Larry Loucka, a close friend and colleague, recently pointed me to a Feb. 16, 2014, article in The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). Now, before you roll your eyes and give me the WSJ-isn’t known-for-getting-the-lean-thing-right look, hear me out. What the journal published is really, really good stuff—even if lean, and 5S in particular, were the furthest things from their brilliant minds.

The title of the article is “Messes and Wrong Guesses.” Much of the content is ostensibly gleaned from a work written by Boyoun (Grace) Chae and Rui (Juliet) Zhue, titled, “Environmental Disorder Leads to Self-Regulatory Failure.” It was published in the Dec. 16, 2013, online Journal of Consumer Research.

I’m guessing most Gemba Tales readers aren’t very familiar with that journal. But, I digress! Here’s the pertinent stuff.

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