January 2016

Welcome to the Gemba Academy Newsletter!

It's the start of a new year and the perfect time to start your continuous improvement journey, or breathe new life into your existing one. Be it the School of Lean, School of Six Sigma, or both, we're looking foward to another year of sharing the power of video-based training with you.

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As always, we'd like to hear from you with comments and suggestions.

New Videos

Check out our New Videos page to see everything we've added recently!

	The Letter Factory School of Lean: 5S Workplace Productivity This year we will be adding several simulations and games to help reinforce various topics. The first simulation is in our 5S Workplace Productivity course, where we've added The Letter Factory. This easy simulation shows the power of 5S in an office or manufacturing environment.
	Zingerman's Gemba Academy Live! Ron and the Gemba Academy team visit Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, Michigan to learn how they leverage lean to create a world class mail order food service business. In this 20 video series you will learn how Zingerman's applies heijunka to level load their operations which, although it flies in the face of conventional batch thinking, creates a very efficient operation. You will also see how the company hires, trains, and treats their team members.
	Franciscan Health - Coming Soon! Gemba Academy Live! Ron and the Gemba Academy team just returned from a visit to Franciscan Health in Indianapolis. This series of videos showing Lean in a healthcare environment will be released later this month. Stay tuned! Remember: subscribers receive access to all new content!

New Podcasts

Whether you’re on-the-go, in the office, or at home, the Gemba Academy podcast is the perfect addition to your continuous improvement journey. Our guests come from all different backgrounds and industries, so there’s really something for everyone.

Here’s a rundown of our latest episodes:

	Ep 92: How to Restart Your Lean Transformation Guest: Zane Ferry Zane Ferry discusses the process of restarting a lean transformation, including why it happens and what to do to get back on track
	Ep 91: How to Become a Better Learner in 2016 Guests: Ron Pereira It’s 2016…time to start thinking about how to make this year even better than the last. In this episode Ron shares some of the personal improvements he's been working on, as well as Jim Kwik’s FAST approach to becoming a better learner.
	Ep 90: How to Drive Fear out of Your Organization Guest: Dan Markovitz Dan Markovitz discusses fear, its effects, and how to remove it from your organization. This is a great episode for reflection, especially as the new year approaches.
	Ep 89: How to Improve Your Health with Lean Guest: Paul Akers This episode contains an entire audiobook, written and read by FastCap founder Paul Akers. It’s called "Lean Health", and it’s about how Paul drastically improved his personal health using his knowledge of lean and a continuous improvement mindset.

New Blog Posts

A deep dive into lean theory, thoughts on leadership, ruminations on applying lean outside the box. Each week you can read something a little different on the Gemba Academy Blog!

Here are some of the most recent posts.

	A Goal to Explore Out of the Box Kevin Meyer Kevin breaks down his goal setting process, including his "do something different" approach.
	How I Stopped Making New Year's Resolutions by Jon Miller Jon explains how and why he stopped making New Year's resolutions.
	Happy Winter Solstice Steve Kane Steve describes his process for annual reflection and rejuvenation.
	How Applesauce Saves a Hospital $30,000 per Year by Ron Pereira Ron shares three key lessons he learned on a recent Gemba Academy Live! shoot at Franciscan Health in Indianapolis.
	Putting Things on Top of Other Things by Jon Miller Jon uses a Monty Python sketch to highlight how our true purpose often gets hidden.

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Customer Success Corner

One particular obstacle to get over with lean transformation is making problem solving a fundamental part of the organization’s culture. The first step in problem solving is acknowledging the fact that a problem exists. Many organizations suffer from the practice of keeping problems hidden.

Improvements and countermeasures should always be celebrated. Should we also celebrate bringing the problem to light?

Consider a kamishibai board or some other form of visual management to track the discovery of problems on a daily basis. Red for the day would indicate no problems were discovered. Green would indicate a problem was brought to the team’s attention. Give a round of applause for every problem discovered and congratulate the team member who reported the problem.

Be sure to include the team in the prioritization of problems to be solved and the implementation of countermeasures.

Steve Kane
Director of Customer Success

Lean Tip of the Month

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."

- John Quincy Adams

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