Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond

Episode page with transcript, video, and more My guest for Episode #465 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is the legendary (my word, not his) author, consultant, and speaker — Tom Peters. His new book is Tom Peters's Compact Guide to Excellence. Click here to enter to win a paperback copy (through December 20). He was previously a guest in Episode 382 of this podcast and My Favorite Mistake Episode 58. See previous blog posts about Tom and his ideas. Today, Tom and I talk about some core concepts from his book, but we also weave through many topics including leadership that demonstrates “extreme humanism” (and leaders who do not, such as Elon Musk). As always, it's a fun, free-wheeling, and thought-provoking conversation when Tom is involved. Note: Tom says he swears like a sailor… there are a few occasional mild curse words, so please be warned about that. Questions, Notes, and highlights: The moral bankruptcy of “maximizing shareholder value” — are we really moving away from that? Getting lip service from the Conference Board and others? “People got ‘the brand called you' all wrong — it's not about self-marketing” “Being good is good business. When you take the high moral ground it is difficult for anyone to object without sounding like a complete fool.” Caring about people… Reminds me of Paul O'Neill saying nobody should ever get hurt at work (Alcoa) — “habitual excellence“ The HP Way – Management By Wandering Around (MBWA) is an “intimate act” Following up on our Aug 2020 discussion about leading during Covid… how is MBZA (management by zooming around) working out? You've been very active on Twitter — still there? Should we still be using Twitter, even the free service? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Katie Anderson, her 6th appearance Episode page with video, photos, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #464 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Katie Anderson, who is, among other things, the author of the book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn. She has previously been a guest here in Episodes 233, 275, 302, 326, and 425. Katie has also been a guest twice on “My Favorite Mistake” — once with Isao Yoshino and once on her own. Today, Katie and I talk about the recent AME annual conference that was held in Dallas. We both heard Larry Culp, CEO of General Electric (and GE Aviation) speak for 15 minutes, and we discuss that here today. We also recap highlights from (and our reflections about) the fireside chat that Katie had with Larry on stage. Notes and highlights: Listen to Katie on the internal GE podcast (named “Andon That Note”) she mentions in this episode Discussing the panel discussion that I moderated with Deondra Wardelle and Amy Gowder Gary Michel, another great CEO speaker at the event Larry: “This is how we manage” (Lean) Going to the gemba? Why? Process and people Top down and bottom up – operationalizing Hoshin Kanri Learning from mistakes, how a leader reacts to bad news From telling to asking questions – breaking the telling habit Having a coach as CEO… why Larry thinks that's so important Larry: “You don't go to HBS to learn how to ask questions” The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Episode page with transcript, video, and more My guest for Episode #463 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jim Benson, the CEO of Modus Cooperandi, and co-founder of Modus Institute. He was previously a guest on Episodes 155 and 401. He was also a guest on Lean Whiskey #25 with me and Jamie Flinchbaugh (and #31), and was guest #4 on My Favorite Mistake. A pioneer in applying Lean and Kanban to knowledge work, Jim is the creator of Personal Kanban and is co-author of Personal Kanban: Mapping Work, Navigating Life, winner of the Shingo Research and Publication Award. His other books include Why Plans Fail, Why Limit WIP, and Beyond Agile. His latest book is The Collaboration Equation: Strong Professionals, Strong Teams, Strong Delivery. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How do you define collaboration? As an angry punk rocker? Parallels to startup software companies?? The balance between “every building/patient is unique “vs. having knowledge/structure/process?? Standard work for encountering complexity When a major problem gets solved and nobody ends up in tears – From lawsuits, yelling, and strife — to collaborative problem solving? How? Culture as it exists… culture as we are creating…?? Team deciding the culture vs. the CEO or leader having a vision of what the culture should be? What the CEO says vs. what is the reality? Value Stream Mapping as a “ruse”… a way to uncover team breakdown problems Flapping our mouths vs. information about what's really happening?? Get comfortable with change happening every day Be hard on the process, not the people? But the system is made of people… The FEELING of being respected Fear as a cause of problems — “Every real collaboration has psychological safety” What have you learned about PS, how to gauge it, and how to create it? “You can't go buy a box of psychological safety” An NBA superteam… how would YOU lead them? Getting over your damn self The power of team members who are more likely to talk about others than themselves “Do you feel heard…” — or are you actually heard? What readers would get the most out of this book? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Expert on mistakes and mistake proofing, professor and former business school dean Episode page with video, transcript, and more: https://leanblog.org/462 My guest for Episode #462 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Professor John Grout the former dean of the Campbell School of Business at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. He was recently a guest on “My Favorite Mistake” — Episode 186, so I encourage you to check that out. He's the current Chair of the Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Data Analytics Department and the David C. Garrett Jr. Professor of Business Administration. John has overseen the development, approval and implementation of Berry College's Creative Technologies program and Berry's makerspace, HackBerry Lab. Dr. Grout has researched mistake-proofing extensively and published numerous articles on mistake-proofing. In 2004, John received the Shingo Prize for his paper, “The Human Side of Mistake-Proofing” with Douglas Stewart. John has also consulted with a large variety of firms to mistake-proof their processes. He's also published “Mistake-Proofing the Design of Health Care Processes” a book that's freely available online. His Website: https://mistakeproofing.com/ Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Your origin story – how did you first get introduced to TPS, Lean, etc? Context of discovering mistake proofing? Shingo's book on Poka Yoke “Shingo was not kind to Statistical Quality Control”… use SQC and/or mistake proofing? Acceptance sampling… keeps bad product out… maybe? Field goals — Conformity to specs vs. closer to center? Successive checks and self checks Source inspections – Shingo's gold standard Why should you react when a part's out of control but still in spec?? Do you HAVE to stop the line? Don't be dogmatic?? Statistics don't do well with rare events Do we have data on how universal the “universal protocol” is? Doctor signing vs. you signing the surgical site? ZERO – “the only way to go” in terms of goals The goal of “zero defects” can be controversial.. is it possible? Motivating? Demoralizing? Possible research – optimal time to stop doing final inspection?? Why is it easier to error proof now? Technology “People don't like to own up to mistakes” Naida Grunden episode on aviation safety Can't error proof everything?? Preventing execution errors is easier than preventing decision errors The balance and benefits of examples to copy vs. developing thinking?? “Catalog or catalyst”?? BOTH The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Video, transcript, and more: https://leanblog.org/461 My guest for Episode #461 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gauthier Duval, the Director of the Lean Center of Excellence at Veryable. He's applied and taught Lean for over 18 years, including time with Freudenberg-NOK (an auto supplier featured in the book Lean Thinking), Simpler Consulting, and other manufacturing companies in the U.S. and Europe. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Your Lean origin story? The next steps in your career and learning?? Freudenberg-NOK — 2004 — Growtth Consulting spinoff Working with Lean – Europe vs. US? Simpler – worked with Chris Cooper – Episode #129 Your view on the role of what's often called “kaizens” (kaizen events) vs. ongoing daily kaizen improvement? Multi-day events vs. small discontinuous improvements? How should people be participating? The role of the senior leader? Kicking a company president out of a Kaizen Event?? Lessons you've learned on the psychology of change? Organizational behavior and organizational development? — how do you define that? What makes an organization a “learning organization?” Chris Argyris — why should more Lean people be reading his work? Tell us about Veryable – the company, the problems you solve and how it works… How to expand “JIT” beyond just materials? Variable labor in a “lean mindset” way — including “respect for people”?? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Episode page with video, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #460 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Philip Holt. He is currently Senior Vice President, Operational Excellence at GKN Aerospace, the world's leading multi-technology Tier 1 Aerospace supplier, and has over 30 years of business experience in leadership roles spanning the customer value chain, in industry-leading Companies also including Philips, Gillette, and Travelport. He is the author of three Lean Leadership books: Leading with Lean: An Experience-based guide to Leading a Lean Transformation The Simplicity of Lean: Defeating Complexity; Delivering Excellence Leading Lean by Living Lean: Changing how you Lead, not who you are You can learn more at Philip's website. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Your “Lean origin story?” “Thought I knew what Lean was” How did visiting Japan help? Kaikaku — breakthrough improvement vs. continuous improvement Systemic view of Lean / TPS – can't grab just pieces True North?? How to define that? What are some of the ways in which people overcomplicate Lean? Overcomplicating problem solving? Six Sigma… A3? Start at the most simple form of problem solving How do you describe Lean simply? How do you define “transformation”? When it's fully aligned with the strategy of the company… What “transformational results” would you expect to see? Zero Accidents goal – the Heinrich Triangle Unlearning the old way so we can lead in a Lean way? The personal benefits of Lean at work and life?? What is a “life in balance”?? What does that mean to you? Using lean tools at home? Push vs. pull for information?? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

VP of Advisory Services, Value Capture Episode page with video, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #459 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is my colleague, Gerald Harris, a Vice President of Advisory Services at the firm Value Capture. Disclosure – I often work as a senior advisor with Value Capture clients and I have a marketing role with the firm. Gerald has over 25 years of leadership experience in the delivery of successful large-scale lean transformations across a broad range of industries and companies. His industry experience includes various automotive manufacturing settings and products and, for the past 14 years, healthcare. While at Tenneco Automotive, a $1.5 billion manufacturer of exhaust and ride control systems, Gerald implemented lean manufacturing and lean enterprise improvement principles throughout the organization. For the 14 years before joining Value Capture, Gerald served as Executive Director for Simpler North America, where he was instrumental in client launches and Executive Coaching for most of Simpler's largest clients. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How — when and where — did you first get introduced to Lean? Motivations for Lean in those early settings? Early activities — what went well? Lessons learned from challenges? PULL – “flow if you can, pull if you must, but never push” Did people there even think that improvement was possible? Any improvement was possible? Short-term vs. longer-term countermeasures, adding inventory to be able to improve — or adding labor? “Step change” – response to medication errors? Adding inspection step? Interesting that Toyota still has final inspection?? Systems vs. processes? Work, management, improvement systems From nursing tasks to the healthcare value stream Seeing vs. purposeful observation? Value Capture's “guided self-assessment” Leaders being too far removed from the work in healthcare How did you find the right balance as a plant manager? You've gotten more than comfortable with both… Bigger adjustment — becoming a consultant or shifting into healthcare? The pitch for Value Capture? Envisioning the IDEAL – how do we get to zero? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Partner with Coltala Holdings Episode page with video, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #458 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Damon Baker. He was recently my guest in Episode #454. He is the founder and CEO of the firm Lean Focus. He's also a Private Equity Partner at Coltala Holdings. Today, we're taking a deeper dive into the world of private equity, how Lean can support a particular P.E. model, and the “Ownership Works” Initiative. Damon Baker has been implementing Lean practices in various GM & VP-level capacities for more than 25 years, but it was at Danaher, where he worked for nine years, that his passion for true business transformation was born. He was instrumental in developing Danaher's company-wide Problem-Solving Process, and was inspired to create a new, comprehensive business system that enables organizations to improve on all fronts. He has worked in a Shingo Prize-winning facility and is a Shingo Prize Examiner. Over his career, Damon has demonstrated hands-on leadership and facilitation of 500+ kaizen events in close to 100 major corporations in 16 different countries. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Private Equity 101? Public vs. private vs. private equity? Two types of P.E. firms Time is up and the fund exits? Means they have to sell the companies? Has there been a shift in the PE philosophy on extracting value vs. creating value, or do some just do it differently / better? Mission over margin? Conscious Capitalism? Lean in private equity — What does PE care about?? Vs. Public Equity How did you get first get involved with PE? Coltala Enterprise System? Which tools to apply in which business? Priorities and problem solving? A lean practitioner working for a PE-owned company? What to ask or look for? Humility and confidence – Larry Culp talked about this Tell us about the “Ownership Works Initiative” — KKR and other firms (TPG) – it's not ESOP model The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Kata geek and coach Episode page with video, transcript, and more Joining me for Episode #457 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sam Morgan. Sam is a self-proclaimed “confident learner” and earlier this year after 5 years of practice in the continuous improvement space he landed at KataCon, a conference for continuous improvement professionals who practice the Toyota Kata. At KataCon, he had a powerful moment realizing where his true passion lies: transforming people through coaching. I'll ask Sam more about that. Sam finds joy in seeing his clients move from fearful to fearless; from insecure to confident. I know Sam as the host of the YouTube series “C.I. in 5” and he's been part of a learning and collaboration group called “The Lean Communicators.“ His newly launched coaching website is www.illuminatecoach.com. You can also find him on LinkedIn. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How, when, and where did you first get introduced to continuous improvement concepts and methods? How did you get introduced to Toyota Kata? What does it mean to be a “confident learner”? Adam Grant's book Think Again Why “Sam Loves Lean” as an email account and account name? We turn the tables on Sam to ask him his “C.I. in 5” What is your C.I. in 5? – “confident learning for all” Tell me about your t-shirt… and for those who are listening via podcast instead of watching via YouTube Respect for people Intentionally focusing on inviting guests who are women of color? And people of color more broadly… “There's not that many Black faces in attendance at Lean conferences, yet alone up on stage,… in what way does systemic racism cause that? What can we, what should we do about that?” Being welcoming vs. expanding the pool? Company representation in CI roles? What is your “Illuminate U” program? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

CEO of Stiles Associates Episode page with video, transcript, and more Joining me for Episode #456 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jake Stiles, CEO of Stiles Associates. For nearly three decades, Jake has played an instrumental role in growing Stiles Associates from a niche recruiting agency to the premier Lean executive search firm in the country. He's helped transform client organizations by placing top talent across a wide spectrum of industrial segments including manufacturing, consulting, healthcare and professional services. As Lean and continuous improvement have spread from factory floors to hospitals, financial institutions and beyond, Jake has continued to build ties to thought leaders and increase Lean's scope at the most innovative institutions. As a result, he's served as a member of numerous industry associations and boards – including the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP). Disclosure: Stiles Associates has been a sponsor of the podcast since the start of 2021. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How did you first get introduced to Lean? Brought Art Byrne into Wiremold as CEO Looking for 80% personality / 20% technical?? “Not settling… always pushing, but bringing the team along” — emotional intelligence Tips for being successful in a new environment? Transformational executives? Does their experience translate? Operating vs. transforming – how to evaluate beyond a willingness to lead it?? Search process similar to the transformation process — understanding the current state and the issues… what problem are you trying to solve? Iteration with the client Jumping across industries — in particular Manufacturing to Healthcare? Key success factors? How are you counseling hiring companies in a very competitive market?? Candidate-driven market? Advice for how to work with a recruiter (as a candidate) vs. applying directly for a job? Compensation “correction” is coming?? Is accepting a counteroffer always a bad idea? Differences in working for a public company vs a PE company? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Former Toyota employee and author Episode page with transcript and more My guest for Episode #455 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Ken Pilone. He is the author of Lean Leadership on a Napkin: An Executive's Guide to Lean Transformation in Three Proven Steps. Ken has more than 30 years of experience in Organization Development in Government, Retail, Automotive, Distribution, and Aerospace. He is currently the Senior Manager of Business Process Engineering at Providence Health & Services — a role that encompasses internal Lean consulting, including executive coaching, lean training, leadership development, and all functions typical of a lean promotion or PI/CI function. He spent nearly 20 years with Toyota as Lean consultant within company as well as with suppliers, vendors, partners and community groups. He a co-creator of the University of Toyota at the company HQ. He led the work to adapt the Toyota Production System to non-production environments (warehousing, supply chain, HQ administration depts., sales, product distribution, dealer operations, etc. In addition, he led the Center for Lean Thinking. Ken has a Masters in Industrial Psychology and Organizational Development with his Toyota experience, Ken has developed specialties in Lean consulting in non-production environments, curriculum development and delivery, leadership and management development coaching, Toyota problem solving method training and public speaking. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Your Lean/TPS origin story? How did you end up at Toyota? How did they train and develop you? What did you have to unlearn? The University of Toyota – purpose for that? Bigger challenge: Translating TPS and Japanese where it's not manufacturing or where it's not Japan? The “Center for Lean Thinking” at Toyota — No heartburn over the word Lean? Why call it that? Was there debate about that? “The Toyota salute” = a shrug (I dunno) TPS = Lean? It depends?? Hard to get Toyota to define TPS — always changing How was Toyota distinguishing between TPS and Lean internally? Copying practices vs. principles? “Single biggest failure mode” = practices & tools and why aren't I getting the same result… “Toyota Traditions” curriculum What inspired you to write the book? 3 step approach — introduction, integration, and internalization? Vs. implementation? The most common or most harmful misinformation out there about Lean and Lean leadership? 5 Whys — why 5 isn't a “rigid rule”? Why could it be seen as “offensive” if somebody describes themselves as a “sensei”? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

CEO of "Lean Focus" Episode page with video, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #454 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Damon Baker. He is the founder and CEO of the firm Lean Focus. He's also a Private Equity Partner at Coltala Holdings. Damon Baker has been implementing Lean practices in various GM & VP-level capacities for more than 25 years, but it was at Danaher, where he worked for nine years, that his passion for true business transformation was born. He was instrumental in developing Danaher's company-wide Problem-Solving Process, and was inspired to create a new, comprehensive business system that enables organizations to improve on all fronts. He has worked in a Shingo Prize-winning facility and is a Shingo Prize Examiner. Over his career, Damon have demonstrated hands-on leadership and facilitation of 500+ kaizen events in close to 100 major corporations in 16 different countries. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How did you first get introduced to Lean or TPS — what was the context and the circumstances? Want people to have a positive experience with Lean… Evaluating someone's lineage?? Company, influences, who they learned from?? What were the key components of the Danaher Business System — and why a “business system” instead of a “production system”? You say “The Lean community has a marketing problem” — why is that and how do you define that problem? Our language vs. the language CEOs speak CEOs care about value creation, making the quarter, how Lean is going to help them Conferences as echo chambers — where are CEOs and CHROs going to? “Our CEO isn't buying in…” — what do you suggest? How many CEOs are “Lean Zealots” like Art Byrne?? Tell us more about your firm Lean Focus –what types of clients do you serve? Lean in private equity — What does PE care about?? Vs. Public Equity Has there been a shift in the PE philosophy on extracting value vs. creating value, or do some just do it differently / better? Tell us about the “Ownership Works Initiative” — KKR and other firms (TPG) The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

My guest for Episode #453 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sarah Boisvert. She is the founder of New Collar Network and Fab Lab Hub. Episode page Her career spans advanced “smart” manufacturing, art and music, and innovative workforce training. Her mission as part of the Fab Lab Network is to create pathways that often do not require college degrees to well-paying, engaging “New Collar” careers, utilizing disruptive technologies like 3D printing, laser machining, robotics, VR and AI/machine learning. She's joining us on the podcast from Albuquerque. She is the author of the books The New Collar Workforce and People of the New Collar Workforce. In collaboration with Santa Fe Community College, Boisvert also founded the New Collar Innovation Center at the Santa Fe Higher Education Center in 2021 to foster innovation in lifelong learning, New Collar workforce training, and the creation of 21st-century startups. Sarah is going to be part of a main stage keynote panel at the AME annual conference, being held in Dallas, October 17 to 20. Joining Sarah on the panel are Deondra Wardelle, who was my guest in Episode 405, and also Amy Gowder, President and CEO of GE Aviation Military Systems Operations. I'm going to be moderating the panel. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: You've done many fascinating things in your career… but to ground the conversation, for this podcast, what was your first exposure to Lean manufacturing? Deming? Lean in your kitchen?– her choice, reducing frustration “Lean is people centric” You said in 2018: “U.S. manufacturing companies are expected to face a shortage of 2 million skilled workers by the year 2020.” — assume this came true? Made worse by the pandemic? It's worse, much worse than predicted? A problem beyond manufacturing For these new technologies…Which of those skills are most in short supply? What are the skills that “new collar” employees need to have… coming out of high school? Problem solving — it CAN be taught As you shared on LinkedIn… “General Motors is expanding hiring requirements to skills, not just degrees! Give an example of how “degree creep” causes problems? Working with Los Alamos National Laboratories to also change hiring policies? As an expert in 3D printing, how do you help companies decide when 3D printing isn't just “cool” but is actually more effective and the preferred choice? Are your earrings 3d printed? YES What are the benefits of 3D printing?? There are people in Dallas working on a 3D-printed house? Concrete? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Founder of “Launch Tomorrow.” Episode page with transcript, video, and more My guest for Episode #452 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Luke Szyrmer. He's the founder of “Launch Tomorrow.” He helps new technology products get to market faster (even remotely). Luke is the author of the books Align Remotely: How to achieve together, when everyone is working from home and Launch Tomorrow: Take Your Product, Startup, or Business From Idea to Launch in One Day. He's the host of the highly rated “Managing Remote Teams” podcast. He comes from a product management background and has a BA in Economics and English from the University of Pennsylvania. He's joining us on the podcast from Poland. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Background question — How did you get introduced to Agile, Lean Startup, things like that? “Fuzzy side of innovation”?? — time wasted 20-30 years ago? Doing the wrong things righter? Tampering – and increasing variation Processes for creating software? When you were reading about “Lean Manufacturing”? How does that resonate with? How does that relate to you and your work? How easy is it to estimate “story points”? Lean Thinking – batch vs flow… physical flow vs. work flow — Adaptations to the flow of software? Takt time – how to translate this in terms of required software, requirements, points How did you learn about Process Behavior Charts? Why did that resonate with you? How do you incorporate PBCs into your work? Counting physical products vs. story points (something more esoteric)? Landing pages – product or service that doesn't exist yet What to test BEFORE a landing page? How to make a good decision with limited data points? What's so powerful about testing an idea as a hypothesis? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Episode page: https://leanblog.org/451 My guest for Episode #451 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Dr. Alan G. Robinson. He specializes in managing ideas, building high-performance organizations, creativity, innovation, quality, and lean production. He is the co-author of 13 books, many of which have been translated into more than twenty-five languages. Dr. Robinson is on the faculty of the Isenberg School of Management at the University of Massachusetts. He received his Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the Whiting School of Engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and a B.A. and M.A. in mathematics from the University of Cambridge. He has served on the Board of Examiners of the United States' Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award and on the Board of Examiners for the Shingo Prizes for Excellence in Manufacturing. He's a returning guest (Episode 217) – talked about one of his previous books (co-authored with Dean Schroeder) — The Idea-Driven Organization. His bestselling book, Ideas Are Free, co-authored with Schroeder, was based on a global study of more than 150 organizations in 17 countries. It describes how the best companies go about getting large numbers of ideas from their front-line employees, and the competitive advantages they gain from this. His new book, available now, also co-authored with Schroeder is Practical Innovation in Government: How Front-Line Leaders Are Transforming Public-Sector Organizations. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: As we've learned from you previously… “Roughly 80 percent of any organization's improvement potential lies in front-line ideas.” — Potential? Continuous Improvement vs Innovation? Used to draw a distinction The Tesla factory doesn't have the continuous improvement culture of NUMMI? How much progress have you seen in terms of executives understanding the power of engaging everybody in bring forward and implementing ideas? Alan's first book was with Shingo — “mass creativity” UMass Memorial Health — 100,000 ideas and your role helping them? Tell us about the new book — what prompted you and Dean to write this for this audience? What prompted the research? Educating / influencing elected leaders vs. career government employees The role of front-line leaders vs. senior leaders vs. elected officials? Non-partisan – almost 50/50 from their research party wise The phrase “practical innovation”? Does adopting these practices mean we are “running government like a business”?? Adoption at local (including schools), state, or federal levels? Does “practical innovation” get past pointing simply to budgets as a barrier? Demanding cost savings or ROI is a kiss of death for improvement? 1841 — Original article that invented cost/benefit analysis… “only useful for the simplest…” “Why cost/benefit analysis is stupid“ Would we expect government in Japan to be a leader in Kaizen?

Episode page: https://leanblog.org/450 My guest for Episode #450 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Professor Torbjorn Netland, Ph.D. Tor is the chair of production and operations management in the department of management, technology and economics at ETH Zurich in Switzerland. He is a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Advanced Manufacturing and Value Chains and a Fellow of the European Academy for Industrial Management. His award-winning research on managing performance improvement appears in leading scientific journals such as Management Science, MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of Operations Management, and more. Tor is a recognized thought-leader in operational excellence (including lean) and is the recipient of two Shingo Research Awards and numerous teaching awards. His blogs at www.better-operations.com. Like my recent guest, Dr. Lisa Yerian (ep 449), Tor is going to be one of the keynote speakers at the 2022 AME Conference, being held in Dallas — Oct 17 to 20. I'll be there and I hope you will be too. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Tor, what is the topic of your keynote talk on the AME theme of “Embrace Disruption”? Tell us your thoughts on the role of new technologies in Lean? Not just emulating Toyota of the 1960s Lessons learned about bringing new ideas to people? The dream of the lights-out factory has been haunting us for a while now – GM CEO Roger Smith in the 1980s and in more recent years Elon Musk at Tesla… is that still a dream? Is it a dystopian nightmare? Or something in between? How did you first get interested in Lean and Operational Excellence? Dogma vs practical realities – Buffers? Inspection? Last year, you blogged about the confusion around “what is Lean?” How do you define Lean and what's the most common confusion? Different views of researchers? How do you describe the role of company-specific production systems? Difference in having YOUR production system vs. just a name? “If you like heated debates, start a discussion thread on the definition of lean on LinkedIn.” Another heated debate — Lean is not TPS? Goes beyond TPS? Tell us why it's wrong to blame JIT for pandemic-era supply chain problems… You have a textbook, written with Michel Baudin, coming out — tell us about that? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Chief Improvement Officer at the Cleveland Clinic Episode page My guest for Episode #449 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Lisa Yerian, MD. She joined Cleveland Clinic in anatomic pathology in 2004, and has held several pathology and enterprise leadership positions. After 10 years serving as Medical Director of Continuous Improvement, Dr. Yerian was named Cleveland Clinic's first Chief Improvement Officer of Continuous Improvement in December 2019. She's going to be one of the keynote speakers at the 2022 AME Conference, being held in Dallas — Oct 17 to 20. I'll be there and I hope you will be too. Lisa was previously a guest here in Episode 282 back in 2017. Also joining that for that episode was our friend and her colleague, Nate Hurle. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Remembering Nate Hurle (my blog post) My last podcast with him (episode 404), Nate talked about how the CCIM and your continuous improvement work was helping with Covid testing, treatment, and vaccination… new processes. As you shared recently at the Catalysis Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, how did your Lean management system get you through Covid? Daily management system Tiered daily huddles Problem solving systems “Covid put that system to the test” Adaptations were required — learned how to make changes to the standard work in hours, not weeks Urgency – had to work past the old expectation that it takes 3 months to solve problems The Cleveland Clinic journey 2006: project-based work and some basic tools 2012: deliberately focused on building culture Started a “culture of improvement” A3 Defined current state, future state — and the gap Challenge: perception that we're already doing well enough Little Red Book of Selling (a book Nate loved) Culture of excellence – “Not getting better fast enough” A3 problem solving “Having a piece of paper is a way to de-escalate…” Building on a culture of patients first Lisa's appearance with me on the Habitual Excellence podcast Good enough, world class, vs. aiming for zero harm?

Episode page, video, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #448 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Rich Sheridan, co-founder, CEO and “Chief Storyteller” of Menlo Innovations, a software and IT consulting firm that has earned numerous awards and press coverage for its innovative and positive workplace culture. He's a returning guest from Episode 189 back in 2014 — the same year that I had a chance to visit the Menlo Innovations office. We talked then about his first book Joy, Inc.: How We Built a Workplace People Love. His latest book, published in 2019, is Chief Joy Officer: How Great Leaders Elevate Human Energy and Eliminate Fear. Rich is giving a keynote talk, “Lead With Joy and Watch Your Team Fly!”, at the Michigan Lean Consortium annual conference, being held August 10-11 in Traverse City. I'll be there and I hope you'll join us. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: For those who didn't hear the first episode, how would you summarize “The Menlo Way”? And how has “the Menlo Way” evolved over the past 8 years? Why is “eliminating fear” so important and what drains joy from the workplace? “Tired programmers make bad software” Sustainable work pace Paired work – Erika and Lisa Individual performance reviews? “We've eliminated bosses” — nobody to review you, the team gives feedback, develops growth plan “Let's run the experiment” Toyota talks about the need for humble leaders — why is humility such an important trait? Do you hire for humility or try to screen out those without much humility? No longer say “we hire for culture fit” “Not an interview, an audition” Leadership lessons from the pandemic– 4 blog posts In “Chief Joy Officer” you write about the proverbial “mask” that leaders feel pressured to wear… masking how we really feel. Were you able to be your authentic whole self at work, fears and all, during the early stages of the pandemic? “Scared and panicked” – was it OK to share that with the team? “They're all adapting” – as a result of everything we've been doing for 19 years The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

As I did two weeks ago, when Jamie Flinchbaugh and I talked about “Lean 101” training (and should you skip it), I'm sharing another episode (as a “bonus” episode in the “Lean Blog Interviews” podcast series), a “just the Lean talk” discussion. This comes from Episode #27 where we started the episode by taking a deep dive into coffee (making it and drinking it at home) instead of talking whiskey. We were recording in the morning, so whiskey wasn't appropriate. The weather was nice, so Jamie was sitting outside, so we get to hear some birds in his background. Again, we know many of you don't care about the whiskey talk (or coffee talk), but Jamie suggested sharing this segment where we talked about Lean in relation to inventory and supply chains. This is from May of 2021, but we think it's still relevant. If you want to hear coffee talk, listen to or watch the whole version here. Our inventory talk includes a news story about 10 million bourbon barrels that are “resting” in inventory. But it's barely whiskey talk. We talk more about the supposed “death of Just In Time.” Ugh. As I said last time, Jamie Flinchbaugh and I started a podcast series just over three years ago called “Lean Whiskey.” It's a very conversational format and we've enjoyed doing it (and if anybody likes listening, then even better!). Links From the Show (about Lean): 10 Million bourbon barrels resting – too much or not enough? The Wall Street Journey's misinformed piece on JIT, Jeff Liker on JIT, Dr. Jonathan Byrnes on supply chain shockwaves, and Dr. Byrnes as a guest Mark's LeanBlog podcast MIT's The Beer Game, system dynamics and accumulators and delays, and supply and demand

This is a "bonus" episode where Mark and Jamie talk about "Lean 101" training -- experiences, lessons learned, tips, and more. This is the "just the Lean" part of Episode #33 of our "Lean Whiskey" podcast. We realize some of you might not care about the whiskey talk or you just don't want to hear that at all. But, the Lean discussion is pretty good, so here it is. If you're interested in Lean Whiskey, it's quite likely that you can subscribe anywhere you are listening to this post.

Episode page: https://leanblog.org/447 My guest for Episode #447 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Lauren Hisey. Lauren is a Continuous Business Process Improvement consultant, coach, trainer, and speaker. She specializes in helping business owners and leaders from mid-size organizations uncover and solve their business problems with Continuous Business Process Improvement (Lean, Six Sigma, etc.). She helps your business and organization become simpler… faster… BETTER. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Why is it important not to jump to solutions with technology (Robotic Process Automation, AI, Machine Learning, or the new Hyper automation)? What is RPA? What do you mean by “digital transformation”? Bridging the gap – people, process, and technology Don't automate a bad process Why should you start with Value Stream mapping and then process mapping the current state and future state? VSM vs. process maps? Differences? Current state observation vs. future state creation? Virtual suggestion box situation – technology adoption? Virtual Gemba walks? Why are Gemba walks so important with understanding the current state and then the future state? Putting two things together — Lean transformation and digital transformation? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Partner with Svakarma Advisory, LLP, based in Mumbai India. Episode page: https://leanblog.org/446 My guest for Episode #446 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sumitra Vig. She is a partner with her advisory firm Svakarma Advisory, LLP, based in Mumbai India. She is a customer experience specialist, an ASQ (American Society for Quality) Certified Manager of Quality & Organizational Excellence, and a master trainer & retail banker with years of hands-on international experience in Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. Sumitra has designed & conducted successful training programs, mentored employees & created an impact across continents Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How did you get introduced to Quality? First time right / first time quality from a customer lens — What is this? Does this mean “no mistakes”? What do we learn from mistakes? Does “first time right” put too much pressure on people? How can we design the product or service in a way that ALLOWS first time right? Design thinking — what does the customer really want? Measures — Problems vs reported problems — how to handle unreported problems? Customer is king? The employee is really king to then deliver a transformational experience?? The 5 Toyota Precepts The book Atomic Habits Women in Lean – Our Table group on LinkedIn Has a master class available online on First Time Right Working with a foundation – mobile hospital for villages, remote Himalaya The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Consultant and author of "The Lean Innovation Cycle" Episode page: https://leanblog.org/445 My guest for Episode #445 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Michael Parent. He is the Managing Director of Michael Parent Consulting Services and a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt with AAA Auto Club Group in Michigan. He has written a new book titled The Lean Innovation Cycle: A Multi-Disciplinary Framework for Designing Value with Lean and Human-Centered Design. Today, we're going to take a dive deep into topics that augment both the Lean and Human Centered Design frameworks. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How about an Operational Definition: What is Human Centered Design? Tools — but more than the tools Design something… empathize with the end user “Transparency is a good thing” Design thinking (prototyping?) vs. human-centered design?? Observing people vs. asking them about needs as customers? Converging toward a design? What made you interested in exploring Human Centered Design? What value does Human Centered Design offer for Lean, Six Sigma, and continuous improvement? Methodology, being an experimentalist Customer journey vs. VSM? Or Customer Journey VSM hybrid? What is the Kano model? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/444 My guest for Episode #444 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Michele Smith. She is CEO and an Executive Coach with her firm Better Possibilities, LLC. Michele is the former director for the Sutter Improvement System at Sutter Health. She is a Catalysis faculty member and she is is leading a workshop June 7th at the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit called Winning the People Side of Transformation in Salt Lake City. The Summit is being held June 6 to 9 (with the main days being the 8th and 9th). I hope to see you at the Summit. Michele is a dedicated Executive/Leadership Coach with extensive experience coaching individuals across all levels of the organization. She has broad experience as a designated leader and change management consultant, with expertise in team building, leadership development, and facilitation/coaching of leadership to arrive at an organizational strategy with aligned goals, solutions, and ultimately culture change. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Tell us a bit about Lean at Sutter — the Sutter Improvement System A management system? A roadmap vs. GPS? Wanting an “organization of problem solvers” – how do we define problem solving? How to help shift from fire fighting and workarounds to problem solving to root? Short-term countermeasures vs long-term countermeasures Management behaviors that lead to the continuous improvement culture? “Leaders to let go of control” Helping leaders through this via change management methods? Motivations to change? What is ADKAR? Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement Ah-has — Change management vs. “just change” Shoehorning change (communication to the masses) in at the end of an improvement event? Bringing the broader team along — keeping them informed, getting their input before and during the event, not just after? Leaders going through their ADKAR process and then how do you help others go through it??? The important of joy / happiness in accepting change?? Secret sauce – “The Happiness Advantage”

My guest for Episode #443 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Dr. Nicole Tschierske, a scientist and positive psychology coach who helps experts and teams in STEM do better work. Nicole works with her clients to improve their collaboration and communication skills so their work gets the momentum and recognition it deserves. She also helps construct ways of working that reduce stress, increase motivation and engagement, and deliver results. Nicole lives in Hamburg, Germany, holds a PhD in chemistry and is trained in coaching, positive psychology, change management, and advanced problem-solving. When she's not buried in research papers and books you can find her taking long hikes in the German countryside or mesmerised by Mary Poppins on the screen. Her new podcast is called “Better Work” and I had the honor of being her first guest! Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How and where were you first introduced to Lean? Why she was burned out in a product research team Moved from science to supply chain — they were starting with Lean Why was this important to you? Was was energizing about this? The collaborative, engaging approach of Lean Workshops? Kaizen events (and then into science areas, finance) As a scientist likes an approach that's “rigorous not rigid” Avoid moving too fast, avoid jumping to solutions, not jumping to causes “When ‘is' deviates from the ‘should' What does Lean have to do with stress and burnout prevention? Physical, cognitive, emotional demands on people Getting to the root causes of stress vs countermeasures? Supply chain impact and social support with war going on? Tell us about some Deep-dive process improvements How does Lean apply to Roles & Responsibilities and partnerships? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Episode Page: https://www.leanblog.org/442 My guest for Episode #442 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Crystal Davis, the Founder, CEO & Principal Lean Practitioner at her firm, The Lean Coach, Inc. She was previously a guest in Episode 363 of the series, at the start of the pandemic. Crystal Davis is an experienced business management consultant with twenty years of experience in the design, development, and implementation of Lean Business System solutions. She has extensive domestic and international expertise in the design and implementation of solutions for automotive and healthcare manufacturing, and consumer packaged industries. Her podcast is “Lead Lean with Crystal Y. Davis“ Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Reflections back on Covid times, in general? How do we move from crisis mode, to survival mode, to recovery mode? How long was the crisis mode? CPG supply chains — hoarding Why do we need courageous leadership during these challenging times? Courageous to do something everyone else isn't doing Eric Dickson – UMass Memorial Health, link to latest episode Principles — Toyota vs GM during this current shutdown Principles and values are scaleable Principles vs. biz decisions Focused on honing in on what it takes for Leaders to make a shift with all of these supply chain challenges? What leadership characteristics are needed? How do you define a “Lean Business System”? People, process, and infrastructure and how that works together Using the Socratic method? People sometimes get annoyed by this? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

This bonus episode is a cross posting of Episode 137 of "My Favorite Mistake" with author Daniel H. Pink. Show notes and more: https://www.markgraban.com/author-dan-pink-on-the-mistake-of-not-having-a-mentor-and-the-power-of-regret/

Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/441 My guest for Episode #441 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John Dues, an accomplished education systems leader and improvement science scholar-practitioner with more than two decades of experience in the sector. He is the Chief Learning Officer of the United Schools Network (USN) where he directs the network's Continual Improvement Fellowship and serves as an improvement advisor. He draws heavily on the work of W. Edwards Deming and his System of Profound Knowledge (SoPK) to equip him with the theory and statistical tools by which to perform this role. Under John's leadership, USN schools have regularly been among the state and nation's highest performing urban schools. In 2013, John was recognized as the Ohio School Leader of the Year by the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools. John graduated with Honors from Miami (OH) University, holds a Master of Education degree from the University of Cincinnati, and is an alumnus of Teach For America He is currently continuing his education through the Improvement Advisor program at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Boston, Massachusetts. John is the author of a free eBook, Rethinking Improvement. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: “System” – design and then improvement? Voice of the Customer – who is the “customer” for education? Or customers? Where did you first learn about continuous / continual improvement practices and principles? Book Learning to Improve Carnegie Foundation — “improvement science“ Factors out of your control including poverty, home life instability? Focusing on what you can control? Learning from IHI? Deming? Initially turned off by Deming? – hard to understand? What changed in March 2020? Applicability into education? Things Deming said specifically about education? Alfie Kohn, episode #57 Don Wheeler, also using my book Measures of Success Use of Process Behavior Charts What is “engagement” for remote learning? in education? Signal vs. noise The trouble with arbitrary targets? The role of “the system” on performance? Under appreciation of systems thinking? What's the impact of spending on individual “professional development”? Theory of knowledge – why do we do the things we do? So engrained we don't question them? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/440 My guest for Episode #440 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Bella Englebach, the Lead Consultant at her firm “Lean for Humans.” She is also the host of the podcast “The Edges of Lean,” which is part of the Lean Communicators group. Bella is also the author of the book Creatively Lean: How to Get Out of Your Own Way and Drive Innovation Throughout Your Organization. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Finding the balance between listening to a sensei vs. trying things and experimenting yourself? Managing to Learn book – pulling back from telling Working with middle managers caught in the middle What's your Lean origin story?? Getting out of the “way we've always done it” habit Six Sigma – didn't work well in R&D — why? Creative problem solving methodology? Creative solution generation? “Don't be so sure!” Lean – at a company via the phrase “process excellence” Are we solving the right / biggest problem?? The people side… Meaning behind the name of your company? “Lean for Humans” Episode 32 of “Lean Whiskey” Host of “The Edges of Lean” — podcast Episode 437 Peter Docker The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Prof. Emeritus - Darden / University of Virginia Episode Page: https://www.leanblog.org/439 My guest for Episode #439 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Elliott Weiss, the Oliver Wight Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, having taught in the Technology and Operations Management area at Darden. He is the author of numerous articles in the areas of production and operations management and has extensive consulting experience for both manufacturing and service companies in the areas of production scheduling, workflow management, logistics, lean conversions and total productive maintenance. He's also a co-author of the book The Lean Anthology: A Practical Primer in Continual Improvement. Before coming to Darden in 1987, Weiss was on the faculty of the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He has held visiting appointments at the Graduate School of Management and the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Elliott's degrees are all from the University of Pennsylvania: B.S., B.A., Math & Economics MS Operations Research MBA Ph.D., Operations Research I reached out to Elliott to discuss his recent writing: ON THE (BASKET)BALL: WHAT BUSINESS CAN LEARN FROM STEPH CURRY He was writing about this excellent WSJ article: Stephen Curry's Scientific Quest for the Perfect Shot Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Lean & operations origin story — what sparked your interest in this as a field? The vanity plate? 0 MUDA — also had one NOMUDA Elimination of variation, enhancement of the wait, expectations management Lean applied to teaching? Research? Taguchi loss function? Is Curry reacting to noise? Hoshin Kanri — Application to retirement – mind/body/soul Book — “The Lean Anthology” case studies Chapter on using SPC charts to monitor blood sugar & diabetes The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/438 My guests for Episode #438 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Shannon Karels and Kathy Miller, the authors of the recently-released book Steel Toes and Stilettos: A True Story of Women Manufacturing Leaders and Lean Transformation Success. Their website is opsisters.com. Kathy Miller is a Senior Operations Executive who has held numerous global vice president and director roles both in manufacturing and lean enterprise leadership. Kathy is a Shingo Prize Recipient for Large Businesses as a Plant Manager. She started her career in Operations as a 17-year-old co-op student at a vehicle assembly plant, and progressed through engineering, marketing, lean, and operations leadership roles, working for four large publicly traded corporations in executive roles. Shannon Karels is a Senior Operations Manager who has led multiple lean transformations and run operations for two large publicly traded corporations across various industries and business models. She started her career in supply chain management and progressed through lean and operations leadership roles. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: What are your Lean origin stories? Kathy – what was the motivation for Lean– catching up to Toyota? Main goals? Shannon – starting point, the business was losing money? The “right way to run a business” – what appealed most to you? Kathy: how to help break old habits and truly embrace what's being taught? Other coaches and influences? Including Chris Harris, John Shook, Jim Womack How did auto experience translate to first job outside of GM/Delphi? Story behind the book? How much of the book is about issues faced by women in manufacturing? The lean facilitator and the General Manager – how do the roles and responsibilities break down in a lean transformation? Your passion for safety? Where did that develop in each of you? Lean in the office? Carpet land? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/437 My guest for Episode #437 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Peter Docker. He is the author of the book Leading From the Jumpseat: How to Create Extraordinary Opportunities by Handing Over Control. He was the co-author of the book Find Your Why and formerly a founding Igniter at Simon Sinek Inc. Peter draws on his 25-year career in the Royal Air Force, and over 14 years spent partnering with businesses around the world, to inspire others to “Lead from the Jumpseat.” There are opportunities today to connect the dots to Lean, as we focus on styles of leadership that are very compatible with Lean. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Mutual respect… “respect for people” connection What is jumpseat leadership? Humility / courage to ask for help — a culture that invites that? Doing nothing vs. choosing to not intervene React vs. response Planning for likely events – checklists Standardized Work parallel — Mental capacity to deal with the unexpected Hospitals – sense of belonging – love for others Eric Dickson example – link to his episode of “Habitual Excellence“ Driven by love or driven by fear? — Fear is not sustainable “Humble Confidence” — can somebody become more humble? Or do the humble become more confident? Leadership under pressure? PROGRESSION AS A LEADER: Learning to fly Flying Teaching others to fly Leading from the Jumpseat Belonging – how can leaders create a sense of belonging? This goes beyond the word “engagement”? “Learning is a large part of military culture” — what creates that? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Founder/CEO of CJ Young Consulting, LLC Episode page: https://www.leanblog.org/436 My guest for Episode #436 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Dr. Cynthia J. Young, PMP, LSS MBB, CMQ-OE, the Founder/CEO of CJ Young Consulting, LLC. Cindy helps organizations optimize human-centric knowledge to increase trust and support collaboration and inclusion. She is a TEDx Speaker, an HBR Contributor, and a Veteran (23 years in the U.S. Navy) She is also a Curriculum Developer and Instructor with Leidos, an engineering and defense contractor. Cindy is also presenting a webinar on February 10th, part of the KaiNexus CI Webinar series… learn more and register here: Impactful Methods to Benefit Organizational Knowledge Management and Continuous Improvement Efforts She is also leading an upcoming “Knowledge Management Bootcamp.” Today, we discuss topics and questions including: Origin story as a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt? –> In the Navy Combining LSS, PMP, CMQ-OE certifications? What is “knowledge management” in the context of organizations? Leadership & technology?? Five Ways to Protect Yourself from a Layoff Using Knowledge Management We should “Resist hoarding knowledge” — is that counterintuitive? This sharing had big benefits to you and your career? Breaking down silos? Applying KM to Lean and applying Lean to KM? Waste of capturing knowledge that doesn't get used? Examples of good practices? Mistakes people make with knowledge? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/435 My guests for Episode #435 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Sunil Khushalani, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in Addiction Psychiatry and Antonio DePaolo, PhD, a transformation executive and a Baldrige Fellow with over 22 years of experience in improvement science. My guests today are the co-authors of the new book, released in December, titled Transforming Mental Healthcare: Applying Performance Improvement Methods to Mental Healthcare. You can order the book through the publisher at a 20% discount, using code ESBAC. They are a physician (psychiatrist more specifically) and an industrial engineer: Sunil Khushalani, MD, a psychiatrist who specializes in Addiction Psychiatry Antonio DePaolo, PhD, a transformation executive and a Baldrige Fellow with over 22 years of experience in improvement science. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: I'm always fascinated to hear your ‘lean origin stories” if you will Antonio? 16 years in manufacturing, Lean and Six Sigma, GM/Delphi, Sensei Nakao from Shingujitsu Suni? At Shepard Pratt – Chip Davis, patient safety course, Steve Spear “Fixing Healthcare“, the “Pittsburgh Way” book, “Perfecting Patient Care” with Spear and Paul O'Neill Antonio coming into healthcare? Via Stiles Associates (our sponsor) Experts in behavior — lessons in behavioral health? Ron Oslin webinar on Motivational Interviewing (still trying to find the new location on lean.org) “Addicted to the status quo” — How does this idea apply to leaders? “A conservative 30-50% of every step in the mental healthcare process does not help patients feel better or stay better”?? Motivations for Lean then and there? Sunil: hearing about quality & safety problems? How did you approach transformation / Lean in the Mental Healthcare setting? 1 in 5 Americans experience a “mental illness” each year — which is most common? How many people don't get access to the right treatment? When should people reach out for mental health care? How do you define Lean Daily Management? Burnout amongst healthcare workers? Sunil – tell us more about the natural reaction to being told? Don't blame people for being resistant to change Pitfalls / lessons learned?? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Professor at INSEAD, author of "Built to Innovate" Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/434 My guest for Episode #434 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Ben Bensaou. He is an INSEAD professor and author of Built to Innovate: Essential Practices to Wire Innovation into Your Company's DNA. Ben earned his PhD at the MIT Sloan School of Management, where I was an MBA student. He was part of Jim Womack‘s research team that studied the auto industry and that group coined the term “Lean.” He's joining us from Kobe, Japan, where he is on sabbatical. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: I'm curious to hear your memories and reflections of the Womack research era “Japanese management model”? – how would you describe that? Jim Womack episode on “Machine Revisited” Labor / talent shortages — similar challenge in Europe or Japan now? Was there anything from that research that wasn't widely understood by readers and business leaders? “It's a mindset” not tools, techniques, and gimmicks Parallels to innovation? How much is a mindset? The importance of building trust with suppliers “Innovation is everybody's job” “The fundamental is trust in people” “… permission to innovate” – culture and environment Is there a spectrum between C.I. and innovation? Can innovation be taught? Can innovation be a process? Innovation as a noun vs. innovating as a verb Why are middle managers so important for innovation and is this surprising to people? Not just the “genius leaders” “Innovation ambassadors” – coaches working with the middle managers If people think that Lean (and concepts like standardized work) stifle innovation, what's your response to that? “The power of process” doesn't stifle innovation… leads to innovation? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

My guest for Episode #433 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gerard Ibarra, an author, business consultant, speaker, and entrepreneur. Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/433 Gerard is the author of the book Good Decisions, Better Outcomes: A Simple, Five-Step Process to Help You Make Important and Difficult Decisions with Confidence and Clarity, available now. Gerard received his PhD from Southern Methodist University's (SMU) Lyle School of Engineering with emphasis in Logistics Systems Engineering and Operations Research. He has taught graduate courses in logistics systems engineering at SMU, as well as logistics, supply chain management and e-business courses at the University of Dallas' Graduate School of Management. He's had executive roles in logistics companies, has had his own consulting firm, and was President and CEO of a company from 2008 to 2010. He was also the CEO of Jaguar Logistics, the largest medical on-demand transport company in Texas until acquired by Dropoff in 2018. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: What's your origin story related to continuous improvement? Where and when and why? The story behind the book — why a book on decision making? Efficient and effective decision making? Decision making is not strictly rational, is it? How do emotions influence us and how should we take that info consideration? What is the P2MODE methodology, in a nutshell? How much of good decision making is process vs. having the right info? Evaluating needs vs. wants? How does that enter into decision making? Group decision making and this framework?? Types of consulting you do — general training? Help with a specific big decision? My Favorite Mistake guests — often the decision seems like a good one at the time… but later reveals itself to be a “mistake.” How often would you expect this to be the result of a bad decision making process vs. a good process with bad information? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show page: https://www.leanblog.org/432 My guest for Episode #432 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jamie Flinchbaugh, an old friend of mine and a frequent guest (Episodes 5, 6, 10, 64, and 261, plus the two times he's interviewed me, Episodes 50 and 316). He's also the co-creator and frequent co-host with me on the Lean Whiskey podcast series. Today, the talk is all Lean, no whiskey. We talk about leadership, problem solving, more today — talking about his new book, People Solve Problems: The Power of Every Person, Every Day, Every Problem. I put Jamie on the spot to coach me through some problem solving I'm doing related to podcast growth, and he makes a lot of great points. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: So, we don't need to worry about AI problem solving? The role of software, like KaiNexus The story behind the book – after The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean in '06 Why this book? Why now? Behaviors drive action — what are some of the key behaviors that drive problem solving? Testing to learn… testing throughout? Open to the idea you might be WRONG – humility Entrepreneur — book is a product that scales – thinking about it like a startup? Book isn't A3 or PDSA or Kata centered… agnostic about the specific method?? A3 — The importance of a good problem statement? How do we better understand cause and effect in problem solving? You can coach without being an expert The role of intuition vs data? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show notes and links: https://leanblog.org/431 My guests for Episode #431 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sonia Singh, a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, executive coach, and professor with 19 years of experience in healthcare operations, management consulting, leadership development, and culture transformation. She's worked with dozens of companies in improving their performance, resulting in a collective financial impact of $30M. She's trained and coached over 2000 emerging and experienced leaders. Sonia is the founder of Sonia Singh International, and one of her offerings is the Influential Leadership Academy, where she helps leaders build emotional intelligence and master their influence. She was previously an employee at some healthcare systems and Cardinal Health. Sonia holds a degree in Psychology from Northern Illinois University, a Master's degree in Health Administration from Tulane University, and completed her professional coaching training at the University of California, Davis. Today, we discuss topics and questions including: How did you first get introduced to Lean or continuous improvement concepts? What were some of your best experiences working in healthcare improvement? What was a “school of hard knocks” lesson you gained working in healthcare? How did you decide to start working independently? Why go through professional coaching school and how did that change how you coach? It's hard to just ask questions To you, what are the differences between the words “coach” vs “consultant?” What has it been like shifting from lean coach to leadership coach? Getting to root causes of behaviors or reactions? How to help people shift from telling to asking questions? Influential Leadership Academy – who is this targeted to? “It's a strength when you can share your power.” The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show notes and links: https://www.leanblog.org/430 My guests for Episode #430 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Eric Ethington and Matt Zayko, the authors of the new book The Power of Process: The Story of of Innovative Lean Process Development. They are both faculty for the Lean Enterprise Institute, among other roles. Eric has a firm called Lean Shift Consulting and Matt has a new role as Lean Leader at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy. The book is available now through the publisher, or from Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle formats. Today, we discuss their book, with topics and questions including: I like to ask guests about their “Lean origin stories” — When did you first learn about Lean and what was the context? Deming's book Out of the Crisis The way it's always been? – how to get past this? LEAN PROCESS DESIGN –> There's a lot emphasis on “process improvement” in organizations, often in the context of Lean. How do you define “process development” and why is this so important? How do we avoid disconnects between process design intent and those running the process? GO SLOW TO GO FAST? Iterative design and being more ready to launch and go fast in ramp? Doing something new — A new mass vaccination clinic? How do you strike the balance between “we've got to design it well” vs. “it's never perfect, but we can improve it”? If you have flexibility, you don't have to be as perfect BACK TO SLOGANS — In your book, you talk about process design with “no slogans, no absolutes” — what do you mean by that? What are some slogans or absolutes that have gotten people in trouble? “Small lot flow” vs. single piece flow (Yamada), as small as possible is what he taught Who do you expect to be the typical readers of this book? What roles, levels, or industries? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/429 My guest for Episode #429 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John Chacon, the Director of Construction Excellence at Black & Veatch. We've been connected on social media for a while and John's reply to a tweet led to this podcast conversation, where he said: “If you have read this blog post and are still thinking about incentivizing folks for ideas…stop…give me a call and I will tell you some stories about paying your folks to think.” Today, we discuss topics and questions including: John's Lean origin story? In the Marine Corps. Deployed to Japan – painted a different picture – in what way? Cultural differences? A different level of respect? Why didn't you like it at first? How do you define Kaizen? Not just the process, it's the people Continuously improving the people Later company — “The work was to improve the work” How do you foster that culture? Curiosity and genuine wonderment What does Kaizen (what does John) suggest about how to incentivize people to submit ideas? DO we need to incentivize? What happens when you run out of rewards funding? Improvement stops How do you tap into in intrinsic motivation? Kaizen and Kata? Putting things into plain English? Working in other countries – Thailand, India, China — how does the Lean/Kaizen message get delivered differently? Marine Corps like Kaizen — the way you are vs something you do The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/428 My guests for Episode #428 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Nick Katko and Mike De Luca. Nick is president and owner of the firm BMA and Mike is a Lean coach, serving as principal and owner of Torre Consulting. Nick and Mike have a new book out called Practicing Lean Accounting. And I'm thrilled that the title is inspired by the book I edited called Practicing Lean. Their book is available now in paperback and Amazon Kindle formats. Nick has been practicing lean accounting for over 25 years, both as a CFO and as a lean accounting trainer and coach. Nick is also the author of the book The Lean CFO (2013) and is co-author of The Lean Business Management System (2007). Mike's lean journey began with implementing lean accounting as a finance leader in the early 2000's – evolving the finance department's role to meet the changing needs of a lean organization. Today, we talk about the book and more, with topics and questions including: Nick and then Mike, how did you first get introduced to Lean and what was the context? Manufacturing and healthcare How did you come to collaborate on this book? Budgets – from quarterly batches to daily practice The “tyranny of budgets” leads to blame? What is “Lean Accounting” in relation to the accounting function, payroll, paying suppliers, etc. “Becoming immune to waste” Why is it important for others to understand “how accounting thinks”?? What does “respect for people” mean to you? “It's not about the numbers, it's about the people using the numbers” Lean accounting applications in healthcare? What's uniquely healthcare? Final tips — How to best engage CFOs? Is there a clear message about what Lean means to the org? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/427 My guest for Episode #427 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is a returning guest, Karyn Ross. She was previously a guest in Episodes 266 and 411. She was also my guest for Episode #3 of My Favorite Mistake. Karyn has a new book called The Kind Leader: A Practical Guide to Eliminating Fear, Creating Trust, and Leading with Kindness. Scroll down for a 20% coupon you can use if you buy through the publisher. You can also enter to win a copy. Today, we talk the book and more, with topics and questions including: How do you define kindness? NPR story on the kindest family How do we help people understand that kindness is not a sign of weakness? My Favorite Mistake (out Thursday) Moses Harris interview Episode #110 How much unkind behavior is driven by people being scared? "Vicious circle of fear" "Collaboration, cooperation and kindness" chapter heading -- reminds me of how Dr. Deming used to rail against competition -- and I think that's especially true when talking about internal competition Systemic root causes of fear and unkind behavior -- Kind leaders can affect the system... Kindness and respect? Connections to Lean in the book A time when someone was kind to you at work? Recent KaiNexus webinar on psychological safety... also proven to drive results Workshop with Jessica House on the topic Blaming instinct...What do you mean by "always assume positive intent"? - examples? Negativity bias "Prefectionism isn't Kind" online workshop with Amy Mervak Morning session Afternoon session Little Kind Words Talk Show -- lessons learned from that? Doing live streaming -- "practice accepting what is" We're always learning... what have you learned about kindness since the book was published? "Pop up kindness stand"? -- WSJ article The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

CEO of Growing Champions, LLC Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/426 My guest for Episode #426 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John Gallagher, Founder and CEO of Growing Champions, LLC, an Executive Coach, Mentor, and Consultant. John was with Simpler Consulting for over a decade after being an operations manager and a division president for two different companies. He's also the host of a new podcast called The Uncommon Leader. I'll be John's guest in an episode to be released on October 19th. Today, we talk about topics and questions including: Where did you first get exposed to Lean? Why were you skeptical about Lean at first? Came from MRP batch & queue world Rapid Improvement Event or Rapid Planning Event? His first sensei, the late Bill Moffitt “Comfort the afflicted or afflict the comforted?” Who were some of your key mentors? Lean Thinking was a key book, the first book he read on Lean Being an operations manager vs. a division president… what did you learn from those roles? Applying Lean to residential real estate sales Healthcare? Patients aren't cars?? Addressing that? Cookbook medicine? “Unique care delivered in a standard way” Tell us about the podcast… inspired by Tony Dungy's book Who have been some of your guests? — Including Paul De Chant Who are some of the “uncommon leaders” you have worked for, worked with, or coached? What made them uncommon? Posts I was reminded of Lenny Walls, my trainer Central Intelligence post Sushi incrementalism post Coaching work? Lean coach to exec coach? The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show notes, links, and video: https://www.markgraban.com/425 My guest for Episode #425 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Katie Anderson, who is joining us for the seventh time as a guest. Katie is, of course, the author of the book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: Lessons from Toyota Leader Isao Yoshino on a Lifetime of Continuous Learning. It has now been out over a year as eBook and paperback, and the audiobook is now available. Today, we sketched out a few topics for a fun conversation. First, we talk about “breaking the telling habit” (get Katie's free guide). When do leaders have to “tell”? Does it get annoying when you only ask questions? You'll also hear about how Katie “pulled the andon cord” (virtually) when she had a concern about the sound of me typing some notes. So, we'll talk about countermeasures and such related to that, and you'll hear our problem solving minds at work. Katie then shares a story about the use of “Process Behavior Charts” at a non-profit organization. I share a story about seeing what appeared to be a “signal” in the listener metrics for the My Favorite Mistake podcast, so we again chat about problem solving and causal analysis. We also talk the “Leading to Learn Accelerator” program that she's running soon. And I tell an awful joke about asking questions. I'm sorry. The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/424 My guest for Episode #424 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Balaji Reddie, the founder of The Deming Forum of India. An engineer by trade, Balaji was exposed to W. Edwards Deming's ideas through his father, then became highly interested in the Deming Philosophy after a chance introduction to the founder of the British Deming Association, Dr. Henry R. Neave, who became Balaji's mentor. As it says in his bio: “Balaji's contributions have been featured in textbooks and coursework on Quality and the Deming Philosophy. He holds a Degree in Electrical Engineering from COEP (the Government College of Engineering in Pune), and a Master of Science in Quality Management from BITS (Birla Institute of Technology & Science).” Topics and questions: Tell us more about your professional background In his factory, had a “quality section” but not department – what's the difference? 1991 was a key year for India – opened up outside investment and foreign products Xerox 5-day Leadership for Quality course Wanted to know where this all began, learned of Deming & Juran What was your first exposure to Dr. Deming and/or his work? His father went to Japan in 1964 “Juran had answers, Deming asked questions” Recommends Managerial Breakthrough from 1964 14 points were for an American audience, the Japanese didn't have them Red Bead Experiment – Deming used in 1940s to teach sampling “Respect for people” – Deming was talking about this a long time back Tutored under Henry Neave – tell us about him — The Deming Dimension book “The guru is the person who shows us the way… asks questions but maybe doesn't give the answers” The Deming Forum of India – 1999 founding Unique properties or qualities of Indian companies? I hope you enjoy the conversation. We managed to have a lot of laughs, even though we're talking about serious topics. The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

My guest for Episode #423 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Laura Kriska, a Cross-Cultural Consultant and the author of the book The Business of We: The Proven Three-Step Process for Closing the Gap Between Us and Them in Your Workplace. Notes: https://www.leanblog.org/423 She was previously my guest on Episode 61 of the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast. Laura was previously the author of the book The Accidental Office Lady: An American Woman in Corporate Japan, a book about her time as the first American woman to work for Honda in Tokyo, Japan. We talk about those experiences and so much more today. Topics and questions: How did you get to become the first American woman to work at Honda HQ in Japan? What was it like working in the Ohio factory? Quality Circles Kaizen — We can always do things better What was an “office lady”? Adjustments to the Japanese working culture? You initiated a Quality Circle around the uniform for office ladies, tell us about that… “Let's Abolish Women's Uniforms” Use of data? Being careful with assumptions Studied it for a year What was the outcome? You describe Cultural laziness (now, “corporate carelessness”) – what do you mean by that? Can this apply to somebody who is new to a company culture, too?? I hope you enjoy the conversation. The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

Author of Disruption Proof and The Lean Entrepreneur My guest for Episode #422 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Brant Cooper, appearing for the third time and the first time solo. Brant previously appeared, alongside Patrick Vlaskovits, in Episodes 99 and 162. Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/422 Brant is the author of the upcoming book, Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value, Drive Change, due out in late October, but is available for pre-order now. Brant is The New York Times bestselling author of the book The Lean Entrepreneur (now in a 2nd Edition) and he's CEO and founder of the firm Moves the Needle. He is also organizing a virtual summit — the Endless Disruption Summit — on Sept 30. Topics and questions: “One thing in life is certain: Disruption is the new norm.” — Why is that increasingly so? How can a company become disruption proof? What's a good example of an Industrial Age company that has transformed to thrive in the Digital Age? Lessons from the pandemic? Working from home and now what? Empathy and restaurant signs The entire world is understaffed? The hospital sign about your energy and the workplace The 5Es: Empathy, Exploration, Evidence, Equillibrium, and Ethics His experiences in healthcare — cancer The people are amazing Ransomware attack affected his radiation care I hope you enjoy the conversation. The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

We've been on hiatus over the summer here, so I've taken a look back at some of the older episodes from the podcast archives, while being on a bit of a hiatus from recording new episodes. New episodes will be coming again in September Today we're looking back at the episode that I did with John Shook. It was Episode #56, released in January 2009. I hope you enjoy our discussion -- I think it's just as relevant today as it was then even though his book Managing to Learn has been available for more than a decade (it was new when we did this episode). I had a chance to talk with John a few months back and I'm hoping to do a new episode with him sometime soon. The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.

I don't always share new episodes of the "My Favorite Mistake" podcast with you here, but when I do... it's a Lean practitioner. Today, that guest is David Meier, a former Toyota team member and leader, author of two https://amzn.to/3xPHcre with Jeffrey Liker, and a TPS/Lean consultant. Oh, and he has a great distillery in Kentucky now called Glenn's Creek Distillery. Toyota / Lean topics include: More background about what you learned at Toyota Hard for people to talk about mistakes, admitting they're human Blame vs. responsibility? Toyota teaches that leaders have responsibility Blame with punishment = "accountability"? Punishment replaced with learning and improvement? Hard on the process, not on the people Mr. Yoshino's mix up with the paint area (Episode #30) My episode about the nearly lost episodes (Episode #16) Mistakes made in the distillery Mistakes about mistakes?

Author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean We've been on hiatus over the summer here, so I've taken a look back at some of the older episodes from the podcast archives, while being on a bit of a hiatus from recording new episodes. Today we're looking back at my first episodes with my good friend, Jamie Flinchbaugh. Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/2021/08/podcast-bonus-episode-jamie-flinchbaugh-revisited-from-2006/ My voice has gone on hiatus this week… since he can’t talk, he asked me to record this intro for a podcast where we look back at some episodes I’ve been involved in. Jamie was my guest for Episodes 5 and 6 back in 2006, then again for Episode 10 that year. In 2008, he turned the tables and interviewed me in Episode 50. Then, I interviewed Jamie in Episodes 64 and 261, and Jamie turned the tables once again to interview me, in Episode 316, about my book “Measures of Success.” In April 2019, Jamie and I started the “Lean Whiskey” podcast and we plan on recording episode #29 of that series on Sunday… if my voice is back to normal. Today, we’re sharing Episodes 5 and 6 together. The episodes were shorter back then, so combined it’s just under 30 minutes of audio, talking about Waste and the Role of Leadership. I hope you enjoy our discussion from 2006, lmost exactly 15 years ago. As always, thanks for listening, and please do check out “Lean Whiskey.” The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more. This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.