“Excellent businesses don’t believe in excellence, only in constant improvement and constant change.” – Tom Peters, in his book Thriving on Chaos Being excellent is a daunting goal, especially when you aren’t excellent at the beginning. Peters breaks this down into change and improvement—every day. First, change. Change is the decision point. It’s a realization that […]

I saw this quote the other day, and it reminded me of our efforts in “lean” operations: “The problem is not that there are problems. It is expecting otherwise and thinking having problems is a problem.” – Theodore Rubin Problems arise every day. I don’t know about you, but the longer I live, the more […]

Asking “why” is one of the key strategies for achieving better “lean” practices. If you are new to the company, you may see us doing something one way, and it seems like there is a better way. The tendency might be to step back and remain silent. Most new people assume that the long-term employees […]

What makes a team effective? You can answer this as a teammate or leader. But here are the questions for which everyone needs answers: Does each player understand their job and how the team prospers when that job is done well? Is there a premium placed on good, honest, and transparent communication? Is all the information […]