E097: Using Six Sigma to Address Racial Equity with Joy Mason

In this podcast, I talk to my friend, Joy Mason, CEO and founder of Optimist Business Solutions, and the founder of The Six Sigma Racial Equity Institute™ (SSREI), which is an innovative leadership program designed to upskill Black Women to be complex problem solvers. We discuss her background in continuous improvement, why she started Optimist

E096: Interviews from IISE Annual Volunteer Service Project at Southcenter Store near Seattle

In this podcast, I extract the audio from a published video by IISE that recapped our last volunteer service project in Seattle in May 2022. We have been conducting these volunteer events prior to each annual conference since 2012, and this was the first one we’ve had since the pandemic. You can read about prior

E092: Process Improvement in Nonprofit Daycare with Elisabeth Swan

In today’s episode, I interviewed Elisabeth Swan, who has over 30 years of process improvement experience with a great background working for consulting firms like Rath & Strong and Pivotal Resources. She has lots of experience working with nonprofits, government, hospitality, healthcare, entertainment (including work on “Saved by the Bell”), and the for-profit sector. She

E091: Process Improvement in Not-for-Profit Sectors with Tracy O’Rourke

In today’s episode, I interviewed Tracy O’Rourke, who has over 20 years of process improvement experience, working with nonprofits, government, education, military and the for-profit sector. She teaches Lean and Six Sigma at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD), is the co-host of the podcast and video series, Just-in-Time Cafe (with Elisabeth Swan), and is

E089: 2021 Lean Six Sigma for Good – Year in Review

Today I recapped the last year, and give some insights into my plans for 2022. It’s a shorter episode than usual, so hopefully you have time to listen to it during the holidays. I recap the past podcast episodes that I released, along with ones I was interviewed on. I also discuss the LeanSixSigmaForGood.com and

E088: Using Toyota Kata to Help Local Food Banks with Hugh Alley

Our guest is Hugh Alley, an experienced lean practitioner and industrial engineer, who has experience with the Toyota Kata method of improvement. He has recently applied this approach to a nonprofit food bank in Vancouver, British Columbia in Canada called Loaves and Fishes. This approach was based on the KataLab approach developed for the food

E087: Applying Lean to Nonprofits and Healthcare with Matt Horvat

My good friend Matt Horvat is the founder of Lean Portland, and has extensive experience in process improvement in various industries like Construction, Healthcare, Insurance and Consulting. He discusses why he set up Lean Portland, and shares his first pro bono volunteer projects with a nonprofit in Portland. We discuss: his background in Industrial Engineering

E086: Helping Nonprofits with Process Improvement through Consulting and Volunteering with Lauren Neder

In this podcast, I talk with Lauren Neder, Industrial Engineer and lean consultant working with nonprofit organizations as a consultant and volunteer. She shares her experience working with a nonprofit in Haiti (in person and virtually), and how she is learning how to approach nonprofit organizations with process improvement. We discuss: how she transitioned from

E083: Kata for Good and #RootCauseRacism with Deondra Wardelle

In this podcast, I interview Deondra Wardelle, whom I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know over the past year. She is a strategic thinker and consultant based in Indianapolis (Indiana) who focuses on coaching, empowering and developing individuals towards achieving their personal and professional goals. Her passion and life’s calling is using Continuous Improvement