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Episode 020: Sam MacPherson : Lean Leadership and The Green Berets
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Regular listeners to the podcast will recognize that we took a week off to observe the 4th of July holiday. I was able to spend time with the people I love and to enjoy the fruits of freedom that our men and women in uniform have sacrificed to provide us. I caught some fish, I caught some sun, and I enjoyed my wonderful extended family. I also caught a great guest.
Today’s guest is Sam McPherson. Sam is a co-founder and Executive Director or The Lean Leadership Academy. Sam is very familiar with leadership…
Sam is a former Chief of Training for the Elite United States Army Special Forces (The Green Berets) and a Manufacturing Executive Vice-President of Operations. Sam has dedicated over 25 years to developing organizational leadership and lean transformation leaders. Sam was introduced to the Toyota Production System and the Shingo method in the mid-1980’s, while serving as project leader for Dr. Shigeo Shingo to establish Modular Maintenance for the U.S. Army’s new Bradley Fighting Vehicle.
Sam also led operational excellence as a plant manager for Crown Cork and Seal’s plastics operations in Birmingham, AL and Salt Lake City, UT and has led successful Lean Transformations in operations and engineering as Director of Lean Operations and Quality Systems; Division Director of Operations, and Executive Vice-president of Operations in the marine industry.
Sam retired from active military service in 2004 and private sector daily operational senior leadership in 2007 to devote full time to his Lean advancement partnership with North Carolina State University and helping to develop Lean Leadership and the Toyota Management System in his personal clients through his organization the Lean Leadership Academy.
I really enjoyed my conversation with Sam as he talks about his experiences including
How the best thing a leader can do is create other leaders
The effects of formal leadership training from the military to Toyota
The mistake of waiting too long to train our leaders
The need to communicate two levels up, two levels down and one level side to side
The mistakes people make in creating standard work incorrectly and poor training
and Why transformations fail.
I’m sure you will enjoy my conversation with Sam, so sit tight, buckle up, and prepare to ride the Leadership Knowledge Express with our guest Sam McPherson.
Favorite Lean Quote:
'Leaders are not born they are made and they are made from effort and hard work'
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-Vince Lombardi
'The plant shop floor is a reflection of leadership' Taichi Ohno
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'The proper attitude for a lean leader is to have proper problem awareness and an extremely low…
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Setback in their Lean Journey:
Sam talks about the mistakes of not listening to the admonishments of his mentor about not getting the buy in of his senior leadership in implementing a lean operating system.
Lean “A-Ha!” Moment:
Sam talks about his experiences in implementing TPS at Crown Cork and Seal and seeing how everything came together.
Advice for the person starting out with Lean/Continuous Improvement:
Find out what your customer really values and that will tell you where you need to focus on where…
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Advice for the journeyman professional in Lean/Continuous Improvement:
Embrace the TWI programs and share your knowledge through those capabilities to bring up the future leaders of your organization.
Book Recommendation:
New Shop Floor Management: Empowering People for Continuous Improvement by Kyoshi Suzaki
Interview Links:
We Wait Too Long to Train Our Leaders HBR Article
Lean Leadership Academy Website
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