A Few Thoughts on Volkswagen and Management

How can mid-level managers – the most dedicated conformists – be transformed into innovative intra-organizational entrepreneurs who are partners in leading the change that will disrupt and redesign their position? “What Can Be Done About the Glass Floor?” With...

The methodology of “process consultation”, designed by Edgar Schein, serves the ILE team as we support and guide our customer-partners through a Lean transformation process. In order to make the principles of this system available to all, as well...

“Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes. designing a desirable future and inventing ways of bringing it about.” Russell Ackoff (1979) This is the third is a series of columns relating to Waterfall,...

Metaphors define the way in which we think about and act in the world.  We often think about an organization as if it were a machine, but it is time to imagine an organization as a living organism, with...

Can an organization and its decision-making processes be managed under conditions of extreme uncertainty? The chaos surrounding us demands that we forgo our obsessive attempt to control events and learn to view chaos and the tensions evoked as an...

Hospitals have made themselves so unwieldy as to be virtually unmanageable, yet the technological revolution and the transformation into a global village provide opportunities for alternative managerial paradigms that put the patients – and not the organization structure – ...

“Be the change you want to see in the world” (Mahatma Gandhi) Being a Lean Facilitator Hillel says, “Do not judge your fellow until you have reached his place” (Sayings of the Fathers 2:4). The work of the Lean...

On the relationship between Steve Jobs, George Lucas, anthropologist Joseph Campbell, the crisis facing the cellular companies, and the construction of a myth.  An alternative perspective on value-creating marketing. What is happening to the cellular companies? The crisis facing...

How contribution to the community provides an opportunity to design of organizational culture and develop skilled and independent workers The field workers that saved the situation A family had rented a car from Hertz for a family trip during...

Working with an A3 system is like constructing a story.  This is how a safe space to examine conflict and its sources – and identify the roots of the problem – is created. Accessible, Simple, and Effective Problem-solving is...

In most organizations, the high proportion of waste provides an almost infinite source of possibilities for improvement.  Thus, ignorance or no-problem is necessarily a bad thing – rather, it should be thought of as a gap between what is...

In the field of product development, critical thinking is a methodological principle intended to transform an idea into a low risk, successful product Fist-Fights in the Managers’ Meeting At the doctoral seminar at MIT led by Edgar Schein, we...

This month, I had the privilege of visiting Shanghai, China, to lecture on the topic of “Managing to Invent” at the Chinese Lean Institute’s annual conference.  I opened my talk with an invitation:  I called on the audience to...

Between Destructive Consensus and Constructive Conflicts – A Student Journal Committed to the Chief Engineer ownership, I am currently in the midst of developing a vision and common language (protocol) for the Lean New Global Architecture (LNGA) in the...

As lean teaches us, a command-and-control approach to management is bound to fail. What we need instead is trust in people, and decentralization of knowledge. Read the full post on Planet Lean: the Lean Global Network Journal. Boaz Tamir,...

Want to grasp the current situation? Then you must go to the Gemba, but it would be a mistake to think that alone is enough to change your business. You also have to ask why and show respect. Read...

Creating a learning environment that welcomes problems and experimentation and adapts to market changes should be our main objective. So why do we stick to obsolete ways to teach and develop people? Read the full post on Planet Lean:...

After the digital revolution has forever changed the nature of employment, today’s workers have more choice than ever. It’s about time our approach to HR reflected that.  Read the full post on Planet Lean: the Lean Global Network Journal....

The latest banking scandal had us all wonder whether Wells Fargo has lost its way. But how does a pioneering bank that once had lean at its heart betray its core values so profoundly? Read the full post on...

Development managers and start-up entrepreneurs are under the illusion that innovation is just the work of especially talented individuals, but in today’s world resource sharing and teamwork are preferable. Read the full post on Planet Lean: the Lean Global...

Involvement, active listening and concern are crucial traits of lean leadership and the foundations on which respect for people is built into a learning organization, says Boaz Tamir reflecting on his evolution as a writer. Read the full post...

Apple, the company that once helped its customers soar past their common ways of thinking and imagine that which had yet to be created, is now trailing behind its customers. “Get closer than ever to your customers. So close...

It might seem like a subtlety, but the distinction between discussion and dialogue is actually fundamental as we try to find new ways to unleash organizational creativity. Read the full post on Planet Lean: the Lean Global Network Journal....

A new publicly owned open-source technology promises to make direct, unmediated trade relations trustworthy, opening the door to an era of democratization and cooperation in global commerce. Read the full post on Planet Lean: the Lean Global Network Journal....

Managers who want to hold on to their hierarchically controlled businesses and defend them against creativity and change are not protecting their organizations, but putting them at risk. Read the full post on Planet Lean: the Lean Global Network...

Managers and investors are starting to understand that, in the long term, a company’s success is built on value for the customer and not on marketing manipulations. Read the full post on Planet Lean: the Lean Global Network Journal....

The Volkswagen emission testing scandal revealed a distorted view of management and a tragic disconnect between the company’s principles and its behaviors. Read the full post on Planet Lean: the Lean Global Network Journal. Boaz Tamir, ILE.