In the KaiZone Friday Favorites, I present my top ten favorite articles from the last week (give or take a few days) in the world of Lean – and beyond.  With leading content from the world’s foremost improvement authors and future Lean leaders, I do the research so you don’t have to!

10.  3 Components of an Effective Kaizen Management System by Mark Graban.  “Does “Kaizen,” or “good change” happen naturally in an organization? In my experience, it can happen naturally, since nearly everybody has ideas about how to improve their workplace, and a desire to make those improvements happen.  But does Kaizen naturally happen, in practice? Not usually. That’s why a Kaizen Management System is critically important.”

9.  The Difference a Visual Cue Makes by Tracey Richardson.  “While we work hard to make our own work processes visual, devising ways to see abnormalities and solve problems, it’s interesting to note that the world revolves around visuals, andons, and cues placing us in a constant state of awareness. Good design is all about making us aware of the abnormality to the standard. That’s just good design and it’s also lean.”

8.  What Is Respect for People? by Chad Walters.  “Respect for people comes into play through trust and communication with partners up and down the supply/service chain in order to define and create that customer value. It’s not just about “being nice” or philanthropy. It actually has hard and fast applications to optimizing operations.”

7.  A Guide to Lean Leadership by Tim McMahon.  “The best leaders don’t put people in a box – they free them from boxes. Ultimately, a leaders job isn’t to create followers, but to strive for ubiquitous leadership. Average leaders spend time scaling processes, systems, and models – great leaders focus on scaling leadership.”

6.  Sustaining Lean by Bob Emiliani.  “We always have to worry about flavor-of-the-month hungry executives, fixated on the short-term and addicted to shortcuts. Consultants will take advantage of these enduring weaknesses to sell executives the next new thing… The marketplace will always produce customers who want inferior, low-fidelity versions of Lean management. And the marketplace will always produce consultants who will gladly respond to that customer’s pull and seek to satisfy their demand.”

5.  Long-term Organizational Health or Sugar High? by Robert Miler.  “Enlightened lean practitioners have come to understand that sustainability of a lean journey is only possible when it becomes part of the organizational culture. Otherwise, improvement efforts seem to consistently result in a series of “sugar highs” – temporary boosts in results accompanied by a fleeting feeling of victory. We know “flavor-of-the-month” initiatives can’t be the focus of a lean leader. So, where should their focus be?”

4.  Finding Time for Improvement by Dan Jones.  ”I am always struck visiting corporate headquarters how many bright propel are wasting their time using PowerPoint to fight functional turf wars. A clear alignment on the vital few, direct observation of progress at the front line and lean project management is the way to release time for improvement and steal a march on your competitors.”

3.  How Do We Prevent Backsliding? by Art Byrne.  “Above all remember that you should never do a kaizen and just walk away. Once you’ve made and sustained gains, schedule the next kaizen for that area to get to the next level of gains. Secure the gains you’ve acheived, share that learning, and then do it all again. After all, the word “kaizen” means continuous improvement. You can’t achieve that without going back again and again to remove the waste from your processes and actively, creatively problem solve.”

2.  Freddy Ballé’s Four Points by Richard Kaminski.  “Kaizen events help ‘clean the window’ ( and generate immediate savings ) but have meaning only to the extent that eliminating variations reveals quality and process control issues. Quality is much more difficult to achieve than efficiency because it quickly boils down to knowledge — and the need to develop deep skills, which is also one of the true keys to success in Lean.”

And this week’s Friday Favorite goes to . . .

1.  Value Stream Mapping: Ferrari or Pinto by Karen Martin.  “The first question I ask when being brought in to lead value stream improvement is:  What problem are you trying to solve?  This question is closely followed by: How do you know you have a problem?  Without metrics, both questions are nearly impossible to answer. And if you can’t answer those questions, you should probably move on to another problem. After all, in most organizations, there’s no shortage of problems to be solved!”

Have an article that you’d like to share with The KaiZone community?  Post it in the comments section below.  Have a great weekend, friends!

In the KaiZone Friday Favorites, I present my top ten favorite articles from the last week (give or take a few days) in the world of Lean – and beyond.  With leading content from the world’s foremost improvement authors and future Lean leaders, I do the research so you don’t have to!

How Can We Overcome Toxic Conformity at Work? By Michael Sinocchi “• Be the change you want to see in your people. If you want the truth, you must speak the truth and be the truth  Encourage debate and dialogue. Welcome ideas that conflict with your own assumptions.  Instead of arguing with dissenters, ask for explanations of their thinking.”

Game On! Maybe Lean Can Be Fun by Lory Moniz.  “By design, good games support the approaches of concrete learners through a myriad of feedback mechanisms: visual, auditory, textual, progress charts, etc. while abstract learners can ignore which ever feedback mechanisms they choose – often by simply switching them off.”

Quality of Lean by Bob Emiliani.  “The quality of Lean in an organization is driven largely by people being allowed by their leaders to think, and not just always being told by their leaders to do things, “nose to the grindstone.” Allowing people to think requires leaders to view employees as having a brain – whether loading dock worker or marketing chief.”

Build a Deliberate Culture, Not an Accidental One by Jamie Flinchbaugh.  “A company’s culture is the product of people’s shared experiences. The problem is, most of those experiences are not designed to create a deliberate culture. Instead, the result is an accidental culture.”

More on Toyota’s Respect for Humanity by Michael Baudin.  “As a manager or as a consultant, you don’t implement or recommend policies labeled “respect for people” or “respect for humanity.” Instead, you make changes to the way work is being done and organized that are aligned with these values and needed for your business.”

Are You Really Different?  Lean Flow for Skilled Repair Work by Ed Kemmerling.  ” How many times have we heard these comments from clients on why lean will not work? “We are different. Every job is unique.”  “We cannot expect teamwork from skilled trades. Their work is too specialized.”  “We must keep our people busy at all times. That’s why inventory is so important.”  Let me tell you a story about how we transformed a sophisticated aircraft repair facility, made up of many skilled tradesmen, into an effective lean team.

Is Lean a Waste Elimination Program or Striving for Excellence? by Jeffrey Liker.  “The real challenge is to replace the old habits of people that focus on today’s problems, quick resolution, with little learning with a set of skilled routines to systematically improve toward clear targets.”

You Get What You Expect and You Deserve What You Tolerate by Mark Graban.  “If you tolerate bad processes, you deserve bad results. That’s true in any organization.”

Top 5 Ways TPS Could Have Saved the Roman Empire by Matt Elson.  “You can’t push the envelope without trying…”Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.”  The Roman Empire was build through hard work.  Rolling up your sleeves, getting your hands dirty, and “learning by doing” serve to drive you forward on a daily basis.  TPS is built on trying something new, experimenting and analyzing the results.  If the results are better than the current condition, then great!  If the results missed the target, then great!  At least you learned something new.”

Innovative Thinking at Amazon by John Hunter.  “Amazon continues to be innovative not just in technology but with management thinking. Jeff Bezos has rejected the dictates exposed most vociferously by Wall Street mouthpieces and MBAs that encourage short term thinking and financial gimmicks which harm the long term success of companies.”

Have a great weekend, friends!