I just saw an interesting gaffe from the Romney campaign. I try to stay apolitical in my views, but there are some great learning points here. Basically, in this age of new technology, candidates are trying out many new ways of reaching voters. In this case, the Romney campaign used Read more…
Continuous improvement is as much about not going backward as it is about making progress. Knowing what to avoid is as important as knowing what to do. While many of the items on this list of No-No’s won’t derail your Lean efforts, they do act as speed bumps that slow Read more…
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), is a psychologist made famous by his “Hierarchy of Needs”. He proposes that people have a tiered structure of needs, and the most basic of these must be met prior to dedicating attention to more advanced, or higher-order needs. The hierarchy, from lowest to highest, includes: Physiological Read more…
The military has a term called “commander’s intent”. It is a part of every mission briefing in which the commander describes success and the purpose behind what he or she wants to achieve. Unfortunately though, in any combat operation, there is a chance that a unit will find itself without Read more…
I am an avid Chicago fan, despite having left the area over twenty years ago. I still watch the teams whenever I can, and follow them religiously on the web. So, this year has been a huge letdown. The Bears were riding high when their star quarterback, Jay Cutler, was Read more…
Kaizen kits are packages of tools and supplies that support continuous improvement activities. The purpose of the kit is to streamline the kaizen process by having necessary tools and supplies gathered in advance. The kit has another benefit. It can inspire creativity. When you put materials in front of people, Read more…
Success comes in many different forms. However you define it, though, the formula remains the same. It starts with potential. Think of potential like the energy stored in something. A wound up spring and a gallon of gas both hold potential energy. A person is the same. Everyone has potential Read more…
Job descriptions exist for nearly every position in nearly every company. They outline the overview of the job, responsibilities, work activities. They should also list job requirements, and clearly spell out which are mandatory, and which are “like-to-haves”. Job descriptions are most commonly used for recruiting purposes or during annual Read more…
Yesterday morning I had to go into the DMV (Department of Licensing here in Washington State) to renew my driver’s license. As I walked into the waiting room and saw the hundred and fifty or two hundred poor souls already lost in purgatory ahead of me, it reminded me of Read more…
In continuous improvement, you often have to go out and collect information from people. Sometimes it is from observations. Often, though, you will be speaking directly to people doing the process, and you will be asking them questions. Keep in mind one important distinction. Interviews generally seek answers. Interrogations seek Read more…
A hidden factory is the set of undocumented and unstaffed processes that are done in an organization. When you dive into a process, you will often find two methods of doing it. The first is the documented method, or the one described by the operator as what he or she Read more…
A gemba walk is a leadership process in which a manager walks through his or her areas of responsibility in order to gain a better understanding of how the operation is running. The term “gemba” means “the real place” in Japanese. The level of structure of a gemba walk varies Read more…