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The Edges of Lean explores topics in continuous improvement (lean thinking, creative problem solving, six sigma) that get overlooked. Meet the people practicing lean in odd places or with different twists, always with a focus on respect for people and continuous learning.
Episodes
Wednesday Jan 19, 2022
Wednesday Jan 19, 2022
Every boss has their own style, but we know that the "bossy" boss will have a very hard time building and mainting a productive lean culture. In today’s episode, I talk about that with Elizabeth Were, who focuses her consulting practice on coaching managers to get comfortable not being bossy (or to get comfortable speaking up, if they are the other kind of boss). She also shares her lean story and how she came to learn that lean implementation requires a change in leadership behaviors.
Elizabeth Were
Elizabeth Were is a certified Business Process Manager and Lean Six Sigma Black Belt who specializes in helping companies improve their processes and is recognized for her facilitation skills and ability to resolve complex issues with practical and simple solutions.
CONNECT WITH ELIZABETH
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-were-548ba217
Key Topics in this podcast:
- Elizabeth’s career background
- Conducting experiments and training the team
- What are some reasons team members might not be cultivating their skills?
- What are the solutions to help managers and team members develop their skills?
- The right process for the right team management
- Different approaches to help bosses stop being bossy
- Solutions to help the team members work efficiently
- Automation in the organization, Good or bad?
- State of lean in Kenya
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Feeling comfortable with not knowing everything allows leaders to empowering their employees. Improvement is always possible!
- Different coaching programs are necessary in different organizations, depending on the skill sets of the team members.
- Leadership styles vary from shy to aggressive, so it is important to understand how each person operates.
- Having a good leader makes team members confident
- Team members need to understand how to work together
- Navigating the conversation about not diving into technology right away can be difficult, but is important for financial services organizations, and all organizations.
- Human interaction is still important in many aspects of business and should not be underestimated, or automated out of existence.
- Keeping a balance between automation and human interaction is key to maintaining your company's efficiency.
Words of wisdom with Elizabeth Were
“Whatever you do, taking one step, and just being very curious, is really, really helpful”
Friday Jan 07, 2022
Friday Jan 07, 2022
Episode: Continuous Improvement and Customer Satisfaction with Sumitra Vig
It’s not just the customer’s satisfaction with an organization but also how the organization rewards and appreciates its employees, that drives organizational success. In this episode Sumitra Vig joins me to talk about how organizations can achieve a goal of satisfying customers by focusing on employees. We talk about her experiences working across countries, learning from diverse cultures and how to create a satisfied customer who keeps coming back again and again.
SUMITRA VIG
Sumitra Vig is a Customer Experience Specialist, and an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence. She helps organizations be more effective by increasing the quality of their interactions with employees and customers through focused attention on goals that are tailored specifically to each organization’s unique needs.
CONNECT WITH SUMITRA VIG
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sumitra-vig-34680527
Key Topics in this podcast:
- Sumitra’s journey and her career background
- Adjusting working in different countries and cultures.
- What are Customer Experience Boards?
- Step by Step process to achieve customer satisfaction
- AAA model explained
- How does a customer’s script bring back the voice of customers?
- Gratification and appreciation for employees as important pathway towards customers satisfaction.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Sumitra gained a lot of learnings working across different countries and cultures on how she can apply them for customer satisfaction
- When she moved to Europe, the work-life balance there came as a surprise because it was so different from India and more holistic.
- Citibank implemented methods in newer locations that had been successful in other parts of the world and hence tried and tested.
- In a nutshell, the way to please customers is by taking care of employees first.
- The company uses well researched and refined scripts to reduce mistakes in interactions with customers
- Three ways to measure customer satisfaction is by tracking their satisfaction score, defect rate (problem incidence rate), and problem resolution.
- Employees who work in a culture of fear and stress do not provide the best service to the company’s clients.
- A company's success is tightly coupled with how it treats its own employees, who in turn provide great service to the company’s customers.
Memorable Quotes From Sumitra Vig
- ‘’I think the one important thing is to have fun because when you have fun, you raise your energy and when you raise your energy, you attract a lot of good things”.
- ‘’Understand that there will always be hurdles, and every hurdle is a turning point for something good. Go out and have your fun and have a practice to be the best, most authentic person pursuing your dream”.
Friday Nov 19, 2021
Friday Nov 19, 2021
Thursday Nov 11, 2021
Thursday Nov 11, 2021
How do you build a winning team? It's not just about hiring the best people or getting them to work together. You need to create an environment where they can be themselves and feel connected to the organization. Today, Barry Moline discusses how important it is in building a good environment for an organization where connection and collaboration are important ingredients for success.
Barry Moline
Barry is a Keynote Speaker on Building Connection, Inclusion & Great Teams in an Online World; Lead at Every Level; and CEO/Executive Director at California Municipal Utilities Association and the author of the book “Connect: How to Quickly Collaborate for Success In Business and Life”
CONNECT WITH BARRY
LinkedIn :linkedin.com/in/barry-moline-29b99a53
Website: https://barrymoline.com/ OR https://barrymoline.com/resources/ (for the list of icebreakers)
Key topics in this podcast:
- Barry’s career background
- Collaboration and connection explained
- “Connect” the book
- Political polarization or polarization
- Trigger words
- Rebuilding connection and collaboration
- How to build connections within an organization?
- How to develop a team?
- Effective Ice breakers
- Team engagement
- Get along and make connections with others.
- Advice to a young person working in a team.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The book “Connect” explores how to collaborate with people quickly.
- Organizational success and collaboration.
- Barry discusses the importance of choosing words well, and how choosing a wrong word may be seen as offensive to another person.
- The benefits to engaging with someone and having common interests.
- A bad boss can lead to a lot of people leaving the organization.
- Icebreakers are effective to build connection
- Companies that engage with their employees are 84% more productive
- Barry hires people based on how well they get along in a team.
Words of wisdom or Tweet-ables
Barry Moline
- “Be accountable, and that means, whatever you do, take responsibility, know you're doing something, do the best you can”
- “If you're responsible for getting something done, get it done “
Friday Nov 05, 2021
Friday Nov 05, 2021
Do you experience self-doubt? Have you ever wondered if you have “Imposter Syndrome?” Does it impact your ability to influence and drive continuous improvement? Today I speak with Dr. Tara Halliday who is an imposter syndrome coach about her career and about principles that can help us when we experience imposter syndrome.
TARA HALLIDAY
Tara has a Ph.D. in engineering and has practiced as a holistic therapist and coach for 21 years. She specializes in solving what is commonly referred to as “imposter syndrome”. She is the author of Unmasking: The Coach's Guide to Imposter Syndrome, and Understanding the Science of Imposter Syndrome
CONNECT WITH TARA
Website: completesuccess.co.uk
Linked In: linkedin.com/in/tara-halliday-phd
TAKE THE IMPOSTER SYNDROME QUIZ
Key topics in this podcast:
- Tara’s career background
- How her coaching career started
- What is Imposter Syndrome?
- How did it impact her career?
- How do you get out of your comfort zone?
- What is the amygdala?
- Negative impacts of having Imposter syndrome
- Imposter syndrome in-depth explanation
- Imposter syndrome and your sense of right and wrong
- Imposter syndrome myths
- Why neuro-linguistic programming doesn’t help with imposter syndrome
- Tips to manage to imposter syndrome
- How parents can help their children not develop imposter syndrome.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Imposter syndrome is very common (up to 70% of people experience it)
- It is created early in life - and is part of our brain's way of protecting us from the world.
- Many of the methods that people use to manage imposter syndrome are not effective, but there are effective measures out there that can be used
- Having trustworthy allies can help to manage and get rid of the imposter syndrome
- We benefit from appreciating our own worth as a human.
- If you think you have imposter syndrome, Tara has a quiz you should take to find out more about it.
Words of wisdom or Tweet-ables
Tara Halliday
“Learning involves mistakes and mistakes doesn’t mean you’re bad”
Friday Oct 29, 2021
Friday Oct 29, 2021
Lean thinking is flourishing in the Gulf States. Today I’m speaking with Dr Deborah Salimi, who is a co-founder of the Lean Gulf Institute, about her career, and how the Lean Gulf Institute was created.
She shares how she has applied lean thinking across industries with great success, including stories from male-dominated workplaces, and how women are advancing at a rapid pace in these workplaces. She also shares learnings throughout her career working in different countries, and how she shifted from being an engineer to being an educator.
DEBORAH SALIMI
Deborah is a speaker, mentor, author and recognized as a Lean Sensei who enthusiastically shares her knowledge and insights. She enjoys success in the practical application of Lean Six Sigma and project management to IT, construction, high-tech manufacturing, and healthcare. She has held high visibility roles at fortune 500 industry leaders such as Intel Corporation, Mitsubishi Digital Electronics, Hughes Aircraft/Boeing, and Honeywell and in the not-for-profit healthcare and education sectors. In 2010 Deborah co-founded the Lean Gulf Institute (LGI), (leangulf.org) based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
CONNECT WITH DEBORAH
Website: leangulf.org
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leangulf/
Key topics in this podcast:
- Deborah’s career background
- How did she end up working in the middle east?
- What led her to lean?
- Lean as a lifestyle
- Her journey working in male-dominated workplaces
- How did she deal with country culture in so many different places?
- How did she become an educator from being an engineer?
- Her variety of experiences working from different places
- Diversity of countries she worked in, in terms of female advancement
- Female advancement in UAE
- How lean applied across industries in the Gulf States
- Coaching and management in a lean way
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Deborah was an international worker who had the opportunity to work in many different countries: the USA, Japan, UAE, and Mexico.
- Deborah's career has given her the opportunity to see many different cultures and learn about them.
- Why her gender did not hold her back working in male-dominated fields.
- How she applies lean thinking across different industries.
- Female empowerment in the UAE, and why they are a leader in the advancement women.
Words of wisdom or Tweet-ables
Deborah Salimi
“Don’t discount your education”
“If you want to succeed, you need to become a lifelong learner”
Friday Oct 22, 2021
Friday Oct 22, 2021
Continuous Improvement and Being a People Pleaser As continuous improvement professionals, we relish the work of helping others to become better problem-solvers, But sometimes this as lead to an over-reliance on people pleasing, and as a result, not developing and wielding our own personal power. Brenda Florida joins me and shares her insights on moving away from people-pleasing, building our personal power, and understanding why people-pleasing is counter-productive to a lean culture.
BRENDA FLORIDA Brenda is a Certified Life Coach, Lifestyle Adviser, and podcast host. She teaches how to live your best life and how to liberate your authentic power and unique self-expression.
CONNECT WITH BRENDA FLORIDA Website: https://www.brendaflorida.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brendafloridacoach/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brendaaflorida/ LISTEN TO HER PODCAST https://www.brendaflorida.com/podcast or Liberate Your People Pleaser Podcast
Key topics in this podcast:
Brenda’s background and Coaching career
People-pleasing explained Setting boundaries on helping others
The difference between inner wisdom and anxiety Importance of self-growth
KEY TAKEAWAYS We should set boundaries so that other people can learn more about helping themselves.
We only have power in our own lives and not with other’s life Everyone should make a fair contribution of role in a team or project
Some people pleasers can experience resentment
Managers should seek to understand what’s going on inside the company
We must focus on ourselves and not always please others
Words of wisdom or Tweet-ables
Brenda Florida:
“I think the most important thing is to remember to really stay in your own sandbox and to develop your skills. “
“Learn about yourself and learn how to set boundaries,”
Friday Oct 15, 2021
Friday Oct 15, 2021
Every person in every organization faces problems, and has to solve them. Jamie Flinchbaugh has been observing what organizations do about the problem of having problems - and how they often fail to achieve the full impact of being able to solve problems well. In this episode, Jamie talks about his new book, "People Solve Problems: The Power of Every Person, Every Day, Every Problem" and how it can be a roadmap for organizations and companies when they are faced with the challenge of problem solving, no matter what problem=solving approach they choose to use.
Jamie Flinchbaugh
Jamie Flinchbaugh is an accomplished Entrepreneur, Senior Executive, Consultant, and Board Member with 30 years of learning-oriented experience spanning a range of roles across exceptionally diverse industries and functions. As the founder of JFlinch, Jamie helps teams accelerate by solving the most challenging problems using resources, education, and tools. He helped purpose driven leaders craft effective resilient organizations in over 300 companies. Jamie collaborates with leaders and their teams to bridge capability, strategic cultural and systems gaps, so they can safely span potential pitfalls, and have a purposeful impact on their organizations. Jamie is coauthor of The Hitchhiker's Guide to lean: Lessons from the Road, and is the co-host of the podcasts Lean Whiskey and Happy Heuristics.
CONNECT WITH JAMIE
LinkedIn :https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamieflinchbaugh/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/flinchbaugh
Website:https://www.jflinch.com/
Key topics in this podcast:
- We know Jamie as a Lean Organization advocate, so why is his new book not categorized as a “lean” book?
- What is Jamie’s definition of “lean” and a “lean organization?”
- What are the pica problem-solving methods Jamie sees in organizations?
- What does Jamie see as the keys to effective problem solving no matter the method used?
- How can a manager be a coach and why is coaching by managers the most effective approach to solve organizational problems?
- What is the core behavior that makes problem solving more effective?
- What are the cons of using processes or templates to solve problems?
- Why is human intuition and creativity necessary for effective problem solving?
- What did Jamie learn while writing his new book?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- There is a difference between thinking about your problems in the negative vs. seeing them as opportunities for growth and innovation.
- Solving problems effectively is vital for organizational success, especially in the environment of rapid change we are experiencing today.
- Good problem solving is team sport - and it requires great leadership, the right behaviors, capabilities and coaching.
Words of wisdom or Tweet-ables
Jamie Flinchbaugh
- “Treating problems like a failure, essentially leads to a very different response to when that happens”
- “Problem solving is that fundamental capability that makes you resilient to the future yet-undefined problems that we are surely going to face. We just don't know what they are yet.”
- “ Take ownership over your own learning journey.”
Friday Oct 08, 2021
Friday Oct 08, 2021
Jessica House
Jessica House is an experienced mental health counselor and coach, She is the founder of LightHouse Counselling and Wellness and she has a formal training in Children’s Mental health and she has a counselling psychology background, she is also a child and family therapist in a Children’s Mental health in Ottawa then moved into a leadership position later on.
CONNECT WITH JESSICA
LinkedIn :https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-houselighthouse/
Website: https://www.lighthousecw.ca/
Key topics in this podcast:
- Jessica’s background and how her counselling background enhances her lean work and vice versa.
- What is the Importance of mental health awareness and wellness for everyone, including children and families?
- What is the difference between coaching and counseling and where might they overlap?
- How can we determine if someone is struggling with their mental health?
- What are the red flags and signals that we need to refer someone into a psychologist?
- What are the ways to help someone who is having anxiety, suicidal thoughts or mental health issues? Is therapy the only solution?
- How does Jessica use lean with her kids? And how it can help her children to be more disciplined and resourceful?
- What are the programs that Jessica is currently building? How can it be beneficial for the parents that are struggling handling and counselling their kids?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Mental health is a really important topic for everyone, especially with children and families. Unfortunately it's often taken lightly or even ignored because people don't always know what they can do to help out their loved ones who suffer from depression.
- Counselling can be an effective way to help someone struggling with their mental well-being.
- It’s important for people who care about the person they're interacting with to identify signs before things get worse - and anyone can start helping by listening and caring.
- Lean practices can really help family life.
Words of wisdom or Tweet-ables
Jessica House
“I think sometimes when there's so much information, and we already know the answers deep down inside, we've got some good intuition, but unfortunately, other people's opinions cloud our own voice.”
Friday Oct 01, 2021
Friday Oct 01, 2021
Many of us in the continuous improvement community want to write a book. It can be a lot of fun to write a book, but it takes planning and effort. Today on the podcast we're talking with Dom Brightmon who has been writing his own stories for as long as he could remember, a hobby that turned into something more than just a pastime or creative outlet. Dom is also the host of the Going North podcast which helps authors share their books and and where he shares his knowledge with aspiring writers. He explains the necessity of planning how to write a book and what things you should consider when starting your own story, as well as why collaboration is important for creativity. He also tells us about some tips that will help our stories reach their full potential!
DOMINIQUE BRIGHTMON
Dominique "Dom" Brightmon, DTM is an award-winning speaker and certified member of the John Maxwell Team. He is the bestselling author of "Going North! Tips & Techniques to Advance Yourself", "Stay the Course: The Elite Performer's 7 Secret Keys to Sustainable Success", and contributing author for “Crappy to Happy: Sacred Stories of Transformational Joy”. Dom host's the Going North podcast, a top-rated self-help podcast that interviews authors from all over the world. His mantra is advance others to advance yourself.
CONNECT WITH DOM
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dombrightmon/
Twitter:https://twitter.com/DomBrightmon
Personal Website:https://dombrightmon.vip/
Portfolio: https://www.amazon.com/Dominique-B.-Brightmon/e/B07B7F37N5/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0
Key Topics in this podcast:
- What drives Dom to write books, and host a podcast and be a coach?
- How can someone who is interested get started in writing a book and what are the steps to write a book?
- Why continuously improving your book so important?
- Why is it important to write in your own voice and be who you are in terms of writing? Does it apply in any aspect of book writing?
- Reasons why the writing phase and editing phase must be separated
- And conversely why sharing your writing goals, dreams, and aspirations with others might a bad idea!
- How Fiverr helps Dom in his writing career, how it can be helpful for aspiring writers and existing authors.
- What are the ways to market your book?
- What are the things to consider before you are finally able to publish a book?
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Dom is an introvert, but being an introvert doesn’t mean he can't communicate and express himself, and inspire others!
- You don’t need to be a technically accomplished writer to write a book: just be yourself and express yourself through writing.
- Knowing your purpose and why you are writing a book is the basic foundation of book writing.
- Writing and publishing a book is a never-ending process; to make your writing successful you always need to have a sense of continuous improvement.
- Audiobooks are in today and it is one of the challenges that Dom is facing today as a book writer.
- Haters and constructive criticisms help Dom to build himself and gives him another way to defend his ideas and improve his books.
- Separating creativity from judgment helped Bella improves her book
- It is important to be selective in the people with whom you want to share your book because some people can kill your momentum; choose people that can help you improve, and support your growth.
- More advice from Dom and what you can learn from his books which can be found here
DOM’S WORD OF WISDOM/TWEET-ABLES
- ‘’Success is not a straight line’’
- ‘’Realize that success is tangible’’
- ‘’Collaboration, were better together, we don’t wanna be butter’’
- ‘’Be selective of who you share your writing and your goals and your dreams and aspirations with because there are some folks who may kill your dream before even get your plane off’’