First Principles of Performance Improvement
The BuilderAuthor unknownAn old man going down a lone highwayCame in the evening cold and greyTo a chasm vast and deep and wideThrough which was flowing a sullen tide.The old man crossed in the twilight dim;That swollen stream held no fears for him;But he turned when safe on the other sideAnd built a bridge to span the tide."Old Man" said a fellow standing near,"You are

"Flow, Not Joe"
Too often when those new to "lean thinking" first discover Ohno's 7 forms of Waste, there is a tendency to equate waste with non-value added job tasks.  This really gets problematic when the entire job turns out to composed of non-value added work, which is quite possible in business or transactional processes. Especially if "Joe" is doing that job currently.More experienced lean thinkers know that other forms of waste in business processes such as delays, re-keying of data, and batching of work are often present, and have a much greater impact on flow, than Joe does.So, finding and removing barriers to flow is the goal.  Joe should be assigned

"Talent is Overrated" Review by Jim Citrin of Geoff Colvin's book,
A while back I came across this article on Yahoo Finance by Jim Citrin. Since I had recently finished reading an outstanding book, "Talent is Overrated," written by Geoff Colvin, an article with the same title caught my eye.Jim provides a useful review of Geoff Colvin's book.  For me personally, the idea of deliberate practice is very powerful and intriguing- partly because of the field I work in.  I suspect that one of the people development practices of the Toyota Production System is the incorporat

Business Process Improvement & Lean Thinking Combined!
More and more people are seeking training in how to apply "lean thinking" to administrative, office, service, or transactional processes.  If you've been looking for this, chances are you already know that there aren't that many workshop offerings that address this need.  Those that do tend to focus on lean tools or practices such as value stream mapping, 5S, or facilitating "kaizen" events.  I'll refer to these as the "usual suspects."You deserve better choices - and now I'm pleased to offer you one.To be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with the "usual suspects."  It's just that I've learned over the course of my 25 years as a pract

Eventbrite-What a Great Idea!!
I found out about this service sometime last year when I signed up for a Google Adsense workshop.  For those of us who hold events, this is a dream come true.I highly recommend this service.  If you are curious and want to learn why I'm such an enthusiastic fan, please use this link to learn more.  Learn more about Eventbrite here.