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Manufacturing Greatness

Manufacturing Greatness

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

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

February 4, 2022By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership No Comments
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success | Author: Carol Dweck, 2006 | What’s it all About? Have you ever watched someone achieve great success in an area you’re still working on? How did it make you feel? Years ago, when I first started my own business, I would look at others with thousands of social … Read More

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

January 11, 2022By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership No Comments
Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know

Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know | Author: Adam Grant, 2021 | What’s it all About? With North America more divided than ever, this is perhaps one of the most relevant books of 2021. It provides a perspective and reset that we could all use. Many of us strive for the … Read More

How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

November 19, 2021By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Empathy No Comments
How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain

How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain | Author: Lisa Feldman Barret, 2017 | What’s it all About? In my workshops on emotional intelligence, I often see clients setting goals that revolve around better managing their emotions in difficult situations. By reading this book, I gained a deeper understanding of how our … Read More

The Infinite Game – A Bold Framework for Leadership In Today’s Ever-changing World.

February 17, 2021By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership No Comments
The Infinite Game –   A Bold Framework for Leadership In Today’s Ever-changing World.

The Infinite Game – A Bold Framework for Leadership In Today’s Ever-changing World. | Author: Simon Sinek, 2019 | What’s it all About? This is the 3rd book report I have done on Simon!  Building off of his previous concepts, there are two games you can be in.  The one most of us are more … Read More

NEVER SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE – Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

October 5, 2020By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership No Comments
NEVER SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE –  Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It

NEVER SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE – Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It | Author: Chris Voss, 2016 | What’s it all About? This is one of the most practical reads as you can actually apply skills and get immediate results. You can stop reading this book report now and get straight to it! Chris Voss … Read More

The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever

August 4, 2020By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever

The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever | Michael Bungay Stanier, 2024 What’s It All About? We want to be helpful, tell others what we know, and share our ideas with others. But while you’re interacting with your team or others in your life, your intentions might not … Read More

The Energy Bus – 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy

July 17, 2020By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Culture, Leadership
The Energy Bus –  10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy

The Energy Bus – 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy | Author: Jon Gordon, 2007 | What’s it all About? George wakes up Monday Morning to a bad day that starts with a flat tire and gets worse after that!  As you can guess, he ends up taking a bus … Read More

Extreme Ownership — How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win

June 15, 2020By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
Extreme Ownership — How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win

Extreme Ownership – How U.S. Navy Seals Lead and Win | Authors: Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, 2015 | What’s it all About? These guys just blew me away.  I consumed this book through audio; loved their voices and how they told their story.  The way they run the Navy Seals has so many basic principles … Read More

The Power of Now – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

May 19, 2020By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
The Power of Now – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment

The Power of Now – A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment | Author: Eckhart Tolle, 1997 | What’s it all About? Eckhart Tolle is like no other, an interesting dude to say the least.  Born in Germany and now a resident of my home country Canada, almost 20 years after writing the Power of Now his impact … Read More

Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results

April 13, 2020By Trevor BlondeelBook Reviews, Leadership
Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results

Fish!: A Proven Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results | Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen, 2000 What’s It All About? Way back in the day, when I was working for Magna and touring one of our sister plant Norplas in Ohio, I found the plant’s book club reading Fish!: A Proven … 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
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Why Productivity Problems Start at the Top: Manufacturing Leadership and Employee Retention: #168
March 25, 2026
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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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