Planet Lean: The Official online magazine of the Lean Global Network
What Toyota and the Green Berets have in common

What Toyota and the Green Berets have in common

Sam MacPherson
April 9, 2015

INTERVIEW - What do the United States Army’s Special Forces unit and Toyota have in common? To find out, we spoke to the Green Berets’ former Director of Training at the LEI summit in New Orleans.


Interviewee: Sam MacPherson, Lean Enterprise Transformation Leader at the Lean Leadership Academy and former Director of Training of the United States Army’s Special Forces unit.



THE INTERVIEWEE

Sam MacPherson photograph
Sam MacPherson is a lean enterprise transformation leader and has dedicated over 28 years to developing organizational leaders, senior leadership teams, and designing lean enterprise management systems

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Better learning in Italian high schools using lean and Scrum
March 28, 2018
Better learning in Italian high schools using lean and Scrum

FEATURE – Is the traditional teaching model used in our schools obsolete? A high school in Italy has been experimenting with lean thinking and Scrum applied to students’ learning, and the results have been enlightening.

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An eye for improvement
June 21, 2022
An eye for improvement

INTERVIEW – At last month’s International Lean Summit in Hungary, our editor sat down with the manager of a CooperVision site that is gradually converting its operations to make them leaner.

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Passing on the lean torch
October 8, 2025
Passing on the lean torch

NOTES FROM THE GEMBA - Two French firms, AIO and Proditec, illustrate how Lean Thinking endures through crises by deliberately developing a new generation of leaders who sustain its culture and intent.

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John Shook on transformations and lean in a crisis
November 4, 2022
John Shook on transformations and lean in a crisis

VIDEO INTERVIEW – We recently caught up with John Shook at the Lean Healthcare Academic Conference in Stanford and asked him to share his thought on the questions we need to ask ourselves in a lean journey and on lean in turbulent times.

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