To say that COVID changed the world would be an understatement. The pandemic completely changed the way people think, live, and work. We need to change the paradigms in the workplace as well. Recently I’ve encountered several groups experiencing struggles as a direct...

All too often leaders give people the answers, rather than challenge and empower their team members to effect change. Somehow they just can’t help themselves - despite the knowledge that a coaching-style of leadership is more people-centric and leads to more engaged...

A multimillion dollar manufacturer has focused on leadership development for several years. They have hosted training programs with engaging sessions that many people enjoy and find interesting. Despite efforts to improve leadership skills and processes, there has...

Leading vs. Coaching  I have recently been working with a number of organizations on a training format that originates from the days of providing first line supervisory training. If someone would have told me years ago that at this stage in my work I would be focused...

In my last blog, I discussed the People Value Stream Model and how it can optimize both employee engagement and financial results. Now that you know what the People Value Stream model is, it’s important to understand how this people-centric model is measured and the...

My work in Lean HR over the last few years has focused on the concept of “People Value Streams.”  The value stream model looks at an organization on two parallel paths: what the organization does, and the people within the organization.  What is the “People Value...

Over the years, most organizations I’ve encountered have a top-down approach to their employee engagement survey process, which tends to do more damage than good. The belief that employees’ workplace experience is the responsibility of leadership may be rooted in the...

Ann comes into my office and is really upset about how her review went with her manager. She can’t believe that, for all her hard work last year, she was rated “acceptable.” She exclaims, “I didn’t work that hard to be considered average. It really hurts that my...

In the field of engagement, many people are not clear about the abundance of research that shows us this: A highly engaged workforce is more valuable than one that is not. In this short video, I break down… • The value of an engaged workforce • A study that gives...

Recently, I was talking with someone with a considerable amount of background in continuous improvement about the challenges related to building coaching skills. Having known each other for some time, we felt comfortable admitting to each other that we occasionally...

Lean drives revenue. One of my early experiences with this was at Sweetheart Cup. We were supplying straws to a major fast food chain and there was a quality problem. When that problem showed up, the chain had a team of their people work with a team from operations to...

A company I used to work for, Sweetheart Cup, was going bankrupt. There were huge amounts of waste in every shape, size, and kind. They didn’t know it at the time, but they were struggling with an incredibly common barrier to a successful lean transformation. In this...

For most organizations I work with, lean culture remains elusive. When I ask, “What is the specific lean culture that you’re looking to build into your organization?” they can’t say. It’s not quite clear to them what they actually want, even while the desire is there....

In the last several months, we have all experienced enormous changes in how we’re living and working. We often consider managing change as something we apply to a new initiative, a major reorganization, or a change in ownership. However, change management practices...

Lean is most commonly utilized to improve operations or services in a relatively stable environment…but we can also apply these practices to the challenges and ongoing aftermath of the pandemic. What has made this application of lean especially difficult is that...