Spear has won the Shingo Research Prize three times for articles about Toyota, the Toyota Production System, and Lean Manufacturing. These include:
"Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System" (Harvard Business Review, 1999) "The Essence of Just in Time" (Productivity, Planning, and Control, 2000) "Learning to Lead at Toyota" (Harvard Business Review, 2004)
He won a fourth Shingo Prize and a McKinsey Award for one of the two best HBR article in 2005 for: "Fixing Healthcare from the Inside, Today," (Harvard Business Review, 2005)
Aside from articles in general management journals, he has published in leading medical journals such as Annals of Internal Medicine, Academic Medicine, and the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety.
