KPI Fireside: A Continuous Improvement Podcast

Most managers were promoted because they were great at their job. Nobody taught them how to lead. Catherine McDonald is on a mission to fix that. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris welcomes back Catherine McDonald , founder of MCD Consulting and a leadership development coach who combines lean thinking, organizational behavior, and executive coaching to help managers at every level...

The old story of work is gone. Work hard, be loyal, get rewarded, retire to a beach someday. That shared story no longer exists. So what story is your team telling instead? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Jonathan David Lewis , president of McKee Wallwork, a brand strategy firm, Forbes contributor, and author of The Rebuilders: Daily Foundations for the Leaders We...

Most CI programs start with good intentions and stall at one plant. Ram Sukumar built one that works across thirteen. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Ram Sukumar, Director of Continuous Improvement for Hexpol Compounding Americas. Over the last six years, Ram has built and deployed the Hexpol Production System across 13 manufacturing plants in the US and Mexico, t...

What if the biggest barrier to improvement in your organization is not the process, the tools, or even the data? What if it is the way people see the problem in the first place? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris welcomes back Keshawn Cupid , founder of Modern Kaizen and a lean and operational excellence expert on the cutting edge of human-centered AI transformation. Keshawn works...

What does it actually take to build a business you love running for 25 years without burning out, selling out, or losing yourself in the process? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Alan Lucien , co-founder of EZ Process Pro, the ERP platform purpose-built for furniture and mattress retailers. Twenty-five years ago, Alan and his wife Jill could not find software that...

If AI is so powerful, why are most companies not getting results from it? The answer has everything to do with whether you are solving the right problem. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Dr. Alan Barnard , CEO of Goldratt Research Labs, decision scientist, and one of the world's leading experts in theory of constraints. Alan co-founded Goldratt Research Labs with D...

Most organizations treat continuous improvement like a project. The ones that actually get results treat it like a culture. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with David Norris . David Norris is the founder of Elevated Strategic Solutions, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations unlock capacity, improve performance, and align strategy with execution through ope...

Most companies chasing a big growth target are solving the wrong problem. And the real constraint is usually hiding in plain sight. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with John Hetherington , founder of We Deliver Your Vision and a process optimization consultant with more than 25 years of experience helping CFOs and COOs turn ambitious boardroom targets into measurable o...

What can a steel shipping container teach us about artificial intelligence? More than you would think. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Marc Levinson , historian, economist, and author of The Box, the definitive history of the shipping container. Marc formerly served as finance and economics editor at The Economist, an economist at JP Morgan Chase, and a senior fel...

The fires showing up in your business every week are not bad luck. They are a signal that something in your operations is broken underneath the surface. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Jhana Li , founder of Spyglass Ops, a firm that has pioneered the operator placement model, embedding a fractional COO directly into a business while the search for a permanent hire...

Most leaders blame the person. The real problem is almost always the system. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Matt Yearsley , founder of Operational Excellence Advisors and a manufacturing and operations leader with more than 25 years of experience. Matt helps growing companies move beyond firefighting by building the systems, standards, and people development prac...

What does it actually look like inside Toyota, and why do so many companies get lean so wrong when they try to follow it? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Darril Wilburn , senior partner at Honsha and a respected teacher, coach, and thought leader in lean leadership and the Toyota Way. He is co-author of the upcoming book Courage, Humility, Kaizen: The Leadership D...

What if the biggest obstacle to fixing your business isn't the problem itself, but the way you're talking about it? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Lee Campe , Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt, consultant, educator, and U.S. Army Ranger School graduate. With over 10,000 people trained across industries, Lee makes the case that Lean Six Sigma is not a quality progr...

What if most of your communication breakdowns and personality conflicts aren't people problems at all? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Tom Foster, author, speaker, and longtime business coach to CEOs and senior leaders. Drawing on more than two decades of work with executive peer groups and 800+ deliveries of his organizational structure workshop, Tom makes the ca...

Lean has always been about working smarter. AI might be its most powerful tool yet. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Jennifer Ralston and Tina Agustiady for a practical conversation on where AI and continuous improvement intersect. Jennifer is the CEO and Founder of HKPO and the HKPO Veterans Academy. Tina is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, author, educator, and res...

What if your company expected every single employee to submit improvement ideas within their first six months on the job? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with John Garrett , who has spent the last 20 years as a Product Owner and Client Success Executive at 3M Health Information Systems, where he specializes in helping healthcare organizations and their customers get mo...

What separates organizations where continuous improvement fades after a leadership change from those where it becomes part of the company's DNA? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris welcomes back Darren Dolcemascolo , founder of EMS Consulting Group, for his second appearance on the show (first heard in Episode 31). With more than two decades of experience helping organizations impro...

What does it take to design an organization where work actually flows and improvement never stops? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Karen Martin , president of TKMG and internationally recognized thought leader in operational excellence, Lean management, and business performance. Karen shares how organizations can achieve clarity, eliminate the obstacles that slow...

Most leadership teams are flying blind. They have plenty of data but no clarity on what actually matters, who owns it, or what to do when things go off track. In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Danny Toney , Certified EOS Implementer and business improvement consultant, who helps leadership teams cut through the noise and drive measurable traction. 🔻 Why your weekly...

What separates organizations that improve occasionally from those that build improvement into their DNA? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Katie Anderson , internationally recognized leadership consultant, speaker, and author of the Shingo Award-winning book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn . Katie shares how leaders can create learning-driven cultures, develop pe...

Every company has problems. The difference is whether those problems become expensive failures or opportunities for innovation. In this episode of KPI Fireside, Keith Norris sits down with Jeff Gray to explore how Continuous Improvement principles can help organizations reduce waste, engage employees, improve quality, and create sustainable operational systems. Jeff shares stories and lessons from...

What separates companies that control costs from those constantly reacting to them? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Duane Deason to unpack what smarter cost management really looks like in practice. This isn’t about cutting budgets or tightening spending. It’s about understanding where cost is created, where value is lost, and how organizations can make better dec...

What happens when continuous improvement teams can clearly prove their impact? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Chris Keahey to break down why tracking ROI is one of the most critical and overlooked aspects of any CI program. Chris shares how his journey from firefighting into Lean Six Sigma shaped his approach to discipline, standard work, and decision-making unde...

What if the biggest mistake leaders make… is trying to be the answer? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Cheryl Jekiel , founder of the Lean Leadership Center, to unpack one of the hardest shifts in leadership: letting go. 🔻 Why most leaders are underprepared to lead—and how that shows up in real organizations 🔻 How letting go actually creates stronger, more capabl...

Why do so many continuous improvement programs fail to deliver lasting impact? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Jess Orr , a business transformation leader with deep experience in Lean and continuous improvement, including time working directly at Toyota. Jess shares why many organizations limit their results by concentrating improvement efforts in a small group of...