
People Solve Problems Episode 7 with Special Guest Lorenzo Gutierrez
With a focus on actionable insights, host Jamie Flinchbaugh dialogues with Lorenzo Gutierrez, Director of Enterprise Excellence at Sandia National Laboratories. They offer valuable insights into leadership, intuition, and coaching. With over 20 years of leadership experience in diverse fields including semiconductor manufacturing and national security, Lorenzo is well-qualified to
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People Solve Problems Episode 6 with Special Guest Ron Pereira
In a recent podcast, host Jamie Flinchbaugh sat down with guest Ron Pereira to explore various facets of leadership, teamwork, and problem-solving. The conversation kicked off with the two discussing the communication challenges faced by remote teams that include both introverted and extroverted members. Ron emphasized the role of digital
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Problem-Solving in an AI-Enabled World
Is problem-solving more or less important in an AI-enabled world? There is a lot of talk about AI, and ChatGPT in particular, and mostly whether it is inherently good or inherently bad. But let’s accept the premise that it is part of our future. We’ve actually been heading here for
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Seeing Waste and Standards As Problems
Why does problem-solving seem so different to many from waste elimination? Why is the creation of a standard such an act of sheer will rather than a set of skills? If we see the creation of standards and the elimination of waste as just different types, or specific types,
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An Alternative to the Fishbone Diagram
The fishbone diagram is useful to help break down a problem and see many potential causes and contributing factors to a problem. But the traditional breakdowns don’t feel appropriate for many types of problems, especially large, complex, amorphous types of problems. This video suggests an alternative framework to overlap on
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4 Mistakes in Establishing Clear Roles Through RACI
RACI is a well-known tool for helping to establishing clear roles, but it is often either avoided, or produces an underwhelming impact. RACI stands for Responsible, Accountable, Consult, and Inform. I believe the lack of effectiveness in using the RACI framework often comes down to 4 mistakes which I outline
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Happy Heuristics Podcast Episode #7
Happy Heuristics is a podcast about using rules of thumb, decision criteria, or heuristics to help leaders operate with speed and effectiveness in a complex and uncertain world. Podcast partners Jamie Flinchbaugh and Jeff Grimshaw explore specific heuristics, one theme at a time, that you can either adopt or use
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Abstraction and Precision in Standardization
Standardization is good, right? Well, it’s not quite that simple. We should standardize something because it helps us solve a problem, as I wrote about in Chapter 3 of People Solve Problems. Two variables in finding the RIGHT solution of standardization are the level of abstraction and the level of
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Breaking Down the Problem
Problem-solving is always a battle to get more focused and specific in what gap we are trying to close. Both the capabilities of problem statements as well as breaking down the problems help us do this, but they are more than just steps in a problem-solving tool. I write about
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Be Responsive, Not Reactive
Many organizations lost most of their momentum of continuous improvement and proactive problem solving throughout the pandemic, ending up forced into a stance of reactiveness. Many of those same organizations are struggling to climb out of that hole, especially where they are still fighting fires, such as those managing supply
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