The Lean Community is small and the information flow fast. At least I thought so in the past. Still true is that the group of real lean thinkers is very small and so it is not surprising that this people are very busy and not omnipresent.
In the last three month I spend most of my time on Assignments for Simpler. Besides leading Rapid Improvement Events (RIEs) on Gembas of big international companies most of the time on my own, we (Simpler) meet quite often for an exchange between us Senseis. This exchange is between real lean thinkers and of very high value for me. A circle of Lean Experts each of them with at least 10 years of lean experience leading minimum 100 RIEs on various Gembas in their past.
For not just enjoying the talk I took the book of my Simpler colleagues Chris and George with me and enjoyed reading them. Besides, George was also one of my former Danaher colleagues who initiated the Lean Thinking inside Danaher and contributed a lot towards the, nowadays called, Danaher Business System (DBS).
I can highly recommend both books!
Chris Coopers book „The little book of lean“ is a very compact 66 pages book, easy to read with cartoons and few but powerful words. As Chris told me just this week, he wrote the book because he wanted to compress his 20 years of experience in the most efficient way. I think he did a good job. I would like to quote just a few lines from page 10 of his book to give you an impression what do I mean with experience:
[blockquote cite=“Chris Cooper“]PRECEPTS: I have learned the hard way that Lean cannot take hold in any lasting sense without the acceptance of the following precepts:
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- Dissatisfaction with the Status Quo
- Humility
- Respect for people, society, and the environment
- A belief that Lean works wherever work is done
- „Gemba“ wisdom that is valued over theoretical knowledge
- Leadership that believes all of the above
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The book of my Danaher and Simpler colleague Goerge Koenigsacker is an absolute must for anybody in business. I just want to quote my former boss Larry Culp, president and CEO of the Danaher Corporation on this book:
[blockquote cite=“Larry Culp, president and CEO, Danaher Corporation“]Any senior executive serious about leading a lean transformation should start here. Koenigsacker captures well the essence of sustained lean success, not just the feel-good kaizen event.[/blockquote]
Go and buy it. If you don’t know where, write us.