Lean Blog Interviews: Real-World Lean Leadership Conversations in Healthcare and Beyond Mike Leigh on Breaking Down Barriers, Lessons from the Navy, and More
Nov 11, 2020
59:05
Lean consultant and contributor to "Practicing Lean"
Joining me for Episode #392 is Mike Leigh, the President of his firm OpX Solutions, LLC. Mike was one of the contributors, writing a chapter for our anthology book Practicing Lean.
Some highlights from Mike's career, from his bio:
- Began his career as an officer in the US Navy in the late ‘80s, specializing in nuclear propulsion and surface warfare
- Mike spent 13 years with General Electric and held various leadership and senior management positions at several different manufacturing sites
- During his last five years with GE, Mike was an internal lean consultant and helped over 25 GE factories/suppliers and hundreds of work teams become more productive, reduce costs, and improve their bottom line
- Had 45 weeks of training by mentors from Shingijutsu, considered by many as the best Lean consultants in the world
Today, we have a wide-ranging conversation, starting off by talking about the need for leaders to "break down barriers" (and to understand what those barriers really are). What lessons did Mike learn about leadership from the Navy? What leadership behaviors are really problematic? And what are the root causes of those behaviors? We talk about all of this and more.