How to Think Simple

Is there a way that I can get started and gear myself towards thinking that way and trying to simplify things? – jd Don Sull: Absolutely, I mean my advice would be to try it. I’ll just give you a concrete example. I’ve used simple rules many times in my life but I’ll give you Read More …

Losing 1M a Day, Improve Your Process

Joe: I don’t think a lot of people realize the trouble that Caterpillar was in the early 1980s. I would think that time period is correct. They were losing a million dollars a day or something? Craig Bouchard: A million dollars a day for three years and in that third year which was 1984 where Read More …

Are Lean and Agile Equal Partners?

An industry thought leader in Lean, Kanban, Product Portfolio Management, Scrum and Agile Design, Alan Salloway helps companies transition to Lean and Agile methods enterprise-wide as well teaches courses in these areas. He is the founder and CEO of Net Objectives In a past podcast (Related Podcast and Transcription: Shalloway on Agile), I asked Alan Read More …

Solving Complexity with Simplicity

Dr. Donald Sull  is a Senior Lecturer in the Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Strategic Management group at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where he teaches courses on Competitive Strategy and Strategy Execution in Volatile Markets. His recent book, Simple Rules: How to Thrive in a Complex World offers some great thoughts on reducing complexity. Download Read More …

Challenging the Traditional Pillars of Lean?

Today’s businesses are increasingly complex — and traditional pillars of management are obsolete, says Yves Morieux. He says, it falls to individual employees to navigate the rabbit’s warren of interdependencies. In this energetic talk, Morieux offers six rules for “smart simplicity.” (Rule One: Understand what your colleagues actually do.). His book, Six Simple Rules: How Read More …

Struggling with the Difference between a Feature and Story

One of my most listened to podcast is with a relative unknown Agile guy named Eric Landes. In the Agile world, I expect he is well-known and has spoken at a few of the conferences I have attended. I was re-reading the transcript today after seeing how highly rated the original podcast was on my Read More …