Lean Blog Interviews — 407: Joy Mason on Optimism and Lean Instead of Layoffs

Show notes: https://www.leanblog.org/407

My guest for Episode #407 is Joy Mason, a Strategist, Author, Speaker, and Entrepreneur based in Indianapolis. He is President and Senior Business Strategist at her company, Optimist Business Solutions, that she started after 18 years at Eli Lilly.

She is the author of the book The Optimist Workbook: 5 Steps to Sustainable Solutions for Women In Business and also Purpose: A Shift from Driving It to Embracing It.

Topics and questions in today’s episode include:

  • How Joy got started with continuous improvement
  • Being introduced to Six Sigma first… then Lean tools… then looking beyond the tools
  • How did “scientific problem solving” resonate with scientists (and others) at Eli Lilly?
  • How can you “break down silos” (or is it better to “work across silos”)?
  • “Lean before layoffs” or “Lean instead of layoffs”?
  • What does being an optimist mean to Joy and why is that important?
  • Joy talks about the work she does now, in particular with non-profits

The podcast is sponsored by Stiles Associates, now in their 30th year of business. They are the go-to Lean recruiting firm serving the manufacturing, private equity and healthcare industries. Learn more.

This podcast is part of the #LeanCommunicators network