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This podcast offers business solutions to help listeners develop and implement action plans for lean process improvement and implement continuous improvement projects, cost reductions, product quality enhancements, and process effectiveness improvement. Listeners come from many industries in both manufacturing and office applications.
Patrick Adams 0:04
For me, I'll just tell everyone. I think it's important that we write down our goals. Write down the things that you want to do in 2026 show them to someone and ask them to hold you accountable. That's the way you're going to make it happen. In 2026
Patrick Adams 0:18
you do it you've always done. You'll get what you've always got. So I think it's a really good time to reflect over these next few weeks, if you're taking the downtime and what is, what is the, what is the goal for next year, at that that mindset of short term urgency, long term consistency,
Catherine McDonald 0:34
don't go too fast and take your time while you are going after whatever you're going after, and just make time to reflect and pause, those little micro reflections all the time. You know, it's, it's about the what's going well, as well as the what I need to change
Shayne Daughenbaugh 0:48
or learn. I'm just gonna say, get after it, like, whatever it is, you know, like, like Andy mentioned, talked about, don't wait. Get after it. Try to try it. Experiment. Be courageous. Learn something.
Patrick Adams 1:13
Hello and welcome to this episode of the lean solutions podcast. My name is Patrick Adams, and I am joined by Shane, Catherine and Andy, the amazing hosts from around the world. Hey guys, how's it going?
Patrick Adams 1:26
Very well. Yeah. Good night. Good good
Patrick Adams 1:30
as as everyone well. Those of you that have listened to the podcast for a while know that Catherine is in Ireland, and Shane is in Nebraska, and Andy is in Australia. So we're on all different time zones right now. So it's always interesting when we get together to kind of touch base on how things are going in each part person's part of the world, because it's always a little different, right? I mean, Andy, what time is it in Australia right now?
Patrick Adams 1:56
So it's 20 past seven in on in the morning. Yeah. So 7am
Patrick Adams 2:01
in the morning here on Eastern time, it's three, it's almost 330 so there, well, I guess the minutes are the same, right? So just after 3pm in Michigan, and then Shane, what do you have I got just after two, after 2pm so you're one hour behind us. And then Catherine, where are you at in Ireland?
Catherine McDonald 2:20
Yeah, 20 past eight in the evening,
Patrick Adams 2:23
in the evening. Wow, always a big spread. So normally, on Eastern Time, we figure around 3pm is a good time for all the I guess the best we can get for everyone. So early morning for Andy, late night for Catherine, and then afternoon for for us. But we're excited for. I mean, it's, we're almost to the New Year. I mean, the next time that we see each other guys, it's going to be next year. It's pretty awesome. So we're that close right now, but we wanted to take some time with, you know, those of you that have listened to the podcast for a while, you know we normally have guests on and it's usually two of us or one of us that's interviewing a guest. Well, today we're going to do something a little bit different, and we want to do a little reflection on 2025 and talk about the those behaviors, those habits, those those feelings, those emotions, those things that are super important that happened in 2025 that we want to carry over into 2026 the things that for any leader in any organization, no matter what industry you're in, these, these particular habits, behaviors, whatever it may be, these are important for you in Developing a true culture of continuous improvement going into 2026 so we're going to, we're just going to kind of reflect on some of the things over this past year that we felt were very impactful during conversations that we had with certain guests or with each other. And we just want to pull some of those out and give you a little summary of those. And I think the best way to do that is to start with reflection, because that's actually what we're doing right now. We're reflecting on 2025 and all those the valuable things that happened. I want to go to you, Catherine, and just ask you, like, what? Why is reflection important? Let's start with that question. Why is reflection important?
Catherine McDonald 4:21
Hi, Patrick, so reflection. I'm glad you brought it up. It's definitely one of my growth areas for 2026 I'm a coach, so I do spend quite a lot of time prompting reflection in other people. But you know, it's not always so easy to do it for yourself, so it's really important, I think, for personal growth. And what's really important is that we do it properly. So what I see in myself and other people is that we don't always reflect properly. It's easy to get caught up in the feeling of something, or it's easy to get up in the get caught up in the thoughts of what happened today or last week or this year, but it's not so easy to push yourself. Past the feelings and the thoughts to get to the learning and to understand, how do I adjust my own behaviors based on what I've learned this year? To me, that's a proper reflection, and it's not something we're all good at. Um, so it's one of my growth areas. Patrick, for next year, just so you know,
Patrick Adams 5:19
I love it. And so Catherine, if you like, I think for some of us, we naturally take time at the end of every year to reflect, you know, hey, what how do we do this year? You know, what's our plans for next year? You know, that type of thing. Is that the proper way to reflect, or should we be doing it more frequently? And if so, which I think I know your answer. If so, how frequently should we be reflecting? And what does that look like for for someone?
Catherine McDonald 5:48
So I'm a big fan of micro reflections. Yeah, so micro reflections, you can do them all day, any day. It's a little bit different to mindfulness, where we are in the moment, and we're aware of what's happening in the moment in terms of our own behavior or others behavior or the situation. This is after an interaction or after an incident, where we just pause for a moment in our day and we just think back on what happened, how we felt about it, what we think about it, what we learned about it, and what does that mean for us going forward? And I really do believe that it's every day. It sounds like a lot, but it's not when you form the habit,
Shayne Daughenbaugh 6:28
what goes into that? Yeah, I'm just curious, you know, if, if I'm doing this all the time, throughout the day, because I love that idea of the micro reflections. I mean, we just, kind of, some of us, just naturally do that anyways, but in order for that to be like you mentioned, taking reflection past just thinking about it into the learnings like, what, what would be a what are some some points to that micro reflection that make it effective and impactful.
Catherine McDonald 6:55
So we need to set ourselves up for success with Habits. Habits don't just form. We need to shape the environment and shape the systems around us, our own personal systems, in order for habits to actually catch right. So for example, if we have a 50 minute meeting, it's much better than having a 60 minute meeting and then rushing into the next 60 minute meeting. If we take 50 minutes and we finish up and we think about that meeting, and we make our notes and we fill in our to do's and we send our emails or whatever we have to do. It's going to be a lot more effective than rushing straight into the next thing. Same thing goes for if you're in the car on the way home from work, something's happened that day, it's a good time to process it before we get home, before we get to our family, if we're upset about something or and again, it's down to just understanding when the good times are for us and and setting it up that way for ourselves to have the time and space to be able to do it,
Patrick Adams 7:48
very good. Andy, what do you what do you think when it comes to reflection in, you know, just looking back in 2025 I mean, do you have certain points of reflection that you learned something that you were able to kind of pull ahead throughout the year, or is there anything specifically that you would say, you know, right now, at the end of the year, I'm looking back and here's, here's a couple things that I've learned and how I'm going to make those adjustments going into 2026
Patrick Adams 8:16
Yeah, definitely key moments. I think so. A big fan of The Daily reflection, and again, why I'm passionate about the daily stand ups and those sorts of interactions with teams like that's an opportunity to do that daily reflection in the moment and with some tangible outcomes. But yeah, I think mine, looking back, has been a fair bit of change for me this year, with going into my own business and plus going to the US for the summer and some other bigger things I've taken on with a bit of uncertainty at the front of it. Yeah, I call them milestone reflections, and it's really been about okay, this was, I guess, I set myself up for the reflections in a way, like saying, Okay, I'm gonna about to step into something I have never done before, like on my own, and it's all about me, if it's good or bad, my face is stuck to it, so I actually carved out some places utilize some Carter type experimentation board artifacts to help me kind of, what do I what do I think is going to happen? And then when I look back? So I've done a bit of that, and really about, okay, well, this is happening. It's new. It's different, a little bit unnerving. I think this will happen if. And then I come back after the moment, go, Okay, write down a couple of things that happen that then leads me to the point to go, Okay, well, yeah, I've covered that. Paste it, and I'll just copy paste next time with a with a bit of refresh or mate. You jump the shark, as they they say. And here I can build some little actions or workarounds to then go on again. But lots of reflection, hands say, is one of the key parts of a Lean culture, right? And I really think there's two pieces to the reflection. There's you have to have yourself. Of open to feel a bit bad about things like you stepped in, and you know that you're potentially going to feel a bit disappointed in yourself. But what are you going to do if you feel like that? So having that plan again of how you can talk to have someone to reach out to before or after, you know, in the moment, to get some coaching and advice, someone like Catherine, you know, who is a goes in, helps out with that, or yourselves. The other bit is, Get ready to feel really good and write down why you feel so good. That's just fine. Just a note taker, prolific note taker, or using some AI to capture my verbal thoughts in the moment and play that back and share. Don't be afraid to share. So a bit in that. But yeah, because it's been such a big year with some of those milestone moments I've really tried to work hard to capture before, during and after, how I'm feeling, because that's if it's coming at me again next time I can go hang on you've kind of been here before, so such a big part of what I'm going to do stepping into next year is just take the lessons learned, and hopefully that can be some good examples of what to do or not to do for others as well. So well. So really sharing them, but looping back to that daily reflection is like, okay, how'd I go yesterday? What's the plan for today? Yeah, so I
Patrick Adams 11:11
love that you love that you mentioned the feeling that you had during that moment, because I think that that's maybe an important piece that maybe is missed a lot of times, because now you, if you've identified the feeling in that moment when that same feeling comes again, it'll be easy for you to make those connections, because you called it out. So I think that's, that's a really good, good call out, for sure.
Shayne Daughenbaugh 11:36
I think you know going, going on that, Patrick, I What, what I like to think of feelings as are. They're just flags. They're just notifications of what's going on inside. It doesn't necessarily have to be true. It's just something to be aware of that my body is trying to tell me, Hey, are you aware of this? You know, could be fear, it could be joy, it could be connection. You know, whatever those feelings are, it's a flag or a notice that says, are you aware of this? And I can go, Yes, I am. Thank you very much. I got it. Or no, I did not know that. Okay, maybe I need to look into that deeper, but to not let that be the only thing, but just recognize, hey, this is just a notification, almost like on my phone, notification that says, ding, did you know this? Did you know this? Yeah, okay, yeah.
Patrick Adams 12:20
And that's that emotional intelligence, right? I'm such a big fan of that that really opened my eyes. The other reflection, just a little fun. One is, I'm not coming to you guys live from a laundry in Victoria this year. I'm actually, you know, in my house. Remember last year we did this episode, and I was buried up in in, in a laundry in the middle of, God knows where, in in rural Victoria in Australia.
Patrick Adams 12:41
So now you have a barbecue behind you. For those that are listening in, you can't see Andy's background, but he's got a barbecue in the outback, a Christmas barbecue happening behind him right now, better
Catherine McDonald 12:55
than the laundry room look.
Patrick Adams 12:58
And it's so hot down here at the moment, so I feel like I'm on that barbecue. So pardon me for sweating.
Patrick Adams 13:06
We got a bunch of snow, so it's quite a bit different here. Shane, let's go to you on, you know, again, just reflecting on this last year and thinking about, you know, what are the things that you think are important to take into consideration as we move into 2026 is there one thing that you would call out and say, don't forget to bring this along. When you move from 2025 into 2026
Shayne Daughenbaugh 13:32
there are a couple. And one of the first ones that that I learned, as I reflect on what I learned about myself in 2025 is as Andy is, if he hasn't noticed, he will come into when you start your own business, you you try to become you try to figure out where, where the itch is. How can I serve my customers? What can I do? And and sometimes you when something doesn't work, you just add another thing to it, until I came to the point where there were so many things that I didn't like to do that didn't bring me joy. So joy is one of those things that I want to bring with me, understanding that not everything is going to be Disneyland and sparklers, but if I'm not doing that which brings me joy, then I may not be serving the best, like, if I'm trying to do something that may meet a need but doesn't bring me joy, then I might not be the best person to try to meet that need. I mean, there are some things you have to but I want to be more aware of where I have joy, because with that, then I think that's where that's where I can thrive, that's where I can grow, you know, and make the biggest impact and provide the biggest, the most value, for for those that I'm working with and trying to support, that's, I don't know. I'm not trying to simplify and say, you know, don't do anything that makes you feel anything but joy. But you know, when I, when I went through all the things that I was trying to do. Uh, one of the things that that I had to do is start to shrink that list. Hey, maybe I don't need to be all these things, because some of them just don't bring me joy. They and I'm at the I'm Old Enough in my career, you know, or my my walk of life, that, you know what? I don't have to do the things I don't have to do those things. I already know that I'm not going to be great at that. So what is it that's going to bring me joy? Because I want to bring that joy with me and everything I do.
Patrick Adams 15:26
Yeah, I like that. I actually one of the one that I wrote down, that I wanted to bring into our conversation was surface problems early and ask for help. And it's almost like, you know, kind of ties in with that. Because I think about, what are the things that are causing headaches. What are the things that are causing road that are becoming roadblocks or taking joy away? You know, that's it's almost the opposite of what you're saying and and I think it's important that we do both. Not Not only do we identify the problems or the challenges that we're dealing with, make them visible, bring them to the surface so that we can deal with them. But also, you know, what are the things that are bringing us joy? And let's surf, let's surface those and make sure that those are also items that were, you know, the problems we're going to we're going to eliminate the things that bring us joy. We're going to try to elevate. And I think that that's a great way to think about it. Catherine, did you have something on this too?
Catherine McDonald 16:19
I was just going to say that it's become quite popular in the last few years. Strengths based coaching, where we it's not so much actually about working on your weaknesses and focusing on what you're not good at and getting better at it, because all of us have this kind of natural level, and we have to work extra hard if we want to get better at something. But the thought behind strengths based is, well, why don't you figure out what you're really good at and do more of that, and the parts you can't do, maybe somebody else can do them, like Shane just said. And if that works, is that not a kind of an easier life for everyone? Everybody will always have development areas. We don't need to make it harder than it is, or life harder than it is. So true. Thank you.
Patrick Adams 17:00
To be harder than it is. I saw a really good article or report, I guess, from the University of Sydney, and it says we're entering the decade of disorientation. And it was talking about this, get ready the speed of change, or technology people needs and all that sort of thing, like how we're going to manage being disoriented for the near future. And I mean, maybe we've always had something like that, but it was just really fascinating how they're pointing the different leadership habits and behaviors and skills around what they believe will help us navigate that disorientation. So I think that's that's tying in really well. And in the reflection piece, right? If you, if you want to, if you want to go somewhere, you got to kind of know where you are, where you've been, to help you kind of not make the same mistakes. Or, as you said, This one makes me feel good. I really love doing it, and I can get someone to help with that. I'm going to move more in that direction. So it's, it's really fascinating research that they've been doing in this space. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Patrick Adams 18:06
Shane, what what you had? You said you had two Joy was one, what was the other one that you, that you had, that you wanted to bring forward to end of the 2026
Shayne Daughenbaugh 18:15
space to be creative. I think, I mean, that's what I would hope and wish for. You know, as I'm thinking about our listeners and our audience, that that we, that we've engaged with, is that they would have or carve out space to be creative. So, you know, moving away from the reactive and, you know, always being pounded by whatever it is, you know, that's, that's not going to stop. That's just the way life is. You know, that's why Catherine, I loved when you said it, let's not make it any harder than it is, because life is already hard and it's always going to be moving. We're not going to stop it. So knowing that, can I just say, Hey, I'm not going to be able to complete this task, or I'm not whatever it is, because it's important for me to carve out some time, you know, to be creative and to be more proactive and and I think that we are creative beings. I think that we thrive in that and so to to intentionally set aside that time, it makes me think back. I wish I'm sorry that I can't remember our guest's name. He He has the company that works in medical storage, movable, movable medical storage in that lean aspect of of creating those spaces. And one of the things that stuck out to me was they allow, if it's not every day, it's at least every week, they allow, like, 45 minutes. I thought it was every day, the beginning of every day, they allow 45 minutes for people to work on lean things, and lean in general, is it's, you know, that's all about being creative. It's all about thinking creatively and strategizing and planning and and reflecting and critiquing that takes creative juices, and it takes energy and time, and I, I don't know that we do it. Service when we're just trying to, well, I have 15 minutes right now before my next meeting. You know, I just stepped out of one. Like, my brain can't, can't keep task switching effectively, and and I, and me tried to cram in some kind of reflection and some kind of creative space, like I think I need to that needs to be part of my Leader Standard Work, to have time to be creative, and if that just means I'm just staring at a blank page for a while, but going back to what Catherine said, what are the habits that I'm building, or the space that I'm creating for those habits to fill in? When you know I'm able to,
Catherine McDonald 20:40
I remember that conversation, Shane, and do you remember what our guest said? He said we didn't start out with 45 minutes. We started out with about two. So sometimes we think we need the perfect habit, right? You know, in order to create our, you know, whatever we're trying to achieve, creativity, we don't we just need to put one foot forward, we just need to take one little step, create two minutes. Then when we start seeing the benefit of that, actually, we'll give it more. I think that when it comes to habits, that's really important too. They're so difficult to create in ourselves, we have to go easy. It's like getting up and going for a run. You know, as a lot of people said to me, it's about putting on the clothes in the morning. That's actually the habit you need to form, not the habit of planning the runs and doing, you know, 10 miles a week putting on the clothes in the morning. So it's the little steps and understanding what they are.
Patrick Adams 21:33
I think that's so true. It's just like covid working from home. I found it really and when I'm working from home, sometimes now is I'll get myself up, you know, put the put different clothes on. A lot of people are doing meetings in their pajamas and things like that. But the other part too is some not so great habits are really hard to bust as well. So it's that daily discipline again, or the reflection daily around, oh no, I kind of slipped into that habit again, or someone gives you that feedback, or you just know that things aren't whether that's in your professional or personal health wise space, I think that's yeah, habits. We've all got them. It's just how we're moving more towards being more deliberate, the ones that are positive and bring more joy to us and others, as opposed to, oh, I've done it again.
Patrick Adams 22:22
Yeah, good, really, good point. And I, I love that you mentioned running Catherine, because I think about I used to run pretty regularly. I used to run three miles when I would go run, I would run approximately three miles in distance. And I there was a time where I was like, if I, if I don't run three miles, it's not worth it to me. And you know, then I got to the point where I wouldn't run for months because I'm like, I only have time to for one mile, or I don't feel like running three miles. And that's where I got to the point. But it's like, even if you just keep that those habits, that even if it's the small things, just take the 20 minutes, the 10 minutes you know, and do something that keeps that habit moving in the right direction. Because if you don't, you're going to lose it. And if those things are important to you, if those are the inputs that are giving you some type of output that you're looking for, then you have to be consistent. Consistency is the key with those things. So don't, don't allow the distractions or the feelings of, you know, I don't feel like it, or I don't want to do it, or I want something different. Just keep the habit going. Be consistent, even if it's the small things, and the benefits of that far outweigh not doing anything at all.
Catherine McDonald 23:43
So, and that's where reflection ties back in as well. Because if we spend 10 minutes running, let's say, and we do that for a couple of days, and then we reflect on, okay, well, what have I done in those 10 minutes? How do I feel about it? Could I could I possibly extend it to 12 minutes? How could I do that? Would that be a big deal? No, probably wouldn't be. It's only when you reflect, you understand, and you start like Andy said, you appreciate what you're doing, you think of the benefits of what you're doing for yourself. So again, our reflection, I think we tend to focus on the negative too much, and I loved what Andy said about almost the celebratory aspect of reflection, because that is just so important, and we don't do it
Patrick Adams 24:24
so much so for sure. Andy, what was your you had something you wanted to pull into 2026 before we hit record. You mentioned. What was that one thing that was important to you?
Patrick Adams 24:37
Yeah, being grounded. So, yeah, yeah, just being a grounded leader. And I mean, whatever space you're operating in in your life, you don't in your organization, you are a leader in some way. So yeah, really, how can you be more grounded? And sometimes that's when you're getting excited and chasing something, and you can kind of get a little bit too excited. Decided, as I have when I reflect over this year. But yeah, trying to bring yourself back down, in some ways, to go, Okay, well, just kind of remember where you're going or why you're here, and remember it's about, as Catherine said, one step after the other. And from a leadership perspective, I think that this, this term, the grounded leader that people naturally, you know, they can. People will normally follow a bit more than the, well, you've heard the term the Ricochet rabbit, so the leader that's just bouncing off the walls everywhere and or red drink, they're just really people don't really see this strong, steady leadership that cultivates, you know, good taste. They can, they can help their their teams, unpack things, be creative, you know, be creative, but also controlled in some ways, making sense of situations like you go to that person say, look, it's all over the place. And they go, Yeah, I know, but hang on, remember while we're here. And, yeah, this this thing about their Placemakers and they're lifelong learners. So it's about, look, I'm doing some really good stuff, and I might have invented something that the world has never seen. But you know what? I've still got a long way to go in some other way. So just kind that humble, leading with humility, type thing. I just find that the people that I enjoy being around, they're hard, but fair, but or they're grounded, right? That they recognize? Yeah, I'm here for a reason, and there's some things that I can do that you can't, for example, but I also respect and recognize that you're in my team and you know, something that I don't, and we need to work together, but yeah, at the end of the day, depends what's coming at them, whether that's a really good thing or we've got a big disturbance or a clash, and we could be in a lot of strife or trouble, if that's a different word is, yeah, this person is has some control. They're self aware. They reflect themselves. And I trust that even if none of us know what's going on, they can, yeah, they can keep themselves grounded, and we can, we can push further forward together. So yeah, ground trying to get me grounded. And as as those who know me better than others, I, yeah, I do find sometimes i I feel like I might keep hanging on to the balloons and disappearing up into the sky a bit too much sometimes. And that's, that's really a key focus for me, is to keep celebrating, but and chase it. But yeah, just make sure that you're looking back. And am I, am I still grounded? Because, yeah,
Patrick Adams 27:32
I think that's, that's a it's an important point. And for me, personally, you know, I think my leader, standard work helps me to do that, because as I reflect back on things that I'm learning, you know, each week or each day, and then I'm making adjustments accordingly, I have to update my own personal Leader Standard Work to, you know, again, kind of keep myself grounded in what are those daily, weekly habits, or those inputs that are important, that I Have to that I have to continue to do and be consistent on that are going to give me the results that I'm looking for. So I think that's a that's an important point. Shane, what do you, what do you do to stay grounded? Anything specifically that you, that you maybe have done in 2025 or you're going to do in 2026 just to keep yourself grounded.
Shayne Daughenbaugh 28:22
I really like what, what Andy said, and when he said it, it resonated, because I without even knowing or without doing it intentionally, I wrote down, you know, I'm here for a reason, and what is that reason? What am I? What am I trying to do and and to have that, you know, as as I look through the whole year, and whether it was, you know, a time where, you know, scrambling to find clients, or I had more work than I, you know, my plate kind of had, or I had to expand my plate, whatever it was to remember, what am I here for again? You know, what? Who is it that I'm serving? It's kind of like just going, you know, in from the Lean perspective. It's trying to understand what's the value from the customer's perspective, you know? And that's, I mean, that's why, that's why I'm here. Is to is it to serve? Is it to do this and this? Well, if it isn't, then why am I chasing that? Like that's, that's the grounding sometimes, that that I need. What am I here for? And am I true to myself?
Patrick Adams 29:21
Yeah, I love that. And my mind went directly to execution, I guess. And, you know, and I think that that's a really good point, like even thinking about, you know, in with our in our personal lives, why are we here? What? Why do what do we exist for? Do we have our own personal purpose statement, but also within the work that each of us are doing in our business, whatever role you play in your business, thinking about the customer, whether it's an internal external customer, what is the value that you're providing to your customer? And does your are you connecting your daily work to customer value? Like what. Are you doing every single day, and asking yourself, How is this? How are these daily priorities actually linked to customer impact? And maybe even looking at, you know, what are the non value add activities that are happening regularly, that need to be questioned or challenged or driven out? And so I think that that can also help keep us grounded, and that actually that actually makes me think about something that you mentioned Catherine, about just thinking about looking back at the traditional seven or eight wastes and value add versus non value add you had, you had, maybe an exercise, or some some, some conversation around that, that you wanted to share. Yeah.
Catherine McDonald 30:41
So I was thinking earlier about about habits, and about how we look at habits and organizations, and how we don't really actually enough of the time we look at the processes, but we don't look at the behaviors and habits enough. So I just did a little exercise, and I use the eight ways. I'm not sure if anybody uses those or if everybody uses those, but for those who don't know the eight wastes of lean, there's an acronym with which we understand them. So it's downtime, D, O, W, N, T, i, m, e, at least that's the one I use. So I have a little a little exercise. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to call out each of the eight wastes, right? So starting with the D, which is defects, and I'm going to ask you guys, right? Who's going to be first to put up their hand to tell me about a personal habit, okay, that a bad habit, and then what they can do to change that bad habit, right? So it's only a bit of fun so, and I think it'll help actually, our listeners, because what we when I sat down to do this on myself, I looked at it and I said, You know what, we're all guilty of these things. So I think it's no harm to put it out there and go, You know what, you're not alone. We all have these bad habits,
Catherine McDonald 31:47
but there are ways to change them, right? So who is going to be the first to tell me about a defect? So mistake, something that causes rework in your life? What do you think
Patrick Adams 32:00
I'll go, I'll just jump in. And it might be a bit boring, but I just have one that jumps straight out. Was overcooking presentations and proposals, right? So when writing either material to share with audiences or to pitch to a client, just the amount of there's just some things that I've reflect on, and I've learned through that experience around, yeah, having to, can't you kind of rework them over and over to death in the point where you're, you're going, you're over processing, which is another one of the ways, right? So I'll start there. And, and, yeah, I do
Catherine McDonald 32:35
find the important question is, what is the habit then you need to, I guess, take on in order to stop doing that. Do you think?
Patrick Adams 32:44
Yeah, it's having a better, more deliberate set of better questions. Okay, so trying to and the habit is not to get if a large corporation reaches out to me, yeah, I don't let the excitement and the potential of what could be down the track distract me from Hang on, it's the process. You know, these are the key things that we need to get out of this conversation to try not to make it too long. So it's very much about, okay, well, I've kind of written down some, some, some process steps, right? A bit of a standard work for how I engage, okay? And usually it can be quite subconscious in early in the piece. So I was just like, Oh yeah, okay, no worries. But now I'm like, no, no. Hang on, game it's game time. So there
Catherine McDonald 33:26
you go. So we actually you've covered the first two defects and overproduction. Okay, who's going to tell me about waiting? Where do we see ourselves waiting, and what kind of habits can we create or take up to prevent that waiting waste in our lives?
Patrick Adams 33:41
Do that's a good one. Waiting and personal. Think here I just think about, I mean, it immediately popped into my head, waiting to pick up my daughter from basketball practice. And, like, I think just thinking about, it seems like every time I'm there, I'm waiting forever for her, and it's a personal thing, but her and I need to communicate better. So we have to have better communication, and for me to show up at the exact time that she needs me to be there, versus, you know, me trying to be early. And then waiting would be two things, communication, and then, you know, being there at the exact time,
Catherine McDonald 34:25
yeah, and that, you can kind of see how that works in workplaces as well, in terms of waiting in processes and people thinking that other people are doing something, and then it doesn't happen and it all falls apart. So my one action that was waiting for the perfect time to start something, and that's
Patrick Adams 34:39
like, come on now, yeah. I was gonna, yeah, I was gonna say that only because I'd said something before. I was like, Oh, just waiting to start with somebody Yes, just, just do, go tell everyone else to do it.
Catherine McDonald 34:53
The next one is non use of talent. Okay, so where are we guilty of non use of talent ourselves? And. What could we do? What Habit could we start
Shayne Daughenbaugh 35:05
that that? I'll take that one, because one of the things that I'm still working on in my marriage is the non use of talent that is in my wife when it comes to being a thought partner. I'm getting much better, but for a long time it was just like, it's in my head, and it was more work to get it out of my head, to try to explain it to her, so that she could then roll it around, because we think totally different, which I now see as, holy cow, there's such an amazing talent right here to be able to, like, collaborate with. And so for me, that's, yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna go with Catherine, as I'm looking into, Hey, how can I use this more? Or where do I want? What's the habit I want is bringing my wife on early enough to where I don't have the roadblock of, there's so much information I have to share with her that it's just not even worth it, and I'll just take care of this myself, but really having a partnership of collaboration with her on things you know along the way, those micro, you know, kind of like micro steps. So that's what I would say.
Catherine McDonald 36:07
Yeah, good, great. Excellent example. The next one is transportation waste. Okay, what do we think about this one,
Patrick Adams 36:14
movement of materials? Yeah, I'm just thinking about I have a tendency to when I have work, work that I have like, like materials that I'm working on, printed stuff, or whatever it is, mail, whatever, I set it in piles, and then I work through it. But what happens is, I end up moving those piles from place to place, and that ends up creating a lot of waste. You know, I don't know if that really fits into transportation waste, but I'm moving those constantly, and really what I need to do is just take care of them as they come in, versus allowing the batch work to happen. And then, you know, and then shifting these piles of work around everywhere, yeah, doesn't really fit with transportation, I guess, but it is a waste.
Catherine McDonald 37:07
It is. It does, because some of my clients would talk about just emails in general, moving just, just not getting their email from A to Z, get, you know, it goes A to D, back to B, up to h. And so the movement of information around is a transportation waste, if we look at it in terms of behavior. So, yeah, okay, there. The next one is inventory. Okay, interesting one inventory in terms of personal behavior,
Patrick Adams 37:32
I could fit in with my storage piles, different storage points, yeah. But also, even just thinking about, you know, number of emails that I allow stored up, and being being able to take care of those real time as they come in, or, you know, block time to be able to reduce or eliminate the batch of emails that comes in, I think is a good kind of personal example for that.
Patrick Adams 37:59
Yeah, I think, yeah. I think, yeah. Go on. Andy. I was just going to say for me a lot of previous type work information and tools, the things that I I'm actually choosing not to play in that space anymore, but I just somehow, you know, seem to keep it you still have around. Yeah, I'll set a screwdrivers or something in there. So no, I've made that conscious decision that and my customers are telling me that that's not really where they would like me to play either. So it might be time to do a bit of 5s in, in a lot of those things, which I have been doing. But I still look around and go, I've still got that old manual from whatever, or that old that's that was another point in time. Let's, let's move that. Give it someone else, or let's move it on, because the value is being delivered by these things. So that's inventory of just useless information that I see now is not adding value. There you go.
Catherine McDonald 38:51
Okay, good. And the one another, another one I had related to, that was where we hold too much information in our own heads, so it builds up in our heads, and we don't externalize it enough. We Yeah, it's similar to kind of what you were saying Shane as well, with your example of not speaking getting things out and not talking them through. So it actually ends up as inventory in your head. So, yeah, good. Nearly there. So the next one, second last one is motion. Mine is not enough motion. Yeah? Any other examples
Patrick Adams 39:30
I've found to help with? Yeah? So not moving enough, right? Or getting, getting locked in the work. And I'll just finish this bit, and then, and then I'll do this bit, and then I'll go outside, or, then I'll go for, take the dog for a walk, those really good moments that force you to have reflection and mindfulness, for example. So I have, you know, I've been just even some tech is helping me out. You set the little times to say, and it says time to get moving. Andy, so I think it's not so much too much motion in that regard, but it's just. Helping me be more the motions that I do do are more effective. But I think in a negative in a wasteful space about the information in your head or having things, I guess it tied into my first point was around, kind of moving around way too much before I actually just pull the trigger on something, and that could be racing around to different places, or looking in certain areas online, or whatever. It's just like you're just buzzing around a bit too much, mate. You just need to, what are you here to do? What's the purpose of this thing that you're doing right now? Okay, step up and just keep it a bit cleaner. So, yeah, a lot of lot of bouncing around. When get on with it.
Catherine McDonald 40:42
Yep. So common one, yeah. And the last one is extra processing. So what are we doing in terms of extra so we are, let's say, just doing too much to have a height of something that's just too high quality for what we actually need to be doing. Or, you know, are we over explaining something, are we over polishing something?
Patrick Adams 41:03
Yeah, it makes me think about Christmas cookies. Actually, I spend quite a bit of time frosting the Christmas tree and putting the little bulbs on and, you know, there's a lot of a lot that goes into that Christmas cookie just for me to eat it. I think I just need to put the frosting on it, throw some sprinkles on it and eat it, right? I mean that because
Shayne Daughenbaugh 41:24
does it taste any better with the
Patrick Adams 41:26
same so why do I spend so much time? I don't.
Shayne Daughenbaugh 41:30
Yeah, I agree. I agree. I would also say, like for me, and this is purely or very much context related. But like, some of the reports that I may be creating after doing a workshop or whatnot, I may trying to be like over processing them and trying to make them look too good, you know, trying to, like, compare myself to well, you know this, this consultant would do this, and they'd have, you know, 15 slide, slide deck, you know, and so I'm trying to replicate that. But it may not just, it one, it's not me. I'm just just, I'm just going to give you the bare bones. Here's, you know, here's, here's my observations. But it doesn't have to be all of those other things to really impress with fluff, you know. Maybe it's going to be better to just hone in on what's most important, not necessarily font size and color schemes and all of that. I mean, those can help, but I think sometimes I can extra process.
Catherine McDonald 42:30
And it is, it's habits. It's a habit of a lifetime, probably, so yeah, okay, there you go. That's the eight ways. There's some Yeah, some habits we can all change, and maybe it'll be useful for somebody out there who wants to look at their own habits and behaviors.
Patrick Adams 42:42
Habits and behaviors. Yeah, what a great, great way to reflect. For those of you that are listening in as we as we wrap up here, that's a great exercise to take back to your team, or just for yourself personally or your family, maybe to just kind of walk through those together and just think about, what are the habits in 2025 that maybe we're not adding value to your life or to your team or to the customer, whatever it might be. And how do you want to change those? What are the things that you want to do differently in 2026 so that you can maximize the value for you, personally, for your customer, for your family, for your team, whatever it might be. So what a great exercise. Thanks for sharing that. Catherine, yeah, Catherine, hey, we're going to we're going to say goodbye here to 2025 and we're going to pick up in 2026 it's going to be a whole new year. We're excited to bring you guests from all around the world in 2026 just like we have before. But it's going to be even better, we have lots of amazing plans for the Lean solutions podcast and how we can continue to bring value to all the listeners out there. And if you have some suggestions for us, reach out to any one of us and shoot us a message on LinkedIn. You can just private message us and give us suggestions. If you know a guest that you think would add value, or maybe you are a guest that could add value to the podcast. You have a case study you want to share, or maybe you have a suggestion about a topic, or something that we can do a little bit differently to continue to add more value to you all. That's why we're here. That's what that's what we're trying to do with the podcast, is really, just have some really, really great conversations with people that are doing Lean the right way. And so we appreciate you guys listening in and sharing the podcast with people you know. If you haven't subscribed, please make sure you subscribe, and we will see you in 2026 So any last, let's go around the room real quick. Last, just motivational comment for 2025 as we let's go to great work.
Patrick Adams 44:52
Guys. Shane, good on you. Shane,
Shayne Daughenbaugh 44:54
I'm just gonna say, get after it, like, whatever it is, you know, like, like Andy. Men. Mentioned, talked about, don't wait, get after it. Try to try it. Experiment. Be courageous. Learn something
Patrick Adams 45:10
nice, good one. Catherine,
Catherine McDonald 45:12
yeah, so I'm going to say, do that, but also manage the shadow side of that, and don't go too fast. And take your time while you are going after whatever you're going after, and just make time to reflect and pause those little micro reflections all the time. And like Andy said, you know, it's, it's about the what's going well, as well as the what do I need to change or learn? Love it.
Patrick Adams 45:36
Andy, yeah, really excited. Thanks everyone for a fantastic year. But, yeah, if you do it you've always done, you'll get what you've always got. So I think it's a really good time to reflect over these next few weeks, if you're taking the downtime. And yeah, what, what is, what is the, what is the goal for next year, at that that mindset of short term urgency, long term consistency. And I just cannot wait to jump into 2026 with you all. Have a great, safe, happy holiday season and catch you next year. Thank you.
Patrick Adams 46:06
Alright, thanks, Andy, for me, I'll just tell everyone. I think it's important that we write down our goals. Write down the things that you want to do in 2026 show them to someone and ask them to hold you accountable. That's the way you're going to make it happen in 2026 so for all of you, have a great, I guess, new year, depending on when this episode drops, I think it'll be before the new year. So have a great new year, and we will see you in 2026.