8 Lessons for Sustaining Excellence
- Leadership, Lean Management
- March 25, 2026

Having too many initiatives is a common problem in our workplaces. Leaders pile “critical” work onto everybody’s to-do list and stress levels increase. Cracks start to appear in the fabric of our teams as the pressure mounts. When there are too many priorities on which to realistically focus our effort, the feeling of progress we
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Choosing the right metrics is critical to success, but the road to good metrics is fraught with pitfalls. As your endeavors to become more metrics-driven, beware of errors in the design and use of metrics. Here I compile the most common mistakes that teams are committing when using metrics, so you’ll know what not to
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A few weeks back John Knott’s wrote a post about 3 magical metrics within a continuous improvement culture. He said the three things that you need to measure are: 1) How much work you are doing, 2) How long it takes to do it every time, and 3) How well you do it every time.
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Effective meetings require careful planning and management. Preparing for a meeting involves more than reserving a room, setting up a few chairs and plugging in the coffee. Thinking through the basics of the meeting will help cement a successful effort when the simple acronym O.A.R.R.’s is employed. O. Desired Outcomes: If a meeting is needed
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My Lean thinking has gradually evolved since my journey began in 2000. I have a real passion for learning and sharing my journey with others. I like to reflect deeply on key learnings to improve my understanding. Here are some of the lessons I learned: 1. Practice makes permanent. – Tomo Sugiyama Practice makes perfect.
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While there are many things that affect employee engagement, getting leadership to the place where work is done, the Gemba, and actively engaging with the workforce, seeing with their own eyes the problems that occur, listening to associates and giving advice and direction (coaching) to the team is a critical factor in increasing overall engagement.
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