Lean Blog Interviews

Apologies for the initial editing error... re-releasing this episode.  Author of Agile Sales: Delivering Customer Journeys of Value and Delight Show notes and links: https://www.leanblog.org/416 My guest for Episode #416, joining us from Brisbane, Australia, is Brad Jeavons, a principal consultant with SA Partners. His colleague Peter Hines was a guest in Episode #373. Brad is the author of the book Agile Sales: Delivering Customer Journeys of Value and Delight. Brad is also the host of The Enterprise Excellence podcast and I was his guest on Episode #20 of that series. You can also find the episode (and more) on YouTube. Topics, questions, and links related to today's episode include: How did you get introduced to Lean? And to Agile? What does growing up on a small farm have to do with it? Connections between Toyota and farming What do you mean by the McDonalds-ization of Lean and what problems does that cause? What's the story behind your book? Key lessons about improvement work for remote workp

Co-founder of the Just-in-Time Cafe Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/415 My guest for Episode #415 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Tracy O'Rourke. She is the co-author of The Problem-Solver's Toolkit: A Surprisingly Simple Guide to Your Lean Six Sigma Journey. She is co-founder of the Just-in-Time Cafe (which producers podcasts, webinars, and more). She is also a self-described “process improvement ZEALOT!” We had the chance to meet up to visit two vaccination sites in San Diego in March, and the two photos in the post are from that time together (as I blogged about here). That's one of the topics in this episode. Topics, questions, and links related to today's episode include: How did you get introduced to C.I. and what flavor(s)? How did you become a Zealot? She is the Lead Instructor at UC San Diego for the Lean Six Sigma Green Belt (public offering) Visiting the UCSD vaccination sites  – University and health system What we saw Walking the process Jerry Wright handed her the torch t

President of Effective Performance Solutions Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/414 My guest for Episode #414 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Ryan Weiss. He is president of his firm Effective Performance Strategies, based out of the Chicago area. Topics, questions, and links related to today's episode include: How did you get introduced to Lean? Becoming a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt How do you engage people? What was your epiphany on people? Purpose + People + Process = Performance Taxation without representation :: kaizen without participation What is TWI?? How were you exposed to Training Within Industry? Other podcasts on TWI from this series Modernizing TWI — some sexist language /scenarios in the original What happens when you're promoted as a leader? Explaining WHY It's not just about manufacturing?  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 healt

NHS England, Author of "Making Data Count" Notes and links: https://www.leanblog.org/413 My guest for Episode #413 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Samantha Riley, the Deputy Director of Intensive Support for NHS England and Improvement. Sam is the author of an amazing publication called “Making Data Count,” which you can read and experience freely online. Sam and I are “Twitter buddies,” as she said and I follow and enjoy her tweets, especially those using the hashtag #PlotTheDots. We are both users and teachers of (and advocates for) the use of Statistical Process Control charts (aka XmR Charts or Process Behavior Charts) as taught by the statistician Don Wheeler. Topics, questions, and links related to today's episode include: What's Sam's professional background and why it's OK that she's not a statistician Why are RAG (Red Amber Green) charts or tables insufficient? How do you have the conversation with boards, executives, and managers about RAG being insufficient? How to bring people to the

Senior Lecturer at MIT, author, entrepreneur Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/412 My guest for Episode #412 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Dr. Jonathan Byrnes, the co-author of the new book Choose Your Customer: How to Compete Against the Digital Giants and Thrive. He is is a Senior Lecturer at MIT, where he has taught about supply chain management and other topics at the graduate level and in executive programs for over 30 years.  He is Chairman and Founder of Profit Isle, an innovative profit analytics and profit acceleration SaaS software company — AND is President of Jonathan Byrnes & Co., a focused consulting company that he founded in 1976. Dr. Byrnes earned a DBA from Harvard University in 1980, and an MBA from Columbia University in 1974.  Topics, questions, and links related to today's episode include: Article: “How to Manage your Supply Chain Shock Waves“ May 2020 — what did you predict in that article and how did it play out? The bullwhip effect The MIT “Beer Game” or “

Crystal Y. Davis, Karyn Ross, Dorsey Sherman Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/411 My guests for Episode #411 are the co-founders or "founding mothers" of the group called "Women In Lean: Our Table." They are Crystal Davis, Karyn Ross, and Dorsey Sherman. Crystal was my guest back in episode 363 and Karyn was my guest in episode 266. Dorsey, welcome as a first-time guest! All three of them were part of this panel discussion webinar that I moderated last year. Crystal's company is The Lean Coach, Inc., Karyn's is Karyn Ross Consulting, and Dorsey's is Modele Consulting. Topics and questions in today's episode (and related links): How did the Women in Lean group get started, and why? Why do they (and many women) feel like they don't have "a seat at the table"? Why can "creating your own table" be helpful? How can women get involved? What can we do about the lack of equal representation on stage at Lean conferences? How can men be better allies for women in the Lean community? The podcast is spons

Senior Manager, Lucid - Formerly Toyota & Tesla Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/410 My guest for Episode #410 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Keith Champion, Senior Manager ofOperational Excellence at Lucid Motors, a new entrant in the electric vehicle marketplace, with their Lucid Air luxury sedan hitting the market very soon. Keith worked for Toyota for more than 17 years (thanks to fellow Toyota alum and previous podcast guest Tim Turner for making the connection). As Keith talks about in the episode, he started as a Team Member at Toyota Georgetown, progressing his career to Team Leader, Group Leader, and other roles. He then spent nine years working for Tesla Motors. Keith then joined Lucid in 2019 -- BTW, the CEO of Lucid, Peter Rawlinson, was previously Vice President of Vehicle Engineering at Tesla and Chief Engineer of the Model S. Topics and questions in today's episode (and related links): What's your Lean / TPS origin story? It sort of starts before Toyota What happens when y

40 years with Toyota, founder and the first president of Toyota China. Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/409 My guest for Episode #409 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Ritsuo Shingo. I first met Mr. Shingo at the Shingo Institute Annual Conference in 2009 when my book Lean Hospitals received the publication prize that's named after his father, Shigeo Shingo. I was also blessed to have time to speak 1x1 with Mr. Shingo, thanks to our mutual friend, the late Norman Bodek, which included discussions about the need for mistake proofing in healthcare -- very vivid memories for me. Ritsuo Shingo is an expert in leadership with more than 40 years of experience serving at top management positions at Toyota.  He was the founder and the first president of Toyota China. Under his leadership, Toyota China became one of the most successful ventures of Toyota worldwide. Following this success, he was appointed as the president of Hino Motors and then served as the president of GAC-Hino until 2009. Shingo was

Author of new book, trainer, consultant My guest for Episode #408 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Katie Labedz, the author of the new book How to Improve Absolutely Anything: Continuous Improvement in Your Home, Office and Family Life. Katie Labedz is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with over 20 years of experience implementing continuous improvement solutions within non-manufacturing and manufacturing environments.  Her company is Learning to Lean. Katie also has her Master's certification in instructional design, her Project Management Professional (PMP) certification through PMI and is a certified instructor/facilitator through Langevin. Topics and questions in today's episode include: What's your Lean origin story? What did you learn moving from IT to manufacturing to working with Lean in office settings? How is Lean different with “carpet walkers”? How do you define “continuous improvement”? When do you need to take a break from improvement to stabilize things? Lessons from working on

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/407 My guest for Episode #407 is Joy Mason, a Strategist, Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur based in Indianapolis. He is President and Senior Business Strategist at her company, Optimist Business Solutions, that she started after 18 years at Eli Lilly. She is the author of the book The Optimist Workbook: 5 Steps to Sustainable Solutions for Women In Business and also Purpose: A Shift from Driving It to Embracing It. Topics and questions in today's episode include: How Joy got started with continuous improvement Being introduced to Six Sigma first… then Lean tools… then looking beyond the tools How did “scientific problem solving” resonate with scientists (and others) at Eli Lilly? How can you “break down silos” (or is it better to “work across silos”)? “Lean before layoffs” or “Lean instead of layoffs”? What does being an optimist mean to Joy and why is that important? Joy talks about the work she does now, in particular with non-profits The podcast is sponsore

Veterinarian & Entrepreneur, Ivan Zakharenkov, DVM My guest for Episode #406 is Dr. Ivan Zakharenkov, he's a doctor of veterinary medicine and he's Chief Executive Officer at the company Veterinary Integration Solutions. He goes by Dr. Zak for short and he's based in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. I'm joined, as my co-host, by Chip Ponsford, DVM — he was also co-host of Episode #254 with a veterinarian as our guest then, as well. Chip also has a blog called Lean Vets and a book titled Lean Veterinary Practice Management. Today, we all talk about the important issue of burnout — Ivan wrote a whitepaper on the subject and you can download that as a PDF: “Lean Thinking in Veterinary Organizations to Improve Employee Experience.” He also wrote an MBA dissertation of the same name. In that research, he considered a correlation between human and animal healthcare and proposed that lean thinking can help reduce burnout. This is a topic that we've explored twice on the podcast with Dr. Paul DeChant, looking at i

I interviewed Adam a year ago... and his concept (The Wheel of Sustainability) is now a book! Check out the original episode and enter to win here: https://www.leanblog.org/2020/03/podcast-362-adam-lawrence-on-kaizen-events-the-wheel-of-sustainability/

CEO at DeondraWardelle.com, Co-host of "KataCon7" For show notes and discount codes for KataCon7 and for Deondra's workshop, go to http://leanblog.org/405 or scroll down. My guest for Episode #405 is Deondra Wardelle, CEO of her own company and one of the hosts of next week's virtual KataCon7 event. She is, among other things, a Visionary, Coach, Strategist, Speaker, Consultant, Kata Geek, Leader of the #RootCauseRacism Movement. Her mission is developing a world of problem-solvers. You can register for 10% off of KataCon7 by using code LF10 (thanks to Lean Frontiers for that code). Deondra is also doing a Strategic Vision Board Workshop on Saturday and you can register with a 20% discount by using code LEANBLOG. In today's episode, Deondra shares how and why she became a “Kata Geek” and how that built upon her continuous improvement foundations from her time in manufacturing. We'll talk about the similarities with Lean across industries (“it's always going back to the people”) and what “Respect for Peopl

Senior Director, Enterprise Continuous Improvement at Cleveland Clinic Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/404 My guest for Episode #404 is Nate Hurle, a Senior Director of Enterprise Continuous Improvement at Cleveland Clinic. He was previously a guest on Episode 282. He was also recently a virtual keynote speaker for the Society for Health Systems annual conference. Today, Nate shares stories and reflections from the past year — the pandemic year — and how Cleveland Clinic quickly stood up drive-thru testing, how they built a 1000-bed hospital (that thankfully wasn't needed), and how they've been ramping up Covid vaccination. What happened when Nate got a surprise phone call about the need for testing to be up and running “in a few days.” Why was the approach of “get it up and running… then make it better” a useful one and how were mockups and other methods used to put safety first, given the cars and people on foot. How did they utilize effective standardized work and training methods, huddles, and c

Show notes: https://leanblog.org/403 My guest for Episode #403 is Arnout Orelio, author of the book Lean Thinking for Emerging Healthcare Leaders: How to Develop Yourself and Implement Process Improvements. Arnout is from the Netherlands, but we have crossed paths a number of times when he and many of his Dutch colleagues have come to the U.S. for events like the Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, produced by Catalysis. His book, written in English, has a lot of great lessons for leaders and Lean practitioners in American healthcare and beyond. He has also written two books in Dutch. Arnout and I have strikingly similar professional backgrounds and paths, which we discuss in the episode. We are both engineers who progressed from the automotive industry into healthcare. We talk about how he shifted into healthcare (in 2005, same year as me) and how this experience has reinforced that: “Leadership is not a person, it’s a process. Everyone can be a leader if you want to change something.” We talk about

Founder & President, Jay Hodge & Associates Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/402 My guest for Episode #402 is Jay Hodge, the founder and CEO of Jay Hodge & Associates. He has over 25 years of operational leadership experience in companies such as Toyota, General Motors, Caterpillar, and Tenet Healthcare. Jay is also the author of The Lean Treasure Chest.   We talk about Jay's career — going from teaching the Toyota Production System at General Motors to then actually going and working at Toyota. What did Jay first learn about “efficient operations” and leadership in the United States Marine Corps? What did Jay learn about culture and servant leadership? What was the most difficult thing about leaving Toyota and going to other environments, including healthcare? How do we teach somebody to manage and to lead instead of just promoting 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 manufacturin

Co-author of the book Personal Kanban Show notes: http://www.leanblog.org/401 My guest for Episode #401 is my friend Jim Benson, who you might know as the co-author of the book Personal Kanban (and we talked about that in Episode 155, back in 2012). He was also a guest on Episode #4 of "My Favorite Mistake" with me. We recorded this using the LinkedIn Live platform. Jim and I have talked a lot (and collaborated) over the years, so we intentionally went into this conversation without much of a plan. The main theme is "humane management," a phrase of Jim's that I really like. We talk about workplaces, psychological safety (listen to my episode with Amy Edmondson on that), learned helplessness, respect, autonomy, systems thinking, and more. We also jokingly brainstorm titles for a hypothetical podcast that we would do together. He is going to join me and Jamie Flinchbaugh for the next episode of the "Lean Whiskey" podcast, by the way. Is "Mark and Jim's Vomitorium of Management Ideas" a good name? Probably

SORRY for the audio bugs, this episode should be fixed now.... Author of the newly-updated book, available now.  Show notes and more: http://www.leanblog.org/400 Wow, 400 Episodes!! 400 episodes in roughly 15.5 years… that's about 800 weeks, or one episode every two weeks, on average, over that time. Thanks again to the late Norm Bodek for the idea to get this podcast started, as I talk about in this memorial video. Thanks to everybody who has listened or participated as a guest!! My guest for Episode #400 is Jeffrey Liker, the retired University of Michigan professor who has recently released the second updated and revised version of his seminal book The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer. The new edition has more examples from the service sector, including healthcare, and it incorporates “Toyota Kata” approaches (and he credits his former student Mike Rother). Today, we talk about why he wrote a new edition and what he's learned since the publication of the orig

Lesa is the founder of Lesa Nichols Consulting.Show notes: http://www.leanblog.org/399My guest for Episode #399 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Lesa Nichols, a former Toyota and TSSC employer who now works with organizations through her company, Lesa Nichols Consulting.Today, Lesa shares reflections on working closely with the late Hajime Oba. This is the third podcast in a mini series, following my conversations with Steve Spear and with Hide Oba.In the episode, we talk about topics including:Lisa's non-traditional path to TPS: From public relations to the shop floorWorking with plant president (and future company chairman) Fujio ChoChoosing between being a "technical scientist" or a "social scientist" of TPSMeeting Mr. Oba and working with TSSCHelping find American expertise to learn fromBecoming a powertrain production managerKey lessons from working with Mr. Oba:"Managers must fight to have floor time""Safety is an assumed thing?" -- what does this mean?Don't look for waste, look for overburden (bo

Co-founders of the firm Integris Performance AdvisorsShow notes: https://www.leanblog.org/398My guest for Episode #398 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast are Brett M. Cooper and Evans Kerrigan, both co-founders of the firm Integris Performance Advisors. Brett is the President and Evans is the CEO.They are co-authors of a book with a provocative title: Solving the People Problem: Essential Skills You Need to Lead and Succeed in Today's Workplace.When I first heard about the book, I challenged them a bit on the title — is this really a “people problem” or a “systemic problem”? We have a really good conversation about all of that today and they ask a question that resonated with me: “The problem begins with you?” meaning that leaders have to go first…You can learn more via the book's website or Amazon.In the episode, we talk about the DISC-EQ model of emotional intelligence and you can take a free personal assessment via their website, use code LEANBLOG.They also answer questions including:Why do you say “leade