All Episodes
Displaying 1 - 20 of 84 in total
83| Keep Ownership at the Right Level: How to Sustain Organizational Transformation [with Anna Pessah]
Overstepping ownership rarely looks like overstepping. It looks like moving things along. You know how something could be improved, so you give your suggestion. Work g...
82| Connect the Parts, Focus on People: Inside the Toyota Economic System [with Olivier Larue]
Profit or cash. Efficiency or flexibility. Speed, or doing it right. Leaders feel like they have to make trade-offs like these all the time. But the choice often isn'...
81| Adapt How You Lead: Situational Leadership in Practice [with Suzie Bishop]
Your leadership style isn't the problem. Your default is. The gap between how you're leading and what the person in front of you actually needs is one of the most com...
80| Bad News First: How a Leader's Response Builds a Culture of Learning [with Isao Yoshino]
How many problems are actually visible in your organization? Research shows senior leaders see just 4%. The other 96% stay hidden — invisible, yet still there. And so...
79| Build Powerful People: Why Transformation Starts with Your Own [with Gary Peterson]
Efficiency and cost savings aren't what makes operational excellence last. People are. The leaders who create enduring, high-performing organizations are after someth...
78| Strategy Isn't Enough: 9 Practices to Help Your Team Meet the Moment [with Karina Mangu-Ward]
Have you poured months into a strategy your team couldn't bring to life? Or watched capable people work harder than ever, and still struggle to pull together as a team...
77| Lead with Joy: A Business Strategy for Success [with Rich Sheridan]
Joy isn't a perk. It's a business strategy. Have you ever wondered whether work has to feel this hard? Whether the team you've built can actually function without you?...
76 | What Is the Purpose of Kaizen? John Shook Answers Your Questions (Part 3 of 3)
What does it really take to sustain a culture of continuous improvement – through pressure for results, across generations, and into an era of AI? In this final epis...
75 | The Human Side of Lean: John Shook on Building Systems That Last (Part 2 of 3)
Lean has always been about people. We just kept reaching for the tools, without understanding the human purpose behind them. In part two of my three-part conversation...
74 | What Problem Are We Solving? John Shook Reflects: Has Lean Failed? (Part 1 of 3)
Has lean really failed? That question sparked one of the most listened-to conversations in the history of this podcast — my two-part series with Jim Womack in episode...
73 | Small Steps, Leading with Heart: How Transformation Sustains [with Richard Koch]
The way you’re leading transformation might be getting in the way of the culture you’re trying to build. As change leaders and practitioners, we care about results. B...
72 | Finding Clarity Through the Messy Middle: Reflections from My Book Retreat [with Betsy Jordyn] (BONUS)
The messy middle is part of the learning process. It’s the point where what worked before no longer fully fits—but what comes next is not yet clear. Where your thinki...
71 | Own the Thinking Process, Not the Thinking: How Leaders Build Problem-Solving Capability
Caring becomes carrying. It happens so naturally we rarely notice it. Someone brings us a problem. We care. We want to help. And somewhere in that desire to help, wit...
70| Talk to the People: How Leaders Make Better Decisions [with Nigel Thurlow]
What happens when leaders make decisions further and further away from the work itself? In a world of AI, automated dashboards, and remote work, it’s easy to manage re...
69| Better Judgment, Not Better AI Tools: What Leaders Need to Learn and Unlearn [with Barry O'Reilly]
You're being told to use AI. But which tool you actually need to do your best work? Leaders and change practitioners everywhere feel the same pressures right now — mor...
68| The Power of Learning Together: How Shared Experience Enables People-Centered Leadership
What changes when leaders stop learning alone—and start learning together? Leadership development often focuses on individual insight: reading, listening, reflecting...
67| Why Learning Is the Foundation of Influence (and How it Can Limit Your Impact)
What if your approach to learning is actually limiting your influence as a change leader? Many of us pride ourselves on being lifelong learners. We read, earn certific...
66| Leadership Is Practice: What It Takes to Lead Transformation as Responsibility Grows [with Carlos Scholz]
What does it really take to lead transformation as responsibility grows? At some point, leadership stops being about doing the improvement work or having the right an...
65| From Learning to Impact: Turn Insight into Leadership Action
What if the reason your learning feels productive—but your impact feels stuck—has nothing to do with effort? Many change leaders and improvement practitioners are exc...
64| Stop Doing Transformation—and Start Enabling It: Redefine Your Role as a Change Leader [with Jill Forrester]
What if the reason leading your organization’s transformation feels heavy isn’t the work itself—but the role you’ve been playing as a change leader? If you’re a chang...