Lean A3 Thinking Audio Book

A collection of Business901 Podcasts that has been grouped under the title of Lean A3 Thinking. It includes the authors below in the order of appearance and totals around 2 1/2 hours in length. If you prefer a transcription most of them are available on the Business901 Issuu website: https://issuu.com/business901. Tracey Richardson is a Lean Thinker with Read More …

Improvement Kata in 10 Minutes

Bill Costantino’s classic explanation of the Improvement Kata, originally posted as a SlideCast on November 25, 2011. Awesome! This video can be used to provide some Improvement Kata / Coaching Kata background content for ‘pre-review’ online, prior to classroom or practice activities. From the YouTube description: This video can be used to provide some Improvement Kata Read More …

The Improvement Kata in a Minute

Beth Carrington explains the Improvement Kata in less than a minute. Serves as a nice introduction, especially for sales and marketing folks. But, on Friday we will introduce a 10-minute session, stay tuned! YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/rGGid_WvLnk/

Developing Your Observation Skills

Jim Gilmore’s new book, Look: A Practical Guide for Improving Your Observational Skills, introduces a metaphor of “six looking glasses.” Each looking glass represents a particular skill to master in order to enhance the way we look at the world. The six skills include binoculars, bifocals, magnifying glass, microscope, rose-colored glasses, and blindfold looking. Each looking glass provides Read More …

The Role of Kata in Marketing

The power of Kata differs than most Lean thinking. Most efforts with Lean in Sales and Marketing focuses on the use of the “Why” question; solving problems and offering solutions. Kata focuses on the “What” creating situational awareness. At the basic level (Why) and what I might call the commodity trap, we still need to solve Read More …

The Role of Kata in Lean

The Improvement Kata + Coaching Kata (IK/CK) are about deliberate practice to develop scientific-thinking skill and mindset. That means IK/CK works well in combination with your existing Lean efforts. Based on the book: Toyota Kata: Managing People for Improvement, Adaptiveness and Superior Results by Mike Rother.   The Five-Question card is available at http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mrother/KATA_Files/KC2_Opening.pptx There is a related Read More …