Lean Leadership Podcast

Today’s guest is Allison Greco

Allison is the Founder of Continuous Improvement International whose mission is to cultivate a passion for continuous improvement and drive the adoption of continuous improvement culture as the key to organizational success.  They provide a fresh, modern professional society for continuous improvers and process improvers. They provide support to individuals and teams through member services and their Virtual Program Office.

Allison is a professional engineer by trade and got her start with Lean while working on the railroad and has worked with a variety of industries including energy and utilities and the federal government.

She is a certified Six Sigma Blackbelt and proud Oklahoma Sooner where she earned both her B.S. in Industrial Engineering and her MBA.

Connect with Allison on LinkedIn

Allison’s Company: Continuous Improvement International

Today’s guest is Patrick Adams

Patrick Adams is the author of the best-selling book “Avoiding the Continuous Appearance Trap.” He is an international speaker, coach, and consultant. Patrick has been delivering bottom-line results through specialized process improvement solutions for over 20 years. He's worked with all types of businesses from private, non-profits, government, and manufacturing ranging from small businesses to billion-dollar corporations. 

Patrick is a proven leader and a highly experienced consultant with a specific niche focus on organizational strategy and leadership development which brings a uniquely human approach to sound team-building practices; creating consensus and enabling empowerment. He motivates, inspires, and drives the right results at all points in business processes.

Patrick is also the host of the Lean Solutions Podcast, which you should listen to as well.

Links:

Connect with Patrick on LinkedIn

Connect with Patrick’s Company: Patrick Adams Consulting

Patrick’s Podcast: The Lean Solutions Podcast

Patrick’s Book: Avoiding the Continuous Appearance Trap: 12 Questions to Understand What's Truly Underneath Your Culture

Patrick’s Book Recommendation: Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn: Lessons from Toyota Leader Isao Yoshino on a Lifetime of Continuous Learning by Katie Anderson

Today’s guest is Art Byrne

You can’t study Lean and Continuous Improvement for long without coming across the name Art Byrne. Art’s roll up your sleeves, go to Gemba approach for improvement has been well documented in Jim Womack’s book Lean Thinking and in Art’s own books The Lean Turnaround and The Lean Turn Around Action Guide.

Art shares his story and the results of his lean journey from starting at GE to Danaher, and on to Wiremold and private equity.  The title of our podcast is the Lean Leadership Podcast and I can’t think of any other individual who personifies an understanding of lean as a long term growth strategy and leadership by demonstrating that the CEO can have the most profound impact on unlocking the unlimited potential of enabling employees to solve the problems they face every day.

Today is a treat and I’m pleased to introduce Art Byrne

Today’s guest is Bob Rush

Bob Rush has more than 40 years of manufacturing experience in the High Technology segment, working with products ranging from disk drives and computers to lasers and finally to electric vehicles. He has a curiosity-driven personality, loving to learn new things. He has held roles ranging from shipping clerk to VP of Operations. His personal lean journey began with an introduction to Kaizen through the Shingijutsu consulting firm more than 25 years ago. He has applied those lessons learned and has spread the love of lean as much as possible.

Bob Is presently doing some consulting work but spends more time on mentoring/advising the next generation of lean leaders. He has been active on LinkedIn and frequently posts one of his semi-amusing pieces called Lean Observations of an old guy.

Bob lives in Murfreesboro, TN with his wife and youngest son, with 3 older sons living their own lives. His time is mostly spent recently with his dogs, Cali a 9-year-old Golden Retriever rescue, and Apollo a 4-month-old Golden Retriever dynamo.

Links:

Connect with Bob on LinkedIn

Links to Mark Graban's Work

Today’s guest is Julie Simmons,

I’m really excited about our guest today.  I was lucky enough to interview both Tracy Defoe in episode 53 and Gemma Jones in episode 54 and they talked about Kata Girl Geeks, which if you haven’t checked it out yet, is an awesome community of women who are growing and learning together.  Both Tracy and Gemma both suggested that I reach out and talk to our guest today Julie Simmons and I’m glad I did.

Aside from recently being voted volunteer of the year for 2021 for Kata Girl Geeks, Julie currently works with her husband Scott as part of the Scott Wade Simmons & Associates, LLC providing leadership coaching and training in Strategy Development and Deployment, Leadership Development, and the Improvement Kata & Coaching Kata. Julie’s passion is helping others develop their skills, capabilities, and confidence to solve complex challenges in their organizations using scientific thinking. Julie has had the honor to be a frequent speaker and presenter at KataCon.

Folks in the Portland, Oregon & Vancouver, Washington area are familiar with Julie’s 15 years of leadership at the Northwest High-Performance Enterprise Consortium. Prior to that, she worked for The Boeing Company for 14 years in various roles including her work as a manufacturing process analyst where she became a Certified Accelerated Improvement workshop leader and supported several Shingajitsu led kaizen events.

Julie’s passion for helping others really shows through.  I am sure you will enjoy this conversation as much as I did.  Here’s our guest today, Julie Simmons.

Links:

Connect with Julie on LinkedIn

Connect with Julie and Scott’s Company CSquaredV

Connect with Kata Girl Geeks

In every episode, I ask our guest to share with us a favorite quote or mantra from a leader and why they chose that quote.  In episode 44 Jamie Parker shared a quote from our guest today, Matt Whiat.  I reached out to Matt and asked him to be a guest on the podcast and I’m glad that he accepted.  

Matt is the Founding Partner at the Champman & Co Leadership Institute whose parent company is Barry-Wehmiller, well known for combining people-centric and lean thinking.  In his role at Chapman & Co, Matt draws on over 20 years of leadership experience as a former military officer, helping organizations create cultures that put people and business in harmony. Chapman and Co believes culture drives organizational outcomes. In other words, culture doesn’t eat strategy for breakfast; it feeds it breakfast (and every other meal!). They help build an organization and/or team culture intentionally to deliver deliberate outcomes.

Links:

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn

Connect with Chapman and Co. on Twitter

Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute Website

Chapman & Co. Resources 

Book recommendation:

Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family 

Leading From The Jumpseat: How to Create Extraordinary Opportunities by Handing Over Control by Peter Docker

Today’s guest is Paul Critchley,

Paul Critchley is a recognized thought leader on employee engagement and continuous improvement and has helped businesses around the world achieve greater levels of success through the application of Lean techniques. A frequent speaker, he has keynoted at numerous corporate events, as well as at international conventions such as AME’s annual Lean conference and at OpEx Week.

He’s also the host of “The New England Lean Podcast”, a weekly show that features management thought leaders, TED speakers, world-renowned authors, and university professors. Paul is also a regular writer and contributor to publications such as Industry Week and Quality Magazines.

Paul is a former Board Member of the Northeast Region of AME, holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, a M.S. degree in Management, and a M.S. in Organizational Leadership. He is a proud supporter of CT’s “Skill up for Manufacturing” program. He is passionate about Lean and creating organizational cultures that are sustainably engaged. 

He co-authored his first book - The Whole Professional, A Collection of Essays to Help You Achieve a Full and Satisfying Life to bring a fresh perspective on Work/Life Balance and how individuals and organizations can work together to achieve greater levels of attainment.

Links:

Connect with Paul on LinkedIn

Connect with Paul on Twitter

Paul’s Company New England Consulting

Paul’s Podcast The New England Lean Podcast

Book recommendation:

Quest For The Dawn - Shoji Kimoto

Today’s guest is Gemma Jones.

Gemma started her career studying Mechanical Engineering. She quickly discovered the world of Continuous Improvement and spent 20 years working to improve processes and systems within various manufacturing industries including Automotive, Pharmaceutical, Dairy, Cosmetics & Toiletries, Food, and Medical Devices. She has been a CI Manager numerous times and an Operations Manager running a factory of over 500 people.

In 2018, Gemma left the world of employment to establish her own business, SPARK Improvement, aiming to switch on as many lightbulbs as possible. Her mission is to help organizations be the best they can be, through a combination of Lean Thinking, Toyota Kata, Visual Facilitation, and Experiential Learning.

Gemma is based in Cheshire in the UK.

Links:

Connect with Gemma on LinkedIn

Connect with Gemma on Twitter

Gemma’s Company Spark Improvement

Kata Girl Geeks

Book recommendation:

The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever by Michael Bungay Stanier

Today’s guest is Tracy Defoe,

Tracy Defoe is an adult education consultant specializing in workplace learning. Her work history includes research, teaching, and program development - much of which culminates in peer-led learning.

She is a proud Kata Geek and a humble lean practitioner. For more than 10 years, Tracy has been learning, coaching, and sharing her experiences with the Improvement and Coaching Kata described in Mike Rother's book The Toyota Kata Practice Guide. 

Tracy is keen on building community and connecting people. She is co-founder of the worldwide online community Kata Girl Geeks, and of Kata School Cascadia. She also facilitates the Kata Coaching Dojo.

She is a frequent speaker at conferences including KataCon & KataCon Europe. 

Links:

Connect with Tracy on LinkedIn

Tracy’s Company The Learning Factor

Kata School Cascadia   

Kata Girl Geeks

The Toyota Kata Practice Guide: Practicing Scientific Thinking Skills for Superior Results in 20 Minutes a Day

Today’s guest is Rick Bohan,

Rick is the Owner and Director of Chagrin River Consulting in Chagrin Falls, Ohio.  Rick’s route in his path to working in lean and continuous improvement started with a mining company in eastern Kentucky, teaching miners about safety, and has progressed over the years in helping steel mills, hotels, and manufacturing companies implement lean manufacturing initiatives and developing growth-oriented strategic plans.  Rick’s humility shows through on his LinkedIn profile where he says:

“I'd like to say that I've been successful at helping the companies that have hired me both as an employee and as a consultant. And, in a way, I have. But, really, it was the managers and employees at those companies that were successful. I just got them pointed in the right direction, gave them some tools and ideas, and facilitated their conversations about making needed changes. They did all the heavy lifting.”

Links:

Connect with Rick on LinkedIn

Rick’s Company Chagrin River Consulting

Link to Rick’s Articles in Industry Week