Billy Taylor Discusses His New Book, ”The Winning Link”

Lean Blog Interviews - Healthcare, Manufacturing, Business, and Leadership

Episode page with video, transcript and more

My guest for Episode #466 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is a returning guest, Billy Taylor. Since his last appearance, Billy has written and released a great book titled The Winning Link: A Proven Process to Define, Align, and Execute Strategy at Every Level.

Billy had a long career at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, where he served as plant director for both union and non-union facilities, leading lean transformations in Goodyear's largest and most complex tire-producing sites. Billy more recently founded his firm LinkedXL, where he is CEO.

He was previously a guest in Episodes 293 and 298, back in 2017. He was also a guest on Episode 5 of “My Favorite Mistake.”

Questions, Notes, and highlights:

• Before we talk about your book, what stood out to you most at the AME conference this year?
• How to understand the level of trust? How do build it??
• “Coaching leaders on how to show up”
• Productive huddles – Key Performance Actions (KPA)
• What is “title-itis”?
• Best people… best processes
• Defining winning — why is that a challenge for some organizations? Lack of agreement on what winning means?
• Purpose mapping – agreeing on this first?
• Developing your strategy — how do we know if a strategy is the “right” strategy?? Truly differentiating??
• What's your CPI – critical performance indicator?
• “Have you defined what winning means to you?”
• SOAP – Strategy on a Page
• Aligning to win — As you write — Making jobs better not making jobs go away?
• “America… not a hiring problem… a retention problem”
• Psychological Safety
• “Covid changed the way we do business”

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.