Leadership: What’s Love Got to Do With It?

In 2012, I spoke at the Lean HR Summit, which is one of the many excellent annual Summits delivered by Lean Frontiers. I had heard about[…]

The Case for Kaizen Events

One thing that there’s no shortage of in life is criticism about things we don’t fully understand—or haven’t experienced success with. Another thing there’s no[…]

Decision-Making Hierarchy

As many of you know, I’m a rabid fan of clarity (along with focus, discipline, and engagement, the foundational organizational behaviors that I address in[…]

Gaining Clarity through Value Stream Mapping

In The Outstanding Organization, I assert that outstanding organizations operate with high degrees of clarity, focus, discipline, and engagement. In the chapter on clarity, I present the various[…]

Podcast with Scott Rutherford

After my keynote at the American Society for Quality’s World Conference, I finally caught up with Square Peg Musing’s Scott Rutherford for a podcast interview.[…]

The Outstanding Organization Book Trailer

After receiving notification that I won a 2013 Shingo Research Prize for my book, The Outstanding Organization, the Shingo organization asked me to submit a[…]

Got Mad Coaching Skills?

If you’re a leader or an improvement professional, becoming an effective coach is THE capability to be developed and, frankly, most people in these roles[…]

The Allure (and Myth) of Multitasking

As I explain the Focus chapter in The Outstanding Organization, multitasking is a fallacy—you can only perform one cognitive task at a time. What you actually[…]

Rules Are Meant to Be (Thoughtfully) Broken

When I learned The Outstanding Organization’s publication date, I groaned. The book was slated for release in July 2012, just as summer vacations were getting[…]

Goals & Priorities: Your Personal Hoshin

The New Year has always been one of my favorite holidays. Not for the revelry and good cheer, although that can be a nice element.[…]

Consistency is Key

“In the unsexy tedium of daily operations, consistency is key.” This is a line from p. 107 of my new book, The Outstanding Organization. As[…]

My Venture into Blogging

I’ve been thinking about blogging for about five years. A few years ago, a friend who knew I was thinking about it (and has long[…]