Libsyn Directory

Bill Hathaway Reflects on a Quarter Century of MoreSteam

Release Date: 02/18/2025

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

More Episodes

MoreSteam is celebrating 25 years of process improvement! In this episode, MoreSteam founder and CEO Bill Hathaway joins the show to talk about all the milestones, mistakes, and defining moments. Bill shares stories from his early days in manufacturing, including a memorable encounter with instrument panels that didn’t quite fit (spoiler: kicking them wasn’t the best solution). He also talks about the leap from corporate life to starting MoreSteam, how the company got its unique name, and what it was like running the business out of his home—with his dog as VP of Security.

The conversation covers lessons in leadership, the evolution of process improvement, and why unglamorous work is often the most important. Bill also reflects on the future of MoreSteam and the role of technology, like generative AI, in solving tomorrow’s problems. Join us for a candid discussion about the past, present, and future of Lean Six Sigma, operational excellence, and continuous improvement at MoreSteam.

In this episode, you will hear about:

1:59 - Bill’s First Experiences with Quality and Process Improvement

5:36 - The Beginning of MoreSteam

10:49 - The Name of the Company

13:36 - The Challenges of Running a Business Out of Your Home

15:17 - Moving Into MoreSteam’s First Office

18:10 - Mistakes Along the Way

22:53 - From Content to Software: EngineRoom

25:10 - Bill’s Secret to Leadership

28:06 - Connecting to MoreSteam’s Mission

30:12 - In Praise of Unglamorous Activities

31:26 - The Future of MoreSteam