Patrick Adams  00:33

Hello, and welcome to this episode of the lean solutions podcast led by your hosts, Andy Olrich. And myself, Patrick Adams. How’s it going, Andy?

 

Andy Olrich  00:41

Good eye. Patrick. Dawn. Great night.

 

Patrick Adams  00:43

Thank you. How are you? Yeah, I’m doing great. I’m excited to discuss today’s topic. Tools versus culture. This is always a big a big one, you know, out on social media with, you know, a is it? Do we push the tools? Do we fix the culture? Like what you know, what’s the right approach, and today we have a guest on the show. That’s, that’s an expert in this area that has a lot of experience in both of the two areas. But we’re going to talk pretty heavily around culture. You know, this, the true strength of an organization lies in its cultural foundation, right? In a vibrant Lean culture that embraces collaboration, innovation, and a relentless pursuit of improvement. A culture that values open communication, employee empowerment, and commitment to learning enables teams to leverage tools effectively, and adapt to evolving challenges. So this is going to be the the focus for today. So I’m excited that we’re joined by our guest, Ryan Tierney. And Andy, do you want to do a quick intro for Ryan before he pops on

 

Andy Olrich  01:45

the show? Really excited. So Brian’s a lean enthusiast and co owner of global seating, manufacture Seating Matters experts in clinical seating, and they’re world renowned for their commitment to operational excellence and Lean principles. So beyond his role of setting matters, Ryan’s the visionary founder of Lean made simple, and he’s a host of the lean made simple podcast where he shares invaluable insights into the power of Lean thinking. So this podcast is really soared to prominence in rank number five and UK business podcasts, and has garnered a dedicated following of listeners from all around the world. And just recently, Ryan’s YouTube channel has reached over 5000 subscribers and over 1 million views. It’s it’s awesome. And Ryan’s teachings have inspired 1000s of organizations to embrace continuous improvement by simplifying the message of lean. So hey, welcome, Ryan.

 

02:36

Thank you very much. Thanks, Patrick. Thanks, Andy. Brilliant to be on the show.

 

Andy Olrich  02:42

Yes, super excited. So as we’d like to do, we’d like to just unpack a little bit more about you, mate. So yeah, I’d love to know what’s your story? And and how did you find out about Lean and, and what’s led you here today?

 

Ryan Tierney  02:54

Yeah, it’s actually a really interesting story. Back nine years ago, actually, it’s actually nine years ago, last week. We run a company called St matters will make therapeutic setting for nursing homes and hospitals. And I’m predominantly on the operations side of the business. That’s myself and my two brothers that own the company. And the company really wasn’t running well at all loads of production issues, loads of people issues, loads of quality problems. The place was dark, the place was gloomy. The place was dirty. I mean, if you imagine the worst company I’ve ever seen, we were that company. We absolutely were that company. I was really stressed. I was overworked. I was doing really long ers. And it was just after my father passed away, actually. And he was only 52 When he passed away. When he passed away, I was 26. It was exactly half his age. Everything came kind of came to head on I said there has to be a better way that I can keep running the business like this. I went home one night, I got my iPad at my kitchen table and abroad but brought up the iPad. And I started to type in how to manage the factory, how to run production, how to streamline processes, I had no idea even what I was trying to search for. But lo and behold, I came across this thing called limb I’d never really heard of it before, didn’t know what it was. And it’s like a switch something switched that night and my my brain my mind. A lot of fire that has never wondered, constant change that night. I went then the next day to our company. And I said you have to see this thing called Lane It’s unbelievable. This is the key, this is a tool that we have been looking for. And thankfully, it’s part of personal passion that has been been going on for the last nine years. Wow.

 

Patrick Adams  05:15

That’s amazing. I don’t I, I’m I have so many questions right now. Yeah. So first, first and foremost, I want to the you know, you you work in a family owned business, you work with your brothers. And I actually was going to ask you did so was your dad part of the business as well? Or was it something that started with started by you and your brothers,

 

05:39

it was yes, in the early days, he was an engineer, or mother as an occupational therapist. So she seen the need the need for this type of setting for her clients. And my father was really good at you know, engineering and woodwork and that type of thing. So between it was kind of like a family, a family affair. Okay, mother, saying the Nate or father Kennedy knew how to design the first one. Myself and my two brothers always wanted to start a business, we really did always passionate about business, and then something together. So the three of us joined up and started supplying chairs, to or mothers customers, and then further afield, and it started really, really small, and a small kind of workshop behind our family home really small, like a small shed, and it’s grown into what it is today.

 

Patrick Adams  06:32

That’s amazing. And I’ve seen some of your videos, Ryan. And I mean, it’s it’s pretty, pretty amazing what you guys do and what you’ve been able to accomplish. You know, just thinking back to those first years. I mean, I’m, I want, I’d love I love to hear from you about the first couple of years. You know, you talked about it being tough. And, you know, working in a family business, you know, for those that are listening in today, some probably working family businesses, others maybe have heard, but it’s not it’s not easy, right? There’s a whole nother dynamic that you that comes into the, the managing of the business, that that you have to deal with. And it can create some serious frustrations and stress. Not just in the workplace, but even in your personal life. Right. I mean, it’s not like you, it’s not like you’re leaving work at work. You’re, you’re talking about it at the Thanksgiving dinner or during the holidays, right? I mean, what are the what are those first two years look like for you guys?

 

07:28

Exactly. There’s really a struggle, an uphill battle, trying to start a business, we actually started the business in 2008, the worst time, you could have started a business, probably in the history of business. So we started right in the middle of recession. It took a lot of work a lot of effort to get it off the ground. But thankfully, with persistence and hard work, and really good people around us, we made it work. But yeah, definitely. When you bring that family dynamic into it, it’s a whole other conversation. But thankfully, we got through it, and we really made it work. Yeah.

 

Patrick Adams  08:05

And before I, before I let Andy jump in, can you just let our listeners know, like, like, what size of company are we talking about? At this point? I mean, what is give us a give us kind of a view of what your factory looks like that you walk into, and that you work in, day in and day out?

 

08:21

Yeah, so right now we manufacture a product in Northern Ireland, we distribute all over the world, but mainly Australia, America, and Europe, Canada, as well. All manufacturing is done in Northern Ireland, we’ve got a team of about 70 people here. And we’ve got about another team of 40 or 50 on the road in sales. So quite a few, quite a big organization that’s grown from something very small to to what it is today. And so yeah, quite quite a quite a success story. And the products that we’re making are really helping to change people’s lives. And there’s a lot of emotion and a lot of passion behind what we do. So yeah, that’s that’s kind of an overview of, of how big we are. Yeah. Wow.

 

Patrick Adams  09:05

by you, you’re, I’m sure your dad is proud. I mean, what an amazing accomplishment you guys have, have, you know, and again, the number of people that you’re helping through the business is pretty amazing. So hats off to you guys. Like you Yeah,

 

Andy Olrich  09:20

I second that, you know, just just getting that business off the ground with the family dynamic and then having the you know, the really unfortunate passing of your father to then potentially a real probably accelerate that transition to the to the leadership of the company and one of our hosts Catherine she’s she’s up in Ireland so we’ll have to get Katherine to pop over and and say goodbye to tea factory. Definitely. Yeah. So that’s the thing coming through is the passion and that real sense of purpose and the products that you make around changing you’re supporting people’s lives in the in that space with the elderly or people with some some accessibility challenges. So it It’s it’s really good to hear someone’s perspective of how they’re, they’re using lean in that space to help improve people’s lives. And just really keen to understand, Ryan, obviously, that sounds to me. And it’s clear that it’s been a real success story for your business. But what about outside of that? Ryan, you said, like a switch went off in your head at that, in that really tough moment for you? What about in the rest of your life? Is there some examples or highlights you’d like to call out of of where this has taken you? Yeah,

 

10:29

for me, Lynn is a way of thinking, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of behaving, it started off as a production manufacturing problem that I had. But I quickly realized that all of the lean concepts and all of the Lean principles that we all know and love, apply so much to our daily lives. Even Personally, myself, back at the start, when I find out about ln, I was so like, so passionate about it, I just wanted to tell everybody about it, talk to everyone about it. That was just the missing link for us. But one of the things that was holding me back personally, and I don’t think I’ve ever shared this before, one of the things that was holding me back, was that I had never actually spoken to our entire team as a group before. Because I personally didn’t feel confident enough traders. And if you look ahead, nine, nine years, I’ve got a podcast and the YouTube videos on speaking all over the world, I’ve got a book coming out. So the transformation in May as a letter. And as a person has just been day and night, like black and white. You know, unrecognizable from where I was nine years ago. And I 100% Put that down to lane Lane really encouraged me to grow and develop as a person. And I think it is a lesson for anybody out there that has a real passion for anything for any subject or any topic. If you really go for it, you know, that really grows and develops you as a person and then what that can do for the wider community. You know, the amount of people that have taken Elaine on board since me sitting at my kitchen table nine years ago, we’ve had hundreds and 1000s of people that have came through our facility for a linter. And I just think back, like if I didn’t come across the lane that made on YouTube, the amount of people that wouldn’t know about it, it’s just crazy. So it’s a lesson and self confidence. It’s a lesson in leadership, that’s a lesson and being passionate about something, and not stopping until you go where you want to go with it.

 

Andy Olrich  12:45

Wow, that’s awesome, then I have a question in around, you know, we’re talking about tools versus culture. I’ll put my hand up had happened to me. But when I first started really coming across a lot of Lean information and things like that, how did you support yourself? Well say you didn’t get lost in the tools and you weren’t just going back and just throwing tools through the organization, how did you separate and really see that it’s the cultural piece supported by the tool? So I’d be fascinated to to find out how you resisted the temptation to throw the toolbox upside down? That’s

 

13:21

actually a really good question. And I’ve got a really good story actually. I was about two years into lean, came across lean on YouTube. It was Paul Akers, actually, that I came across first and I was totally, absolutely blown away by Paul’s teachings and how simple Paul Medlin. But we were two years until in Germany, trying to use all the tools set up a kanban system proven system, you know, did one piece flow just in time, standard work, all the tools that we all know about. And I went to visit a company in Germany, a company called Yellow tools. And the owner of the company is a guy called Michael Althoff. And I went on a one day tour of his facility. And we were walking around and I was taken photographs of all the Kanban cards and the label system and they commissioned by boards and all the tools and I was getting fascinated by the tools. And Michael was showing us around and he said, Ryan, it’s not about the tools. It’s about the people. And I was like Yeah, yeah, I know. But 30 minutes later, he comes back again. And he said, Ryan, why are you taking so many photographs, it’s not about details. It’s about the people. And I was like you’ve just said that 30 minutes ago, I get it. But at the end of the tour, I was just about to get into the taxi had to go back to the to the airport. Michael actually grabbed me by the arm, because he knew I wasn’t getting this. He could tell that it didn’t get it It grabbed me by the arm. And I said, Ryan, lean is a tool for growing and developing people. Lean is a tool for growing and developing people. So on the way back on the Taxi journey and the plane journey, on the way home, I was really starting to think about what Michael meant by that, what did he really mean? And then it clicked. And I wondered, you know, I’ve heard of No, the books have centered and videos, Lane is a tool for growing and developing people, but I really didn’t internalize it until Michael made it really clear to me. And know you, when people come to visit us for linters. They say your papers are so engaged, your people are so on fire, how do you make so many improvements, the conference that they have the ownership they have of their work area. And I say that’s because of lean. Lean is a tool for growing and developing people. So if we focus on the people, all the tools will look after themselves, we don’t have to worry about Kanban, we don’t have to worry about visual management, we don’t have to worry about one piece, lower standard operating procedures that will come if we grow and develop the people and develop a culture of continuous improvement. And I’ve actually come up with with a diagram, it’s hard to explain it nya on a podcast, but it’s in my new book about I call it the PDS system, the people development system. And basically, really simply, it’s if we have, if you think about what Lean is, we have an idea for an improvement, we make the improvement. And then we test it to see if it worked. That’s really over then since there’s three steps, none of it didn’t work, no problem, try have another idea. test it to see if that worked. And then, you know, it’s a cycle of continuous improvement. But really what we’re doing when we’re in the idea stage, the testing stage, the making the improvement stage, we’re challenging our thinking, we’re collaborating with other people where we’re improving our communication skills, we’re problem solving. And what this does for the person is grows and develops the person. And this all came from Michael Althoff janitor. And that’s why I’m so passionate about Lean because it’s not about the tools. Yes, they’re important. But I think everyone listening to this podcast, should go back to the organization and focus on the culture, focus on growing and developing their people. And everything else looks after itself.

 

Patrick Adams  17:41

Right, right. So true. It made me think, Ryan, while you were talking about I don’t remember who said this, but something to the effect of, you know, two executive leaders are talking and one of them says to the other one, hey, you know, I don’t know that we should be pouring into our people so much, because what if we would have we spend all this time training them and developing them? And then they leave? And he said, um, and he’s like, Well, I can understand that. But you know, what, if we don’t pour into him, and they stay in the same place? Here we are, you know, so and then that led me to a question for you. Just to expand on what you talked about. Love the story, by the way, what a great way. I mean, it hats off to that guy, too. Right? I mean, that you took the time to actually talk with you about that. Because I think there’s so many organizations out there right now that, you know, read a book, or went and took a tour like you did. And they came back with like, Hey, here’s five tools we need to implement today. Like these really worked at that organization. And they were doing some really cool stuff and look at these pictures, and look what I read in this book. And we need to do this 10 step to, you know, to change or whatever. Those people that are listening in, because I think there’s a large number of people in organizations that have done that, and they’re not seeing the results that they expected that they would see. And it sounds like you were a couple years in maybe down that same path. So what did you do? Like what what did you did you scrap everything? Did you start over? Did you you know what, what were your first steps when you got back to your your factory and thought okay, let’s, let’s start let’s restart the right way. What a great

 

19:27

question. One of the things we started on and off at the start was morning meetings. We’ve done morning meetings for a while. And to be honest, we stopped them because we thought it was a waste of time. And then after a few months, we started them again and then we stopped them again. And after internalizing the idea that lenders have a growing and developing people, and the fact that we need to set aside time to grow and develop people And the best way to do that is at a morning meeting, where we talk with Lean principles, we show examples from other companies around the world that are doing Lean. We share, we talk about Lean principle, we might do a quiz with Lean learning, or the game and introduce lean learning. Some type of lane learning on a daily basis, was the thing that really changed our culture. So people come here for tours all the time on on the first tour, they’ve got their photograph, they’ve got their camera taking photographs. On the second, third, there’s less photographs. On the third or fourth, third, they’re like, Ah, it’s not about all the stuff I’m taking photographs of, is it? And I’m like, No, it’s not. But I think people have to go down the journey of thinking it’s about the tills, you know, to get excited about it, then they realize, I don’t think it’s maybe possible to go straight to realizing that it’s about the culture, I think there is a journey that people have to grind. Because I think the tools and the visuals, and the color coding gets people excited, and it gets them hooked. And then they realize that it’s actually about culture. Right.

 

Andy Olrich  21:16

Ron, do you have, say, your employees, they’re in this in this space now? And they’re leading the tours with, with the people that come through? Now you’ve got some of your own people running those tours and telling their stories? And

 

21:26

Yep, absolutely. I purposely don’t do any of the tours anymore. I, you know, meet and greet people at the beginning. But every single person in the company is part of the tour. And they’re telling their own story. And yeah,

 

Andy Olrich  21:41

I think that’s so powerful, that it’s coming from people on the floor who have been through that they’re not, it’s not the latest sightings by company. And this is what we do. It’s, it’s, it’s more of those people just out there, you know, having to do it sort of a thing. It’s, they’re telling their stories, and I think that’d be, for me, that’s where it cuts through a lot is where you’ve actually got the people who are working in a company like that, and they say, Hey, maybe I wasn’t on board before or whatever it is, but this is this is it, and you’re actually paying your people to lead to us in and and make chairs. I think that’s a, they’d have to get a kick out of that too. Right. 100%.

 

22:16

And for any company that is actively doing Lean, I would encourage them to open their doors and let people come on. Because there’s so many benefits to hosting tours, you know, elevates the level of everything. The level of cleanliness, the standard goes up, people get better communicating, you know, it gives our people confidence when they know there’s a tear coming. The benefit to opening up your doors and letting other people in to see what you’re doing is just it’s priceless.

 

Patrick Adams  22:50

A lot of it. Yeah, we did. When I was a I was a lean. I started out as a lean plant manager at Parker Hannifin, they make hydraulics, Parker fittings, many people have heard of them, II and then I eventually moved into a couple different roles. But I remember serving as a value stream manager in a plant. And we did something very similar, where we actually had a tour route. And we had various kinds of activities and different improvement projects and things happening on a regular basis. And so we would bring people in and tour all the time. And I know exactly what you’re talking about, because that the level of confidence that they get. And it was hard at first. I mean, there were people that were like, No way, I’m not going to talk to anybody. But then moment you get a group over there, and they’re asking questions, you know, you see that person who said they weren’t going to talk and they’re in the back. And they’re, like, you know, what, wanting to nudge themselves forward? Because they have all the answers. And, you know, eventually they’re out there talking and answering questions and, and just the excitement that that creates for the team and gives them you know, that kind of that reinforcement of you guys are doing the right stuff, keep it up and they just keep plowing away and pretty amazing. So I love that, that you guys are doing that. And for anybody that is listening in that’s in in the area, I’m sure you would open your doors and would love to have them. Come in. The question that I have though, is just thinking about that that person who in The beginning maybe is kind of standoffish, or I just, I just want to come in and you tell me what to do. And I’m going to punch my clock. And I’m going to be out of here at the end of the day. And I don’t want to be part of any of this. I just want to come in and get a paycheck. I’m sure you had some of those people and people that are listening in I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about. Any advice for for though? I mean, how do you as you’re developing people, and you’re developing this learning culture? How do you work with some of those people that are a little tougher to you know, to open up and be engaged like that? Yeah,

 

25:35

brilliant, brilliant question. Just to give our listeners a bit of contrast. So nine years ago, the first morning meeting was the most awkward event ever. There was no engagement. Nobody was speaking. Everyone had their arms folded, trying to hide behind somebody else. I it was me standing there with five questions. Did we make any defects yesterday? Does anyone have any improvement opportunities? Total silence. Nobody spoke. Everybody thought this was so weird. Like, why are we standing in a grip talking about? What’s this lane thing and Ryan’s crazy and this is never going to work and Limavady in Northern Ireland, and our factory is out in the country, very rural area. You know, this was the most, it was just the opposite of the way we thought that absolutely was the opposite. And everybody kept saying to me, Ryan, that’s not going to work. It’s okay for the Japanese, it’s okay for Americans, they’re more outgoing. They’re more. We’re in Northern Ireland, this isn’t going to work. I said it is we just need to keep doing it, we need to keep at it, it’s going to work. Fast forward nine years, we have a company with 100% engagement, every single person improves every day, we’re taken before and after videos are going on the company Whatsapp group, we’re sharing all our ideas, our company is on fire with making improvements. The contrast from nine years tonight is just unbelievable. So I’m not saying that to boast and brag, I’m saying that to encourage people that are on this journey to keep going. Because the benefits at the hill there and far outweigh all the effort. So back to your question of how did we do it. And I’m gonna go back to a story that from my grandfather, so my grandfather was a sheep farmer. So in Ireland, there’s lots of sheep, lots of sheep farming, and a story that my grandfather always told. And my father always told is that if you want to create change, to be a sheepdog, as opposed to a bulldog, okay, so when my grandfather wanted to round up all the sheep, and get them all into the pan, the Sheepdog would slowly grind the edge of field, can, you know, hide in the grass? Not be, you know, kind of kind of slowly and surely went about their business. And the next thing you knew, surely we’re slowly all the shipper in the pan. There is no controversy, there is no big announcement, there is no big this is what’s happening. Whereas the Bulldog goes on, and split all the sheep up. So I was very conscious that when we started to implement or Lean culture, not to be a bulldog, and to act like a sheepdog. So one by one, working with people, one on one, getting them on board with making improvements, getting them on board with Elaine. Now, if somebody was saying, this is a load of rubbish, I’m not there yet. I said, No problem. Just give them a month. Give them a couple of months. Don’t focus on it, go and work with the people that get it. And one by one, slowly but surely, every single person got on board with Lynn and that’s my advice to anybody wondering how to implement a cultural change as be the Sheepdog and not the Bulldog.

 

Andy Olrich  29:27

And I think you did touched on there you’ve got some some champions within the business that that you can then get those people to work with and be mentored by them not so much Brian’s the boss and I’m kind of in the naughty corner. I’ve got to work with him for for two months now because I said I didn’t like this or didn’t know where it was coming. So I think that’s, you’ve got lean champions or lighthouses and things in an organization. It’s it’s one of their own saying, actually, you know, something in this so that’s the shape. I love that. Thank you powerful Okay, so, Ryan, you’ve got lean made simple. All right. And I’m sure that that just instantly draws people to it to go. I think it’s complex or tricky. Lean made simple. I’ll have a look at this. In all of that, though, are there any shortcuts for this cultural piece? I’m sure you get it and you have people come to you and want to, to second line, there’s things that get people on the hook. But is there a quicker way to do this?

 

30:26

I think there is, as lean practitioners like us three on this call, we’re always looking for the, to reduce the waste and get straight to the point, there is a couple of things that can get you there quicker there is because for somebody listening to this podcast, that is maybe at the beginning of their journey, it doesn’t have to take you nine years to get to where we are, you could do that in three. So there absolutely is shortcuts. And one shortcut that I would say is that one person in their organization doesn’t have to be the owner, but a senior manager or somebody has to be so passionate about this. If I always say at the start, I had to fill myself up with as much knowledge as I could online, to allow it to overflow with everyone else. You know, there was nobody, nobody was gonna tell me this won’t work. Because I watched the videos, I read the books, I studied all this stuff, I went to Japan four times, I was bought in, I was absolutely born. So I think it takes a person that is really passionate about Lean, passionate about cultural change, to really drive the change. So if you can find that one person in your company, if you can find that one person that their eyes light up when you start talking about limb, when their eyes light up when you show them a video from Lamia temple or from FastCap or from Paul Akers, you know, there’s something there, and then work with that person. And really develop them. Because you need we I always say Lean is hard work that makes everything easy. And it really is. It’s hard work. There’s nobody saying that this is an easy journey. It’s not. But if you have people on board that get so excited about it, I think that’s a fast track to implement in the change.

 

Andy Olrich  32:24

Awesome. What? In your experience? What wouldn’t you take a shortcut on if you’re building that culture, he’s there a couple of if you pick some things up are happening maybe a little bit more rapidly than they should be? Any examples?

 

32:38

I always think teaching and training is not a distraction. It is a shortcut. So lots of companies come to visit us on linters. And they say, What do you have a 30 minute morning meeting with 6070 people and they’ve got their calculator, right. And they’re trying to add this up to see how much this costs. And my response is that teaching and training is a shortcut, not a distraction. So we have a morning meeting every single morning, without fail, then we go into improvement time where every single person has a dedicated, allocated time to physically go and work on improvements. And then we work. So there’s absolutely no shortcut around that you have to teach and train your people in order to get the results. And why the small improvements are so, so powerful, and it’s really genius. If you think about it, if we can get people engaging in the small things, then every so often somebody will come up with something that changed the whole business. And nine years on, that’s still happening for us. And that’s why it’s so exciting for me, because even like this week, and last week, we’re still getting big ones that we just never seen before. And they’re all coming from the people that are on the gamba.

 

Patrick Adams  34:06

love it love it powerful. So amazing to hear and just, you know, again, just listen to you talk about the stories and everything that’s happening at your company. I do want like, I see your videos out on YouTube and obviously, you know, you’re writing a book and you’re you’re speaking and all these conferences and you’re doing all these different things. I mean, why why are you doing that? Why Why not just pour everything into your factory and you know, just kind of keep it for the family business and make sure that you guys are doing well like what Why are you out there sharing everything? Because I don’t think I paid anything to watch your videos on YouTube.

 

34:49

Yeah, we give so much stuff away for free. We’ve got the limit sample podcast, that’s gone crazy 1000s of listeners. YouTube channel has got I’m crazy. And I think the reason that is so popular is that we’re not doing it for money. We’re not doing it for anything in return. And I think anybody that really internalizes lane, gets that the whole point of this is to pay it forward. And I heard a quote one time that I really love and I’ve never forgotten that it’s turn your mess into a message. So we had a massive herb isn’t it was a mess. And instead of me holding on to that knowledge, I’ve turned my mess into a message. Right rice have inspired a way I’m not saying me, but we, as a company, as an organization, has inspired hundreds of companies to wake up to lean thinking, and the fulfillment that we get from them that I get from as massive, just so passionate about it, that they want more people to know about the power of this. I love

 

Patrick Adams  36:00

1. Love it. I do have one more question. I should have asked this one before that last one. But I want to go back real quick to to something that you said about and also tie in the tool conversation here tools versus culture. Just coming back to that. You, your leadership team, and you and your brothers are doing some very specific things. I heard you say you’re you’re doing before and after videos, you’re posting them on your whatsapp, you’re doing your daily meetings. I mean, I’m hearing you explain Leader Standard Work, like you have a structure behind what you do. And you know, this is a tool piece that can I’m sure came about, you know, again, as you developed your culture, but what if we were to look at your Leader Standard Work if we were to go look at your calendar, what are the non negotiables that you and your leadership team are doing daily or weekly that are, you know, these are this is not something that we will not do we these will happen? What are those

 

37:00

things? Number one, I would say is morning meeting with every person, teach and train your people at a morning meeting. Number two, I would say is get on the gamba at least 50% of the time. No, I heard a good quote the further the further from the gamba decisions are made, the worse the decision will be. So it’s about getting to the gamba. If you send me two years ago, three years ago, five years ago, I’ve got my boots on. I’m on the shop floor among the welding area. With the laser operator. I’m in the office doing something I’m at final assembly with a quality issue on the gamba working with your people is an absolute must week, I believe. And it’s my view that we can’t lead a Lean Transformation setting in the border. So morning meeting, get on the gamba. The third thing I think I would say is that they appreciate the tiniest, tiniest improvement. You know, we have people starting here on on their first week, they’re making improvements. Why is that possible? Because the culture is so strong. I always say if you can imagine a glass of pure orange, just orange Cordell, and there’s one drop of water put on that doesn’t change the color of the the orange, because the culture so strong. So when one person starts, they’re making improvements on their first week, because everybody around them is making improvements. But something we always we’re very deliberate about this to really appreciate those small improvements, especially in the early days of someone’s career, or someone’s teamwork in here. Because that starts the cycle. And if they make an improvement, come up with an idea, make the improvement and get the feedback. There’s endorphins there that they want to keep feeding. They want to keep feeding that cycle. And that’s all we’re the unappreciated, small things, which turn into big things.

 

Andy Olrich  39:07

Absolutely. That’s awesome. I love one of my favorite quotes is culture eats strategy for breakfast. And this ties right in and it’s so true. This has been great Ryan.

 

Patrick Adams  39:19

Ryan, so you we’ve we’ve talked about your YouTube channel. We’re gonna throw a link to your YouTube channel in the show notes. But you also have a book coming out. You mentioned that a little bit earlier. But can you tell us a little bit about the book and when it’s coming out and what people can expect with that? Yeah,

 

39:37

I’ve been working on the book for about a year and it’s probably three four months away from from being ready. It’s hard to read a book online because it just want to keep improving it. So I just have to have a cut off for an hour will probably be a version date. But the book will be out in three or four months and really the book is about that Hi, we’re middlin sample and made Lynn approachable and applicable to any organization, you don’t have to be a manufacturer, you don’t have to have knowledge, you don’t have to have done your, your your six sigma training or anything like that the whole purpose of the book is to make Lin accessible to loads of people. And I think that’s what it’s gonna do. So yeah, really excited about the book of it,

 

Patrick Adams  40:29

love it. And then if anyone’s interested, check out your company. Where would they go to to learn more about your company and what you guys do?

 

40:36

Yeah, so the Lean made simple website, you can check out all the things we’re doing around lane on there. The company, the company, website, setting, matters.com, s EA T ing matters. So you’ll see all our products on there. And also LinkedIn, we love LinkedIn, as well. YouTube, there’s also the limit sample podcast is on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, all the normal platforms, you can check that out as well. And, yep, loads of ways to find out what to do. Either,

 

Patrick Adams  41:10

we’re going to drop all those links in the show notes. So if anyone’s interested, they can go to the show notes and find links to all your pages, I would definitely recommend going out and checking out the YouTube page and subscribing to the podcast. Because all it’s going to do is continue to challenge you and make you better. So it’s been great to have you on I’m inspired. I’m super inspired right now. I love the work that you guys are doing. Just really appreciate you sharing with the Lean community and continuing to not just develop yourselves, but also to pour out to everyone else. And so thank you for that. Yeah.

 

41:48

Thank you, Patrick. Thank you, Jana.

 

Andy Olrich  41:50

Thank you, Ron. Yeah, fantastic. I’d find it hard for anyone not to be inspired to keep going like you said. It’s been terrific.

 

Patrick Adams  42:00

All right, take care.