Just a few weeks ago I was having a conversation with the CEO of the company where I work (Escea) as Head of Operations and ‘Lean Coach’.

Two nights before we had hosted a group of local manufacturing company leaders and staff for a benchmarking and networking session. I had given a talk on what I believe are the three keys things that every lean transformation needs and we had taken them on a tour. Afterwards I had chatted with a number of people, one of them being the leader of a local small business who had brought his entire workshop team along to the event. I found out later that the next day the leader had gone and downloaded and started reading a book I had recommended and his that team had made an improvement board and already posted three improvements.

Our CEO commented that this company had achieved more in terms of lean in one day after an evening with us than their full time lean trained factory manager, who had just left the company, had achieved during his multi year tenure.

He then asked me what future plans I had for the tips and advice I was posting in my casual, side hustle, blog The Lean Minimalist. At the time, I really didn’t know. All I knew was that the intention of the lean posts in my blog were to shed some light for new people getting into lean. I wanted them to have simple, easy to use advice that they could follow without expensive consultants. I tried to answer some of the questions I regularly got asked or that I thought people should be asking.

Then I realised that it would be much easier for new leaders, like the one at the networking session, to have a fast and simple resource full of all my lean articles in one place, grouped by topic to make it easier again to get started. A lean, lean learning resource. And so, Start Today with Lean was born

I don’t need to write a best seller to help people.

This is the first edition of this book and there are likely to be many more editions as time goes on. This book is completely free and I hope the contents make it easier for you to move forward on your lean journey.

Start Today with Lean – Free e-book

Published by the lean minimalist

Donna Sherriff is a New Zealand based improvement and operations management specialist. Seeing a need for simple, no fuss, improvement advice she started The Lean Minimalist blog in 2017. Donna writes articles offering advice and tips for rapid and sustainable business improvement based on over 15 years in Senior Management roles. Passionate about sharing the lessons of over 20 years on the high performance track Donna offers coaching services to professionals. She also writes about her own personal improvement journey, minimalism, and her life long struggle against the tyranny of cookies and sugar which she overcame in 2020. These days, Donna is pursuing a journey to earn her black belt in Taekwondo after a long hiatus of 16 years away from training. On the side she is an amateur but passionate musician and poet. View all posts by the lean minimalist