Lean Blog Interviews

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

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

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 — wh

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 h

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 a

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-autho

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

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.

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” evo

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 ta

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

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

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

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 topic

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 t

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 some

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