Lean Blog Audio: Practical Lean Thinking, Psychological Safety, and Continuous Improvement

The blog post You don't find the root cause of a problem in a conference room. OK, so we've gotten away from the whiteboard. Now what? You might not even KNOW the root cause by thinking and talking out where the work is actually being done. That's one of the most powerful lessons I've learned from former Toyota people I've been able to work with.

Blog Post Professors Robert H. Hayes and William J. Abernathy have harsh words about a common, if not typical style of American management: “…an  overdependence on analytical detachment  – what they call ”managerial remote control.” They say it is an approach that exalts financial analysis,  not line operations . It rewards executives who see their company primarily as a competing set of rates of...

The blog post It's interesting to observe a hospital process (or lack thereof) when a family member needs surgery. I had the opportunity to do so one day last week. I originally  shared this on LinkedIn  as a post and real-time updates. Thankfully, the clinical care seemed to be good, and that family member is recovering well from the outpatient procedure. But, the experience could have been b...

Blog post with links The other day, I read about the passing of Donald E. Peterson, who was a key CEO for Ford Motor Company in the 1980s (from 1985 to 1990). From the Detroit Free Press: Former Ford CEO Don Petersen, who spent 41 years with automaker, dies at 97

Read the blog post How often do you hear executives blaming employees, including frontline workers, for different problems or poor performance? I don't think that's a good look when leaders do that. Leaders are responsible for the system, especially senior leaders. Even though they are part of a system, they have more freedom and more ability to change systems that ultimately drive most pe...

Read the blog post I recently spoke and facilitated at a health system's quarterly leadership forum event on the topic of “Psychological Safety as a Pre-Condition for Continuous Improvement.” It was very well received, and I'm very passionate about the need for leaders to help every team member believe that it's both safe and effective to speak up in the workplace. Psychological Safety...

Read the blog post I have been really enjoying this book, released in 2021, by Kiyoshi “Nate” Furuta, a retired Toyota executive:  Welcome Problems, Find Success: Creating Toyota Cultures Around the World .  I bought it a year ago and wish I had started reading it sooner! Furuta is the retired former chair and CEO of Toyota Boshoku America, Inc. — an automotive parts supplier to companies includin...

Read the episode, view video, and more There was a fascinating  article  in Bloomberg BusinessWeek about GE doing its final spinoff of GE Vernova (ticker symbol: GEV) and the remaining business that Larry Culp remains CEO of, GE Aerospace (formerly GE Aviation, ticker symbol: GE). The inside story of how GE CEO Larry Culp dismantled a 131-year-old American giant. AN EMPIRE DIVIDED

The blog post and video Embracing Imperfections and Learning from Mistakes: A Leadership Insight from the 2022 AME Annual Conference... In a riveting conversation between Larry Culp (at the time, CEO of GE and now CEO of GE Aerospace) and my good friend Katie Anderson at the 2022 Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Annual Conference, valuable lessons on leadership, transparency, and fos...

The blog post As we sit in seat 26A, mindlessly watching a movie, we take for granted that our  cell phone  (or the  shirt off our back ) won't be suddenly sucked out through a gaping hole in the side of a plane. That's because the odds of this happening are unimaginably low. Until now, that is. Are we entering a new era where shoddy manufacturing (or maintenance) exposes us to more risk,...

The blog post Does it Feel Better to Be Vulnerable or Candid in a Workplace? I've learned so much from Timothy R. Clark of the firm LeaderFactor, author of the excellent book, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety . I can't recommend his work enough--including his free podcasts , webinars , and more. I was fortunate to go through a formal certification course with him on Psychological Safet...

The blog post Recently, I've heard an idea a few times that I'd like to share and discuss in this post. As I'm writing this, I can't remember who to cite. That's my mistake. I'll happily correct the post if I remember or somebody lets me know who to credit. Because I love this idea... but it's not my idea. It's pretty common for a speaker to ask the audience, at the...

The blog post It’s 9 p.m. in an operating room, just before the last procedure of a long day that had been full of delays. A nurse sees that the surgeon is about to make an incision without first stopping for the expected “timeout,” a crucial step that helps the team confirm, among other things, that the correct surgery is about to be performed on the correct side of the correct patient. The nurse...

The blog post I'm currently working on a Mistake Proofing class for Karen Martin and  TKMG Academy . Coming soon!! In the process of writing the course and its script, I've gone back to some older source material that has been on my bookshelf for a long time. In this case, it's a book I not only own but read many years ago (20 years ago?):  Zero Quality Control  by Shigeo Shingo. It wa...

The blog post A while back, I uploaded the entire PDF of my 2018 book,  Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More ,  into the premium version of ChatGPT. As an author and publisher, it's a really useful tool for generating marketing content — although maybe it's a mistake to upload my content that way. I'm sure a PDF of the book was already on the internet to be potent...

I'm excited to announce that I've registered for  Katie Anderson ‘s Japan Study Trip in November! Read the blog post . Between 2012 and 2019, I visited Japan five times, and I learned something new each time. I've been really itching to go back. I'm excited to see and learn new things with Katie and her team!! It's a great opportunity to deepen your understanding of Lean and th...

The blog post We can all make mistakes, so I advocate for learning from mistakes through my  book ,  podcast , and  speaking . I do my best to learn from my mistakes, so I don't repeat them. I fail to meet that standard sometimes, and I try to learn from those moments (as I shared  in this recent post ). A few times now, a friend has sent me a photo or tagged me on a LinkedIn post about a sign...

The blog post What do Boeing frontline mechanics and engineers think about this day? What did they expect going into it? How did the day turn out? I'd love to know. “Quality is made in the boardroom.” I rolled my eyes hard when I read this  announcement  from Boeing, as part of the aftermath of the January 5th door plug blowout incident on an Alaska Airlines flight: In recent years, there have...

Blog post link I loved a recent New York Times article about Chef Gordon Ramsay, including this part: “Ramsay said that when he makes a mistake, he owns up to it. He has been candid about the misjudgments that led to the closure of Amaryllis, his fine dining restaurant in Glasgow, and admits that he has opened restaurants that were “badly conceptualized” or opened in the wrong area. “You should ne...

Blog post For a long time, I've heard the phrase “the hidden factory” used to describe various forms of waste in a factory, including rework operations and activity. I was surprised to hear Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun refer to this in a news story using a similar phrase, “shadow factory.” Boeing Wants to Close Its ‘Shadow Factories.' It Would Be a Positive Step.

Read the blog post As I recently shared on LinkedIn , I really appreciated the annual shareholder letter that was published and shared by Larry Culp , who has been CEO of General Electric for just over five years now (the first-ever outsider CEO in their 125+ year history). Read the full letter here. I've also archived it here as a PDF. First off, I can't help but notice that the photo sha...

Blog post This post is built around excerpts from the book  The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation . Read more about Toyota, including stories and key lessons learned in  the book . Download a free preview of the book From the book: Fear and punishment drive people to get better at hiding mistakes when they could channel that energy into preventing them. When t...

Blog post link Psychological Safety  is not some nice-to-have touchy-feely concept. Psychological Safety means that you feel safe speaking up in the workplace. That could mean: Asking questions Pointing out problems Admitting mistakes Disagreeing with your manager Sharing ideas for improvement It's been pretty well proven that organizations with a higher level of Psychological Safety perform b...

Blog post with more info and links Congratulations to my podcast(s) guests who were named to the  Thinkers50  list of influential management thinkers! I am thrilled to extend my heartiest congratulations to a remarkable group of individuals who have recently graced the stages of my podcasts, “Lean Blog Interviews” and “My Favorite Mistake.” These brilliant minds have been recognized on the prestig...

Blog post with link to purchase and more I have a limited number of copies of my book  Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve Mor e  that are available for about half of the Amazon retail price — and this includes free shipping.