Meet-up: 6 Questions to Learn of Those in Our Community

One of the things I am so found of in the Lean community is the general wiliness to share with each other. I have learned some much from my very experienced colleagues since I have been an active contributor. Every month I roundup the best Lean related posts and articles I found particularly valuable from these fellow bloggers. Each one has their own story and opinions and I want to share those with you in a new series I am calling the Meet-up.

The goal of Meet-up is provide you an opportunity to meet some other influential voices in the Lean community. I will ask these authors a series of questions:

1. Who are you and what do you do?
2. How and when did you learn Lean?
3. How and why did you start blogging or writing about Lean?
4. What does Lean mean to you?
5. What is the biggest myth or misconception of Lean?
6. What is your current Lean passion, project, or initiative?

Through the answers to these questions hopefully you will get a sense of the thinking behind those that are shaping the Lean landscape. I continue to keep learning and thankfully with the wiliness of these bloggers to share I am positive you will, too.

Stay tuned for the first Meet-up tomorrow.

Memorial Day is a Time for Remembrance

Memorial Day is a time to remember the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It is a day to celebrate former and present service members who protect our freedom .

“If you will not fight for right when you can easily win without bloodshed; if you will not fight when your victory is sure and not too costly; you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a precarious chance of survival. There may even be a worse case. You may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.” -Winston Churchill

A special thanks to all those men and women who have so bravely and honorably served this country. The courage and sacrifice of all who died in military service will not be forgotten.

Hopefully, everybody can spend some quality time with their families and the people they love and remember what this holiday is truly about.

Lean Quote: Change Leaders Create Constancy of Purpose

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"Create constancy of purpose toward improvement of product and service, with the aim to become competitive and to stay in business and to provide jobs." — Deming

Lean leaders and those who manage change realize well that change is the only constant. Creating constancy of purpose towards improving work product and service levels is the basis of continual improvement.

Here are six strategies that Lean leaders should use to create a constancy of purpose and a constancy of change.

1. Embrace change, It’s inevitable. Be first, demonstrate personal commitment to serve.
2. Assume nothing and question everything. Challenge status quo, take action, and drive for results.
3. Get down in the trenches. Go to the Gemba, use teamwork, and learn see the whole situation.
4. Show integrity, always. Do the right things and be courageous in the face of challenge
5. Be transparent. Communicate well and get involved.
6. Inspire and recognize leadership in others. Great leaders know their primary role is to develop and motivate people.

It is our role as leaders to reinforce this cultural transformation in the workers perception of their work roles, to create structures for empowered workers to be accountable and successful, to communicate, support, reward and model this culture of engaged workers, helping to identify and resolve defects and eliminate waste. Leaders must be engaged and lead from "the shop floor" to use the manufacturing analogy. It is from this perspective that opportunities for improvement become evident daily, at a very granular level. This leader engagement is more than just taking a walk-around to ask how things are going.

Successful organizations require customer-centric purpose and continuous improvement around safety, quality, and innovation. And the catalysts for this are great leaders who understand the mechanism of change well.

Celebrating A Lean Journey's Third Year With Some Hansei

Hansei is Japanese for "self-reflection". It is the practice of continuous improvement that consists of looking back and thinking about how a process can be improved. Without this activity you stop learning and improving. So it is important as I celebrate my third year blogging that I take some time to reflect on this achievement.

Three years ago today I started A Lean Journey Blog and it truly has blossomed into a labor of love.  As I have said before I never realized the opportunities blogging has afforded me. But, what I am amazed about most is the ability for continuous learning.  Both from the great fans and other colleagues online that I exchange with and from the process of distilling my own learning with you.

A Lean Journey Blog continues to grow as you see from this quarterly chart of visitors to the site:

For those of you data analysts out there who may be wondering what the spike in the first quarter of this year is.  Well, that is is two fold: 1) the addition of ASQ readers from my work on their Influential Voices Blog and 2) ASQ ran a couple of my posts in their publications to their members.

In my second year there there were about 57,000 visitors: 

and this past year there were nearly double the amount of visitors at 113,000: 

I should hit the 200,000 visitor mark next month which for a small genre specific blog is a good milestone. This past year I have also nearly doubled the number of Facebook fans to 580 people. I have published nearly 500 Lean Tips in what continues to be a popular feature.

The Top 3 Posts this past year were:
1. 10 Characteristics of a Good Measure
2. 6 Pillars of 6S (Free Posters)
3. Lean Leadership Lessons From Abe Lincoln

In looking back at last year's goals I wanted to 1) Increase engagement 2) Do more on LinkedIn and 3) Provide more guest posts.  Engagement I would say is about the same as last year with the same percentage of comments per posts.  The LinkedIn Group continues to grow each week but since starting a new job last fall my focus has been primarily on posts for the website.  There has been 25% more guest posts this year but I would still like to have more.  While I can't say each goal was totally successful I am not unhappy with the progress considering the changes this year.

So what will my fourth year bring?  Well, I plan a couple of new features for the blog to start in the next few weeks.  One will be an opportunity to learn about the bloggers in the Lean community that I highlight in the monthly round-up.  Another will be a look back at some posts from the past so that new readers can easily learn from these.  I will continue to pursue new guest bloggers since I think there is great value in sharing this platform. And of course I am always open to feedback because in the end your opinion has a great deal to do with content and the success of A Lean Journey Blog. 

I would like to thank all the visitors and contributors to A Lean Journey Blog this pat year.  It has been a successful Journey this past year. Please, share your feedback so that A Lean Journey can be even more successful next year.

Quality Improvement in Government?

In Paul Borawski’s ASQ post this month he raises the question about quality improvement in the public sector:

So, the big question of course is–why? Why do citizens expect and demand so little accountability for the poor use of resources in government? Why do so few leaders charged with leading countries, states, provinces, and cities require improved performance?

Like Paul there is no doubt of the direct applicability of quality concepts, techniques, and tools to assure improved performance in the public sector. Government agencies have found that Lean methods enable them to better understand how their processes work, to quickly identify and implement improvements, and to build a culture of continuous improvement.

Numerous government agencies, ranging from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to the States of Iowa and Minnesota, are using Lean to improve the quality, transparency, and speed of government processes. Lean government proponents generally believe that the government should cut out "waste" and "inefficiency" from government organizations, which will result in overall better services and more value for tax-supported programs and services. Proponents also generally see Lean government as a means to expand the capacity of government to provide more services per unit of investment.

Yet the adoption rate versus the opportunity is remarkably low. I believe this is because quality improvement and politics don't mix very well. It’s not that I don't believe they can't mix, only that they don't mix very well. Politics in America is very short-sighted-a year, two years at the most, is all good politicians will invest before they expect a "pay-off." Simply speaking, a quality improvement effort won't pay off in such short time periods.

Government executives generally don't care about operations. Most elected officials and government executives didn't join government to manage. Instead, they are driven by a deep desire to advance a cause, a policy issue or a political agenda. They get excited about bold new programs and solving big problems

Another point is that considering a citizen as a customer is not always correct. Citizens are customers sometimes, but often they are subjects, voters, taxpayers, and users. When a parking guard or a policeman gives you a bill for incorrectly parking your car. Are you his customer? Are you in the position to say no and go to a competitor?

The nature of government has been to maintain the status quo. The trouble with this is that it leaves no opportunity for growth and improvement.

The irony is that good politicians must start doing this for our future. In the short term, quality should be implemented because it is the right thing to do. Quality improvement cannot be viewed as a particular politicians "program." If it is, it will last only the tenure of that politician.


I’m part of the ASQ Influential Voices program. While I receive an honorarium from ASQ for my commitment, the thoughts and opinions expressed on my blog are my own.

Lean Quote: Ability, Motivation, Attitude

On Fridays I will post a Lean related Quote. Throughout our lifetimes many people touch our lives and leave us with words of wisdom. These can both be a source of new learning and also a point to pause and reflect upon lessons we have learned. Within Lean active learning is an important aspect on this journey because without learning we can not improve.

"CAbility is what you are capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it." — Louis "Lou" Holtz (born 1937)

We are all good at something. Knowing what you are good at can make all the difference. Your skill level determines the level at which you are able to actually do things. If you have a high level of skill, that’s good. And the better you get, the better it will be for you. To the degree that you can perform your actions at higher and higher skill levels, the more and more success you will find.

Being self-motivated is an important quality to have in the workplace. Self-motivation is a form of self-encouragement. You tell yourself that you have the capacity to perform still better and surge ahead. This keeps you pushing further until you reach your goal.

In determining how we face our challenges it is our attitude that is the key. You are not responsible for everything that happens to you, but you are responsible for how you react to what does happen to you. You have a choice as to what your attitude will be.

Having the right attitude can make the difference between success and failure. A positive attitude can motivate other people to change their negative thinking and come over to your side. Everything is possible with right attitude behind you to push you forward. And since you do have a choice, most of the time you'll be better off if you choose to react in a positive rather than a negative way.

You must have all three working together to be truly successful.