What does one of Lean's most independent thinkers want leaders and managers to know?
A Few More Thoughts delivers seven hard-hitting essays that challenge cherished assumptions about Deming, kaizen, labor unions, and the purpose of leadership itself. Drawing on first-hand interviews with Lean professionals, decades of executive observation, and rigorous historical analysis, the author exposes why classical management keeps winning - and what progressive management leaders must finally do differently.
The book examines what W. Edwards Deming missed about classical management's resilience, why Lean professionals change jobs every 18-24 months, how the kaizen process has stagnated outside of Toyota, where Lean's strategy went wrong in 1988, and what leadership's purpose actually is as opposed to what followers hope it to be.
Grounded in interviews, primary sources, and decades of industry and academic experience, it offers practical insights for practitioners and researchers willing to engage difficult questions.
Provocative, fact-based, and refreshingly free of cheerleading, this is essential reading for anyone interested in real organizational change.