Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement

Process mapping is a powerful improvement tool—but only when it reflects reality. Too often, ego, reputation management and fear prevent teams from exposing the uncomfortable truths about how the process actually operates.

Adding ‘safety’ as a sixth ‘S’ to the 5S lean tool may signal a weak underlying safety culture or a misunderstanding of the method’s original intent, say the hosts of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement. 

While 5S is a powerful lean tool, improper implementation can reduce it to “cosmetic theater” and fuel employee resistance.

If you think problems disappear in mature lean organizations, you'd be wrong. What changes is how organizations react to those problems and how leaders' roles evolve. 

Has your organization fallen prey to the three threats of lean maturity models? Dr. Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer discuss maturity model risks in this episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement. 

Dr. Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer, hosts of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement, discuss why the question 'When can we say we are lean?' is so concerning. They discuss the three 'mindset violations' of this question and dig into the perspective of lean as a journey, not a destination. 

Standardized work is a baseline for improvement, "not a prison," says podcast cohost Dr. Mohamed Saleh in the latest episode of Behind the Curtain: Adventures in Continuous Improvement. 

Yellow belts. Green belts. Black belts. In this podcast episode, hosts Dr. Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer continue their series exploring the difficult questions around lean, Six Sigma and continuous improvement, focusing their attention on the belt certification system and asking whether belts build expertise or simply create hierarchies. 

Podcast hosts Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer tackle a topic that drives a lot of passionate conversation. Is lean or Six Sigma the better improvement philosophy? One co-host argues it's a flawed debate while both weigh in on many organizations' woeful misunderstanding or misuse of lean and Six Sigma. 

Hosts John Dyer and Dr. Mohamed Saleh discuss the responsibility for organizational problems, emphasizing that systems often drive behaviors and that leaders should focus on correcting structures rather than blaming individuals. They highlight structural components that include performance reviews, incentives, metrics, policies and decision-making processes.

Dive into the topic of suboptimization, which occurs when individual departments focus on their own metrics at the expense of the overall enterprise, and learn tactics to drive enterprise-wide performance. 

Delve into why organizational visions often fail and learn tactics to develop visions your workforce can embrace. 

While 'respect for people' is a tenet many organizations claim, podcast hosts Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer delve into the truth of that statement. Does your leadership always show 'respect for people' or does it erode when the pressure is on? Here are some telltale signs that leaders' are failing to show 'respect for people' and the potential negative consequences of their actions. 

Podcast hosts Dr. Mohamed Saleh and John Dyer share their favorites of Dr. Deming's 14 points and reflect on the management guru's most controversial principle. 

Hosts John Dyer and Dr. Mohammed Saleh discuss Dr. Deming's 14th point for management: Put everybody in the company to work to accomplish the transformation. The transformation is everybody's job. The hosts also outline the potential misuse of lean specialists. 

Understand the essential requirements to building an organization of thinkers rather than button-pushers, and delve into how AI should contribute to building a learning organization. 

Explore why pride of workmanship is important as well as common barriers that destroy it within an organization. 

Explore what the podcast hosts describe as Dr. W. Edwards Deming's "most controversial" point for management, one that many executives have a problem with. 

Learn why Dr. Deming called Point 10 his "biggest pet peeve" among the 14 points for transformation. One hint: It blames the workers.