What if one small change could transform your entire organization?
In this episode of ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ ๐๐จ๐๐๐๐ฌ๐ญ, I sits down with one of his earliest mentors, ๐๐จ๐ก๐ง ๐๐ข๐ณ๐ณ๐จ, to unpack the overlooked power of employee development as the foundation for sustainable leadership, operational excellence, and business growth.
John shares a pivotal story about how moving a machine just six inches sparked a multi-million dollar transformationโand how listening to the people on the floor, not just the C-suite, is where true value creation begins.
Whether you're a CEO, team leader, or coach, this conversation will challenge how you think about improvementโand inspire you to lead differently.
๐ก ๐๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฌ๐จ๐๐, ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎโ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฅ๐๐๐ซ๐ง: https://youtu.be/SOCjB56e1oA
The difference between creating and extracting value
Why Rizzoโs companies never laid off employees due to improvement
How standard work empowers innovation
What causes most continuous improvement initiatives to fail
How to lead with humility, presence, and purpose
Why employee development should be every leaderโs top priority
๐ Pre-order John's upcoming book: Creating Value (Wiley Publishing)
๐ฉ Interested in a FREE 90-minute team workshop with bulk orders? Message John Rizzo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rizzolean/
๐ Ready to Lead with Purpose?
๐ฏ ๐๐จ๐จ๐ค ๐ฒ๐จ๐ฎ๐ซ ๐ ๐๐๐ย 1:1 Leadership Strategy Call with Coach John Gallagher:
โ https://coachjohngallagher.com/freecall
๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ ๐๐ซ๐จ๐ฆ ๐๐จ๐๐๐ก ๐๐จ๐ก๐ง:
Website โ https://coachjohngallagher.com
YouTube โ https://youtu.be/SOCjB56e1oA
Resources โ https://linktr.ee/coachjohngallagher
๐ Donโt forget to follow, rate, and review The Uncommon Leader Podcast to help us reach more purpose-driven leaders like you.
#EmployeeDevelopment #LeadershipPodcast #CoachJohnGallagher #ExecutiveLeadership #ContinuousImprovement #PeopleFirstLeadership #CreatingValue #LeadershipDevelopment #LeanLeadership #TheUncommonLeaderPodcast #BusinessLeadership #OperationalExcellence #LeadershipTraining #OrganizationalGrowth #HighPerformanceLeadership
"
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I want them to come away with.
Leadership in continuousimprovement is about developing
people and it's about beingpresent, observing the work and
listening to the people who dothe work.
And go to your workplace,whether you're running a museum
or running a retail company.
(00:21):
Get to the workplace, startlearning, start seeing how
people are struggling, how thecustomer is suffering, and
that's where I think you need tostart.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hey, uncommon Leaders , welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
I'm your host, john GallagherToday.
We're bringing in a profoundindustry voice to talk with us
today.
His name is John Rizzo.
He's the president of BasinHoldings and the managing
partner at Moffitt XL as well.
He's a strategic leader withsome deep expertise across
several different industries.
(01:01):
We're going to talk about thismanufacturing, healthcare and
energy and I know we're going toget a chance to talk about
those 30 years of experience andknow that, going back about 30
years, john was veryinstrumental in me getting
started on my continuousimprovement journey as well.
We're looking forward to that.
He's the author of the soon tobe released book Creating Value,
where he shares his experiencesfrom over 30 years of
(01:23):
facilitating a thousandworkshops, more than 40
organizations, and, ultimately,where he shares his experiences
from over 30 years offacilitating 1,000 workshops,
more than 40 organizations, and,ultimately, where he asserts
that real wisdom doesn't happenin the C-suite alone, but also
happens right out on the factoryfloor.
I can't wait to hear more aboutthat.
And ultimately, he has storiesto share that are very simple,
like moving a big factorymachine just six inches.
(01:45):
That ultimately resulted inbillion dollars in value, and
we'll talk about that here in alittle bit and what that really
means, but I think he's going tochallenge some of our
assumptions.
This conversation today aboutcreating value versus extracting
value in organizations and howcontinuous improvement can be
very impactful.
John, that was a lot of wind,but I want to welcome you to the
Uncommon Leader podcast.
(02:06):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I am doing well.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I'm excited about our conversation today and look, I
want to dive right in because Iwas intrigued by the story in
your book right off the bat andI know we are connected a little
bit in the same company.
You opened up with a powerfulstory about moving a machine
million-dollar machine just sixinches and how, by doing that,
something that small made a hugeimpact in the business from a
(02:32):
value standpoint and createdmillions of dollars in savings.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Tell me a little bit about that story and how the six
inches can turn into millionsof dollars of value and this is
really a defining moment in mycareer in terms of my leadership
development, and it goes backto Krause-Eins, a manufacturer
of electrical constructionmaterials.
We had a million square feetand functional departments,
(02:58):
which means we had specializedequipment organized by the type
of equipment and assembly in adifferent area.
Everything all spread out and Ihad learned about continuous
improvement from one of ourcustomers and I wanted to bring
this to Krauss-Heinz.
And so it was our very firstworkshop and what we were going
(03:20):
to do was try to create flow,move some of this equipment, put
it all into one area we callthat a cell to be able to keep
the work moving, to get it tothe customer faster, to be able
to discover quality issuessooner a number of other reasons
.
So we spent the first couple ofdays figuring out what we were
(03:43):
going to move.
The second day we were going tomove this equipment into this
cell and we didn't have theequipment to do it.
So we had to bring in a companycalled a rigger to move this
equipment and it was veryexpensive and they moved all
this equipment overnight.
And the next morning we came inand the operator said if we had
(04:03):
just moved that piece ofequipment six inches.
He wouldn't have to reach andturn as far.
And I'm thinking, wow, we justspent all this money last night.
Oh well, you know, I can'tafford to move this equipment
again.
And our coach at the time, billMoffitt.
(04:23):
And our coach at the time, billMoffitt, said move the piece of
equipment six inches.
And I said, well, all right,I'll listen to my coach.
And we moved it six inches.
The next day the operator saidwow, I can't believe it.
You actually listened to me anddid something.
(04:46):
And it turned out that thatoperator was a union steward and
was very influential.
And he said to the other peoplein the union hey, let's give
these guys a chance with thiscontinuous improvement process,
because you know, they listenedand they actually made my job
better and they made thisproduction process better.
(05:08):
And that really started thecontinuous improvement journey
at Krause Heinz and at theirparent company and was one of
two defining experiences for mein developing my own leadership
style and skills.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
John, I love that story and especially the story
again having a connection thereas I worked for Krause Heinz as
well.
First of all, the fact that thatwas 30 years ago was just
unbelievable in terms of thatstory I had hair you guys
started on that and when you hadhair right, exactly as we go
through this but ultimately, howthe respect for people
component of what we did was soimportant and listening to
(05:50):
others and the profound impactthat that had and put you all on
a journey to make significantchange and improvement inside
that organization.
We'll talk about some of thoseresults here in just a little
bit.
But the name of your book isCreating Value and that was
really the essence of what youwere doing in that conversation.
Who did you write this book forand why did you write it now?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So I wrote the book to share what I had learned over
30 years with people who maybeare not involved with continuous
improvement.
So for people that this issomething new, where they maybe
heard about it, wanted to learnabout it, and my hope was that,
rather than talking about whatit is, I'd be able to share
(06:41):
examples that would help peoplereally understand what this
process is about.
So it was for thenon-continuous improvement
practitioners to really learnfrom the stories in the book.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Now you talk about that in terms of creating value.
The title of the book also isvery important, because early on
in the book you talk about thedifference between creating
value and maybe a moretraditional approach inside of
continuous improvement,extracting value.
Tell me the difference in thosetwo and how that philosophy is
different in your mind.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So you know, first I'd like to define value,
because it's a notion that meansa lot of different things to
different people, and I actuallyhave a you know kind of a page
of the book here and you know Idefine value as what's important
to the recipient, and it startswith what's you know, in the
(07:37):
title of the book.
It's what's important toemployees, then customers and
stakeholders.
I list the employees firstbecause maybe we'll get into it,
but I think it's an importantpart of you know the premise.
But what's important tocustomers, what I've learned
over the years is and you knowit's different to different
(07:59):
customers or different employeesbut for employees, clear
expectations andresponsibilities or standard
work, training and resourcesnecessary to be successful, safe
and decent work environment andfair compensation.
So you know that's typicallywhat's important to employees.
(08:19):
And so when we talk aboutcreating value in the book, it's
how can we do those things forthe employees?
And again, I list the employeesfirst because my personal
philosophy that's where thisstarts, with the employees.
Next, it's creating value forthe customer what I've learned
over my career, defined in termsof quality, on-time delivery of
(08:44):
a product or service andreasonable cost.
And then, finally, it's what'simportant to the stakeholder.
Those are the owners of thebusiness, and that's to provide
exceptional products or servicesand financially effective
effective.
So, kind of going back to yourquestion about the ways to of
(09:09):
improvement.
And you know, traditionally youmay have private equity
companies that are focused on,you know, financial engineering.
They're leveraging debt,they're selling assets, they're
doing multiple arbitrage.
This is different, this is not.
You know, I've done thosethings so I'm guilty, but you
(09:33):
know, the book is about notcreating value that way but
creating value through, you know, making improvements in those
areas that I just mentioned.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I used to love that.
We talked about that at the endof every one of those
improvement workshops where we'dlook at all three corners, if
you will, of that three-leggedstool the employee, the customer
and the shareholder.
I love how you put the employeefirst in terms of that
conversation.
I know one of the other uniquecommitments you had was that you
wouldn't have layoffs as aresult of any continuous
(10:07):
improvement workshops orcontinuous improvement
activities.
Tell me a little bit more aboutthat as well.
Obviously, a focus on theemployee and creating value for
them.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
So I mean, why would somebody participate in
improving their job or improvingthe workplace if they're going
to lose their job or theirco-workers are going to lose
their job?
So we've had a longstanding youknow policy and you know all
the companies I've worked with.
We've never laid anybody off asa result of improvement.
(10:37):
It just stops the whole process.
Now we can capture thatproductivity that's, you know,
that's identified through, youknow, deploying those people.
When you know somebody retires,maybe they can fill a
retirement.
Or if the company's growing,then you know, rather than going
(10:58):
outside, we can fill it fromwithin.
So it's a really important partof the process.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Love that continuous improvement as a growth strategy
as well.
Again, benefit for theemployees in terms of long-term
employment and not havinglayoffs.
Benefit for the shareholder interms of being able to grow the
company with the resources thatyou have in place there.
So, john, you've experiencedthis over 30 years.
You've either been on theoperations side of continuous
(11:24):
improvement or you've been onthe teaching side or consulting
side of helping otherorganizations make improvements.
In the stories that you've seenwith over the 40 organizations
that you've worked with, whatare some of the ways that
organizations fail in trying toimplement a continuous
improvement philosophy, intrying to implement a continuous
(11:46):
improvement philosophy.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
So the first thing that comes to mind is they treat
this as a toolbox and applytools as opposed to a system.
So really, you know, and in myyears when I was consulting, you
know, we'd have companies cometo us and go you know we're
doing these workshops or leanevents, but we're really not
(12:10):
getting the results.
And I'd say, well, you know,let's see your, you know value
stream analysis and yourimprovement plan.
Let's see your strategydeployment.
Let's see, you know the areaprofiles or the scope documents
for your last workshops.
Let's see the report out.
You know, let's see the KPIsthat are measuring those results
.
And I'll get well, we're justdoing lean or we're just doing
(12:34):
Kaizen events.
So it's treating it as atoolbox, not as a system.
And the second failure point isnot leading from the top.
Sometimes organizations willhave somebody who had some
experience with this at anothercompany.
They'll go to a new company andthey'll think I'm going to
start doing it.
If their boss, their ownership,their board doesn't believe in
(13:00):
it, it's very difficult to kindof push a string.
So those are the kind of thetwo failure areas.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, no doubt that one.
If you don't have commitmentfrom the leadership of the
organization early on, itcertainly will dilute the
effectiveness of the results.
You might be able to try acouple of things with tools, but
you're not going to change theculture inside the organization.
Now and again.
One of the core principles inyour book from a leadership on
how they Now and again one ofthe core principles in your book
(13:27):
from a leadership on how theyin essence overcome those
failures is to go see Tell me alittle bit about that philosophy
of go and see.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
So you know, going back to the crowd, science
example that was the first timethat I understood the impact of
being present, observing thework being done and listening to
the, to the people who do thework, and that's really become
the kind of the center of myleadership leadership style and
(13:58):
has really been the key driverthat I've seen to really
transforming a business.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
John, you've had some great mentors in this space as
well, and you talked about howyou did things traditionally.
I mean, you didn't start outcoming out of college as a
continuous improvement guru, butyou certainly had to learn.
But we've had some great.
You and I have had some greatsimilar mentors along the way
Bill Moffitt, bob Penland.
You've also worked with somephenomenal CEOs Art Byrne and
(14:30):
you've been even in Japan andtrained by the Japanese who
really will say were thepioneers of the Toyota
production system and workingwith NACAO as well.
What was it about those mentorsand how you went into that and
were able to change yourleadership from maybe a more
traditional approach to thiscontinuous improvement?
(14:51):
How did?
Was there a moment for you thathelped transform your
leadership style?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Well, you know, the moment was that was that
Krauss-Mainz example but theover time, what I learned from
those mentors was, you know, thesecond concept, which is key
that I feel to my success as aleader, and that's the
importance of people development.
(15:19):
So, you know, when I started, Ithought these workshops were
all about let's, you know, getthe work moving faster, let's
discover quality sooner.
But what I came to realize fromthose mentors is that, you know
, the purpose of this workshopwas not just to make some change
(15:39):
but was to develop the peopleinto being problem solvers, and
that kind of, like I said, is asecond element of kind of my
leadership style.
And, you know, this wholecontinuous improvement is really
it's about people developmentand I can't underestimate the
(16:01):
importance of that.
Or, you know, having learnedthat from my various mentors, I
love that on that peopledevelopment side.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
And you're right, the workshop, the improvement
activity, that's the engine ofchange, where you have folks
together in a group and makechange happen pretty rapidly.
But ultimately it's theteaching of a methodology in
terms of problem solving thatthey can take back to their
workplace.
That's powerful as well.
That people development is veryimportant.
John, how did you developyourself inside of this space as
(16:33):
well?
So one of the ways is on theseworkshops, but what else did you
do as your personal development, as a leader inside of an
organization, to continuouslyget better?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, so you know.
So early on I had theopportunity to participate in
workshops at other companiessuch as Wiremold.
You know I learned aboutcontinuous improvement from that
company.
They were a customer ofKrauseheim's and when I did a
(17:04):
stint in sales, that's how I metArt Byrne and met Nakao and
learned about this process.
And Art was a very good mentorto me and allowed me to
participate in what they callPresident's Kaizans and do
workshops at Wiremold.
And I also had the opportunityto participate in workshops
(17:24):
through my mentors at variousother companies and that was a
really powerful way for me tolearn about this process.
So it was really learned bydoing and I have done, you know,
study trips to companies aroundthe world, which also helped,
(17:45):
but it was really the kind ofthe participation in the
workshops across broadindustries that really helped me
develop, who have been helpingme refine my own personal brand,
(18:07):
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their expert brand strategists.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
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That's coachjohngallaghercomslash BBG.
(18:31):
Now let's get back to theepisode.
You know, think about that, theterm that comes to my mind as
we continue to move forward.
It might be leader standardwork.
What are those things thatleaders need to do to
continuously grow?
It's participating in thoseevents, it's learning from
others, going on that journey aswell, and it's going on those
(18:52):
gimbal walks, if you will, andlearning from others.
The other piece of standardwork is, once we do these
activities, we're reallydeveloping what we believe is
the best known way to do aprocess or to work on a process.
Many times the employee, whilewe put that first employees they
might be a little bit likecowboys and they kind of like to
do things their own way, if youwill, and to put it back in the
way that they have it.
(19:13):
My guess is you've experiencedthis at some point along your
journey, where you need tobalance the need for
standardization with thefostering of a continuous
improvement environment whereyou have the employees engaged.
How did you deal with that whenthat popped up?
Hey, I want to do it my wayinstead of the standard work way
.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yes, so you know.
First, standard work.
Maybe people may be unfamiliarwith that.
It's a little different.
It's a work instruction.
It's a little different than apolicy or procedure.
It's got some key elements toit.
It's time-based, it'sactionable by the people who do
the work.
It reflects quality and safety.
(19:53):
It's at point of use and it'salmost impossible to improve if
you don't have a standard toimprove off of.
So we create standard work.
It's the best way.
We know how to do it and theneverybody has to do it that way
because we want consistentquality experience, our customer
experience, safety.
(20:14):
But wait a minute, I got abetter way.
Well, great.
We need to be able to listen topeople and incorporate their
ideas into the process.
And you know, empowerment is inthe title of the book.
Empowerment is people havingthe authority to make the change
(20:34):
to that standard work right.
It's not trying to create theirjob every day.
That's chaos.
It's being able to makesuggestions, to make
improvements.
You know, one company justpopped into my mind where we
created standard work forhandling an insurance claim and
there were hundreds of peoplethat now had to do that
(20:57):
insurance claim that way everytime.
Again, consistent quality,customer experience and within a
(21:20):
very short period of time wemade 50 improvements to that
standard work because peoplefelt empowered not to try to
figure out their job, to do ittheir way, but they knew the
standard to work off of and theywere able to make suggestions
to make improvements.
Another company makes makesairbags.
Every employee makes asuggestion every week to change
standard work.
Multiply that by over athousand employees, everybody
(21:41):
making a change to standard workevery week, and you get
double-digit productivityimprovement every year, forever.
And nobody knows how they didit.
There's no secret or magic.
It's all these small changesadding up and again, people
being empowered to not figureout their job but to make
(22:06):
changes and to have the skill,to have the authority and to
have the skills to make changesto these standards.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Love that.
And again talking to the nextquestion of sharing some stories
, some success stories fromorganizations who have had
success, I love to hear thosestories as well.
What about a leadership storyof success where you helped to
transform a leader, and what Imean by that is early on in the
journey.
I think I make up and I've seenthis in some of my teaching
that the leaders want todelegate the improvement and let
(22:37):
somebody else do it, but weknow that they have to be
involved.
Do you have a favoriteleadership story where you've
seen a leader transform, becomea better leader as a result of
this work as well?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
and become a better leader as a result of this work
as well.
So, my favorite area I have alot of stories on this.
First one that came to mind wasa company that manufactures
medical implants, and we startedoff by doing what we call a
(23:09):
vacuum analysis looking at thewhole business.
You know, from the beginning tothe end, everything they do,
trying to come up with where thebiggest opportunities for the
improvement.
So, to start, we're going to gowalk the flow of manufacturing
this part and the executiveswere, you know, on this team,
(23:33):
were, you know, on this team,and we we started walking and
you know we, we got through thefirst building and manufacturing
was in several buildings and itstarted raining really hard and
one of the executives said,well, uh, we, we can go back to
the conference room.
We don't have to go to the otherbuilding.
We know what goes on there.
We'll tell you.
You know, we can tell youwhat's going on.
I said, no, the parts aregetting wet, we're going to get
wet.
And we followed that part andit was, um, it traveled over a
(23:59):
mile.
That one simple part.
And when we got back to theconference room, you know the,
the, the head executive, youknow he had, I mean, literally
something just went, went, click, and for him about being
(24:20):
present, being out there, beingpresent in the workplace, and
the importance of that, and youknow the realization that you
know, wow this is, if I hadn'tbeen present, I wouldn't have
known how bad this really wasand we wouldn't be as aggressive
(24:43):
as we're going to be withmaking some improvements and
doing a better job for thosepoor employees who had to carry
those products through the rainand all that distance and, of
course, for the for thecustomers.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
So, uh, one of my, one of my, one of my favorite
stories I those stories,especially those executives that
realize and oftentimes it's theemployees Again, back to the
employees on the shop floor whohave that impact.
One of my favorite storiesworking with a client where the
CEO wore his blue jeans in andhis tennis shoes to help clean
(25:19):
equipment on the last day as itwas getting ready because we
were talking about pristineequipment.
But them taking a videotape ofhim down on the floor scrubbing
the floors and scrubbing andpainting the equipment was a
huge impact on the people interms of modeling the behavior
that he was wanting inside ofhis organization.
That was on the very firstimprovement workshop that we had
(25:41):
done there.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
So very, very important in that journey.
It requires humility torecognize that you don't know
everything and you know it'sdifficult for some leaders to a
manufacturing company and justto be transparent, that you know
(26:26):
they don't know everything andcan be humble, but it's very
difficult for some leaders to dothat.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Love, that Humility being one of those important
characteristics of a leaderwho's going to be successful.
What are a couple othercharacteristics that are
critical to the success of theexecutives, of the uncommon
leaders who succeed in thisspace?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So you know, my list is pretty focused.
It's being present, observingthe work being done, listening
to the people do the work andpeople development.
I mean that's really how Idefine leadership.
(27:06):
Of course, if you've got someCEO, you know of a multi-billion
dollar company, their job is tocreate the vision and share the
vision.
But you know most leaders we'retalking about this frontline
supervisor who just got promotedto their first leadership job.
We're talking about thisfrontline supervisor who just
got promoted to their firstleadership job or we're talking
about, you know, their boss ortheir boss, these managers.
(27:26):
It's, you know, sharing thevision maybe is not as important
, but being present, observingthe work being done, listening
to people doing the work andfocusing on people development
to me are really the.
It really defines theleadership, the leadership
(27:49):
position.
I mean it's how I define myleadership and I think it's it's
so important to those jobs andso many of those, you know,
lower level leaders are, youknow, promoted into their job
because they're the bestfirefighters and they stay in
that firefighting mode and theydon't realize that we've got to
use continuous improvement totake waste out of their job so
(28:13):
they can spend, you know, themajority of their time
developing the people aroundthem.
So those are the two and youmay remember in the book.
Whenever I hire a new leader orpromote a new leader, I give
(28:33):
them a sign and in huge letterson the sign in the upper
left-hand corner, it says peopledevelopment.
And then in medium letters inthe middle it's make
improvements.
And then in really smallletters in the bottom of the
(28:57):
sign is everything else.
It's PowerPoints and meetingsand people think they're
important if they're inback-to-back meetings all the
time.
No, I mean it's peopledevelopment, make improvements,
and then everything else.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And that's my view of leadership, good or bad.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
That's how I look at the world.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
When you can, break it down to something that simple
as well.
It really can be that simple.
We as leaders have a tendencymaybe it is sometimes a lack of
humility of over-complicating it.
I love that in terms of youknow, go and see, listen to the
people, right, peopledevelopment.
I mean those are very simplecriteria that we often make it
(29:36):
very difficult.
John, when you also talk about,we have kind of we it's natural
tendency.
We have manufacturing storiesthat are really powerful here.
But in the book you say thesystem works everywhere.
What do you mean by that?
It works everywhere.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
How does it work everywhere?
Business whether it's a, youknow, government or retail or a
non-for-profit organization orgovernment right, everybody does
work right, and anytime you dowork, it might not be optimized,
(30:16):
right, we call that.
You know there might be wastein the process.
So you know there's wasteeverywhere and you know we need
to get that waste out of it andput standards in place that you
know can get us to scalable,repeatable processes, and so I
(30:39):
mean it's also pretty simple.
I mean it doesn't matter whatyour job is, there's probably
some waste in it.
We can probably get some of thewaste out and standardize it.
So there's a basis to improveon in the future.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Love that and I can tell you, in anything you go
into there is waste in thatprocess.
We know they beat that into ourheads that 90% of a process is
generally waste and the firsttime through you usually only
get about half of that waste outof the process.
So you've got to go backthrough it multiple times again,
against wash, rinse, repeat ofthat cycle of improvement.
(31:13):
That's another way we have toovercome with employees, like we
just did this area.
Why are we going back and doingit again?
I love one of the stories theyhad at an organization.
We did an event workshop in oneflow cell, as you defined it,
nine different times and in thelast flow cell we were looking
for three seconds just toimprove that output and
(31:34):
understand what was happening,so to be able to have that
continuous improvement.
What's that?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
My story at Wiremold that I tell in the book, where
they had a changeover for arolling mill which basically
takes steel, rolls it into achannel to go on a wall, for
raceway to go through.
It was two shifts to changethat over from one product to
another.
When I finally got to do aPresident's Kaizen, I mean it
was down to 15 minutes and wegot it down to under 10 minutes,
(32:04):
which is the goal is to be ableto do any changeover under
under 10 minutes.
I mean that was many, manyworkshops to get it from two
shifts down to under 10 minutes.
And, by the way, a side story,my teacher at the time, mr Nakao
(32:25):
, said you know, we wanted toshow off, right, we got it down.
We finally with a team that gotunder 10 minutes and he said
not good enough Five minutes andwalked away.
I mean it's about continuousimprovement, right, that's what
he was telling us you can alwaysget better, always get better.
(32:46):
I, you know, and I've I've beenfortunate to be in in a lot of
workshops, probably around athousand, whether I'm as a, as a
manager, or as an investor, oras a consultant, and I've yet to
have a workshop, but we haven'tmade a process better.
(33:08):
Some get further than others,but we can always find a better
way.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
So hard, so hard and so good.
John, I want to ask you aboutthe book specifically.
So folks are going to read yourbook once it comes out we're
going to get a chance to tellthem where to go here in just a
minute but I think about theresponse that you want after
they read the book.
What do you want them to think,what do you want them to feel
after they've read your book,and what do you want them to do?
(33:34):
Think, feel and do.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
You know, I want them to two takeaways that I want
them to come away with, and youknow, one is leadership, and
continuous improvement is aboutdeveloping people, is about
developing people and it's aboutbeing present, observing the
work and listening to the peoplewho do the work.
And that's really the, thetakeaway that, um, you know, I
(34:14):
hope people get when they, whenthey read the book.
And you know the, the the callaction is, you know, go to your
workplace.
You know.
Whether you're running a museumor running, you know, a retail
company.
You know.
Get to the workplace, startlearning, start seeing how you
(34:39):
know the people are struggling,how the customer is suffering,
and that's the call to action.
That's where I think you needto start.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Love that.
I love that call to action.
Go to the workplace, go seewhat's happening.
Things are never as we thinkthey are.
They're always as we see themhappening.
And looking at theorganizations, john, I
appreciate that.
I know at the time of therecording and then when we're
going to publish this, it'sgoing to be before the book is
published, published reallypublished later in the fall, and
(35:14):
we'll get that out.
But where do you want folks togo to learn more about you and
about the book?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Maybe get an advanced copy of the book as well, and
about the book, maybe get anadvanced copy of the book as
well.
So if you go to, you know, ifyou search on creating value,
john Rizzo, you know it'savailable for presale on all of
the you know book selling sites.
The book's being published byWiley and they've done a nice
(35:44):
job of making it available forpre-sale.
So whether it's Amazon orBarnes and Noble or you know any
of the commercial book sites,it's, it's available for
pre-order.
And, um, you know, I will sayif, if somebody does want to do
a bulk pre-order and would liketo do a 90 minute workshop about
the principles in the book, allthey have to do is just send me
(36:05):
a note through InstantMessenger, through LinkedIn or
email, and we'll be glad to do a90-minute workshop with the
team about some of the keyprinciples of the book.
And, no secret, we're going totalk about people development,
because it's really, you know,going and seeing people,
development.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I think it's going to be a big part of it, right,
it's all about people beingpresent.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
So, uh, but we got, we got.
You know, happy to share a lotof you know examples.
Uh, you know behind that.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
John, I love that.
I appreciate you investing timewith the listeners of the
uncommon leader podcast today.
You've been very gracious withyour time.
I want to finish with aquestion that I always ask my
first-time guests, especially atthe end.
But I'm going to give you andit's probably already been said,
but you're going to have to sayit again anyway I'm going to
give you a billboard and you canput any message that you want
to on that billboard.
(36:56):
What?
Speaker 1 (37:00):
is the message you're going to put on there and why
People development.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Hashtag people development.
I think it's there.
I mean, I think, John, I thinkthat solves again so many issues
inside of organizations,frankly, inside of our homes,
inside of our communities aswell.
If we were focused ondeveloping people into the next
spots, I think it's so powerful.
I appreciate your time, John.
I wish you the best on the booklaunch.
(37:25):
I can't wait to put it up herewith my other lean books that
are sitting up here, with ArtByrne and George Koenigsaker on
there and a few others.
It's going to be right therebeside it as we go through it.
So best of luck.
Thank you, John, and that wrapsup another episode of the
Uncommon Leader Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
(37:47):
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
could benefit from the insightsand inspiration we've shared.
Also, if you have a moment, I'dgreatly appreciate if you could
leave a rating and review onyour favorite podcast platform.
Your feedback not only helps usto improve, but it also helps
others discover the podcast andjoin our growing community of
uncommon leaders.
Until next time, go and grow,champions.
I want them to come away with.
Leadership in continuousimprovement is about developing
people and it's about beingpresent, observing the work and
listening to the people who dothe work.
And go to your workplace,whether you're running a museum
or running a retail company.
(00:21):
Get to the workplace, startlearning, start seeing how
people are struggling, how thecustomer is suffering, and
that's where I think you need tostart.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Hey, uncommon Leaders , welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
I'm your host, john GallagherToday.
We're bringing in a profoundindustry voice to talk with us
today.
His name is John Rizzo.
He's the president of BasinHoldings and the managing
partner at Moffitt XL as well.
He's a strategic leader withsome deep expertise across
several different industries.
(01:01):
We're going to talk about thismanufacturing, healthcare and
energy and I know we're going toget a chance to talk about
those 30 years of experience andknow that, going back about 30
years, john was veryinstrumental in me getting
started on my continuousimprovement journey as well.
We're looking forward to that.
He's the author of the soon tobe released book Creating Value,
where he shares his experiencesfrom over 30 years of
(01:23):
facilitating a thousandworkshops, more than 40
organizations, and, ultimately,where he shares his experiences
from over 30 years offacilitating 1,000 workshops,
more than 40 organizations, and,ultimately, where he asserts
that real wisdom doesn't happenin the C-suite alone, but also
happens right out on the factoryfloor.
I can't wait to hear more aboutthat.
And ultimately, he has storiesto share that are very simple,
like moving a big factorymachine just six inches.
(01:45):
That ultimately resulted inbillion dollars in value, and
we'll talk about that here in alittle bit and what that really
means, but I think he's going tochallenge some of our
assumptions.
This conversation today aboutcreating value versus extracting
value in organizations and howcontinuous improvement can be
very impactful.
John, that was a lot of wind,but I want to welcome you to the
Uncommon Leader podcast.
(02:06):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I am doing well.
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I'm excited about our conversation today and look, I
want to dive right in because Iwas intrigued by the story in
your book right off the bat andI know we are connected a little
bit in the same company.
You opened up with a powerfulstory about moving a machine
million-dollar machine just sixinches and how, by doing that,
something that small made a hugeimpact in the business from a
(02:32):
value standpoint and createdmillions of dollars in savings.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Tell me a little bit about that story and how the six
inches can turn into millionsof dollars of value and this is
really a defining moment in mycareer in terms of my leadership
development, and it goes backto Krause-Eins, a manufacturer
of electrical constructionmaterials.
We had a million square feetand functional departments,
(02:58):
which means we had specializedequipment organized by the type
of equipment and assembly in adifferent area.
Everything all spread out and Ihad learned about continuous
improvement from one of ourcustomers and I wanted to bring
this to Krauss-Heinz.
And so it was our very firstworkshop and what we were going
(03:20):
to do was try to create flow,move some of this equipment, put
it all into one area we callthat a cell to be able to keep
the work moving, to get it tothe customer faster, to be able
to discover quality issuessooner a number of other reasons
.
So we spent the first couple ofdays figuring out what we were
(03:43):
going to move.
The second day we were going tomove this equipment into this
cell and we didn't have theequipment to do it.
So we had to bring in a companycalled a rigger to move this
equipment and it was veryexpensive and they moved all
this equipment overnight.
And the next morning we came inand the operator said if we had
(04:03):
just moved that piece ofequipment six inches.
He wouldn't have to reach andturn as far.
And I'm thinking, wow, we justspent all this money last night.
Oh well, you know, I can'tafford to move this equipment
again.
And our coach at the time, billMoffitt.
(04:23):
And our coach at the time, billMoffitt, said move the piece of
equipment six inches.
And I said, well, all right,I'll listen to my coach.
And we moved it six inches.
The next day the operator saidwow, I can't believe it.
You actually listened to me anddid something.
(04:46):
And it turned out that thatoperator was a union steward and
was very influential.
And he said to the other peoplein the union hey, let's give
these guys a chance with thiscontinuous improvement process,
because you know, they listenedand they actually made my job
better and they made thisproduction process better.
(05:08):
And that really started thecontinuous improvement journey
at Krause Heinz and at theirparent company and was one of
two defining experiences for mein developing my own leadership
style and skills.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
John, I love that story and especially the story
again having a connection thereas I worked for Krause Heinz as
well.
First of all, the fact that thatwas 30 years ago was just
unbelievable in terms of thatstory I had hair you guys
started on that and when you hadhair right, exactly as we go
through this but ultimately, howthe respect for people
component of what we did was soimportant and listening to
(05:50):
others and the profound impactthat that had and put you all on
a journey to make significantchange and improvement inside
that organization.
We'll talk about some of thoseresults here in just a little
bit.
But the name of your book isCreating Value and that was
really the essence of what youwere doing in that conversation.
Who did you write this book forand why did you write it now?
Speaker 1 (06:14):
So I wrote the book to share what I had learned over
30 years with people who maybeare not involved with continuous
improvement.
So for people that this issomething new, where they maybe
heard about it, wanted to learnabout it, and my hope was that,
rather than talking about whatit is, I'd be able to share
(06:41):
examples that would help peoplereally understand what this
process is about.
So it was for thenon-continuous improvement
practitioners to really learnfrom the stories in the book.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Now you talk about that in terms of creating value.
The title of the book also isvery important, because early on
in the book you talk about thedifference between creating
value and maybe a moretraditional approach inside of
continuous improvement,extracting value.
Tell me the difference in thosetwo and how that philosophy is
different in your mind.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
So you know, first I'd like to define value,
because it's a notion that meansa lot of different things to
different people, and I actuallyhave a you know kind of a page
of the book here and you know Idefine value as what's important
to the recipient, and it startswith what's you know, in the
(07:37):
title of the book.
It's what's important toemployees, then customers and
stakeholders.
I list the employees firstbecause maybe we'll get into it,
but I think it's an importantpart of you know the premise.
But what's important tocustomers, what I've learned
over the years is and you knowit's different to different
(07:59):
customers or different employeesbut for employees, clear
expectations andresponsibilities or standard
work, training and resourcesnecessary to be successful, safe
and decent work environment andfair compensation.
So you know that's typicallywhat's important to employees.
(08:19):
And so when we talk aboutcreating value in the book, it's
how can we do those things forthe employees?
And again, I list the employeesfirst because my personal
philosophy that's where thisstarts, with the employees.
Next, it's creating value forthe customer what I've learned
over my career, defined in termsof quality, on-time delivery of
(08:44):
a product or service andreasonable cost.
And then, finally, it's what'simportant to the stakeholder.
Those are the owners of thebusiness, and that's to provide
exceptional products or servicesand financially effective
effective.
So, kind of going back to yourquestion about the ways to of
(09:09):
improvement.
And you know, traditionally youmay have private equity
companies that are focused on,you know, financial engineering.
They're leveraging debt,they're selling assets, they're
doing multiple arbitrage.
This is different, this is not.
You know, I've done thosethings so I'm guilty, but you
(09:33):
know, the book is about notcreating value that way but
creating value through, you know, making improvements in those
areas that I just mentioned.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
I used to love that.
We talked about that at the endof every one of those
improvement workshops where we'dlook at all three corners, if
you will, of that three-leggedstool the employee, the customer
and the shareholder.
I love how you put the employeefirst in terms of that
conversation.
I know one of the other uniquecommitments you had was that you
wouldn't have layoffs as aresult of any continuous
(10:07):
improvement workshops orcontinuous improvement
activities.
Tell me a little bit more aboutthat as well.
Obviously, a focus on theemployee and creating value for
them.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
So I mean, why would somebody participate in
improving their job or improvingthe workplace if they're going
to lose their job or theirco-workers are going to lose
their job?
So we've had a longstanding youknow policy and you know all
the companies I've worked with.
We've never laid anybody off asa result of improvement.
(10:37):
It just stops the whole process.
Now we can capture thatproductivity that's, you know,
that's identified through, youknow, deploying those people.
When you know somebody retires,maybe they can fill a
retirement.
Or if the company's growing,then you know, rather than going
(10:58):
outside, we can fill it fromwithin.
So it's a really important partof the process.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Love that continuous improvement as a growth strategy
as well.
Again, benefit for theemployees in terms of long-term
employment and not havinglayoffs.
Benefit for the shareholder interms of being able to grow the
company with the resources thatyou have in place there.
So, john, you've experiencedthis over 30 years.
You've either been on theoperations side of continuous
(11:24):
improvement or you've been onthe teaching side or consulting
side of helping otherorganizations make improvements.
In the stories that you've seenwith over the 40 organizations
that you've worked with, whatare some of the ways that
organizations fail in trying toimplement a continuous
improvement philosophy, intrying to implement a continuous
(11:46):
improvement philosophy.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
So the first thing that comes to mind is they treat
this as a toolbox and applytools as opposed to a system.
So really, you know, and in myyears when I was consulting, you
know, we'd have companies cometo us and go you know we're
doing these workshops or leanevents, but we're really not
(12:10):
getting the results.
And I'd say, well, you know,let's see your, you know value
stream analysis and yourimprovement plan.
Let's see your strategydeployment.
Let's see, you know the areaprofiles or the scope documents
for your last workshops.
Let's see the report out.
You know, let's see the KPIsthat are measuring those results
.
And I'll get well, we're justdoing lean or we're just doing
(12:34):
Kaizen events.
So it's treating it as atoolbox, not as a system.
And the second failure point isnot leading from the top.
Sometimes organizations willhave somebody who had some
experience with this at anothercompany.
They'll go to a new company andthey'll think I'm going to
start doing it.
If their boss, their ownership,their board doesn't believe in
(13:00):
it, it's very difficult to kindof push a string.
So those are the kind of thetwo failure areas.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, no doubt that one.
If you don't have commitmentfrom the leadership of the
organization early on, itcertainly will dilute the
effectiveness of the results.
You might be able to try acouple of things with tools, but
you're not going to change theculture inside the organization.
Now and again.
One of the core principles inyour book from a leadership on
how they Now and again one ofthe core principles in your book
(13:27):
from a leadership on how theyin essence overcome those
failures is to go see Tell me alittle bit about that philosophy
of go and see.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
So you know, going back to the crowd, science
example that was the first timethat I understood the impact of
being present, observing thework being done and listening to
the, to the people who do thework, and that's really become
the kind of the center of myleadership leadership style and
(13:58):
has really been the key driverthat I've seen to really
transforming a business.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
John, you've had some great mentors in this space as
well, and you talked about howyou did things traditionally.
I mean, you didn't start outcoming out of college as a
continuous improvement guru, butyou certainly had to learn.
But we've had some great.
You and I have had some greatsimilar mentors along the way
Bill Moffitt, bob Penland.
You've also worked with somephenomenal CEOs Art Byrne and
(14:30):
you've been even in Japan andtrained by the Japanese who
really will say were thepioneers of the Toyota
production system and workingwith NACAO as well.
What was it about those mentorsand how you went into that and
were able to change yourleadership from maybe a more
traditional approach to thiscontinuous improvement?
(14:51):
How did?
Was there a moment for you thathelped transform your
leadership style?
Speaker 1 (14:57):
Well, you know, the moment was that was that
Krauss-Mainz example but theover time, what I learned from
those mentors was, you know, thesecond concept, which is key
that I feel to my success as aleader, and that's the
importance of people development.
(15:19):
So, you know, when I started, Ithought these workshops were
all about let's, you know, getthe work moving faster, let's
discover quality sooner.
But what I came to realize fromthose mentors is that, you know
, the purpose of this workshopwas not just to make some change
(15:39):
but was to develop the peopleinto being problem solvers, and
that kind of, like I said, is asecond element of kind of my
leadership style.
And, you know, this wholecontinuous improvement is really
it's about people developmentand I can't underestimate the
(16:01):
importance of that.
Or, you know, having learnedthat from my various mentors, I
love that on that peopledevelopment side.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
And you're right, the workshop, the improvement
activity, that's the engine ofchange, where you have folks
together in a group and makechange happen pretty rapidly.
But ultimately it's theteaching of a methodology in
terms of problem solving thatthey can take back to their
workplace.
That's powerful as well.
That people development is veryimportant.
John, how did you developyourself inside of this space as
(16:33):
well?
So one of the ways is on theseworkshops, but what else did you
do as your personal development, as a leader inside of an
organization, to continuouslyget better?
Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, so you know.
So early on I had theopportunity to participate in
workshops at other companiessuch as Wiremold.
You know I learned aboutcontinuous improvement from that
company.
They were a customer ofKrauseheim's and when I did a
(17:04):
stint in sales, that's how I metArt Byrne and met Nakao and
learned about this process.
And Art was a very good mentorto me and allowed me to
participate in what they callPresident's Kaizans and do
workshops at Wiremold.
And I also had the opportunityto participate in workshops
(17:24):
through my mentors at variousother companies and that was a
really powerful way for me tolearn about this process.
So it was really learned bydoing and I have done, you know,
study trips to companies aroundthe world, which also helped,
(17:45):
but it was really the kind ofthe participation in the
workshops across broadindustries that really helped me
develop, who have been helpingme refine my own personal brand,
(18:07):
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Speaker 2 (18:11):
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So head on over tocoachjohngallaghercom slash BBG,
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That's coachjohngallaghercomslash BBG.
(18:31):
Now let's get back to theepisode.
You know, think about that, theterm that comes to my mind as
we continue to move forward.
It might be leader standardwork.
What are those things thatleaders need to do to
continuously grow?
It's participating in thoseevents, it's learning from
others, going on that journey aswell, and it's going on those
(18:52):
gimbal walks, if you will, andlearning from others.
The other piece of standardwork is, once we do these
activities, we're reallydeveloping what we believe is
the best known way to do aprocess or to work on a process.
Many times the employee, whilewe put that first employees they
might be a little bit likecowboys and they kind of like to
do things their own way, if youwill, and to put it back in the
way that they have it.
(19:13):
My guess is you've experiencedthis at some point along your
journey, where you need tobalance the need for
standardization with thefostering of a continuous
improvement environment whereyou have the employees engaged.
How did you deal with that whenthat popped up?
Hey, I want to do it my wayinstead of the standard work way
.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Yes, so you know.
First, standard work.
Maybe people may be unfamiliarwith that.
It's a little different.
It's a work instruction.
It's a little different than apolicy or procedure.
It's got some key elements toit.
It's time-based, it'sactionable by the people who do
the work.
It reflects quality and safety.
(19:53):
It's at point of use and it'salmost impossible to improve if
you don't have a standard toimprove off of.
So we create standard work.
It's the best way.
We know how to do it and theneverybody has to do it that way
because we want consistentquality experience, our customer
experience, safety.
(20:14):
But wait a minute, I got abetter way.
Well, great.
We need to be able to listen topeople and incorporate their
ideas into the process.
And you know, empowerment is inthe title of the book.
Empowerment is people havingthe authority to make the change
(20:34):
to that standard work right.
It's not trying to create theirjob every day.
That's chaos.
It's being able to makesuggestions, to make
improvements.
You know, one company justpopped into my mind where we
created standard work forhandling an insurance claim and
there were hundreds of peoplethat now had to do that
(20:57):
insurance claim that way everytime.
Again, consistent quality,customer experience and within a
(21:20):
very short period of time wemade 50 improvements to that
standard work because peoplefelt empowered not to try to
figure out their job, to do ittheir way, but they knew the
standard to work off of and theywere able to make suggestions
to make improvements.
Another company makes makesairbags.
Every employee makes asuggestion every week to change
standard work.
Multiply that by over athousand employees, everybody
(21:41):
making a change to standard workevery week, and you get
double-digit productivityimprovement every year, forever.
And nobody knows how they didit.
There's no secret or magic.
It's all these small changesadding up and again, people
being empowered to not figureout their job but to make
(22:06):
changes and to have the skill,to have the authority and to
have the skills to make changesto these standards.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
Love that.
And again talking to the nextquestion of sharing some stories
, some success stories fromorganizations who have had
success, I love to hear thosestories as well.
What about a leadership storyof success where you helped to
transform a leader, and what Imean by that is early on in the
journey.
I think I make up and I've seenthis in some of my teaching
that the leaders want todelegate the improvement and let
(22:37):
somebody else do it, but weknow that they have to be
involved.
Do you have a favoriteleadership story where you've
seen a leader transform, becomea better leader as a result of
this work as well?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
and become a better leader as a result of this work
as well.
So, my favorite area I have alot of stories on this.
First one that came to mind wasa company that manufactures
medical implants, and we startedoff by doing what we call a
(23:09):
vacuum analysis looking at thewhole business.
You know, from the beginning tothe end, everything they do,
trying to come up with where thebiggest opportunities for the
improvement.
So, to start, we're going to gowalk the flow of manufacturing
this part and the executiveswere, you know, on this team,
(23:33):
were, you know, on this team,and we we started walking and
you know we, we got through thefirst building and manufacturing
was in several buildings and itstarted raining really hard and
one of the executives said,well, uh, we, we can go back to
the conference room.
We don't have to go to the otherbuilding.
We know what goes on there.
We'll tell you.
You know, we can tell youwhat's going on.
I said, no, the parts aregetting wet, we're going to get
wet.
And we followed that part andit was, um, it traveled over a
(23:59):
mile.
That one simple part.
And when we got back to theconference room, you know the,
the, the head executive, youknow he had, I mean, literally
something just went, went, click, and for him about being
(24:20):
present, being out there, beingpresent in the workplace, and
the importance of that, and youknow the realization that you
know, wow this is, if I hadn'tbeen present, I wouldn't have
known how bad this really wasand we wouldn't be as aggressive
(24:43):
as we're going to be withmaking some improvements and
doing a better job for thosepoor employees who had to carry
those products through the rainand all that distance and, of
course, for the for thecustomers.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
So, uh, one of my, one of my, one of my favorite
stories I those stories,especially those executives that
realize and oftentimes it's theemployees Again, back to the
employees on the shop floor whohave that impact.
One of my favorite storiesworking with a client where the
CEO wore his blue jeans in andhis tennis shoes to help clean
(25:19):
equipment on the last day as itwas getting ready because we
were talking about pristineequipment.
But them taking a videotape ofhim down on the floor scrubbing
the floors and scrubbing andpainting the equipment was a
huge impact on the people interms of modeling the behavior
that he was wanting inside ofhis organization.
That was on the very firstimprovement workshop that we had
(25:41):
done there.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
So very, very important in that journey.
It requires humility torecognize that you don't know
everything and you know it'sdifficult for some leaders to a
manufacturing company and justto be transparent, that you know
(26:26):
they don't know everything andcan be humble, but it's very
difficult for some leaders to dothat.
Speaker 2 (26:31):
Love, that Humility being one of those important
characteristics of a leaderwho's going to be successful.
What are a couple othercharacteristics that are
critical to the success of theexecutives, of the uncommon
leaders who succeed in thisspace?
Speaker 1 (26:46):
So you know, my list is pretty focused.
It's being present, observingthe work being done, listening
to the people do the work andpeople development.
I mean that's really how Idefine leadership.
(27:06):
Of course, if you've got someCEO, you know of a multi-billion
dollar company, their job is tocreate the vision and share the
vision.
But you know most leaders we'retalking about this frontline
supervisor who just got promotedto their first leadership job.
We're talking about thisfrontline supervisor who just
got promoted to their firstleadership job or we're talking
about, you know, their boss ortheir boss, these managers.
(27:26):
It's, you know, sharing thevision maybe is not as important
, but being present, observingthe work being done, listening
to people doing the work andfocusing on people development
to me are really the.
It really defines theleadership, the leadership
(27:49):
position.
I mean it's how I define myleadership and I think it's it's
so important to those jobs andso many of those, you know,
lower level leaders are, youknow, promoted into their job
because they're the bestfirefighters and they stay in
that firefighting mode and theydon't realize that we've got to
use continuous improvement totake waste out of their job so
(28:13):
they can spend, you know, themajority of their time
developing the people aroundthem.
So those are the two and youmay remember in the book.
Whenever I hire a new leader orpromote a new leader, I give
(28:33):
them a sign and in huge letterson the sign in the upper
left-hand corner, it says peopledevelopment.
And then in medium letters inthe middle it's make
improvements.
And then in really smallletters in the bottom of the
(28:57):
sign is everything else.
It's PowerPoints and meetingsand people think they're
important if they're inback-to-back meetings all the
time.
No, I mean it's peopledevelopment, make improvements,
and then everything else.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
And that's my view of leadership, good or bad.
Speaker 1 (29:12):
That's how I look at the world.
Speaker 2 (29:14):
When you can, break it down to something that simple
as well.
It really can be that simple.
We as leaders have a tendencymaybe it is sometimes a lack of
humility of over-complicating it.
I love that in terms of youknow, go and see, listen to the
people, right, peopledevelopment.
I mean those are very simplecriteria that we often make it
(29:36):
very difficult.
John, when you also talk about,we have kind of we it's natural
tendency.
We have manufacturing storiesthat are really powerful here.
But in the book you say thesystem works everywhere.
What do you mean by that?
It works everywhere.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
How does it work everywhere?
Business whether it's a, youknow, government or retail or a
non-for-profit organization orgovernment right, everybody does
work right, and anytime you dowork, it might not be optimized,
(30:16):
right, we call that.
You know there might be wastein the process.
So you know there's wasteeverywhere and you know we need
to get that waste out of it andput standards in place that you
know can get us to scalable,repeatable processes, and so I
(30:39):
mean it's also pretty simple.
I mean it doesn't matter whatyour job is, there's probably
some waste in it.
We can probably get some of thewaste out and standardize it.
So there's a basis to improveon in the future.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
Love that and I can tell you, in anything you go
into there is waste in thatprocess.
We know they beat that into ourheads that 90% of a process is
generally waste and the firsttime through you usually only
get about half of that waste outof the process.
So you've got to go backthrough it multiple times again,
against wash, rinse, repeat ofthat cycle of improvement.
(31:13):
That's another way we have toovercome with employees, like we
just did this area.
Why are we going back and doingit again?
I love one of the stories theyhad at an organization.
We did an event workshop in oneflow cell, as you defined it,
nine different times and in thelast flow cell we were looking
for three seconds just toimprove that output and
(31:34):
understand what was happening,so to be able to have that
continuous improvement.
What's that?
Speaker 1 (31:40):
My story at Wiremold that I tell in the book, where
they had a changeover for arolling mill which basically
takes steel, rolls it into achannel to go on a wall, for
raceway to go through.
It was two shifts to changethat over from one product to
another.
When I finally got to do aPresident's Kaizen, I mean it
was down to 15 minutes and wegot it down to under 10 minutes,
(32:04):
which is the goal is to be ableto do any changeover under
under 10 minutes.
I mean that was many, manyworkshops to get it from two
shifts down to under 10 minutes.
And, by the way, a side story,my teacher at the time, mr Nakao
(32:25):
, said you know, we wanted toshow off, right, we got it down.
We finally with a team that gotunder 10 minutes and he said
not good enough Five minutes andwalked away.
I mean it's about continuousimprovement, right, that's what
he was telling us you can alwaysget better, always get better.
(32:46):
I, you know, and I've I've beenfortunate to be in in a lot of
workshops, probably around athousand, whether I'm as a, as a
manager, or as an investor, oras a consultant, and I've yet to
have a workshop, but we haven'tmade a process better.
(33:08):
Some get further than others,but we can always find a better
way.
Speaker 2 (33:12):
So hard, so hard and so good.
John, I want to ask you aboutthe book specifically.
So folks are going to read yourbook once it comes out we're
going to get a chance to tellthem where to go here in just a
minute but I think about theresponse that you want after
they read the book.
What do you want them to think,what do you want them to feel
after they've read your book,and what do you want them to do?
(33:34):
Think, feel and do.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
You know, I want them to two takeaways that I want
them to come away with, and youknow, one is leadership, and
continuous improvement is aboutdeveloping people, is about
developing people and it's aboutbeing present, observing the
work and listening to the peoplewho do the work.
And that's really the, thetakeaway that, um, you know, I
(34:14):
hope people get when they, whenthey read the book.
And you know the, the the callaction is, you know, go to your
workplace.
You know.
Whether you're running a museumor running, you know, a retail
company.
You know.
Get to the workplace, startlearning, start seeing how you
(34:39):
know the people are struggling,how the customer is suffering,
and that's the call to action.
That's where I think you needto start.
Speaker 2 (34:53):
Love that.
I love that call to action.
Go to the workplace, go seewhat's happening.
Things are never as we thinkthey are.
They're always as we see themhappening.
And looking at theorganizations, john, I
appreciate that.
I know at the time of therecording and then when we're
going to publish this, it'sgoing to be before the book is
published, published reallypublished later in the fall, and
(35:14):
we'll get that out.
But where do you want folks togo to learn more about you and
about the book?
Speaker 1 (35:18):
Maybe get an advanced copy of the book as well, and
about the book, maybe get anadvanced copy of the book as
well.
So if you go to, you know, ifyou search on creating value,
john Rizzo, you know it'savailable for presale on all of
the you know book selling sites.
The book's being published byWiley and they've done a nice
(35:44):
job of making it available forpre-sale.
So whether it's Amazon orBarnes and Noble or you know any
of the commercial book sites,it's, it's available for
pre-order.
And, um, you know, I will sayif, if somebody does want to do
a bulk pre-order and would liketo do a 90 minute workshop about
the principles in the book, allthey have to do is just send me
(36:05):
a note through InstantMessenger, through LinkedIn or
email, and we'll be glad to do a90-minute workshop with the
team about some of the keyprinciples of the book.
And, no secret, we're going totalk about people development,
because it's really, you know,going and seeing people,
development.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I think it's going to be a big part of it, right,
it's all about people beingpresent.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
So, uh, but we got, we got.
You know, happy to share a lotof you know examples.
Uh, you know behind that.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
John, I love that.
I appreciate you investing timewith the listeners of the
uncommon leader podcast today.
You've been very gracious withyour time.
I want to finish with aquestion that I always ask my
first-time guests, especially atthe end.
But I'm going to give you andit's probably already been said,
but you're going to have to sayit again anyway I'm going to
give you a billboard and you canput any message that you want
to on that billboard.
(36:56):
What?
Speaker 1 (37:00):
is the message you're going to put on there and why
People development.
Speaker 2 (37:04):
Hashtag people development.
I think it's there.
I mean, I think, John, I thinkthat solves again so many issues
inside of organizations,frankly, inside of our homes,
inside of our communities aswell.
If we were focused ondeveloping people into the next
spots, I think it's so powerful.
I appreciate your time, John.
I wish you the best on the booklaunch.
(37:25):
I can't wait to put it up herewith my other lean books that
are sitting up here, with ArtByrne and George Koenigsaker on
there and a few others.
It's going to be right therebeside it as we go through it.
So best of luck.
Thank you, John, and that wrapsup another episode of the
Uncommon Leader Podcast.
Thanks for tuning in today.
If you found value in thisepisode, I encourage you to
(37:47):
share it with your friends,colleagues or anyone else who
could benefit from the insightsand inspiration we've shared.
Also, if you have a moment, I'dgreatly appreciate if you could
leave a rating and review onyour favorite podcast platform.
Your feedback not only helps usto improve, but it also helps
others discover the podcast andjoin our growing community of
uncommon leaders.
Until next time, go and grow,champions.
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