Monthly Archives: June 2009

How To Get People To Change

“People do not change when you tell them they should; they change when they tell themselves they must.” – Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy specialist at John Hopkins University Jonathan Frye from LeadershipJot.com has great comments about this quote and … Continue reading

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Filed under Business, Change Management, Communication, Encouragement, Improve With Lean, Learn Leadership, Personal Development, Productivity, Respect For People

What’s Next? – Kaizen Workshop Debrief

I sometimes use this blog to post things I have learned to ensure I can remember them in the future.  I hope some of these are valuable to you as well. During a recent kaizen workshop debrief, I was reminded … Continue reading

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Filed under Debrief, Improve With Lean, Improvements

Fun With Post-Its

We use Post Its a lot for teaching people how to improve processes and understand the current state.  I thought this 1.5 minute video was fun and creative (RSS viewers will need to open post to view video).  Thanks to … Continue reading

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Filed under Business, Communication, Visual Communication, Visual Language, Visual Systems

The Perfect Pitch

How do you show your customers you are competent about your product/service? My wife and I noticed a small leak near our chimney recently and was advised it most likely was coming from our roof.  We called for three roofing … Continue reading

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Filed under Business, Communication, Improve With Lean, Value Added

Making Robots Out Of People

“All of this standard work is just turning us into robots”. Have you heard this before when you improved a process and made standard work?  A recent workshop team was concerned this would be the response from some of their … Continue reading

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Filed under Change Management, Communication, Encouragement, Improve With Lean, Improvements, Respect For People, Standard Work

Psychological Impact of Change

“Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind. To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse. To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better. To the confident it is … Continue reading

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Filed under Business, Communication, Improvements, Personal Development, Quotes, Respect For People

Bad Survey Is Waste

My wife and I bought a new laptop from a major chain retail store recently and I was shocked by how bad the satisfaction survey was.  As I was at the register, a surveyor approached me and offered $15 in gift … Continue reading

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Filed under Business, Data & Charts

No Gemba Trip = BS

Film director great Akira Kurosawa learned a powerful lesson while he was working under Kajirio Yamamoto.  His mentor told him “Don’t try to BS people.  If you don’t know the answer, don’t say anything until you can find out for … Continue reading

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Filed under Gemba, Problem Solving