ATJ Insights: Lean Newsletter (Edition 1, 2026)

WELCOME BACK TO ATJ! THANK YOU TO DAVID HOGG FOR OVER 25 YEARS OF SHARING

Friends, this has been a longtime coming! For about a decade now, I have been working towards relaunching ATJ with the support and permission of the creator and founder of this newsletter, David Hogg.

We tried various ways and just couldn’t make it happen with the certainty that it would continue with quality stories and great value. Until now! I wanted to keep this newsletter going because of what it is, its intention, and what it represents. I hope you enjoy it.

Brief and fascinating history:

David Hogg started a newsletter back in in the 1990’s, originally called, The Fax Update. Over the years it has evolved into Accelerate The Journey (ATJ). He had a vision to help people, and companies become more efficient, effective and productive through sharing lean stories and best practices. Real examples from real people, in an attempt to inspire and motivate meaningful change. He dreamed of it and made it happen! This took effort and fortitude. Gathering meaningful stories and examples, writers, pictures, ideas, and sharing for the greater good. All this well before social media was even an idea.

Heck, the internet wasn’t even a thing when David stared the Fax Update! It was about going to Gemba, meeting with people, being curious, and inspiring the sharing. For years, David sent out the weekly newsletter to his loyal readers without missing a beat. Leaders came to trust the consistency, reliability, and value of the newsletter.

He started sharing by using a fax machine and sending it to a few phone numbers. As the subscriber list grew, so did the time it took to fax. He’s told me stories of having to start the fax machine well after dinner on Sunday because it would take hours to dial all the numbers, tying up the phone line for hours.

Something many of you reading this now would never have experienced. When sending a fax back in the day, the phone line was not available until the fax was complete. With many phone numbers to send it to, the line would be busy for hours. Over the years, he adapted to technology and when email became popular, he shifted from fax to email. At its height, ATJ was being sent to over 700 subscribers! I was one of them. When I was evolving as a change leader and eventually into management, I looked forward to the newsletter every week.

Eventually, when I became a Lean Facilitator for CME where I would tour countless companies monthly, I would often see the ATJ. Often, at least monthly, I would see it on huddle boards, taped to general information boards, laying about lunchrooms and stashed away on managers’ desks. It had become a part of many companies transformation tool kit. The magic of ATJ is not that it eventually reached thousands of readers, or that it was quite known in many manufacturing companies.

It wasn’t even that it had useful information or that it hit desks and inboxes every Monday, from coast to coast and internationally without fail. These are all amazing, but the real magic is in the unwavering, sincere purpose to help others through sharing.

No sugar coating, not embellishing, just sharing wisdom, his and others, sharing examples and stories all to help others to be proud of shining moments, to get inspired, and to thing creatively about solutions to their challenges.

This is why I couldn’t bear to see the end of ATJ. This is the reason I want to keep it going. We know, and I’ve seen firsthand, that when people share what they know, everyone becomes stronger. In the words of Ian Percy, “Whatever you want, give it away!” and ATJ does just that. I have no illusion that I will be able to keep the quality of the newsletter as crisp as David did, or that I will be able to keep it going for 25 years. Maybe not even 10, but I commit to keeping the sharing alive the best I can until it’s time for me to pass the torch to someone else with the same passion and authentic desire to share as David has and as he has instilled in me!

The Newsletter will be sent out on the 2 Tuesday of each month.

BOB KERR, LONG-TIME BUSINESS PARTNER OF DAVID HOGG AND WORLD CLASS LEADER, SHARED THESE THOUGHTS ABOUT ATJ:

For over 25 years the Accelerate The Journey (ATJ) newsletter was a weekly publication delivered every Monday morning to hundreds of people in organizations who were interested in moving their companies forward. From the shop floor through the offices to executive boardrooms the ATJ brought a multitude of value. In all those years, David Hogg, the newsletters’ writer and publisher, never missed a Monday Morning.

The revival of the ATJ by John Chaput is seen as a tribute to Dave and will benefit all those who take the time to read the short, incisive articles and stories.

– Bob Kerr

David’s 25 years of never missing a Monday morning issue, that’s dedication to a vision!

Going Forward With ATJ

 For those interested in joining in with the sharing, the newsletter will be distributed on the 15th of every month. I plan to keep it concise, about 2 pages. Over the first number of issues, I will include some nostalgia.

David and his business partner, Bob Kerr have gifted me many of the old newsletters, my oldest one dating back to April 2011. I will share an interesting story from these letters. Through this, I hope you will see that many of the solutions are timeless. Strategy, processes, improvements, and methodologies that applied 15 years ago still apply today. I hope you will get gold nuggets and inspiration from some of these stories.

I will include a current section, stories, pictures, and information from leaders and businesses today. This will help give you fresh ideas and new perspectives. I have no doubt that some of these stories will be related to technology, labour dynamic and changing times. Where possible I will also include links and recommended readings. Finally, I will include information about upcoming events and noteworthy happenings.

I’ll need help. If you have something you want to share, that you feel others will benefit from, please reach out and let me know. I challenge you to dig deep and gain the courage to commit to sharing. We can work together to share your learnings and experiences.

To get added to the newsletter distribution list, please send your request to subscribe@p-productivity.ca and in the subject line type “ATJ subscription”.

Current Month Feature sharing

Kevin Peters, Operations/Production Design Manager at Triple E, is a Manitoba success story, both personally and professionally. Kevin is recognized for his vision, people-first leadership and commitment to excellence, while Triple E reflects those same values through its remarkable success and impact that make Manitoba proud. Kevin has a deep passion for learning and a health challenge to complacency. He believes that mistakes are not failures, but essential steps in growth. He has a leadership journey worth sharing, and we are excited that he has agreed to be a recurring contributor to ATJ over the coming issues.

His insights and experiences will undoubtedly inspire and positive influence leaders across our community.

Leadership in Action – Part 1

September 1984. It was the first day of tryouts under the leadership of a new coach. Coach Jon had a history of handing “better” teams unexpected defeats, like he had done to this team last season. Last year’s team contained a full complement of senior players who went undefeated in the regular season, but Coach Jon defeated them in the first round with an average team and a basic game plan. Coach Jon got through the introductions and then held up a 40-page playbook used last season for the impressive winning streak. What’s this about he asked, and before anyone could respond, he said “sorry “, tore it in half and tossed it into the garbage.

“Let’s practice”, he said. Someone responded, “We need basketballs”. Coach smiled and barked “RUN”! Starting with distance for endurance, then lines were added for agility, and stairs were included for strength. It took weeks before a ball was finally introduced. “Dribble”, he said, starting with control, right hand, left hand, crossovers, and more. Then, stationary passes, running passes, and bounce passes to and from everyone on the team were added. Finally, shooting practice and layups were included from set locations only. Each team member knew every position on the court. was on the team and experienced the previous year’s loss, but also the challenging practices the next year. This year, this average team won the entire division. The key difference was that we were fit, fast, controlled, accurate, and knowledgeable.

We could out-hustle and out-shoot any team by the 3rd quarter. It was the development of our fundamental skills and learning the importance of why that began a winning culture for years to come.

These days at Triple E RV, we refer to Teamwork as one of our true strengths, but it did not come easy. It took many years to understand true teamwork in a working environment and then to unlearn what I had been taught from the beginning of my career. Unlearning is tough and takes time, but it is a necessary step to relearning some of the fundamentals.

Over the next few newsletters, I will share a bit of our journey and some of the challenges a 60-year-old company like Triple E faces while establishing a sustainable leadership culture.

Excerpt from ATJ – April 2011 Edition:

VISION:

Your vision is not one of those single sentence motherhood statements “We will be envied by our Competitors and valued by our Customers for our Quality, Service, Blah, Blah. Blah” We have all seen those mean nothing, say nothing, change nothing vision statements hanging in the foyer of countless corporate offices. To me they all look the same and could have all been taken from the same book of corporate vision statements.

Now close your eyes and imagine how good your company’s future could look on as many different levels possible. Imagine your people all enthusiastically participating in problem solving and daily improvement activities Imagine customer information being processed to completion immediately it arrives and production commencing immediately after that. Imagine the alignment of your Value Streams through your customer’s organization, through yours and through your suppliers’. Imagine components flowing from one manufacturing process immediately to the next with no waiting in piles of WIP. Imagine raw materials flowing in just in time in response to visual signals from your shop floor. Imagine organizational unity of purpose where the Sales team are recognized and incentivized not by the big “killer order” but by keeping order intake to a 5% span around the monthly mean. Imagine your accounting and measurement systems all in tune with, and supporting this lean enterprise. This is your vision. This is your true North.

This Vision is where your company is going. It must be an attractive destination that your people find intellectually and emotionally acceptable. Conflicts on either of these levels will ensure that commitment will not be possible. Above all, employees must find it an attainable and desirable future. The Vision must be formulated by the Executive and agreed at the highest levels within the company – commitment is vital.

This Vision must be an easily and frequently articulated description of the future state. The frequent, free and passionate sharing of the Vision is a major role of leadership. The leader must make it clear that the future is not somewhere we are all going, it’s somewhere we are all making.

– Gary Kerr