Planet Lean: The Official online magazine of the Lean Global Network
What Toyota and the Green Berets have in common

What Toyota and the Green Berets have in common

Sam MacPherson
April 9, 2015

INTERVIEW - What do the United States Army’s Special Forces unit and Toyota have in common? To find out, we spoke to the Green Berets’ former Director of Training at the LEI summit in New Orleans.


Interviewee: Sam MacPherson, Lean Enterprise Transformation Leader at the Lean Leadership Academy and former Director of Training of the United States Army’s Special Forces unit.



THE INTERVIEWEE

Sam MacPherson photograph
Sam MacPherson is a lean enterprise transformation leader and has dedicated over 28 years to developing organizational leaders, senior leadership teams, and designing lean enterprise management systems

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Don’t ask who. Be like Columbo and ask why!
October 6, 2023
Don’t ask who. Be like Columbo and ask why!

FEATURE – This insightful piece explores the true meaning of problem solving, looking at the common mistakes leaders make when they adopt some of its key practices.

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Learning to say “No” on the way to “Yes”
May 19, 2022
Learning to say “No” on the way to “Yes”

SERIES – The authors discuss the third of six elements in their process development model – Converge – using experiments to test key aspects of different ideas, while objectively working towards a single design concept slated for refinement and implementation.

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The relationship between lean change and human nature
February 3, 2017
The relationship between lean change and human nature

RESEARCH – Human behavior tends to make change even harder to attain than it already is. This brilliant research paper looks at change from a psychological, technical and leadership point of view.

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Every square meter counts
September 11, 2023
Every square meter counts

CASE STUDY – When it had to develop a production process for a new product from scratch, this Dutch company leveraged lean tools and practices. And the results were impressive.

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