KPI Fireside: A Continuous Improvement Podcast

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...

What happens when teams deliver everything they were asked for—but still miss what the customer actually wanted? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Francine Bejarano , a program and product delivery leader who has led major technology and transformation initiatives at companies like T-Mobile, IBM, and Verizon. 🔻 The difference between output metrics and outcome-driv...

In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Stan Bryant , a senior project management professional and principal of Strategic Initiative Solutions. With a career spanning large-scale technology integration, operations leadership, and PMO development, Stan shares what it takes to lead complex projects, build PMOs that prove their value, and help organizations connect project e...

In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Lyndsay MacLeod , an award-winning continuous improvement professional with more than 20 years of experience leading transformational change across engineering, manufacturing, and financial services. With a background spanning Lean Six Sigma, process improvement, Agile, and operational excellence, Lyndsay shares how Lean principles...

In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Chris Roser, a worldwide renowned expert for lean production; Toyota, McKinsey, and Bosch Alumni, and professor for Production Management at the Karlsruhe University of applied sciences.. Drawing on decades of experience in manufacturing, supply chain management, bottleneck detection, and Lean research, Chris explains why improvemen...

What separates short-term Lean initiatives from lasting Lean cultures? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Nick Belcher , a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt and Lean Culture Architect who has spent decades helping organizations move beyond Lean tools and build people-first improvement cultures. Nick shares why lasting transformation happens when leaders focus on devel...

Why do Lean tools fade away in so many organizations? And what actually makes improvement stick? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Marcial Portillo , a global operations and continuous improvement leader with more than 30 years of experience improving manufacturing and supply chain performance across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Marcial currently leads deployment...

What separates organizations that struggle from those that truly win? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Jennifer Ralston . As CEO & Founder of HKPO and the HKPO Veterans Academy, she empowers organizations to innovate, execute, and sustain excellence. From Lean Six Sigma transformations at the American Red Cross to global strategic planning and culture assessmen...

Is AI coming for your job—or just the parts of it you never liked doing in the first place? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Reed Shell , a project management leader with more than 30 years of experience in enterprise delivery and transformation. Reed teaches project management and artificial intelligence at the University of Utah and advises organizations on apply...

Why does Agile fail even when teams are trained and processes are in place? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris talks with Dean Kynaston , co-author of Agile Project Management for Dummies and Scrum for Dummies , about the leadership gaps that quietly derail Agile. 🔻 Why Agile is about adaptability, not process compliance 🔻 The difference between Agile values and the Scrum framewo...

Why do large organizations invest heavily in technology and still fail to deliver real value? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Chris Gunderson , a former oceanographic officer who spent decades working inside U.S. defense programs. 🔻 Why “technology without value is worthless” and how organizations confuse output with impact 🔻 How Porter’s value chain connects up...

How do leaders unknowingly create cultures of compliance instead of commitment? In this episode of KPI Fireside , host Keith Norris sits down with Michael Stevens, Presidential Professor of Leadership Studies and a global expert on the people side of performance, to explore what truly separates management from leadership and why respect, not authority, is the real driver of execution. 🔻 Why leade...

How do bad meetings quietly destroy culture, morale, and execution? In this episode of KPI Fireside, host Keith Norris sits down with Evan Unger , a leadership and culture expert with more than 30 years of experience helping organizations improve how decisions actually get made. 🔻 Why meetings are where leadership actually shows up—and why people judge leaders based on how meetings feel 🔻 The re...