2-Second Lean Summit | Learnings & Improvements
Last week, 200+ Lean Maniacs from 16+ different countries travelled to Limavady, Northern Ireland for the 2-Second Lean Summit.
In this episode we caught up with Ryan Tierney to find out how the Seating Matters team pulled off such a successful event (using lean principles) as well as the highlights, learnings and improvements they discovered along the way. Check it out!
Check it out!
P.S. Wanna come see the factory for yourself? Click here to book a Lean Made Simple Tour.
Welcome to Lean Made Simple: a podcast for people who want to change their business and their lives one step at a time. I’m Ryan Tierney from Seating Matters, a manufacturing company from Limavady, Northern Ireland that employs 60+ people. Almost ten years ago, I came across this thing called “lean” and it transformed my life… now I want to share this message with as many people as possible.
This podcast unpacks our learnings, lessons and principles developed over the last decade in a fun, conversational way that will hopefully empower you on your own business journey — whether you’ve been doing lean for years or are just starting out!
Check it out on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or any other podcast platform by searching “lean made simple.”
Thanks and all the best.
— Ryan Tierney
Magic Moment 1: Lean Can Change The World
Magic Moment 2: Be Happy When Your Faced With A Problem
Magic Moment 3: One Hand Washes The Other
Full Transcription of Episode
Ryan (00:00):
When people think Lean, they think process, they think systems, they think efficiency. I think this event has shown that Lean is much more than you would think.
Matt (00:11):
Welcome back to Lean Made Simple, a podcast for people who want to transform their business and their life one step at a time. Ryan, I've been doing your intro the last few days. It feels so weird in my mouth. I'm like, "This is Ryan's bit." But we're here at the very, very end of the two-second Lean Summit where 200 absolute Lean Maniacs from around the world came right here to Limavady, hosted by Ryan and his team. And we have had just an unspeakable time.
(00:40):
So what Ryan and I are going to do just in the next couple of minutes is just do a little quick takeaway. We're going to talk about some of our favorite moments and some of the things that we've learned and hopefully you'll find that beneficial. So Ryan, I'd love to start, by the way, massive, massive congratulations. I've said this to you 20 times, but I think next time I see you for the next six months, I'll be saying that, "He's pulled off a massive operation." And not only did you pull it off, but you absolutely nailed it.
Ryan (01:11):
Thank you. It went so well. It was a bit surreal to be honest. I was chatting to my wife last night when I went home and I said something, which this is a big statement that I'm about to say. I think it was the best two days of my life.
Matt (01:28):
Wow.
Ryan (01:33):
Honestly, I've been surrounded by 200 class people, unbelievable people that are all like-minded, all thinking the same way, and every one of them there to help you. They're not there to give or to take and see what they can get from you. They're there to give, "How can I help you? The next time you're in India, you can save my home." "Come on to Australia and I'll help you with this." And I was invited to 10 different countries in the last two days.
Matt (02:02):
That's all your holidays started for the next 10 years.
Ryan (02:05):
But really genuine people that really want to help. It's not, "Come on and help me with my factory." It's, "Come on and have a holiday and your kids can stay with my family." And the relationships that were built over the last few days will last forever.
Matt (02:22):
I definitely agree. So your expectations coming into this versus where you are now, you say use that word surreal. What were you like before? Because the one thing that I really wanted to point out and I said this to Rob yesterday, is that, "You guys have never run a conference before, you guys make seats." You know what I mean? And here you are putting on a world-class conference, so how to manage the slides, how to manage the speakers, how to set up the room. This was your first time doing it and it was such a high stakes first time as well.
Ryan (02:56):
I think that gives our team massive confidence because at the start of this process, we considered getting an events planner and we interviewed too, and they came, and they talked through what they would do and gave us prices and all. And after the meeting I decided now we're going to do this ourselves because the learning that we'll be involved during this whole process, we'll be massive. And that's exactly what happens.
Matt (03:19):
Yeah. But I also think that the way in your welding department, you used to outsource some of your welding, and you ran into bother, I think that you would've ran into bother because people wouldn't have done it to the standard that your team was capable of doing it.
Ryan (03:33):
That's right. It was world-class and I admit that myself. It was world-class, the stage, the huge screen, the lighting, the music, the whole production was just on point, and it went so well.
Matt (03:44):
So these are impossible questions. Okay. But we're trying our best. Do you have a takeaway from the conference bit of the summit? Like something for you that rises to the top?
Ryan (03:57):
I think that would be the takeaway of the fact that we're a business, that manufacture specialist sitting, but we can pivot and organize an event like that and a world-class event. So what else can we not do? What all our industry can we not pivot into what our product that we've never thought of going at design. It's really give our whole team confidence. That's probably the one thing.
Matt (04:21):
Yeah. And I think it's interesting you talk about athletes talk about cross-training. So Mark here does Muay Thai, but if Mark, after chatting to your brother gets into marathon running, it's a totally different discipline, but it makes you a better athlete. And I've seen so many members on your team, I mean 30 plus the last two days being in a different domain than I've seen them in before and they're feeling good in it. It's class. So that brings me into second domain or second bit that I would love to hear your takeaway from is the factory tour. So maybe you could also give a little bit of context for people who are listening and watching who weren't at the summit this time. What paint the picture of what that was actually like.
Ryan (05:11):
So first of all, it was an overwhelming task to take on at the start. We've been planning this event for two full years, and it's been getting more intense right up until the end. The last few weeks and months we're really intense, but one of our biggest challenges was getting 220 people through our factory in two years. We were like, "How are we going to do this?" But we figured out a plan and the big takeaway for me for the factory part of the summit was the importance of training. This is a massive, massive thing that I am going to personally take away and that we're all going to take away. And implement into the business.
(05:55):
We walked around that factory maybe 20, 22 times, practicing for that. Everybody stood up and practiced what they were going to say. We practiced where we're going to stand. Which ear does the headset go? Is the right ear or the left ear. Where how close do you hold the mic when you're walking around the factory. How much distance do we leave between the first group and the second group? At what point do we announce the rotation? How do we announce the rotation? Do we ring a bell? Do we blow the air horn? Who many times do we blow the air horn?
(06:31):
We perfected that to the T and we spent weeks and weeks and weeks and the result was that 220 people drove in on 357-seater buses. Every single person had a color-coded lanyard, which matched up to a color-coded T-shirt for their team leader and their team sweeper. They went around the factory at 12-minute intervals, three minutes to change to the next station. And the whole thing went like clockwork.
Matt (07:04):
I was on your bus on the way back and you went, "Well guys, I really hope you enjoy that. And just so you know, we're three minutes ahead of schedule." I was like, "There's no way." And I think we were joking on stage on that Monday. I'm pretty sure it's like some world record. You have to look into that because it has to be.
Ryan (07:28):
Everybody's been talking about it. They've no idea how we pulled it off, but we know how we pulled it off. It's the importance of training. So we're going to take that learning into our business, the importance of what direction the bolt goes. When we're assembling the chair? Does the washer go this way or this way? Do we reach far it with our left hand or our right hand? We're going to go into serious detail now and train our people on every single thing so that we can produce high quality for our customer. Because the 220 people were the customer the day of the summit and they got a really good experience because of brilliant training.
Matt (08:09):
Fascinating. So third part of the summit as such I think is the community. And we could spend the next 10 hours spend all day rolling talking about stories and takeaways. And that's just me and Mark and Daniel. So your takeaway from the community.
Ryan (08:34):
When people think Lean, they think process, they think systems, they think productivity, they think efficiency. I think what this event has shown that Lean is people, Lean is emotional, Lean is passion, Lean is much more than you would think. I don't think we mentioned process or system maybe once during the whole event. There was people hugging each other. It was such a passionate emotional event. Some of the talks that the speakers were given, people were in tears to think that a Lean conference would leave people feeling that way. It just shows what Lean really is and the power of... I'm getting the emotional now talking about it, but it shows the power of Lean. Lean has the absolute power to change industry, to change people's lives and to change the world.
Matt (09:38):
What was the most emotional part for you?
Ryan (09:43):
I think Brad's talk on the last day was really good. And Brad Kearns, he contacted me about three weeks ago and he said, "I've got two talks, I'm not sure which one to do." And we looked at both of them and we said, "Let's do both of them. Let's rework the schedule." The first one was more about process and production. The last one was emotional. And it was a really good way at the end the summit. And basically, I know that Brad's video was on YouTube, but to sum it up, it's that how to boost your Lean journey is to use the support from the network and build a community of Lean friends around you, and to build a garden.
(10:29):
He talked about this concept where if you try to catch butterflies, they'll run away from you, but if you build a garden, the butterflies will come. And that's exactly what we've done without knowing we've built this place in Limavady where people are coming and they're learning, and they're getting all excited. And I fortunately have surrounded myself with hundreds of Lean friends that I wouldn't have had if I wasn't as passionate about this. I've created this garden, and all the butterflies are coming, and it's such a good feeling to have that support. It really is.
Matt (11:04):
Absolutely. And this is early days, I imagine we actually could do a full proper debrief and I think you and your team are going to probably produce some mad crazy report. But what advice would you give to whoever's going to host the Lean Summit next and broader for someone who's going to put on an event like this in any domain?
Ryan (11:25):
So we announced at the end of the event if anybody would like to host it again to let myself or Paul Akers know nobody put their hand up too quick. For some reason.
Matt (11:37):
Their minds were still just being blown. They couldn't hear what you were saying.
Ryan (11:43):
But I think whoever does it again, it has to be better. Because the whole thing continuously improve it. And what we're going to do, we've already talked about this, we're going to do a handover to the next person. So thinking of the next person, because we've spent so much time creating systems, creating... Even the schedules, the systems, the table plans, all-
Matt (12:06):
The names for the tables. They are so funny.
Ryan (12:09):
Weren't they? Yeah.
Matt (12:10):
Just in timers, all these Lean catchphrases, I'm like, "Flip, we need a merch rollout of all these Lean phrases." They're so funny.
Ryan (12:18):
So we're going to hand over all that information to the next person. And I'm saying now that I'm willing to help the next person and support the next person to make sure they're successful and the next Lean Summit because this thing has to keep going, and it has to keep getting better. And I know it's going to keep getting bigger every year. There's 220 this year, there's going to be 300 next year. I don't know who's going to do it yet, but whoever takes it on has a big task. But it's the best thing that they'll ever do for their company.
(12:49):
Our company has never been in better shape. Our people have never been as excited, they've never been as motivated, they've never been as passionate about Lean, and we've never had as much support from the Lean community. So when you take on the task of taking on a Lean Summit, you think, "Oh, but we're putting in all this work." Without wanting to, we're actually getting 10 times in return.
Matt (13:12):
Yeah. It's really interesting. So on the very first day on the Monday, you stood up in the first talk that you give in your introduction, you said, "This is not a summit about Lean, it's a Lean Summit." What did you mean by that?
Ryan (13:29):
I didn't come up with it. I got that from Paul Akers when we went to Japan, I think it was the second time I went to Japan with him. He stood up at the front of the bus and he said, "This is not a study mission about Lean. This is a Lean study mission." So the way we're going to get on and off the bus is going to be Lean. The way we're going to organize the stops is going to be Lean. The way we're eating lunch is going to be Lean. So the whole trip that we were on with Paul was Lean. It wasn't a trip about Lean, it was actually a Lean trip.
(14:03):
So we took on that same concept and we had a feedback form that we put into the WhatsApp group, and we had 30 or 40 bits of feedback that people were sending in, and we were making loads of changes. So somebody said, "There's not enough water on the tables." It's some improve. Day two, there was more water on the tables, somebody said, "The music was too loud." Day two, we turned the music down. So we're improving it live as we go. So it's not like this event's over here and we're talking about Lean, it's a Lean event-
Matt (14:35):
Absolutely.
Ryan (14:35):
... we're continuously improving the event live as we do it.
Matt (14:38):
Yeah. And you talked about how the hosting the summit rallied your whole team to raise the standard even higher. And how the greatest gift that's been given to you by hosting this is actually the hiring end of that standard. It's really interesting. We've experienced this in a microcosm for us with the podcast. So when we were coming to do this, we were like, "We need to make this Lean podcast production process as good as it can be." And so we put more work than I could have actually ever imagined before we got here into our processes and into, "Okay, what's the best way to do this?" And Mark here built this amazing podcast booth and he put so much thought, so much detail into the point where it fits inside a real small Peugeot 307, genuinely you can't imagine. And I actually think it looks better than our studio.
Ryan (15:36):
It looks amazing.
Matt (15:37):
I'm going back and I'm like, "This is crazy." But the team here have been able to produce eight podcast episodes, all recorded, all edited, and ready to go before we are leaving the summit. And that's unspeakable. If you think about back in the day, it would take you at least a day per episode at least. And the guys here with the processes have created, we were doing one piece flow for episodes. We were removing waste where we could in real time, at the end of every episode they're like, "Oh, you could change that part of the process and you could actually do this and actually do that."
(16:18):
Even something really simple. Daniel made a really good call where he goes, "Do you realize that we're actually checking the cameras twice?" So you're getting the camera set up and then the guest is coming in and when we're about to record again, then you'll go and you'll fix the camera. He goes, "Just do it once." And it's like, "That one improvement we will do for every single podcast for the rest of our lives." And it's just, it's unbelievable.
Ryan (16:43):
The feedback you get from the first one can be implemented into the second. So the difference from the first one to the eighth one is that's all we're doing when we're making chairs. We're making 70, 80, a hundred shares a week. Every chair gets a wee tiny bit easier to make because improving it every time we go.
Matt (16:59):
Absolutely. So to wrap up to land the plane, we're just going to with everyone in the room, so yourself, myself, Mark, and Daniel, just share the one thing. And I love that session that you did at the end of the first day where everyone was sharing their one thing and I was like, "What on earth are we going to sit here? Because so much has happened." But Daniel, do you want to kick us off?
Daniel (17:24):
All right. Is it working all good? Okay. So personally, for myself, whenever I was coming to this Lean thing, I'm just out of school, fresh out. I'm 19 and I'm thinking to myself about future plans, about what I want to be doing. And I was thinking about the fact that I want to be able to get to the top of what my skill is. And one thing I was thinking about is that I don't want to be making too many mistakes. I want to be going in doing things as perfect as I can and not really thinking about what else I can do.
(17:57):
From this summit alone, I've learned the fact that mistakes are the first step to improving in general. Everyone's human, like what Brad was saying in an interview during this about how... We're not machines, we're all human, we make mistakes. And from that alone, I've still got a life ahead of me and I want to be able to Lean my way through it. I want to-
Matt (18:36):
This guy's good, this guy's going to be sitting in my chair in a couple of years.
Daniel (18:37):
I want to be able to use the fact that I'm fresh out of school to my advantage to learn new techniques. I was even talking with Matthew about learning some new stuff about the podcast, learning different techniques in the end, make the mistakes but improve more and more. Get better at that one skill and learn what I can do properly. In general, this Lean Summit thing has been probably the best thing that can have to me so far. And I can truly call it, they should really rename Limavady here to Leanavati. They really to rename it-
Matt (19:10):
Yeah, the catchphrase come on.
Daniel (19:10):
They really need to rename it-
Ryan (19:10):
Leanavati.
Matt (19:10):
Leanavati.
Daniel (19:13):
This is the place where Lean journey has begun to this day as of right now, until an actor-
Matt (19:17):
What's amazing, Ryan, see this morning, this is like 6:00 AM or whatever it is, we're walking down the hotel corridor and Daniel goes, "See when we get back to studio, can you start training me in the stream deck? I really want to learn how to build macros and stuff." And I'm like, "This is crazy." Mark, what about you? What's your one thing?
Mark (19:36):
Yeah, it's something news of already touched on, but it's a simple thing for me, again, young, I'm 22 very early on in what I'm hoping to be called a business career and whatever. But yeah, the main thing for me is I've been around really successful people, and I don't just mean business. There's the business side of it. Of course, they've running successful businesses that are growing scaling. When I say successful people, I don't just mean that. The way I've seen certain members of this community that have their families along the relationships that they have there, that's success as well.
(20:31):
Probably a more important success when I see the way they interact with others and the way they freely give of the time. That's success. That's a successful person. And it's put a few things in place of going, what makes a successful person? Is it the discipline? Is it the power to influence people? And is it charisma? Is it something? And I think it's become really obvious to me over this time that it's the generosity and it's the ability to just give back expecting nothing in return. That's the common thread that I see between everyone that I've met this... I want to say weekend, Sunday to Tuesday. So yeah, you talk about the one thing, the one takeaway. That's it for me.
Ryan (21:24):
Really good.
Matt (21:25):
Really interesting insight into these guys as well. So on the run up the summit, I'm learning from you. So I'm trying to implement pull instead of push. And so I had a chat with these guys before we came down. I says, quote unquote, "Push you to do anything." It says, "Outside of our working hours where we're at, Pune podcasts, your times, your own, do whatever you want." Says, "I would advise you to squeeze as much out of this event as possible because the people here, they're worth sleeping four hours a night just to spend as much time with them." And we've got a combination of early birds and late risers and I mean these guys have been getting up at like five, going to bed at two, and they're just buzzing to make it happen. Do you know what I mean?
(22:15):
And the conversations we've had have been life changing for the three of us. And I am so delighted as the person who's responsible for these guys that they have had the chance to experience what I've experienced as well. So my one thing is, I shared it yesterday after Michael's speech. There's a German phrase that says, "One hand washes the other." And if you're listener, and you're watching this, if you stick your hands out and you take your right hand and you pretend that you've got soup on it. And you start washing your left hand and what you realize is the left hand is also washing the right hand. And it's back to Mark's point about generosity. This community is so focused on giving and helping each other that they're not even aware that that is actually also how they're helping themselves in a way because the person they're helping, trying to help them as much as possible.
(23:18):
And it's totally, it flips everything on its head that I know about business. And Philippe, who we were up with to 2:00 AM last night, he asked me, "What's different about this conference in comparison to other conferences?" And I said, "Well, apart from people trying to do the splits at 1:00 AM. It's that generosity?" "No." In other conferences, people are trying to increase their status and get one up on the other person and make a sale. Here it's how can I get as low as possible and lift you up as high as I can? And everybody's doing that, and the result is everybody is being raised higher. It's just incredible.
Ryan (23:55):
Brilliant.
Matt (23:56):
What about you?
Ryan (23:57):
Something I didn't see at the conference was a business card. Every conference you go to, "Oh, here's my card, follow me on LinkedIn." What can I get? I sell this, I sell that. Please give me give, give, give or I didn't say any of that. I didn't see any business cards being exchanged. It just wasn't a normal conference, was it?
Matt (24:17):
Not at all.
Ryan (24:22):
My one thing.
Matt (24:23):
Yes sir.
Ryan (24:25):
We were fortunate to have the former vice president of Lexus here for the entire event. This is a big deal for the fact that he flew the whole way from Japan to be with us. And he spoke on Monday night, and he said something that he said about three or four times to me already, and I didn't get it. He said it to me all three times. I met him in Japan, and I've seen him saying it on videos loads of times. And he said, "Be happy when you have a problem." And that's a hard thing to do. But I think now I have finally internalized that, be happy when you're faced with a problem.
(25:11):
So somebody in the audience said, "You said be happy when faced with a problem. How do you actually do that? How can you be happy?" And he stood up and he said, "When I get a challenge, I get excited because I know the feeling that I'm going to get when I solve the problem." So he's focusing on how he's going to feel when he solves it, is not feeling bad about the problem that's in front of him. So imagine taking that one line into your life. "Be happy when faced with a problem." We're faced with problems every single day of every person is... So imagine having that attitude. For me, the whole event was worth for me that one line. "Be happy when you're faced with a problem."
Matt (25:59):
Wow, I have no idea how to end this episode. I just feel like the emotion and the intensity and what we've all experienced is just... It's life changing. And so everyone here says they're young. I'm going to try to play that card as well. I'm 27. A lot of the guys here are way, way older, way, way wiser. But I feel this responsibility collectively to take forward what we've experienced here and not just let it fall to the side actually. Perfect. Paul Akers final words. Paul Akers got up to do what I thought was going to be the last big final end the summit, like massive, big pumped up music and get everyone really inspired, like Big American style. And he stood up and he said, "Don't mess this up." And we've all been given a great gift and now our responsibility is to use it wisely.
(27:04):
So Ryan, thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. Thank you for an amazing summit.
Ryan (27:08):
Thank you.
Matt (27:10):
Thanks to Daniel, thanks to Mark for doing a class job. Thanks to every single person who came to the summit and thank you so much, especially to our eight podcast guests. We're releasing the episodes from this summit over the next few weeks, so be sure to check it out on your YouTube and your Spotify or wherever it is that you are listening or watching to this stuff. And some of the first episode we're going to drop, it's like an audio tape that you could listen to on repeat for the rest of your life and it would give you nearly everything that you'd need. So thank you so much for listening and watching. And thank you for being here and we look forward to seeing you again next time. Thanks.
Ryan (27:50):
Thank you.
Matt (27:54):
That's a wrap.