Ego: The Quiet Enemy of Leadership
The article argues that ego is a silent adversary in leadership, often masquerading as confidence and causing resistance to feedback. It cites Ryan Holiday’s *The Ego Is the Enemy* to illustrate how pride can derail curiosity, listening, and collaboration. The piece links ego to poor continuous‑improvement outcomes, noting that humility is essential for lean practices such as “go see” and “ask why.” Finally, it urges leaders to regularly ask whether their reactions stem from the issue or from personal ego.
GA 631 | What We Can Learn From Tetris with Michael Parent
In this episode, Ron and Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt Michael Parent explore how systems design, rather than individual talent or motivation, drives human performance. They discuss the impact of technology on processes, using examples like AI voice announcements...
Why Obtain a Gemba Academy Certification?
Gemba Academy’s Lean certification provides a structured learning path that moves practitioners from theory to sustained improvement. The program pairs online modules with real‑time coaching, helping participants apply tools like 5S and Kaizen in their own workplaces. Graduates report longer‑lasting...
The Angel in the Marble
Leadership often mirrors Michelangelo’s carving process: the talent already exists, and the leader’s role is to free it. The article argues that many managers add tasks and restructure without a clear vision, obscuring employees’ innate strengths. By asking “what’s already...
A New Way to Look at 5S
The article reframes 5S as a discipline‑building system rather than a one‑off cleaning exercise. By treating Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain as behavioral levers, organizations can make waste visible and embed accountability into daily work. The hardest...
Are Your Five Whys Turning Into a Tangled Mess?
Many teams treat the Five Whys as a first‑step brainstorming tool, which often leads to circular discussions and superficial fixes. The article argues that the root cause analysis should begin with a clear understanding of the process, followed by data...
GA 628 | A Factory on Fire: How Lean Saves Lives with Brian Meyers
In this episode Brian Myers shares the harrowing story of a fire that broke out in his newly built 56,000‑sq‑ft lean manufacturing facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and how his lean culture helped the team respond quickly and limit damage. He...
Getting to 80%
Arthur Brooks highlighted the Marine Corps “80 % rule,” urging leaders to act once they have sufficient certainty rather than waiting for perfection. The concept mirrors Jeff Bezos’s 2016 advice to decide with about 70 % of desired data, emphasizing that extra...
Everyone Improving Every Day
Gemba Academy argues that sustainable growth requires a cultural shift where every employee contributes to daily improvement. Leaders must move from delegating problem‑solving to empowering all staff, providing simple kaizen tools and basic Lean training. Small, consistent changes compound into...
Occam’s Razor and Lean Thinking
The article connects the 14th‑century principle of Occam’s Razor with modern Lean thinking, urging managers to begin problem‑solving with the simplest plausible explanation. It illustrates the point with a unplugged machine incident and the common over‑production cause of excess inventory....
GA 626 | Learning to See Waste with Randall Dupre
In this episode, host Ron interviews lean veteran Randall Dupree, who shares his journey from a high‑school machinist to a corporate lean leader and now founder of ForgePoint. Randall discusses how his first Kaizen project sprang from an A3 board...
Why Project Management Skills Are Essential for Everyone
The article argues that process‑improvement initiatives are essentially projects and that success hinges on execution, not just tools. It outlines eight project‑management capabilities—scoping, stakeholder management, planning, time management, risk mitigation, communication, implementation discipline, and sustainment—that turn ideas into measurable results....
Is the Universe Working Against You, or For You?
The article argues that perceiving everyday setbacks as neutral or friendly signals, rather than hostile attacks, can dramatically improve personal well‑being and organizational performance. By shifting from asking “why is this happening to me?” to “what can we learn?”, leaders...
Do Buffalo Really Run Toward Storms?
The article likens the myth of buffalo running into storms to Lean’s call for confronting problems head‑on. It argues that postponing issue resolution stretches a "problem lead time" and hampers organizational flow. Practical steps such as early swarming, immediate Gemba...
The Unglamorous Power of Routine
The article argues that unglamorous daily routines are a powerful productivity lever. By pre‑positioning items like gym shoes and fixing wake‑up times, the author eliminates decision fatigue and frees mental energy. He links personal habit stacking to lean “standard work,”...