Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership

”Kata Girl Geek” Gemma Jones on Lean, Improvement, and Mental Health

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CONTENT WARNING: Today's episode includes discussions about a death by suicide and mental health issues. Help is available. In the U.S., call 988. In the U.K., call 116 123. These calls are free from any phone.
My guest for Episode #482 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Gemma Jones.
Gemma is an Improvement Coach, Trainer, and Visual Facilitator, based in the UK and working globally. Gemma started her career in Engineering and quickly found a passion for Improvement. She spent 20 years in Manufacturing across numerous industries, then in 2018 she left employment to build her own business. Gemma's mission is to help organisations and individuals be the BEST they can be, by helping people SEE, helping people THINK, and helping people CHANGE.
In today's episode, Gemma brings up important topics related to Lean and mental health, and we discuss parallels between "mental health first aid" and physical first aid. How can we learn how to help others when they might be struggling? What signs should we look for?
We also discuss her origin story in Lean and Continuous Improvement, the POWER of coaching and asking questions, how the Kata Girl Geeks global group started and grown over the past 3 years, and how her mission now is to encourage and enable the global community of CI Practitioners and Leaders to actively tune in to HELP people.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
What's your Lean / C.I. origin story??
Tell us about that Kata Girl Geeks
Tracy Defoe – Episode 467
Coaching and asking questions?
The benefits of having groups for women?
You're very interested in the overlap in mental health and continuous improvement… you did a keynote talk recently on this… tell us about that.
We don't know really that much about the totality of people's lives, stress, and other factors
Got trained in “mental health first aid“
What signs might you look for? Who needs mental health first aid if somebody's not asking for it?
Good ways of bringing up this up with people?
“I noticed you're not seeming yourself…”
Value Stream / Process Mapping and asking people to add emojis 
How are you helping people on this topic and incorporated into C.I.?
Why avoid the question why? Defensiveness
Incorporating this into workplace safety discussions and focus? A broader view of safety?
Parallels to physical first aid
Website – resources page for C.I. — “how to help”
Free training recommended by Gemma
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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. 

George Saiz on ”We Started With Respect” and His Career Focused on Improvement

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My guest for Episode #481 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is George Saiz.
As a coach, writer, and speaker, George Saiz actively promotes enterprise excellence through a people-centric culture to the next generation of leaders. 
In his new business novel, We Started with Respect, he shares from his executive experience in the medical device industry and the many best-practices sites he visited as president and CEO of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence. He is retired and currently resides with his wife in Carlsbad, California.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
What's your Lean origin story?
The Goal — a business novel
The leader going first with the learning??
Compliance vs Commitment 
Using Lean as business problem solving vs. tools for operations?
Exposure then to Lean / TPS?
The need to focus on process AND people (culture)
What aspects of Lean don't work without a high enough level of mutual trust?
Gallup surveys show that two out of three employees are disengaged to some degree –causes or root causes?
Examples of companies that invest well in supervisor and manager training?
The need to DESIGN culture?
Tim Clark's podcast, “Culture by Design“
Tearing down the walls — starts with executive leadership team
Looking back — key Influences and mentors?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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. 
 

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Lean Blog Interviews is hosted and produced by Mark Graban. 

Paul Critchley Interviews Mark Graban About “The Mistakes That Make Us”

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For Episode #480 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast turns the tables, as regular host Mark Graban is interviewed today by a guest host, his friend Paul Critchley.
Paul was previously the host of the New England Lean Podcast and he's been a guest of Mark's in Episode #5 of the Lean Whiskey podcast series.
Today, Paul asks Mark questions about his new book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, the general topic of learning from mistakes, and more.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
What was the origin of the My Favorite Mistake podcast?
What have you learned from your guests about PDCA / PDSA and learning from mistakes?
What's your favorite mistake?
Iterating on improvements and engaging people in that process
What advice would you give to leaders and managers so they can incorporate a culture that encourages risk takin… that mistakes are okay with psychological safety?
Saying “I'm sorry” shows strength not weakness
What'd you wanna be when you were little?
What inspires you?
What's one thing nobody knows about you?
What superpower do you wish you had?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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. 

Arnout Orelio on Lean Thinking in Healthcare: The Netherlands and Beyond

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Joining us for Episode #479 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Arnout Orelio, a returning guest (from Episode 403 in 2021). He has been working with Lean management since 1995, the last 15 years as a trainer, coach, and consultant in healthcare. 
He is the owner of The Lean Mentor, where he helps people who want to (learn to) improve healthcare. Arnout focuses on teaching lean leadership, as an author, speaker, and mentor, bringing top performance and high levels of productivity within everyone's reach. His mission is to make “more time for better health care.”
His first book was Lean Thinking for Emerging Healthcare Leaders and, today, we're discussing his brand new book, Lean Thinking in Healthcare.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
How do you summarize your 25 years of learning how to improve?
Creating more time for better healthcare?
Problem and productivity as dirty words?
Similarities between Dutch and US health systems / payers?
What's the general state of healthcare in the Netherlands right now?
It's hard to manage the work when you don't understand the work
From the cover — 4 things… do they represent “True North” to you? At your hospital? 
Right care, right place, right time for the right patient
Zero Waste – resource efficiency vs flow efficiency?
How to engage everybody in improvement, every day? Fixing or redesigning the system vs. improving the system?
Learn to change small systems first
Cycle of continuous misery?
Not just what are we moving from, but also what are we moving to?
What does it mean to “learn from the best” in your experience? The best hospitals? The best organizations?
Two problems with learning from others?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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. 

Shaunté Kinch on Solving Big Problems in Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Beyond

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Joining us for Episode #478 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Shaunté Kinch.
In 2022, Shaunté founded Empact Global, a consultancy that works with organizations to help them solve really BIG problems. Her more than 20 years spent implementing Six Sigma, LEAN, and design thinking concepts have inspired her to take on “wicked problems” in a “VUCA” (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world.
Originally trained by Shingijustu (pioneers of the Toyota Production System) she has educated over 2800 people in continuous improvement and innovation, led hundreds of workshops, and coached more than 60 leaders.
Shaunte holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and a Masters of Engineering, Design, and Manufacturing, both from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, VA.
In today's episode, we discuss what Shaunté learned about Lean in her first aerospace jobs, including time spent working with the famed Shingujitsu consulting group. What did Shaunté learn and discover when she was recruited into her first healthcare organization? We discuss problem-solving in the context of shopfloor improvement, management practices, and big societal problems like inequities and a lack of diversity in some Lean settings.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
How does Lean help us navigate a VUCA world?
What we know vs. what we THINK we know? 
Facts vs. data?
How do assumptions get leaders in trouble?
Leaders observing leaders? Doing so in a non-blaming way?
Helping people go from “we don't have time” to making time?
What's your Lean origin story?
“Everything was an experiment” – seeds planted by her father, a math & science teacher
Northrup Grumman – “Lean Engineering”
Boeing – “real training” from Shingujitsu
From Aerospace to healthcare? What's different?
“I don't think challenge is supported enough in HC”
Ideas on how Lean practices need to evolve?
Shifting to working independently / your own firm?
Fighting the way we've always done it, including in hiring and selecting speakers for events
Diversity and representation on conference stages, Lean in general
How does it feel to go to a conference and not see a Black woman on the stage?
Celebrating Juneteenth
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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. 

MIT Prof. Zeynep Ton on Her New Book ”The Case for Good Jobs”

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Joining us for Episode #477 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Zeynep Ton. She is a professor of the practice at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Previously, she was on the faculty of the Har­vard Business School. Ton received numerous awards for teaching excellence at both schools.
She was previously a guest in Episode 228 in 2015, discussing her first book The Good Jobs Strategy. Her new book, released in June, is The Case for Good Jobs: How Great Companies Bring Dignity, Pay, and Meaning to Everyone's Work.
In today's episode, we discuss what's meant by “good jobs” — and how it's not just about compensation. What are good jobs and what's the case for them, in both human and financial terms? Among other topics, we discuss how it's a system, the “good jobs system,” and there is risk in trying to just copy a piece or two that sounds good (which reminds us both of issues around adoption of the Toyota Production System).
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
What are “good jobs”? 
Has this definition evolved at all?
“Operate with slack”
Nursing shortages — the effect of not operating with slack
Improving call center jobs — reducing the need for calls to begin with 
HBR piece — mental models of customer-centric vs. financial-centric
The new book — “the case” for good jobs?
Benefits of lower turnover
Simple thinking vs. systems thinking — 2% margin business “can't afford” higher wages… or can't afford NOT to?
5 Corporate Disabilities when you have high turnover
Tight labor markets — a greater need for companies to adopt “the good jobs strategy” or at least some practices? 
Sam's Club — competitive pressure to catch up or emulate Costco?
The good jobs SYSTEM — risk of copying just one piece, such as higher pay?
Cost of Poor Quality vs. Cost of Bad Jobs — not on the financial statements
Operational Indifference… vs operational excellence
“There's a grave disconnect between what's happening on the front lines and what executives think is happening.”
Finding balance? “standardizing processes when that makes sense and empowering employees to help customers”
Obstacles to creating good jobs? The logical evidence-based case to be made vs. habits and beliefs of executives (mental models)?
“Many leaders don't even consider frontline work critical to company performance.”
Cost-benefit analysis — easy to calculate the cost of higher pay… predicting the benefits is seen as a leap of faith? 
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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. 

Ken Pilone on Transferring TPS & Lean to Areas Outside of Manufacturing, Including Policing and Healthcare

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Joining us for Episode #476 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Ken Pilone, who has more than 30 years experience in Organization Development in Government, Retail, Automotive, Distribution, and Aerospace.
He recently retired from Providence Health & Services, working most recently as the Senior Manager of Business Process Engineering at Providence Health & Services — a role that encompassed internal Lean consulting, including executive coaching, lean training, leadership development, and all functions typical of a lean promotion or PI/CI function.
He's now working as an independent coach.
He spent nearly 20 years with Toyota as Lean consultant within the 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's 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.
He's the author of Lean Leadership on a Napkin: An Executive's Guide to Lean Transformation in Three Proven Steps.
In today's episode, we discuss the application of Lean in healthcare and Ken's experience there… and more!
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
Police work? LAPD
Viewing work as a process… 
Helping people see that in healthcare? How to go about that?
Not using the term “value streams”
Fixing defects vs. fixing the system?
Defects in policing paperwork in the field
Correcting the paperwork vs. why it occurred
Process is broken — Band-Aids
No time… why? How can we create time?
Microexperiments vs. implementing? How to help people look at improvements as experiments?
Psychological safety – removing the danger?
“Never Events”? Zero Harm?
JPL – process gremlins and being proactive…
“Breaking the system on purpose”
Adapting to healthcare… Tell us about your later transition into working in healthcare? Pulled or pushed?
The importance of leading with humility? How to build that?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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. 

Joshua Kerievsky on the Joy of Agility -- It’s Not Just for Software Companies

CEO of Industrial Logic, author of Joy of Agility
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Joining us for Episode #475 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Joshua Kerievsky, the founder and CEO of Industrial Logic, one of the oldest and most well-respected agile consultancies on the planet. 
Since 1996, Joshua and his global network of colleagues have helped people in teams across many industries leverage the wisdom and power of modern product development methods. An early pioneer and practitioner of Extreme Programming, Lean Software Development and Lean Startup, Joshua most recently crafted “Modern Agile” to help people and organizations benefit from a principle-based approach to agility.
Joshua is passionate about helping people produce awesome outcomes via genuine agility. He is an international speaker and author of books including most recently, Joy of Agility: How to Solve Problems and Succeed Sooner.
In today's episode, we discuss how “agility” doesn't strictly mean “Agile” in software. How was Joshua inspired by leaders including former Alcoa CEO Paul O'Neill? What can all kinds of organizations learn about the art of evaluating experiments in ways that lead to more improvement and greater innovation?
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
What's your “origin story” when it comes to these methods?
Agile is an adjective… “ready ability to move with quick, easy, grace” — resourceful and adaptable
It's not just about speed, but also quality?
Do you recall when you were first introduced to “Lean” — was it via “Lean Startup” early days?
The Industrial Logic name?
“Process” sounds bad? Why is that?
Toyota – enabling bureaucracy vs. limiting bureaucracy
SAFE experiments
Paul O'Neill admiration – safety 
2012 The Power of Habit book
What does safety mean in software?
The risk of mistakes — expensive $$ decision… small tests of change???
The art of evaluating experiments? Keep going? Pivot or persevere?
For those who don't know, what's “agile” vs. what you describe as “agility”?
This is NOT a book about software development
Driving out fear like Deming?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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. 

Norbert Majerus on Lean-Driven Innovation; From a Farm in Luxembourg to Factories and a Shingo Award

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Joining us for Episode #474 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Norbert Majerus. He has his own firm now but previously worked for Goodyear, joining the company in 1978 in his home country of Luxembourg. He moved to Akron in 1983 and worked disciplines in the Goodyear innovation centers in both locations, retiring in 2018.
His first book (2016) Lean-Driven Innovation: Powering Product Development at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company was a Shingo Award recipient. His latest book is Winning Innovation: How Innovation Excellence Propels an Industry Icon Toward Sustained Prosperity.
In today's episode, we discuss Lean and innovation — how they co-exist, how Lean Product Development drives innovation, and how to truly engage people by leading with humility and respecting people.
Questions, Notes, and Highlights:
What's your Lean origin story?
Goodyear had tried Lean a few times in MFG – didn't work well — WHY?
This was before Billy Taylor – they worked together 5 years
Growing up on a farm — Toyota is said to be a company of farmers… how did Lean resonate with you?
Lean is Lean? – doing this in unusual places, it's all the same
Definitions? Innovation vs. improvement?
Make sure we don't stifle creativity (we can all be creative, as Norm Bodek always said)
Toyota and The Innovator's Dilemma
Akio Toyoda stepping aside as CEO — a new push for EVs there?
Can combine lean and innovation
How best to connect “Respect for people” and “rapid problem solving and experimentation” for product development and innovation? Humility…
Can you be innovative enough for long enough withOUT those lean culture concepts? 
Your new book is in a Business novel format – why write it this way?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in its 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.