Written by Charmaine Cunningham ‘Buy-in’ is a term commonly used when talking about change in the workplace. We want everyone to buy in to the change.  Often, supervisors and managers appear completely perplexed when people do not simply buy in or change their ways...

Some of us are not very good at showing respect. It is not just events in South Africa over the past month that make me say that. ‘Show respect’ is one of the core calls we make to lean leaders. That simple phrase was presented to me at a Lean Summit in the USA around...

Written by Charmaine Cunningham In 2005 Lewis Pugh undertook the world’s most southerly long-distance swim at Peterman Island in the Antarctic Peninsula at South 65⁰ latitude. Antarctica is the world’s coldest and windiest continent with more than 98% of the continent...

On the 27th and 28th May, I will be leading Lean Institute Africa’s first Lean Human Resources Masterclass. I am writing to you today to share some of what I have planned for the Masterclass and something of my professional experience. Lean HR Masterclass As I see it,...

By Professor Norman Faull I have before me a book entitled Understanding A3 Thinking (Durward Sobek and Art Smalley, Productivity Press 2008). In meetings with American and European Lean practitioners this book seems to be respected universally as an introduction to...

One of the privileges of my job is that I get to go on study visits to organisations with mature lean management systems in operation. It is not only a privilege, but also therapeutic in that the work of Lean Institute Africa (LIA) mostly involves helping...

The GDoH and Lean Institute Africa (LIA) have initiated a programme to improve staff efficiency and reduce patient waiting times in provincial hospitals. The Gauteng Department of Health (GDoH), in collaboration with the Lean Institute Africa (LIA), has initiated a...

Written by Charmaine Cunningham I’ve been collaborating with the Lean Institute Africa for the past six months and the collaboration has now been formalised.  As such, Lean Institute Africa will be posting some of my blogs on the news section of their webpage. A bit...

The first ever Toyota Kata conference took place two weeks ago in Florida, USA. I was very fortunate to attend, and particularly that Mike Rother gave me ‘Kata Geek’ status to be on the inside track of the learning. Why am I interested enough to fly across the world...

Written by Charmaine Cunningham Paging through textbooks on how to manage people I noticed how much time is dedicated to the importance of establishing harmony within the workspace.  The picture is painted of the utopian workspace where everyone is in agreement on...