Gemba Academy has posted an extremely interesting series of videos entitled: Reflections on 25 Years of LEAN. Featured on the panel are LEAN luminaries Jim Womack (who introduced the Toyota Production System to the US and coined the term LEAN), John Shook (author of the seminal “Learning to See” book on value stream mapping), and Dan Jones (Founder and Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy).

The videos are interesting enough for anyone interested in LEAN, but they are most interesting when viewed through the DevOps lens as a cautionary tale.

One standout comment was that they set out believing that you first change the culture and then the tools will come.  They found this to be completely backwards… changing tools was a more effective strategy.  This was described in more detail by John Shook in his Sloan Management Review article: “How to Change a Culture: Lessons From NUMMI”.

Consider these videos required viewing for anyone interested in LEAN IT.