The KaiZone

Improving the business of life

The Toyota Way to Service Excellence: A Conversation with Karyn Ross

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The best Lean books for beginners from The Lean Book Shop

In the first ever interview for TheKaiZone, it was my great honor to catch-up this week with one of the co-authors of the new book, The Toyota Way to Service Excellence: Lean Transformation in Service Organizations, Karyn Ross.

About the Author, Karyn Ross

karyn ross, toyota way to service excellenceKaryn is uniquely qualified to write what I am sure will become THE book on Lean for services, having spent her entire career in the service industries. She is a consultant, a coach and accomplished Toyota Way practitioner who has successfully taught Lean for services across all levels in service sectors as diverse as financial services, HR, transportation and retail. And if that’s not enough, she is also one of the most thoughtful and personable Lean thinkers I have ever had the good fortune to meet.

If you like what you hear – and I am sure that you will – you can reach Karyn on her website at KarynRossConsulting.com.  Email her at Karyn@karynrossconsulting.com.  Or connect with her and follow her posts on LinkedIn. [Read more…]

 

Accountability & Lean, Part 2:
The Paradox of Accountability

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TheKaiZone is back with the second post of our three-part series on the dynamics of accountability in Lean organizations (read Part 1 here). 

Accountability.  We all want it.  In fact, we DEMAND it, especially when things go wrong.  Yet, few of us understand what it is and how it works. Could it be that our misguided attempt to hold others “accountable” is the root cause that underlies our seeming lack of accountability?  And if so, can this accountability paradox be reversed?

Lisa’s Story: A Case Study in Holding Others Accountable

Ladies and gentlemen, the story you are about to read is true . . . and – to our great dismay – all too common.  The names and titles have been changed to protect the “accountable” parties. [Read more…]

 

What is Lean?
Respect for What Makes us Human

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The following is a transcript of a talk I delivered this week that seeks to answer the question, “what is Lean?” for those who are new to Lean thinking.  Each section in this post corresponds to a slide in the presentation above.  You can download a free .pdf of the slide deck here. 

1.  What is Lean?  An Introduction.

What is Lean?  As an audience that is new to Lean, this is quite possibly the single, most important question that I can answer for you today.  Yet, I’m going to tell you upfront, right from the start, that I am going to fail to do so.

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Accountability & Lean, Part 1:
The Accountability Myth

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TheKaiZone is back!  And we’re kicking things off with a three-part series on the dynamics of accountability in Lean organizations.  Accountability, while critical to progress and success at a very fundamental level, is a concept that is not well understood in the practice of modern management today.   Learn why others cannot be held accountable, how our efforts to do so actually reduce individual accountability and how Lean’s Respect for People principle effectively reverses the accountability paradox. 

“We need to hold them accountable!” ~Every Awful Manager Ever

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It’s a universal mantra of modern management.  Master this phrase, and you too could become management material.  Here’s how . . . [Read more…]

 

The 2014 Leany Awards:
“Better-Late-Than-Never” Edition

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2014 Leany Awards

First, there was The Shingo Prize . . . 

Next came The Silver Toaster Award . . . 

Now, The KaiZone is proud to bring to you the first ever year-end Leany Awards, for excellence in Lean blogging!  In this very special, better-late-than-never edition of The KaiZone Friday Favorites, we’re going to take a look back and recognize the top author, blog and post of the full-year for 2014.

How the Winners Were Chosen

Each and every morning, I kick-start my day by reading the new posts from more than 60 blogs in the world of Lean and continuous improvement.  See the full list on the Best of Lean Blogroll.

Every few weeks, I select the ten most original, thoughtful and entertaining posts to bring to you the TheKaiZone Friday Favorites.

In July of 2014, we took time out to celebrate the half-year Leany Award winners, and the judging criteria will remain the same.

To select the best-of-the-nest, I’ve assigned a point total to each of the 190 posts to appear on the Friday Favorites over the past year.  For each edition, 10 points were given to first place, 9 points for second, 8 points for third, etc . . . I then totaled up all the points from each of the 19 KaiZone Friday Favorites this year to determine the Leany Award winners for the top Lean Blog Author and top Lean Blog of the year for 2014.

On the other hand, selecting the Leany Award for the best single post was a completely subjective exercise by yours truly, based on the pieces that I found most impactful over the past year.  Sorry . . . my blog, my rules . . . 🙂

And now that the formalities are out of the way, it’s time to award the Leany Award to the top Lean blogger of 2014! [Read more…]