Mikel Harry, Ph.D. In remembrance

Concluding Lean Product Development in The Innovation PROCESS Book. Lean PD helps to streamline heavyweight systems and let project management teams make the decisions where they have the most information.

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💧 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 = 𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐬𝐡: 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐒𝐚𝐟𝐞𝐭𝐲 I recently revisited an article in Professional Safety Journal from the American Society of Safety Professionals titled “Rebuilding Safety Culture Through Contextual Leadership and Engagement.” Its premise is clear: policies, training, and metrics are essential, but they cannot compensate for weak culture. Organizations can write strong procedures and track leading and lagging indicators with precision. Yet without trust, consistency, and engagement, those systems become compliance exercises rather than meaningful risk controls. Structure alone does not create safety excellence. Years ago, while teaching Job Safety Analysis, I showed a 1990s VHS video, yes VHS 📼😂, centered on a simple message: “Bad water equals bad fish.” The metaphor still holds. Unsafe behaviors are often symptoms of systemic conditions, not isolated personal failures. Dan Petersen captured it well: “Paper doesn’t save people, people save people.” Policies do not make decisions under pressure, people do. And people operate within the tone established by leadership. A common misstep is overreaction to isolated incidents. When leaders respond with fear-based enforcement or sweeping mandates detached from root cause, psychological safety erodes. Leadership sets the inputs. Management translates them. The workforce lives in the result. If the tone becomes punitive, culture shifts from shared accountability to self-preservation. When employees focus on avoiding blame, communication narrows, reporting declines, and stress increases. Decision-making suffers. Risk rises, not from incompetence, but from environment. Conversely, proportional response and contextual leadership build trust. Hazards are reported earlier. Engagement improves. Performance stabilizes. Culture is not “soft”, it is a multiplier. If we want sustainable safety excellence, we must maintain the water not just inspect the fish. #SafetyLeadership #SafetyCulture #EHS #TotalWorkerHealth #ASSP

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The recent release of the insightful report "ISO 15288 Meets Lean Agile" is a must-read for industry professionals. Dr. Nate Crews PhD, a Caltech CTME instructor with a wealth of expertise (ACC, EBAS, BRMP, CBRM, CSP, EMTM), contributed to this guide and teaches Agile Project Management: https://lnkd.in/gkNY-Htw 📊 #NDIA #AgilePM #LeanAgile #CaltechCTME #IndustryInsights

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Are there errors (mistakes) made by your organization? Can these mistakes result in issues, including safety, cost, quality, service, and liability? Six Sigma can help. What is Six Sigma? Six Sigma is a process improvement method based on the work of Shewhart and Deming, further developed by Motorola and popularized by Jack Welch at GE. Six Sigma focuses on improving the quality of the process by identifying and removing the cause(s) of defects (mistakes) and reducing variability (inconsistent results). Six Sigma utilizes statistical methods and relies on the expertise of trained Green Belts and Black Belts, who are internal and external process improvement specialists. Six Sigma's goal is to achieve 99.9% of products and services to be statistically free of defects. Six Sigma follows Deming's Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle. Or DMAIC which has five phases. - Define the problem * voice of the customer * project goals - Measure key aspects of the process. * Collect data - Analyze data * understand and verify cause-effect * Seek out the root causes of defect - Improve/optimize current process. * Set up pilots - Control future state * Correct future state deviations before. they result in defects * Monitor Learn More. To learn more about how Six Sigma can benefit your organization, please contact me for a complimentary consultation. Best, George Dunn, President, CRE8 Independent Consultants. I can be reached at 206-556-5958 or consulting@cre8inc.com About CRE8 Consultants We have extensive experience improving organizations through continuous process improvement, total quality management, business process improvement, friction-less, re-engineering, lean, and six sigma. We also assist organizations with planning for AI, digital workflow, machine learning, RPA, ECM, and other technologies. As independent consultants, we bring an objective voice to assess organizational issues/goals, identify required process changes, roll out changes, identify needed technologies, develop requirements, evaluate vendors, and provide project management. Process Improvement Plan White Paper https://lnkd.in/epspF8rP #sixsigma #processimprovement

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Excited to share this recent podcast episode where I had the pleasure of joining The Excellence Foresight Podcast as a guest! The host, Nancy Nouaimeh, and myself explored how excellence models provide a proven, integrated approach to improving organizational performance - bringing together many approaches (e.g. Customer Service, Balanced Scorecard, ISO, Lean, Six Sigma) and other initiatives under one powerful umbrella. Whether you're a leader, practitioner, or professional passionate about performance improvement, I invite you to listen in for practical insights you can apply in your own organization. Tune in here: https://lnkd.in/g-kDvqgH Let’s continue to raise the bar and create a culture of excellence that delivers real results! #OrganizationalExcellence #Leadership #PerformanceImprovement #ContinuousImprovement #ExcellenceModels #GlobalOEIndex

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"Kaizen isn’t a tactic, it’s a culture." Kaizen Advantage provides firsthand accounts of modern Kaizen in Japanese manufacturing and service sectors. From QC Circle initiatives to practical implementation tips, this book is an essential guide for leaders and practitioners seeking sustainable process improvement. https://lnkd.in/g5pPBxtr #Kaizen #ContinuousImprovement #QCcircles #LeanManagement #OperationalExcellence #ProcessImprovement

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Training That Audits Itself Most training programs don’t fail in delivery — they fade in application. This article explores how we can design learning systems that don’t rely on reminders, but instead reinforce behavior quietly and consistently. It includes a real-world case, field insight, and what we’ve learned at Axxeluss about building programs that sustain themselves. Q1. If you’ve seen a training design that worked long after the session ended we’d love to hear it. Q2. Drop a thought, an example, or tag someone building learning that lasts. hashtag #AxxelussMavens #MaySeries #BehaviorDesign #LearningSystems #TrainingThatSticks #OrganizationalCapability #SelfReinforcingLearning #CapabilityThatLasts

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Your strategy isn’t broken—your communication climate is. EI Systems Lab™ 彡 helps COOs & CHROs: ✅ Make emotional patterns visible ✅ Rebuild feedback fluency ✅ Align operating rhythm Result → Faster decisions, tighter handoffs, stronger safety. 📑 Download the Executive Brief (PDF) https://lnkd.in/eCmQvgBq #CHRO #COO #Manufacturing #FinancialServices #EISystemsLab #Healthcare #Technology #Hospitality #Energy #Power –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– Part of the EI Systems Lab™ 彡 | KPI Synchronization™ Framework © 2025 Carlos Raposo Coaching LLC · All Rights Reserved

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Continuous improvement assessments are the rally-point of the journey – the moment when you honestly evaluate where you stand and recalibrate your path toward operational excellence. Without periodic assessment, your improvement program is flying blind. You might feel progress. You might see isolated wins. But without a systematic evaluation of your organizational capability against a credible standard, you have no idea whether your trajectory is sustainable. I've designed and deployed assessments at organizations worldwide, and the pattern is consistent: companies overestimate their maturity. The self-assessment says "advanced." The objective assessment says "developing." That gap is where the most valuable learning happens. Here's how assessments should work: they evaluate your organization against a defined model that progresses from basic process discipline through systems excellence to full operational excellence. Each level has specific, measurable criteria. You either meet them or you don't. The rally-point metaphor is deliberate. In military operations, a rally-point is where forces regroup, assess their situation, and coordinate the next phase of the mission. Your assessment serves the same purpose: regroup, evaluate honestly, and realign for the next phase of your improvement journey. The assessment isn't the destination – it's the navigation check. And conducting it requires the organizational courage to hear results that may not match your self-image. The companies that assess regularly improve faster because they correct course before small deviations become major detours. The ones that avoid assessment drift gradually, comfortably, and imperceptibly off course. Assess honestly. Realign frequently. And use the rally-point to energize the next phase of your journey, not to celebrate how far you've come. #Assessment #ContinuousImprovement #OperationalExcellence Continuous Improvement Assessments https://lnkd.in/dauRZD-X

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