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Episode 55 – How do you motivate, coach, or lead someone younger—without sounding critical, nagging, or controlling? We’ve all heard the stereotypes: “Young people don’t care.” “They’re entitled.” “They can’t take feedback.” But what if those assumptions are what’s really getting in the way of growth, engagement, and connection?
Episode 54 – Recently I joined my friend and business coach Betsy Jordyn for not just one, but two conversations, about positioning for impact as a consultant, coach, or lean practitioner. Betsy and I met at a retreat hosted by Carol Cox in 2022 and she has been working with me behind the scenes of my business since then to help me continue to uplevel my own clarity of positioning and branding.
Episode 53 – Ikigai is one of the hottest buzzwords in leadership and personal development. When you think of ikigai, what do you envision? Is it the popular Venn diagram that claims to help you find your purpose by identifying “the sweet spot” where what you love, what you’re good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for overlap? The problem? That’s not ikigai at all.
Episode 52 – What’s the #1 frustration most lean and continuous improvement practitioners face? It’s something that I bet you’ve felt too, no matter how passionate you are about the work, no matter what you call it: lean, agile, continuous improvement, operational excellence, or DevOps. Too often, we struggle to clearly explain what we actually do as CI change leaders and why it matters.
Episode 51 — It’s a problem I’ve seen over and over again—and I bet you have too. Organizations invest thousands of dollars and countless hours into lean, Six Sigma, and other continuous improvement training programs. Certifications get awarded. Belts get earned. But nothing actually changes.
Episode 50 – Change the culture! That’s exactly what longtime Toyota leader Isao Yoshino was tasked with during one of the most famous business transformations in history—NUMMI—Toyota’s joint venture with General Motors in the 1980s. The challenge? Take GM’s worst-performing plant—plagued by absenteeism, low morale, and poor quality—and turn it aroun
Episode 49 – When you encounter challenges or setbacks, and it feels like things just aren’t going your way, it’s easy to get caught into a downward negative spiral. But could simple mindset shifts change not just how you feel, but how you move forward and influence those around you with positive momentum? In this episode, I’m sharing three powerful reframes that have helped me reset, regain perspective, and move through challenges with intention and empowerment.
Episode 48 – You’re implementing the tools. Making the improvements. Delivering the project results. But the same problems keep resurfacing and you’re left wondering: What’s missing? In this episode of Chain of Learning, Josef Procházka, a lean consultant from the Czech Republic, shares his personal journey of transformation—from frustrated practitioner to heart-led coach—and the impact his shift in approach to consulting has had for his clients and for himself.
Episode 47 – A global economic crisis is dragging down sales. Departments are working in silos and leaders at all levels are arguing about priorities. Managers are too busy to coach their teams. You might think this describes your organization today—and it was the exact situation Toyota faced nearly 50 years ago.
Episode 46 – Is it possible to lead a real, long-term cultural transformation in a publicly traded company—where shareholders often demand short-term financial results? The answer? It’s challenging, yet possible. And GE Aerospace, with CEO Larry Culp at the helm, is leading the way. To give you an inside look, I invited Phil Wickler, Chief Transformation Officer, back to Chain of Learning for a deep-dive conversation on the enterprise-wide shift toward lean he and Larry Culp are leading at GE Aerospace.
Episode 45 – How effective is your organization’s strategy in achieving results? If your team doesn’t understand how their daily work connects to bigger organizational goals, you don’t have a strategy—you have a gap. A gap in engagement. A gap in alignment. This gap leads to confusion, misaligned priorities, and wasted effort.
Episode 44 – How many questions is too many? You know that asking effective questions is key to helping others solve problems and unlocking improvement, but can you ask too many questions? Yes! And when you do so, you actually hinder progress, not enable it. In this episode, I share one of the most common mistakes leaders and coaches alike make when learning to Break the Telling Habit® and moving from “telling” to “asking”.
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