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It’s Always Day 1

July 23, 2009 By 4 Comments

I just got done watching this video of Jeff Bezos, of Amazon, where he announced that Amazon has snatched up Zappos. I first saw this over on John Hunter’s blog.

And while this is big news for sure… the thing that I loved about this video were the four things Bezos claimed he knew. In summary Mr. Bezos knows.

  1. You must obsess over customers
  2. You must invent (on behalf of said customers)
  3. You must think long-term
  4. And rather than give the 4th away I’ll let you watch the video.  Of course once you see what the 4th thing is you’ll realize you’ve seen it before.

Jeff Bezos really gets it.  He inspires me.  I hope he does the same for you. If you are viewing this via your RSS reader or email you will need to visit the site to see the video.

Filed Under: Leadership, Site Update

The Greatest in the Kingdom

March 12, 2009 By 5 Comments

I was recently reading my all time favorite book and came across some comments that caused me to ponder a few of the articles I’ve recently written about being an expert and how many hours it takes to become an expert.

Here’s the text that brought me amazing clarity.

They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they remained silent. They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was the greatest. Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, “If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all” (Mark 9:33-35).

This pretty much sums it all up wouldn’t you say?

Have a safe, blessed, and outstanding weekend everyone.  And thanks for reading LSS Academy.  I sincerely appreciate it.

Filed Under: Leadership, Site Update

10,000 Hours of Practice

February 26, 2009 By 10 Comments

10,000 hours. That’s precisely how long you need to practice something before you can even think about calling yourself an expert.

Well, at least this is what Malcolm Gladwell claims in his newest book Outliers, which I must say is one of the most fascinating books I’ve ever encountered.

The Story of Success

Outliers is all about what makes people great. But it’s not your typical book that rambles on about if you believe it you can achieve it. No, you won’t read anything like that.

Instead, Gladwell explains why things such as the month you were born may very well explain why most NHL players made it to the big leagues. He also explains why Chinese children dominate American children when it comes to mathematics.

10,000 Hours of Practice

But the thing that really stuck with me, and I’d to share with you now, is how Gladwell hypothesizes that it takes – on average – 10,000 hours of practice to master a skill.

Take Bill Gates. Did you know that the young Bill Gates spent more than 10,000 hours programming computers before starting Microsoft?

How about those lads from England… you know the Beatles? I bet you didn’t know they were quite terrible before having the opportunity to perform as much as five hours a night seven days a week in Hamburg, Germany before making it big.

Sure Gates and the Beatles had talent. But they also worked extremely hard. You see, it seems they practiced their way to the top.

What about Continuous Improvement?

So I couldn’t help but wonder if this 10,000 hour rule applied to those of us “practicing” continuous improvement.

To get in 10,000 hours of practice this really means spending approximately:

  • 4 hours a day;
  • 5 days per week;
  • Over a span of 10 years practicing your trade.

What do you think? Is there anything to this 10,000 hour rule? If not, are you willing to prove the hypothesis wrong?

Filed Under: Leadership, Site Update

Clean up, Guide to Lean, and more

February 19, 2008 By 3 Comments

Things have been pretty crazy around here the last few days.  Switching over to this new website was definitely worth it… but not without it’s share of work.

Clean Up

When you switch to a completely new design like this certain things can go nutty… like the formatting of past articles!  I have had to go and clean up many articles one by one as they got “mangled” during the transfer.  If you happen to come across one that looks like one long paragraph please drop me a line so I can fix it up.  Thanks!

There are also a few minor glitches we are still working out.  But we are getting close.  I can’t wait to think about lean and six sigma again!

LSS Academy Guide to Lean

As many of you have obviously noticed I am offering a free ebook focused on lean manufacturing.  The foundation of the book comes from previous articles on the blog.  With this said, I have changed many things so the book flows in the best way possible.  So, if you haven’t downloaded your copy yet please feel free – pun intended!  Just enter your email address in the box (top left side of page).

I have gotten a few emails from people who told me it took them awhile to get the confirmation email.  If you experience any issues please let me know by dropping a comment in below this article, or by emailing me, or by clicking on the “Contact” tab at the top of the page.

Thank You!

Lastly, thank you for all the emails and comments.  Your kind words mean so much to me. 

Filed Under: Site Update

Where is Ron?

September 20, 2007 By 5 Comments

Hello from London, England. 

I wanted to drop a line and apologize for my lack of blogging action!  I have been extremely busy as of late and thus my blogging has taken a bit of a hit.  I typically post my blogs in the evenings but due to some changes in my life (personal and professional – all very good changes by the way) this “free” time has been greatly reduced.

In any event I will be back to more regular posting when things settle down a bit.  I am in the process of creating a series of posts on Hoshin Kanri (a.k.a. Policy Deployment) which I am very excited about but don’t want to rush for the sake of simply posting something.

So until then… cheers!

Filed Under: Site Update

The Big 200!

August 6, 2007 By 2 Comments

Yesterday I posted my 200th article on the blog!  Also, today we received our 400th comment on the blog.  Now many of these comments are from me responding to others (like the actual 400th comment) but hey who is counting!

I have to say that the best part of starting this blog has been all the amazing people I have met both in person and over email. 

I have also learned so much about two of my favorite topics – lean and six sigma.  I’d like to sit here and say I always fire off each post from memory… but I have had to do my fair share of research lest I write rubbish. I have grown so much from this and hope some of you have as well.

Thanks to all you that stop by to read my ramblings and special thanks to the regular commenters of the blog.  It’s your comments that charge my battery so please keep them coming.

Next stop – 300 posts!

If you wish to stay in tune with this blog please subscribe via RSS feed.

Filed Under: Site Update

We interrupt this Blog

June 18, 2007 By Leave a Comment

I apologize for the technical difficulties today.  My hosting company (name starts with a color and ends with the word host) has failed me the last few weeks.  Today the site was down for much of the afternoon.  Needless to say I will be switching hosting companies so if you have a recommendation please drop me a line.

Filed Under: Site Update

Fun with HTML

June 5, 2007 By 7 Comments

I apologize if anyone had issues with my blog this evening.  I had jacked up some HTML real good.  Luckily I saved it all before hacking it up into pieces. 

All should be fine now… and you may notice the nice little eBay auction ads (focused in on the Lean and Six Sigma niche) in the lower right hand side of the page.  I did this all by myself… aren’t you proud? 

Oh, and for every thing you buy our friend Pete over at shmula gets a free soda from his new eBay boss.  Kidding.  I think.  I am kidding right Pete? ;-)

Filed Under: Site Update

Calling all Bloggers!

May 30, 2007 By 1 Comment

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. 

Filed Under: Blogging, Site Update

WordPress Rocks!

May 30, 2007 By Leave a Comment

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!

Filed Under: Blogging, Site Update
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