Lean Blog — 464: Katie Anderson Discusses Larry Culp’s AME Keynote and Their Fireside Chat

Katie Anderson, her 6th appearance

Episode page with video, photos, transcript, and more

My guest for Episode #464 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Katie Anderson, who is, among other things, the author of the book Learning to Lead, Leading to Learn.

She has previously been a guest here in Episodes 233275302326, and 425. Katie has also been a guest twice on “My Favorite Mistake” — once with Isao Yoshino and once on her own.

Today, Katie and I talk about the recent AME annual conference that was held in Dallas. We both heard Larry Culp, CEO of General Electric (and GE Aviation) speak for 15 minutes, and we discuss that here today. We also recap highlights from (and our reflections about) the fireside chat that Katie had with Larry on stage.

Notes and highlights:

  • Listen to Katie on the internal GE podcast (named “Andon That Note”) she mentions in this episode
  • Discussing the panel discussion that I moderated with Deondra Wardelle and Amy Gowder
  • Gary Michel, another great CEO speaker at the event
  • Larry: “This is how we manage” (Lean)
  • Going to the gemba? Why? Process and people
  • Top down and bottom up – operationalizing Hoshin Kanri
  • Learning from mistakes, how a leader reacts to bad news
  • From telling to asking questions – breaking the telling habit
  • Having a coach as CEO… why Larry thinks that’s so important
  • Larry: “You don’t go to HBS to learn how to ask questions”

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