Here are our picks for recent articles on lean thinking and practice or about lean in the world today that you may have missed! What articles would you add to the list?
1. “Focus on the Process, Instead of the Final Product” by Emory Allen in 99u
In order to move from Carol Dweck’s “fixed mindset” to a “growth mindset” (an idea you may have recently read about on The Lean Post) Emory Allen shares author and illustrator Austin Kleon’s advice to focus on process and share your process with others. Doing so, she writes, “allows us to try new things and avoid the oppression of mastering a new technique right away, by stating that it’s ‘just practice’ when we share it. It also increases our chances of actually perfecting that technique by publishing the imperfections…” Sounds pretty lean to us.
[Editor’s note: This article – originally located at http://99u.com/workbook/50777/focus-on-the-process-instead-of-the-final-product – is no longer available.]
2. The True Lesson of an Airbag Disaster by Jeffrey Rothfeder in strategy + business
Jeffrey Rothfeder, former editor of International Business Times, reflects on the 2015 Takata airbag recall, which he says “raises critical questions about the perceived value, role, and meaning of failure at [Honda] — and at other companies.” Jim Morgan, Senior Advisor for Lean Product and Process Development at LEI also chimes in in this article. “By definition, a learning-from-failure company is never satisfied,” Rothfeder writes. “As soon as one mistake is turned into innovation, the next one is ready to emerge. There is very little time for self-congratulation or complacency.”
3. “Kaizen Week: Change for the Better” by Sam MacDonnell
Sam MacDonnell, CTO of the last-minute, discount hotel app Hotel Tonight, blogs about the company’s recent “Kaizen Week,” simply explaining what kaizen is all about and giving a glimpse into how the company uses the principle (and the team event) to improve their organization and product.
[Editor’s note: This article – originally located at https://www.hoteltonight.com/2015/07/kaizen-week-change-better/ – is no longer available.]
4. Lean Management in Healthcare Delivery is Late by Dr. Ora Orekunrin for Stanford Social Innovation Review blog
“In the midst of all the innovation, disruption, and new levels of efficiency in today’s world, health care delivery seems to have stoically refused to come of age,” writes Dr. Ora Orekunrin, founder of Flying Doctors Nigeria, West Africa’s first and only full air ambulance service. “Rather than becoming increasingly accessible, efficient, and effective, it has largely become more bureaucratic, more expensive, more wasteful, and mostly devoid of the type of game-changing innovation we’re seeing in other industries.” Read what Orekunrin observes and recommends.
5. A Watershed Moment That Will Turnaround VA Operations by John Toussaint on The Huffington Post
On July 16th, Robert McDonald, Secretary of the VA released a memorandum to the VA stating the agency’s commitment to lean thinking and practice. John Toussaint, CEO of The ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, says it may be a turning point. “This move on the part of VA leadership may be the watershed moment that will turn around VA operations. If the VA is to be successful at a lean transformation what will it take?” Toussaint weighs in.
