How much of your work time do you spend doing actual work that leverages what you do best? And how much of your invaluable time and focus is chipped away by myriad distractions—of which the most pernicious might be email and its constant demand for your attention. I’m Tom Ehrenfeld, host of the Lean Enterprise Institute’s WLEI podcast. I spoke with author Cal Newport about his newest book, A World Without Email, where he challenges us to rethink why we need to be constantly plugged into communication that seldom helps us produce valuable work.  

WLEI - Lean Enterprise Institute's Podcast

Imagining A World Without Email with Cal Newport

As we slowly emerge from the long pandemic, LEI and colleagues like the Good Jobs Institute are deeply committed to helping produce decent jobs. In this conversation, LEI President Josh Howell spoke with Executive Director Sarah Kalloch of the Good Jobs Institute about ways they are both working to help foster good work. WLEI Host Tom Ehrenfeld moderated this conversation.   Download a transcript of the conversation here.    

Creating Better Jobs and Better Work: A Podcast with Sarah Kalloch and Josh Howell

Roger Martin’s terrific new book When More is Not Better proposes tangible suggestions for broadening the economic gains from democratic capitalism. He critiques the concentration of wealth and power that decades of what he calls America’s Obsession with Economic Efficiency have generated, proposing tangible measures for business leaders, politicians, educators and citizens to pursue. In this conversation with LEI Host Tom Ehrenfeld, Roger explores lean-adjacent measures that complement his message. What operational, approaches might be considered in concert with his policy-based and systematic suggestions?     Download a transcript of this talk here.  

Exploring When More is Not Better With Roger Martin

Lean done right can dramatically boost the value of any enterprise over the long term, argues Cliff Ransom. For decades Cliff has been analyzing the value of companies by researching and above all visiting them to suss out the integrity of their lean practice. His detailed reports (by his firm Ransom Research) on the performance of companies such as Danaher, GE, Fortive, and many others are closely followed by a passionate slice of the investment world. The following conversation drills down into the lessons learned from looking at public companies through lean-colored glasses.     Click Here to download a transcript of the conversation.

Diving Deep to Discover the Value of Lean Companies with Cliff Ransom

Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg makes a bold promise in his new book, What’s Your Problem? (Harvard Business Review Press, 2020.) He seeks to upgrade people’s ability to solve problems by understanding how to solve the right problems. Learning to reframe problems can help people to stop chasing the wrong solutions, better understand what they are grappling with, and, in some cases find radically better solutions. Join us in listening to his insights on ways that everyone can boost their ability to solve the right problems. Click here to download a full transcript of the conversation.

Seeking the Right Problems to Solve: Catch the WLEI Podcast with Author Thomas Wedell-Wedellsborg

The global pandemic coupled with profound structural economic shifts are two daunting challenges reinforcing  the need for a powerful method of framing and facing crucial problems today. Over the past year, our monthly podcast WLEI has aired conversations with Jim Womack, Dan Jones, Karen Gaudet, and other thought leaders exploring the power of lean—and adjacent schools of thought—as a source of promising countermeasures.  Lean can help people face problems both large (reviving healthy enterprise in this economy) and small (clarifying tangible ways to create workplaces that respect their workers). Thinkers such as Dan Heath discussed the power of solving problems completely--but more importantly, preventing them from happening in the first place. Author/coach Karen Gaudet explained how a disciplined system of standard work can create a workplace that is resilient enough to respond to unimaginable tragedy.  And while tackling external problems is vital, many individuals also noted the need for lean to squarely face its own challenges. Jim Womack addressed the perennial misunderstandings attributed to lean when things fall apart. Mark Deluzio led a conversation with Art Byrne and Jim Womack about the struggle to spark meaningful lean adoption. And Dan Jones proposed powerful ways of rethinking lean for the future.   These talks provide a wealth of insights for you to apply as practical tips—and ways to think deeper about your lean journey. 

Exploring the Continued Relevance of Lean, A Best of Podcast

Professor Jeffrey Liker’s The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles From the World’s Greatest Manufacturer has proved to be one of the most influential books of the lean movement—and beyond. Last month he published a revised second edition of this classic resource, bringing new thinking and context to his explanation of what makes this system so dynamic and enduring. Liker explains his emphasis on what scholar Takahiro Fujimoto calls its “superior evolutionary learning capability,” providing more grit and clarity on topics such as its organic (not mechanistic) nature. Listen to him discuss these topics with LEI Senior Editor Tom Ehrenfeld in this new edition of the WLEI podcast. You can download a PDF of the transcript at https://www.lean.org/Search/Documents/600.pdf

Diving Deeper into the Toyota Way: A Podcast with Jeff Liker

The long-term success of companies like Danaher, Fortive, Herman Miller, Parker Hannifin and many others, have all validated the power of lean thinking and practice. But if that’s the case, why aren’t there more exemplars? And why do so many companies either intentionally misconstrue Lean, or fail to realize its full promise over time? Long-time Lean veteran Mark Deluzio has recently published Flatlined: Why Lean Transformations Fail and What to Do About It. Join him, Art Byrne, Jim Womack and host Tom Ehrenfeld in a wide-ranging conversation about the ongoing gap between operations at most companies—and an ideal Lean state. Be sure to download an edited transcript of their conversation here.  

Making Lean Stick and Avoiding Flatlining: A Conversation with Mark Deluzio, Art Byrne, and Jim Womack

“It’s only a failure if you don’t learn,” says Mr. Isao Yoshino, who shared many key lessons from his career at Toyota with Katie Anderson, who based her new book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn on his experience and insights. Join us for a podcast with host Tom Ehrenfeld that explores the lessons gleaned from his career at Toyota. Download a complete transcript of the conversation here: https://www.lean.org/Search/Documents/597.pdf  

Leading to Learn, Learning to Lead: A Podcast with Katie Anderson and Isao Yoshino

Lean has always promised great improvements for health care providers, but has there been a personal element that has been lacking to date? In this episode of WLEI, two healthcare giants, Kim Barnas and John Toussaint, will share a key insight from their new book Becoming the Change: they argue that personal transformation on the part of healthcare leaders plays a vital role in broader organizational change. Listen in for insights and advice on how to help your lean effort.    You can download a transcript by copying the following URL into your browser: https://www.lean.org/Search/Documents/596.pdf  

Becoming the Change with John Toussaint and Kim Barnas

As all of us try to figure out how to work in this pandemic-tinted world, lean practice suggests a few practical approaches. In this special edition of WLEI, the podcast of the Lean Enterprise Institute LEI’s Josh Howell, Matt Savas, and Masia Goodman talk about how the design of the upcoming Virtual Lean Learning Experience taps into lean ways of learning and leverages the latest learning technologies. You can download a transcript by copying the following URL into your browser: https://www.lean.org/Search/Documents/594.pdf

Exploring the Advantages of Online Learning

Industry 4.0 is not a disruptive force that makes TPS irrelevant, but rather can be an enabler that builds on lean culture and thinking. What principles should lean companies prioritize as they introduce digital tools into their work? Lean thinkers Jeff Liker and Jim Morgan start with the basics of people, processes, and purpose. Listen in to their thoughts as they discuss the TPS-Industry 4.0 mashup with Host Tom Ehrenfeld in this latest episode of WLEI.    You can read and download a complete transcript of the conversation here.  

Tapping Technology to Boost the Power of Lean: A Talk with Jeff Liker and Jim Morgan

Over the past five years, the Lean Global Network’s Lean Healthcare Initiative has carried out extensive research in eight hospitals across five countries. In this podcast, LEI Senior Coach and White Paper co-author Alice Lee shares insights into the research conducted by this group of “tailors” (individuals who saw patterns and helped identify how to apply them.) She expands on the five guiding principles they developed and explains how these insights were gleaned from healthcare organizations, and provide guidance for any chief architect in any organization looking for traction with their lean work.     You can download the paper here.     Download a transcript of the conversation here.    

Tailoring a Path to Lean Transformation

Regardless of how well you track tangible metrics in your workplace, neglecting underlying emotions has enduring costs, says Susan David, author of the best-selling book Emotional Agility. Many performance gaps are partly caused by human factors—underlying conditions that don’t necessarily show up on Pareto charts, yet have as much relevance and bearing on business outcomes as other common gaps that are identified as problems to address. Join this WLEI podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about the need to acknowledge and “manage” emotions as a means of developing broader agility for your work team.  

How to Develop Emotional Agility At Work: A Conversation with Susan David

"What will the world look like when Covid-19 recedes, and what role will Lean play? According to Lean Pioneer Dan Jones, Lean can play a key role in shaping the emerging economy in numerous ways—not simply boosting performance of legacy assets of mass production, but also helping to scale up new technologies much faster through several generations with user feedback. “Most significantly, it can mobilize the creative contribution of everyone, including users, to develop very different and sustainable systems for the future.” Tune in to this conversation between Dan and WLEI Podcast Host Tom Ehrenfeld for an engaging conversation into the potential role of Lean as we move into and beyond this current age. Download a transcript of the interview here. And check out this Lean Post adapted from Dan’s talk."

How Will Lean Shape the Post-Covid World?

The official podcast of the Lean Enterprise Institute.

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WLEI - Lean Enterprise Institute's Podcast

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