Developing Lean Leaders at All Levels: A Practical Guide

2016 winner of the SHINGO RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATION AWARD, Developing Lean Leaders at all Levels: A Practical Guide is a management Must Read. The Lean Leadership Development Model (LLDM) presented in this book is intuitive and aligns well with accepted principles of operational excellence. It expands significantly on the elements of Lean, structuring them in a more specific way that can be operationalized by lean practitioners. You can learn everything you want about the Toyota Way; you can implement the tools they have created, but if you do not have the behaviors established within your culture, it will not be successful for long-term sustainment of operational excellence. Leadership must walk the talk of true north in every aspect of the Lean Leadership Development Model (LLDM) as conveyed in detail by Dr. Liker in this recent Shingo Award Winning Book. In Developing Lean Leaders at all Levels, we build on the theory in the original book, The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership, and answer the questions: How can I apply this in my organization? What concrete actions can I take to begin the journey of becoming a lean leader? How can I spread this learning to all parts of the organization? What critical tools are needed to turn the theory to practice? This book adds examples from over twenty years of experience by Dr. Liker in working with companies outside of Toyota. The book treats you as a student who will be actively engaged in developing lean leader skills as you read. It acts as a tutorial for beginning the journey.

Jeffrey Liker is Professor of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of Michigan and president of Liker Lean Advisors, LLC--a collection of top-notch lean advisors. He is author of the international best-seller, The Toyota Way and the related books Toyota Way Fieldbook, Toyota Talent, The Toyota Product Development System, Toyota Culture, The Toyota Way to Continuous Improvement, and Toyota Under Fire. His newest book, with Gary Convis, is The Toyota Way to Lean Leadership. His articles and books have won eleven Shingo Prizes. He plays golf, watches football and basketball, and is relearning classical guitar which he stopped playing over 30 years ago. His wife Deb and daughter Emma, support his writing and his son Jesse is his toughest critic and best editor.