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GA 130 | How to Succeed at Every Stage of Your Lean Journey with Greg Williams

By Jessica Bush Updated on September 28th, 2016

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Today’s guest is Greg Williams, Chair Elect of AME and Director of Enterprise Excellence at Aera Energy LLC. Greg shared some of the stories and valuable wisdom he’s accumulated from his impressive lean background. There is so much great information in this episode, you won’t want to miss it! An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here.

In this episode you’ll learn:

Greg’s background (4:25)
The lean trends Greg has seen develop (7:28)
Ideas for counter measuring these trends (10:05)
What the “right” culture looks like (11:14)
What lean leaders should think about (12:41)
What people do wrong on Gemba Walks (14:30)
Advice for all stages of a lean journey (15:24)
Advice for the 1st time AME attendee (18:57)
His vision for the future (21:49)
What “Respect for People” means to Greg (24:34)
The best advice Greg has ever received (25:39)
Greg’s personal productivity habit (27:04)
What has surprised Greg in the last year (27:47)
How Greg relaxes and recharges (29:06)
The skill or knowledge area Greg feels he needs to improve (30:15)

Podcast Resources

Right Click to Download this Podcast as an MP3
Download a Free Audio Book at Audible.com
Greg on LinkedIn
Greg’s AME Profile

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What Do You Think?

What else should lean novices be focusing on? What about intermediate level lean practitioners? Lean experts?

Jessica Bush

Jessica is responsible for the editorial aspects of Gemba Academy’s content, focusing on course materials, podcast production, social media, and other copywriting efforts. An avid advocate of entrepreneurship, Jessica has worked with two technology startups as co-founder and head marketing strategist. Jessica received her BS in Business Administration from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, with a minor in Music.

Justice Diven
October 19, 2016 - 7:31 am
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Thanks for the podcast, I really enjoyed it. I found Greg’s advice timely and helpful, particularly around not neglecting the cultural enablers and engaging people. As I’m beginning my lean journey in the onshore energy industry, I’m beginning to see ways in which we “tried” kaizen or lean but decided “it won’t work here” but the piece that was missing was engagement both leadership and in engaging the workers on the frontlines which will allow us to adapt the principles and techniques to our specific situation.
Greg Williams
October 19, 2016 - 12:54 pm
Reply

Justice, thank you for your comments. I too am in the onshore energy industry (upstream oil & gas) and understand the challenges associated with changing mindsets and articulating the applicability. However, hang in there, my company has been enormously successful with our Lean journey, and you can be too!

Greg Williams