The Venice Carnival Photo by Edward N. Johnson (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I am pleased and excited that John Hunter asked me to host this edition of the Management Improvement Blog Carnival. Carnivals are blog posts that serve to provide links to posts on a number of blogs on a related topic. John’s carnival covers management improvement: Deming, lean manufacturing, six sigma, innovation, customer focus, leadership, systems thinking, continuous improvement, respect for people…so here we go:
Daily Lean Tips at A Lean Journey: Tim McMahon just posted his 500th daily Lean tip on his Facebook page. #481 reminds Lean thinkers to stay focused on the needs of the customer because they always have a choice.
Waves at Old Lean Dude: Bruce Hamilton (a.k.a. the Toast Guy) writes about surges in production and work load that are self-inflicted. One of the 14 Toyota Way principles is to level-out the work load. Waves of work or production is not Lean or effective.
Why do you ask? at Gemba Tales: Mark Hamel compares the Leader as a Fixer to the Leader as a Teacher. Mark’s blog demonstrates the difference well and provides the kind of questions teachers should be asking.
Selling Quality at On Quality: Jimena Calfa isn’t just talking about Quality. Her winsome approach to getting others onboard for Quality would be beneficial for leaders creating any change.
Great ideas are found at My Flexible Pencil: David Kasprzak’s post is actually titled Great Ideas are Often Found in Quiet Places and discusses the great ideas in the minds of introverts. Leaders who don’t recognize this just might miss out.
Error Proofing at Beyond Lean: Matt Wrye often sees Lean applications in the real world and not just in the manufacturing plant. He brings these examples to his blog illustrating how to be Lean. Joe Wilson is also a regular contributing blogger and Lean thinker at Beyond Lean. He was having fun with charts in a recent post.
Lean Reflection looks at J&J’s Quality: Karen Wilhelm illustrates how Quality can affect a company, even Johnson & Johnson.
Hopefully you find these blogs to be as beneficial as I have.
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Lean Leadership 
Chris, Thanks for including Gemba Tales within the Carnival!
My pleasure, Mark. Your blog is always an interesting and helpful read.