Recent Posts
Trust Doesn't Come First: A Lesson From the Shop Floor
May 21, 2026The standard story about psychological safety runs through the relationship between a worker and their boss. Can the worker speak up? Will...
Why Improvement Programs Stall -- and the Leadership Behaviors That Restart Them
May 18, 2026Webinar preview
Most CI and operational excellence leaders have lived this. The strategy is sound. The methodology is in place. People have...
A KaiNexus Panel Discussion About Mistakes, Safety, and Getting Better
May 14, 2026A few years ago, I hosted a panel discussion with four colleagues from KaiNexus -- Greg Jacobson, Maggie Millard, Linda Vicaro, and Kym...
What CEOs Actually Want from Continuous Improvement Leaders
May 4, 2026If you've ever walked out of a meeting with your CEO wondering whether they actually care about your improvement program, the answer is...
Why Your Lean Transformation Stalled After Year 5 (And What to Do About It)
April 29, 2026Here's a pattern that plays out in organizations around the world. Year one: excitement. A consulting engagement, a wave of kaizen...
Why Lean Fails: It's Not the Methodology -- It's the Management
April 21, 2026Lean has a decades-long track record of producing real results across industries. Hospitals have used it to reduce patient harm and...
Kaizen vs. Kaizen Events -- Why the Distinction Matters
April 20, 2026If we had to name one concept that caused the most quiet confusion across the Ask Us Anything episodes, this might be it. Over the years,...
Moving Leaders From "I Support Lean" to "I Am Committed to It"
April 13, 2026Over the years in Ask Us Anything, we have heard a version of this story again and again:
"Our senior leaders support Lean."
On the...
How Simple Does Your Improvement System Actually Need to Be?
April 9, 2026One operations leader, describing how he onboards people to his organization's improvement platform, said something that should make...
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