People Solve Problems

On this episode of People Solve Problems, host Jamie Flinchbaugh welcomes Renee Kaspar, Author and Workplace Strategist at Renee Kaspar Labs. A thirty-year veteran of human resources and the author of the forthcoming book HR Confidential, Renee has spent her career in the rooms where the most significant decisions about people get made. She joins Jamie to talk about what she calls The Great Transi...

On this episode of People Solve Problems, host Jamie Flinchbaugh welcomes Brittany Irwin, Applications and AI Engineering Manager at NFI Industries. With an industrial engineering degree from the University of Pittsburgh’s Swanson School of Engineering and a career spanning large-scale third-party logistics and fast-moving B2B SaaS startups, Brittany offers a grounded view of how people, processes...

Joan Tafoya joins Jamie Flinchbaugh on People Solve Problems for a conversation built around one deceptively simple question: how do you coach problem solving when the person in front of you is difficult to coach?  Joan, a former director at Meta, Intel, and Sandia National Laboratories with nearly 38 years of experience, brings a perspective shaped by leading large, globally dispersed teams...

Some problem-solving wisdom comes from advanced frameworks. Other wisdom comes from eighth-grade science class. Eric Harding holds onto both. In this episode of People Solve Problems, host Jamie Flinchbaugh sits down with Eric Harding, Vice President of HR Operations and Systems at Republic Services. With more than twenty years across HR, manufacturing, and product development, Eric has seen what...

Laudy Allan, Senior Vice President of Global Operations at Crayola LLC, brings nearly two decades of operational leadership to a conversation that challenges some of the most common assumptions about how organizations approach problem-solving. Responsible for U.S. manufacturing, global logistics, transportation, customer service, engineering, and facilities, Laudy has spent her career building the...

David Kaganovsky, Global Head of Product, Brand at WPP, brings a career spent at the intersection of brand strategy, technology, and applied AI to this conversation on People Solve Problems. His perspective on problem-solving is shaped by experiences at some of the world's most recognized organizations, from PWC and EY to Landor, Wavemaker, and GroupM, and sharpened by time at a startup where ther...

Jeff Robinson, Executive Leadership Coach at Foundational Leadership LLC, brings more than 25 years of experience working with leaders across industries to this conversation on the People Solve Problems podcast. With a background in organizational leadership and development, Jeff is known for his practical, easygoing approach to helping people understand what it actually takes to lead well. The co...

Grace Bourke, Consulting Director at Baker Tilly, has spent nearly four decades working at the intersection of healthcare, quality improvement, and technology. She joins Jamie Flinchbaugh in this episode of People Solve Problems. She shares what she has learned about why technology implementations so often go wrong, and what organizations can do to get ahead of the problems before they take hold....

Skip Steward , VP and Chief Improvement Officer at Baptist Memorial Health Care Corporation, sat down with Jamie Flinchbaugh on the People Solve Problems podcast to share what thirty-four years of cross-industry experience looks like when it's put to work inside one of the most complex systems in existence, American healthcare. The conversation opened on the challenge of prioritization, a particul...

William Harvey, Program Manager for Strategic Initiatives and University Professor, brings a refreshingly practical perspective to leadership and problem-solving. Throughout the conversation, William shares how his diverse background—from the Marine Corps to manufacturing to academia—has shaped his approach to developing people and tackling complex challenges. William's philosophy on leadership ce...

Gregory J. Scaven, CEO, Board Director, Partner, and currently President at Scaven Enterprises, LLC, brings over 30 years of technical engineering leadership and more than 20 years as a P&L leader to this conversation about problem-solving. With deep expertise in pyrotechnics, explosives, and propellants across automotive, aerospace, and defense industries, Greg shares how his approach to prob...

Steve Brown has spent years helping organizations see around corners. As a former executive at both Intel Labs and Google DeepMind, where he served as their in-house futurist, Steve brings a unique perspective on what happens when rapid technological change collides with practical business reality. In this conversation, he challenges leaders to move beyond fear and cost-cutting mentality to embrac...

Dr. Melisa Buie brings a fascinating perspective to the challenge of failure, one forged through decades of building high-powered lasers and leading manufacturing transformations in the semiconductor industry. With a PhD in Nuclear Engineering and Plasma Physics from the University of Michigan and over 15 years at Coherent, Inc., Melisa has spent her career solving complex technical problems. But...

Scott Willoughby, Vice President of Program Excellence at Northrop Grumman and former program manager for the James Webb Space Telescope, joined Jamie Flinchbaugh to share insights on leading one of the most complex systems ever built. With 35 years at Northrop Grumman, a NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, and membership in the National Academy of Engineering, and we have to include a degree...

Rick Pedersen, owner of Old Norse Consulting, joined host Jamie Flinchbaugh to explore why product development demands a fundamentally different approach to problem-solving than traditional business processes. During their conversation, Rick explained that while most business functions involve transactional processes that can be documented and repeated, product development centers on building know...

Jason Trujillo, a transformational leader with a wide range of experiences, joined Jamie Flinchbaugh on the People Solve Problems podcast to share his unconventional path to becoming a transformational leader and his philosophy on structured problem-solving. With a career spanning companies like Stanley Black & Decker, IBM, Intel, and Harley-Davidson, Jason brings a unique perspective shaped b...

In this episode of People Solve Problems, host Jamie Flinchbaugh welcomes Norbert Majerus, a creative problem solver at Norbert Majerus Consulting. With 45 years in industrial creativity and 60 US patents to his name, Norbert brings deep expertise from his years implementing lean product development at Goodyear's global innovation centers. Norbert draws a clear distinction between creativity and i...

In this episode of People Solve Problems, host Jamie Flinchbaugh speaks with Maureen (Moe) Rinkunas, Director of Insights Membership at Rock Health Advisory. Moe brings over 20 years of experience spanning corporate innovation, venture studios, and advisory leadership at organizations including DuPont, Accenture, Dreamit Ventures, and Redesign Health. Moe opens the conversation by sharing her fund...

J. Chris White, Co-Founder and CEO of scmBLOX, joined host Jamie Flinchbaugh to explore the critical differences between systems thinking and systems dynamics, and how these approaches can transform supply chain management. As a systems dynamics modeler with 30 years of experience covering operations and supply chains, Chris brought deep expertise to this conversation about solving complex busines...

Jim Benson joined host Jamie Flinchbaugh on People Solve Problems to discuss his approach to collaboration and visual management as the foundation for successful Lean and Agile implementations. As Inquisitor at Modus Institute and creator of Personal Kanban, Jim brings a unique perspective on how organizations can remove workplace toxicity while dramatically improving effectiveness. Jim defines co...

Dr. Shannon Flumerfelt, Founder of Charactership Lean Consulting and Endowed Professor of Lean at Oakland University, joined host Jamie Flinchbaugh to discuss her systematic approach to coaching leaders through difficult situations and complex problem-solving challenges. Dr. Flumerfelt shared her framework for handling difficult coaching situations, which begins with understanding whether the chal...

Nelson Repenning and Don Kieffer joined host Jamie Flinchbaugh to discuss their collaborative book "There's Got to Be a Better Way" and their approach to dynamic work design. Nelson Repenning is the School of Management Distinguished Professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, while Don Kieffer is a senior lecturer in operations management at MIT Sloan and founder of ShiftGear Work Design. Th...

Melinda Manente, Process Improvement Coach & Facilitator at GBMP Consulting Group, joins Jamie Flinchbaugh on the People Solve Problems podcast to share her extensive experience in creating transformational change within organizations. With over 30 years of experience at global Fortune 100 companies including Cisco, Parker Hannifin, Intel, and General Electric, Melinda brings valuable insights...

In this episode of People Solve Problems, host Jamie Flinchbaugh welcomes Dr. Greg Jacobson, CEO and Co-founder of KaiNexus, for an insightful conversation about the intersection of medical training, psychological safety, and continuous improvement culture. Greg's journey into the world of Lean and Kaizen began in 2004 when his department chairman handed him Masaaki Imai's book "Kaizen" and said,...

In this episode of People Solve Problems, host Jamie Flinchbaugh welcomes Mark Reich, Senior Coach and Chief Engineer of Strategy at the Lean Enterprise Institute. Mark brings a wealth of experience from his 23 years at Toyota, where he learned and led management systems, followed by 13 years at the Lean Enterprise Institute spreading that knowledge across industries. The conversation centers arou...