The Work Your Leaders Should Stop Doing: How to Delegate Ownership, Not Just Tasks
I came across a line recently that made me stop: If everything needs your attention, what actually deserves your attention? It’s an interesting question for leaders because being busy can look a lot like being essential. Your calendar is full. People want your opinion. Decisions keep coming your way. But at some point, that stops […]
What Toyota Taught Me About Kaizen: Why “Continuous Improvement” Misses the Point
For years, I’ve heard Kaizen translated into two words: continuous improvement. It’s not exactly wrong. But after working as a Kaizen Leader at Toyota, I learned that those two words leave out one of the most important parts: improvement isn’t just about making the process better. It’s about developing people who know how to make […]
Connected Before Intelligent: Why Systems Integration Must Precede AI
In the first week of September, industry insiders were warning that AI could pose an existential threat. At the same time, another conversation was gaining momentum: Should we deliberately slow it down? Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei has argued for “pacing the frontier,” raising a bigger question about whether AI capabilities are advancing faster than our […]
How to Make Yourself Less Necessary (Without Losing Control of Your Company)
“I didn’t come here to do this.” A client said this to me recently as we started talking about some of the operational problems inside her company. She wasn’t being resistant. She was exhausted. She went on: “It changes so much, it’s hard to keep up. And I can’t keep doing this. I can’t keep […]
The Risk of Waiting to Change
There is a sentence I hear from leadership teams all the time: “We know this needs to change. We’re just not ready yet.” On the surface, that sounds responsible. Maybe you’re waiting until Q1, until after the next hire, until you finish implementing a new system, or until things calm down and you have more […]
Stop Handing Out COO Titles: What a COO Is Actually Responsible For
There’s a pattern I’m seeing more and more in growing companies. They don’t know what to call the person handling operations. So they give them a bigger title . Director of Operations. VP of Operations. Head of Operations. Integrator. Sometimes even COO. The problem is that a lot of these people aren’t actually doing those […]
What is Gemba? The Operational Discipline Most Leaders Get Wrong
I remember watching leaders visit the floor at Toyota for the first time. From a distance, it didn’t look particularly remarkable. They weren’t giving speeches. They weren’t carrying checklists. They weren’t walking around pointing out mistakes. If you’re working to improve the way work flows in your organization, start with my free Implement Scalable Processes […]
Why Digital Transformation Fails After GoLive (and How to Fix It)
When leaders talk about digital transformation challenges, the conversation usually centers on selecting the right technology, setting budgets, or creating implementation timelines. In my experience, those aren’t the hardest parts. The real challenge begins after golive. I’ve seen organizations invest months evaluating software, preparing training materials, and planning their rollout. Leadership is aligned, the project […]
What Business Leaders Need to Know From Elon Musk’s Interview With The Economist
Elon Musk recently sat down with The Economist for a wide-ranging conversation about artificial intelligence, robotics, economics, politics, and the future of work. As is often the case with Musk, the most dramatic predictions received the most attention. He spoke about AI becoming more intelligent than humanity, robots performing more of the physical labor currently […]
Business Process Documentation vs. Process Mapping: Why Clarity Comes Before the SOP
When organizations reach out to me for help, one of the first requests I hear is, “We need better business process documentation.” They want standard operating procedures. Training manuals. Checklists. Documentation that employees can follow consistently. Those are all valuable. But I almost never start there. The reason is simple: documenting a process doesn’t improve […]
