Lean Blog Interviews

Author, podcaster, and consultant Episode page Joining us for Episode #473 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Elisabeth Swan, author of the new book Picture Yourself a Leader: Illustrated Micro-Lessons for Navigating Change. It's currently the #1 new release in the Amazon TQM category… Elisabeth has consulted in the business process performance industry for over 30 years. Her experience spans from helping local non-profits expand their reach to guiding Fortune 100 companies through Lean Transformations. She has trained and mentored thousands of people in improvement projects generating millions in savings. She has deep experience coaching problem solvers and facilitating leadership retreats, strategic planning sessions, process walks, and kaizen events. Elisabeth is the Co-Designer and Lead Instructor for the Lean Six Sigma Leadership Course at University of California, San Diego (UCSD). She is a co-founder, with Tracy ORourke, of the Just-in-Time Café and co-host of the Just-in-Time Café podcast. She co-

Managing Director of Gemba Automation Episode page with video, transcript and more Joining us for Episode #472 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Mit Vyas, managing director for Gemba Automation. He started his career at Toyota and worked for other large corporations. He founded Gemba Automation, a company that has helped customers in software, medical devices, fashion, and construction develop profitable and sustainable businesses. Mit holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. In today's episode, we discuss what Mit learned working at Toyota, how that's been applied through Lean Startup thinking, and why the practice of meditation has been so important to him. Questions, Notes, and highlights: I already gave part of the answer by mentioning Toyota… but tell us more about your Lean origin story? First job at Toyota – Process Engineer at Toyota was my first “real” job. The experience there was the springboard to the rest of my career. Inputs & output

Co-founder, chairman and CEO of BCT Partners Episode page with links and more Joining us for Episode #471 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Dr. Randel Pinkett. He was a guest in Episode 380 in 2020, with Prof. Jeffrey Robinson, his co-author for the book Black Faces in White Places. Today, I'm honored to be joined by Randal again to talk about his new book, his fifth book —  Data-Driven DEI: The Tools and Metrics You Need to Measure, Analyze, and Improve Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, released yesterday, March 14th.  Randal is an entrepreneur, innovator, speaker, author, media personality and DEI expert who is leading the way in business, technology and equity for all. He is the co-founder, chairman and CEO of BCT Partners, a global, multimillion-dollar research, training, consulting, technology, and data analytics firm whose mission is to provide insights about diverse people that lead to equity.   He's a graduate of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations Program. He's a Rhodes Scholar with a PhD also

I'm sorry for mistakenly releasing two episodes on the same day... now three. Blog post related to this bonus episode

Episode page with video, transcript and more Joining us for Episode #470 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gary Michel. He was Chairman and CEO of JELD-WEN, Inc. until August 2022 and, just after that, I saw him give an outstanding keynote talk at the AME annual conference in Dallas. Gary was previously President and CEO of Honeywell Home and Building Technologies (HBT) and President and CEO of ClubCar. He also led the Trane HVAC business, among other executive roles. He has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech and an MBA from the University of Phoenix. His book, Decomplify: How Simplicity Drives Stability, Innovation, and Transformation, will be available later this year. In this episode, Gary discusses his Lean origin story and how he views and drives Lean as a CEO. He reflects on the importance of strategy deployment and Lean as an enterprise approach, and shares his approach to Lean problem solving as a CEO. Gary emphasizes the impact of taking a “fresh eyes” approach to Gemba walks, and

New book, available now! For links, video, transcript, and more visit the episode page  Joining us for Episode #469 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Matt May and Pablo Dominguez, the authors of the new book What a Unicorn Knows: How Leading Entrepreneurs Use Lean Principles to Drive Sustainable Growth. It's available now! Matt has been before, in episodes 67 and 103… and he was my guest for episode 39 of My Favorite Mistake. Pablo Dominguez is an Operating Partner at Insight Partners, a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software ScaleUp companies that drive transformative change in their industries. Pablo has spent his entire career as a go-to-market and sales-focused operator, working in consulting, public companies, startups, and, most recently, ScaleUps. The application of lean principles has figured centrally in driving sustainable growth in each of these ventures. Matthew E. May leads the Lean ScaleUp program at Insight Partners, with Pa

Chief Medical Officer of TeamHealth  Episode page with video, transcript, and more Joining us for Episode #468 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Jody Crane, M.D. He's the Chief Medical Officer for TeamHealth, and he was previously a guest for Episode 120. As a proven leader, Dr. Jody Crane, M.D. is considered one of the leading experts in emergency department operations in the United States. Dr. Crane has taught and led healthcare and emergency department improvement efforts with hundreds of organizations in a wide variety of settings on six continents. In this role, he supports clinical quality and safety and performance improvement initiatives for all clinical service lines. We're talking today because he's a keynote speaker at the upcoming Healthcare Systems Process Improvement conference, which is brought to us by the Society for Health Systems. I'm a member, and I'll be there at the event this year as usual, February 15 to 17 in Louisville, Kentucky. See Jody's full bio and more about his keynote ta

Coach at www.TheLearningFactor.ca Joining us for Episode #467 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Tracy Defoe. She is an adult education consultant and researcher specializing in workplace education. For parts of the last 10 years, she has been puzzling over the challenges of participation and leadership in continuous improvement.   She has taught communication, writing, teamwork, and cross-cultural communication as well as teaching methods to adults in colleges, universities, and the workplace. A regular consultant to business, labour, and government, Tracy is also an advocate for plain language and clear design. Questions, Notes, and highlights: Her website Your origin story for C.I., Lean, Kata…? How to navigate the distribution of varied mix-level knowledge / experience in a room when it's not 1×1? How much can somebody absorb at once when learning? “I don't know Yeti” – the mascot for Kata School Cascadia The benefit of making learning fun? Starter Kata questions – when is it OK to move beyond the rig

Episode page with video, transcript and more My guest for Episode #466 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is a returning guest, Billy Taylor. Since his last appearance, Billy has written and released a great book titled The Winning Link: A Proven Process to Define, Align, and Execute Strategy at Every Level. Billy had a long career at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, where he served as plant director for both union and non-union facilities, leading lean transformations in Goodyear's largest and most complex tire-producing sites. Billy more recently founded his firm LinkedXL, where he is CEO. He was previously a guest in Episodes 293 and 298, back in 2017. He was also a guest on Episode 5 of “My Favorite Mistake.” Questions, Notes, and highlights: Before we talk about your book, what stood out to you most at the AME conference this year? How to understand the level of trust? How do build it?? “Coaching leaders on how to show up” Productive huddles – Key Performance Actions (KPA) What is “title-itis”? Best

Here's a musical holiday treat for my regular Lean Blog readers and podcast listeners, a song parody, originally released in 2009... remastered a bit here in 2022. https://www.leanblog.org/2022/12/gemba-claus-comin-town-song/  Gemba Claus is Comin' to Town Lyrics by Mark Graban Performance by Steve Sholtes Oh, you'd better watch out You'd better kaizen You'd better not pout, I'm tellin' ya then Gemba Claus is comin' to town He's making a list Just checking it once Doin' it twice would waste a whole bunch Gemba Clause is comin' to town He sees you when you're waitin' He knows when your work flows He knows if changeovers are too long So do SMED  for goodness sake Oh, you'd watch out You'd better not pause You'd better not pout Find the real root cause Gemba Claus is comin' to Town! For voiceover work, music, or more, you can contact Steve via his website, www.stevesholtes.com. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

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

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 Larr

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 encounteri

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 mistak

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 behavi

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

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

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

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

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 spo