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Are You Serving “Internal Customers” or Your Real Customer?
Are teams in your organization working in silos? Do processes feel fractured? Do upstream or downstream steps occurring in different…
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Just-in-Time Roundup: Great Lean Reads from Across the Web (Vol. 6)
Check out five recently published articles we think may help you improve your work or think about your work differently…
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The Secrets of Lean
"The key to Lean is that it creates understanding, not knowledge," write John Ehrenfeld (Executive Director of the International Society…
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Leadership Without Giving Solutions (from a Fire Fighter’s Perspective)
LEI faculty member Greg Lane shares a lean coaching story from his own life, in which he finds himself advising…
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Latondra Newton on the Toyota Production System and Social Innovation
The success of Toyota’s lean management principles in manufacturing, healthcare, product development, and other areas is well known and well…
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Building as Product
"A building project, although it has many different moving parts and players, is a product. It’s a uniquely different product…
Read article What does customer focus really mean?
Dear Gemba Coach: We’re discussing improving our customer focus, but we’ve realized we’re not quite sure what the phrase really…
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Why Practicing Lean Thinking Matters (Even if Your Bosses Don’t Care)
"If your boss doesn't get [lean thinking], don't expect to convince him/her," writes Michael Ballé. "Do expect to get him/her…
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Book Value: What Every Manager Should Know About Training
Jeff Morrow, lean coach and faculty at Bainbridge Graduate Institute, reviews and recommends Dr. Robert Mager's 1999 book, What Every…
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Counteracting the Big Project Blues
Lean thinking is well and good, Erin Urban says, but often it takes time to see the real fruits of…
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Why Leadership Needs to Drive the Bus
"Lean change can start from the bottom-up, I won’t say that it can’t, but the situation needs to flip quickly…
Read article How demanding can a lean leader be while remaining respectful of staff?
Dear Gemba Coach: How demanding can a lean leader be while remaining respectful of staff?
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