Lean Blog Audio

The blog post It's interesting to observe a hospital process (or lack thereof) when a family member needs surgery. I had the opportunity to do so one day last week. I originally shared this on LinkedIn as a post and real-time updates. Thankfully, the clinical care seemed to be good, and that family member is recovering well from the outpatient procedure. But, the experience could have been better. I'm critiquing the process and the apparent culture, not the individuals involved. They are part of a system, which includes their job role design, training, and supervision. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Blog post with links The other day, I read about the passing of Donald E. Peterson, who was a key CEO for Ford Motor Company in the 1980s (from 1985 to 1990). From the Detroit Free Press: Former Ford CEO Don Petersen, who spent 41 years with automaker, dies at 97 --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Read the blog post How often do you hear executives blaming employees, including frontline workers, for different problems or poor performance? I don't think that's a good look when leaders do that. Leaders are responsible for the system, especially senior leaders. Even though they are part of a system, they have more freedom and more ability to change systems that ultimately drive most performance. A blaming leader looks at low productivity numbers and blames “lazy workers.” A blaming leader sees mistakes and blames “careless workers.” A blaming leader sees employees choosing not to speak up about problems and blames “cowardly workers.” --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Read the blog post I recently spoke and facilitated at a health system's quarterly leadership forum event on the topic of “Psychological Safety as a Pre-Condition for Continuous Improvement.” It was very well received, and I'm very passionate about the need for leaders to help every team member believe that it's both safe and effective to speak up in the workplace. Psychological Safety plus Problem Solving is a very powerful combination. Let me know if you'd be open to a brief conversation on collaborating for your next leadership forum or another executive event. I'm keen to share insights that can further empower your team and take your improvement journey to the next level. Learn more here and let me know if this would help your healthcare organization (or any organization outside of healthcare): Transforming Healthcare Leadership: Cultivate Psychological Safety for Unprecedented Continuous Improvement --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audi

Read the blog post I have been really enjoying this book, released in 2021, by Kiyoshi “Nate” Furuta, a retired Toyota executive: Welcome Problems, Find Success: Creating Toyota Cultures Around the World. I bought it a year ago and wish I had started reading it sooner! Furuta is the retired former chair and CEO of Toyota Boshoku America, Inc. — an automotive parts supplier to companies including Toyota and General Motors.  --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

Read the episode, view video, and more There was a fascinating article in Bloomberg BusinessWeek about GE doing its final spinoff of GE Vernova (ticker symbol: GEV) and the remaining business that Larry Culp remains CEO of, GE Aerospace (formerly GE Aviation, ticker symbol: GE). The inside story of how GE CEO Larry Culp dismantled a 131-year-old American giant. AN EMPIRE DIVIDED --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

The blog post and video Embracing Imperfections and Learning from Mistakes: A Leadership Insight from the 2022 AME Annual Conference... In a riveting conversation between Larry Culp (at the time, CEO of GE and now CEO of GE Aerospace) and my good friend Katie Anderson at the 2022 Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) Annual Conference, valuable lessons on leadership, transparency, and fostering a culture where challenges and imperfections are openly shared were illuminated. Come join AME at their 2024 Conference in Atlanta later this year. Here's a short clip: --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

The blog post As we sit in seat 26A, mindlessly watching a movie, we take for granted that our cell phone (or the shirt off our back) won't be suddenly sucked out through a gaping hole in the side of a plane. That's because the odds of this happening are unimaginably low. Until now, that is. Are we entering a new era where shoddy manufacturing (or maintenance) exposes us to more risk, reversing a decades-old trend of greatly improved aviation safety? On January 5th, an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX-9, designed and assembled by Boeing, safely executed an emergency landing after a “door plug” blew out of the plane's left side. Thankfully, the resulting hole and loss of pressure didn't suck out any passengers or crew.  Now, the window and middle seats next to the door plug were thankfully empty. That raises questions about what Alaska knew and what chances they were taking by continuing to fly the plane after previous complaints about “whistling sound” and alerts about cabin pressures on previous fligh

The blog post Does it Feel Better to Be Vulnerable or Candid in a Workplace? I've learned so much from Timothy R. Clark of the firm LeaderFactor, author of the excellent book, The 4 Stages of Psychological Safety. I can't recommend his work enough--including his free podcasts, webinars, and more. I was fortunate to go through a formal certification course with him on Psychological Safety. He was a guest on my podcast, "My Favorite Mistake." He was kind enough to write a blurb about my book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation. Clark defines "Psychological Safety" using language that's similar to Harvard Prof. Amy Edmondson's definition. To synthesize them, Psychological Safety means a person: Feels or believes it is safe to speak "without fear of being embarrassed, marginalized, or punished in some way" in a given situation. The part in quotes is from Clark's definition. Edmondson says it's a belief that "one wi

The blog post Recently, I've heard an idea a few times that I'd like to share and discuss in this post. As I'm writing this, I can't remember who to cite. That's my mistake. I'll happily correct the post if I remember or somebody lets me know who to credit. Because I love this idea... but it's not my idea. It's pretty common for a speaker to ask the audience, at the end of a talk: "Do you have any questions?" I'm quite certain I've done that. Sometimes, the answer is yes. But the framing of the question is closed-ended. And the question, whether at a talk or during a meeting, might be intimidating. People might wonder, "Is it OK to have questions? Should I be embarrassed if there was something I didn't quite understand?" That's why it seems a better question is the open-ended version of that: "What questions do you have?" --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

The blog post It’s 9 p.m. in an operating room, just before the last procedure of a long day that had been full of delays. A nurse sees that the surgeon is about to make an incision without first stopping for the expected “timeout,” a crucial step that helps the team confirm, among other things, that the correct surgery is about to be performed on the correct side of the correct patient. The nurse is also concerned they don’t have enough units of blood on hand for this type of procedure.  The nurse pauses and wonders, “Should I speak up or keep quiet?” --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

The blog post I'm currently working on a Mistake Proofing class for Karen Martin and TKMG Academy. Coming soon!! In the process of writing the course and its script, I've gone back to some older source material that has been on my bookshelf for a long time. In this case, it's a book I not only own but read many years ago (20 years ago?): Zero Quality Control by Shigeo Shingo. It was published by Norman Bodek during the heyday of Productivity Press when he still owned it. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

The blog post A while back, I uploaded the entire PDF of my 2018 book, Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, into the premium version of ChatGPT. As an author and publisher, it's a really useful tool for generating marketing content — although maybe it's a mistake to upload my content that way. I'm sure a PDF of the book was already on the internet to be potentially scanned by ChatGPT. Please leave a comment if you think I made a big mistake there. One use is what I'm sharing here: Asking ChatGPT to provide its summary of the book and each chapter. It did a really nice job: --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

I'm excited to announce that I've registered for Katie Anderson‘s Japan Study Trip in November! Read the blog post.Between 2012 and 2019, I visited Japan five times, and I learned something new each time. I've been really itching to go back. I'm excited to see and learn new things with Katie and her team!!It's a great opportunity to deepen your understanding of Lean and the Toyota Production System. Visiting Japan helps one understand which of the broader cultural elements of the country contribute to a Lean workplace.But it also helps you understand that not all Japanese companies are made in the Toyota mold. Toyota has worked very diligently to cultivate its culture and practices over time. And our organizations can do the same. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

The blog post We can all make mistakes, so I advocate for learning from mistakes through my book, podcast, and speaking. I do my best to learn from my mistakes, so I don't repeat them. I fail to meet that standard sometimes, and I try to learn from those moments (as I shared in this recent post). A few times now, a friend has sent me a photo or tagged me on a LinkedIn post about a sign similar to the one below. They assume I'd love the sign and the sentiment. "Mistakes are proof that you are trying." My response? It depends. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lean-blog-audio/support

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