Lean Whiskey Mark Graban Podcasts

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In Episode 45, Jamie Flinchbaugh and Mark Graban join the Just-in-Time Cafe team of Elisabeth Swan and Tracy O’Rourke as a special nod to their 100th Episode, while also having a chance to toast Mark’s accomplishment of 250 episodes of My Favorite Mistake podcast and 500 episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast. This episode blended the two formats a bit, but you can be sure whiskey was one of those elements that we retained. 
 
We each selected a cocktail to make. Jamie made his original recipe, the Black Forest Kiss. Since you can’t Google it, the recipe is 2 oz bourbon, ½ oz sweet vermouth, 1 oz Cherry Herring, 5 dashes chocolate bitters, and garnished with cherries. Mark made a Perfect Manhattan with walnut bitters. Elisabeth made Remember the Maine. Tracy was stuck with wine, but you’ll have to listen for the story as to why that was. We also checked in about the various books we’ve written, including Mark’s The Mistakes That Make Us, Jamie’s People Solve Problems, Elisabeth’s Picture Yourself a Leader, and the forthcoming 2nd edition from Tracy and Elisabeth of the Problem Solver’s Toolkit. 
 
We shared our Hot Apps personal choices, which included Trello, Kainexus, Asana, and the combination of Evernote and Scannable. In the episode you’ll hear how we utilize these apps. We then turned our attention to podcasting, sharing our origin stories, what we love about it, and some mistakes that we’ve learned from through the process. 

Just in Time Cafe podcast
My Favorite Mistakes podcast
Lean Blog podcast
People Solve Problems podcast
Picture Yourself a Leader book
The Mistakes That Make Us book 
People Solve Problems book
Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or jflinch.com/leanwhiskey 
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Notes for everyone on what’s below. Please add links for preferred website and books for the show notes (going both directions):
Jamiehttps://www.jflinch.com/
https://www.jflinch.com/people-solve-problems/

Elisabethhttps://www.jitcafe.com/
https://elisabethswan.com/book/

Tracyhttps://www.jitcafe.com/
The new edition of the Problems Solver’s Toolkit will be released soon, but no link yet. 

Markhttp://markgraban.com/ 

https://www.mistakesbook.com/

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In Episode 44, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh get back together for this first episode of 2024. Since we’re not doing Dry January, we go right into the whiskey first by talking about old bottles, including one very old one found at auction. We then did our own comparison tasting, with Jamie trying two different age statements of Knob Creek bourbon and Mark trying two different expressions of Glen Scotia scotch from Campbeltown. 
Dry January is like a New Year’s Resolution that you don’t intend to keep past a month. We discuss New Year’s Resolutions and their reasons for failure. We relate all this to goals, hoshin kanri, SMART goals, systems, and small steps. So, if you’re still working on clarifying your goals or resolutions for the year, take a listen. 
Boeing’s recent troubles with an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX-9 door plug falling out mid-flight was also discussed, including Boeing’s resolution / commitment to add more inspectors to the process. Will more inspectors and more inspections make a difference? If not, what will make a difference? We may not know the final answer, but we break it all down for you in this discussion. 
We wrap things up with a little football talk, both the NFL and College. Cheers! 
Vintage bottle sold at auction, from York, PA
Jamie’s selection: Knob Creek
Mark’s selection: Glen Scotia
NPR on abandoned New Year’s resolutions
Jamie’s 2010 blogpost on goals
Jamie’s 2021 short video on working with goals 
Boeing’s own updates on the 737-9
On Senator Cantwell’s letter to the FAA
Yup, University of Michigan wins the National Championship
Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or jflinch.com/leanwhiskey 
Please review us and follow!
 

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In Episode 43 of the “Lean Whiskey” podcast, Jamie Flinchbaugh and Mark Graban begin by talking about each of our interviews regarding the new book by Steve Spear and Gene Kim, Wiring the Winning Organization.
Mark interviewed Steve and Gene for the Lean Blog Interviews podcast, and Jamie interviewed Steve for a forthcoming episode of the People Solve Problems podcast. We then shifted our attention to celebrating 100 years of Suntory Distilling by each pouring different expressions from the Japanese side of the company, Hibiki and Yamazaki. We also discussed the Jim Beam side, its progression and integration into the Suntory ownership. 
We eventually jumped into our primary In the News segment discussing a detailed investigative journalism report from Reuters on the objectively poor safety record at SpaceX. The data is compelling, from a fatality to a coma, and eight amputations. But the safety rate is six times the industry average, coming in at 4.8 per 100 workers. Yes, space travel and doing anything breakthrough is inherently dangerous, but there's two arguments with this. First, the injuries are things like falling out of trucks and not related to launching a rocket. Second, there are numerous examples of doing inherently dangerous work with a great safety record. Alcoa, under the leadership of Paul O'Neill, is a great example of this, where not only is the work done safely, but with increasing profits along the way. 
We explore the importance of leadership — through policy to system to culture — in the outcomes of safety. Elon Musk, as the leader of SpaceX, has signaled in many ways that safety is secondary. This includes a distaste for safety yellow on aesthetic grounds to statements that workers are responsible for protecting themselves. Both SpaceX and Tesla have a tendency to withhold reporting required data to OSHA, which might not be visible to employees, but it likely is to management. We make clear that safety practice and culture is the responsibility of management. 
We wrap up this episode sharing fun facts about our hometowns, wishing everyone a happy holidays, and a final cheers to 2023!
Links From the Show:
Mark interviewed Steve Spear and Gene Kim in episode 493 of the LeanBlog Podcast, and Jamie interviewed Steve for a forthcoming episode of People Solve Problems Podcast on their new book, Wiring the Winning Organization
Celebrating 100 years of Suntory Distilling 
Mark's blog about the culture clash when Suntory acquired Jim Beam
Jamie's selection: Hibiki Japanese Harmony
Mark's selection: Yamazaki Distiller's Reserve NAS Japan Release and the Legent Yamazaki Cask Finish Blend 
Kaizen & Culture Clash Between Suntory & Jim Beam?
Reuters' investigative report on safety at SpaceX
COSH's Dirty Dozen of companies with poor safety records 
Examples of Paul O'Neill's take on prioritizing safety and being profitable here and here
Please review us and follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform!

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In Episode 42, Jamie Flinchbaugh visits Mark Graban in northern Kentucky and they get to record an episode in person. This was the origin of the podcast series — getting together in person, enjoying whiskey, and talking about Lean stuff. 
In the last episode, we did an experiment that was inconclusive — sometimes that's how it goes. We had moved the whiskey talk to the end of the episode, but since we had no firm evidence that it was better, we moved it back to the beginning.
Since we were together, Jamie selected something from Mark's shelf, the Boone County Amburana Wood, as it isn't something you'd regularly find on the shelf. Mark had received a special package in the mail from the Jim Beam distillery — two different expressions of Little Book — and so he did a side-by-side comparison. 
They then discussed the GE Lean Mindset Event, held for employees, customers, and suppliers. The bulk of the speakers are available on a YouTube playlist.
We primarily discussed the discussion between Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, and Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of Uber. We also discussed the conversation with Patti Poppe, CEO of PG&E (the primary power utility in California if you don't recognize the name). We explored the key nuggets from those speakers. 
After the recording stopped, the conversation continued at the outstanding Prohibition Bourbon Bar in Newport, Kentucky, ranked as one of America's Best Bourbon Bars by The Bourbon Review (that's where the photo was taken… and yes, they allowed us behind the bar).
 
Links From the Show:
Jamie's selection, Amburana Wood finished Bourbon from Boone County
Little Book, the experimental expressions from Freddie Noe of Jim Beam 
The playlist for the GE Lean Mindset Event 
Mark's podcast episode recorded on-site with Jim Womack, Katie Anderson, and Jamie Parker 
California Burning, the book about PG&E mentioned by Patti
Prohibition Bar in Newport, Kentucky, featured in The Bourbon Review
Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or jflinch.com/leanwhiskey 
Please review us and follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform! 
 

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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 
Please review us and follow!

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In Episode 40, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh get back together after their in-person visit where they enjoyed the origins of this podcast: talking about lean stuff while enjoying some whiskey. We get to celebrate the launch of Mark’s new book, The Mistakes That Make Us, as well as Jamie’s new podcast titled People Solve Problems. We recap our in-person visit and some of the great whiskey we were able to try. And we taste one of the expressions we were able to try at the distillery, New Riff’s Straight Bottled-in-Bond Malted Rye. 
We then pivoted to talking about pivots, starting with the example of how Instagram originally started as Burbn check-in app to share your drinking experiences with others. It then pivoted to photo sharing, and the rest is history. We compare and contrast other pivots, including Play-Doh, the pacemaker, Slack and Twitter, 3M Post-its, and a purple dye found when trying to cure malaria. We share some lessons from each of our books about how to enable and / or embrace the pivot when the opportunity presents itself. 
We wrap up talking a bit about the book writing process, and the joys and pains that accompany it. Cheers! 
Mark’s book, The Mistakes That Make Us, is now available for purchase
Jamie launched a new podcast, People Solve Problems, interviews based on his book
Mark and Jamie’s analog in-person Lean Whiskey
We visited Revival Vintage Bottle Shop, Prohibition Bourbon Bar, and New Riff Distilling
Mark and Jamie both pouring the New Riff Kentucky Straight Bottled-in-Bond Malted Rye Whiskey
Instagram pivoted from Burbn
Instagram, or Meta, also recently launched Threads. You can find Mark here and Jamie here
Making purple dye from a failed malaria drug 
Hold on Loosely by 38 Special on Spotify 
Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or jflinch.com/leanwhiskey 
Please review us and follow!