Episode 0: Welcome to the Lean Leadership for Ops Managers Podcast

Lean Leadership for Ops Managers Podcast

Episode 0: Welcome to the Lean Leadership for Ops Managers Podcast

Welcome to Lean Leadership for Ops Managers, the podcast for leaders in Ops Management who want to spark improvement, foster engagement, and boost problem solving – AND still get their day job done. Here’s your host, Leadership Trainer, Lean Enthusiast, and Spy Thriller Junkie, Jamie V. Parker.

Hi Hi! Jamie here, and I am so excited to be here with you! Listen, I get it, and I have been there. I am a recovering Command and Control Manager, and Lean is what helped me to transition and start becoming a more empowering, engaging, people-centered leader. I know what it’s like to go through that transformative leadership process, because it ain’t always easy.

In fact, Rob, who’s a manager who was on my team told me once . . . . He said, “You know Jamie, the reason that we as leaders are willing to follow you and stick with it and do all of this hard stuff you keep asking us to do . . . going outside of our comfort zone where you challenge us more and more. The reason we’re all in is because we see the struggle you go through even today. We can see it when you’re onsite and you’re doing a Gemba walk and you’re visiting the team and you’re talking with us. We can see that you so want to say something, but you’re biting your tongue. We know that you’re frustrated, but you cover it up and instead show up the way that you want to authentically show up. To be the leader you want to be and the type of leader that you want us to be. We see that struggle is something that you’re still having today. And if you’re doing it, and you’re willing to be committed, then so are we.”

So here’s what I want to tell you. I promise I am not going to sit here and just share all of the good things, all of the wins, and all of the successes. You are going to hear about failures, screwups, lessons learned, and all of the things I’ve learned over time as an operations executive also practicing Lean.

I know that you are not necessarily a full-time improvement professional. You have a day job. And trying to lead Lean thinking and Lean practice while still carrying the responsibilities of ops management- it isn’t all puppies and rainbows and butterflies.

How about this. Does any of this sound familiar?

You want to systematically improve, but you have to get work out the door and hit your numbers now.

You’re trying to teach new ways of thinking and working, but it feels like you just hit resistance. Maybe you’re having turnover on the team. Or you’ve got tenured team members and when you listen to them, you think, “gosh, you are so stuck in your ways – how in the world do I ever get through to you?”.

Maybe you’re engaging team members and you’re making improvements together, and you’re actually getting results. But through experience, you’re afraid. Because it seems like when you take your eye off the ball or when you move to a different priority, it doesn’t stick. It goes back to the way we were doing it before. So sustainment is just a little bit out of reach.

And maybe you’re trying to empower your team to be problem solvers and decision makers, but you find yourself stuck as the Answer Guy or Gal. And as a result, you just don’t quite have enough bandwidth and time for the priorities that matter most to you and the organization.

In this podcast, we’re going to turn all of these conundrums on their heads, and we’re gonna progress together. We’re going to go down this path together.

So if you’re ready to transform as a leader and consistently spark improvement, foster engagement, and boost problem solving, then this is for you.

Let’s go.