Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Spotify | RSS
Today’s guest is Samuel Selay, a Continuous Improvement Manager for the United States Marines Corps. Samuel and I discuss his continuous improvement journey and some of the incredible projects he’s done with the military. An MP3 version of this episode is available for download here.
In this episode you’ll learn:
- Samuel’s background and how he learned about continuous improvement (3:28)
- The quote that inspires Samuel (4:51)
- Samuel’s first impression of continuous improvement in the Marines (5:50)
- What Samuel and his team measure (8:54)
- What has gone wrong in the past and what Samuel has learned (11:05)
- About some of Samuel’s projects (17:49)
- The Kaizen event Samuel held (23:20)
- Samuel’s plans for the future (28:04)
- What “Respect for People” means to Samuel (31:32)
- The best advice Samuel has ever received (33:15)
- Samuel’s personal productivity habit (34:40)
- What has surprised Samuel in the last year (38:04)
- How Samuel recharges and refocuses (40:14)
- The knowledge or skill area Samuel feels he needs to improve (41:24)
- About Samuel’s chapter in Mark Graban’s ebook (42:14)
- Samuel’s final words of wisdom (44:57)
Podcast Resources
- Right Click to Download this Podcast as an MP3
- Download a Free Audio Book at Audible.com
- Samuel on LinkedIn
Subscribe & Never Miss New Episodes!

If you enjoyed this podcast please be sure to subscribe on iTunes. Once you’re a subscriber all new episodes will be downloaded to your iTunes account and smartphone.
The easiest way for iPhone users to listen to the show is via the free, and incredible, Podcast app.
You can download it here. CLICK HERE to subscribe to the Gemba Academy podcast on iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher which is definitely Android friendly.
What Do You Think?
How else could continuous improvement be applied in a military or government setting?
1 Comment
Mark Graban
February 12, 2016 - 7:16 amHere is a link to an excerpt from Samuel’s chapter in “Practicing Lean”:
http://www.leanblog.org/2016/02/practicing-lean-excerpt-lessons-from-japan/