Anticipating the Future
I have been thinking a lot about the future lately. Years ago I concocted a quote that works for me by leaving out a few unnecessary words from a passage in The Age of Unreason by the British business guru and futurist, Charles Handy. The future we predict today is...
Leadership: More Than A Position, An Activity
“Standard work” for leaders includes being involved and practicing a style of management that includes coaching, mentoring and teaching rather than just commanding, expecting, and holding accountable the people who do the work. John Toussaint has postulated that...
“Speak Truth To Power”: Engaging Leadership in Lean Transformation
Lean gets started in different ways, but for it to survive and thrive and move from being used as a set of tools to being the core of a culture and operating system that is the source of sustained excellence, eventually the CEO and senior management must lead. One...
Relational Contracts and Lean
I believe that without the total commitment of senior leadership, especially the CEO, Lean can’t succeed. Leadership can launch Lean or leadership can tolerate Lean and enjoy the benefits that it offers for a while, but if leadership wants Lean to be a sustainable...
A Lean Tour: Step 1, Management’s Willingness to Be Transformed
Lean is my favorite flavor of continuous improvement. I see Lean to be a term like “jazz” that defines an evolving philosophy that thrives on innovation. Lean is to continuous improvement as jazz is to music. Jazz is a continuously evolving art form that allows...Case Study – Elizabeth Mcarthy
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