The word hacker, for most, conjures up images of a dark figure in a hoodie hunched over a keyboard.

I'm a LEAN practitioner and have, for years now, been totally excited when watching teams innovate and improve their work flows, processes and systems. What I have always loved about LEAN is that it requires the people who do the work be asked or participate in the improvement of the work. Novel concept, eh? Being an ornery consultant, I take this one step further and rarely let supervisors or managers "in the room" when brainstorming or ideation is occurring as they are the ultimate killjoys.