Chain of Learning: Empowering Continuous Improvement Change Leaders

Billy Ray Taylor [00:00:00]:
I respect people for the way they treat me. I don't care what your title is and people that call me, even with business ideas. I do a lot of pro bono work, lots of pro bono coaching, because those people provide value to me. I'm not giving them value.

Katie Anderson [00:00:15]:
Welcome the Chain of Learning where the links of leadership and learning unite. This is your connection for actionable strategies and practices to empower you to build a people centered learning culture, get results and expand your impact so that you and your team can leave a lasting legacy. I'm your host and fellow learning enthusiast, Katie Anderson.

How clear are you and your team on what winning means for your organization? And does winning mean just the numbers, the outcomes, or results? Or is it also the process and the people that enable your organization to get there? Leadership is about respecting people by giving them clarity of their role and helping the organization win and creating the conditions that set them up for success. But how do you do this? I brought Billy Ray Taylor to Chain of Learning to help you find the winning link in your organization and understand what it means to really win. Billy is a former executive and transformational change leader at Goodyear Tire, where he led multiple turnarounds and lean cultural transformations at some of Goodyear's largest and most complex tire producing sites. Billy's now the President of LinkedXL, a global leadership consultancy and software company, and is an engaging keynote speaker and author. Billy and I recorded this episode back in 2022 just as his book “The Winning Link: a Proven process to define, align and execute strategy at every level” was about to be released.

Katie Anderson [00:01:39]:
And I wanted to bring the conversation here to chain of learning for you to learn from Billy's wisdom and insights about the humanity of leadership and how to win. In this conversation, you'll hear stories from Billy's leadership at Goodyear, highlights from his book the Winning the importance of DEI, Diversity, Equity and inclusion in building a winning culture and Billy's greatest challenge and greatest learning as a leader. We started this conversation with a how Billy's background as an executive leader at Goodyear influenced his knowledge of how to lead operational excellence and how that inspired him to write his book, “The Winning Link.”

Billy Ray Taylor [00:02:15]:
Well, for me it was 30 years, a good year, and so I was kind of the pioneer around operational excellence coming through and working with some of the industry greats like yourself. And so the passion was I was inept in the tools, but the how to the cultural side of it, married with the tools is what drove me. And most companies, they don't have the connected model, the implementation and the governance around how do you drive operational excellence? And so it was a lot around the mistakes I made and not wanting others to make some of those same mistakes. So some of the answers to a lot of the questions is some of the things I failed at. I want to share those stories. And so the book is really practical, and I call it next generational link.

Katie Anderson [00:03:07]:
That's something I really loved about the book. It's very accessible, not just because the language you write in a very compelling, I wouldn't say simple way, but in an engaging way without a lot of jargon, in a way that really connects and makes sense to the principles and practices. And you share your own personal story, which is so helpful for seeing how it actually worked in practice. I was really curious. As you think about your career and all that you've learned, what has been one of the most helpful practices that you have personally discovered and incorporated into your leadership approach?

Billy Ray Taylor [00:03:49]:
One is do change with the people, not to the people. People that really, they don't resist change. They resist change being done to them. And when you include people in that journey, that's when it really takes hold. That's where the glue starts, too, adhering to what you're trying to do. And so that's, for me, that's been one of the greatest lessons around the engaging piece of it. Do it with them, not to them.

Katie Anderson [00:04:17]:
Yeah. So often we hear people saying people are resisting change, and if we have to get out of that mindset, understand the human dimension underneath it as well. And how do we go alongside side rather than forcing?

Billy Ray Taylor [00:04:30]:
Absolutely. Change is really the only constant in life. It really. It's the only constant in life. And how do you adapt to that? And then you think of psychological safety. That's critical when you're on a continuous improvement journey. People, they want to be valued, but I call it celebrate the red. Create that environment where it's safe to change.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:04:55]:
You know, I talk about Diane Podinger. She was the CEO of mid Michigan Medical, and I learned a valuable lesson from her. We were doing a keynote, and she asked me to come up and dance.

Katie Anderson [00:05:05]:
Yes, I love the story in the book.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:05:07]:
I'm thinking dance. You're the CEO. And when the song came on, I thought it was going to be a Kenny Chesney or something. And the song came on. So let me whip so watch me nae nae. And I look over, I'm like, what are you thinking? And she never looks over at me. All she does is keep dancing. And what do you think I do? 3 seconds later, I start doing the whip and Nayneck.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:05:30]:
What do you think? The whole audience starts doing the whip and the nayneck. And so what did she do? She created a safe environment to take risk, a safe environment to change. And leaders get so inept in the tools, and they don't embrace that technical right. Right. There's two rights to change. There's a technical right to change and earning the cultural right to change. You need both.

Katie Anderson [00:05:57]:
Yeah. I love how you dive into that in more detail, too. And I'd love for you to share with the audience what you write in the book about. What color and what was your outfit like when you were doing that dance?

Billy Ray Taylor [00:06:08]:
A pink shirt, pink tie, pink suit. Well, I had to dish the suit, but everything was pink. And she writes, she's saying, be comfortable being uncomfortable and put yourself in that place. It's okay to be your authentic self. Right. Because in today's time, it's not about a common language more so it's a common meaning because lean is universal, but when people speak, they have different languages. Right. And so if I go to Brazil.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:06:41]:
Holae. Hola. Right. You come to New York. Hi. You come to Texas. It's howdy. But they mean the same.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:06:49]:
Hello. And so great leaders and great senseis, they know how to convert that into a common meaning. And that's what she did.

Katie Anderson [00:06:59]:
Yeah. I love that story. I actually was going to ask you about that. So I'm glad you move into it because it just is such a great example of how to also not take yourself too seriously. And I think sometimes we feel like, oh, when we've reached a certain title or level, we have to kind of lose part of our humanity and to fit this sort of stereotypical image of what a leader is. But actually, it's when we embrace the humanity and our flaws and our, you know, our quirkiness, too, and can share that and be vulnerable, we actually foster that community and improvement in our organizations.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:07:33]:
Absolutely. You know, people want to be valued. You know, I work. I was working with a client of yesterday. It's huge organization. The people want it to be valued. They don't look at leadership. I would say leadership should work for the people, not the people working for them.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:07:51]:
Leaders should eliminate barriers. Right. Instead of being telling everyone what to do. And so that piece of making people visible, they'll make you valuable.

Katie Anderson [00:08:04]:
Yeah. What a great comment to make people visible, because in lean, we talk about making the process visible, making the thinking visible, or as I like to say, or Mister Yoshino does, making the invisible visible but making the people visible in scene. What a beautiful, beautiful connection.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:08:21]:
Absolutely. You know, Katie, one of the things that the team is starting to set new milestones and I was talking to the senior leader yesterday and I was, you know, congratulating me and I said, you know what I've seen you do that have basically helped drive changes. He goes, what is that, Taylor? Mister Taylor, sir. And I said you were hard on the process so you could leave easy on the people. See, that's, that's what's important. If you, if you're hard on the process, you can lead easy on the people and see people walk by the standards of people not wearing their personal protective equipment, people violating rules. Right. That's seeing you being easy on the process and then you want to reprimand the people.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:09:10]:
Be hard on the process so you can be easy on the people.

Katie Anderson [00:09:12]:
Yeah, I love that. I want to dive into both the name of your company and the name of your framework linked XL, which is what you developed over your decades at Goodyear and now is the foundation of what you teach. So I'm curious, where did the name of linked Excel come from or what does it represent? And at the high level, what are some of the key elements? And I know you dive into this in the book, the winning link as well.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:09:38]:
Well, it's linked excellence is what the linked Excel stands for. It's basically a connected business model. How do you connect the entire organization? And it's moving beyond strategy. Deployment is strategic deployment for tactical execution. And so what we talk about in the book is very clear. How do you do, how do you define, align and execute winning? And after that, how do you sustain the game? So once you change the guard, how do you guard the change? And so the book gives examples around how to do that, how to be deliberately clear on what winning is and what you're going to do. All right, how do you instill deliberate ownership for alignment? Because in the absence of ownership comes blame. And if people don't know what they own, it's a secret and you can't manage a secret.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:10:33]:
And the last week is executing winning. How do you know if you're winning or not? And I give examples around when you go to a sporting event, by the nature of how we think, what do we look for when we sit down, we look for the score, wounded over winning or not. We're wired that way as human beings. And so the book talks about those elements in a practical way and tools on how the, how to.

Katie Anderson [00:11:01]:
Yes, no, I love that in the book that you, not only in a really easy to understand way explain how to do it and also the leadership behaviors that support, support it. So not just the tool, but how do you put that in place and what does that really look like? A question of mine and is linked to the linked Excel framework is how do you define winning?

Billy Ray Taylor [00:11:25]:
So one of the things, it's that deliberate clarity, right? People, do people know what the organization wants to accomplish? Also, do people know their role? And so when I say deliberate clarity, you're very specific, you're very detailed and you're relatable around what that is. You know, one of the examples I use in the book is when I went to Fayetteville, North Carolina, it was a failing organization. But when I went around on night shift and talked to the leaders, no one knew what winning was, no one knew how many customer orders we had to fulfill every day. And the number was 38,000. And so it was a football town and they're very proud in that tradition. So we bought 3000 people football jerseys with the number 38 on it. Now, I just wanted to generate discussion around 38,000. And I don't care if you were the janitor, you were the president, you're the HR manager across the board.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:12:31]:
We started with defining the number of units that had to be delivered, the right 38. And so that's being deliberate around what you want to accomplish because in the book, Katie, we'll talk about CPI, which is a new term, a critical performance indicator, and without that you don't have true north.

Katie Anderson [00:12:53]:
Yeah, I really, I think there's a strong link in your winning link book with, with mine too, of learning to lead, leading to learn. But the essence of leadership, which I define as setting the direction and then providing support to your people and then developing yourself as well. And you embody all of that. And I think there's a nice synergy between that framework and all that you talk about in your book too. And you go really into those clear, tangible practices of how leaders can do that more effectively. One of the things that when we talked on one of the DEI panels last year that really sparked my attention, and you describe it in the book as well, is the difference between what you call KPAs and KPI's. So your key performance actions, which are the leading indicators, I'd love for you to talk about how you see the link between KPAs key performance actions and KPI's key performance indicators.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:13:54]:
Very, very good observation, Katie. The KPA, think about it like this. A KPI is a measure and often it's a lagging measure. It's an after the fact measure. And so now when I look at a KPA envision I want to lose weight, I stand on the scale. That's a KPI. It's important. What is the KPA? The KPA are the actions that I must take to drive the results.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:14:27]:
And I can also measure those kpas. Example, how many calories did I eat? Did I work out? How many days did I work out my Apple Watch? How many steps am I taking a day? How much sleep am I getting? And the way I look at the KPAs is if I do this, I get that. And I can also test my hypothesis now on one of the things that I think I should be doing to drive results. All right? And so when you marry those two in your strategic roadmap, now you really have a true link to being successful.

Katie Anderson [00:15:09]:
I've long talked about process indicators or process measures. I love the term KPA action because this is easier to understand language. It's easier to understand for some people, we're like process indicators. What does that mean? No, it's the actions. It's the steps that you're taking to achieve the outcome. I really think that's a helpful construct for people to connect the difference of the leading indicators, the process indicators, and the outcoming indicators. What you want at the end.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:15:42]:
Absolutely. And what's interesting, and I did not really feature this piece in the book, but we do our visual management boards, and let's just talk about what led to the milestone performances in this organization I'm working with. We do our visual boards. There's two sections. There's the KPA, the startup. So instead of waiting for a manager to tell you about unsafe conditions, you flip it red or green, that you walk your individual area and make sure there's no unsafe conditions. If they are, what did you do? What were they and what did you do about it? Quality alert. What were they and what did you do about it? Take these actions before you turn.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:16:21]:
One wrench before. And if you do this, you have the highest probability to be successful. So there's a KPA board and your daily management KPI board, you have them both. And what we've seen, absolutely, we've seen upwards ten to 20% jumps in performance in the organizations we work with consistently.

Katie Anderson [00:16:44]:
Absolutely. Because when you focus on process, absolutely achieve better outcomes. But when we're focused just on the outcomes, we're not understanding or learning how we're getting there or making those adjustments, it's just at the end like, whoops, absolutely. Or like, yay, we made it. Or oops, we didn't. We don't understand why we really. It's. That is the essence of, like, how we do the PDCA or the foundational engine for continuous improvement.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:17:11]:
Yes, absolutely.

Katie Anderson [00:17:13]:
You know, I want to. I want to move into. You talk in the book and in our conversations in the past, Billy, we've talked a lot about diversity, equity and inclusion, and the fundamental concept of respect for people and respect for humanity. And I love this quote that you have at the end of the book. It's on page 146 for those of you who get the book. And you said that leaders need to embed the attitudes and principles and attitudes based on continuous learning, and you'll make the culture that's right for your organization. And your quote was a winning organization also has a leader who is willing to earn people's respect. What does this concept of respect mean to you and how does it relate to something you're passionate about, which is diversity, equity and inclusion.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:18:02]:
In that court as a leader, servant, being servant means to serve, to go out there and hear the people, to be a part. That inclusive part is hearing their thoughts being available for them. An open door, open floor policy. What does that really mean? Are you going out to the gimbal and being available? Are you connecting? It's not only work. If I go into check into a hotel, I make a point to acknowledge the people. And it's funny, when I walk out of those hotels in different cities. Hey, Billy. I mean the lady at the.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:18:43]:
Joey.

Katie Anderson [00:18:43]:
Hey Billy, where you been?

Billy Ray Taylor [00:18:45]:
The breakfast lady. Miss Vicki, misses Taylor. I saw your, your name on my list today. And it's not that I did anything special other than value what they do and value who they are. And leaders that do that will gain the respect of the people they lead. When you do not do that right, your egos erode effectively. Ego will get in the way and people don't want to be around egotistical people. And one of the things, as a minority, I can tell you, I have sit in rooms and I have suppressed myself.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:19:23]:
And that hurts because you can't be your true authentic self. Everybody's not going to be CEO, but everybody brings a value to the table and a great leader listens to that value. And we don't include all of the ideas, but I do include listening to your thoughts. And in the book I talk about Sammy the janitor. I acknowledge Sammy. Sammy was one of my greatest coaches. When I had my toughest assignment, he would tell me things that I needed to hear. I valued him.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:19:58]:
But the most important lesson I learned from Sammy, because you don't know everything. You know enough to know when you're right, Mister Taylor. But you don't know enough to know when you're wrong. And so when I was there, I would bring coffee every Saturday. And there was one time he really got upset with me. It was about the fourth time we met. He says, mister Taylor, I have enough money to buy coffee too. Why do you think you have to buy every time? Because he wanted me to know that he valued me just as much.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:20:32]:
And leaders can't sit down and have those conversations and think they're above getting out. Interacting with people, respect is something you earn. Titles don't get. You respect provide value to me.

Katie Anderson [00:20:48]:
Yes.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:20:48]:
I'm not giving them value. This is my talk.

Katie Anderson [00:20:52]:
No, it's great. I talk a lot about this chain of learning together and I love the concept. It's linked to your winning link. Our winning is based on the connections between us. And it's not a one way. I'm always teaching you or I'm giving you something as the leader, the more senior I'm learning from you. And maybe that's even stronger than what I'm giving to you, what you are giving to me. And that's the connection to me.

Katie Anderson [00:21:21]:
That's the essence of the winning link. It is this chain of learning and respect in all of that. Yeah.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:21:28]:
So for the first time, there's five different generations working together. Covid has forced that because of the gats and fulfilling positions. But they have one common platform, work life balance that value. And what's different is right. Our great parent, grand great grandparents, they actually, they went out and formed the land so they could live right. Our parents worked to live so right, pay our educations, our kids work and live right. My son works out during the day and then goes to work and, and does other things. But the greatest, I think the greatest gift he gave me was the reflection on life, that eternal learning that you must have.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:22:25]:
We were having a conversation, having dinner, and I was working on some social media platforms and I said, alex, it's too much. He goes, dad, there's this app, it's called, it's in the tree. And he says, we can put it all here. And he goes, I spilled. He says, let me show you. So I handed him my phone and he looks at me and smiles and he throws my phone back to me and I'm like, I thought you were going to help me. He says, I am. But I'm going to do you like you used to do me.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:22:51]:
And I'm like, what, son? He says, I'm going to teach you how to fish instead of give you a fish, dad.

Katie Anderson [00:22:57]:
Oh, you've done well. You taught him how to teach.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:23:02]:
Absolutely.

Katie Anderson [00:23:04]:
What? Yes. You're like, I have been successful as a parent. That's amazing.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:23:10]:
Right? And so that's that loop of, you know enough to know when you're right, but be open enough to learn about things you don't know about. And everyone in the organization is a teacher.

Katie Anderson [00:23:22]:
Absolutely.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:23:23]:
Everyone.

Katie Anderson [00:23:24]:
Absolutely. And it's impossible for any one person to know everything that's going on, especially in a large, complex organization. And so we have to trust our people, the people who work with us, and have, you know, and listen and create an environment that welcomes and embraces those ideas to come forward.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:23:45]:
Huge. Huge. You know, when I post something on social media, I recently posted something, and it had over 40,000 reflections. Wow. Comments were people that I actually, I actually have had interactions with over my 30 years, from being a high school girls track coach to being a frontline manager. Those people still write me. And to prove if someone goes into an old LinkedIn post I made, those are real relationships. And they're not all executives, either.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:24:19]:
Some of them are people I coached and track, and those are people I've had interaction with and some that have coached me. So learning, you know, you look at life, it's an eternal event. It's in the. And you have to be open to it totally.

Katie Anderson [00:24:36]:
Well, that's the subtext of my book, is a lifetime of continuous learning, because that's the essence of, I mean, of being a good person, but also being connected and a better person. And part of. I don't, I don't know how to say that, but just making the world better, we can't stop learning. And also, life gets pretty boring if we think we know it all. That's not a fun place to be.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:25:01]:
Right. And because, you know, Katie, the initial, the goal wasn't to write the book. That wasn't part of the plan. I was doing an engagement, and a trusted friend came up to me and says, billy, you've got to put this in ink. You talk about it in your keynotes, and there's always a line after the keynote, but people wanting to talk to you, you owe it to industry to put that in writing, because a lot of it is where I failed or saw someone fail at it. And I used to laugh about airport Lien. I met a lot of airport lien executives, they go to the airport, they see a book on six Sigma, or they, they read it by the time the plane lands and they're an expert. Right?

Katie Anderson [00:25:50]:
We're doing this or you're doing this.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:25:53]:
Absolutely. I need ten six sigma black belts in two months. And they think they're the experts. And so I really wanted to write a practical book with real life examples and, you know, be honest, simplify. Very simplified. Yep.

Katie Anderson [00:26:16]:
Well, you've been successful in that. It's a, it's a great book, the winning link. And it's, it's tangible, it's simplified, and it's engaging with good stories. So I have two more questions for you, Billy, and one is really related to this process of writing the book. So you had a nice teaser for me here, but what is one thing that you discovered or learned with a new perspective through the process of writing the book?

Billy Ray Taylor [00:26:44]:
You know, one, the discipline it takes to write a book is similar to a continuous improvement. That is true. It's an evolution. And you have all these thoughts in your head. And the thing is, how do you connect those thoughts? And from the other side of the table, the listeners view, one of the things that I wanted, my goal was is this information digestible. And I don't care what level you're at, if you're the CEO or if you are a tire builder at Goodyear, it's digestible. And so what I learned about it is don't get so caught up on the big words and more so the practical implementation and the lessons learned, that's what I found myself reflecting on because I actually wrote it, rewrote it, and then rewrote it again. And so, and then I actually had some test readers to say, did this make sense? And, you know, it was a journey.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:28:04]:
It's not as easy as people think. No, it's, if you're going to write.

Katie Anderson [00:28:09]:
A good book, I would agree. And you've written a great book, so well done. It is a long process. I appreciated for myself as an author having a good advice for some of the authors I admire, including Karen Martin and Rich Sheridan, which you both, you acknowledge both of them in your acknowledgments. You know, Tracy Richardson, Karen Ross and others. And one of the, one of the most helpful pieces of advice, because I had a crisis when I had to reframe and rewrite my book, too, is don't worry, you're definitely going to write the book at least twice, which is you don't want to hear at the beginning, but it's really true. It's the process of PDCA, so getting clarity.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:28:54]:
It is. And, you know, Karen and I, like you and I, we met similar, similar fact. We actually keep in contact. We call each other and have sometimes hour long phone calls. Industry life, bouncing things off of each other. And she's the one that inspired me to write the books. Billy Taylor, you gotta do this. And Karen.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:29:14]:
And only Karen's way. Billy Taylor, you gotta do it. No, I'm not taking no for an answer. And Richard actually helped me through the initial process. And so trusting the voice of industry gurus like yourself, and I hate to use the word guru, but it is what it is. You've invested the time, you've invested the learning. And when you speak, your voice carries. It's no different than me choosing credible people to surround myself with.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:29:46]:
If you call me, I'm going to pick the phone up. You email me Katie, I'm going to return it. Right. Because it's reciprocal. Right. You do it for me. Right? Your humble approach, there's no. There's no doubt your book is going to go to even higher levels.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:30:01]:
You know, I smile and I look at some of your posts, and I'm like, she's doing it right. She's doing it right. And even with your book, you have a servant approach. It's very servant. And when I'm reading stuff, well, I'm on a plane, I don't sleep. I think that's valuable time to play catch up, to read. And I look at some of your posts, and I'm like, I like this one. I like that she's doing some great things, and I applaud you for it.

Katie Anderson [00:30:32]:
Well, thank you, Billy. And I. I feel the same way, which is why when I saw that your book was coming out, I was immediately emailed you and said, let's set up. I wanna talk with you about the book, and I'd love to help amplify the reach. So I'm so thrilled for everyone who's listening or reading the summary on my blog right now. So, Billie, I always end my author interviews with a question. What is one question that I haven't asked you here that you would like to answer? What is that question, and what is your answer?

Billy Ray Taylor [00:31:07]:
What was your greatest challenge as a leader coming through a Fortune 500 company?

Katie Anderson [00:31:15]:
That's a great question that I wish I had thought of. And thank you, Billy. And how do you think about that question?

Billy Ray Taylor [00:31:22]:
I think about it is my greatest challenge was compromising on my standard, something my mother said to me growing up, and she'd always say, what you accept, you cannot change. Whatever you accept, that is the standard. If you're in a relationship, whatever you accept, that's the standard. If you're on a job leading people, it's not what you write down in a policy. It's not what you write down. It's what you walk by and what you accept. And early on in my career, I was more concerned around being liked than I was respected and trusted. And I often found myself taken advantage of in my first two years in leadership.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:32:14]:
And I quickly realized the standard is the standard, and what you accept, that's the standard. And once I got that right, there was no stopping. Especially I look at minorities, females, males, and a lot of times those demographics negotiate their standards, and I laugh. You appreciate this. A young person asked me, but when you became a C suite executive, those challenges still existed. And I'm absolutely. I said, but here was the difference. I'd walk in the room as a senior executive that was a minority.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:33:05]:
And some people look at me as if I was an elephant in a tree. They'd say, wow, how did he get way up there? Like you would an elephant? And I'd say I'd keep my composure because I knew my value proposition. But at the end of that consensus, they thought, that's an eagle. He's supposed to be there. He's supposed to be there. And so don't compromise on your standard. I don't focus on the glass ceiling as I've talked to you, Katie. I focus on my sticky floor stuff I control, stuff I can do.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:33:46]:
And so that's all about my standard of life. I don't show up like I'm selling something. I show up like I own something.

Katie Anderson [00:33:54]:
Yes, you own something I own. And you're willing to share something.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:34:00]:
Absolutely.

Katie Anderson [00:34:00]:
And that is essence of Billy Taylor right there. Thank you for accepting my invitation to be part of my author interview series.

Billy Ray Taylor [00:34:08]:
Katie, thank you for having me on the show. All the best.

Katie Anderson [00:34:12]:
I love Billy's focus on the humanity of leadership and the importance of deliberately defining what winning looks like. As Billie shared, winning is not just about aligning on strategy and goals and how to make processes and progress towards outcomes visible, but how to make people visible and how you, as an operational or transformational change leader, can define and take the actions, the KPA's key performance actions, to help you and your people win. The winning link in your organization is your people. And it's the connection of people, of links together, that creates and grows our chain of learning. You can learn more about Billy in his book on his website, which I'll provide links to in the show notes and I'm super excited to be seeing Billy again in person at the upcoming Lean Solutions Summit in Michigan this September, where we'll both be keynoting and sharing insights from our books and our leadership journeys. Along with conference organizer Patrick Adams, who appeared on a previous episode of Chain of Learning, which I'll also link to in the show notes, I can't wait to learn together and hope to see you there too. As you reflect on this episode and Billy's closing reflections about his greatest challenge and greatest learning as a leader, I want you to also reflect for yourself what has been your greatest challenge as a leader and what can you learn from this challenge, and who can you share your story with your experience to help them learn as well? How can your challenges help you strengthen your chain of learning? In this episode, Billy and I highlight several key leadership competencies that are critical for Unimaster to become a highly influential change leader, which are part of my change Katalyst leadership model and which I've explored in past chain of learning podcast episodes. For example, as Billy mentioned, great leaders know how to create common meaning and use language that connects with their leaders and team members.

Katie Anderson [00:36:01]:
This is all about being a knowledgeable business expert, the K and Katalyst, which Brad Toussaint highlighted in episode 20 and Karen Martin in episode eleven, and you need to be able to understand and track data across the information to know whether or not you're winning or losing. This is what I call being an analytical systems thinker, which Mark Graben and I explored in episode 16. You can learn more about all eight core competencies and understand your opportunities for growth by downloading the Katalyst change leader self assessment@kbjanderson.com. Katalyst spelled with a “K” and listen into episode nine of this podcast. The links are also in the show notes. Be sure to follow or subscribe now and share this podcast chain of learning with your friends and colleagues so we can all strengthen our chain of learning together. And if you're enjoying the show, please be sure to rate and review it on your favorite podcast player. Thanks for being a link in my chain of learning today. I'll see you next time.