Lean Blog Interview‪s‬ Mark Graban

Founder & President, Jay Hodge & Associates
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/402
My guest for Episode #402 is Jay Hodge, the founder and CEO of Jay Hodge & Associates. He has over 25 years of operational leadership experience in companies such as Toyota, General Motors, Caterpillar, and Tenet Healthcare. Jay is also the author of The Lean Treasure Chest.




 

We talk about Jay's career — going from teaching the Toyota Production System at General Motors to then actually going and working at Toyota. What did Jay first learn about “efficient operations” and leadership in the United States Marine Corps?
What did Jay learn about culture and servant leadership? What was the most difficult thing about leaving Toyota and going to other environments, including healthcare? How do we teach somebody to manage and to lead instead of just promoting them?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 

Sorry about the audio problem... please do listen to Jeff Liker in Episode 400. You can re-download the episode or go to http://leanblog.org/400 and use the streaming player there.

Co-author of the book Personal Kanban
Show notes: http://www.leanblog.org/401
My guest for Episode #401 is my friend Jim Benson, who you might know as the co-author of the book Personal Kanban (and we talked about that in Episode 155, back in 2012). He was also a guest on Episode #4 of "My Favorite Mistake" with me.
We recorded this using the LinkedIn Live platform. Jim and I have talked a lot (and collaborated) over the years, so we intentionally went into this conversation without much of a plan.
The main theme is "humane management," a phrase of Jim's that I really like. We talk about workplaces, psychological safety (listen to my episode with Amy Edmondson on that), learned helplessness, respect, autonomy, systems thinking, and more.
We also jokingly brainstorm titles for a hypothetical podcast that we would do together. He is going to join me and Jamie Flinchbaugh for the next episode of the "Lean Whiskey" podcast, by the way. Is "Mark and Jim's Vomitorium of Management Ideas" a good name? Probably not.
Jim's company, Modus Institute, has a new "Lean Agile Visual Management Certification and Accreditation Series," so please check it out.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 
 

SORRY for the audio bugs, this episode should be fixed now....
Author of the newly-updated book, available now. 
Show notes and more: http://www.leanblog.org/400
Wow, 400 Episodes!! 400 episodes in roughly 15.5 years… that's about 800 weeks, or one episode every two weeks, on average, over that time. Thanks again to the late Norm Bodek for the idea to get this podcast started, as I talk about in this memorial video. Thanks to everybody who has listened or participated as a guest!!
My guest for Episode #400 is Jeffrey Liker, the retired University of Michigan professor who has recently released the second updated and revised version of his seminal book The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer. The new edition has more examples from the service sector, including healthcare, and it incorporates “Toyota Kata” approaches (and he credits his former student Mike Rother).
Today, we talk about why he wrote a new edition and what he's learned since the publication of the original back in 2004. We talk about combining the perspectives of industrial engineering and sociology — the mechanistic vs. the organic views of a system like Lean/TPS. What is “coercive bureaucracy” vs. “enabling bureaucracy”? What's the difference between “being Toyota” and “emulating Toyota”?
We also learn a little bit about the musical instrument that Jeff has started playing again. We need to form a Lean band! Maybe not.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.
This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network. 
Jeff was previously a guest on episodes 3, 4, 37, 39, 41, and 111

Lesa is the founder of Lesa Nichols Consulting.
Show notes: http://www.leanblog.org/399
My guest for Episode #399 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast is Lesa Nichols, a former Toyota and TSSC employer who now works with organizations through her company, Lesa Nichols Consulting.
Today, Lesa shares reflections on working closely with the late Hajime Oba. This is the third podcast in a mini series, following my conversations with Steve Spear and with Hide Oba.
In the episode, we talk about topics including:
Lisa's non-traditional path to TPS: From public relations to the shop floor
Working with plant president (and future company chairman) Fujio Cho
Choosing between being a "technical scientist" or a "social scientist" of TPS
Meeting Mr. Oba and working with TSSC
Helping find American expertise to learn from
Becoming a powertrain production manager
Key lessons from working with Mr. Oba:
"Managers must fight to have floor time"
"Safety is an assumed thing?" -- what does this mean?
Don't look for waste, look for overburden (both physical and mental)

Why is openly admitting mistakes such an important thing at Toyota
Why Toyota's "soul is around manufacturing"
Lesa was also a contributor of a chapter to the anthology book Practicing Lean.
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.

Co-founders of the firm Integris Performance Advisors
Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/398
My guest for Episode #398 of the Lean Blog Interviews podcast are Brett M. Cooper and Evans Kerrigan, both co-founders of the firm Integris Performance Advisors. Brett is the President and Evans is the CEO.
They are co-authors of a book with a provocative title: Solving the People Problem: Essential Skills You Need to Lead and Succeed in Today's Workplace.
When I first heard about the book, I challenged them a bit on the title — is this really a “people problem” or a “systemic problem”? We have a really good conversation about all of that today and they ask a question that resonated with me: “The problem begins with you?” meaning that leaders have to go first…
You can learn more via the book's website or Amazon.
In the episode, we talk about the DISC-EQ model of emotional intelligence and you can take a free personal assessment via their website, use code LEANBLOG.
They also answer questions including:
Why do you say “leadership is a relationship?”
What are the “essential skills” that leaders need, at a high level?
What's “the right kind of disagreement” in a workplace?
The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.