Episode 48: Daily Management or Daily Chaos? Making Lean Stick with Darren Walsh
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, Darren Walsh joins the show. Darren is a Lean leadership coach and author with over 30 years driving transformations across industries like medical devices, aerospace, and healthcare. Oh, and also video games. We definitely talk about video games. Darren wrote the book Making Lean and Continuous Improvement Work: A Leader's Guide to Increasing Consistency and Getting Significantly More Done in Less Time. It’s been getting a lot of buzz in the world of Lean.
Darren wrote his book after seeing the same struggles everywhere he went. Teams want to improve. But they can't seem to make it stick. There are thousands of certified Green Belts and Yellow Belts, but most organizations still struggle with day-to-day problems. Darren spent years researching why that happens and how to fix it.
Darren shares stories from his time at Sega in the 90s. As a member of Generation X, host Dan Swartwout finds this topic especially interesting. Darren also talks about building sustainable improvement cultures as opposed to chasing quick wins. It’s a great conversation with one of the foremost leaders in continuous improvement.
What should daily management actually accomplish? Why do frontline managers play a bigger role in continuous improvement than most people realize? Learn the answers to these questions and more. And of course, because it’s Quality Time with MoreSteam, there are some laughs along the way. Plan. Do. Check. And act by downloading this episode!
In this episode, you will hear about:
1:46 - Darren’s background
5:23 - Why Darren wrote Making Lean and Continuous Improvement Work
9:06 - The number one takeaway from Darren’s book
11:44 - Continuous Improvement at Sega
16:55 - The first 30 or 60 days at a multi-site transformation
20:16 - Implementing Lean in smaller businesses
22:26 - Frontline managers who spend time on the wrong things
25:18 - Visiting the Gemba with the right mindset
28:50 - Organizations that want to improve but get stuck
33:31 - The standard work of Lean management
37:12 - Darren’s next book (and how you can help!)
Additional Resources:
Making Lean and Continuous Improvement Work and Darren's Contact Info
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Director & Leadership Coach • Making Lean Work
Darren Walsh is Director & Leadership Coach at Making Lean Work Ltd.
A leading management consultant specialising in helping business leaders unlock the transformative power of continuous improvement, Darren has over 25 years of experience, working with some of the best in automotive, aerospace, medical devices, energy and financial services.
Graduating with a Master's degree from Lean Enterprise Research Centre, his insights have been featured in industry-leading publications and conferences.
(Bio and picture from https://discover.makingleanwork.org/buythebook/)
Host • MoreSteam
Dan Swartwout is the host of Quality Time with MoreSteam. A lifelong Central Ohio resident, Dan is a double Buckeye. He earned both a BA and a law degree from The Ohio State University. Before joining MoreSteam, Dan had a long career as a host, comedian, and master of ceremonies. For 17 years, Dan was the studio audience host for the Ohio Lottery game show Cash Explosion. Dan was also the host of CBuzz, which was a collaboration between the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, WWCD 92.9, and the Columbus Dispatch. On CBuzz, Dan interviewed some of the most prominent entrepreneurs in Central Ohio. From 2002-2020, Dan toured the country as a standup comedian. Tracks from his comedy CD have been played over 5,000 times on Sirius/XM satellite radio. Now, Dan brings his experience and enthusiasm to Quality Time with MoreSteam -- it's business and fun, together.
