Living Lean

Living Lean

Lean is probably one of the most misunderstood leadership concepts in business, and many people would even question why I would refer to it as a leadership concept. Surely it’s a manufacturing methodology, hence why it’s often referred to as Lean Manufacturing and is the descendent of the Toyota Production System (TPS)? Somehow, and despite…

Lean Busy vs Ignorant Overload Bliss

Lean Busy vs Ignorant Overload Bliss

One of the biggest challenges of a Lean Transformation is to create the ā€˜Vision of Excellence’; what should we aim to achieve over the coming years, what is possible? This is often problematic because the majority of people in the organisation ā€˜don’t know what they don’t know’; that is, they haven’t seen what truly Operationally…

The Simplicity of Lean

The Simplicity of Lean

This is an except from Chapter-1, Introduction from my book, ā€œThe Simplicity of Leanā€. Lean means many things to many people and its success or failure is important to a large number of stakeholders: customers, employees, management, shareholders, suppliers, and society as a whole. Is Lean a toolkit? Is it about cost saving? Is it…

The Language of Lean

The Language of Lean

One of the frequent criticisms that Lean Practitioners face in teaching Lean Thinking and its Leadership is that the language used can be confusing or exclusive. Whilst terms such as Kaizen and Kanban might have become well established across industry and geography, terms such as Kamishibai, Kaikaku and Yamazumi (please see the end of the…

Scooby Doo Leadership

Scooby Doo Leadership

When I was a child one of my favourite cartoons was Scooby Doo, with its ‘tongue in cheek’ humour and pseudo ’70s approach to life. Even the low budget nature of Hanna Barbera’s cartoon was compelling and somehow added to the enticement of the programme. However, during some recent reflection on Leadership challenges I considered…