Gemba Academy

How to Win with 80% Effort

By Jon Miller - September 24th, 2018

There is an old Japanese saying that I have always liked. It is hara hachibu ni isha irazu (腹八分に医者いらず). It advises, “Eat until 80% full and you’ll need no doctor”. The equivalent English proverb is

How to Manage Continuous Improvement without Authority

By Jon Miller - September 17th, 2018

People with the title of “Continuous Improvement Manager” or similar often find that they have broad responsibilities but without the matching authority. The CI Manager may need to identify improvement projects. They may be

Lean Lessons from Driving on the Left Side of the Road

By Ron Pereira - September 14th, 2018

My professional career has afforded me the opportunity to travel across the world. I’ve explored the Amazon rainforest, I’ve forgotten all about my lack of clothes inside a Finnish sauna since I could barely breathe, and

Top 10 Differences between Traditional and CI-Infused Problem-solving

By Jon Miller - September 10th, 2018

A customer asked last week whether Gemba Academy had a video comparison of solving a problem using a non-CI approach vs. solving the same problem with some basic CI tools and thought processes. While this is one of our favorite topics

Midnight at the Gemba

By Kevin Meyer - August 31st, 2018

In the late 1990s I was working in the Silicon Valley for a Fortune-50 medical device company, responsible for a drug infusion pump manufacturing operation. I had just completed a crazy period where I had also “temporarily̶

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

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