Matthew E. May

Internationally recognized thought leader on strategy, culture, and innovation

Matthew E. May counsels executives and teams through custom designed facilitation, coaching, and training using four basic ingredients: strategy, ideation, experimentation, and lean. He’s been counseling for 30 years, a third of it as a full-time advisor to Toyota. He is the author of four books, the latest The Laws of Subtraction (McGraw-Hill, 2013), and is working on his fifth book. His work has been appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and many other publications. May holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Thu, 05/17/2018 - 12:01
To Change a Culture, Change The System Turning around ‘Big Company Syndrome’
Tue, 01/07/2014 - 16:48
Just before the holiday break, I broached the subject of systems. Given the current management rage focusing on the power of distinctive corporate culture as the key enabler of constant innovation, it’s worthwhile to think about how systems and…
Organized for Change Bruce Rosenstein on decoding Drucker and creating your future
Wed, 12/11/2013 - 09:25
My friend and colleague Bruce Rosenstein is a prolific writer and editor. He’s managing editor of Leader to Leader, author of the wonderful Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life (Berrett-…
Lean or Innovation? Wrong Question! The only difference between lean and innovation is where you point your energy
Wed, 10/30/2013 - 11:17
I get the question all the time, especially from organizations that have significant investment in some process improvement program—like a lean Six Sigma or lean kaizen initiative. (I hear the ghosts of Toyota engineers booing.) These companies…
The Presence of Purpose What transforms a hollow mission statement into a noble cause?
Wed, 10/23/2013 - 10:14
Scene: corporate retreat for senior leaders of a Fortune 100 company. Theme: creativity. Agenda item: purpose. I have placed a solitary Zen stone in the center of each table. The group members eye the rocks suspiciously. “Speak your mind, one and…
The Power of Visual Thinking Mental imagery and visualization can be compelling forces for performance
Mon, 09/16/2013 - 16:51
As Napoleon once said, a picture is worth a thousand words. This isn’t just a trite cliché. Visual thinking is an invaluable skill, if not a leadership art. In his book Leading Minds: An Anatomy of Leadership (Basic Books, 1996), Howard Gardner…
Got Standards? A good standard is high-level, modal, and phase-driven
Tue, 08/06/2013 - 15:09
I was on my way to the market, shopping list in hand. “Honey, can you grab some lemons?” my wife called out as the door hit me on the bum. “Yep!” I shouted through the closed door. I hopped in my car, got to the store, whipped out my list, got…
The Art Elements of Work Add the color, and frame it
Tue, 07/16/2013 - 12:53
We’ve all heard the clichés: “If you’re going to do something, do it right,” and “If you want something done right, do it yourself.” Change one word—“right” to “artfully”—and the view of work as art is not the far reach it may appear to be. But…
Elegant Solutions Part 2 More of my favorite things
Thu, 07/11/2013 - 15:57
Editor’s note: This is Part 2 of Matthew May’s “Elegant Solutions.” Read Part 1 here.
I’ve written before about traditional “specs.” How they’re old school. How they rarely help define and describe what we judge our satisfaction by: the…
Elegant Solutions No. 1 Where simplicity and impact meet
Wed, 06/19/2013 - 12:52
If you’ve followed the evolution of my thinking through the series of books I’ve written, you know that elegance—defined as the ability to achieve the maximum effect with minimum means, and characterized by the presence of both uncommon simplicity…
Learning Comes First Most companies focus heavily on leadership, but few focus on learnership
Mon, 05/06/2013 - 09:59

One of my favorite insights comes from Harvard’s David Garvin: “Learning will always remain something of an art, but even the best artists can improve their technique.” I like it because it quite subtly highlights two different yet…