. A couple years ago I wrote about the beginner’s mind and the va

Unlocking the Power of Continuous Improvement

By Ron Pereira - July 6th, 2018

The more I come to understand the idea of scientific thinking the more I see it hidden inside other sound systems including Nick Saban’s famous “Process” that’s lead to him building one of college football’

Deeply Understanding Improvement with Edgar Schein & John Shook

By Jon Miller - July 2nd, 2018

The Lean Enterprise Institute has put together the transcript of a dialogue between Prof. Edgar Schein and John Shook during the Lean Healthcare Academic Conference at Stanford in September 2017. The fifteen pages are full of stories a

Going to the Gemba with Anthony Bourdain

By Kevin Meyer - June 29th, 2018

It seems that the more places I see and experience, the bigger I realize the world to be. The more I become aware of, the more I realize how relatively little I know of it, how many places I have still to go, how much more there is to

How to Civilize an Elevator

By Jon Miller - June 25th, 2018

As recently as four years ago, my worked involved constant international travel. This is no longer the case. I miss very little of that life. One thing that I do miss is the exposure to other cultures, in particular how humans in vario

Set Full Sail

By Steve Kane - June 22nd, 2018

Getting started with lean in an existing organization challenging on many levels. Often some of the most important steps in a lean journey are not recognized. A common place people think they start is with 5S. It’s an

How to Take a Trail, or Not

By Jon Miller - June 18th, 2018

While shopping for gifts with my family this weekend, I noticed the store had many cards, mugs, printed items on the theme of, “Don’t follow the trail made by others but make your own.” This is spectacularly bad advic

Wellness Programs and the Health of Continuous Improvement

By Jon Miller - June 11th, 2018

Logical. Proven. Life-changing. These words equally describe successful health & wellness programs and continuous improvement programs. But do these programs really work in changing behaviors? Professors David Asch and Shreya Kan

A Simple Hand Gesture that is Key to Goal Alignment

By Jon Miller - June 4th, 2018

Lean management aims to serve others by doing more with less, thereby sustainably reaping just rewards for such service. Among other things, this requires everyone in the organization to continuously improve products, processes, servic

Using Solitude and Silence to Enable Personal Reflection

By Kevin Meyer - June 1st, 2018

I will take time to be alone today. I will take time to be quiet. In this silence I will listen… and I will hear my answers. – Ruth Fishel Last Memorial Day weekend, while the rest of the country was enjoying the roar of the Indy 5

Instructions Aren’t Enough

By Steve Kane - May 25th, 2018

During a recent airline emergency, cabin pressure was lost and the oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. Passengers donned the masks, but not quite as instructed. Mobile phone videos of the incident showed many passengers wearing th

Compassion as a Competitive Advantage

By Jon Miller - May 21st, 2018

“The long-term value of a company is based on the speed and quality of its decision-making.” These are the words of Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. He was speaking to the 2018 graduating business school students at the Univer

Why Have Belts in Lean and Six Sigma?

By Jon Miller - May 14th, 2018

Motorola and the General Electric company made the greatest contributions to introduce Six Sigma across business in the 20th century. The deployment of Six Sigma often relied on “belts” of various colors, people who complet

Learn by Preparing to Teach

By Kevin Meyer - May 11th, 2018

Many studies have shown that one of the most effective ways to learn new material is not just to perform an activity with the new knowledge, but to teach it. It’s the reason why several companies ask interview finalists for new

What’s the Right Way to Do a Gemba Walk?

By Jon Miller - May 7th, 2018

From time to time people ask me a variation of the question, “What’s the right way to do a gemba walk?” They want to see an outline of activities, a step-by-step process for planning, taking the walk and reflecting on

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