Chris Merriman

Modern culture often portrays leaders as larger-than-life figures, charismatic personalities, social media influencers, bestselling authors or keynote speakers. Leadership is sometimes viewed as a performance, with the leader positioned as the hero at the centre of the story. In reality, the behaviours that create lasting organisational performance look very different.Within the Shingo Model, the principle of Lead with Humility is a foundational cultural enabler. It is not soft or optional,...

Effective problem-solving sits at the core of Lean and Continuous Improvement. Among the many methods available, the A3 approach, developed at Toyota, remains one of the most powerful. It provides a standard one-page structure to capture the full story of a problem: The problem description Current conditions Root cause analysis Improvement options Countermeasures tested and implemented Follow-up plans This simple, visual format helps teams communicate clearly and think logically. But the A3...

If problem-solving sits at the centre of Lean Thinking, then the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) cycle is the engine that drives it. Also known as the Shewhart or Deming Cycle, PDCA provides a simple but powerful structure for learning and improvement. The cycle works like this: Plan: Identify an opportunity and develop a clear plan, including success measures Do: Test the change on a small scale and gather data Check: Analyse results to understand whether the change delivered the expected...