The Edges of Lean

Episode 25: Continuous Improvement and Getting to the Root of Belonging

Episode: Continuous Improvement and Getting to the Root of Belonging with Sonia Lewis

Sonia Lewis joins me to delve into what it really takes to get to the roots of belonging and how to improve belonging within an organization.  You’ll find Sonia on the frontlines of many social justice movements as she works to change the many systemic, institutional and structural inequities. For over a decade, Sonia has been on a mission to marry equity/humanity work with social justice/cultural shifting of mindsets. At the end of the day, her battle cry is "The Future is Anti-Racist and we all have a part to play." We’re talking about the part continuous improvement professionals have to play in anti-racism and improving belonging in the organizations they have a chance to impact.

SONIA WILLIAMS LEWIS 

Sonia is an experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the professional training & coaching industry. She describes herself as an Anti-Racism impact strategist and her mission is to create a society that values equity and humanity. She works at the intersection of anti-racism work and belonging within organizations.  Sonia wants the fight against racism to take into account present-day realities rather than just rely on history lessons.

CONNECT WITH SONIA LEWIS

LinkedIn :https://www.linkedin.com/in/sonia-williams-lewis-m-ed-0b166b50/  

Website: https://www.ascribesuccess.com/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/soniasaidittho?lang=en 

 

      Key topics in this podcast:

• What is racism and how does it impact Black people overall and specifically within organizations?
• What is Sonia’s advocacy within diversity and equity all about and what has driven her since her childhood?
• How have the twin pandemics of COVID and racism come together to create urgent problems organizations must solve?
• Why “belongingness” is vital in organizations and how organizations can improve.
• What are the ways in which organizations can change to make sure that everyone’s voice is being heard?
• Why mission and vision statements are important foundations for an organization’s goal alignment.
•  How to differentiate between equality and equity?

        KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Racism is ubiquitous but there are multiple ways to improve belongingness in your organization.
• Leaders must work on equity and belonging within the company – and what we already know about features of lean culture – like respect for people and the need for psychological safety can also be used to improve belonging. 
• Belongingness helps organizations to improve their bottom line and increase productivity.
• Equity, belongingness, and humanity are important.
• Humanity is important and if humanity is important, that means everyone who shows up is important and should be valued.
• The Continuous improvement professional has a key role and key opportunities to increase belongingness in an organization.

 

Words of wisdom or Tweet-ables 

Sonia Lewis’ advice for a young person

‘’Trust your gut… your gut is very intuitive as to who you are and you should trust it.’’

 

Episode 24: Continuous Improvement and Creating a Resilient Organization

Episode 24: Continuous Improvement and Building a Resilient Culture

In Jodi Woelkerling's book, World Class Leadership :10 Critical Insights Every Leader Needs to Know to Foster, Create and Build an Enduring Resilient Culture she shares how stress as well as resilience is common across all industries. Through her book leaders can find activities that help them build strength within themselves as well as others which will lead them towards a more productive workforce.

JODI WOELKERLING

Jodi is an Author, Coach and Consultant. passionate about assisting businesses to build an enduring resilient culture at the whole culture level, the various levels of leadership within the business and at the individual level, so that the business as a whole and the individuals within the business can experience the enormous benefits of an enduring resilient culture

LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/resilient-culture-consultant/

Personal Website : https://www.jodiwoelkerling.com/

Topics in this podcast:

• Jodi in her career reached a turning point when stress increased in her job so much that it started impacting her health. That’s when she started down a path of helping herself and then turning and helping others who were in the same position.
• What is resilience? When we have stressors, and all of us will have it in our life, picking up signs of stress early and being self-aware enough to get us back as much in that state of calm as quickly as possible.
• Understanding why people quit their job due to stress and how can leaders help them to stay in the organization and how they can mitigate some of the reasons for stress.
• What is psychological safety and understanding the positive effects it has on employee wellbeing and success.
• In a small businesses or company investing in people is very imprtnat. You gain benefits you can gain when your leadership has a positive impact of on your employees.
• Healthcare organizations dropped their continuous improvement plan due to the pandemic, but what can they do to keep it going? What motivates them to pursue it?

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

 

• Jodi’s new book is a road map for leaders and employees to handle stress within the workplace. It also provides advice on how managers can motivate their team in addition to keeping them going even when they are faced with challenges.
• Stress is common in any industry, which can be exhausting; we need people to motivate us and push the boundaries of our abilities and that is what leaders are supposed to do.
• Employees with psychological safety are more confident in their work. This confidence makes them produce better results for the company, further encouraging a positive atmosphere where everyone can succeed together
• Leaders should have a close relationship with their employees to boost their trust and confidence working together because that is the great foundation of teamwork that leads to success.
• Despite the pandemic, healthcare workers still have a job to do. They need someone who can motivate them and give them time for themselves so that they don't burn out entirely.
• Leadership is not limited to just managing the team’s work; you can always reach out to your people in ways that show that you really care about them.

Memorable Quotes from the Episode

JODI WOELKERLING

‘’Knowing what your triggers are, knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are, knowing what situation helps you perform at your best self-awareness will go an enormous way and help you develop your strengths.’’

 

So there are different stressors in different industries, definitely but stress is a common I think across all of them.

Episode 23: Continuous Improvement and the Kind Leader

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT AND THE KIND LEADER WITH KARYN ROSS

In today's age, when companies' primary outlook is to compete and win, bad management and leadership practices are rampant. Many people suffer inside organizations because of this. In this episode I discussed with Karyn Ross  how to be a Kind Leader. AND how important it is to be kind even if you are not in a leadership role.  We discuss why this will help you to lead a happy life and help others within your organization. Karyn Ross, who is the author of   “The Kind Leader: A Practical Guide to Eliminating Fear, Creating Trust, and Leading with Kindness ‘’ defines kindness as when we take EMPATHY (which is our ability to put ourselves in someone else's shoes} and move to ACTION, deciding what to do and then doing it.

 

KARYN ROSS 

An experienced lean consultant, coach and practitioner, Karyn Ross is the coauthor, with Jeff Liker, of the Shingo Award-winning The Toyota Way to Service Excellence: Lean Transformation in Service Organizations. Ross is an internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, consultant, coach, and practitioner. Focused specifically on services, Karyn has worked with small, medium, and large organizations in sectors as diverse as insurance, financial services, HR, transportation, and retail. Using her unique approach, Karyn teaches people how to combine creativity with lean practices to ensure that every customer receives exactly what they want, when they want it, right the first time with a personal, human touch and she's the author of six books one of her book is    “The Kind Leader: A Practical Guide to Eliminating Fear, Creating Trust, and Leading with Kindness ‘’

LinkedIn :https://www.linkedin.com/in/krclean4service/ 

Personal Website: https://karynrossconsulting.com/ 

Topics in this podcast:

•   “The Kind Leader: A Practical Guide to Eliminating Fear, Creating Trust, and Leading with Kindness  guides leaders how to treat the people under them with kindness  - in any aspect of leadership.

• How far does good leadership go? It's not just about bringing people with the vision and helping them in a direction, but also being there as an individual.
• Understanding the key to a difficult conversation in a way that is kind and how leadership kindness can help employees and co-workers change the way they work -  and be more positive.
• In a world where competition is present, teams should not compete with each other. They should collaborate and cooperate instead. This will  lead to the growth of their team as well as improvement for everyone on that team

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Kindness isn't only about having empathy but requiring some sort of expression for that kindness towards others - whether it's through actions or words, you  can really impact how people feel toward one another without even knowing why they're being kinder than usual.
• Being a leader doesn't just mean presiding over an office full of employees. Every person has the opportunity and capability to be a leader in their own sphere, whether it's within your family or among friends.
• Leaders should be a kind listener, and practice the art of having  difficult conversations in the right (and kind)  way. into others misbehaving as well.
• Leaders are important for their ability to guide the people towards a common goal. These leaders can create an outcome that is both beneficial and rewarding, not only for themselves but also reporting to them.
• A leader's treatment of their followers impacts how these people feel about the job and company. If a person feels that they are appreciated, it makes them less likely to leave or complain - even in difficult conditions. By being kind and humane towards your team members you can keep things running smoothly for yourself as well!
• A team with good leadership that is helping, collaborating and cooperating with each other without competing can help them reach a common goal successfully.

 

Memorable Quotes from the Episode

 KARYN ROSS

“When we experience fear we tend to treat others unkindly because were focused on ourselves but remember the definition of kindness, kind leaders are focused on the positive outcomes for others’’

Episode 22: Continuous Improvement for Women after 50

Robin Tillotson is an advocate for successful aging and a budding Kata Geek. She joins me with her coach, Deondra Wardelle, to talk about the joys of and strengths of black women over 50, international travel, and the Toyota Kata. You will be inspired!

Episode 21: Continuous Improvement and Conflict Resolution

When you're striving to improve, you might might some of the problems you want to solve are due to internal conflict.  And sometimes the changes you hope to make create conflict!  Dr. Ted Thompson tells us about the field of peace and conflict resolution - there's a lot for us to learn!

Episode 20: Continuous Improvement and the Tin Hats

Have you had your lean thinking history lessons?  We are told that what we call lean is derived from the Toyota production system, and that is true. But there’s more to the story. Lean principles are found in many places and situations beyond Toyota – that is what this podcast is all about.  You may know the story of the P51 Mustang fighter aircraft and how it was developed in a record 12 months, during World War II, which is often touted as an example of lean thinking outside of Toyota. My guest, Ruth Stanley, has another war-time story of lean thinking to share, and it is about her member of her own family.  Ruth Stanley is the Founder of Boann Consulting, and she is ASQ’s Deputy Region Director for the Canada Greenland Region  She is a blogger, Storyteller, Presenter, Mentor , and the author of “A Different Kind of Bombshell: The Tin Hats' Journey Through World War II”

What lean stories can you learn from your family’s past?  No matter where you listen, your ratings, reviews, and comments are greatly appreciated!

Please join me in exploring more of the Edges of Lean! There’s a lot to learn. And check out my friends in the lean communicators community at leancommunicators.com  You’ll find more podcasts and videos – with lots of great new content every week.

The Edges of Lean is written and produced by Bella Englebach.  This is a Lean for Humans production.

Episode 19: Continuous Improvement and Grief

What a year we’ve been through!  One thing you can say for sure about the COVID-19 pandemic is that we’ve all experienced massive change, and a lot of that change has involved loss.  Some have lost family members, friends, neighbor, some have lost jobs, others have lost their businesses. For those of us who practice lean thinking, this means that we are working with people who are living thorough many levels of grief: our employees, our clients, our bosses, our colleagues, and even ourselves.

How does a lean leader address an emotional elephant in the room like grief? My guest is Anthony Casablanca – who has been researching and learning what it means to lead grieving employees. 

Anthony Casablanca is an accomplished lean-thinking senior executive who consults with business leaders on purpose driven leadership. He is the co-author, with his brother Guy Casablanca, of “The Dying Art of Leadership: How Leaders can Help Grieving Employees Excel at their Work.

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Episode 18: Continuous Improvement and Improving Absolutely Everything

Continuous improvement is something we learn at work (usually) and it's complicated, right? Tools. process maps, new language, new ways of thinking - once we learn it, we can take some of it home. My guest, Katie Labedz has a different idea - why not learn continuous improvement at home, improve our home lives AND take it to work She's written a book about it: "How to Improve Absolutely Anything," and it's the book you can give your family - and read yourself!

 

No matter where you listen, or watch "The Edges of Lean, your ratings, reviews, and comments are greatly appreciated! Subscribe and tell your friends! Please join me in exploring more of the Edges of Lean. There’s a lot to learn.

 

Check out my friends in the lean communicators community at leancommunicators.com You’ll find more podcasts and videos – with lots of great new content every week. The Edges of Lean is written and produced by Bella Englebach. This is a Lean for Humans production.

Episode 17: Continuous Improvement and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

Few of us win world championships – it takes talent, skill, and extraordinary dedication to become a world champion in any sport. Can you imagine becoming a world champion while also excelling at a full-time job? My guests is Shanti Abelha, who has an inspiring story to tell about how she did that – and how lean thinking was part of her journey.

Episode 16: Continuous Improvement and Encouragement

My guest today, Dale Power, says that encouragement is rocket fuel. She’s seen encouragement change lives and today she’s going to share her passion project and help us see how we can use that rocket fuel to propel ourselves, our colleagues, and our families in our continuous improvement journeys. Dale Power is a creative connector of ideas, people, and organizations. She has been a Founder of the Outreach Division of a school for children with different learning abilities, a Non-Profit that connects the professionals who work with those children, and now The Encouragement Project. She has owned a catering company, worked as a professional clown, and for the last 21 years, owned Big Shoes Marketing, a brand consultancy. She is now turning her passion to her newest endeavor: The Encouragement Project having learned that encouragement is as powerful as rocket fuel when used properly. She teaches the skills and tools that when practiced have the ability to make a better world for businesses and individuals.

 

Who are you going to encourage today? You can connect with Dale at The EncouragementProject.com Please join me in exploring more of the Edges of Lean! There’s a lot to learn. And check out my friends in the lean communicators community at leancommunicators.com You’ll find more podcasts and videos – with lots of great new content every week. The Edges of Lean is written and produced by Bella Englebach. This is a Lean for Humans production.