Please join me in celebrating today’s #HighFiveFriday feature: Dr. Willam Harvey and the Improvers and Coaches at Peter Cremer North America, LP in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Dr. Harvey and the PCNA team are committed to embedding Continuous Improvement in the company’s culture by incorporating the Plan Do Check Act (PDCA) Cycle in PCNA’s management operating system. Cultivating a Continuous Improvement approach to do business is foundational in how the organization delights its customers, achieves its strategic goals, and develops the PCNA Team members.
I met Dr. Harvey at KataCon6 in Austin, Texas. He delivered a keynote on “Toyota Kata Coaching’s Link to Cognitive Development and Personality.” During his session, Dr. Harvey shared three best practices to embed the Toyota Kata and continuous improvement in an organization’s culture:
start small
build slowly
expand slowly.
He nailed it!
After Dr. Harvey’s presentation, I was thrilled to talk to him in more detail about his experience with practicing the Toyota Kata. It was like chatting with a lifelong Kata friend.
Recently, I facilitated a Cremer Coaching Day workshop with 25 Improvers and Coaches. During the workshop, we took a deep dive into the steps of the Plan Do Check Act Cycle, the importance of aligning the company’s strategic goals to daily work, the steps to take to develop a right-size target condition, and the importance of “having a coach and being a coach.” Team members from varying roles and departments attended the session, including representatives from engineering, finance, human resources, operations, packaging and quality. Everyone had a common desire to learn and share the Cremer PDCA Coaching Cycle across the organization - one small kaizen, one experiment, one coaching session at a time. Most impressive was the team’s patience with the process and desire to start small, build slowly and expand gradually. As a result of incorporating scientific thinking patterns in Peter Cremer’s operating system, the PCNA team continues to delight its customers and develop team members by going farther together.
Happy #HighFiveFriday to Dr. Harvey for his humble coaching and dedication as a Continuous Improvement leader at PCNA and Happy #HighFiveFriday to the dynamic PCNA Improvers and Coaches. I look forward to witnessing the great things the skilled and innovative team members will accomplish together to continue on their continuous improvement journey.
To my colleagues in the Kata/Lean community, I strongly encourage you to connect with Dr. Harvey on LinkedIn and learn more about the extraordinary work at Peter Cremer North America, LP. The PCNA Improvers and Coaches are taking the Improvement/Coaching Kata’s practice to the next level!
