the Simple Leader
the Simple Leader, Personal and Professional Leadership at the Nexus of Lean and Zen, by Kevin L. Meyer, Gemba Academy 2016
At first glance, the title is a puzzle - how could Lean and Zen ever be connected? But author Kevin Meyer shows us through his industry experience, including many challenges and one noted "failure," and offers his view to a work life that requires more than the ordinary make-the-parts, move-the-machine approach. His history of lean goes beyond Toyota and The Machine that Changed the World, although it omits Doc Hall's Zero Inventories, the book that launched JIT and turned us toward understanding inventory as the repository of so many production errors.
"The majority of Lean transformations will fail." Thank you Kevin Mayer!
"The nexus of Lean and Zen includes awareness through observation, simplicity, balance and harmony, and flow." Meyer shares with us his application of lean principles to his own family life, and one has the feeling that as a leader he is unafraid of crossing philosophical boundaries to find balance and growth.
"Over the past couple decades I learned to scuba dive, windsurf, and code HTML by hand. I wrote a book, rebuilt a yellow 1973 Triumph Spitfire, became a vegetarian (rather, a "pescaterian"), skied in five different European countries over six days, started a blog and ran a full marathon. Toward the end of each year, I identify something to try that is different, unique or challenging, and develop a plan to dive into it. During the next year, I execute, reflect and adjust based on my observations. Sound familiar? Plan, do study, act."
The Simple Leader is actually a lovely book about a leader's life - work, dreams, challenges, plans - not really about Lean and not really about zen. For that very deliberate approach to designing a good work life integrated with "the rest of it - " family, off-hours activities - I enjoyed the read.
