It seems like this was "back to basics week" in many ways, from my reading of various blogs.

First there was Mike Wroblewski's excellent post based on his experience from a recent kaizen event, about how a good layout is in the details in Got Boondoggle? He emphasizes some of the basics that can be forgotten in pace of rapid change during a kaizen event. One such basic idea is the value of going back to scene to check you assumptions before making rapid changes. Just like the carpenter's saying "measure twice cut once," we should not forget

Then Dan Markowitz at the Evolving Excellence blog shared with us his experience and insight from a recent lean summit and his reflection that it's all about respect for people. "Have a safe drive home" is a powerful sentiment and a really great way to take ownership of kaizen. Ownership of the goal and the process for improvement is yet another basic tenet of lean.

Mark Graban at the Lean Blog did a wonderful thing by taking a moment to start a virtual toy drive for kids at children's hospitals. Nothing to do with lean blogging per se except that, well, it's all about people.

On the Gemba blog Yours Truly quietly realized the irony of posting only the 14th of 101 kaizen templates (roughly 8 behind schedule for week 11) while touting the production control board as a means of checking progress to plan...

Safe drives, everyone.