Michael Ballé is an author, speaker and lean executive coach. For the past 20 years he has studied lean thinking and practice, becoming one of the strongest voices in the Lean Community and one of its most prolific authors. His trilogy of business novels - The Gold Mine, The Lean Manager, and Lead with Respect - has inspired thousands of lean practitioners around the world with its engaging narrative and unique insights into the world of lean transformations. In lean, knowledge, learning and doing can’t be separated. Learning means doing repeatedly so that intuitions turn into knowledge, and knowledge drives further action. Following the action research methodology, Michael coaches executives in obtaining exceptional performance by transforming their company cultures with lean tools, principles and management attitudes. His main coaching technique is the "gemba visit", where he helps senior executives to learn to see the work that is carried out on their shop floors, teach their people the spirit of kaizen and draw the right conclusions for their business as a whole. He has coached lean transformations in various fields such as manufacturing, engineering, services and healthcare.