Patrick Adams  

Welcome to the Lean solutions podcast where we discuss business solutions to help listeners develop and implement action plans for true Lean process improvement. I am your host, Patrick Adams. We are joined today by Chris Burnham. He has 20 years of experience with learning and coaching lean and continuous improvement principles. His career has spanned a variety of roles from frontline servant leader to responsibility over global continuous improvement programs. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and holds a Bachelor from Western Carolina University. Chris is also the host of the Lean leadership podcast, which I was in an interview on not too long ago. So I’m excited to have you on the show. Chris, welcome.

Chris Burnham  

Oh, thank you for inviting me, Patrick. I’m glad to have another conversation. We had a great time the last time

Patrick Adams  

Yes, we did. So you are in technology, we’re going to talk a little bit about KaiNexus and the work that you do there, but you’ve been primarily working in it and on the technology side of things, but you’re also in continuous improvement. So I think it would be great to, you know, point, our focus today in the technology world, and just with, you know, where the world is going, and all the amazing things that are happening. You know, from a technology perspective, I would be interested to hear some more of your thoughts on how you see continuous improvement tying in with technology and in the direction that the world is going. So tell us just a little bit about maybe what your thoughts are around continuous improvement in technology and how those two work together?

Chris Burnham  

Well, great, great question. First of all, thanks for having me on. Patrick. When I think about continuous improvement, I really think of this three circle type Venn diagram where you have leadership behaviors, consistent improvement methodologies, and then enabling technology. And like a three legged stool, you have to have those balanced out with one another otherwise, you tip over. But, you know, I’m going back. And I think about when I first learned lean and continuous improvement, I’m sure it’s similar to your story, like, technology was like, we started our computers with this big tower that was on the floor that we started it with our toe? No, it was this huge monitor that looked like a TV that was, you know, in your grandparents living room. I mean, it was, it wasn’t necessarily where we are today. And I just think like what, whether you choose to use a dry erase board, or a post it note with stickies or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, you’re choosing to use technology by default. Sure, right. So now we have these devices in our pockets that contain the entire knowledge of man. And we can communicate with literally anybody on the globe and in most areas, and we’re not using that technology to communicate better, to collaborate better, or to find places where we can harmonize to seek improvement.

Patrick Adams  

That’s very true. And how do you feel, you know, when somebody in an organization, maybe someone who’s listening today, you know, that that is in that space? How does behavior tie into that leadership behavior? Specifically, you know, how does that help enable, you know, how do they work together? How is it enabled together? You know, with continuous improvement? What are your thoughts around that?

Chris Burnham  

Yeah, I think you can have all the technology in the world. But if you don’t have the right principles and behaviors behind it, you’re really no better than just yours buying technology, and it’s gonna, it’s going to sit there and it’s not really going to be an enabling technology. So when you think about the things that make a great leader with behavior and continuous improvement, that leader will have a commitment that’s visible, they are on the gimbal, they participate, they don’t delegate improvement, they participate in improvement. Sure. They communicate well, they communicate with, with clarity. And usually they ask really good questions versus the telling habit that Katie Anderson talks about, right? They ask really good questions that provoke thought they have a sense of an abundance mentality when it comes to resources. And what I mean by an abundance mentality, it doesn’t mean we are you can have whatever you want. They have an abundance mentality of let’s not confine our thinking and be and use our resources at hand where, where can we redeploy assets? Or where can we borrow assets from a certain standpoint, and that asset may be an individual who has some time to contribute to improvement. It could be someone else’s thoughts. It could also be someone who challenges what you’re thinking, challenges your assumption, like the best Kai’s ends that I’ve ever been on, had somebody that was not even related to the business and they said, Why do you do it that way? And the reason is, is because we never thought of it like an outsider. That’s right. But I think the key piece here with behaviors is People like to use the word accountability. But I like the word responsibility. I think good leaders make others responsible, like they empower others. Like when you’re holding someone accountable that tends to have a negative paradigm in the mind, I own being held accountable. But when you make someone responsible, you’re giving them authority, you’re giving them power, you’re giving them the ability to make a decision, based on the idea that you’re closest to the process, and you probably have the best information. Sure, sure.

Patrick Adams  

No, I think that’s great. And I love that you’re using those words, enabling and empowering, because I think that definitely has to be a piece, you know, if you’re going to have the, you know, if you’re going to be developing a learning organization, you know, you have to have those that type of culture, you know, embedded underneath, you know, the technology piece of it. And I, as you’re talking, I was thinking back to a time I was at a company. And I remember we were filling out, hour by hour, charts by hand. And this is going to probably Perkin up a few years here, the listeners because there’s a there’s a large split between people who feel like, there needs to be pen to paper, which I’ve talked a lot about the, you know, the psychology behind pen to paper, and I’m 100% in agreement and belief that that is there is power behind putting pen to paper. But I do remember a time when I was working with a company, and we were struggling to get our hours filled out. And they had automated counters that were because they were making, you know, hundreds of parts an hour. And we were just really struggling. And I needed to have some data. And I’m like, well, let’s pull the numbers from the counter so that we can get some, some good numbers. And I remember we actually pulled a flat screen computer out of the red tag area and a coat rack. And we hung this right next to the cell. And we put this program in place behind the counters that would calculate their hour by hour numbers. And then we we also created the ability for them to click on red or green and or put up, you know, red solo cups, we had some different things in place to have the same approach behind that, you know that the whole idea around pen to paper and what that does psychologically for someone, but I’m curious to hear your thoughts like, and again, I’m sure there’s people that are listening, that are, you know, maybe in the same boat where they’re starting to move towards technology? And you know, is it a matter of replacing what we’ve done before with technology and removing people from that so that they’re not doing it anymore? You know, it’s automatically happening in the background? Or is it a hybrid of the two? You know, what are your thoughts on that?

Chris Burnham  

I think the first thing is to do what works. That is what is most important. And when you have that behavior of the cycles of I check my numbers on a regular basis, whether it’s units by hour or whatever, when it’s part of my Leader Standard Work, where I’m checking that and it’s incorporated, and I’m posting something, as long as the behaviors behind it of making sure I’m on track, right. That’s what’s most important. If you have a bad process where there’s a lack of standard work where there is no one going through and making sure that hey, we’re on track, and then you apply technology, all you’re doing is creating a situation where someone can blame the technology versus blaming the behavior of, of not following the process. And you need to make sure that your process has what you need from that standpoint. I think also, it depends on who your audience is, if you’re trying to convey key performance metrics across multiple locations or multiple places. And at that point, maybe you want to think about how do I share my metrics? How do I make sure that my measurements are right? How do I make sure that my measurements are visible? And how do I make sure that we’re making decisions based on those measurements? But I think if one thing is taught us in the last, you know, 18 to 24 months was in the past, a digital transformation in digital access was aspirational. Now it’s a business necessity, especially in areas where you can’t put people together in close proximity, or you can’t communicate the ways that you used to. And so I just think that you just need to apply whatever technology works for you at the time. Yeah. And then using the same way, how can we do this better? You know, pull it apart? Like what, what, how can we do this better, but that’s why I like to talk about enabling technology versus just technology because enabling technology helps you achieve the outcomes that you’re looking for. Whereas technology is something hanging on a wall or it’s on a shelf.

Patrick Adams  

Right, right. Yeah, I think you’re spot on with that. I think meeting people where they’re at, you know, if you’re working with an organization that’s primarily working from home right now, you have to, you can’t just say continuous improvement doesn’t work here because we’re all working for Home, you know, know that that’s not true. You have to meet them where they’re at and figure out what what are the tools and techniques that we can use to foster an environment of continuous improvement, even if that is the case, you know, or to your point, if, you know, maybe they’re some people are on site, some people are off site, you know, what are the right things that are going to work for the team. And I think that in the spirit of continuous improvement, we can’t just say that the way that things have been in the past will always work in the future, right? Times are changing, teams are changing. And we have to change with the times and the teams and the technology and be willing to be creative and find new and innovative ways to do things that are going to give us the result of that true continuous improvement culture that we’re trying to create as an organization’s.

Chris Burnham  

That’s spot on, I think we just have to remind ourselves, Patrick, that adaptation is a natural process in human evolution, right. So as individuals, early on in our lives, we learned that I have to change my behavior to get a different outcome. If I’m unsatisfied with the outcomes that I have, and that I may still try to do the same thing. But my environment is another input. So when that input changes, it affects my new current state, and I have to adapt in order to be able to achieve the outcomes I’m looking for. And so I think where people struggle is, I mean, we’ve heard this as Oh, we’ve always done it that way. Five years ago, 10 years ago, 25 years ago, that may have been okay. But today that may, that’s that may not be the same case. And all we’re saying is, let’s make sure that our process matches the environment, that gives us the outcome that we’re looking for right now. And that happens with behaviors that happen with methodologies that happen with technology. I can’t I mean, it’s, I thought, when we got Nextel phones, that was revolutionary, because now I didn’t have to carry around a two way radio and a bulky cell phone, on my hip in a warehouse, like I had them both in one piece. And now I know they’re making a comeback. I don’t think you can find those phones anymore. But that whole idea of being able to, to share knowledge and collaborate and have an impact quickly, that that still applies, those principles still apply around technology.

Patrick Adams  

Absolutely. I agree. 100%. So do you also think that leadership is changing? Or that type of leadership, I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are on what makes a good Lean leader today? And in the future, as you see it with the direction that things are going? What would you say to that?

Chris Burnham  

Yeah, so first of all, having a podcast about leadership and leading continuous improvement, that is the most essential critical element of any improvement effort is that the leader has to be involved, like they have to be participants. Because a leader can’t delegate their experience, they can’t delegate their knowledge, they can’t delegate their relationships, and they can’t delegate the responsibility. Because, by definition, that leader has a responsibility or an accountability to the people that they serve as a leader. So I think it goes back to what we talked about with commitment, communication resources, making people responsible, but also just being visible, because and thinking in terms of how their behavior is observed in the environment. I had a great conversation with Billy Ray Taylor, and I love his statements, whatever you walk by, and allow it to become the standard. Oh, yeah. So as a leader, you wouldn’t walk into an unsafe situation. If there was a CNC milling machine that had a cover open, its operating, people aren’t wearing their PPE, you’re not going to walk by and accept that. So why would you walk by and accept that someone hasn’t followed their process and put their metrics out? Or why would you accept that someone is allowing WIP to grow in an area? Or why would you accept that someone commits to an action, but doesn’t follow through on it? And so I just think, as a leader, what you do and how you behave and how you operate in the theater of operations is far more important than whatever you say, or whatever you put on paper or whatever speech you give.

Patrick Adams  

That’s right. I agree. 100% I actually remember I worked for a leader who she had been, she had spent some time with Toyota executives, and she was telling Well, first of all, we were walking through the plant. I was a young continuous improvement manager and she stopped and picked up a piece of trash on the ground and and if I remember that plant was not super clean, so there was a lot of trash, you know, that you would see as you walk through the plant, but she stopped and picked it up and she said, I need you to understand a lesson here. And she said, I worked for Toyota executives are coached, mentored by a tweet executive who had a similar experience where he stopped and just stared at the trash on the ground and said, We’re not moving until this has picked up, it has to become the standard. Because when you walk, when you just walk by it, you’re just saying, It’s okay. I don’t, it’s not a big deal to me as a leader if there’s trash everywhere. And so I just remember that when you said that it made me think back to what a great lesson that was, for me as a young continuous improvement manager, that whatever you walk past is accepted as the standard. It’s, you know, that others are watching you. And they see, that’s not important to you, right? If you’re not doing Gemba walks, if you’re not auditing standard work, you know, as a leader, you’re accepting the fact that that’s not important, right?

Chris Burnham  

Yeah, I think the same thing goes for when talking about making people responsible, is not accepting behaviors that are less than the standard. So if you make a commitment to somebody, like if you made a commitment to your children, you’re not going to miss that commitment. If you make a commitment to your spouse, you’re not going to miss that commitment. So if you make a commitment to a business partner, or a peer, or a co-worker that, hey, yes, I’m gonna do this, by this time. And when you miss it, and you’re just making things happen, I get that. And I accept that, all right. But when you miss it consistently, that’s complicit to lying. That’s a lack of integrity. That means that when you give me a commitment, I can’t trust you. So now, it creates an environment where if I can’t trust your behavior, I can’t trust that the metrics that you’re reporting are accurate, I can’t trust that the things that you say are taking place, are actually taking place. And then also, it makes it even worse, because the people that follow you, they see you missing that commitment. So when you make a commitment to them, they don’t believe it. And so I like compound behaviors. So the same with compound interest, when you have great behaviors and great principles, they stack on each other, people get on board, and they do that you’re beating my mic to death, right? When they get on board, they do that the same way they emulate you. So positive behaviors have a compounding effect. And negative behaviors have a compounding effect. So one of the things that I would always tell my team when I was leading continuous improvement programs was Don’t worry about being the thermometer or measuring the temperature in the room, I need you to be the thermostat, I need you to set the pace, I need you to set the standard for the people that you walk by and hold people accountable. And in a sense, I’m behaving this way. And I need you to behave this way with me not because I do this, you need to do it, it’s pay let’s do this together.

Patrick Adams  

Absolutely. And he talked about commitment. And I just think about organizations that are committed to certain departments or areas in the company. You know, I think like people that are listening probably have at their company, they probably have an IT department, they probably have, they’re committed to having human resources. And they probably have policies and procedures in place that, you know, govern their human resources or their IT or finance or sales, or whatever it is. And as an organization, people know that those are important, it’s important that we have an IT department, it’s important that we have a finance department. And I just wonder, you know, from a commitment perspective, is it necessary for organizations to have the same type of mentality when it comes to process improvement? Should that be a necessary part of an organization as much as it is, with human resources? What do you think?

Chris Burnham  

I absolutely believe that process improvement is a necessary part of the organization as people see finance, HR, IT, compliance, legal, all of these different things, because the reason that you have those departments is what you’re saying to the organization. And if you’re a publicly traded company, you’re saying to your investors that this is important to us, right? And so that if you’re not seeking to continuously improve your process, and improve morale, and to reduce costs, and figure out a way to deliver more value to your customer, your competitor likely is and right now they’re sitting in a room, talking about how to improve their process. And what they’re really doing is they’re saying, we are going to take your market share, we are going to do whatever you think you’re the best at and prove that we’re better at it. And so, I think you have to have that mentality as a business strategy. But also there’s so many other organizational benefits of being committed to continuous process improvement.

Patrick Adams  

Absolutely. I agree. I agree with you. 100%. Now do you are in the camp of having a PMO office and having you know, continuous improvement managers or a team in place? or are you on the side of you know, we should have process improvement embedded in the organization within our supervisors or managers? Or is there a hybrid of both? Or where do you fall in that?

Chris Burnham

Yeah, I really, I tend not to try to get prescriptive about this, because I always feel like that organization knows their people best, I think you need to have a hybrid of both, because you need to have an a group that is focused on this is our thing, we’re gonna make sure that everybody has the knowledge, they need to be able to participate, that everybody has the technology needs, they need to participate, that everybody has the space and time they need to participate. But then, ultimately, those process owners are the experts. So you can’t just parachute people in and expect them to wave magic wands and move things around and things because and magically, things get better. Because that’s not adaptation, that’s you’re just changing the environment. And you’re not changing the behaviors and the principles that go behind it. So think of it in terms of laws of thermodynamics, like everything goes towards entropy, or a state of disorder. So you need to have some folks that are advocates for the process. But at the same time, you need to be enabling the people to do the work every day, because they’re the experts in the organization, they’re closest to the work. Sure, they are the ones that know what’s wrong and what needs to be improved. And every place that I’ve been, going for a walk and having a conversation with the person closest to the customer, person closest to the product, and the person closest to quality is usually where you want to start, because they’re going to tell you what they see. And they’re gonna have ideas. And they haven’t met, maybe they haven’t felt like they can share or maybe they have shared into one’s listening. And that’s where you need to diagnose, do I have a leadership problem? Do I have a methodology problem? Or do I have a technology challenge?

Patrick Adams  

Yeah, absolutely. And talking about technology challenges, I mean, there’s both sides to this coin, right, technology can definitely bring some benefits to your continuous improvement efforts. But it can also bring some challenges as well. And I’m curious to hear, you know, what your thoughts would be around, you know, diagnosing when technology is holding you back from your continuous improvement efforts. Yeah,

Chris Burnham  

I am a firm believer in the mission of my company. KaiNexus says that we believe that technology and experience, foster and help spread continuous improvement, like that’s our mission spreading continuous improvement. Because we believe that when you help others, and to get visualization, or to get visibility, get standardization, that you’re in a small way making the workplace in the world, I guess, a better place, for lack of a better term. But I think when you look to diagnose, if you have a technology problem, the first thing is are your problems visible? Because if you’re not creating an environment, I don’t, I don’t celebrate the leader who doesn’t have any problems. That leader concerns me, because I’m, I’m looking for the leader to celebrate who finds and solves the most problems, because I know that they’re being transparent. Everybody has problems. Everybody has challenges. So are your problems visible? Like do people have access to pull the end on cord, raise their hand, stop the lawn, whatever you want, whatever terminology you want to use, but do they have the ability to say hey, I’ve got a problem and make that problem visible in a way that everyone can see the problem, understand it from different perspectives and work on it together in a collaborative environments, you need collaboration, if you’re not collaborating, you’re not going to achieve the gains that you want to people can’t operate in vacuums and teams. Right? Agree. Yeah, you have to have collaboration. And so you can say, well, yeah, we email one another, or we text one another, or we have a group text, or we use Slack, or we use another Microsoft Teams or another technology. Yeah, those are great. But there’s no replacement for a face to face conversation. But also, sometimes improvement work needs to take place in an asynchronous way where you maybe you don’t need to wait for a meeting, or you don’t need to wait for a huddle to solve a problem then, right. So there’s a balance of where you need to find that. But then I think the other thing that technology points out is if you don’t have standards, if you don’t have a standard way of how you approach things, because by choosing not to have standards, what you’re saying is that anything goes and now you spend more time debating which template is right or which version of a spreadsheet with a problem is right, versus solving the problem. That’s right, right. I think one of the things that in my experiences that I’ve loved about continuous improvement is when somebody has a breakthrough moment They have the ability to share that breakthrough moment with people in other parts of the organization. They’re doing similar things, to enable them to have breakthrough moments. So knowledge sharing, yes. And it’s, it can be in a couple different ways it can be in how do we spread best practices quickly to everyone? And you can’t just rely on technology to do what you have to, you can do it in a kind of a different way of talking about your standard meetings. Are you talking about it and email and you have a newsletter? Do you have any? What’s your change in communication plan? But right, yeah, knowledge sharing is, if you don’t have the ability to share knowledge, quickly, you have a technology problem. And then the last piece is, how are you measuring your impact? Right. As humans, psychologically, we want to feel like we are making a difference. So there’s a lot of power in saying, hey, the work that Patrick did over here, had this impact on the company or on the organization. So Patrick, give us an idea that saved us 20 hours a year? Well, that’s, you know, that’s half of a person’s week, right? I mean, and over a course of a long career, that’s a significant amount of time, right. But also with the impact of the idea that we don’t have to hit base base, we don’t have to hit homeruns, base it, score runs, just get on base, it’s the World Series. Sama had to work in a baseball analogy there. But nice. Get allowed to think in terms of small incremental improvements that have a long term impact on the organization. So how are you measuring your impact? How are you validating it? And there’s someone right now that’s listening to us, that says, well, we need to have finance validate everything? Yeah, maybe it depends. But in most cases, just have finance spot check a few of the, a few of them. And also, you know, what’s your measurement plan? Right? Yeah, but have a finance spot check a few of them. And for the big ones, you absolutely want to validate them. If you’re if you’re having a savings of greater than a quarter million dollars, yeah, I want a year I want to, I want to spot check that I want to validate it, what you will find is, most of the time, people sandbag in a way, that’s it’s humble. They don’t want to drag attention. So when you pull apart that improvement, and you measure out the impacts, what you’re gonna find is, it’s far more than what they thought it was right. But if you don’t talk about the impacts of your organization, you’re essentially saying that there’s no reason to have continuous improvement. And, yeah, at that point, people were just coming in and punching a clock. They’re not committed to the growth of the organization not committed to the mission. They’re not committed to the things that make them unique, because they feel like they can do that anywhere else.

Patrick Adams  

Right. Right. It’s interesting that you say that about measuring success, I was just talking with someone a couple weeks ago about how they measure financial improvement, or, you know, cost savings in and what happens with that. And they were telling me that at their organization, when there’s a large cost savings, a hard cost savings, bottom line, opportunity that the executive leadership normally takes that money and takes it out of the department in and gives it to someone else in another area. And I was, and they were saying that it’s such a motivational low for that team, because they get excited about this great improvement, and then they don’t get to see the fruits of that in their own department. And I was thinking, like, I was trying to think through that, like, obviously, it’s a team effort, you know, working together as an organization. But at the same time, if you’re not celebrating the success that that team was able to achieve, or at least giving them some type of celebration, you know, or understanding why that money was moved to a different department or whatever it might be. It could be detrimental. It couldn’t go the other direction, where the team says, we’re not, we’re not doing this anymore. Every time we have a cost savings opportunity, you know, we end up getting more work and the money goes in spent somewhere else, you know, it could be frustrating for team members. I don’t know, I could see it go both ways. Right?

Chris Burnham  

I can, too. I think it’s really that’s where it’s really important as a leader that you have a commitment to communication, and you need to talk about what you’re doing with that money and where it’s going and still celebrating, Hey, you did a great job. We need you to do this again. But don’t think in terms of, well, if you’re just taking that money and you’re giving it to a group that’s not performing well, then that doesn’t send the right message, right. But if you say, Hey, we’re gonna take the money that you saved, and we’re gonna hold it back in the spot, and that’s gonna allow us to buy you know, acquire more resources, maybe we’re gonna get better technology, maybe we’re gonna get better machines, maybe we’re gonna get we’re going to increase rates for folks. Maybe we’re going to not have a dependency on overtime in order to meet commitments that are unrealistic. Maybe it’s you know, there’s a lot of different positive things, but I think it’s a matter of the messenger and the message rather than just the behavior of taking money because hey, look, when you’re saving, when you’re creating a savings, whether in time and cost and cost avoidance, you’re giving that money back. You’re saying we don’t need to use this for this, we’re giving a benefit to the organization. That’s right. But the benefit has to be recognized in a positive way. Otherwise, it’s just, you know, hey, I did this over here, and that I’m working harder and this guy she’s getting lazier. Right. And that’s not fair. Yeah, you have to be careful about how you send that message. Agreed.

Patrick Adams  

I think you’re spot on with your response. And just being that it is really the message. It’s how it’s communicated that, you know, if the team understands ahead of time, that you know, bottom line savings is important. And this is why and here’s where that bottom line savings needs to be used. For this reason, the why behind it. It’s obviously easier to jump on board with that versus just having this great cost savings. And nobody told us whatever happened with it, like, where did it go? Why, you know, and all of a sudden, you know, we’re seeing cost cutting happening when we’re losing employees in our department, we’re going down by two employees, and we just saved 100,000 This last year. That kind of thing doesn’t make sense, right? So it is definitely in the messaging.

Chris Burnham  

The fastest way to kill your continuous improvement program is that when people find savings from a time standpoint, that you cut headcount, that is just that is not that’s not lean, that’s not that’s not human. That’s not the type of leadership that people want to follow. Because all you’re doing now is you’re saying, Hey, if you find opportunities, I’m gonna, I’m gonna cut you out. And that’s not that’s not what we’re trying to do. You’re trying to empower your individuals, you’re trying to say, hey, now I have this capacity sales team, I need you to go out and grab market share, right, I need you to sell more. My first place that I ever learned lean and continuous improvement. We were a contract electronics manufacturer, we had two clients. And we were committed to continuous improvement. We’re reducing space, we’re reducing the need for labor. But the folks that we freed up, we put them on different projects, we had them float around to handle demand that came through, we were literally taking like the seat belt barriers that you see at the movie theater, when used to go through the lottery, we were blocking out space and hanging signs to say, future future customers. So we went from, you know, to customers in a matter of a couple of years to like 11 in the building, using the same space in the same footprint, we actually added jobs, and we were more profitable than anybody else. So it’s all about how your leader messages things. And I had the benefit of starting out on this journey with a really empowering leader that showed me how to be committed to the principles, but also how to communicate those principles and be committed to your people. And that’s powerful, it’s a big hit of dopamine man when you’re in that environment.

Patrick Adams  

I love that. Chris, as we start to wrap up, I want to hear a little bit more about KaiNexus. As we talked, we mentioned that we talked briefly about it. Can you tell us a little bit more about KaiNexus and what your role is with the company?

Chris Burnham  

Yeah, so KaiNexus we are a software as a service company based out of Austin, Texas. I love telling the story. We were founded by two close friends, one of which was an emergency room doctor and Greg Jacobson, our CEO. When he was in his residency at Vanderbilt, one of the senior doctors there gave him a book called Misaki and mice Khoisan. Okay, by the way, if you look for that book, that original version is very hard to find. And when you do find it, it’s very expensive to acquire. But it’s a great book, but it talks about all these principles. And so Greg took this to medicine, and he started out with at first he was trying to keep ideas for folks that are coming in on how to improve processes in the emergency room department, and he’s keeping track of it on spreadsheet, he realizes, Hey, I can’t I can’t do this, right. Then he moves to keeping things with a database and has a conversation with his friend or co-founder. And they decide, hey, there’s an opportunity here for a software solution. And so at first, we started out with healthcare, because I think if you’re committed to improving outcomes for folks in healthcare, it’s good work. But you know, now here we are, almost 10 years later, we have a large number of clients that are in healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, mining, and it’s all based on that principle of, we want to make things visible. We want to allow people to collaborate in a synchronous way, and have access to understanding what the standards are and get standardization because we really want to improve work. And so the neat thing about our platform is now if I’m walking through a shop floor and I see an idea for animation If I could pull up my cell phone, snap a picture loaded in, and my ideas routed to someone who can take action on it, I’ve set a tone for a bias for action within my organization. And now as a leader and executive, I’m able to see all the activity that’s going on in my organization around continuous improvement. So my role is I’m Senior mean strategy director for the company, I actually use KaiNexus at a previous stop in my career. And when I had an opportunity, I changed careers, and I was on the market as a free agent. I had reached out to KaiNexus and said, Hey, I’m looking at you working with a lot of dynamic companies. And we had a conversation about me working there. And now I get to help companies and I get to help CX professionals that are doing the same thing that I do figure out a way to make things better for their folks using technology. And, you know, just think in terms like this, if you have a small ideas, this idea based system, and you have one version of the truth where everybody has the ability to put their ideas in and say, Hey, I think there’s a better way fix what bugs you and my previous stop in my life, we had two full time people that that’s what they focused on the process. But we enabled hundreds of others. And we save, you know, between seven and $8 million in hard savings over the course of a three year period. Um, little ideas add up. Who wouldn’t like to have another $8 million over the bottom over a three year period? That’s right. So but that’s the financial benefit. The psychological benefit was we enabled folks, when they saw a problem or something was broken, they logged into the system, and they hit that little green button at the top. And they said, hey, something’s wrong, we need to improve it. And they saw someone come help them improve it. And that’s an incredibly empowering thing for individuals to feel like they have power to improve the environment in which they work everyday.

Patrick Adams  

Absolutely. So if someone wanted more information about KaiNexus, or even to reach out to you for a question, or anything, where would they go? And we can throw these links in the show notes as well. 

Chris Burnham  

So I think the best thing is to go to KaiNexus .com. And take a look at our website, we’ve got a great website from that standpoint. If someone has a question, they can reach out to me on LinkedIn. And they can listen to my podcasts, of course. But really, when it comes down to connecting with me, LinkedIn is probably the best place and the website.

Patrick Adams  

Perfect. And the Lean leadership podcast, were can can any podcast platform, they can just search Lean leadership podcast,

Chris Burnham  

I’m continuously looking for new ones to add to it out there. But I would just whatever podcast platform that you listen to, look up the Lean leadership podcast, you’ll see a little green emblem or you know, Avatar, for the podcast, you’ll see a much younger version of me in the picture. A little less gray in the hair. But look, the whole idea behind the podcast is the same way that we had you on people that have done this continuous improvement thing that have struggled that have had setbacks, but have also had success. And just sharing those stories. Because I know there’s someone listening right here and they’re thinking they’re listening right now. They’re thinking, man, these guys don’t understand what I’m going through. And what I’m telling you is, if anybody understands it’s the folks on the podcast, and you’re not alone, and we want to help you. And I’m just about connecting the folks that are doing the work everyday with great people like yourself, Patrick, that have the ability to help show them the way.

Patrick Adams  

Chris, it’s been great. I appreciate having you on. And I hope that this isn’t the last time we’d love to have you on again. And maybe we can interview a guest together at some point and be kind of fun, get a three way podcast interview going.

Chris Burnham  

That would be awesome. Patrick, I’m grateful for the work that you’re doing for the link community. I think anybody that’s followed you on LinkedIn knows the great content that you’re putting out there and your belief that you can make things better for folks. So thank you for having me on the podcast and thank you for the work that you’re doing for the link community.

Patrick Adams  

All right, thanks, Chris. Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the lien solutions podcast. If you haven’t done so already, please be sure to subscribe. This way you’ll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined. Please give us a review. Thank you so much.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai