Lean Newsletter Archive, May 2010

In the last couple of months I’ve seen a smattering of good news on the economic front. I still predict a long, hard road ahead, but at least the trajectory seems to be pointing in the right direction now. But as business picks up, the challenge for many companies is going to be figuring out how to manage their growth.

This will be especially hard, as hiring is going to lag the rise in demand. The volatile economy has made senior leaders reluctant to bring in new people, even with some promising indicators. Unfortunately, this decision has a large impact at the front line of a company, both for leaders and team members.

Managers have to figure out how to get everything done, and employees have to keep the increasing pressure from stealing their job satisfaction. Daily management offers a solution to both groups.

Back in March, I did an article on the 9 Steps to Developing a Daily Management System. Continuing on that theme-I think it is that important-this month’s featured article outlines the basics of Daily Management. I’ve also created a Daily Management Worksheet to help get you started.

Finally, I’ve made my Daily Management Boot Camp the featured product for this month. This intensive, high-value training and coaching session will give you the edge you need to beat the competition, and keep your job from beating you.

And, as always, best wishes on your Lean journey.

Feel free to forward this email to anyone you think might benefit from it.

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There was a lot of behind-the-scenes work on Velaction’s website this month.

• We’ve taken steps to speed up the response time of our pages to improve your user experience. In short, we turned a few dials, flipped a few levers, and you should see pages pop up a whole lot quicker.
• We’ve organized many of our directories and menus to be easier to use.
• We’ve streamlined the look of our buttons.

We hope you’ve found your time browsing our pages to be more enjoyable because of these changes.

The Secret to Successfully Running a Lean Office: Daily Management

The unfortunate truth is that most leaders, especially in an office environment, don’t have as good of an idea of what is going on as they think they do.

If you are the manager of an administrative team, there’s a good chance that the last comment offended you. If it did, ask yourself the following questions…MORE

This month, we are offering 20% off our featured product, the Daily Management Boot Camp.

Smart leaders knows that daily management systems are critical to successfully running their operations.

The Daily Management Boot Camp is an intensive one-day training and coaching session designed to get a daily management system up and running in a hurry. The package includes pre-training to help the attendees collect data ahead of time and a follow-up session to help iron out the inevitable questions that come after putting the system in place.

Best of all, this Boot Camp pays for itself. Cut back on your team’s overtime, or delay a new hire as your operation grows, and you’ve already paid back your investment.

If the savings you get from using daily management are not enough to convince you to book right now, as an added bonus to our subscribers, we are offering a 20% pre-payment discount on our fee to anyone who books our Daily Management Boot Camp before May 14. That’s $500 off our regular price of $2,500.

Contact us at 1.800.670.5805 or Info@Velaction.com to take advantage of this special offer.

The Fine Print:

• This offer is only valid in the U.S.
• The discount does not apply to travel expenses.
• Booking must be completed by May 14 and payment must be received by May 24 to receive the discount.
• Please refer to this offer at the time of booking to receive the discount.

Do Goals Limit Team Performance?

Podcast: The Lean Management Mindset

Performance Reviews are a Batch Process

Obstacles to Lean

• Lean Consulting
• Lean Training
• Lean Products
• Lean Services
• Lean Store

Jeff is also the author of Whaddaya Mean I Gotta Be Lean? Building the bridge from job satisfaction to corporate profit. This unique book provides a blueprint for not only surviving, but also thriving in a Lean company. Plus it's like two books in one. The first half provides an overview about how to find job satisfaction in a continuous improvement culture. The second half addresses over a hundred problems that people face when they are asked to do more with less. Whaddaya Mean? is available at www.Amazon.com or at Velaction’s Lean Store.