Blog Articles
The Big Mistake with HR
November 2, 2023 – Cheryl Jekiel
Earlier this year, I shared an article on how HR has lost the trust of employees. The intensity of the response was nothing short of shocking. We received more than 600 comments, many of which were long letters. This topic certainly struck a nerve. Several of the posts were from people who had been deeply disappointed in how HR had tre...
Read Full ArticleBuilding Our People’s Trust in an Organization
October 4, 2023 – Abel Gomez
One of the primary challenges for leaders is helping people develop trust and confidence in the organization. Trust is an element in business that few leaders understand and, therefore, are unable to permeate to their people. Developing trust is the basis for creating real change and for eradicating paradigms and stigmas that exist within...
Read Full ArticleThe Power of Visuality in Turbulent Times: An Opportunity for Shingo Principles
September 7, 2023 – Gwendolyn Galsworth
COVID-19 didn’t just change our economy. COVID-19 changed us. A well-worn Hindu proverb tells us: Nothing changes if nothing changes. Reverse it and the message remains: If nothing changes, nothing changes. COVID-19 was like that. Looking at it through the wide end of the lens, COVID-19 generated fierce macroeconomic ...
Read Full ArticleChallenging for the Shingo Prize and Shingo Insight
August 14, 2023 – Shaun Barker, Brittney Ogden, and Helen Zak
The mission of the Shingo Institute is to improve the process of improvement by conducting cutting-edge research, providing relevant education, performing insightful organizational assessments, and recognizing organizations that are committed to achieving sustainable world-class results. Since the inauguration of the Shingo Prize in 1988,...
Read Full ArticleJust What the Doctor Ordered
June 22, 2023 – Skip Steward, Shingo Faculty Fellow
I have been a Shingo examiner since 2014 and have worked in a large healthcare system for the past ten years. But only in the past two-plus years have I realized that the Shingo Institute, and specifically the Shingo ModelTM, is “just what the doctor ordered” when it comes to the multitude of ills in healthcare. Most of my thirt...
Read Full ArticleEngaging Employees to a True Purpose
March 21, 2023 – John Quirke, S A Partners
Very few, if any, people in business feel that they are in a stable environment. Perhaps this is because businesses face constant pressure to grow, change, and improve. This pressure may arise from external sources, or it may be self-imposed but, either way, the journey to attain levels of sustainable excellence is seldom direct or easy.&...
Read Full ArticleThe Key Relationships Between Align, Enable, and Improve
March 16, 2023 – acob Raymer, Shingo Faculty Fellow
Some of the key objectives in a Lean transformation are to establish alignment, enable people, and build a culture of continuous improvement—the three dimensions of the Shingo Model. The Shingo Guiding Principles help us better understand what each of these dimensions should look like. But as I have worked with organization...
Read Full ArticleWhy the Shingo Principles Can Help Prevent Organizational Burnout
July 12, 2022 – The Manufacturing Institute
The term burnout was coined in the 1970s by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger to describe the consequences of severe stress. Today, burnout seems to have become a mass phenomenon that affects people in all professions. It is also one of the most widely discussed mental health problems of our time. A recent repor...
Read Full ArticleLeading for Passion, Purpose, and Performance
June 9, 2022 – Michael Martyn
Recently, the Shingo Institute held its 34th Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida. The theme of the conference was “Building a Culture of Growing, Enduring Excellence” and the sessions included topics on creating great culture, leading with humility, nourishing employee engagement, meeting people where they are, inspiring people to be th...
Read Full ArticleSales Growth Plan: The Missing Link in Most Lean Startups or Revitalizations
April 29, 2022 – RC Caldwell
All case studies data and information have been altered to maintain the confidentiality and proprietary materials of the companies involved. Why is a Sales Growth Plan Important to Lean Journey Startups? I do not know how often a company leader has said to me, “Don’t use the word ‘Lean’ here because it’s a bad word...
Read Full ArticleLeading and Managing are Not the Same Thing
March 18, 2022 – Gwendolyn Galsworth
The year: 1989. Florida Power & Light had just won the Deming Prize, Japan’s national quality award, and became the first company outside of Japan to do so. Congratulations poured in from all over the world and deservedly so. The words of the company’s CEO, Charles Turner, struck a particularly insightful note: The biggest obstacle...
Read Full ArticleWhy Not Collaborate? Check the Three Insights of Organizational Excellence
March 13, 2022 – Bruce Hamilton
In my experience, collaboration is a prized quality of enterprise excellence more frequently discussed as an elusive ideal than actually practiced. Yet, this non-technical aspect of continuous improvement—working together—is truly the catalyst that amplifies both individual and organizational innovation. Therefore, as an examiner for the ...
Read Full ArticleWhy Bother With a CI Culture Assessment System?
February 17, 2022 – Chris Butterworth, Morgan Jones, and Peter Hines
“Why Bother?” is deliberately intended to be a thought-provoking title. It also reflects the authors’ experiences with some of the struggles that organizations go through to get real value from an assessment system. One of the most common reactions we see from many people can be summarized as, “Please, not another audit from HQ!” CI le...
Read Full ArticlePurpose, Passion, and Performance: The Power of Omotenashi in the Workplace
February 12, 2022 – Mike Martyn
Note: This article is excerpted from Mike’s new book, Management for Omotenashi: Learning to Lead for Purpose, Passion, and Performance, recipient of the 2023 Shingo Publication Award. Management is the act of adhering to the process and managing complexity. By contrast, leadership is about setting direction, instituting change, a...
Read Full ArticleLeave No Trace
February 2, 2022 – Douglas Dawson, Leg Up Solutions
About 18 months ago, I was part of a team that worked with an Australian business for a specific engagement. During our meetings, I became fascinated with this business and their substantial commitment to training new people as part of the onboarding process, or new employee orientation (NEO). The training was specific as to culture, syst...
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