Background

Lean Tech &
AI Journal

Weekly insights on lean thinking applied to technology transformation. Practical guidance from practitioners who've been there. No hype.

mail

Get Weekly Insights

Join 30,000+ practitioners receiving weekly insights. No spam.

Browse the Archive

search
article Article
May 13, 2026 5:00:01 AM

The Reengineering Is Coming

Leadership Negligence, Not Technology Failure, Sets the Stage for AI's Most Expensive Correction

In 1987, Nobel laureate Robert Solow made an observation that still echoes: "You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics."1

Read Article arrow_right_alt
article Article
Apr 29, 2026 9:57:24 AM

The Strange New World of AI: My Second Brain Setup

This article went from concept to published webpage on an afternoon walk. I gave my AI assistant the task from my phone, walked, stopped once on a park bench to review the draft and approve it, and pushed it live. Concept to published page, on a walk. I was not texting with my head down in the middle of the street — mostly I was just walking and thinking while the AI handled the administrative and technical work of getting it online. For me at least that is the waste part I don’t enjoy. The actual thinking came from pieces I previously authored on my computer in various forms and two conversations I had audio recorded with colleagues. What follows is what the AI assembled, formatted, and published to my website — with my direction and editing. 

This is not science fiction. This is a random Tuesday afternoon in 2026. 

Read Article arrow_right_alt
article Article
Apr 15, 2026 5:00:00 AM

Insource What Matters: A Lesson from Toyota for Lean Practitioners in the Age of AI

There is a moment in lean transformation work that almost every practitioner has experienced. You have made real progress on the floor, in the office, or in the clinic. Flow is improving. Waste is visible. People are solving problems. And then you hit a wall, and the wall is technology.

Read Article arrow_right_alt
article Article
Apr 1, 2026 4:59:59 AM

From Fiction to Navigation: Using Cynefin to Choose the Right Improvement Method

In a recent Lean Tech & AI Journal article, I suggested that future-state thinking can quietly become fiction when applied in complex adaptive systems.

Read Article arrow_right_alt
Man sitting next to A.I. robot
article Article
Mar 24, 2026 11:33:45 PM

Wait, That's My Job | How AI Exposed the Organizational Immune System Nobody Wanted to Talk About

AI isn't just disrupting work — it's exposing the organizational immune system. Tyson Heaton reveals who's blocking progress and who's quietly building it.

Read Article arrow_right_alt
Audience and speakers at Lean Summit
article Article
Mar 18, 2026 4:59:29 PM

Four Moments from the 2026 Lean Summit that Stayed with Me

I hadn’t attended one of LEI’s lean conferences in over five years. The last one was right before the COVID outbreak shut everything down, and I was honestly curious about what I would find when I walked into the 2026 Lean Summit in Houston on March 11–13 this past week. Would the community feel the same? Would the conversations have moved forward? Would there be energy, or just nostalgia?

Read Article arrow_right_alt
screen shot of LeanTech website homepage
article Article
Mar 11, 2026 4:44:59 AM

Lean Enterprise Institute Launches Formal LeanTech/AI Initiative

A dedicated initiative to help organizations apply lean thinking and practice to the technology layer of their operations, including the design, deployment, and continuous improvement of AI-enabled systems.

Read Article arrow_right_alt
shadows walking in a purple hallway with code displayed on walls
article Article
Mar 4, 2026 9:32:58 AM

When “Future State” Becomes Fiction: Lean, Complexity, and the Vector Theory of Change 

Lean practitioners have long been taught that improvement culminates in a designed “future state.” We map the current condition, identify waste and constraints, and then create a future-state value-stream map (VSM) that shows how the system should  operate.

Read Article arrow_right_alt
article Article
Feb 25, 2026 9:00:00 AM

From Agile to Lean Tech: Theodo’s Journey to Scalable Learning

Read Article arrow_right_alt
article Article
Feb 18, 2026 7:30:00 PM

Lean in the Age of AI: Optimizing the Stream, Not the Coder

Read Article arrow_right_alt

9 of 0 articles shown

Want to Go Deeper?

The Journal is just the beginning. Book a conversation with our team to explore how lean thinking can accelerate your organization's technology transformation.

Start a Conversation →