The blog post

This episode looks at how GE Aerospace CEO Larry Culp grounds Lean leadership in two fundamentals: safety and respect for people. Drawing on his recent appearance on the Gray Matter podcast, we explore how Culp applies the core habits of the Toyota Production System—not as slogans, but as daily practice.

Culp traces his Lean development back to Danaher, where he learned kaizen directly from consultants trained by Toyota’s Shingijutsu pioneers. That early exposure shaped his belief that improvement is a behavior, not a program. He still invites those same advisers, including Yukio Katahira, onto GE Aerospace’s shop floors—reinforcing that the real expertise lives with the people doing the work.

He describes how he “kaizens himself” after board meetings and plant visits, using the same PDSA cycle expected throughout the organization. His message is blunt: Lean fails when leaders try to drive improvement from conference rooms instead of going to the work.

The conversation also highlights GE’s SQDC focus—Safety and Quality before Delivery and Cost—and why Culp begins every leadership meeting with a safety moment. Given that three billion passengers fly each year on GE-powered aircraft, he frames safety as a responsibility, not a dashboard metric.

Culp’s turnaround work emphasizes cultural change as much as operational results. He’s pushing GE from a finger-pointing culture toward a problem-solving culture, where issues are surfaced early and treated without blame. Psychological safety is essential to that shift.

The throughline is simple and consistent: continuous improvement requires humble leadership, curiosity at every level, and a commitment to getting closer to the work. Culp’s approach is a reminder that Lean endures not because of its tools, but because of the behaviors it cultivates.

The blog post

In this episode of Lean Blog Audio, Mark Graban reads and reflects on his post “Fred Noe of Jim Beam: Leadership Lessons on Mistakes, Innovation, and Long-Term Thinking.”

What can a seventh-generation master distiller teach us about leadership, experimentation, and learning from mistakes? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Drawing on two in-person encounters with Fred Noe—at the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky, and at a Bourbon Society event—Mark shares timeless lessons from a leader who practices Lean principles without ever using the jargon.

Fred’s stories about 4,000-gallon “small batch” experiments, revisiting brown rice Bourbon years later, and guiding his son Freddie through failed blends show how humility, patience, and long-term vision create both great whiskey and great organizations.

🎧 In this episode, you’ll hear insights on:

• How to design systems for learning, not perfection

• Why small-scale experiments fuel large-scale innovation

• How psychological safety allows teams to take smart risks

• Why Suntory’s decade-long mindset echoes Toyota’s long-term philosophy

• How legacy leadership means passing on curiosity, not certainty

Whether you’re leading a distillery, a hospital, or a startup, Fred Noe’s approach reminds us that the best results come from respecting the process—and the people—behind it.

Hashtags:
#Leadership #LeanThinking #Innovation #Mistakes #PsychologicalSafety #ContinuousImprovement #Bourbon #JimBeam #Suntory #LearningCulture

The blog post

In this episode of the Lean Blog Audio podcast, Mark Graban reads and reflects on one of his classic posts: “The Biggest Lean Six Sigma Myth: ‘Lean Is Just About Speed.’”

Far too often, consultants and trainers claim that “Lean is for speed” while “Six Sigma is for quality.” Mark calls out this false dichotomy and explains why both Lean and Six Sigma—when properly understood—aim to improve quality, flow, safety, cost, and morale together.

Drawing on his own experience in manufacturing and healthcare, Mark reminds listeners what Toyota has always taught: quality and productivity go hand in hand. If someone tells you Lean is about “making bad stuff faster,” that’s your cue to run the other way.

🎧 Listen to learn:

• Why the “Lean = speed” narrative misrepresents Toyota’s intent

• How “quality at the source” and “flow” reinforce one another

• Why misunderstanding Lean leads to failed transformations

• How to correct common Lean Six Sigma misconceptions

Lean is not about efficiency alone—it’s about building systems where people, quality, and improvement are inseparable.

Hashtags:
#Lean #SixSigma #ToyotaProductionSystem #ContinuousImprovement #QualityAtTheSource #PsychologicalSafety #LeanThinking