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How to Draft and Publish a Book

 Lean Nation, This month we are going to deviate from our normal lean based topics.  One of the questions I frequently get is how do you author and publish a book. At the time of this blog, my fifth publication is currently in copy edit in anticipation of a fall or winter release. Truth be told, I was a math geek in high school. I dodged every English and literature class I could. I nearly failed first-year English class in college. So how did it get to the point that I have now published five books in a 13-year span? Probably divine intervention, but more seriously I have learned a few things along the way, and I would like to share them with you in this blog. I think everyone can author a book, but most people fail to get started. If you have a story, it should be told. Not to get rich to but to capture your thinking at a point in time. Once in print, your work is available for generations. So, with that introduction, let us review the key steps for consideration in writing and publi
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The Power of Kaizen

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                                                         Lean Nation, Today I want to talk about kaizen.  Kaizen is actually two words: Kai = change, and Zen = for the better. Taken together kaizen is change for the better.  In the spirit of continuous improvement, organizations use a kaizen event to deliver meaningful team-based change.   The DNA of a kaizen event is to apply an entire cycle of the scientific method in a compressed time.  A kaizen event is traditionally a 4.5 consecutive day endeavor.    Of note is some organizations run 4-5 teams in the same kaizen event so there is a small distinction between kaizen events and kaizen teams. The investment in personnel time and leadership time to complete a kaizen is not insignificant.  The amount of time, however, is not as critical as being able to complete the entire change process in rapid succession. How large or small you scope your actual improvement will generally lead to a 3–5-day level of effort for a kaizen event.   Great
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Lean Measurement: measurement and target setting is simple

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  Lean Nation, Today’s blog is about metrics, lean metrics to be specific. Anytime we improve, we cannot validate we have improved unless we can measure a difference. But where can we expect a measurable change and how much of a change is considered good when studying processes? Having worked with organizations over the last 30 years, answering these two questions can be quite challenging, but it doesn't need to be.  When we struggle for a solution to these two questions, my advice is to always go back to the basics. In lean improvement, we are trying to get better performance from two activities, seeing (discerning) and eliminating wasted time and activity. If we eliminate wasted time and activity, what can we expect to find? Lean organizations understand that when waste is removed from a process three things will simultaneously happen: 1)       With less time being spent on wasteful activities, we should expect that the time to complete work should take less. 2)       W
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