Aug. 5, 2025
๐๏ธ ๐๐ ๐๐๐: ๐๐ก๐ฒ ๐๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐จ๐ฒ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฏ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐ฑ๐๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐๐ซโ๐ฌ #๐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ -- ๐๐จ๐ก๐ง ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐จ
What if one small change could transform your entire organization? In this episode of ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ, I sits down with one of his earliest mentors, ๐๐จ๐ก๐ง ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐จ, to unpack the overlooked power of employee development as the foundation for sustainable leadership, operational excellence, and business growth. John shares a pivotal story about how moving a machine just six inches sparked a multi-million dollar transformationโand how listening to the people on the floor, not just the C-...
What if one small change could transform your entire organization?
In this episode of ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ, I sits down with one of his earliest mentors, ๐๐จ๐ก๐ง ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐จ, to unpack the overlooked power of employee development as the foundation for sustainable leadership, operational excellence, and business growth.
John shares a pivotal story about how moving a machine just six inches sparked a multi-million dollar transformationโand how listening to the people on the floor, not just the C-suite, is where true value creation begins.
Whether you're a CEO, team leader, or coach, this conversation will challenge how you think about improvementโand inspire you to lead differently.
๐ก ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฌ๐จ๐๐, ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎโ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐ง: https://youtu.be/SOCjB56e1oA
The difference between creating and extracting value
Why Rizzoโs companies never laid off employees due to improvement
How standard work empowers innovation
What causes most continuous improvement initiatives to fail
How to lead with humility, presence, and purpose
Why employee development should be every leaderโs top priority
๐ Pre-order John's upcoming book: Creating Value (Wiley Publishing)
๐ฉ Interested in a FREE 90-minute team workshop with bulk orders? Message John Rizzo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rizzolean/
๐ Ready to Lead with Purpose?
๐ฏ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ ๐๐๐ย 1:1 Leadership Strategy Call with Coach John Gallagher:
โ https://coachjohngallagher.com/freecall
๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐๐๐ก ๐๐จ๐ก๐ง:
Website โ https://coachjohngallagher.com
YouTube โ https://youtu.be/SOCjB56e1oA
Resources โ https://linktr.ee/coachjohngallagher
๐ Donโt forget to follow, rate, and review The Uncommon Leader Podcast to help us reach more purpose-driven leaders like you.
#EmployeeDevelopment #LeadershipPodcast #CoachJohnGallagher #ExecutiveLeadership #ContinuousImprovement #PeopleFirstLeadership #CreatingValue #LeadershipDevelopment #LeanLeadership #TheUncommonLeaderPodcast #BusinessLeadership #OperationalExcellence #LeadershipTraining #OrganizationalGrowth #HighPerformanceLeadership
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00:00 - Six Inches That Created Millions
05:41 - Creating vs Extracting Value
11:48 - Common Continuous Improvement Failures
14:40 - The Power of Standard Work
23:18 - Leadership Through Presence
29:38 - People Development as Priority
33:41 - Continuous Improvement Works Everywhere
35:34 - Call to Action: Go to the Workplace
WEBVTT
00:00:00.221 --> 00:00:02.185
I want them to come away with.
00:00:02.185 --> 00:00:14.073
Leadership in continuous improvement is about developing people and it's about being present, observing the work and listening to the people who do the work.
00:00:14.073 --> 00:00:21.634
And go to your workplace, whether you're running a museum or running a retail company.
00:00:21.634 --> 00:00:33.652
Get to the workplace, start learning, start seeing how people are struggling, how the customer is suffering, and that's where I think you need to start.
00:00:41.261 --> 00:00:42.804
Hey, uncommon Leaders, welcome back.
00:00:42.804 --> 00:00:44.990
This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast.
00:00:44.990 --> 00:00:47.003
I'm your host, john Gallagher Today.
00:00:47.003 --> 00:00:50.491
We're bringing in a profound industry voice to talk with us today.
00:00:50.491 --> 00:00:51.804
His name is John Rizzo.
00:00:51.804 --> 00:00:57.207
He's the president of Basin Holdings and the managing partner at Moffitt XL as well.
00:00:57.207 --> 00:01:01.581
He's a strategic leader with some deep expertise across several different industries.
00:01:01.600 --> 00:01:16.664
We're going to talk about this manufacturing, healthcare and energy and I know we're going to get a chance to talk about those 30 years of experience and know that, going back about 30 years, john was very instrumental in me getting started on my continuous improvement journey as well.
00:01:16.664 --> 00:01:17.486
We're looking forward to that.
00:01:17.486 --> 00:01:36.176
He's the author of the soon to be released book Creating Value, where he shares his experiences from over 30 years of facilitating a thousand workshops, more than 40 organizations, and, ultimately, where he shares his experiences from over 30 years of facilitating 1,000 workshops, more than 40 organizations, and, ultimately, where he asserts that real wisdom doesn't happen in the C-suite alone, but also happens right out on the factory floor.
00:01:36.176 --> 00:01:37.540
I can't wait to hear more about that.
00:01:37.540 --> 00:01:45.680
And ultimately, he has stories to share that are very simple, like moving a big factory machine just six inches.
00:01:45.680 --> 00:01:53.590
That ultimately resulted in billion dollars in value, and we'll talk about that here in a little bit and what that really means, but I think he's going to challenge some of our assumptions.
00:01:53.631 --> 00:02:01.453
This conversation today about creating value versus extracting value in organizations and how continuous improvement can be very impactful.
00:02:01.453 --> 00:02:06.108
John, that was a lot of wind, but I want to welcome you to the Uncommon Leader podcast.
00:02:06.108 --> 00:02:06.789
How are you doing today?
00:02:07.551 --> 00:02:08.151
I am doing well.
00:02:08.151 --> 00:02:09.454
Thank you for having me.
00:02:09.900 --> 00:02:19.580
I'm excited about our conversation today and look, I want to dive right in because I was intrigued by the story in your book right off the bat and I know we are connected a little bit in the same company.
00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:34.697
You opened up with a powerful story about moving a machine million-dollar machine just six inches and how, by doing that, something that small made a huge impact in the business from a value standpoint and created millions of dollars in savings.
00:02:34.780 --> 00:02:51.447
Tell me a little bit about that story and how the six inches can turn into millions of dollars of value and this is really a defining moment in my career in terms of my leadership development, and it goes back to Krause-Eins, a manufacturer of electrical construction materials.
00:02:51.447 --> 00:03:04.296
We had a million square feet and functional departments, which means we had specialized equipment organized by the type of equipment and assembly in a different area.
00:03:04.296 --> 00:03:14.487
Everything all spread out and I had learned about continuous improvement from one of our customers and I wanted to bring this to Krauss-Heinz.
00:03:14.487 --> 00:03:38.050
And so it was our very first workshop and what we were going to do was try to create flow, move some of this equipment, put it all into one area we call that a cell to be able to keep the work moving, to get it to the customer faster, to be able to discover quality issues sooner a number of other reasons.
00:03:38.050 --> 00:03:43.705
So we spent the first couple of days figuring out what we were going to move.
00:03:43.705 --> 00:03:49.990
The second day we were going to move this equipment into this cell and we didn't have the equipment to do it.
00:03:49.990 --> 00:03:56.710
So we had to bring in a company called a rigger to move this equipment and it was very expensive and they moved all this equipment overnight.
00:03:57.461 --> 00:04:06.408
And the next morning we came in and the operator said if we had just moved that piece of equipment six inches.
00:04:06.408 --> 00:04:09.622
He wouldn't have to reach and turn as far.
00:04:09.622 --> 00:04:14.792
And I'm thinking, wow, we just spent all this money last night.
00:04:14.792 --> 00:04:19.625
Oh well, you know, I can't afford to move this equipment again.
00:04:20.608 --> 00:04:23.574
And our coach at the time, bill Moffitt.
00:04:23.574 --> 00:04:33.519
And our coach at the time, bill Moffitt, said move the piece of equipment six inches.
00:04:33.519 --> 00:04:34.882
And I said, well, all right, I'll listen to my coach.
00:04:34.882 --> 00:04:35.553
And we moved it six inches.
00:04:35.553 --> 00:04:40.372
The next day the operator said wow, I can't believe it.
00:04:40.372 --> 00:04:46.012
You actually listened to me and did something.
00:04:46.012 --> 00:04:52.490
And it turned out that that operator was a union steward and was very influential.
00:04:52.490 --> 00:05:08.627
And he said to the other people in the union hey, let's give these guys a chance with this continuous improvement process, because you know, they listened and they actually made my job better and they made this production process better.
00:05:08.627 --> 00:05:27.233
And that really started the continuous improvement journey at Krause Heinz and at their parent company and was one of two defining experiences for me in developing my own leadership style and skills.
00:05:28.620 --> 00:05:34.163
John, I love that story and especially the story again having a connection there as I worked for Krause Heinz as well.
00:05:34.745 --> 00:05:58.766
First of all, the fact that that was 30 years ago was just unbelievable in terms of that story I had hair you guys started on that and when you had hair right, exactly as we go through this but ultimately, how the respect for people component of what we did was so important and listening to others and the profound impact that that had and put you all on a journey to make significant change and improvement inside that organization.
00:05:58.766 --> 00:06:01.723
We'll talk about some of those results here in just a little bit.
00:06:01.723 --> 00:06:07.665
But the name of your book is Creating Value and that was really the essence of what you were doing in that conversation.
00:06:07.665 --> 00:06:12.000
Who did you write this book for and why did you write it now?
00:06:14.045 --> 00:06:24.884
So I wrote the book to share what I had learned over 30 years with people who maybe are not involved with continuous improvement.
00:06:24.884 --> 00:06:44.319
So for people that this is something new, where they maybe heard about it, wanted to learn about it, and my hope was that, rather than talking about what it is, I'd be able to share examples that would help people really understand what this process is about.
00:06:44.319 --> 00:06:52.331
So it was for the non-continuous improvement practitioners to really learn from the stories in the book.
00:06:54.021 --> 00:06:56.651
Now you talk about that in terms of creating value.
00:06:56.651 --> 00:07:09.029
The title of the book also is very important, because early on in the book you talk about the difference between creating value and maybe a more traditional approach inside of continuous improvement, extracting value.
00:07:09.029 --> 00:07:13.165
Tell me the difference in those two and how that philosophy is different in your mind.
00:07:14.427 --> 00:07:38.550
So you know, first I'd like to define value, because it's a notion that means a lot of different things to different people, and I actually have a you know kind of a page of the book here and you know I define value as what's important to the recipient, and it starts with what's you know, in the title of the book.
00:07:38.550 --> 00:07:43.500
It's what's important to employees, then customers and stakeholders.
00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:51.709
I list the employees first because maybe we'll get into it, but I think it's an important part of you know the premise.
00:07:51.709 --> 00:08:13.783
But what's important to customers, what I've learned over the years is and you know it's different to different customers or different employees but for employees, clear expectations and responsibilities or standard work, training and resources necessary to be successful, safe and decent work environment and fair compensation.
00:08:13.783 --> 00:08:19.673
So you know that's typically what's important to employees.
00:08:19.673 --> 00:08:27.353
And so when we talk about creating value in the book, it's how can we do those things for the employees?
00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:33.773
And again, I list the employees first because my personal philosophy that's where this starts, with the employees.
00:08:33.773 --> 00:08:47.514
Next, it's creating value for the customer what I've learned over my career, defined in terms of quality, on-time delivery of a product or service and reasonable cost.
00:08:47.514 --> 00:08:52.995
And then, finally, it's what's important to the stakeholder.
00:08:52.995 --> 00:09:01.647
Those are the owners of the business, and that's to provide exceptional products or services and financially effective effective.
00:09:01.647 --> 00:09:09.956
So, kind of going back to your question about the ways to of improvement.
00:09:09.956 --> 00:09:18.604
And you know, traditionally you may have private equity companies that are focused on, you know, financial engineering.
00:09:18.604 --> 00:09:23.591
They're leveraging debt, they're selling assets, they're doing multiple arbitrage.
00:09:23.591 --> 00:09:27.702
This is different, this is not.
00:09:27.702 --> 00:09:43.308
You know, I've done those things so I'm guilty, but you know, the book is about not creating value that way but creating value through, you know, making improvements in those areas that I just mentioned.
00:09:44.230 --> 00:09:44.751
I used to love that.
00:09:44.751 --> 00:09:55.240
We talked about that at the end of every one of those improvement workshops where we'd look at all three corners, if you will, of that three-legged stool the employee, the customer and the shareholder.
00:09:55.240 --> 00:09:59.552
I love how you put the employee first in terms of that conversation.
00:09:59.552 --> 00:10:09.451
I know one of the other unique commitments you had was that you wouldn't have layoffs as a result of any continuous improvement workshops or continuous improvement activities.
00:10:09.451 --> 00:10:11.067
Tell me a little bit more about that as well.
00:10:11.067 --> 00:10:14.691
Obviously, a focus on the employee and creating value for them.
00:10:15.860 --> 00:10:25.532
So I mean, why would somebody participate in improving their job or improving the workplace if they're going to lose their job or their co-workers are going to lose their job?
00:10:25.532 --> 00:10:33.101
So we've had a longstanding you know policy and you know all the companies I've worked with.
00:10:33.101 --> 00:10:37.171
We've never laid anybody off as a result of improvement.
00:10:37.171 --> 00:10:38.919
It just stops the whole process.
00:10:38.919 --> 00:10:48.748
Now we can capture that productivity that's, you know, that's identified through, you know, deploying those people.
00:10:48.748 --> 00:10:54.472
When you know somebody retires, maybe they can fill a retirement.
00:10:54.472 --> 00:11:01.038
Or if the company's growing, then you know, rather than going outside, we can fill it from within.
00:11:01.038 --> 00:11:03.227
So it's a really important part of the process.
00:11:04.501 --> 00:11:06.984
Love that continuous improvement as a growth strategy as well.
00:11:06.984 --> 00:11:12.522
Again, benefit for the employees in terms of long-term employment and not having layoffs.
00:11:12.522 --> 00:11:17.864
Benefit for the shareholder in terms of being able to grow the company with the resources that you have in place there.
00:11:17.864 --> 00:11:21.051
So, john, you've experienced this over 30 years.
00:11:21.051 --> 00:11:32.196
You've either been on the operations side of continuous improvement or you've been on the teaching side or consulting side of helping other organizations make improvements.
00:11:32.196 --> 00:11:48.158
In the stories that you've seen with over the 40 organizations that you've worked with, what are some of the ways that organizations fail in trying to implement a continuous improvement philosophy, in trying to implement a continuous improvement philosophy.
00:11:48.458 --> 00:11:59.174
So the first thing that comes to mind is they treat this as a toolbox and apply tools as opposed to a system.
00:11:59.174 --> 00:12:10.700
So really, you know, and in my years when I was consulting, you know, we'd have companies come to us and go you know we're doing these workshops or lean events, but we're really not getting the results.
00:12:10.700 --> 00:12:15.773
And I'd say, well, you know, let's see your, you know value stream analysis and your improvement plan.
00:12:15.773 --> 00:12:17.606
Let's see your strategy deployment.
00:12:17.606 --> 00:12:22.711
Let's see, you know the area profiles or the scope documents for your last workshops.
00:12:22.711 --> 00:12:25.688
Let's see the report out.
00:12:25.688 --> 00:12:29.451
You know, let's see the KPIs that are measuring those results.
00:12:29.451 --> 00:12:35.513
And I'll get well, we're just doing lean or we're just doing Kaizen events.
00:12:35.513 --> 00:12:39.591
So it's treating it as a toolbox, not as a system.
00:12:40.500 --> 00:12:46.043
And the second failure point is not leading from the top.
00:12:46.043 --> 00:12:51.427
Sometimes organizations will have somebody who had some experience with this at another company.
00:12:51.427 --> 00:12:54.428
They'll go to a new company and they'll think I'm going to start doing it.
00:12:54.428 --> 00:13:03.894
If their boss, their ownership, their board doesn't believe in it, it's very difficult to kind of push a string.
00:13:03.894 --> 00:13:06.376
So those are the kind of the two failure areas.
00:13:06.836 --> 00:13:07.878
Yeah, no doubt that one.
00:13:07.878 --> 00:13:14.600
If you don't have commitment from the leadership of the organization early on, it certainly will dilute the effectiveness of the results.
00:13:14.600 --> 00:13:19.908
You might be able to try a couple of things with tools, but you're not going to change the culture inside the organization.
00:13:19.908 --> 00:13:21.000
Now and again.
00:13:21.000 --> 00:13:34.543
One of the core principles in your book from a leadership on how they Now and again one of the core principles in your book from a leadership on how they in essence overcome those failures is to go see Tell me a little bit about that philosophy of go and see.
00:13:34.563 --> 00:14:05.735
So you know, going back to the crowd, science example that was the first time that I understood the impact of being present, observing the work being done and listening to the, to the people who do the work, and that's really become the kind of the center of my leadership leadership style and has really been the key driver that I've seen to really transforming a business.
00:14:08.162 --> 00:14:13.504
John, you've had some great mentors in this space as well, and you talked about how you did things traditionally.
00:14:13.504 --> 00:14:20.609
I mean, you didn't start out coming out of college as a continuous improvement guru, but you certainly had to learn.
00:14:20.609 --> 00:14:21.652
But we've had some great.
00:14:21.652 --> 00:14:26.297
You and I have had some great similar mentors along the way Bill Moffitt, bob Penland.
00:14:26.297 --> 00:14:41.004
You've also worked with some phenomenal CEOs Art Byrne and you've been even in Japan and trained by the Japanese who really will say were the pioneers of the Toyota production system and working with NACAO as well.
00:14:41.004 --> 00:14:51.686
What was it about those mentors and how you went into that and were able to change your leadership from maybe a more traditional approach to this continuous improvement?
00:14:51.686 --> 00:14:52.041
How did?
00:14:52.041 --> 00:14:55.350
Was there a moment for you that helped transform your leadership style?
00:14:57.480 --> 00:15:19.197
Well, you know, the moment was that was that Krauss-Mainz example but the over time, what I learned from those mentors was, you know, the second concept, which is key that I feel to my success as a leader, and that's the importance of people development.
00:15:19.197 --> 00:15:30.226
So, you know, when I started, I thought these workshops were all about let's, you know, get the work moving faster, let's discover quality sooner.
00:15:30.226 --> 00:15:50.462
But what I came to realize from those mentors is that, you know, the purpose of this workshop was not just to make some change but was to develop the people into being problem solvers, and that kind of, like I said, is a second element of kind of my leadership style.
00:15:50.462 --> 00:16:02.451
And, you know, this whole continuous improvement is really it's about people development and I can't underestimate the importance of that.
00:16:02.451 --> 00:16:10.236
Or, you know, having learned that from my various mentors, I love that on that people development side.
00:16:10.256 --> 00:16:19.510
And you're right, the workshop, the improvement activity, that's the engine of change, where you have folks together in a group and make change happen pretty rapidly.
00:16:19.510 --> 00:16:26.269
But ultimately it's the teaching of a methodology in terms of problem solving that they can take back to their workplace.
00:16:26.269 --> 00:16:27.251
That's powerful as well.
00:16:27.251 --> 00:16:29.302
That people development is very important.
00:16:29.302 --> 00:16:33.772
John, how did you develop yourself inside of this space as well?
00:16:33.772 --> 00:16:42.085
So one of the ways is on these workshops, but what else did you do as your personal development, as a leader inside of an organization, to continuously get better?
00:16:44.110 --> 00:16:45.014
Yeah, so you know.
00:16:45.014 --> 00:16:52.113
So early on I had the opportunity to participate in workshops at other companies such as Wiremold.
00:16:52.113 --> 00:16:57.873
You know I learned about continuous improvement from that company.
00:16:57.873 --> 00:17:10.711
They were a customer of Krauseheim's and when I did a stint in sales, that's how I met Art Byrne and met Nakao and learned about this process.
00:17:10.711 --> 00:17:21.308
And Art was a very good mentor to me and allowed me to participate in what they call President's Kaizans and do workshops at Wiremold.
00:17:21.308 --> 00:17:34.340
And I also had the opportunity to participate in workshops through my mentors at various other companies and that was a really powerful way for me to learn about this process.
00:17:34.340 --> 00:18:10.817
So it was really learned by doing and I have done, you know, study trips to companies around the world, which also helped, but it was really the kind of the participation in the workshops across broad industries that really helped me develop, who have been helping me refine my own personal brand, are offering a free consultation call with one of their expert brand strategists.
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00:18:27.701 --> 00:18:31.164
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00:18:31.164 --> 00:18:32.886
Now let's get back to the episode.
00:18:32.886 --> 00:18:37.391
You know, think about that, the term that comes to my mind as we continue to move forward.
00:18:37.391 --> 00:18:38.972
It might be leader standard work.
00:18:39.011 --> 00:18:41.974
What are those things that leaders need to do to continuously grow?
00:18:41.974 --> 00:18:54.055
It's participating in those events, it's learning from others, going on that journey as well, and it's going on those gimbal walks, if you will, and learning from others.
00:18:54.055 --> 00:19:01.122
The other piece of standard work is, once we do these activities, we're really developing what we believe is the best known way to do a process or to work on a process.
00:19:01.122 --> 00:19:13.472
Many times the employee, while we put that first employees they might be a little bit like cowboys and they kind of like to do things their own way, if you will, and to put it back in the way that they have it.
00:19:13.472 --> 00:19:28.163
My guess is you've experienced this at some point along your journey, where you need to balance the need for standardization with the fostering of a continuous improvement environment where you have the employees engaged.
00:19:28.163 --> 00:19:30.470
How did you deal with that when that popped up?
00:19:30.470 --> 00:19:32.506
Hey, I want to do it my way instead of the standard work way.
00:19:33.388 --> 00:19:34.942
Yes, so you know.
00:19:34.942 --> 00:19:37.688
First, standard work.
00:19:37.688 --> 00:19:41.016
Maybe people may be unfamiliar with that.
00:19:41.016 --> 00:19:42.117
It's a little different.
00:19:42.117 --> 00:19:43.039
It's a work instruction.
00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:45.189
It's a little different than a policy or procedure.
00:19:45.189 --> 00:19:47.046
It's got some key elements to it.
00:19:47.046 --> 00:19:51.288
It's time-based, it's actionable by the people who do the work.
00:19:51.288 --> 00:19:53.488
It reflects quality and safety.
00:19:53.488 --> 00:20:00.311
It's at point of use and it's almost impossible to improve if you don't have a standard to improve off of.
00:20:00.311 --> 00:20:01.806
So we create standard work.
00:20:01.806 --> 00:20:03.624
It's the best way.
00:20:03.624 --> 00:20:14.374
We know how to do it and then everybody has to do it that way because we want consistent quality experience, our customer experience, safety.
00:20:14.374 --> 00:20:17.666
But wait a minute, I got a better way.
00:20:17.666 --> 00:20:20.088
Well, great.
00:20:20.088 --> 00:20:26.673
We need to be able to listen to people and incorporate their ideas into the process.
00:20:27.460 --> 00:20:30.961
And you know, empowerment is in the title of the book.
00:20:30.961 --> 00:20:38.105
Empowerment is people having the authority to make the change to that standard work right.
00:20:38.105 --> 00:20:40.186
It's not trying to create their job every day.
00:20:40.186 --> 00:20:41.127
That's chaos.
00:20:41.127 --> 00:20:43.989
It's being able to make suggestions, to make improvements.
00:20:44.769 --> 00:20:59.657
You know, one company just popped into my mind where we created standard work for handling an insurance claim and there were hundreds of people that now had to do that insurance claim that way every time.
00:20:59.657 --> 00:21:26.839
Again, consistent quality, customer experience and within a very short period of time we made 50 improvements to that standard work because people felt empowered not to try to figure out their job, to do it their way, but they knew the standard to work off of and they were able to make suggestions to make improvements.
00:21:26.839 --> 00:21:30.671
Another company makes makes airbags.
00:21:30.671 --> 00:21:36.165
Every employee makes a suggestion every week to change standard work.
00:21:36.165 --> 00:21:50.630
Multiply that by over a thousand employees, everybody making a change to standard work every week, and you get double-digit productivity improvement every year, forever.
00:21:50.630 --> 00:21:52.728
And nobody knows how they did it.
00:21:52.728 --> 00:21:54.547
There's no secret or magic.
00:21:54.547 --> 00:22:13.724
It's all these small changes adding up and again, people being empowered to not figure out their job but to make changes and to have the skill, to have the authority and to have the skills to make changes to these standards.
00:22:15.569 --> 00:22:15.991
Love that.
00:22:15.991 --> 00:22:24.888
And again talking to the next question of sharing some stories, some success stories from organizations who have had success, I love to hear those stories as well.
00:22:24.888 --> 00:22:31.509
What about a leadership story of success where you helped to transform a leader, and what I mean by that is early on in the journey.
00:22:31.509 --> 00:22:41.249
I think I make up and I've seen this in some of my teaching that the leaders want to delegate the improvement and let somebody else do it, but we know that they have to be involved.
00:22:41.249 --> 00:22:48.000
Do you have a favorite leadership story where you've seen a leader transform, become a better leader as a result of this work as well?
00:22:48.961 --> 00:22:52.047
and become a better leader as a result of this work as well.
00:22:52.047 --> 00:22:54.952
So, my favorite area I have a lot of stories on this.
00:22:54.952 --> 00:23:12.025
First one that came to mind was a company that manufactures medical implants, and we started off by doing what we call a vacuum analysis looking at the whole business.
00:23:12.025 --> 00:23:17.510
You know, from the beginning to the end, everything they do, trying to come up with where the biggest opportunities for the improvement.
00:23:17.510 --> 00:23:44.739
So, to start, we're going to go walk the flow of manufacturing this part and the executives were, you know, on this team, were, you know, on this team, and we we started walking and you know we, we got through the first building and manufacturing was in several buildings and it started raining really hard and one of the executives said, well, uh, we, we can go back to the conference room.
00:23:44.759 --> 00:23:45.923
We don't have to go to the other building.
00:23:45.923 --> 00:23:47.046
We know what goes on there.
00:23:47.046 --> 00:23:47.989
We'll tell you.
00:23:47.989 --> 00:23:49.541
You know, we can tell you what's going on.
00:23:49.541 --> 00:23:52.308
I said, no, the parts are getting wet, we're going to get wet.
00:23:52.308 --> 00:24:00.368
And we followed that part and it was, um, it traveled over a mile.
00:24:00.368 --> 00:24:03.794
That one simple part.
00:24:03.794 --> 00:24:56.615
And when we got back to the conference room, you know the, the, the head executive, you know he had, I mean, literally something just went, went, click, and for him about being present, being out there, being present in the workplace, and the importance of that, and you know the realization that you know, wow this is, if I hadn't been present, I wouldn't have known how bad this really was and we wouldn't be as aggressive as we're going to be with making some improvements and doing a better job for those poor employees who had to carry those products through the rain and all that distance and, of course, for the for the customers.
00:24:56.654 --> 00:25:10.814
So, uh, one of my, one of my, one of my favorite stories I those stories, especially those executives that realize and oftentimes it's the employees Again, back to the employees on the shop floor who have that impact.
00:25:10.814 --> 00:25:23.051
One of my favorite stories working with a client where the CEO wore his blue jeans in and his tennis shoes to help clean equipment on the last day as it was getting ready because we were talking about pristine equipment.
00:25:23.051 --> 00:25:38.115
But them taking a videotape of him down on the floor scrubbing the floors and scrubbing and painting the equipment was a huge impact on the people in terms of modeling the behavior that he was wanting inside of his organization.
00:25:38.115 --> 00:25:41.855
That was on the very first improvement workshop that we had done there.
00:25:55.173 --> 00:25:57.935
So very, very important in that journey.
00:25:57.935 --> 00:26:30.647
It requires humility to recognize that you don't know everything and you know it's difficult for some leaders to a manufacturing company and just to be transparent, that you know they don't know everything and can be humble, but it's very difficult for some leaders to do that.
00:26:31.892 --> 00:26:36.807
Love, that Humility being one of those important characteristics of a leader who's going to be successful.
00:26:36.807 --> 00:26:44.356
What are a couple other characteristics that are critical to the success of the executives, of the uncommon leaders who succeed in this space?
00:26:46.444 --> 00:26:53.118
So you know, my list is pretty focused.
00:26:53.118 --> 00:27:02.652
It's being present, observing the work being done, listening to the people do the work and people development.
00:27:02.652 --> 00:27:06.509
I mean that's really how I define leadership.
00:27:06.509 --> 00:27:15.156
Of course, if you've got some CEO, you know of a multi-billion dollar company, their job is to create the vision and share the vision.
00:27:15.156 --> 00:27:22.657
But you know most leaders we're talking about this frontline supervisor who just got promoted to their first leadership job.
00:27:22.657 --> 00:27:26.805
We're talking about this frontline supervisor who just got promoted to their first leadership job or we're talking about, you know, their boss or their boss, these managers.
00:27:26.805 --> 00:27:45.846
It's, you know, sharing the vision maybe is not as important, but being present, observing the work being done, listening to people doing the work and focusing on people development to me are really the.
00:27:45.846 --> 00:27:49.676
It really defines the leadership, the leadership position.
00:27:49.865 --> 00:28:21.853
I mean it's how I define my leadership and I think it's it's so important to those jobs and so many of those, you know, lower level leaders are, you know, promoted into their job because they're the best firefighters and they stay in that firefighting mode and they don't realize that we've got to use continuous improvement to take waste out of their job so they can spend, you know, the majority of their time developing the people around them.
00:28:21.853 --> 00:28:26.722
So those are the two and you may remember in the book.
00:28:26.722 --> 00:28:42.094
Whenever I hire a new leader or promote a new leader, I give them a sign and in huge letters on the sign in the upper left-hand corner, it says people development.
00:28:42.094 --> 00:28:53.403
And then in medium letters in the middle it's make improvements.
00:28:53.403 --> 00:28:57.988
And then in really small letters in the bottom of the sign is everything else.
00:28:57.988 --> 00:29:02.922
It's PowerPoints and meetings and people think they're important if they're in back-to-back meetings all the time.
00:29:02.922 --> 00:29:08.156
No, I mean it's people development, make improvements, and then everything else.
00:29:09.929 --> 00:29:12.193
And that's my view of leadership, good or bad.
00:29:12.294 --> 00:29:13.978
That's how I look at the world.
00:29:14.525 --> 00:29:16.632
When you can, break it down to something that simple as well.
00:29:16.632 --> 00:29:19.348
It really can be that simple.
00:29:19.348 --> 00:29:27.128
We as leaders have a tendency maybe it is sometimes a lack of humility of over-complicating it.
00:29:27.128 --> 00:29:33.008
I love that in terms of you know, go and see, listen to the people, right, people development.
00:29:33.008 --> 00:29:37.185
I mean those are very simple criteria that we often make it very difficult.
00:29:37.185 --> 00:29:42.516
John, when you also talk about, we have kind of we it's natural tendency.
00:29:42.516 --> 00:29:44.519
We have manufacturing stories that are really powerful here.
00:29:44.519 --> 00:29:47.912
But in the book you say the system works everywhere.
00:29:47.912 --> 00:29:49.355
What do you mean by that?
00:29:49.355 --> 00:29:50.258
It works everywhere.
00:29:54.108 --> 00:29:57.511
How does it work everywhere?
00:29:57.511 --> 00:30:17.948
Business whether it's a, you know, government or retail or a non-for-profit organization or government right, everybody does work right, and anytime you do work, it might not be optimized, right, we call that.
00:30:17.948 --> 00:30:20.212
You know there might be waste in the process.
00:30:20.212 --> 00:30:41.579
So you know there's waste everywhere and you know we need to get that waste out of it and put standards in place that you know can get us to scalable, repeatable processes, and so I mean it's also pretty simple.
00:30:41.579 --> 00:30:45.132
I mean it doesn't matter what your job is, there's probably some waste in it.
00:30:45.132 --> 00:30:49.852
We can probably get some of the waste out and standardize it.
00:30:49.852 --> 00:30:52.557
So there's a basis to improve on in the future.
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