# The Simple Leader > Personal and Professional Leadership at the Nexus of Lean and Zen Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. Use `/llms-full.txt` for consolidated page and post context. Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`). ## Pages - [The Simple Leader](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/home.md) - You can read the entire book online via the Contents link at the top, or purchase it from Amazon. Simplicity, flow, respect for people, reflection, observing the present state, humility, beginner’s mind, inquiry, a search for perfection. Those are just some of the concepts shared between Lean, also… ## Posts - [Life as Art](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/life-as-art.md) - Life is pure adventure, and the sooner we realize that, the quicker we will be able to treat life as art. Maya Angelou Life is a canvas, shaped by what is in your soul, the environment you are in, your decisions, and your interactions with others. Your life is an individual, unique work of art. How… - [Find Your Unique Path](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/find-your-unique-path.md) - Living is the constant adjustment of thought to life and life to thought in such a way that we are always growing, always experiencing new things in the old and old things in the new. Thus life is always new – Thomas Merton I was rather surprised when Pope Francis mentioned Thomas Merton, a Catholi… - [Explore the World](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/explore-the-world.md) - As often as possible, go someplace you’ve never been before. Experience new places and new things. You might find yourself with someone or somewhere that makes you much happier than your previous circumstance. The Earth is so vast with unique and beautiful places, why wouldn’t you want to go explor… - [Do Something Different](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/do-something-different.md) - Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow. – Ralph Waldo Emerson Acquiring new knowledge and perspectives helps you grow within your general area of comfort or interest. To really grow, you need to stretch yourself outside of that comfort zone by lear… - [Continue to Learn](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/continue-to-learn.md) - Learning is not compulsory…neither is survival. – W. Edwards Deming Many, if not most people go to school and college, and then, when they are finished, rarely open another book (at least one with big words in it). They may continue to grow their skills and knowledge through experience, but this is… - [Evolution](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/evolution.md) - Once, after a particularly claustrophobic, stressful and over-populated time when there hadn’t been air or space to escape to, suddenly, for a few days, I was alone. It was like emigrating to another planet (in fact I was at home). Who was this person I was living with, this strange, this reasonabl… - [Part Eight - Grow](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/part-eight-grow.md) - Through learning we grow, becoming more than we were before, and in that sense learning is unselfish, because it results in the transformation of what we were before, a setting aside of the old self in favor of a more complex one. – Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi We’ve covered a lot already. You’ve learne… - [Celebrate Success](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/celebrate-success.md) - Celebrate the journey. It’s not all about the destination. Savor all of your successes, even the small ones. – Dawn Gluskin Finally, you made some improvements! Or, perhaps, you failed but learned something in the process. In both cases, you should celebrate with your team. This is respecting the p… - [Reflection](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/reflection.md) - I will take time to be alone today. I will take time to be quiet. In this silence I will listen…and I will hear my answers. – Ruth Fishel One of my great pleasures is going for a walk on the sixmile-long and generally empty beach a couple blocks from my house. There’s the remnant of a long-dormant… - [A New Take on Training](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/a-new-take-on-training.md) - No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it. – Peter F. Drucker Imagine you were manufacturing a critical device needed to keep our country safe, when all of a sudden over 80% of your assembly team disappeared and you had to hire new people withno experience. What would y… - [Daily Management and Accountability](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/daily-management-and-accountability.md) - The key to the Toyota Way and what makes Toyota stand out is not any of the individual elements…But what is important is having all the elements together as a system. It must be practiced every day in a very consistent manner, not in spurts. – Taiichi Ohno For a Lean transformation to be sustained,… - [Improvement Kata](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/improvement-kata.md) - It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time. – Winston Churchill Earlier, when discussing how to engage and lead people with respect, I described the coaching kata, a process that helps managers teach employees to approach performance improv… - [Map the Value Stream](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/map-the-value-stream.md) - One of the most powerful Lean tools is called value stream mapping, a visual management method used to document the flow and creation of value in a process. The definition of a value stream is all steps—value-added and non-value-added—that contribute to taking the process from raw materials (or raw… - [Standard Work](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/standard-work.md) - Where there is no standard, there can be no kaizen. – Taiichi Ohno Before you can create change, you must know exactly what you’re currently doing. Beware—it’s probably different than what you think it is! Earlier, in the Clarify section, I encouraged you to detail the current state of your organiz… - [Go and See](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/go-and-see.md) - When you are out observing on the gemba, do something to help them. If you do, people will come to expect that you can help them and will look forward to seeing you again on the gemba. – Taiichi Ohno I briefly introduced you to the concept of the gemba earlier in this book. The definition of gemba… - [The Human Side of Change](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-human-side-of-change.md) - People don’t resist change, they resist being changed. – Peter Senge To survive, an organization must be continually improving and changing. This requires both leadership commitment and the support and input from all employees. It is important to be mindful and aware of the concerns of everyone inv… - [Change for the Better](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/change-for-the-better.md) - There are no big problems, just a lot of little problems. – Henry Ford Kaizen is probably the most important concept in the Toyota Production System. The word kaizen can be broken into its two components: kai, meaning “change,” and zen, meaning “good.” It was brought to the West in 1986, when Masaa… - [Plan, Do, Study, Adjust](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/plan-do-study-adjust.md) - Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence only in constant improvement and constant change – Tom Peters The PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycle is the core component of continuous improvement programs. You may have heard it called PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)—and they are very similar but I have come to p… - [Start. Now.](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/start-now.md) - The secret to getting ahead is getting started. – Mark Twain Getting started on a new project is tough. If you’re trying to transform an entire organization, it can be even tougher because it requires you to make some changes. Changing yourself is often the toughest part—especially if it involves l… - [Part Seven – Improve](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/part-seven-improve.md) - Plans are only good intentions unless they immediately degenerate into hard work. – Peter Drucker After you clarify the principles and the why?, and create a hoshin plan, it’s time to do something. To create improvement. Key points from this section: * Improvement activities, whether on an organiza… - [Learning by Writing by Hand](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/learning-by-writing-by-hand-6873cdb3fd8b84001bce665e.md) - Writing, to me, is simply thinking through my fingers. – Isaac Asimov I’m an early-adopter tech geek at heart, and am generally among the first to embrace a new technology. I may not go to the extreme of standing in line for a new iPhone, but I will pay to upgrade to the latest model, even when I h… - [Go Visual](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/go-visual.md) - Make your workplace into showcase that can be understood by everyone at a glance. – Taiichi Ohno We’ve all heard the phrase that a picture is worth a thousand words. There’s actually a scientific rationale for that: the brain processes visual information 60,000 times faster than written information… - [Reduce Information Overload](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/reduce-information-overload.md) - Everybody gets so much information all day long that they lose their common sense. – Gertrude Stein Information overload is a big problem in modern society. We only have so much time and mental capacity to process information, and if we are not careful, the abundance can overwhelm us. We need to ma… - [Just Say No](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/just-say-no.md) - Clarity about what is essential fuels us with the strength to say no to the nonessentials. – Greg McKeown Two years ago, while on my end-of-year reflection trip, I read Greg McKeown’s Essentialism. What a great book! In it, McKeown discusses how to identify your essential projects, activities, and… - [Align and Eliminate](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/align-and-eliminate.md) - My success, part of it certainly, is that I have focused in on a few things. – Bill Gates Once you have a hoshin plan detailing what your organization’s priorities are, it’s time to face the reality of all the other projects you and your group are currently working on. This is often a “come-to-Jesu… - [The Waste of Choice](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-waste-of-choice.md) - Owning fewer keys opens more doors. – Alex Morritt An abundance of choices and the decisions that accompany them are both a benefit and curse of the modern world. Each decision we make, no matter how small, uses up a little bit of the mental energy we have available every day. By focusing on reduci… - [Minimize](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/minimize.md) - – Antoine de Saint-Exupery If you’ve removed the clutter in your life, then the last thing you really want to do is add something. Or so you’d think. Unfortunately, our culture has conditioned us to always want more. We like our toys. We buy impulsively. We take on too many projects. (Well, at leas… - [Declutter and Organize](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/declutter-and-organize.md) - The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. – Hans Hofman Look around your office, your factory, and your home. What do you see? Do you really need all of that stuff on your desk and shelves? Is there a purpose to each item? Does it need to be availab… - [Part Six - Simplify](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/part-six-simplify.md) - That’s been one of my mantras—focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. – Steve Jobs After you have clarified your plans, one of the be… - [All On One Page](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/all-on-one-page.md) - The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. - George Bernard Shawe It is important to effectively communicate and regularly update any plan that guides an organization. Several decades ago, Toyota pioneered what is now known in the Lean world as A3 Thinking,… - [The One Big Thing](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-one-big-thing.md) - A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines. – James Collins and Jerry Porras In their 1996… - [Short, But Not Too Short](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/short-but-not-too-short.md) - It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. - Friedrich Nietzsche Two decades ago, when I was in my first real executive role, I was asked to come up with a strategy for my business unit. For the first time in my career, I was in control and could develop and set my t… - [Create the Hoshin Plan](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/create-the-hoshin-plan.md) - A goal without a plan is just a wish. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Now that you have defined your future state and understand what gaps you need to bridge to get there, it’s time to create a plan for action. In Lean, there is a form of strategic planning called hoshin kanri, also known as hoshin plan… - [Envision the Future State](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/envision-the-future-state.md) - If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else. – Yogi Berra So now you have defined your principles, your why? (purpose), and your mission, and you’ve thoroughly analyzed the current state of your organization, process, or even you. It’s time to look into the future. This is e… - [Document the Current State](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/document-the-current-state.md) - All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them. – Galileo Galilei Before you can improve something, you must first have a very clear understanding of what its current state is. Don’t assume you know what it is. Go to the gemba, be it the factory floor, the… - [Observe the Now](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/observe-the-now.md) - You can observe a lot by just watching. – Yogi Berra Mindful observation takes effort and practice, but it is very valuable if you want to be a leader. It allows you to watch processes in action and look for small nuances and opportunities for improvement. For example, the wait staff at top-tier ho… - [The Beginner’s Mind](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-beginners-mind.md) - In the beginner’s mind there are many possibilities, in the expert’s mind there are few. – Shunryu Suzuki In the discussion on habits, I mentioned how a significant percentage of our decisions are rarely thought about. A disturbing corollary to that is that how we think and what we believe is also… - [What’s Your Why?](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/whats-your-why.md) - Make your work to be in keeping with your purpose. – Leonardo da Vinci Vision and mission statements have long been the rage in organizations as they supposedly define what the organization is about. Do you know what your organization’s vision or mission is? Could you tell me what either one is, ri… - [Define Principles and Values](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/define-principles-and-values.md) - In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. – Thomas Jefferson Many organizations jump to trying to write down their vision or mission statement before taking the time to really think about and define their core principles. Principles are the foundation u… - [Part Five – Clarify](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/part-five-clarify.md) - Clarity of purpose, Clarity of understanding. – Zen saying Now it’s time to analyze your organization and develop a clear plan for improvement. I want you to consider doing this for your own personal improvement as well. What are your values? How do you want to change? What plans can you create? Ke… - [And Then There’s You](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/and-then-theres-you.md) - Rest and self-care are so important. When you take time to replenish your spirit, it allows you to serve others from the overflow. You cannot serve from an empty vessel – Eleanor Brown Up to this point, I’ve talked a lot about teams, organizations, and family. Don’t forget that you are also human a… - [Listen Deeply and Speak Softly](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/listen-deeply-and-speak-softly.md) - Learn to be quiet enough to hear the sound of the genuine within yourself so that you can hear it in others. – Marian Wright Edelman A common problem with leaders, especially as they transition to new leadership roles, is that they do not listen to others very well. Leaders typically progress by sp… - [Joy, Not Fear](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/joy-not-fear.md) - Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. – Buddha A couple years ago, I heard about a remarkable company, Menlo Innovations, created by a remarkable leader, Richard Sheridan. Gemba Academy sent a video team to talk to him and see his company in action, and… - [Coaching, Not Reviews](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/coaching-not-reviews.md) - A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment. – John Wooden We all dislike the traditional performance review. Employees hate going in for them and managers hate writing them. Traditional performance reviews are 90% rearview mirror and 10% (if you’re lucky) discussion about… - [Performance, Not Policy](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/performance-not-policy-6873cdb3fd8b84001bce665d.md) - Few people realize how employee policy manuals, usually given to you on your first day and then mostly forgotten, shape an organization’s culture and thereby its fundamental performance. To give you a reference point, one company I worked for had a forty-plus-page employee manual that started every… - [Trust, Not Control](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/trust-not-control.md) - If you live your life honestly and truthfully, you'll be open and transparent, which leads to trust. – Dalai Lama It is common for better leaders to take a step back from the perils of micromanagement, but in many organizations, controlling managers are still accepted and even expected. When we att… - [Communication, Not Structure](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/communication-not-structure.md) - When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective. – Stephen R. Covey Changing an organization’s structure seems to be the common knee-jerk response to internal issues. My prior company embarked on a reorganization to eliminate arbitrary site- and function-based structur… - [Authentic Character](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/authentic-character.md) - The time is always right to do what is right. – Martin Luther King, Jr A mindful leader has awakened to his or her true meaning, purpose, and values. Hopefully, those values align with a strong sense of integrity, character, passion, and people-centered leadership. The authentic leader takes these… - [Serve](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/serve.md) - True leadership must be for the benefit of the followers, not the enrichment of the leaders. – Robert Townsend Servant leadership has unfortunately become something of a leadership buzzword, yet the concept is sound. Building off of respect, humility, and trust, the servant leader truly thinks of h… - [Share Generously](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/share-generously.md) - Teaching is a gift you give not only to others, but also to yourself. You give and you receive, you teach and you learn. – Andrea Goeglein When I became president of the medical device company, I already had a decade of Lean experience. I knew what fundamentals needed to be put in place, what syste… - [Humility](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/humility.md) - Remain humble. Don’t worry about who receives the credit. Never let power or authority go to your head. – Dick Winters, Beyond Band of Brothers Arrogance and ego have ruined many a leader. Unfortunately, these characteristics are still accepted today, although they shouldn’t be. If your goal is to… - [Empathy and Compassion](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/empathy-and-compassion.md) - Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and the wrong. Sometime in life you will have been all of these. – Lloyd Shearer About fifteen years into my career, I thought of myself as a strong manager. I had progressed up… - [Respect](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/respect.md) - If you want to be respected, you must respect yourself. – Spanish Proverb Respect for people is one of the two pillars of Lean. However, “people” doesn’t just mean the people that report to you, but everyone else in your organization, including your team, your boss, your customers, your suppliers,… - [Oh the Humanity!](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/oh-the-humanity.md) - When we treat people merely as they are, they will remain as they are. When we treat them as if they were what they should be, they will become what they should be. – Thomas S. Monson We’re supposedly all human, but sometimes we don’t act that way. Traditional leadership thinking has taught us that… - [Part Four – Lead](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/part-four-lead.md) - To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. - Eleanor Roosevelt Now that you have worked on understanding yourself and improving your productivity, future tools and concepts will be more easily applied to both personal and professional leadership situations. On the professi… - [Create Flow](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/create-flow.md) - If you are interested in something, you will focus on it, and if you focus attention on anything, it is likely that you will become interested in it. – Mihaly Csíkszentmihályi Those of us in the Lean world are accustomed to discussing “flow,” where work is performed in a steady manner to reduce une… - [The Intentional Routine](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-intentional-routine.md) - Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition. – W. H. Auden One common characteristic of many successful people is that they fill their days with well-defined routines. These routines, when done intentionally, are what allow people to grow their skills and capabilities to the point where t… - [Confront Mortality](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/confront-mortality.md) - There is only one true wealth in all the universe—living time. – Frank Herbert I was hesitant about discussing this topic, but decided it truly does impact my perspective on work and life. As we get older (I’m now in my 50s), the end of our lives—our impending doom, rebirth, or whatever you believe… - [Kanban Work](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/kanban-work.md) - These days, thanks to a simplified personal and professional life, my task list isn’t very complex. It’s lengthy, but not convoluted; therefore, a simple list in my journal works very well. However, this was not always the case, and probably isn’t the case for many of you. To simplify your task lis… - [Journal](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/journal.md) - The discipline of writing something down is the first step toward making it happen. – Lee Iacocca As you become more mindful of yourself and your world and formally reflect on the gaps between what you want to happen and what really happens, you will have a lot of “Ah ha!” realizations. Some will s… - [Deal with it Now](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/deal-with-it-now.md) - He who waits to do a great deal of good at once will never do anything. - Samuel Johnson So how many questions, issues, and decisions are bouncing around in your head? As an elderly family member aged I became increasingly frustrated with how she was making her life complex when it didn’t need to b… - [Leverage Productive Time](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/leverage-productive-time.md) - Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, he rest of us just get up and go to work. – Stephen King Similar to the Hour of Power is the concept that certain parts of the day are more productive than others. Once again we’re all different in this respect, and it’s why some people are “morning people” wh… - [The Hour of Power](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-hour-of-power.md) - O great creator of being grant us one more hour to perform our art and perfect our lives. – Jim Morrison When you think about your days, including the weekends, do you see a pattern of times when you’re most productive? Studies have shown that there is an hour or so each day when we’re especially f… - [The Big Three](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-big-three.md) - Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Like most people, I maintain a fairly long to-do list of personal and professional projects. It’s a few pages long—especially the honey-do portion. Because the list can be intimidating, I… - [Remove Distractions](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/remove-distractions.md) - You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks. – Winston S. Churchill When many people go into the office, they start their day by chatting with some colleagues, checking their email, and surfing the net for a while. Then they start working on whatever p… - [Part Three – Create](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/part-three-create.md) - You cannot eat every tadpole and frog in the pond, but you can eat the biggest and ugliest one, and that will be enough, at least for the time being. – Brian Tracy By now we’ve explored how to reconnect and understand ourselves. Before we dive into the work of clarifying, planning, and improving, w… - [Meditate](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/meditate.md) - You should sit in meditation for twenty minutes a day, unless you are too busy; then you should sit for an hour. – Old Zen Saying Meditation is a practice that teaches you to be mindful of the world around you, mindful of your body and soul, and mindful of the present moment. Being aware of the wor… - [Just Chill](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/just-chill.md) - In a controversy, the instant we feel anger, we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves. – Buddha We all get angry from time to time. A task isn’t completed as we would have expected, a situation seems insurmountable, and the tension builds. Perhaps a key c… - [Be Present, Aware, and Mindful](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/be-present-aware-and-mindful.md) - If we are not fully ourselves, truly in the present moment, we miss everything. – Thich Nhat Hanh Many people have a problem with letting go of the past, no matter if it is painful or pleasant. Not me, however. I’ve always been able to let go of the past almost immediately. My problem has been lett… - [Break the Routine](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/break-the-routine.md) - New habits can be powerful. But habits can also create barriers that limit our perspective, which can hinder kaizen, creativity, and even our knowledge of ourselves. This is known as the proverbial “rut,” and we’ve all been there at times in our lives. Sometimes you just need a break to re-center,… - [Embrace Solitude](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/embrace-solitude.md) - Solitude gives birth to the original in us,to beauty, unfamiliar and perilous…. – Thomas Mann We have become used to a world that floods our senses and keeps us entertained 24/7. Think back to a time before radio and TV, perhaps even before books. Besides working to increase the population, what di… - [Seek Stillness and Quietude](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/seek-stillness-and-quietude.md) - I will take time to be quiet. In this silence I will listen… and I will hear my answers. – Ruth Fishel We live chaotic lives, often surrounded by noise and commotion. We deal with kids, coworkers, traffic, and the barrage of thoughts in our own minds. We move constantly, almost as a way to show tha… - [Self-Inquiry](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/self-inquiry.md) - On a deeper level you are already complete. When you realize that, there is a joyous energy behind what you do. – Eckhart Tolle Last year, some colleagues and I were discussing books we’ve found to be interesting, and my business partner suggested Edgar Schein’s Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of As… - [Gratitude](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/gratitude.md) - Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. – Oprah Winfrey Oftentimes we become so focused on fixing problems and resolving issues that our entire sense of reality shifts. We begin to live in a bubble that e… - [Forgive Yourself](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/forgive-yourself.md) - Forgive yourself. It sounds simple, but don’t think for a second that it is easy. Getting free from the tyranny of past mistakes can be hard work, but definitely worth the effort. And the payoff is health, wholeness and inner peace. In other words, you get your life back. – Steve Goodier We’ve all… - [Connected Spirit](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/connected-spirit.md) - We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey – Stephen R. Covey The majority of humans believe in some type of a connection to a greater power, be it truly divine or just universal. Some may believe but simply go through motions drilled into them since… - [Healthy Body](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/healthy-body.md) - Physical fitness is the basis for all other forms of excellence. – John F. Kennedy Growing up, I was a pretty healthy kid. My parents did a great job of feeding me well. They never let me eat too much junk food, soda, or candy. We stayed active, too. During high school, I was on the swim team, and… - [Part Two - Reconnect](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/part-two-reconnect.md) - Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering. – Saint Augustine Before you start to lead, you first need to… - [The Nexus of Lean and Zen](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-nexus-of-lean-and-zen.md) - You may have already noticed some of the similarities between Lean and Zen from the background information presented, but just in case it is still unclear, let’s review some of the key parallels to set the perspective for future discussion. Both Lean and Zen incorporate the concept of awareness thr… - [Zen and Business](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/zen-and-business.md) - There are numerous books describing how Zen can be applied to business, so I will just give you an overview and avoid the minutiae. Zen helps leaders grow by letting them understand their true nature, in the present. Zen helps organizations grow by enabling them to understand their true values and… - [Core Concepts of Zen](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/core-concepts-of-zen.md) - Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The word Zen comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word chán, which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as “meditation” or “meditative state”. If you mention Zen to many people in the West (well… - [A Short History of Zen](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/a-short-history-of-zen.md) - Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The word Zen comes from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word chán, which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as “meditation” or “meditative state”. If you mention Zen to many people in the West (well… - [Discovering Zen](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/discovering-zen.md) - Zen is not some kind of excitement, but concentration on our usual everyday routine. – Shunryu Suzuki In many respects, my discovery of Zen paralleled my discovery of Lean. For the first decade or so after college, I threw myself headlong into my career and the rewards that came from it—long hours,… - [Core Lean Tools](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/core-lean-tools.md) - One of the attributes that managers and consultants like about Lean is that it has a plethora of tools and methods. Some are more useful than others, and some are straightforward, while others have nonsensical acronyms. Here are the core tools that we’ll use later on in this book. Kaizen: The term… - [The Two Pillars](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-two-pillars.md) - The majority of Lean transformations will fail. Sorry, that’s just the sad truth. The reason for this failure rate is because Lean has two fundamental pillars that most organizations don’t know about, let alone understand the importance of the second. Thesetwo pillars are: * Create value from the c… - [A Short History of Lean](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/a-short-history-of-lean.md) - To many people, Lean manufacturing was invented in Japan and is synonymous with the Toyota Production System (TPS). They will tell you that TPS is the manufacturing philosophy that enabled Toyota to effectively conquer the global automobile market by reducing waste and improving quality. While that… - [Discovering Lean](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/discovering-lean.md) - Ten years after graduating from college with a chemical engineering degree, I was doing pretty well. I had progressed up through the engineering ranks at a Fortune 50 medical device company, moved into operations, and was running a business unit responsible for a high-profile drug infusion pump pro… - [A Note on Motivation and Habits](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/a-note-on-motivation-and-habits.md) - In Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Daniel Pink describes the problems with if/then-reward/punishment extrinsic motivation. He argues that the carrot and stick approach that has been central to management for centuries is not effective for complex and creative tasks and objectiv… - [Who is the Customer?](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/who-is-the-customer.md) - The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings. – Masanobu Fukuoka As we’ll discover shortly, a key concept in Lean is creating value from the perspective of the customer. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to determine who the actual c… - [Part One - Fundamentals](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/part-one-fundamentals.md) - Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible. – St. Francis of Assisi Let’s first lay some groundwork by learning the history and fundamentals of Lean and Zen. Key points from this section: * Always consider the perspective of the customer, whi… - [Resources](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/resources.md) - Online resources, including template downloads and links to referenced books, are at http://www.thesimpleleader.com Recommended books to explore concepts in more detail Building the Fit Organization – Daniel Markovitz The Culture of Kaizen – Jon Miller Discover Your True North – by Bill George Driv… - [About the Author](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/about-the-author.md) - Kevin Meyer has over thirty years of executive leadership, operations, engineering, and Lean transformation experience in the medical device, automotive lighting, and telecom photonics equipment industries. He is currently partner and co-founder of Gemba Academy, which provides Lean and Six Sigma t… - [Using this Book](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/using-this-book.md) - Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless,and add what is specifically your own. – Bruce Lee The Buddha himself famously said, “Be a lamp unto yourselves,” telling his students they must test everything he said against their own experience. Just as adopting another organization’s best practices… - [The Why of The Simple Leader](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-why-of-the-simple-leader.md) - I’ve learned that making a ‘living’ is not the same thing as ‘making a life’. – Maya Angelou A 2011 Gallup poll showed that a third of working adults felt like they were strapped for time. This percentage went up as education and income increased, roughly corresponding to increased professional res… - [Introduction](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/introduction.md) - One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple - Jack Kerouac The first two decades of my career followed the traditional path of a newly-minted engineer. I started out in entry-level roles in R&D and manufacturing, moved up into supervisory roles, and eventually into the management o… - [Foreword](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/foreword.md) - Simple. Leader. Lean. Zen. At first blush, these four words have no obvious or apparent connection. Taken separately, I am certain that they invoke a personal connotation for each of us. Taken together, though, we may be hard pressed conjure up the same level of meaning. To my knowledge, they have… - [Impressions](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/impressions.md) - I have long felt that Lean thinking and mindfulness are the two most important breakthroughs in recent years to help us sort out increasingly chaotic lives. Practicing Lean thinking is a clear path to professional success in hypercompetitive markets just as practicing mindfulness is the way to well… - [Contents](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/contents.md) - * Introduction * Cover Page * The Simple Leader * Copyright * Dedication * Contents * Impressions * Foreword * Introduction * The Why of The Simple Leader.. * Using this Book * About the Author * Resources * Part One – Fundamentals * Who is the Customer? * A Note on Motivation and Habits * Discover… - [Dedication](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/dedication.md) - Dedication To my parents, who encouraged me to explore and learn, and my wife, Kim, who taught me how to be more empathetic and compassionate. A special thanks to Matthew May, whose book The Shibumi Strategy came at just the right time, when I was exploring the application of Zen concepts to person… - [Copyright](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/copyright.md) - ©2016 by Kevin L. Meyer Published by Gemba Academy LLC Printed in the United States of America All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only ex… - [The Simple Leader](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/the-simple-leader-2.md) - The Simple Leader Personal and Professional Leadership at the Nexus of Lean and Zen By Kevin L.Meyer Foreword by Matthew E. May - [Cover Page](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/cover-page.md) ## Optional - [RSS Feed](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/blog/rss/) - [Sitemap](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/sitemap.xml) - [Full content of pages and posts](https://www.thesimpleleader.com/llms-full.txt)