Lean Roundup #131 – April 2020

A selection of highlighted blog posts from Lean bloggers from the month of April 2020.  You can also view the previous monthly Lean Roundups here.

Now More Than Ever, Huddle Daily as a Team – Jon Miller discusses the importance of having daily huddle meetings even remotely.

Do you know what problem you’re working on right now? – Jamie Flinchbaugh says we vastly underinvest in the task of generating a well thought out and articulated problem statement.

3 Tips For Managing Customer Experience In a Downturn – Marci Reynolds shares 3 key takeaways from the“Managing Customer Experience In a Downturn” webinar.

Why Not? – Bruce Hamilton shares lessons from this chaotic and emotion-charged pandemic time worth relating to.

Suggestion boxes vs Quick & Easy Kaizen – Al Norval explains that a quick and easy kaizen process is better then a suggestion box system.

What Does Breakthrough Mean? – Pascal Dennis explains that a common failure mode in Strategy Deployment is not understanding Breakthrough.

Five Tips for Managers of Newly Dispersed Teams – Johanna Rothman explains managing dispersed teams requires different tactics, here are 5 tips to get you started.

Are Your Values Worth the Paper They’re Printed On? – Dan Markovitz discusses why it’s these times of crisis that reveal a company’s true commitment to its stated values.

What is Lean’s Future? – Bob Emiliani talks about the impact on Lean of a crisis like COVID-19 and the how management can revert back to old methods.

Advice during COVID19 for Internal Lean Resources – Jamie Flinchbaugh shares advice for internal lean resources with all sorts of titles, struggling with how to support lean during the current COVID-19 pandemic.

How to Manage Chaos & Uncertainty – Ron Pereira says to try personal leader standard work in order to get through these challenging times.

Revealing Courageous Leadership  - Kevin Meyer says now is the time for great leaders to step up and show their courage, to reinvent and reimagine, to show us the way.

Be Deliberate About Your New Normal – Steve Kane says as your businesses transition back to full operation many practices will need to change and this isn’t a time to jump to countermeasure but to be deliberate in action.

What Bad Managers, Good Managers, and Great Managers Do – Mark Graban explains bad managers tell, good managers explain why, and great managers go beyond this.

How A Virtual Obeya Can Enable Effective Teamwork -  Katrina Appell explains as we are adjusting to new ways of working to slow the spread of COVID-19, we have to find new ways to work together effectively.

Ask Art: What Do You Focus on When Assessing the Potential Gains From Converting to Lean? – Art Byrne says while there are no set gains that a company can expect to get from converting to lean we can use as guidelines the gains that others have gotten to set goals as to what is possible.

What the Covid-Virus Can Teach Us About the Toyota Way – Jeffery Liker hopes that coming out of this crisis many people throughout the world will have a greater appreciation for the power of scientific thinking, the power of collaboration, and the power of diversity.