Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership
Business:Management
https://www.leanblog.org/380
Today's episode, #380, is very special to me for a number of reasons. For one, it's part of the #RootCauseRacism series that Deondra Wardelle has organized on my blog this week. Secondly, I'm joined by Dr. Randal Pinkett and Dr. Jeffrey Robinson to talk about important issues of race, diversity, and equity in organizations. Together, they are co-authors of the book Black Faces in White Places: 10 Game-Changing Strategies to Achieve Success and Find Greatness and the upcoming book (2021) Black Faces in High Places.
Randal Pinkett, Ph.D. is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and community servant. Randal is the co-founder, Chairman and CEO of his fifth venture, BCT Partners, a multimillion dollar management, technology and policy consulting firm in Newark, NJ, a partner in Blackwell-BCT, a joint venture with Blackwell Consulting Services, and spokesperson for the Minority Information Technology Consortium. He is a Rhodes Scholar and former college athlete who holds five academic degrees from Rutgers, Oxford and MIT (including the Leaders for Global Operations program). He was also famously the first and only black winner of “The Apprentice,” something we will talk about today.
Jeffrey A. Robinson, Ph.D. is an award winning business school professor, international speaker and entrepreneur. Since 2008, he has been a leading faculty member at Rutgers Business School where he is an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship and the founding Assistant Director of The Center for Urban Entrepreneurship & Economic Development. The Center is a unique interdisciplinary venue for innovative thinking and research on entrepreneurial activity and economic development in urban environments. He has an MS in Civil Engineering Management from Georgia Tech University and a Ph.D. in Management from Columbia University.
In the episode, we talk about workplace issues related to diversity and inclusion. Should we aspire to a “color blind” world or do we need to recognize and celebrate color? What can we do to turn “white places” into more inclusive places for all? How can the “innovation economy” be made more inclusive, and why is that important?
You'll also hear Randal talk about recently re-watching his season of The Apprentice online with his daughter. You can watch a separate 8-minute clip (an excerpt from the full interview) if you are particularly interested in his reflections about winning and being asked to share his win with the runner up. What did Randal learn while working in the Trump Organization?
I hope you enjoy the conversation, whether you listen or watch (or read the transcript below).
John Chacon on Continuous Improvement and the Dangers of Paying People to Think
Nick Katko and Mike De Luca Talk About Practicing Lean Accounting
Karyn Ross, Lean and Kind Leadership
John Gallagher, Lean and The Uncommon Leader
Katie Anderson on Breaking the Telling Habit
Balaji Reddie, Founder of the Deming Forum India
Laura Kriska, the First American Woman to Work at Honda HQ in Japan
Brant Cooper on Being ”Disruption Proof” in Pandemic Times & Beyond
BONUS: John Shook, Revisited from 2009 - Managing to Learn and A3 Problem Solving
BONUS: David Meier's "Favorite Mistakes" at Toyota and His Distillery
BONUS: Jamie Flinchbaugh, Revisited from 2006
Ryan McCormack on His “Operational Excellence Mixtapes” & More
BONUS: In Memoriam -- Podcast Guests Who Have Passed Away
Katie Anderson: One Year of "Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn" and the New Audiobook
Revisiting #124: Paul O'Neill on Habitual Excellence and Safety
Lean Six Sigma and Continuous Improvement from Railroads to Pageants: Allison Greco
The Lean Journey (and Mass Vaccination Sites) at Munson Healthcare: Kaleb Foss and Butch Bowlby
Dr. John Kenagy on Adaptive Design Kata: An Improvement and a Leadership Kata (Lean Healthcare)
Brad Jeavons on How to Remotely Deploy Lean and Agile (Outside of Manufacturing)
Tracy O'Rourke on Vaccinations, Lean Six Sigma in Government, and More