Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond

By Mark GrabanBusiness Management

Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond episodes

November 10, 2021Sonia Singh: From Lean Coach to Leadership Coach, From Consultant to Coach
Show notes and links: https://leanblog.org/431
My guests for Episode #431 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Sonia Singh, a certified Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, executive coach, and professor with 19 years of experience in healthcare operations, management consulting, leadership development, and culture transformation.
She's worked with dozens of companies in improving their performance, resulting in a collective financial impact of $30M. She's trained and coached over 2000 emerging and experienced leaders.
Sonia is the founder of Sonia Singh International, and one of her offerings is the Influential Leadership Academy, where she helps leaders build emotional intelligence and master their influence.
She was previously an employee at some healthcare systems and Cardinal Health.
Sonia holds a degree in Psychology from Northern Illinois University, a Master's degree in Health Administration from Tulane University, and completed her professional coaching training at the University of California, Davis.
Today, we discuss topics and questions including:
How did you first get introduced to Lean or continuous improvement concepts?
What were some of your best experiences working in healthcare improvement?
What was a “school of hard knocks” lesson you gained working in healthcare?
How did you decide to start working independently?
Why go through professional coaching school and how did that change how you coach?
It's hard to just ask questions
To you, what are the differences between the words “coach” vs “consultant?”
What has it been like shifting from lean coach to leadership coach?
Getting to root causes of behaviors or reactions?
How to help people shift from telling to asking questions?
Influential Leadership Academy – who is this targeted to?
“It's a strength when you can share your power.”
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
50 min
November 03, 2021The Power of Process: Interview With Matt Zayko and Eric Ethington
Show notes and links: https://www.leanblog.org/430
My guests for Episode #430 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Eric Ethington and Matt Zayko, the authors of the new book The Power of Process: The Story of of Innovative Lean Process Development. They are both faculty for the Lean Enterprise Institute, among other roles. Eric has a firm called Lean Shift Consulting and Matt has a new role as Lean Leader at GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
The book is available now through the publisher, or from Amazon in paperback, hardcover, and Kindle formats.
Today, we discuss their book, with topics and questions including:
I like to ask guests about their “Lean origin stories” — When did you first learn about Lean and what was the context?
Deming's book Out of the Crisis
The way it's always been? – how to get past this?
LEAN PROCESS DESIGN –> There's a lot emphasis on “process improvement” in organizations, often in the context of Lean. How do you define “process development” and why is this so important?
How do we avoid disconnects between process design intent and those running the process?
GO SLOW TO GO FAST? Iterative design and being more ready to launch and go fast in ramp?
Doing something new — A new mass vaccination clinic?
How do you strike the balance between “we've got to design it well” vs. “it's never perfect, but we can improve it”?
If you have flexibility, you don't have to be as perfect
BACK TO SLOGANS — In your book, you talk about process design with “no slogans, no absolutes” — what do you mean by that? What are some slogans or absolutes that have gotten people in trouble?
“Small lot flow” vs. single piece flow (Yamada), as small as possible is what he taught
Who do you expect to be the typical readers of this book? What roles, levels, or industries?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
1 hr 2 min
October 27, 2021John Chacon on Continuous Improvement and the Dangers of Paying People to Think
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/429
My guest for Episode #429 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John Chacon, the Director of Construction Excellence at Black & Veatch. We've been connected on social media for a while and John's reply to a tweet led to this podcast conversation, where he said:
“If you have read this blog post and are still thinking about incentivizing folks for ideas…stop…give me a call and I will tell you some stories about paying your folks to think.”
Today, we discuss topics and questions including:
John's Lean origin story? In the Marine Corps.
Deployed to Japan – painted a different picture – in what way?
Cultural differences? A different level of respect?
Why didn't you like it at first?
How do you define Kaizen?
Not just the process, it's the people
Continuously improving the people
Later company — “The work was to improve the work”
How do you foster that culture?
Curiosity and genuine wonderment
What does Kaizen (what does John) suggest about how to incentivize people to submit ideas?
DO we need to incentivize?
What happens when you run out of rewards funding? Improvement stops
How do you tap into in intrinsic motivation?
Kaizen and Kata?
Putting things into plain English?
Working in other countries – Thailand, India, China — how does the Lean/Kaizen message get delivered differently?
Marine Corps like Kaizen — the way you are vs something you do
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
51 min
October 20, 2021Nick Katko and Mike De Luca Talk About Practicing Lean Accounting
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/428
My guests for Episode #428 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast are Nick Katko and Mike De Luca. Nick is president and owner of the firm BMA and Mike is a Lean coach, serving as principal and owner of Torre Consulting.
Nick and Mike have a new book out called Practicing Lean Accounting. And I'm thrilled that the title is inspired by the book I edited called Practicing Lean. Their book is available now in paperback and Amazon Kindle formats.
Nick has been practicing lean accounting for over 25 years, both as a CFO and as a lean accounting trainer and coach. Nick is also the author of the book The Lean CFO (2013) and is co-author of The Lean Business Management System (2007).
Mike's lean journey began with implementing lean accounting as a finance leader in the early 2000's – evolving the finance department's role to meet the changing needs of a lean organization.
Today, we talk about the book and more, with topics and questions including:
Nick and then Mike, how did you first get introduced to Lean and what was the context?
Manufacturing and healthcare
How did you come to collaborate on this book?
Budgets – from quarterly batches to daily practice
The “tyranny of budgets” leads to blame?
What is “Lean Accounting” in relation to the accounting function, payroll, paying suppliers, etc.
“Becoming immune to waste”
Why is it important for others to understand “how accounting thinks”??
What does “respect for people” mean to you?
“It's not about the numbers, it's about the people using the numbers”
Lean accounting applications in healthcare? What's uniquely healthcare?
Final tips — How to best engage CFOs?
Is there a clear message about what Lean means to the org?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
1 hr 3 min
October 13, 2021Karyn Ross, Lean and Kind Leadership
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/427
My guest for Episode #427 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is a returning guest, Karyn Ross. She was previously a guest in Episodes 266 and 411. She was also my guest for Episode #3 of My Favorite Mistake.
Karyn has a new book called The Kind Leader: A Practical Guide to Eliminating Fear, Creating Trust, and Leading with Kindness. Scroll down for a 20% coupon you can use if you buy through the publisher. You can also enter to win a copy.
Today, we talk the book and more, with topics and questions including:
How do you define kindness?
NPR story on the kindest family
How do we help people understand that kindness is not a sign of weakness?
My Favorite Mistake (out Thursday) Moses Harris interview Episode #110
How much unkind behavior is driven by people being scared? "Vicious circle of fear"
"Collaboration, cooperation and kindness" chapter heading -- reminds me of how Dr. Deming used to rail against competition -- and I think that's especially true when talking about internal competition
Systemic root causes of fear and unkind behavior -- Kind leaders can affect the system...
Kindness and respect? Connections to Lean in the book
A time when someone was kind to you at work?
Recent KaiNexus webinar on psychological safety... also proven to drive results
Workshop with Jessica House on the topic
Blaming instinct...What do you mean by "always assume positive intent"? - examples?
Negativity bias
"Prefectionism isn't Kind" online workshop with Amy Mervak
Morning session
Afternoon session
Little Kind Words Talk Show -- lessons learned from that?
Doing live streaming -- "practice accepting what is"
We're always learning... what have you learned about kindness since the book was published?
"Pop up kindness stand"? -- WSJ article
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
56 min
October 06, 2021John Gallagher, Lean and The Uncommon Leader
CEO of Growing Champions, LLC
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/426
My guest for Episode #426 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John Gallagher, Founder and CEO of Growing Champions, LLC, an Executive Coach, Mentor, and Consultant. John was with Simpler Consulting for over a decade after being an operations manager and a division president for two different companies.
He's also the host of a new podcast called The Uncommon Leader. I'll be John's guest in an episode to be released on October 19th.
Today, we talk about topics and questions including:
Where did you first get exposed to Lean?
Why were you skeptical about Lean at first?
Came from MRP batch & queue world
Rapid Improvement Event or Rapid Planning Event?
His first sensei, the late Bill Moffitt
“Comfort the afflicted or afflict the comforted?”
Who were some of your key mentors?
Lean Thinking was a key book, the first book he read on Lean
Being an operations manager vs. a division president… what did you learn from those roles?
Applying Lean to residential real estate sales
Healthcare? Patients aren't cars?? Addressing that? Cookbook medicine?
“Unique care delivered in a standard way”
Tell us about the podcast… inspired by Tony Dungy's book
Who have been some of your guests? — Including Paul De Chant
Who are some of the “uncommon leaders” you have worked for, worked with, or coached? What made them uncommon?
Posts I was reminded of
Lenny Walls, my trainer
Central Intelligence post
Sushi incrementalism post
Coaching work? Lean coach to exec coach?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
59 min
September 29, 2021 Katie Anderson on Breaking the Telling Habit
Show notes, links, and video: https://www.markgraban.com/425
My guest for Episode #425 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Katie Anderson, who is joining us for the seventh time as a guest.
Katie is, of course, the author of the book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: Lessons from Toyota Leader Isao Yoshino on a Lifetime of Continuous Learning. It has now been out over a year as eBook and paperback, and the audiobook is now available.
Today, we sketched out a few topics for a fun conversation. First, we talk about “breaking the telling habit” (get Katie's free guide). When do leaders have to “tell”? Does it get annoying when you only ask questions?
You'll also hear about how Katie “pulled the andon cord” (virtually) when she had a concern about the sound of me typing some notes. So, we'll talk about countermeasures and such related to that, and you'll hear our problem solving minds at work.
Katie then shares a story about the use of “Process Behavior Charts” at a non-profit organization. I share a story about seeing what appeared to be a “signal” in the listener metrics for the My Favorite Mistake podcast, so we again chat about problem solving and causal analysis.
We also talk the “Leading to Learn Accelerator” program that she's running soon.
And I tell an awful joke about asking questions. I'm sorry.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
51 min
September 22, 2021Balaji Reddie, Founder of the Deming Forum India
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/424
My guest for Episode #424 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Balaji Reddie, the founder of The Deming Forum of India.
An engineer by trade, Balaji was exposed to W. Edwards Deming's ideas through his father, then became highly interested in the Deming Philosophy after a chance introduction to the founder of the British Deming Association, Dr. Henry R. Neave, who became Balaji's mentor.
As it says in his bio:
“Balaji's contributions have been featured in textbooks and coursework on Quality and the Deming Philosophy. He holds a Degree in Electrical Engineering from COEP (the Government College of Engineering in Pune), and a Master of Science in Quality Management from BITS (Birla Institute of Technology & Science).”
Topics and questions:
Tell us more about your professional background
In his factory, had a “quality section” but not department – what's the difference?
1991 was a key year for India – opened up outside investment and foreign products
Xerox 5-day Leadership for Quality course
Wanted to know where this all began, learned of Deming & Juran
What was your first exposure to Dr. Deming and/or his work?
His father went to Japan in 1964
“Juran had answers, Deming asked questions”
Recommends Managerial Breakthrough from 1964
14 points were for an American audience, the Japanese didn't have them
Red Bead Experiment – Deming used in 1940s to teach sampling
“Respect for people” – Deming was talking about this a long time back
Tutored under Henry Neave – tell us about him — The Deming Dimension book
“The guru is the person who shows us the way… asks questions but maybe doesn't give the answers”
The Deming Forum of India – 1999 founding
Unique properties or qualities of Indian companies?
I hope you enjoy the conversation. We managed to have a lot of laughs, even though we're talking about serious topics.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
1 hr 5 min
September 15, 2021Laura Kriska, the First American Woman to Work at Honda HQ in Japan
My guest for Episode #423 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Laura Kriska, a Cross-Cultural Consultant and the author of the book The Business of We: The Proven Three-Step Process for Closing the Gap Between Us and Them in Your Workplace.
Notes: https://www.leanblog.org/423
She was previously my guest on Episode 61 of the “My Favorite Mistake” podcast.
Laura was previously the author of the book The Accidental Office Lady: An American Woman in Corporate Japan, a book about her time as the first American woman to work for Honda in Tokyo, Japan. We talk about those experiences and so much more today.
Topics and questions:
How did you get to become the first American woman to work at Honda HQ in Japan?
What was it like working in the Ohio factory?
Quality Circles
Kaizen — We can always do things better
What was an “office lady”?
Adjustments to the Japanese working culture?
You initiated a Quality Circle around the uniform for office ladies, tell us about that…
“Let's Abolish Women's Uniforms”
Use of data?
Being careful with assumptions
Studied it for a year
What was the outcome?
You describe Cultural laziness (now, “corporate carelessness”) – what do you mean by that? Can this apply to somebody who is new to a company culture, too??
I hope you enjoy the conversation.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
59 min
September 08, 2021Brant Cooper on Being ”Disruption Proof” in Pandemic Times & Beyond
Author of Disruption Proof and The Lean Entrepreneur
My guest for Episode #422 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Brant Cooper, appearing for the third time and the first time solo. Brant previously appeared, alongside Patrick Vlaskovits, in Episodes 99 and 162.
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/422
Brant is the author of the upcoming book, Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value, Drive Change, due out in late October, but is available for pre-order now.
Brant is The New York Times bestselling author of the book The Lean Entrepreneur (now in a 2nd Edition) and he's CEO and founder of the firm Moves the Needle.
He is also organizing a virtual summit — the Endless Disruption Summit — on Sept 30.
Topics and questions:
“One thing in life is certain: Disruption is the new norm.” — Why is that increasingly so?
How can a company become disruption proof?
What's a good example of an Industrial Age company that has transformed to thrive in the Digital Age?
Lessons from the pandemic?
Working from home and now what?
Empathy and restaurant signs
The entire world is understaffed?
The hospital sign about your energy and the workplace
The 5Es: Empathy, Exploration, Evidence, Equillibrium, and Ethics
His experiences in healthcare — cancer
The people are amazing
Ransomware attack affected his radiation care
I hope you enjoy the conversation.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 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.
1 hr 4 min

About Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond

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Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations features thoughtful, in-depth discussions with leaders, authors, executives, and practitioners who are applying Lean thinking in the real world.