The Edges of Lean

Episode 15: Continuous Improvement and Non-Verbal Communication

As a manager, supervisor, continuous improvement facilitator, or coach, you know that communication is a key skill for success and improvement. So, how we are communicating?  We know what we say is important,  right? And most of us would acknowledge that HOW we say it is important too.  But think about this –you’re still communicating, even when you are not physically the shop floor or in the room or on the Zoom call. We’re going to take a trip to the Edges of Lean and explore many aspects of non-verbal communication -even the ones that happen when you are not there!. 

My guests are Shelly O’Donovan and Jason Haines. 

Shelly O’Donovan is the CEO of the Authentic Influence Group. She teaches Persuasive Speaking at the Wharton School, of the University of Pennsylvania. She has led vaccine advocacy for Glaxo Smith Kline, worked as a healthcare lobbyist, and served as a staffer in state government. She has been focused on cultivating authentic influence her entire career, and decoding what makes people tick. Shelly has an MPA from the University of Pennsylvania, a Marketing certification from Wharton School (of UPENN), a BA in political science. She has a certification in body language training and the big 5 personality from a behavioral research lab.

Jason is a Lean practitioner who uses Standard Work to help with communication throughout the workplace to help reduce chaos and frustration amongst the frontline workers and between the frontline and leadership. Jason is a managing director with Industrial Solutions, based in Arizona,  & he has worked in the manufacturing industry for over 20 years. He is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt who works with logistics, manufacturing, service companies, and office areas on developing Lean processes.

How are you communicating? Shelly, Jason and I would love to hear back from you on your thoughts and ideas.   

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. This is a Lean for Humans production.

Episode 14: Continuous Improvement and Construction

Take a look at the building that you are in.  Foundation, walls, floors, roof, wiring, lighting, windows, doors, plumbing, heat, air conditioning, and  so much more..  So many components – and so many people involved from design to delivery. It’s nothing like a factory, so you might think that there’s not much opportunity to use lean thinking..  But if you’ve been involved in construction in any way, you know that a lot of construction projects have problems.  And lean – well in lean, we know something about solving problems.  

My guest today is Susan Reinhardt.  Susan began her career as an architect in 1991 designing schools in Switzerland and now coaches facility owners, designers, and contractors on Lean methods for building projects.  Susan has a fascinating story to tell, and has lessons learned from lean construction that continuous improvers in other industries can learn from!

 

 

Continuous Improvement and Improving Your Kaizen

When you’ve been practicing continuous improvement for a while, whether as an internal or external consultant, you follow your own advice, and create standard work for yourself. You have an approach to training, and approach to coaching, and an approach to kaizen events.  But what happens when your standard approach needs to be updated and improved? We can get as stuck in our ways as we see our clients being.

My guest today is Peggy Fry Barnes who is just such an experienced operational excellence professional. Certified as a Master Black Belt she has enjoyed working with operations and customer support teams in both Financial Services and Technology. She is passionate about customer and employee experience and enjoys coaching teams, individuals and small businesses towards continuous improvement goals.   Peggy is sharing her journey of improving her own standard work for kaizen.

Episode 12: Continuous Improvement and the Cheerleader.

The mysteriously silent lean sensei is an archetype - but is that the only model for a lean leader?  My guest, Tina Provost, joins me to talk about the value of positivity, encouragement, even of of peppiness, and the lessons she brings from college athletics into her role as a lean leader.  

Episode 11: Continuous Improvement and Creative Thinking

A long time ago, in a breakroom far far away, I got into a heated debate with a fellow improvement professional over the topic of standard work. I had just completed my Creative Problem Solving facilitation training, and was excited about using my new skills. My colleague was pretty sure that creative thinking had no place in the creation and implementation of standard work. I argued that if you wanted to have the best possible standard work, you would have use creativity, and many experiments. 

I guess you could say I am stubborn, because I still think I’m right! In fact, I’m more convinced than ever that creative thinking is absolutely necessary to get to the highest levels of effectiveness, efficiency and employee engagement. And today, my guests, Kimberly Green-Goldsborough and Erlin Kakkanad are here to share their perspectives on lean, continuous improvement, and creative thinking.

Episode 10: Continuous Improvement, Holistic Dentistry, and Piercing

I can only imagine what you’re thinking! What on earth do dentistry, and piercing have to with each other, never mind to do with lean or continuous improvement?  But when I think about it, there are a lot of parallels between a dentist’s office and a piercing parlor.  Each is usually a small business, each has important health and sanitation requirements, and each, frankly carries an element of fear, or at least concern for some customers. And yet, there’s an opportunity to turn that fearful expectation around and create one that results in delighted customers and patients, and drives continuous improvement. 

My guests today are Stephanie Hill and Karyn Ross who have great stories to share!

Episode 9: Continuous Improvement and the Law

If you made a list of organizations that were unlikely to implement lean practices, you might put law firms pretty high on the list.  But Barry Appleman Leiden, (BAL) a top corporate immigration law firm, would not be on that list, because they are a law firm that is lean at heart, priding themselves, and acknowledged by their clients for their effectiveness and their efficiency.  My guest is Jaclyn Harder, who is a certified Lean Agent and operational excellence leader at BAL, firm. Jaclyn leads BAL’s lean transformation, initiatives, training, and works with teams at all levels across the organization to pursue the exceptional. Jaclyn is also a lean gardener! We talk about lean in the legall profession and lean in the garden. 

Episode 8: Continuous Improvement and Root Cause Racism

Think back to your first continuous improvement training?  What did you learn about? Define, measure, analyze, improve, control (DMAIC)?  Or was it a lean training, and you talked about single-piece flow and how to define waste?  Did the topic of racism ever enter the conversation?  Probably not.  But the root causes of racism and the problems in the world for which racism appears to be a root cause are now hot topics in the continuous improvement community.  My guests are Deondra Wardelle and Mark Graban who join me to share the story of #RootCauseRacism.

You can find Deondra at www.deondrawardelle.com  and Mark at www.leanblog.org.  We all urge you to follow #rootcauseracism on social media and visit the website rootcauseracism.com

What is your one small thing to act on or to do differently to address racism ? How might your continuous improvement practice advance equity and justice?

Episode 7:Continuous Improvement and Planes, Trains, Automobiles and Ships

There are those places in our world that are arrival and departure points.  A port, a bridge that crosses a great river, an airport, a helipad.  At these places, drivers, transportation companies, airlines, shipping companies, passengers and more rely on a well-connected and continuously improving infrastructure.  Who is working on those improvements? Here to tell us how it happens are Lisa Dewey-Mattia of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and from the other side of the US, Jared Thatcher of the Port of Seattle.

Episode 6: Continuous Improvement and Your Old Computer

That laptop on your desk - where is it going when you are done with it? Most e-waste is not recycled to reclaim its precious metal components, and it ends up in in landfills. From a lean perspective, there’s a lot of waste n the e-waste problem!  That’s where organizations like FreeGeek.org come into play.  In this episode we hear from John Ashcraft of Freegeek, in Portland Oregon, and Maria Grzanka and Brion Hurley, continuous improvement professionals,  who volunteer with Lean Portland to assist non-profit organizations. Brion, John and Maria share how lean thinking helps to reduce waste with the folks who are working hard to address the e-waste problem.