E107: Lean Methods for Sustainable Businesses – ISBF Webinar Series

In this podcast, I share a presentation that was Part 1 of a 2-part sustainability webinar series sponsored by Iowa Sustainable Business Forum and Iowa Lean Consortium (part of CIRAS). It was geared towards introducing those in sustainability roles to Lean methods, which have become some of the most popular improvement methods used in high-performing

E101: Applying Lean to Healthcare and Nonprofit Boards with Katie Anderson

In this interview, I talk with Katie Anderson, a leadership coach who has extensive lean experience in healthcare, and author of the award-winning Lean management book, “Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn.” She lived in Japan for many years, where she learned directly from John Shook‘s former manager, Isao Yoshino, and the book is a

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

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

E085: Applying Lean and Agile for People and the Planet with Brad Jeavons

In this podcast, I talk with Brad Jeavons, lean and Agile consultant with SA Partners. He is the host of the Enterprise Enterprise podcast. An episode we did together for his podcast will be released soon. Brad and I got along great, as we have similar passions around sustainability, the environment and social issues. During

E070: Interview with Tim Turner with CQPO

In this podcast, I interview Tim Turner, who used to work at Toyota in Kentucky (TMMK) for 22 years, and has done a lot of work with nonprofits and not-for-profit organizations. He was also a co-author on Volume 2 of the Lean Six Sigma for Good book series (still in process, but available for download),

E066: IISE Podcast Interview with Liz McCartney about Disaster Recovery

In this podcast, I repost an interview I had with Liz McCartney, Executive Director of St Bernard Project (SBP), a nonprofit organization she founded with her husband Zack Rosenberg to rebuild homes and help victims recover from natural disasters. They moved from DC to New Orleans to help out after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005,

E065: Book Review – Why Governments Don’t Think They Make Widgets

In this podcast, I read a book review I wrote recently about the book “We Don’t Make Widgets” written by Ken Miller. His book discusses the challenges and myths of process improvement in Government. Links Ken Miller Bio Examples of Lean Six Sigma in Government Books We Don’t Make Widgets: Overcoming the Myths That Keep

EC 045: Lean Startups for Social Change with Michel Gelobter

In this podcast, I share a webinar that I setup with Michel Gelobter, author of “Lean Startups for Social Change“ The webinar is titled “Experimenting Our Way to Meaningful Change” He discusses the Lean Startup approach, and how it can be used to quickly and efficiently improve social, environmental and community issues (homelessness, climate change,

EC 039: Applying Lean Six Sigma to a Nonprofit Fundraiser Conference

In this podcast, I read my chapter contribution to my latest book called “Lean Six Sigma for Good: Lessons from the Gemba (Volume 1)” My chapter is called “Applying Lean Six Sigma to a Nonprofit Fundraiser Conference.” You can also download this chapter as a PDF file There are 4 other chapters in the book,