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…
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…
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…
Economy of scale means that an organization is structured in such a way that as production volumes rise, per unit costs fall. In effect, this is a fancy of way to say “bigger is better”. It is based on the idea that a product has two basic components to its Read more…
This is the final question in a series of five questions I use to do a quick assessment of a company’s progress in its Lean efforts, as well as its receptiveness to it. (Read the fourth question here.) The fifth and final question is Do people thoroughly understand problems before Read more…
This is the fourth question in a series of five questions I use to do a quick assessment of a company’s progress in its Lean efforts, as well as its receptiveness to it. (Read the third question here.) The fourth question is Can frontline leaders name their 3 biggest problems Read more…
This is the third question in a series of five questions I use to do a quick assessment of a company’s progress in its Lean efforts, as well as its receptiveness to it. (Read the second question here.) The third question is Can frontline leaders predict what they will accomplish Read more…
This is the second of a series of questions I posted a few days ago that I use to get an initial read on a company that wants help with continuous improvement. While the questions don’t give a complete picture, they certainly help me determine which rocks to kick over, Read more…
I recently posted a list of questions that I use as a litmus test when I start working to help an organization improve. The first of these questions was: If frontline leaders hit all their individual targets, would the company hit its goals? I ask this question to get a Read more…
One of the jobs of a Lean consultant is to assess organizations to see where they are in their continuous improvement journey. There are many techniques to get a precise read on a company, but a thorough assessment can take a significant amount of time. Fortunately, there is also a Read more…
Remembering someone’s name tells them that you place value on them as an individual. It shows that you respect them enough to remember who they are. Unfortunately, many, if not most, people have an extremely hard time remembering names of people they see only periodically. In leadership or continuous improvement Read more…