Lean Blog Audio: Practical Lean Thinking, Psychological Safety, and Continuous Improvement

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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

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:

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 flights that plane took.

The crew performed valiantly in these circumstances, and we should celebrate them. This incident creates an opportunity for the aviation industry (including regulators) to learn how to ensure this sort of door plug failure never happens again.

Instead of blaming human error, people should ask why the company didn't have better systems to prevent or detect the mistake or mistakes that led to this incident. Some leaders throw up their hands and lament,

“It's human error… we'll never be perfect… so what can we do?”

Instead of leaving that as an unanswered rhetorical question, we need to work at it seriously. What can we do to prevent mistakes and protect ourselves from human error?

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 will not be punished or humiliated" for speaking up about things like "ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes."

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?"

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?”

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.

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:

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.

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.