Concrete head is an affectionate term applied by some old Japanese sensei to people in US companies who, though responsible for driving continuous improvement, were themselves resistant to change anything for any number of reasons. I’ve run into this a few times, where the “lean guy” for a company is oppositional on any idea that […]
Without trust, organizations can’t function at a level required to remain competitive. Those that don’t need to be competitive, like government agencies, are unable to deliver service as effectively because without trust, employees can’t do whatever they need to do to solve the problems that citizens bring to them. Without trust, there is usually fear. […]
While science can’t seem to prove a causal link between happy workers and productivity, it’s nice to know that there are benefits beyond that to justify to leaders everywhere that we have to design work to be more satisfying for our workforce. I read a research report from Accenture that said more than half of […]
I’ve been digging through old posts and found this one and believe it is still particularly relevant. I hope you agree. August 29, 2009. I was at my surrogate grandmother’s funeral yesterday, reflecting on her stories and on those others told about her. I never really thought of her as a leader, only as my […]
Today, let’s talk about Tim Wood. But first, some background. The origin of waste? Henry Ford identified dozens of types of waste in his operations and spelled them out in his book “Today and Tomorrow” written in 1926. In 1988, Productivity Press published Taiichi Ohno’s tribute book “Just-in-Time for Today and Tomorrow” in which Ohno […]
Lean thinking as we know it is probably insufficient to carry organizations into a future of intense global competition, insatiable consumption, environmental sensitivity, and social upheaval. In most cases, we simply practice a few lean concepts, often without understanding the underlying intent of those concepts, but we get a slightly better outcome and celebrate. We […]
Had a busy but rewarding week last week. Two clients with vastly different businesses, but very similar needs. This week focused mostly on visual management systems and two very different mindsets. In Phoenix, we’re working on capturing goals in a platform called Betterworks. After a lot of wrestling, we defined seven broad corporate objectives. The […]
Last night, on the red-eye flying from Los Angeles to Columbus after 2 very good working days in Phoenix, I crossed the threshold to Diamond frequent flyer status with Delta. I’ve been here before, several years ago, but that was when I was flying to Australia a few times a year. The miles add up […]
I had the pleasure of appearing on Mark Graban’s (www.leanblog.org) podcast about my book, Leadersights. Click below to listen or download. Originally posted at https://www.leanblog.org/273
I was recently interviewed by Katie Anderson for her blog. The original interview about my book, Leadersights, was posted March 20, 2017 HERE. 1. What kept you up at night and led you to write this book? I wouldn’t say that I had that burning ache to write. Despite wanting to be a ‘writer’, the […]
Tune in for my interview with Thomas Cox, creator of the podcast ‘Tom on Leadership’ originally posted on 6/5/2017 “For this episode of the Tom on Leadership podcast, I interviewed David Veech, author of the new book Leadersights, on his insights into how we can better create great Lean workplaces when we understand how adults learn. […]
Dynamic Stability Last time I wrote about dynamic stability and focused on the mindset of a leader: the vision, values, commitment, and discipline required to establish the foundation for greatness. But today we’re going further in pouring this foundation. Beyond the leaders’ mindset lies the true physical work of leadership. That begins with relentless learning. […]