The Edges of Lean

I believe lean thinking is the best way to manage a business and develop people. Even though I have much experience and many great examples to share, it does not mean I am always successful in persuading people. Carlos Alvarenga is a communications researcher who has delved into what it takes to be persuasive. He joined me at the Edges of Lean to talk about his new book: “The Rules of Persuasion,” and to explain why persuasion is ...

How much time are you spending every day on communication? How effective and efficient is your communication? We live in a swirl of communication – email, instant messages, text messages, and social media posts. And sometimes we even talk to each other! Geoff Weinstein says communication is a real “Edges of the Lean” frontier – one of the places where we can all leverage lean thinking to reduce waste and improve our lives. He join...

As lean leaders, we understand that trust is a key component of an effective and efficient culture. George Dom spent years in high-performance environments where trust was not just a nice to have, but it was necessary to assure that the entire team succeeded – and survived! He has joined me at the Edges of Lean to share his insights into developing trust in every environment by being a high-trust leader.

George Dom

George Dom, foun...

Iteration is the key to lean thinking and especially to lean design and lean product development.  Brian Walch uses iteration to develop individual contributors into managers and managers into leaders. He joined me at the Edges of Lean to share his approach and how he has developed it independently of the Lean community.

Brian Walch

Brian Walch is a coach, consultant, and personal and professional development speaker. He start...

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are words that have become politically charged. Kevin Wayne Johnson is a student of leadership and a leadership coach.  He believes that DEI is a core component of great leadership and that all organizations benefit from leaders who value diversity, understand equity, and practice inclusion.  To me, what he says resonates with the core principles of lean leadership. He joined me at the Edges of Lea...

Have you ever realized that in order to grow you need to step out into the unknown and do things you have never done before? Beate Chelette says that those times in your life and your career are necessary for growth and transformation – and that there are ways to navigate through them as a leader and as a human. She joined me at the Edges of Lean to talk about the courage to deliver transformation. 

Beate Chelette  

Beate Ch...

I wish I was perfect! Wouldn’t it be great to simply not make any mistakes? In the practice of Lean, we try to mistake-proof our processes and build on our previous learnings to prevent mistakes. And yet, we know that we learn so much from mistakes, and Mark Graban has been exploring with different people how they have benefited from their mistakes. He joined me at the Edges of Lean to share his insight on what he has learned fr...

When I say there are many different flavors and styles of continuous improvement, Design for Six Sigma is the type of style and flavor variation I am thinking of. Product development is hard to achieve. It is also expensive, as almost every company has a graveyard of product development failures. Kris Stokes teaches organizations and people the principles of Design for Six Sigma, and he says that product development success takes ...

Here at the Edges of Lean, we've had a lot of conversations about leadership, with leaders who are practicing Lean and with leaders who are not Lean practitioners but are acknowledged as great leaders.  There have been so many incredible insights and tips to learn from.  However, I believe lean leadership differs from other types of leadership. Kathy Hadizadeh says that lean leaders need to bring their humanity to work with their ...

Continuous Improvement and Your Legacy with Jann Freed

Have you ever thought about your legacy? Jann Freed says that whether we think about it or not., we create our legacies daily. She has written a book about creating and leaving behind a powerful and meaningful legacy and joined me at the Edges of Lean to help us all be more intentional about the legacies we are creating. Her new book is Breadcrumb Legacy.

Jann Freed

Free...

As a lean leader, I have facilitated countless meetings and events. Truth be told, I am a messy and disorganized note-taker with dreadful handwriting! So, I have significant respect for the people who can record the work and results of a meeting in graphic form. Ashton Rodenhiser is an experienced graphic communicator, and she joined me at the Edges of Lean to share her story and give us some ideas about bringing more images int...

As lean leaders, we talk about feedback a lot. We know that feedback is important, and if you are like me, you crave it – so that we can improve! But let’s face it, it’s not always effective or helpful. Carole Stizza has researched the topic of feedback, and she says that there’s a lot to improve! She joined me at The Edges of Lean to share her insights. 

Carole Stizza  

Carole, an industrial organizational psychologist with a...

Do you know what your core values are? Have they changed during your life as you grew, gained experience, and broadened your perspectives? Some people are very clear about their core values, while others are not or wonder if they need re-examining. Johnson's work centers on supporting people, especially women, as they define and align with their core values. She joined me at The Edges of Lean to share her insights.

Andrea John...

Catherine Chabiron is an expert in lean management and an author. She recently wrote a book called Learning to Scale at the Theodo Group, which describes how a company faced with dramatic growth used lean thinking to avoid what Catherine calls Big Company Disease. She joined me at the Edges of Lean to discuss what she learned when she went to the Gemba with this company and its founders.

Catherine Chabiron   

Catherine is an a...

Robert Indries started his career as an engineer and has taken that scientific and analytical approach into his successful entrepreneurial business career. The general belief is that engineers are not good at the people stuff, but Robert turns that idea on its head. I was curious how he used his learnings as he built his businesses to understand better how to help his clients. He joined me at the Edges of Lean to generously share ...

When I coach and consult, I focus on my clients and their goals and needs. This raises an important question: where am I in that relationship? Katarina Polonska believes that coaching that is successful for the client requires the coach to be connected to herself and that doing so creates energy and strength for the coach. She joined me at the Edges of Lean to share her insights and how she helps her clients connect to thems...

I hope you are a voter! It is such an important civic responsibility. As a continuous improvement professional, have you ever thought about improving the election process to help make everyone confident that elections are secure and fair? Kerry L. Bass has. He is here to share his insight and tell us about some vital continuous improvement work happening in the US around our election process. 

Kerry L Bass   

Kerry Bass is t...

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Success requires expertise, and today’s work world requires leaders to lead beyond their areas of personal skills. Wanda Wallace calls this “spanning” leadership, and she works with leaders to build their success in leading across functions and domains where they have little expertise. Wanda is the author of "You Can’t Know It All: Leading in the Age of Deep Expertise.” She joined me at the Edges of Lean to share her insights ...

Sam Drauschak is a leader in Process Science – his work is to help organizations achieve maximum efficiency in business processes and energy flow. He has even developed a universal process mapping language adopted as the standard for multiple large enterprises globally. Sam joined me at the Edges of Lean to share his insights on process science in the digital age and life in an RV.

 Sam Drauschak  

Sam Drauschak is the Co-foun...