In Episode 47, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh attempt another experiment in format, covering a range of quick-hit topics in the news rather than a single deep dive. As always, we welcome feedback.

Before we got to that, however, our whiskey theme was also new, or new to us: we each picked a whiskey we hadn’t tried before.

Jamie’s pick was Four Walls Irish American Whiskey, a celebrity whiskey from a group of stars from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, including Rob McElhenney, who famously co-owns Wrexham AFC, a 3rd tier football club in the UK, along with Ryan Reynolds.

Mark’s pick was inspired by his My Favorite Mistake podcast with the founder of Jeptha Creed with their Bloody Butcher’s Creed 4 Grain Bourbon Whiskey, made from Bloody Butcher red heirloom corn grown on their own farm.

In the news, we covered four topics.

First was Kentucky’s decision to decriminalize medical errors, which allows healthcare providers to focus on providing care the best method possible and not going to jail just for a mistake, lessons from the RaDonda Vaught case in Tennessee.

Next, while not really news, we discussed Jamie’s Forbes article about Hanlon’s Razor, including what a razor is, what it has to do with the lean principle of Respect for People, and how it can help choose a more productive path of action.

Third we explore the Labor Notes’ article declaring the end of lean production. Of course, we disagree, although both motivation and validly bad lean practices both contribute to their perspectives.

Finally, we cover a Wall Street Journal article titled The Jiggle Is Up, about how companies are defeating attempts to manipulate work with mouse jigglers. There is so much wrong here, from culture to process to metrics, that we start to unpack.

We finally end, with July being so hot seemingly everywhere, with our favorite summer refreshing non-whiskey cocktails. But, you’ll have to either listen to or skip to the end of hear our choices.

• Jamie’s pick: Four Walls Irish American Whiskey
• Mark’s pick: Jeptha Creed Bloody Butcher’s Creed 4 Grain Bourbon Whiskey
• My Favorite Mistake podcast featuring Jeptha Creed founder
• Kentucky decriminalizes medical errors
• More misunderstanding of lean
• Jamie on Hanlon’s Razor in Forbes
• WSJ on eliminating mouse jiggles as productivity
• Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or jflinch.com/leanwhiskey

Please review us and follow!

In Episode 46, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh spend a lot of time talking about AI, but that still, as always, begins with the whiskey.

Episode page

We both asked ChatGPT to consider all our ingredients for making a whiskey-based cocktail, and to invent an original recipe. Jamie's is called The Bourbon Harmony, although there was a lot in there to try to reach harmony, and Mark's was called the Spiced Cherry Rye Cocktail.

The verdict for both drinks was that they were good, but probably wouldn't be made a second time. We had slightly different tactics in prompting ChatGPT to generate our recipes, which we discussed.

We then spent a little time recognizing the passing of Don Petersen, former CEO of Ford in the late 1980s. Peterson was very different from an automotive CEO at the time, disrupting many practices whose time had come. Most notably, he brought in Dr. Deming to help influence the transformation.

The discussion then turned into a deeper dive into how a lean thinker might look at artificial intelligence, machine learning, and more. This explored governance of AI, having good standard work and workflow design around AI usage, lessons of effective delegation while treating AI like an employee, when to use it, and even a few tips and tricks along the way. We saved the discussion of whether AI will be the end of humanity for when we might have a stronger cocktail.

Have AI design your new cocktail, make it yourself since AI can't do that, and sit down for this interesting discussion. Cheers, or in binary... 01100011 01101000 01100101 01100101 01110010 01110011

• Jamie's Bourbon Harmony recipe:
  • 2 oz Bourbon (used Elijah Craig Small Batch), 0.5 oz Lillet Blanc, 0.5 oz Aperol, 0.25 oz Drambuie, 2 dashes Orange Bitters, 1 dash Angostura Bitters, Orange peel (for garnish)
• Mark's Spiced Cherry Rye Cocktail recipe:
  • 2 oz Rye Whiskey, 0.5 oz Tart Cherry Liqueur, 0.5 oz Italicus, 0.25 oz Green Chartreuse, 0.25 oz Aperol, 0.5 oz Lemon Juice, Garnish: Lemon twist or a few cherries
• News of former Ford CEO Don Petersen passing away and Mark's blog post adding much context, including Dr. Deming
• GrantThornton's report on AI risks
• Jamie's YouTube video linking AI and problem solving
• Wall Street Journal on whether AI causes job loss
• Wall Street Journal on how AI changes jobs
• Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or jflinch.com/leanwhiskey

Please review us and follow or subscribe on your favorite podcast platform!

Episode page

In Episode 45, Jamie Flinchbaugh and Mark Graban join the Just-in-Time Cafe team of Elisabeth Swan and Tracy O’Rourke as a special nod to their 100th Episode, while also having a chance to toast Mark’s accomplishment of 250 episodes of My Favorite Mistake podcast and 500 episodes of the Lean Blog Podcast. This episode blended the two formats a bit, but you can be sure whiskey was one of those elements that we retained.

We each selected a cocktail to make. Jamie made his original recipe, the Black Forest Kiss. Since you can’t Google it, the recipe is 2 oz bourbon, ½ oz sweet vermouth, 1 oz Cherry Herring, 5 dashes chocolate bitters, and garnished with cherries. Mark made a Perfect Manhattan with walnut bitters. Elisabeth made Remember the Maine. Tracy was stuck with wine, but you’ll have to listen for the story as to why that was. We also checked in about the various books we’ve written, including Mark’s The Mistakes That Make Us, Jamie’s People Solve Problems, Elisabeth’s Picture Yourself a Leader, and the forthcoming 2nd edition from Tracy and Elisabeth of the Problem Solver’s Toolkit.

We shared our Hot Apps personal choices, which included Trello, Kainexus, Asana, and the combination of Evernote and Scannable. In the episode you’ll hear how we utilize these apps. We then turned our attention to podcasting, sharing our origin stories, what we love about it, and some mistakes that we’ve learned from through the process.

• Just in Time Cafe podcast
• My Favorite Mistakes podcast
• Lean Blog podcast
• People Solve Problems podcast
• Picture Yourself a Leader book
• The Mistakes That Make Us book
• People Solve Problems book
• Podcast feed at LeanWhiskey.com or leanblog.org/leanwhiskey or jflinch.com/leanwhiskey

Please review us and follow!

Notes for everyone on what’s below. Please add links for preferred website and books for the show notes (going both directions):

• Jamie
  • https://www.jflinch.com/
  • https://www.jflinch.com/people-solve-problems/
• Elisabeth
  • https://www.jitcafe.com/
  • https://elisabethswan.com/book/
• Tracy
  • https://www.jitcafe.com/
  • The new edition of the Problems Solver’s Toolkit will be released soon, but no link yet.
• Mark
  • http://markgraban.com/

https://www.mistakesbook.com/