Lean Blog Audio

The blog post What do Boeing frontline mechanics and engineers think about this day? What did they expect going into it? How did the day turn out? I'd love to know. “Quality is made in the boardroom.” I rolled my eyes hard when I read this announcement from Boeing, as part of the aftermath of the January 5th door plug blowout incident on an Alaska Airlines flight: In recent years, there have been many complaints about the Boeing culture. Culture starts with the executive suite. They're responsible for the culture, and they're responsible for the results of bad decisions made in the boardroom or the remote C-suite. Or they should be responsible. W. Edwards DemingBoeing to hold Quality Stand Downs --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post link I loved a recent New York Times article about Chef Gordon Ramsay, including this part: “Ramsay said that when he makes a mistake, he owns up to it. He has been candid about the misjudgments that led to the closure of Amaryllis, his fine dining restaurant in Glasgow, and admits that he has opened restaurants that were “badly conceptualized” or opened in the wrong area. “You should never be embarrassed of failure,” he said. “But never make the same mistake twice.” --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post For a long time, I've heard the phrase “the hidden factory” used to describe various forms of waste in a factory, including rework operations and activity. I was surprised to hear Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun refer to this in a news story using a similar phrase, “shadow factory.” Boeing Wants to Close Its ‘Shadow Factories.' It Would Be a Positive Step. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Read the blog post As I recently shared on LinkedIn, I really appreciated the annual shareholder letter that was published and shared by Larry Culp, who has been CEO of General Electric for just over five years now (the first-ever outsider CEO in their 125+ year history). Read the full letter here. I've also archived it here as a PDF. First off, I can't help but notice that the photo shared at the end of the letter is not a corporate headshot of Larry in a power suit and tie. It's a photo from a "gemba" (or factory floor) with him wearing safety glasses, a casual shirt, and a high-visibility vest. He certainly looks to be in his element and enjoying it. How rare is that amongst CEOs of manufacturing companies of any size? How much better off would other manufacturers (or healthcare organizations) be if they had CEOs who don't just sponsor or support Lean, but are instead leading and driving the culture change? How many hospital CEOs truly enjoy donning PPE to be at the frontlines of

Blog post This post is built around excerpts from the book The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. Read more about Toyota, including stories and key lessons learned in the book. Download a free preview of the book From the book: Fear and punishment drive people to get better at hiding mistakes when they could channel that energy into preventing them. When they can't be hidden, repeated mistakes illustrate how punishment accomplishes nothing beyond deflecting blame from leaders. One of my heroes, W. Edwards Deming, who also deeply influenced Toyota executives, shared what may be the most important recommendation in his famed “14 Points for Management”: “Drive out fear, so that everyone may work effectively for the company.”[i] Driving out fear means, in part, that everyone can feel safe to speak up about mistakes and improvement ideas, as discussed in Chapters Five and Six. Leaders can also alleviate the fear of making mistakes, to begin with, when they combine the righ

Blog post link Psychological Safety is not some nice-to-have touchy-feely concept. Psychological Safety means that you feel safe speaking up in the workplace. That could mean: Asking questions Pointing out problems Admitting mistakes Disagreeing with your manager Sharing ideas for improvement It's been pretty well proven that organizations with a higher level of Psychological Safety perform better. A lack of Psychological Safety in a factory can turn deadly. A lack of it has proven deadly in healthcare settings too, of course. If workers and engineers are punished for speaking up about quality problems in aerospace factories, that puts customers (and passengers) at great risk. When people are pressured into being silent, that's a management problem and a culture problem. I'm not blaming the individuals who keep quiet to save their jobs. I do admire those who take great professional and personal risk to speak up anyway. This WSJ article (which should be a free-reading link) talks at leng

Blog post with more info and links Congratulations to my podcast(s) guests who were named to the Thinkers50 list of influential management thinkers! I am thrilled to extend my heartiest congratulations to a remarkable group of individuals who have recently graced the stages of my podcasts, “Lean Blog Interviews” and “My Favorite Mistake.” These brilliant minds have been recognized on the prestigious Thinkers50 list for their groundbreaking contributions to the field of management thinking. Each has shared their invaluable insights with us, and it's a true honor to see them receive this well-deserved accolade.⭐ Amy Edmondson (both podcasts)⭐ Erica Dhawan (MFM)⭐ Daniel Pink (both podcasts)⭐ Zeynep Ton (Lean podcast, twice) --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post with link to purchase and more I have a limited number of copies of my book Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More that are available for about half of the Amazon retail price — and this includes free shipping. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post tl;dr summary: Karyn Ross enlightened me about World Kindness Day and provided invaluable feedback on my book, The Mistakes That Make Us. Her insights particularly helped me replace the term “grace” with “kindness,” enhancing the book's inclusivity. She also helped me better distinguish between being “nice” and “kind.” --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post A Question -- Email From a Listener: But I was prompted to think about this recently when I received an email from a podcast listener: "So I heard an interesting distinction between Gemba and Genba today. The M version is a place of work The N version is a place of investigation (used by Japanese police). So you go to the place of work before you go to the place of investigation." Hmmm. I had never heard that. So I thought I'd do a little research and check with friends who have varying levels of Japanese language skills. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

The episode's blog post Leaders and organizations have a choice: 1) cultivate a culture of fear and punishment or 2) a culture of learning and innovation. That choice significantly affects happiness and performance at all levels within the organization. A culture of fear and punishment drives mistakes underground. An organization with a culture of fear cannot learn from mistakes because people don't feel safe admitting them. People who do admit mistakes to their manager aren't more virtuous or courageous; they likely are in circumstances where they are able to feel safe doing so. Instead of telling people to be brave, leaders must help people feel safer. Those who fail to learn from mistakes are doomed to repeat them. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Read the blog post In this episode, Mark recounts an unexpected ordeal in an Italian hospital after his mother-in-law broke her arm while on vacation. Faced with difficult choices about surgery and travel, the family navigates a foreign healthcare system. Amid the stress, a seemingly small act of kindness by a hospital staff member leaves a lasting impression, exemplifying universal compassion. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Direct blog post link It’s not unusual to see individuals get blamed for systemic errors and problems. Case in point, this article: Delta Air Flight Attendant Makes Expensive Mistake After Emergency Slide is Accidentally Deployed Shortly After Landing in Dublin It seems like a fact that the flight attendant deployed the slide. But is the mistake their fault? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

To read the article and comment, click here or leanblog.org/audio340. This is an article that I wrote, published on the Quality Digest website. It begins: "I can’t count how many times during the past 20 years I’ve heard executives complain that their people aren’t enthusiastically participating in their lean program. Leaders lament that while the company has spent a small fortune to put everybody through continuous improvement training, hardly anybody submits ideas. The problem isn’t their employees; it’s a cultural problem and, therefore, a leadership problem." --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog Post I was very excited to learn about an event that is being produced by GE, next Wednesday, September 6th, in New York City. I'm thrilled to have been invited to attend in person, along with other "Lean Influencers," including my friends Katie Anderson and Jamie V. Parker. We will be fortunate to be there in person to share highlights from the event via social media, blog posts, podcasts, and more -- on Wednesday and beyond. See the LinkedIn Event page: The Lean Mindset: The Pursuit of Progress --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post From the post: This is really hard to write, as I was stunned and saddened by the recent passing of a good friend and colleague, Chris Burnham. Word had started to spread on LinkedIn and I feel bad about having to share this news here. You can read his obituary here: There will be a celebration of life event on Sunday that I will be fortunate to attend. Chris was, most recently, the Senior Director of Lean Strategy at KaiNexus, a company I have been involved with since 2011. Many of his colleagues will also be there to pay our respects, to honor him, and to support his loved ones. I say this with all sincerity that Chris was one of my favorite people in the Lean community. I appreciated his positive and thoughtful approach to Lean and to our work. We shared a love of discovering new Bourbons to share and discuss, which then lubricated the social fun and work discussions. Christopher Burnham Obituary --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post When you do work related to processes, quality, improvement, and learning from mistakes… the universe has ways of testing you (or playing a prank on me). As I share at the end of the post, I failed that test in one way. A big way. My wife and I had a 3-piece sectional couch that we've recently replaced, so we were looking to donate the old one to a good cause. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post This is something from my book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation, that I shared on LinkedIn recently. Here's something I figured out thanks to education in a combination of fields, including Lean management and psychological safety. I wish I had understood this much sooner: “Speaking up isn't a matter of character or courage–it's driven by culture. People feel safe to share when their leaders and colleagues treat them with respect. Instead of asking people to be brave, leaders must create conditions where people can feel safe.” --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

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Blog post This post shares a story I heard at the Michigan Lean Consortium annual conference earlier this week. They've been kind about sharing ideas and doing a book club discussion around my new book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. During a book signing session at the conference, an attendee, Cori, told me a story that's too good to not pass along. I'll do my best to be true to the details of the story. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support