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Manufacturing Greatness

Manufacturing Greatness

  • Solutions
    • How I Work With You
    • Leading with Emotional Intelligence
    • Leadership Training
    • Assessments
      • Emotional Culture Index
      • Emotional Intelligence
      • PXT Select
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Book Reviews

The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team

August 4, 2024By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team

The 6 Types of Working Genius: A Better Way to Understand Your Gifts, Your Frustrations, and Your Team | Patrick Lencioni, 2022 What’s It All About? We all have something at work that brings us joy and energy… and on the flip side, we all have work tasks that make us feel frustrated and burnt-out. … Read More

The Time To Win: How to Exceed Customers’ Need for Speed

July 3, 2024By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
The Time To Win: How to Exceed Customers’ Need for Speed

The Time To Win: How to Exceed Customers’ Need for Speed | Jay Baer, 2024 What’s It All About? We all only have so much time available to us, and how we spent our valuable time is more important than ever. In The Time to Win: How to Exceed Customers’ Need for Speed, Jay Baer … Read More

The High-Impact Manager: Your Blueprint for Bringing Out the Best in Your Team

June 3, 2024By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
The High-Impact Manager: Your Blueprint for Bringing Out the Best in Your Team

The High-Impact Manager: Your Blueprint for Bringing Out the Best in Your Team . | Justin Patton, 2024 What’s It All About? On our website, we don’t often review multiple books by the same author… but when we do, you know it means we’ve struck gold! This is the case with Justin Patton, who wrote The … Read More

Unleash Your Primal Brain: Demystifying How We Think and Why We Act.

May 10, 2024By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
Unleash Your Primal Brain: Demystifying How We Think and Why We Act.

Unleash Your Primal Brain: Demystifying How We Think and Why We Act. | Tim Ash, 2021 What’s It All About? Understanding the past plays a powerful role in how we evolve, think, and behave. How can we learn more about our past and harness that information to improve the way we think and act? Find … Read More

Your Road to Yes!: How to Build Trust in Yourself and With Others

April 25, 2024By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
Your Road to Yes!: How to Build Trust in Yourself and With Others

Your Road to Yes!: How to Build Trust in Yourself and With Others | Justin Patton, 2022 What’s It All About? There’s an antidote to every issue in your organization: trust! When you build trust into the foundations of your team or organization, it becomes much easier to address toxic relationships, improve communications, and create … Read More

10X is Easier than 2X: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less

March 20, 2024By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
10X is Easier than 2X: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less

10X is Easier than 2X: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less | Dan Sullivan with Dr. Benjamin Hardy, 2023 What’s It All About? I love when a book’s title makes its core message clear—and 10X is Easier than 2X: How World-Class Entrepreneurs Achieve More by Doing Less does exactly that! In his book, … Read More

Built to Finish: How to Go the Distance in Business and Life

February 1, 2024By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
Built to Finish: How to Go the Distance in Business and Life

Built to Finish: How to Go the Distance in Business and Life | Steven Pivnik, 2024 What’s It All About? What do you get when you mix a serial entrepreneur and an intense endurance sport? One heck of a story! In Built to Finish: How to Go the Distance in Business and Life, information technology … Read More

Infinite Influence: Captivate, Connect, and Compel Anyone, Anytime

January 16, 2024By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
Infinite Influence: Captivate, Connect, and Compel Anyone, Anytime

Infinite Influence: Captivate, Connect, and Compel Anyone, Anytime | Alyson Van Hooser, 2023 What’s It All About? When we have conversations on the shop floor, we’re often in a state of influence—and how we show up for those conversations impacts the outcome. If you are curious and intentional, you’re more likely to get your desired … Read More

Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family

December 20, 2023By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family

Everybody Matters: The Extraordinary Power of Caring for Your People Like Family | Bob Chapman and Raj Sisodia, June 2016 What’s It All About? A company is like a family—everybody matters! This might sound like a trite statement, but it’s a sentiment that led Bob Chapman and his company, Barry-Wehmiller, to great success and a … Read More

Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones

November 22, 2023By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones

Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones | James Clear, 2018 What’s It All About? Do you want to break your bad habits or get better at forming positive habits? This book is the place to start! In his massively popular bestseller Atomic Habits: An Easy and … Read More

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Manufacturing Greatness

Manufacturing Greatness | Productivity | Retention | Profits | Continuous Improvement | Safety | Workforce Development | Labor Challenges | Skills Gaps | Industry 4.0
Manufacturing Greatness | Productivity | Retention | Profits | Continuous Improvement | Safety | Workforce Development | Labor Challenges | Skills Gaps | Industry 4.0

Whether you’re a plant manager, operations manager, or frontline supervisor, you’ll discover practical strategies for lean manufacturing, continuous improvement, and operational excellence. We cover critical topics like workforce development, employee retention, safety culture, and change management—helping you navigate challenges like labor shortages, skills gaps, and the evolving manufacturing landscape including Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing.

Trevor Blondeel invites guests from the manufacturing industry (and beyond!) to have candid discussions about leadership and share stories from a place of experience, transparency, and authenticity. You’ll find new ways to manufacture greatness by leveraging resources you already have acheiving greater retention, productivity, and profits.

Lean Manufacturing Leadership for Plant Managers: Why Kaizen Fails Without Curiosity with Dr. Debra Clary #171
byTrevor Blondeel

Welcome to Manufacturing Greatness with Trevor Blondeel, where we work with organizations to manufacture greatness by leveraging resources you already have to achieve greater retention, productivity, and profits. To learn more, visit www.manufacturinggreatness.com and click here to subscribe to Trevor’s monthly newsletter.

Now, let’s jump in!

What if the biggest obstacle to your lean manufacturing results isn’t the process at all? It might be the person leading it.

In this episode of Manufacturing Greatness, learn more with Debra Clary, author of The Curiosity Curve, about one of the most overlooked blind spots in plant leadership. You can run kaizen events, map your value streams, launch six sigma projects, and roll out 5S methodology across your facility, but if the mindset isn’t right, none of it sticks.

Debra brings real-world experience from the shop floor, starting with her early days at Frito-Lay, and makes a compelling case for why curiosity might be the most underrated tool in your leadership toolkit. She covers topics why certainty shuts down problem solving, how communication skills and conflict resolution play a bigger role in process optimization than most leaders realize, and what it actually takes to drive meaningful change management in a manufacturing environment. This episode also discusses what’s shifting on the floor right now, from managing a millennial workforce and Gen Z manufacturing talent, to diversity and inclusion, burnout prevention, and talent retention. Because production efficiency and manufacturing productivity aren’t just about automation, Industry 4.0, or smart manufacturing technology. They’re about the people running the operation.

If you’re a frontline supervisor, shift supervisor, or part of a plant leadership team focused on leadership development, workforce development, and building a safety culture that supports continuous improvement, this one’s for you. Better KPI management starts with better people leadership. And better people leadership starts with asking better questions. 00:00 — Lean manufacturing efforts fail not because of process but because leaders rely on certainty instead of curiosity, limiting true continuous improvement in Manufacturing Greatness.

01:30 — Early frontline experience at Frito-Lay builds strong operations management skills and a deeper understanding of production planning and supply chain management. 04:00 — A kaizen approach that asks why a change will not work unlocks better problem solving, communication skills, and employee satisfaction on the shop floor. 06:00 — Involving frontline workers in decisions improves production efficiency, workforce development, and trust across shift supervisors and plant leadership. 10:00 — As leaders gain experience, certainty replaces curiosity, weakening leadership development and reducing innovation in lean manufacturing and six sigma environments. 12:00 — Bringing in fresh perspectives helps teams break through roadblocks in process optimization, value stream mapping, and manufacturing productivity. 13:30 — Strong plant leadership focuses on facilitation over direction, building coaching skills, ownership, and accountability in frontline supervisors. 15:00 — Lean manufacturing must be practiced as a daily mindset rather than isolated kaizen events to drive sustainable quality management and production management results. 18:00 — Curiosity-driven leadership strengthens employee satisfaction, talent retention, and engagement, especially across Gen Z manufacturing and the millennial workforce. 24:00 — Leaders who develop people instead of just solving problems improve performance management, problem solving, and long-term manufacturing productivity while reducing burnout.

Learn More with Debra Clary Visit her website Buy The Curiosity Curve

Lean Manufacturing Leadership for Plant Managers: Why Kaizen Fails Without Curiosity with Dr. Debra Clary #171
Lean Manufacturing Leadership for Plant Managers: Why Kaizen Fails Without Curiosity with Dr. Debra Clary #171
April 15, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Manufacturing Leadership Development: The 3 Conversations That Fix Accountability, Alignment, and Results #170
April 8, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Manufacturing Leadership Development: Why Connection Drives Productivity and Retention with Morag Barrett #169
April 1, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Why Productivity Problems Start at the Top: Manufacturing Leadership and Employee Retention: #168
March 25, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Leadership Resilience in Manufacturing: Leading Under Pressure with Dr. Marie-Helene Pelletier #167
March 18, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Why People Leave Manufacturing Jobs — A New North American Research Study #166
March 11, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Resilience for Frontline Supervisors: Building High Agency to Navigate Adversity and Improve Team Performance with Vickie Lanthier #165
March 4, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Defining Manufacturing Greatness: Help Me Choose the Subtitle #164
February 26, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Manufacturing Leadership Development for Plant Managers: Driving Continuous Improvement Through Curiosity on the Shop Floor with Bruce Mayhew #163
February 18, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
Employee Engagement in Manufacturing for Plant Managers: Designing Time for Frontline Connection with Brian Herriot #162
February 4, 2026
Trevor Blondeel
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