3 Beliefs that Damage a Culture of Continuous Improvement

This picture wasn’t taken at a liquor store with a witty staff. It was taken at Safeway, a major grocery store chain with more than 1,300...

Does Making Your Suggestion Box Electronic Make it Better?

Almost every business process is better when it’s digital. You wouldn’t create your P&L statement on ledger paper or keep your sales...

Neuroplasticity, Memories, and PTSD in Kaizen and the Grand Canyon

In July 2015, Mark Jaben had the opportunity to be part of a private permit 16 person, 16 day river trip on the Colorado River through the...

How to Spread Innovation: 3 Farcical Lessons from IBM 

When a creativity consultant told executives at a consumer healthcare company that they needed to suit up in spandex superhero costumes to...

HROs: Reliability at 30,000 Feet

I’m sitting on an airplane right now. Over the next hour or so, I’m going to write this blog post. I really want to write a blog that you...

9 Signs that Your Organization Could Benefit from Hoshin Kanri

I once saw a cartoon that depicted two knights from the middle ages in a sword fight.

Incremental Improvement: Not Just for the Factory Floor.

If you do a bit of reading about  improvement methodologies like Lean, Six Sigma, Total Quality Management, or Toyota Kata, you might come...

Simon Sinek Shares an Opinion of Lean on the Gemba Academy Podcast

I've written about Simon Sinek on this blog before, and if you've read those posts, you know that he is my hero. He's an author best known...

Who’s Responsible for Improvement Management?