Podcast #275 – Katie Anderson, #Lean Reflections on Living in Japan

My guest for Episode #275 is Katie Anderson, following up on her last appearance here in Episode #233. When we talked in October, 2015, she was living in Japan, taking a deep dive into the culture and learning a lot about Lean and Toyota.

Now, she has been back home in California and shares some more recent reflections on her time there, what she learned, and what she continues to learn.

Katie is running a giveaway for a daruma doll and a copy of my book, Lean Hospitals. Even if you visit the page after the giveaway has ended, you'll still be able to get a copy of Katie's top 10 lessons from Mr. Yoshino about Lean thinking and practice and leadership. Visit http://kbjanderson.com/mark/ to learn more and enter. Good luck!

She is also running a workshop before the annual LEI Lean Transformation Summit in March 2017, “Coaching for Development – Structured Coaching Using A3 Thinking.”

In this episode, we talk about how Lean isn't inherently Japanese in all ways, Ashikaga (the “5S City”), a key mentor of hers (Isao Yoshino), and more.

Streaming Player (Run Time 43:56)

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For a link to this episode, refer people to www.leanblog.org/275.

Click below to enter Katie's contest (contest ends 2/22/17)

Topics and Links for this Episode:

• Katie's website and blog
• Follow Katie on Twitter as @kbjanderson
• Find Katie on LinkedIn
• Recap for the listeners how long you were living in Japan and when you got back
• Recently, you wrote about how “Lean isn't inherently Japanese” – please elaborate on that 
• You also wrote about how TPS was developed as a countermeasure to certain problems… what are those?
• Many companies have real focus for doing good for people and the community – this is another example of how the TW pillar of “respect” that hasn't as robustly translated to the U.S. — why is this?
• Tell us about Ashikaga – the 5S city
• What did you see in terms of improvement in healthcare in Japan – Lean advancing over last year, but still just beginning. 
• You established a relationship with a very important mentor while in Japan… tell us about that
• The film “Jiro Dreams of Sushi“

For earlier episodes of my podcast, visit the main Podcast page, which includes information on how to subscribe via RSS, through Android apps, or via Apple Podcasts.  You can also subscribe and listen via Stitcher. Please leave us a review and rating!

Thanks for listening!

Podcast Summary

You can also read and download this 4-page PDF summary of the podcast:

• Low-res version for reading on screen
• High-res version for printing

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Check out my latest book, The Mistakes That Make Us: Cultivating a Culture of Learning and Innovation: