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Lean Leadership

Making Lean Leaders

Learn how Ariens Co. uses a lean internship program to develop talent throughout the company from the production floor to front offices.

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New Video

ThedaCare CEO emeritus, and author of On the Mend, John Toussaint, MD, describes how lean thinking began to change a "shame and blame" culture.

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Lean Healthcare

Lean Healthcare Featured in NY Times

A Business section cover story describes lean principles improving patient care and costs at Seattle Children’s, a member of the Healthcare Value Leaders Network. The story cites lean efforts at 3 other Network members.

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HealthcareValueLeaders.org >

Lean Education

Workshops at LEI Headquarters

The month of August features a great selection of learning programs with the added value of seeing LEI experiments in visual management, upcoming projects, and meeting the LEI team.

View the August Workshop Curriculum >

Knowledge Center

AME Interview: John Toussaint on Lean Leadership

If we don't change ourselves as leaders, we will never be able to transform our companies.

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Make Some Connections

Join the LEI Connection Center

Find and communicate with people in your industry, location, and/or similar position. The Connection Center has thousands of members eager to share and learn.

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Find a Lever by Seizing the Crisis

Most companies do not launch lean transformations until they face crises. So if your company faces one, use it as a lever for change.

If the overall company doesn't face a crisis, take a department or unit that does and apply lean principles there. Then bring in leaders from other areas of the company for hands-on learning. If no departments are in trouble, you may be able to create a crisis by pointing out that a lean competitor or changing market conditions are on the horizon.

There is no need to create a crisis at Toyota. The world's largest automaker has been humbled in recent months by a succession of massive recalls.

"We are taking this experience to heart, making fundamental changes in the way our company does business," Akio Toyota wrote in The Wall Street Journal. He is using the crisis as a way to take the company back to the basics of the Toyota Way. He has recommitted Toyota to its core principles of "respect for people" and "continuous improvement" in the belief that better adherence to the Toyota Way is the only way for the company to emerge stronger from its crisis.