Lean Management Archives

The Lean Culture Challenge: Can You Graduate from the 5S’s to The 7S’s that Really Matter?

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Jan 8, 2013 | Corporate Culture, Lean Culture, Lean Health Care, Lean Management, Lean Manufacturing, Organization Design and Process Improvement | 5

Doing 5S is easy because it requires nothing of executives and very little if any change in the behavior of managers. It does not disrupt their world. And, that is exactly why it does not address the big issues that drive the culture and competitiveness of any organization. Real competitive advantage is derived from internal strategy, building the capabilities of the organization, and that requires managing the Big Seven S’s of organization culture.

The Fiscal Cliff and Life in the Freshman Dorm, or why “The Pigeon is Never Wrong!”

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Dec 29, 2012 | Lean Management, Organizational Behavior Management | 3

The behavior of Congress and getting to the edge of the cliff is no mystery. It is a phenomena well known to freshman college students and every mouse or pigeon subjected to behavioral psychology research.

Teamwork at the Cleveland Clinic

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Dec 25, 2012 | Corporate Culture, Lean Culture, Lean Health Care, Lean Management, Organization Design and Process Improvement, Team Development | 0

Today’s New York Times editorial focuses on the advances made at the Cleveland Clinic through the development of teamwork across functions. Having long promoted teamwork, through both formal structures and changes in behavior, it is nice to see its importance recognized in the press.

Lean & Meta Principles 2: Empiricism and Humility

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Dec 12, 2012 | Corporate Culture, Lean Culture, Lean Management, Lean Manufacturing, Managing Change, Team Development | 4

The primary task of a manager is to think. The future success of the organization is dependent upon his or her ability to think clearly, critically, and creatively.

The greatest enemy of continuous improvement is arrogance, particularly on the part of leaders, and the opposite quality of humility is a requirement of learning and improvement.

In my previous post I introduced the idea that there are “big thoughts,” or over-arching cultural principles that are essential to creating a genuinely lean culture. I suggested that the principle of Unity was the first. The second is what I will call the principles of Empiricism and Humility.

Lean and Meta Principles: The Unity Principle

Posted by Lawrence M. Miller | Dec 6, 2012 | Corporate Culture, Leadership, Lean Culture, Lean Management, Lean Manufacturing, Managing Change, Organization Design and Process Improvement, Organizational Behavior Management | 3

Some companies have engaged in what they think are “lean implementations” by reducing lean to component parts and experimenting with one component over there, another over here, and a third somewhere else. That is guaranteed to fail. The very idea of reducing lean to its component parts fails to “get it.” I believe that the first principle of meta-lean is what I called in a previous book, The Unity Principle. Honda took this principle to heart and sought to apply it in their U.S. operations.

Category: Lean Management

The Lean Culture Challenge: Can You Graduate from the 5S’s to The 7S’s that Really Matter?

The Fiscal Cliff and Life in the Freshman Dorm, or why “The Pigeon is Never Wrong!”

Teamwork at the Cleveland Clinic

Lean & Meta Principles 2: Empiricism and Humility

Lean and Meta Principles: The Unity Principle

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