Should Lean be Forced? Running & Evaluating Experiments with the Podcast and Beyond, Inexpensive Sip

Episode link with video and more

In Episode 41, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh try a couple experiments, in the spirit of continuous improvement. You’ll first notice that we moved the whiskey talk to the end. The hypothesis here is that some people don’t want to hear the whiskey talk, so they can just exit the podcast when we finish the lean talk. We also used a different platform for recording, so it may affect your listening or viewing experience. We would really appreciate any feedback at all on these experiments. 

In lean talk, we explore the question of whether lean can and should be forced. We examine this from different angles, including terms like accountability and quotas. We even evoke the words of Dr. Deming in the process. We quote Toyota’s Jamie Bonini who said “if the employees are upset by it, it’s not really TPS.” We explore 5S, audits, incentives, and more. 

We finally get around to talking about the whiskey that we were sipping on during the episode. After all, this is kinda the point. For this episode’s theme, we are pulling the bottle off our shelf that is the least expensive, but still worth sipping on its own. Mark is drinking Benchmark, and Jamie went with Rebel. Cheers! 

• Mark’s audiobook of The Mistakes That Make Us is now available 
• Tennis’ Western and Southern Open
• The Michigan Lean Consortium, where Mark recently presented
• Mark’s famous Office 5S video
• Jamie’s whiskey… Rebel Bourbon 80 proof at $19
• Mark’s whiskey… Benchmark Bourbon 100 proof between $17-19
• Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or jflinch.com/leanwhiskey 

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