John Shook, Executive Chairman of the Lean Enterprise Institute wrote a thoughtful post commenting on the issues raised by Lean Conversations, the book I wrote reporting insights on lean provided by a group of artists. His post begins…

“Practice the art, respect the science.” – Jester King

Has the body of thought and practice known as “lean” too long mired itself myopically in the world of “science” to the exclusion of an equally, or even more, important dimension of human experience: art? If lean has been stuck in science class, what would happen if it wandered across campus to the art studio?

Those are big questions, indeed. To explore, leading thinker and coach on lean applications in the messy world of construction, Tom Richert convened a group of curious artists and musicians to engage in a surprising experiment: how would they respond to being introduced in a structured way to lean thinking & practice?

The post continues here.