Profound

Dennis Schlagheck, author of a book about Hawthorne Works, discusses the factory's historical impact, worker benefits, and the contrast between work cultures in Silicon Valley. The conversation delves into the evolution of organizational perspectives on the workforce, technological advancements, and the American dream symbolized by Hawthorne Works.

Carmen DeArdo discusses his journey from Bell Labs to Tasktop, emphasizing value stream management and agile practices. He explores implementing Deming's principles in an insurance company through the red bead game, highlighting the importance of systems thinking for organizational improvement and respectful disagreements in professional settings.

Elisabeth Hendrickson, a testing expert, discusses the evolution of DevOps, the impact of hackathons on organizational relationships, feedback loops in software development, challenges in implementing DevOps in political campaigns, and the origins of infrastructure as code and promise theory.

Former CTO of the Obama campaign, Harper Reed, discusses leadership in political campaigns, Agile and DevOps use, challenges during a hurricane, tech contrasts, secretive campaign strategies, failed poll-watching apps, navigating technology and people, and reflections on data integrity and passing opportunities to the next generation.

Kevin Behr, an expert in Deming, Toyota, Theory of Constraints, and Goldratt's work, continues the discussion on lean principles and the history of quality management movements. They explore the application of theories like just in time, TQM, and theory of constraints in the car industry during the '80s. The conversation delves into the evolution of methodologies like Lean, DevOps, and Six Sigma, emphasizing the importance of balancing multiple methodologies and understanding social dynamics. They also discuss the distinction between catabolic and anabolic actions in business, compare Western and Japanese business attitudes, and highlight Toyota's strategy of prioritizing employee well-being.

In this podcast, I get to chat with Kevin Behr (co-author of The Phoenix Project).  We discuss Deming's influence on Japan and modern commerce.  Kevin has an interesting perspective on Toyota and Japanese culture.  We also talk about the concept of a "Humble Student" and why Deming's message might have penetrated deeply as part of the Miracle in Japan. 

In this episode, Josh and I discuss the history of sBOM's, Deming and Goldratt's influence on software supply chain as well as COVID's Operation Warp Speed.  I always say I'm a passionate person about IT, Josh is a passionate person about saving lives.  This is a fantastic episode. 

Courtney Kissler is one of the pioneers in DevOps Enterprise leadership.  Starting back at her days at Nordstrom. Some of my favorite stories in the DevOps Handbook are based on some of Courtney's experiences.  We cover the gambit on topics related to Deming, Rother, Goldratt, and Hosen Kanari.  My fanboy comes out pretty hard in this episode. I think Courtney is a great example of a true leader. Note: We had some latency issues in the recording and it comes out a bit in the recording. I tried to clean it up a bit; however, it's still a little tinny. With our busy agendas, I decided to go with quantity over quality here. 

We finish up the second part of my conversation with Dr. Spear. 

Dr. Steven Spear, author of 'High Velocity Edge' and a DevOps Enterprise Summit speaker, discusses Lean, TPS, and culture. They cover embracing a culture of experimentation, innovating IT operations through agility, the evolution of lean management, and the importance of lean practices like safety in achieving success.