Category Interviews

Lean Blog Interviews Podcast

In-depth conversations with leaders, authors, executives, and practitioners shaping the future of Lean, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. Hosted by Mark Graban, these interviews explore real-world leadership, systems thinking, psychological safety, and learning cultures across industries.

Browse episodes featuring CEOs, Toyota veterans, healthcare leaders, MIT researchers, and improvement thinkers sharing practical insights you can apply beyond tools and buzzwords.

Lean Blog Interviews features in-depth conversations on Lean leadership, continuous improvement, and operational excellence across healthcare, manufacturing, and knowledge work. Explore hundreds of podcast episodes with CEOs, authors, and practitioners focused on learning, systems thinking, and real-world results.

Billy Taylor on Lean Leadership, Culture, and Ownership (Part 1)

My guest for Episode #293 of the podcast is a dynamic speaker and manufacturing leader, Billy R. Taylor. I saw him speak a few years ago at a Shingo Prize Conference and I've wanted to get him on the podcast ever since.

He's currently the Director of Commercial, Off Highway, and Support Manufacturing North America for The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company. Over the past 20 years, he has risen from "the lowest level of the organization," up through the manufacturing leadership ranks at Goodyear, including time as a Plant Director at facilities in Oklahoma and North Carolina.

He's been "engaged in Lean" for over 15 years and he is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt. Billy has a BS in in Electrical Engineering from Prairie View A&M University and an MBA from Baker University.

Billy was very giving of his time and we talked for over 75 minutes, so I'm breaking this up into two parts, with Part 2 coming soon. Today, we talk about how he got started with Lean, the shift from tools- and event-based Lean to a culture focus, how to build a sense of ownership, servant leadership, employee recognition and more.

Podcast #292 – The Co-Authors of “Motivational Interviewing for Leadership”

My guests for Episode 292 are the three co-authors of an excellent book, Motivational Interviewing for Leadership: MI-LEAD:

Jason Wilcox, Director of Education and Connected Care at VA Roseburg
Dr. Brian Kersh, Clinical Psychologist at New Mexico VA Health System
Dr. Elizabeth Jenkins, Clinical Psychologist/Courtesy Assistant Professor at University of South Florida

Podcast #289 – Lean & A Mobile Paramedic Pilot at Geisinger Health

My guests for Episode #289 are Kathleen Sharp, MBOE, LSS MBB, now the Director of Optimization at McLeod Health, and David Schoenwetter, D.O., FACEP, a Medical Director at Geisinger Health System.

They are joining me to talk about the innovative Geisinger Mobile Health Paramedic program that they developed and piloted with Lean thinking throughout. Kathleen and David will discuss why it was important to engage stakeholders in innovation, how they viewed and addressed resistance to change, why it was important to test the idea in practice, and why it was important to measure results. They also discuss their lessons learned and their challenges along the way.

This WSJ article has a nice summary of the program: "Paramedics Aren't Just for Emergencies."

"In the Geisinger pilot program, mobile health visits can be requested by a patient's primary-care doctor, a cardiology clinic, or after an emergency room or hospital discharge. Patients who frequently visit the ER are offered the option of being seen at home by a paramedic as an alternative to an ER visit and potential hospital admission, especially for conditions that can be treated at home if caught early."

I hope you enjoy the episode. It's long, but it's an interesting case study, I believe.

Dean Gruner on ACOs, Healthcare Reform, and the Future of Cost and Quality

Joining me again for Episode #288 is Dean Gruner, MD, the recently retired CEO of ThedaCare, a health system in Wisconsin that has long been considered a worldwide leader in the practice of Lean in healthcare.

Recently, in Episode #286, Dean shared his reflections on his work and ThedaCare's "Lean journey." Today, the topic is Accountable Care Organizations and other bigger-picture healthcare reform topics.

Dean was also previously my guest in Episodes 119 and 144.

I'm including a full transcript along with a three-page PDF summary, as I've been doing recently.

Dean Gruner on ThedaCare’s Lean Journey: Lessons, Missteps, and Leadership Reflections

My guest for Episode #286 is Dean Gruner, MD, the recently retired CEO of ThedaCare, a health system in Wisconsin that has long been considered a worldwide leader in the practice of Lean in healthcare. See this article about his retirement, where he says "I've gotten more than I've given."

Dean was previously my guest in Episodes 119 and 144 and I'm thrilled that he took time out of his retirement to talk with me about his lessons learned as he looks back on how ThedaCare's Lean journey has evolved, including some things he would consider to be missteps and challenges that they used as a springboard to get even better.

I will also be releasing a separate episode where Dean talks about their experiences with Accountable Care Organizations (our topic from #144) and other "big picture" healthcare issues of the day.

I'm including a full transcript along with a three-page PDF summary, as I've been doing recently.

Is Lean Dead? Karen Martin on What’s Actually Going Wrong

Joining me for Episode #285 is my friend and colleague, Karen Martin. She was previously a guest on Episode #151 where we discussed her book The Outstanding Organization and #190 we discussed her book Value Stream Mapping book. We'll be doing another podcast later this year about her next book, which is titled Clarity First: How Wise Leaders and Organizations Achieve Outstanding Performance.

Karen reached out with a provocative question that's easy to discuss, but hard to answer: "Is Lean Dead?" The reason she asked is that she's heard murmuring and read articles that ask "is it time for something new?" or if we're somehow in a "post-Lean" world.