Lean Blog Interviews

Show notes, with transcript and more: https://www.leanblog.org/390My guest for Episode #390 is Keith Ingels, the TPS (Toyota Production System) Manager for Raymond Corporation -- Raymond is part of Toyota Material Handling North America, which is part of Toyota Industries.Wait, so a Toyota company needs a "TPS Manager?" Yes, when that company was acquired by Toyota, which creates a need to "become more like Toyota" instead of just "being Toyota." What are the differences between TPS and the Raymond Lean Management System, if any, and why does that terminology matter? What is the "adopt and adapt" strategy and why is that so important?I want to thank Raymond Corp. for making Keith available and for sharing the videos and resources that I've linked to below. Also, here is an article that Keith had published recently on shifting to a culture of continuous improvement.

https://www.leanblog.org/389My guest for Episode #389 is Elisabeth Swan. She is the co-author of The Problem-Solver's Toolkit and co-host of the Just-in-Time Cafe Podcast. As her bio says, she's "been helping people successfully build their problem-solving muscles for over 30 years, and she loves what she does every single day."In the episode, we discuss brainstorming, using an article she wrote for GoLeanSixSigma.com as the starting point: "Green Belts: Group Brainstorming Is a Waste of Time." Why has classic brainstorming proven to be ineffective, especially in the context of Lean, Six Sigma, or process improvement? And how can it be better given the reality of remote teams?The conversation also veers into talking about Elisabeth's history in improv comedy and how lessons from the improv approach influence her to this day. Why does "structure set you free" in improv or Lean Six Sigma? We'll talk about that and more.

https://www.leanblog.org/388My guest for Episode #388 is my friend Michael Lombard. I first met Michael when he lived in the DFW area and first got into healthcare. He has been a Lean facilitator / coach in numerous healthcare organizations and has been a hospital CEO in Louisiana before taking his current role, again focusing on process improvement, at Kaiser Permanente in California.Michael is doing a unique and, I think, groundbreaking keynote talk at the upcoming AME Virtual Conference. The session, which he invited me to moderate, is called "Striving together in a crisis: How improvement science can build resiliency in a crisis and perhaps even progress complex social issues." These crises include Covid-19, wildfires, and social injustice and unrest.He will be incorporating videos by two physicians, Dr. Rita Ng and Dr. Carla Wicks and they will both be participating in the Q&A for this "conversation-style" keynote. Our podcast today is a preview of this session.Michael and I also talk about how (and

My guest for Episode #387 of the podcast is Sán Paul Teeling, who joins us from Dublin, Ireland. He is the Programme Director for the Professional Certificate and Graduate Diploma in Lean Healthcare at UCD Health Systems. Seán Paul is also an Assistant Professor in Health Systems/Mater Lean Academy. He was previously Lean Manager at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Dublin. You can read his full bio here.Seán Paul and I have collaborated a few times — I was invited to give a virtual lecture last year and I had the opportunity to visit the hospital and the Lean Academy last November, leading a workshop for a group there about continuous improvement and the methods from Measures of Success (yes, I had my “red bead game” kit with me).Seán Paul also invited me to review articles and to contribute an editorial to a special supplement about Lean and Six Sigma in the journal International Journal for Quality in Health Care.In the episode, we discuss the Irish health system and his experience practicing and

I'm crossposting Episode #5 of my new podcast series "My Favorite Mistake."My guest here is Billy Taylor, who was my guest on episodes #293 and 298 of this series, Lean Blog Interviews. Billy is a retired operations executive with Goodyear who now has his own consulting group.In this episode, Billy talks about how he learned from mistakes related to not respecting standards -- when he was a kid and when he was a rising operations leader at Goodyear.I know you'll enjoy this episode as a Lean practitioner and I think you'll like the whole "My Favorite Mistake" series on the theme of learning from mistakes.  

http://www.leanblog.org/386Joining me again for Episode #386 is Steve Spear, who reached out to share recollections of one of his most influential teachers and mentors, Hajime Oba, who passed away earlier this month at 75.I never had the chance to learn directly from Mr. Oba, but he is legendary in Lean circles and I know many people who were deeply influenced by Mr. Oba. I hope to interview more of them in the near future. My deepest condolences go out to Mr. Oba's family, friends, and colleagues.Here is a classic 2001 WSJ article that features him:"How Does Toyota Maintain Quality? Mr. Oba's Hair Dryer Offers a Clue" In today's episode, Steve talks about meeting Mr. Oba and how he learned from him as a PhD student. One story that Steve shares was about sitting at his desk, thinking about a problem, and Mr. Oba told him: "Don't think -- do!" Hajime Oba You'll hear more from Steve talking about the need to learn by doing and to test changes in an experimental fashion. It's not just "do" --- it's Plan Do Check

http://www.leanblog.org/385My guest for Episode #385 of the podcast is Emily Elrod, the president of the firm Workzbe, based in Georgia.We have shared interests in Lean, ergonomics, healthcare and creating better workplaces. We met earlier this year and she was kind enough to interview me for her YouTube channel.As she describes in the episode, her career has evolved from designing equipment, to wellness and Lean in a health system, to her own firm. Her WISE framework means to work Well, Intelligent, Safe, and Empowered.We'll talk about the need to be “HOT” (Humble, Open, and Transparent), the psychology of change, and more.“I think the biggest threat to health promotion is doing things to people instead of with them.” Emily ElrodI hope you enjoy the conversation like I did. 

http://www.leanblog.org/384Joining me today for Episode #384 of the podcast is Craig Gygi, co-author of the book Six Sigma for Dummies. He also managing principal and owner of the firm Strategic Productivity. You can read his full bio there. He also has an online course called “Truth About Data” which covers statistical process control for business metrics, as I have written about.So, we have that shared interest in data, statistical methods, and problem solving even if he comes at it from a Six Sigma perspective (starting from his days at Motorola) and me from a Lean perspective.Craig's previous leadership roles include:COO, PurpleExecutive VP of Operations, MasterControlDirector Operational Excellence, Fiji WaterI hope you enjoy the conversation like I did. You can listen to the audio or watch the video, below. 

http://www.leanblog.org/383Joining me today for Episode #383 of the podcast is Patrick Anderson, the CEO of the Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc. (or "RurAL CAP"). Patrick was previously a guest way back in Episodes #53 and #71.Today, we'll talk how ideas from Dr. W. Edwards Deming and Lean have influenced him as he has led different organizations. He shares thoughts about shifting an organization away from a "command and control" approach, what "respect for people" means to him, and he'll also talk about their "performance management system."I hope you enjoy the conversation. 

Learn more: http://leanblog.org/audio309Subscribe: http://myfavoritemistakepodcast.com/ 

https://www.leanblog.org/382 for show notes and moreI'm really excited to be speaking to my guest for Episode #382 of the podcast… he is the legendary Tom Peters — author, speaker, and consultant. His response to me calling him “legendary” at the start of the episode gives you a glimpse into the fun conversation we had on some very important topics.Today, we'll be talking about his “Excellence Manifesto 2020” and a theme he has tweeted about a lot, leading amongst the “madness of Covid-19.”He is the author of 18 books, including:In Search of Excellence (1982) — Dan Pink (my guest in Episode #107) said (here) that it launched the modern biz book genreThriving on Chaos (1987)Liberation Management The Pursuit of WOW!I've been a huge fan of Tom's since I first saw him give a speech around 1997 or so. The story about Motorola's “six sigma chocolate chip cookies” (read about it here) stuck with me and my recall of that story leads to Tom talking about the risk of any good program becoming codified and bureaucratic,

http://www.leanblog.org/381Joining me for the ninth time on the podcast, for Episode #381, is Dr. John Toussaint, chairman of Catalysis. John is author or co-author of three books -- well actually it's four books, as a new one is available for pre-order now with an expected September 1st release: Becoming the Change: Leadership Behavior Strategies for Continuous Improvement in Healthcare.Today, we'll talk about the new book a bit (but we'll save most of that conversation for an upcoming episode with both John and his co-author Kim Barnas).I ask John about healthcare organizations that have been doing really good work during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of those is UMass Memorial Health Care (check out my "Habitual Excellence" podcast with their CEO Dr. Eric Dickson). Another related podcast I've done on that topic is a conversation with Paul Pejsa, also with Catalysis.We also talk about the need to adapt with conferences, as the annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit is now a one-day online virtual event

This is an excerpt from Episode #380 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast. Host Mark Graban interviews Dr. Randal Pinkett and Dr. Jeffrey Robinson and, in this clip, they reflect on Randal winning "The Apprentice" (the only person of color to do so) and how Donald Trump asked him if he would share the prize with the runner up, a white woman (Rebecca Jarvis). For a transcript and the entire episode, visit http://leanblog.org/380.

https://www.leanblog.org/380Today's episode, #380, is very special to me for a number of reasons. For one, it's part of the #RootCauseRacism series that Deondra Wardelle has organized on my blog this week. Secondly, I'm joined by Dr. Randal Pinkett and Dr. Jeffrey Robinson to talk about important issues of race, diversity, and equity in organizations. Together, they are co-authors of the book Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness and the upcoming book (2021) Black Faces in High Places.Randal Pinkett, Ph.D. is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and community servant. Randal is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of his fifth venture, BCT Partners, a multimillion dollar management, technology and policy consulting firm in Newark, NJ, a partner in Blackwell-BCT, a joint venture with Blackwell Consulting Services, and spokesperson for the Minority Information Technology Consortium. He is a Rhodes Scholar and former college athlete who holds five academic degree

https://www.leanblog.org/379 My guest for Episode #379, joining me for the fifth time, is Katie Anderson, author of the newly-released book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: Lessons from Toyota Leader Isao Yoshino on a Lifetime of Continuous Learning. In today's episode, we talk about how the book came to be and we, of course, talk about the process — the process of writing and publishing. You might also be interested in the webinar that Katie presented about some themes in the book, along with the separate extended Q&A session that we did.I hope you enjoy the conversation, whether you listen or watch.

This is a portion of a much longer interview (Lean Blog Interviews Episode #378):  I'm joined by Christopher D. Chapman, Senior Lean Transformation Coach at Chapman Lean Enterprise and Dr. Valeria Sinclair-Chapman,  a social scientist, Associate Professor, and Director of the Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion at Purdue University. I was first introduced to Chris through his article that was published on the Lean Enterprise Institute's “The Lean Post” section titled “Lean in Lean Thinkers to Root Out Racial Inequity.” He also has a follow up article called “Our Burning Platform and Using the 5 Whys to Think More Deeply about Corrective Action” with more to come.

https://www.leanblog.org/378  Joining me for Episode #378 are Christopher D. Chapman, Senior Lean Transformation Coach at Chapman Lean Enterprise and Dr. Valeria Sinclair-Chapman,  a social scientist, Associate Professor, and Director of the Center for Research on Diversity and Inclusion at Purdue University. I was first introduced to Chris through his article that was published on the Lean Enterprise Institute's "The Lean Post" section titled "Lean in Lean Thinkers to Root Out Racial Inequity." He also has a follow up article called "Our Burning Platform and Using the 5 Whys to Think More Deeply about Corrective Action" with more to come. As he wrote:"Lean leaders have a crucial role to play. We have long practiced and taught clients Respect for People as the moral core of lean thinking. As LEI states, leading respectfully not only improves business results but also the lives of workers, their families, their community, and, ultimately, society." I reached out to Chris to see if he'd want to discuss his arti

http://www.leanblog.org/377 My guest for Episode #377 is Ritu Ward, an experienced healthcare executive who has had success delivering quality, growth, and strategy while leading high performing teams.We have known each other for a while through Lean healthcare circles and she presented a webinar in our KaiNexus series titled, “Leadership Behaviors to Guide Effective Change.”She was, until recently, the Regional Vice President for Mercy Labs in the West Region. Ritu also worked previously for Carolinas Healthcare, in a Performance Excellence role. She's currently looking for her next opportunity.Today, we'll talk about the leadership styles that help create a Lean culture. She also shares thoughts on how her leadership style had to change during the Covid-19 crisis, thoughts on leading change, and more.

http://www.leanblog.org/376 Joining me for Episode #376 of the podcast is Lauren Hisey, a continuous improvement coach and consultant at her firm, Lauren Hisey Consulting. Before becoming a consultant, Lauren worked for AT&T and Nielsen in various technical and Lean Six Sigma roles. She has a BA in Political Science and Government and an MBA. Read more about Lauren via her bio.Today, we talk about the interface and overlap between concepts like Lean, Six Sigma, and Artificial Intelligence. Why do companies need to avoid jumping to solutions, including technology solutions like Robotic Process Automation? Why does the "respect for people" principle of Lean, from Toyota, mean that we shouldn't focus on replacing people with technology?I hope you enjoy the conversation, whether you listen or watch. 

http://www.leanblog.org/375 My guest for Episode #375 of the podcast is Mohamed Saleh, Ph.D.  Dr. Saleh has been a practitioner in Lean & Six Sigma transformations, in both manufacturing and service sectors. Mohamed was directly mentored by one of the country’s foremost experts on enterprise-wide Lean transformation and the Toyota Production System (TPS). He has extensive experience in hands-on healthcare, manufacturing, supply chain, network optimization and enterprise information systems. Mohamed’s academic credentials include a Certified Six Sigma Black Belt from Kaplan University, a Masters in Technology Management & Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering from Central Connecticut State University and a PhD in Business Administration from Northcentral University.  Mohamed is: Founder of Vizibility llc, a Lean consulting and training company An M Plus Group Managing Partner, an advisory-coaching firm devoted to knowledge sharing, event planning and helping clients achieve organizational transformation.