Operational Strategist. Literary Community Builder.Clearing the path for your best work and the stories worth telling
Whether you’re a business leader watching good initiatives lose steam, a publisher whose diverse titles aren’t reaching the readers they deserve, or a reader looking for a community that actually gets it, you’re in the right place.
Meet Kami Tei
I’ve spent two decades convinced that when the systems around people actually work, everything else gets better. My career spans three Fortune 100 companies—Lockheed Martin, Southwest Airlines, and Amazon—where I drove measurable change in some of the most complex operating environments on the planet. From leading Lean strategy deployment on the F-35 program, to transforming baggage handling accuracy from 45% to 97.6% at Southwest, to growing customer engagement from 400K to over 1M annual visits at Amazon Books.
That last stop changed everything. Getting an inside view of how publishing actually works, and where it consistently fails underrepresented authors, made it impossible to look away. It also confirmed something I'd known for years: I do my best work where deep expertise meets genuine passion.
Today, I channel that into two businesses. The Lean Choice is the culmination of my work as a Lean practitioner and certified Black Belt, bringing enterprise-grade continuous improvement to organizations ready for real, lasting change. Book Haven Collective grew from something more personal: a lifelong love of reading, and a conviction that books—and the authors who write them—deserve better systems too. It's a four-part business spanning a bookish Etsy shop, community book clubs, immersive reading retreats, and impactful publishing consulting.
Two businesses. Two callings. One approach.
Where diverse stories find their placeA literary home for publishers, authors, & the readers who love them
Books have always had the power to expand what people believe is possible—for themselves, for others, for the world. But that power only reaches people when the right stories actually find them. Book Haven Collective was built to make that happen: for readers who love books as a way of life and for publishers who see the opportunity to build processes that widen the path between diverse stories and the readers who need them. Through four pillars—a curated shop, book clubs, reading retreats, and publishing consulting—Book Haven Collective exists to strengthen important parts of the ecosystem that bring diverse stories to life.
-
A curated collection of print-on-demand and digital products made specifically for readers who wear their love of books proudly. Every piece is designed with the reading community in mind—for the kind of person who doesn't just read books, but has books living inside them. Shop them here.
-
Intimate, thoughtfully curated book clubs for readers who want depth, not just discussion. A space built for people who take stories seriously and want to be around others who do too.
-
Immersive, intentionally small gatherings for readers who want more than a book club. Every retreat is carefully themed and curated, designed to create the kind of connection and conversation that stays with you.
-
For publishers who want to do more than acquire diverse titles. They want to champion them all the way to the reader. I find where the pipeline breaks down for diverse authors and build something better in its place.
Improving the way organizations worKHands-on consulting for companies seeking personalized solutions
When the systems around people actually work, everything else gets better. The Lean Choice brings hands-on, collaborative consulting to organizations across industries and at every scale—from focused teams with a specific problem to enterprise-wide transformation programs. With experience spanning Fortune 100 companies across aviation, technology, and manufacturing, I partner alongside teams to build the internal capability needed for sustainable, long-term performance improvements, delivering quick wins without sacrificing lasting results. The goal is always the same: find exactly where things are breaking down, fix what's actually causing it, and leave teams stronger, more capable, and set up to keep winning long after the engagement ends.
-
For organizations ready to stop patching symptoms and fix what's actually broken. I map how work flows through your teams, identify where the friction lives, and build a clear path to a better future state.
-
Sustainable improvement doesn't come from an outside firm doing the work for you—it comes from your people owning it. I develop the internal skills, mindset, and tools your team needs to keep improving long after our engagement ends.
-
For leadership teams with a clear vision and a frustrating gap between that vision and daily execution. Using Hoshin Kanri, I help translate big-picture goals into the vital few priorities that actually move the needle—with cascading alignment from executive to operational levels and the review cadence to sustain it.
-
Complex transformation initiatives often fail not because of poor strategy, but because of inadequate execution discipline. When multiple workstreams need to move together across functions and timelines, I provide the structured oversight, stakeholder alignment, and governance that keeps everything on track, and builds your organization's own capacity for managing complex change.
Let’s start with a conversation
You don’t have to have it all figured out. If something on this page resonated (whether it’s the operations work, the literary community, or both), I’d love to hear what’s on your mind. Tell me where you are, and we’ll take it from there.
-
Yes, both are active and intentional. The Lean Choice operates on a selective, project-based model which gives me the bandwidth to run Book Haven Collective's consulting, retreats, and community programming in parallel. I've structured both deliberately so neither gets shortchanged.
-
Every engagement is built around your team, not around me. I work with your people rather than in front of them, and I leave with them owning the process entirely. Sustainable change requires internal capability—not continued dependency on an outside firm.
-
No. While my roots are in manufacturing and aerospace, I've driven meaningful improvement in technology operations, logistics, and corporate program management. If your organization has complex workflows and a gap between strategy and execution, the methodology translates.
-
It starts with understanding where the friction is—auditing how diverse titles move through acquisition, how ARC distribution is being managed, and whether internal teams are genuinely aligned around those books. From there we build a clear, actionable improvement plan together.
-
Retreats are intentionally kept small and intimate, so capacity is limited by design. Details on upcoming retreats and how to reserve a spot are shared with the Book Haven community first. Reach out and let me know you're interested.
A few questions I get asked often
