Nicole Tschierske: Lean Reduces Stress and Burnout in the Workplace

My guest for Episode #443 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Dr. Nicole Tschierske, a scientist and positive psychology coach who helps experts and teams in STEM do better work.

Nicole works with her clients to improve their collaboration and communication skills so their work gets the momentum and recognition it deserves. She also helps construct ways of working that reduce stress, increase motivation and engagement, and deliver results.

Nicole lives in Hamburg, Germany, holds a PhD in chemistry and is trained in coaching, positive psychology, change management, and advanced problem-solving.

When she's not buried in research papers and books you can find her taking long hikes in the German countryside or mesmerised by Mary Poppins on the screen.

Her new podcast is called “Better Work” and I had the honor of being her first guest!

Today, we discuss topics and questions including:

• How and where were you first introduced to Lean?
• Why she was burned out in a product research team
• Moved from science to supply chain — they were starting with Lean 
• Why was this important to you? Was was energizing about this?
• The collaborative, engaging approach of Lean
• Workshops? Kaizen events (and then into science areas, finance)
• As a scientist likes an approach that's “rigorous not rigid”
• Avoid moving too fast, avoid jumping to solutions, not jumping to causes
• “When ‘is' deviates from the ‘should'
• What does Lean have to do with stress and burnout prevention?
• Physical, cognitive, emotional demands on people
• Getting to the root causes of stress vs countermeasures?
• Supply chain impact and social support with war going on?
• Tell us about some Deep-dive process improvements
• How does Lean apply to Roles & Responsibilities and partnerships?

The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity, and healthcare industries. Learn more.

This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network.