Karyn Ross, Lean and Kind Leadership

Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/427

My guest for Episode #427 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is a returning guest, Karyn Ross. She was previously a guest in Episodes 266 and 411. She was also my guest for Episode #3 of My Favorite Mistake.

Karyn has a new book called The Kind Leader: A Practical Guide to Eliminating Fear, Creating Trust, and Leading with Kindness. Scroll down for a 20% coupon you can use if you buy through the publisher. You can also enter to win a copy.

Today, we talk the book and more, with topics and questions including:

• How do you define kindness?
• NPR story on the kindest family
• How do we help people understand that kindness is not a sign of weakness?
• My Favorite Mistake (out Thursday) Moses Harris interview Episode #110
• How much unkind behavior is driven by people being scared? "Vicious circle of fear"
• "Collaboration, cooperation and kindness" chapter heading -- reminds me of how Dr. Deming used to rail against competition -- and I think that's especially true when talking about internal competition
• Systemic root causes of fear and unkind behavior -- Kind leaders can affect the system...
• Kindness and respect? Connections to Lean in the book
• A time when someone was kind to you at work?
• Recent KaiNexus webinar on psychological safety... also proven to drive results
  • Workshop with Jessica House on the topic
• Blaming instinct...What do you mean by "always assume positive intent"? - examples?
• Negativity bias
• "Prefectionism isn't Kind" online workshop with Amy Mervak
  • Morning session
  • Afternoon session
• Little Kind Words Talk Show -- lessons learned from that?
• Doing live streaming -- "practice accepting what is"
• We're always learning... what have you learned about kindness since the book was published?
• "Pop up kindness stand"? -- WSJ article

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.