Most Meetings Shouldn't Happen with Evan Unger
Quality Time With MoreSteam
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, Evan Unger joins the show. Evan is the Managing Partner at Schwartz + Associates. He's spent over 30 years helping organizations work together. Evan's held leadership roles at Merck and CommonSpirit Health. One time, he even facilitated the meeting where his own position got eliminated. It's exactly as awkward and fascinating as it sounds. Here's Evan's brutal assessment: most meetings are 30 to 40 percent effective. Maybe. That's a staggering waste. Evan has spent decades figuring out why it happens and how to fix it. He shares a dead simple...
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Daily Management or Daily Chaos with Darren Walsh
Quality Time With MoreSteam
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, Darren Walsh joins the show. Darren is a Lean leadership coach and author with over 30 years driving transformations across industries like medical devices, aerospace, and healthcare. Oh, and also video games. We definitely talk about video games. Darren wrote the book Making Lean and Continuous Improvement Work: A Leader's Guide to Increasing Consistency and Getting Significantly More Done in Less Time. It’s been getting a lot of buzz in the world of Lean. Darren wrote his book after seeing the same struggles everywhere he went. Teams want to...
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Thomas Paider and Lean Lessons Learned in 2025
Quality Time With MoreSteam
Quality Time with MoreSteam is starting 2026 by bringing back one of the most popular episodes from 2025. Host Dan Swartwout opens the show with a look back at the amazing lineup of guests who joined the show last year, from Shingo Prize winners to Lean Enterprise Institute board members to college professors and healthcare leaders. Then, Dan introduces one of his favorite interviews from last year, the conversation with Thomas Paider. Tom is the co-author of The Lean IT Field Guide and Vice President for Technology Infrastructure and Computing at Nationwide. He also serves on the Board of...
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A Kaizen Carol
Quality Time With MoreSteam
Grant Gemberson just wanted to push that year-end Kaizen event into January and get on with his holiday to-do list. Instead, Gemberson received an unexpected visit from three ghosts: the Ghost of Projects Past, the Ghost of Present Performance, and the Ghost of Future States. (You know where this is going, right?) In this special holiday edition of Quality Time with MoreSteam, host Dan Swartwout shares a Lean Six Sigma twist on a seasonal classic. During this episode, you will follow Grant through conference rooms, Gemba walks, and two very different futures as he confronts his own “we tried...
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Peg Pennington On Using Lean Management To Drive Strategic Alignment
Quality Time With MoreSteam
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, host Dan Swartwout shares highlights from a recent MoreSteam webinar with company president Peg Pennington. That webinar was titled “Driving Strategic Alignment with the Lean Management System.” It was one of MoreSteam’s most anticipated (and successful) webinars of the year. During her presentation, Peg focused on a familiar problem. The strategy seems clear at the top, but the daily work does not match that strategy. In response, Peg explained what it means to treat Lean management as a real system instead of a set of projects. In her...
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Lessons From Thirty Years of Quality Management with Steve Adams
Quality Time With MoreSteam
Steve Adams brings decades of real experience to Quality Time with MoreSteam. He graduated from West Point and served in the Army Corps of Engineers. Eventually, Steve spent thirty years at Procter & Gamble, where he drove improvement on a global scale. Along the way, Steve even got Deming’s autograph. Yes, the W. Edwards Deming! Host Dan Swartwout talks to Steve about solving problems and the commitment to quality. With Steve, you get 30 years of real stories from the plant floor. And one more thing… you’ll never guess what classic TV show is referenced in this episode. After...
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Dave Harry is The Process Whisperer
Quality Time With MoreSteam
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, Dave Harry joins the show. Dave is well known throughout the world of continuous improvement as “The Process Whisperer.” Before becoming a Lean Six Sigma legend, Dave spent years as a US Navy helicopter pilot. He even gave Paul Newman a helicopter ride! (Yes, the Paul Newman.) As Dave explains, helicopter pilots understand Six Sigma better than most people. When you're flying a million parts in formation and 99.9% success won’t cut it, you learn to work for perfection. In his conversation with host Dan Swartwout, Dave walks through his...
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Change Management That Actually Works with Kim Scibelli
Quality Time With MoreSteam
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, Kim Scibelli joins the show. Kim is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt who leads supply chain and operations at AVS Bio. And after coaching teams through transformations for years, Kim has learned that you can't “pizza party” your way to culture change. Why do people say they want things to get better but resist when changes actually happen? Kim talks about identifying blockers at every level and developing strategies to help them get on board. She also discusses the importance of giving teams the freedom to experiment. For example, Kim describes...
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Simulating Success with Dr. Lars Maaseidvaag
Quality Time With MoreSteam
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, Dr. Lars Maaseidvaag joins the show to talk about one of his areas of expertise, process modeling and discrete event simulation. Lars has worked in continuous improvement for over 30 years. He's also from Ann Arbor, Michigan, which creates some good natured tension when he talks to Ohio State graduate (and your host) Dan Swartwout. In easy-to-understand terms, Lars explains discrete event simulation and why it matters. For example, he tells us about helping a large hospital during the pandemic. The hospital had a thousand people backed up in the...
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Empathy Meets Efficiency with April Thomas
Quality Time With MoreSteam
On this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, April Thomas joins the show. Most Lean Six Sigma professionals didn't start their careers as hospice social workers. April did. April is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt whose mission is to be an advocate, a catalyst, and a coach for transformational change. Being a hospice social worker taught her about empathy and helping people through difficult transitions. Those skills transfer directly to April’s work in continuous improvement and organizational change. During her conversation with host Dan Swartwout, April explains her grief-informed approach...
info_outlineIn this episode of Quality Time with MoreSteam, Ryan C. Weiss joins the program. Ryan is an author, entrepreneur, and president of Effective Performance Strategies. He also tells one of the best stories about continuous improvement. That story involves tools, skills, mindset, and an orangutan. (Yes, an orangutan.) You won’t want to miss it.
In addition to that great story, Ryan and host Dan Swartwout talk about the power of the SIPOC, eliminating bad handoffs, and the importance of parallel paths. Maybe you already have the tools. You might already have the skills. But without a doubt, this conversation with Ryan C. Weiss will put you in the right mindset for operational excellence!
In this episode, you will hear about:
0:48 - Ryan's Background
3:35 - Ryan's Experiences in College
11:12 - Ryan Path Changes From Medicine to Finance
16:05 - From the Corporate World to Entrepreneur
18:36 - The Fitbit Story
22:27 - The Orangutan Story
29:40 - Dale Carnegie and Continuous Improvement
31:49 - Building SIPOCs
33:49 - Broken Handoffs
37:05 - Getting People Involved in Processes
39:51 - SIPOC-Focused Software
42:31 - Ryan's Podcast
Additional Resources:
Optics: Align People and Process to Accelerate Performance
Effective Performance Strategies
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