Transition from Managing Compliance to Inspiring Commitment: Lean Leadership Core
“There’s no crying in baseball!” It’s the iconic line in A League of Their Own when Coach Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) shouts in exasperation as one of his players bursts into tears. Although he had just yelled horribly derogatory judgments at her, he can’t believe that...
8 Tips to Transition from Problem Solver to Problem Solving Coach
I was pretty proud of myself. It didn’t matter what question a team member came to me with – I could almost always reply with an eloquent answer on the fly. It was like magic, and I thought I was fantastic! Boy, was I wrong. (Keep reading to find out how) Problem...
Get Out of Firefighting Mode by Selecting New Heroes
“We’re stuck in firefighting mode” is a phrase I’ve heard and read a whole bunch! It’s quite a common feeling and many leaders practicing Lean are searching for a way to move out of that mode and into fire prevention. Firefighting versus Fire Prevention in Lean...
Respect for People in Lean Leadership Beliefs, Behaviors, and Systems
♫ R-E-S-P-E-C-T – Find out what it means to me ♫ (well, actually, to you) Ah – I can’t help but sing along to Aretha Franklin when the Respect for People pillar of Lean comes up! The thing is, that phrase has a whole new meaning to me now than it did before. When I...
What’s the Real Value of a Lean Transformation?
In preparation for a practitioner presentation at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) International Conference, I asked some of our leaders to record video “testimonials” from team members about how our Lean journey has impacted them. I gave no guidance...Meet Jamie
I’m a recovering Command-and-Control Manager who’s now on a mission to make the world of work more human. With a soft spot in my heart for Ops Managers, this Lean blog gives you the straight talk combining Lean, Leadership, and the real challenges of operations management.
