Lean Six Sigma Academy

I remember the night well…

I was sitting on my couch half watching TV while surfing the Internet. I had just visited one of the only blogs I consistently read back in those days – Gemba Panta Rei – which as many of you know is written by one of my mentors, Jon Miller of Gemba Research.

Jon was actually working on a series of posts that really made me realize how powerful blogging could be. Here is the exact post I read that night.

Blogger Here I Come

Well, after a few moments of contemplation I decided to see how hard it would be to start my very own blog. Since I could barely spell HTML I knew I needed a simple solution.

After about 30 seconds on Google I found my way to Google’s Blogger platform. A few minutes after that the longest URL in the history of lean and six sigma blogging was born – leansixsigmaacademy at blogspot dot com. What was I thinking?

Here We Are

In any event that night started me on an amazing journey that has culminated in 401 published articles to which the coolest readers in the entire blogosphere (that would be you all) have gone onto leave 1,477 comments to.

Technically some of these comments are from me replying to comments… but hey, we do get our fair share of interaction here on LSS Academy so I am not complaining!

A Look Back

Anyhow, as a sort of walk down memory lane I thought I’d share a few articles that mean a lot to me.

In other words, these may not be the most popular or the most commented posts here at LSS Academy… instead they simply make me smile whenever I read them.

And as I’m sure you’ll soon see these articles were strongly influenced by a group of very special (little) people. Here goes.

• Riding a Bike: “When was the last time you laughed like a child after achieving something so wonderful?”
• Learning to Swim: “Finally, last night she just put her face in the water and swam. And just like that she had it.”
• A Lesson in Courage: “I couldn’t see her face… but I could hear her laughing hysterically. In fact, she made similar sounds last summer when she learned to swim.”

In closing, I’d like to thank all LSS Academy readers for your participation and encouragement over the past two years. This blog is ultimately meant for you. I’d also like to thank all of my blogging pals including Kevin, Mark, Pete, Mike, and Jon. God Bless!

Don’t Miss the Next 400

To stay up to date on the next 400 articles here on LSS Academy feel free to suscribe to our full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by email and have new articles sent directly to your inbox.

So I am trying Twitter out.

I’m still getting the hang of it… but I plan to use it in 2009 for short “micro-blogs” as well as for general conversation. I also hope to get feedback, ask questions, answer questions, and just get to know more people!

If you’d like to ‘follow’ me please visit: http://twitter.com/lssacademy and click ‘follow’.

You will need to set a Twitter account up which is super easy and free.  I hope to catch up with you soon!  

Here is a short video does a great job of explaining what Twitter is all about.

I already have a few ideas for future videos… but I am interested to know what you, the readers of LSS Academy, are interested in seeing. 

Would you prefer more demonstration type videos similar to the one piece flow simulation?  If so, any ideas?

Or would you prefer I discuss a particular topic for a few minutes?  If so, what topic?

Do you have any videos you would like to make or share?  If so, I would be happy to share this everyone (giving you credit of course).

Please leave a comment below with your ideas.  Much thanks in advance!

Photo by akolmetz

Our friend, Mark, over at the Lean Blog is battling some technical difficulties.  He is working hard to fix things. 

I have been asked by a few folks what the funny looking orange icon on my front page was all about. So, let’s take a break from lean and six sigma and talk about the wonders of RSS.

The Good Old Days

In the old days when we wanted to keep tabs on our favorite websites we had to bookmark or favorite them. The problem with this is it required you to manually go to each and every bookmark to see if something had been updated.

RSS changes this. RSS stands for “Really Simple Syndication” and will change the way you follow your favorite website or blog.

How it Works

When you add your favorite website or blog into your RSS reader, all you have to do is sit back and let it tell you when new content has been added to your favorite website or blog… simple as that!  New content will normally be in bold much like a new email is in your inbox.

Getting Started

The first thing you need to do is get a reader. Personally, I use Google’s Reader (it’s free) but there are many more out there besides Google’s. Yahoo, for example, allows you to add feeds to your Yahoo home page.

Next, it’s time to add your favorite sites into the reader. The easiest way to do this is to look for the orange feed icon on the website in question. Once you find it you just click it and choose the applicable reader you use.

Email Updates

Some folks prefer to keep track of things via email in which case you can also sign up for updates via email. Many websites and blogs, including LSS Academy, have an email subscription link right on the front page. You simply type your email address in and you’re done. To avoid any funny business you normally have to confirm your subscription.

Now, let’s practice

As we know, to learn something we must do something. So, if you are not using RSS today why don’t you give it a shot? You can practice a few ways:

1. Enter your email address (top right side of page) in order to receive updates from LSS Academy via your email. You can always unsubscribe later… why you would ever want to is beyond me… but, alas, you could.
2. Sign up for a free reader and then click on the orange button (right above email section) to subscribe to LSS Academy that way.
3. Sign up for a free reader and follow this link to sign up (reduces the waste of excess mouse motion).

Be Careful

When I first started using RSS I subscribed to around 80 blogs and websites.  That was far too many for me.  As of today, I have 18 sites I follow via RSS.

One of my favorite “blogging” sites is Daily Blog Tips.  On it Daniel shares all kinds of good ideas for those of us who attempt to blog.  Recently Daniel held a contest where the participants had to simply use “3″ in the title of the article.  I thought this sounded like fun and quickly wrote up Three Easy Steps to Becoming More Effective. 

For me, the coolest part of this contest is I am 110% positive there have been people who may have never heard the words “lean manufacturing” in their lifetime had they not clicked to read my article.  That, to me, is priceless!

The participants get to decide who the winner of the contest is by casting their votes on their blog.  I have received some votes from people (one was even a photographer who thought my post about “flow” applied to his readers) which has been nice!

There were 115 participants and while I have not read each article word for word I have skimmed them all and narrowed my list of favorites down to these:

• 3 Reason Why Entrepreneurs Succeed!
• 3 Fatal Errors of Blogging
• 3 Signs that You are in the Wrong Company
• 3 Ways to Have a Luxurious Hawaii Vacation on the Cheap

So give these articles a read.  And to check out the other submissions click on over to Daily Blog Tips and read to your hearts content.

If you enjoyed this post please subscribe to this blog via RSS feed.

I have been blogging for around 6 months now.  It’s safe to say I am hooked.  With this said, after some hansei, I have formulated the top 5 blogging mistakes I have made thus far.  If you are thinking of blogging, or are very new to blogging, please take note and learn from my mistakes lest you make the same ones.

1. Going cheap and starting with a free Blogger account.  I now realize how superior a self hosted WordPress blog is to Blogger but was clueless when starting out.  If you are serious about blogging don’t go cheap.  Start off with a self hosted WordPress blog and move on with your life.
2. Snapping at a commenter.  While it only happened once I got a little “snippy” with a commenter who didn’t see eye to eye with me.  There is no rule stating “all must agree with Ron” written anywhere.  I was wrong and apologized for my mistake. 
3. Not commenting enough on other blogs.  Other bloggers are often the best readers you will have.  So, you should take the time to comment on their blogs.  And don’t just leave a short comment like “great post.”  Really participate.  Then, this blogger is far more likely to do the same.
4. Focusing too much on SEO.  Perhaps this is not that big of an issue but I find myself worrying too much about SEO when I would be better served focusing on content.
5. Monetization.  I have experimented with some monetization methods such as Adsense and Amazon links to help pay for hosting and the design work I had done.  But again, this can easily steal the focus away from the only thing that matters which is finding ways to add value to the readers of this blog.  And nothing turns me off more than a blog with tons of banners, links, and ContentLink spam (which I tried for one day and then killed… thanks for the advice Mark) all over the place.

I am sure there are others I am leaving out.  But if a new blogger were to stay focused on not repeating these 5 mistakes they will be off a solid blogging start.

If you are a blogger feel free to share any additional tips or lessons you have learned along the way.

If you enjoyed this post please subscribe to this blog via RSS feed. What’s RSS?

Update: Irony is a real SOB isn’t it.  As soon as I plug WP my recent comments and posts plugins go on the blink. We’ll get to the bottom of it soon.  Sorry for the glitch!

If you want an easy way to follow this blog or any of the other awesome lean and six sigma blogs out there (see blogroll) you need to be using RSS.

What are RSS Feeds?

I won’t go into a lengthy discussion here about what RSS feeds are as I barely understand how they work myself.  But I do know how to use them to my advantage!  If you want to read more about RSS click here. 

5 Steps to using RSS

1. Find a blog or website you like and want to follow.
2. Look for a RSS button (normally orange).  Mine is in the top right hand side of the blog.
3. Click the button.
4. Choose the reader you prefer.  Personally, I choose “View Feed XML” as it places my favorite blogs in the left hand side of my “Favorites Center.”  Although, Google probably has the most popular reader.
5. Once you have the feed saved you can right click on it, go to the properties, and choose how often you want it to look for updates.  Default is usually once per day.

Email Subscriptions

If you don’t want to mess with all this you can also sign up to receive most blogs via email.  You can get LSS Academy by email by entering your email address into the little box under the aforementioned orange RSS button.  Then, when a new post is submitted you will get an email.

Subscribe Today

With this said, if you feel so inclined please practice making your first RSS subscription by clicking here!  If you have any issues or questions please email me and I will help you sort it out.

One of the ideas I have been tossing around is inviting others interested in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement in general to “guest blog” here at LSS Academy. 

So if you are a Blogger wanting to contribute or perhaps you have thought about sharing your thoughts with others but just don’t have the time or energy to start your own blog (yes, it is hard work) please email me and let me know.

Also, if you know of someone who may be interested in this please click the “Share This” button below and click on the email tab. 

When I first transitioned this blog over to Wordpress (WP) I wondered if I had made a terribe mistake.  Blogger was so easy to use and format.  You can drag and drop things to your hearts desire.  This was gone when I went to a self hosted WP site.

But now that most of the bugs are ironed out I am beginning to reap the benefits of switching.  The benefits are related to the thousands of free “plugins” available. 

With this said, here are some of the latest and greatest features of this blog.

1. You can now check a box and follow the comments of any post.  You will see this when you first submit a comment. 
2. There is a popularity meter that shows which posts are the most popular.  I am not sold on this one but will try it out for awhile.  There are also a ton of reports I can access to learn more about what people like.  I love reports!
3. I found a nice, shmula like, “share it” button that allows people to submit a post to a number of different social networking sites.  You can also email the post to someone from the same button.  This is much cleaner than the way I had it setup before.

Let me know what you think of these new features.  And if you have any ideas for what would make the blog better please do share!