Articles and Thoughts
Over the years, we shared our insights and experiences through various articles, presentations, and thought pieces. These resources reflect our practical approach to lean thinking and organizational improvement.
Featured Articles
Strategic Stockpile: Building Organizational Resilience
Organizations that thrive during disruption maintain strategic stockpiles - not just of inventory, but of capability, knowledge, and adaptability. This article explores how to build organizational resilience through strategic preparation.
The Evolution of Value Stream Mapping
Value stream mapping has evolved far beyond its manufacturing origins. We explore how this powerful tool adapted to service industries, healthcare, and knowledge work, maintaining its core principles while expanding its application.
Leadership in the Age of Continuous Change
Traditional command-and-control leadership models struggle in today's rapidly changing environment. This piece examines how leaders can develop the coaching and mentoring skills needed to guide organizations through continuous transformation.
Beyond Waste Elimination: Creating Flow
While eliminating waste is important, the real power of lean thinking lies in creating flow. We discuss how organizations can move beyond waste reduction to build systems that naturally flow toward value creation.
Key Themes
Our articles and thoughts consistently explored several key themes:
Practical Application
We focused on real-world application rather than theoretical concepts. Every article included practical examples and actionable insights that readers could immediately apply in their organizations.
People-Centered Approach
Technology and tools are important, but sustainable improvement always comes through people. Our writing emphasized engaging employees, developing capability, and creating cultures of continuous improvement.
Systems Thinking
Individual improvements are valuable, but transformational results require systems thinking. We explored how to see connections, understand interdependencies, and optimize whole systems rather than individual parts.
Leadership Development
Successful lean transformations require leaders who can coach, mentor, and guide rather than command and control. Many of our articles focused on developing these essential leadership capabilities.
Industry Publications
Our work appeared in various industry publications and forums:
- Lean Enterprise Institute - Regular contributor to LEI publications and online resources
- Industry Week - Manufacturing and operations improvement articles
- Harvard Business Review - Leadership and organizational development pieces
- Quality Progress - Quality management and continuous improvement articles
- Healthcare Financial Management - Healthcare-specific lean applications
Speaking Engagements
In addition to written articles, we shared our thoughts through speaking engagements at conferences and industry events. These presentations allowed for deeper exploration of concepts and direct interaction with practitioners.
Key speaking topics included:
- Value Stream Mapping in Service Industries
- Building Lean Leadership Capability
- Sustaining Continuous Improvement
- A3 Thinking for Problem Solving
- Creating Learning Organizations
"Beau's articles always provided practical insights we could immediately apply. His writing style made complex concepts accessible and actionable."— Industry Week Reader
Continuing the Conversation
While Keyte Group has transitioned from active consulting to sharing knowledge and giving back, these articles and thoughts continue to provide value to practitioners worldwide. The principles and practices we explored remain as relevant today as when they were first written.
We encourage readers to adapt these insights to their unique situations, experiment with the concepts, and continue the conversation within their own organizations and professional communities.
Practical insights for continuous improvement practitioners
Related Resources
Featured Article
Strategic Stockpile
Building organizational resilience through strategic preparation and capability development.
