Want to know the best Lean books for beginners?  Before you read any further, I want you to answer a very simple question:  what is Lean to you?  Go ahead and take a minute.  Jot down your thoughts if it helps.

Did you struggle to answer the question clearly and concisely?

The Struggle to Learn

The single, most important concept for you to develop as a new Lean learner is a clear mental model that answers the question, what is Lean?   Unfortunately, this is an area in which our current methods of Lean education are failing . . . badly.

If you are like most most people, your initial exposure to Lean thinking probably came in the form of a death-by-Power-Point, classroom-based “training”.  Consequently, your mental model for what Lean is probably resembles a toolbox.  To be practiced individually, you likely relate gaining proficiency in Lean to learning how to pick-and-choose the right “tools” to meet the needs of your specific situations.

I hate to break it to you, but this thinking could not be further from reality.

The Lean toolbox mental model fails in two very important ways: [Read more…]