Paul Akers | 2-Second Lean| Improve Your Business by 600%
Paul Akers is the founder of FastCap: a multi-million dollar company he and his wife started in their garage 13-years ago.
Along the way he’s established himself as an internationally renowned lean thinker, educator, and practitioner as well as being the author of the hugely influential book: 2-Second Lean.
In today’s episode we talk about:
What 2-Second Lean is and how it can improve your business by 600%
Why companies who do lean properly dwarf their competition
The best kept secret of Japanese powerhouses like Toyota & Lexus
Books he’s read 10+ times
The importance of going deep not wide
Why Ireland is experiencing a lean-revolution
The power of creating and visiting a “Learning Laboratory”
Solving the “overfed, disobedient leadership problem”
And the life-changing opportunity that happen every 30-days
Check it out!
Links:
Book a Lean Made Simple Tour: https://www.leanmadesimple.com/book-a-tour
Check out Paul’s Books: https://paulakers.net/books/2-second-lean
FastCap website: https://www.fastcap.com/
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.”
Paul Akers Magic Moment 1: What Is 2-Second Lean?
Paul Akers Magic Moment 2: The Most Important Thing For Toyota
Paul Akers Magic Moment 3: The Secret To Lean = Failure
Paul Akers Magic Moment 4: Why Lean Companies Outperform Their Competitors
Paul Akers Magic Moment 5: Go Deep Not Wide With Books
Full Transcription of Episode:
Paul Akers (00:00):
The world is dysfunctional. Organizations are highly dysfunctional. And those people that do Lean correctly, no one can touch them. The differential is not 50%, 100%. It's 600%, and they dwarf everyone.
Ryan (00:21):
Welcome to Lean Made Simple, a podcast for those of you who want to transform your business and your life. I'm Ryan Tierney from Seating Matters, a manufacturing company from Limavady, Northern Ireland. Eight years ago, I came across Lean, and it transformed my business and my life, and I'm so excited to share my journey with all of you.
Matt (00:41):
Unreal. I'm Matt Thompson. I'm a podcast producer from Belfast who is just on the start of his Lean journey. I met this guy in front of me here, Ryan Tierney, about two months ago. We did a podcast together. I was up doing a factory tour at his amazing, amazing facility in Limavady, and it's totally changed my life and the way I think about business.
(00:58):
Today we're joined by the godfather of Lean himself, Mr. Paul Akers. He is an author of 2 Second Lean, which is a worldwide successful book whenever it comes to Lean. He's the CEO and the founder of FastCap, and we're delighted to sit down with Paul today to hear more about his story and ask a few of our own selfish questions that hopefully will be beneficial to you as well.
(01:19):
So. Yes, Paul Akers, thank you so much for being here, and welcome to the show.
Paul Akers (01:23):
Thank you, Matt. I'm happy to be here.
Matt (01:25):
To get started, Ryan, I'd love to ask you a question. It's a very simple question. How on Earth do you know this guy who's currently sitting in a hotel room in Japan, coming to us remotely here into the studio? How has this all kind of happened here?
Ryan (01:37):
Yeah, it's an interesting story actually. Eight and a half years ago, I went home one night, really frustrated, really stressed. The business wasn't going the way we wanted it to go. Loads of production issues, people issues. It was just a really stressful environment. And I said, "There has to be a better way. That there has to be companies that can run a lot smoother than this."
(02:02):
And I just basically sat at my kitchen table and got my iPad out and typed in how to manage a factory, how to manage production, all this kind of stuff. And lo and behold, Paul Akers's video came up. It was just a light bulb moment for me, and I often tell the story that I sat up all night. I didn't go to bed all night, just watching all the videos over and over and over.
Matt (02:27):
Wow.
Ryan (02:27):
And I was in the next day, and I said, "I found this thing called 2 Second Lean, and we have to do this. This is our ticket to grow in managing this business."
Matt (02:37):
Mad. So, Paul, how did you get into Lean? So, Lean's come to Ryan via you. Where did you get the source from?
Paul Akers (02:46):
Yeah, that's a great story. Simple story. I was very successful, doing very well, and I was struggling managing inventory that I was importing specifically from Portugal, some raw materials. And I was a lowly cabinet maker. I had two or three employees. I didn't know anything about international business or importation or anything else.
(03:05):
So, I went to local business school, asked them if they could help me. They recommended a consultant. I brought the consultant in. The consultant looked around and said, "Hey, you need to learn about Kaizen or the Toyota production system, main manufacturing." I had no clue what they were talking about whatsoever.
(03:22):
And I said, "How do I learn about it?"
(03:23):
They said, "Hire these two kids as consultants. They're consultants for Toyota. They help translate. And they started out on their own. Maybe they'll help you."
(03:32):
I called them up, asked them to come in and look at my facility. They've spoke in Japanese themselves back and forth, and I said, "How much?"
(03:40):
And they said, "10,000 bucks a week." That was way out of my budget, but I went to my wife, and I said, "Hun, we've got to do this."
(03:48):
And she didn't want to do it. She thought it was absolutely out of my gourd, but there was something inside of me that knew they knew something that I needed to know.
(03:55):
I brought them into my company, and in one week they took processes that were taking us 45 minutes to five minutes, and another process 45 minutes to seven minutes. And at that point, I was completely convinced that I had no idea what I was doing, and I was clueless.
(04:12):
And three months later, it wasn't even very long, I was on a plane on my way to Japan, first time in my life. And I set foot in Lexus, and I could not believe what I was looking at. And I thought, "I have no clue what I'm doing. I've got to start completely over."
(04:27):
And that's how the whole thing started.
Matt (04:30):
Wow. Paul, we've chatted a few times here about 2 Second Lean. What is this? And how is it different to normal Lean? And there's Lean this and Lean that, and I'm all confused and all over the place. What is 2 Second Lean?
Paul Akers (04:42):
It's a beautiful question, and I think I can explain it pretty simply. In essence, I couldn't figure out how to get some of my people to make improvements. They just were flummoxed, "What do I do?"
(04:56):
And I walked into my injection molding department. There was this young man named Nick. He was 18-years-old. And I said, "What was your improvement today," because every day, I walked through my entire facility for two years, and made sure everybody was doing their improvements, and supported them and helped them in make improvements.
(05:13):
And he said he couldn't think of one. And I asked him, "Everything's perfect? Nothing's bothering you?"
(05:19):
And he said, "Well, yeah, there is something that bothers me. I put the injection mold in, and I have to put my head in there, and it's really uncomfortable, and the level, and I can't see everything."
(05:29):
And so, we ended up gluing a piece of a plastic mirror onto a level, so you could set the level on it, look at it without even moving inside the machine. It made it very comfortable for him.
(05:41):
And he goes, "Wow, that was cool."
(05:42):
And we did it in five minutes. And I said, "Nick, that's all I want you to do, is make one two-second improvement a day. Just make it so that you just don't have to do the two seconds in and out, the simplest, stupidest thing."
(05:57):
So, 2 Second Lean is simply understanding that small improvements matter. And then the last thing I'm going to add to that comment is this. Dr. Ken Mogi is a good friend of mine. Ryan, you've met Ken, haven't you?
Ryan (06:13):
Ken, yeah. Yep.
Paul Akers (06:14):
He's one of the top neuroscientists in the world, teaches at the University of Tokyo. He's on the Japan-Study-Mission with this. He comes with us often, and this guy's a brilliant guy. And he taught me something. And Ryan, I believe heard him speak the last time, right? You were with him?
Ryan (06:27):
Yeah.
Paul Akers (06:27):
Everything starts with small things. That's it. And the Japanese understand this. And if you're willing to be good at the small things, then everything else will grow and take care of itself from there. And that's what 2 Second Lean is. It's taking care of the small things daily.
Ryan (06:47):
Yeah. As we all know, it's not an easy journey.
Paul Akers (06:49):
No.
Ryan (06:49):
Lean isn't an easy thing to implement. Paul, what was some of your early obstacles when you [inaudible 00:06:56]?
Paul Akers (06:55):
Myself. Myself, my impatience, my lack of understanding how people work, and being really tyrannical, and, "You get out of here, you no-good," all that crazy stuff because I didn't understand.
Ryan (07:16):
Two-second mean?
Paul Akers (07:17):
Yeah, yeah. Two-second mean, exactly. I'm going to steal that. That's a really good one because that's exactly.
Matt (07:26):
Hopefully that's worth your cost of entry for today, I hope.
Paul Akers (07:29):
Well, I've got to tell you. There was just one girl. I think I'd used every F-bomb in the world on her. And my wife came up to me after we fought, and I fired her. And everything was, "Paul, I know you really want to be a really good leader, but you're not going to get there doing that."
(07:43):
So, my obstacle is myself. I didn't know what I was doing. So, that was one. The other one is how to properly train people. That wasn't something that I was really nurtured in doing, at least not the Japanese way or the Toyota way. So, that took a long time to learn how to do that.
(08:06):
And I had these two consultants, and they were teaching me the technical part of it, but no one told me how to build a culture. And Toyota wasn't really handing that to you. So, my obstacle was I had to figure it out on my own. And that took me five years, Matt. It took me a long time before I finally figured out what Toyota was doing.
(08:24):
Then once I figured out what Toyota was doing, I was boom, off to the races. But that was a five-year journey.
Matt (08:30):
So that unlock, tell me about that. What did you learn in those five years that we can hopefully learn a little bit sooner?
Paul Akers (08:36):
Well, I don't know that I learned anything in that five years, to be honest with you, because I just stumbled all over myself for five years. And what happened was I went back to Japan after five years, and I went to a company called Hawks. And Ryan, you've been to Hawks, correct?
Ryan (08:48):
Yeah, been to Hawks. Yeah.
Paul Akers (08:49):
And so, when I went to Hawks, it was a very humble, very successful company, electronics componentry company, but a very nice, humble company. And they had a morning meeting. Every morning they met with their people, and every morning they cleaned their entire facility. They cleaned the yard, they washed the windows, they washed the cars of the vehicles. Every morning, everybody, the sales manager, the president, they mopped the floor.
(09:13):
And I just saw this humble approach to how to get everybody engaged in a simple process of daily three-s-ing and a daily communication. We call it yokoten in Japanese. It's the dissemination of information laterally across an organization so everybody knows what's going on.
(09:31):
And I go, "Oh, all these people are doing is building. They're developing their people."
(09:35):
And then the really cool story, and I think I tell this in my book, is right before that I went to Lexus, and I met with the vice president of Lexus, and I work with the vice president of Lexus now, Mr. Amezawa. He wasn't the vice president at the time.
(09:49):
And after he spoke to us, I asked him, "What is the most important thing for Toyota?"
(09:54):
And he said, "It is not the next engineering feat. It is not the next sales plan. It's not the next factory. We open up somewhere in the world. It is not the next incredible model car that we're coming up with. The only thing that matters to Toyota," and he said these words, "Is teaching and training our people and building a culture of continuous improvement."
(10:22):
And I said, "What? That's what you guys are doing?"
(10:27):
And the same day we went to Hawks, and I saw what they were doing, and everything instantly came together.
(10:35):
And I go, "Oh."
(10:39):
That's what happened.
Ryan (10:41):
Crazy.
Matt (10:42):
Yeah. So, you talk about the tyrant. I would say that's my tropping at the minute, right? So, I met Ryan a couple of months ago. I went to his incredible factory tour up in Seating Matters in Limavady, Northern Ireland. And I was, "This is amazing," and I came back with all this energy.
Ryan (11:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Matt (11:00):
And there is this shadow side of me that wants to control and wants to influence and manipulate. And all my tentacles are going all over. My producer Mark's nodding his head. He's like, "Get off me. Get these tentacles away from me."
Ryan (11:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Matt (11:14):
And you've just hit on something really important there, which is, I'm going to call it a bottom-up approach rather than a top line.
Paul Akers (11:22):
Completely. Completely. And it's letting your people fail. I mean, Ryan knows this as well as me, but I mean, 50% of everything we do at FastCap fails, all the ideas. And I've made well over 100 improvements. From Saturday to Monday in the Japan experience that I've doing, I've made over 100 improvements between last week and this week, and just [inaudible 00:11:52]. And many of those things didn't work. They didn't quite work out the way I wanted. I had to readjust them. It's just a giant experiment, and you're learning what doesn't work and what works. And both of those are equally important.
Matt (12:08):
Yeah.
Ryan (12:09):
So, when we started Lean at Seating Matters, we had no local examples to go and see. So, we traveled to see Paul's company, FastCap in America. We traveled to Japan. We traveled to Germany. There's no local examples that we could go and see. But now thankfully, we have hundreds of people through our facility every year.
(12:29):
The amount of people in Ireland, North and South that are doing 2 Second Lean, it's just incredible. So, a question for you, Paul, why do you think there's such an uptick in Ireland at the minute in terms of Lean?
Paul Akers (12:46):
Well, the quick answer is you. But this is the key. You must have a learning laboratory. You must have a place where people can go and see, touch, feel, smell, taste, and experience Lean. And you did that at Seating Matters, and we did that at FastCap, and you came all the way from Ireland to see us because that laboratory was critical. And you have established that laboratory. So, that's the first answer.
(13:27):
The second thing is, I don't know for sure, but this is what I like to believe. I think there's something in the Irish spirit. I think there's a little bit of extra tenacity, extra... I'm trying to think what would be the word, in the Irish thinking and psyche that's a little bit different than anywhere in the world, because I'm telling you, there is no better country in the world that's doing Lean than Ireland.
Matt (13:54):
Whoa. That is encouraging to hear. Wow.
Ryan (13:59):
It is, yeah. Crazy.
Paul Akers (14:00):
I mean, you're a testament to it, Matt. Just your attitude is really quintessential to what I keep seeing is just, "Oh, yeah, God, I've got to do that. That's crazy."
(14:11):
I hear those words repeated more by Irish people than any other group of people. Why? You're Irish. You might know. I don't know.
Matt (14:21):
I was going to say, to go out on a limb here, and it's very hard to talk about your own people in this way. I'm prepared to be wrong. You jump in here, Ryan. I think that there is, I'll give it to you bluntly, Paul. Okay? In America, you guys have this turbocharged confidence, and that is something that we as an island are trying to catch up with because we are the opposite.
Paul Akers (14:42):
Right.
Matt (14:43):
And I think actually that in that shadow lies a little bit of our strength because I think there's a real humility where it's because we don't think very highly of ourselves-
Paul Akers (14:51):
There it is.
Matt (14:51):
... Maybe that humility comes into play.
Paul Akers (14:54):
That is-
Matt (14:54):
That's just an off-the-cuff guess.
Paul Akers (14:57):
No, no, no. That is it. Because humility is the essence of what makes this work. And you nailed it completely.
Ryan (15:06):
Yeah. So obviously, Paul, there's hundreds of thousands if not millions of copies of your book all over the world. Have you ever thought of how many organizations from around the world are practicing 2 Second Lean?
Paul Akers (15:19):
The answer is if I died today, Ryan, I would be a very happy person because of all the people's lives that have been improved. I would die with no regrets. So, I'm very happy.
Matt (15:32):
So, you said you'd die a happy man. You obviously still have things in front of you that you're chasing after.
Paul Akers (15:39):
Well, I plan on living to 120. I'm not ready to check out. But I mean, I am very happy that I've been blessed to have the things that happened to be happen.
Matt (15:49):
Yeah, I mean you hear people talk about BHAGs, right? What is that Ryan?
Ryan (15:53):
Big, hairy, audacious goal? Yeah.
Matt (15:55):
Yeah. What's your BHAG?
Paul Akers (15:57):
Somehow or another it might become new fruition. My BHAG is to change the world by working with the head, the president of a country or the prime minister of a country to teach the entire country 2 Second Lean or Lean thinking. That's my goal.
Matt (16:17):
Can you imagine, Ryan? Both of us have young kids, Paul. Can you imagine if your kids went to school and they learned Lean? How insane the country would become?
Ryan (16:28):
Yeah, even my children. My children are seven, five, and two, but the seven and five-year-old are making improvements. They get Lean.
Matt (16:35):
Kids totally do.
Ryan (16:36):
They're making improvements every day. Yeah.
Matt (16:39):
Crazy. Do you think Lean is something that comes to us intuitively? Oh, my goodness. I'm jumping into this mad, philosophical question here. Do you think it comes naturally to us as humans, and there's kind of been obstacles that get in the way, or does it force us to kind of act unnaturally?
Paul Akers (16:55):
Well, I believe and what I teach is simply that God created us with this amazing brain for one reason and one reason only, to make improvements, to solve problems that are complex and difficult. So, the very essence of what God intended for us was to improve, is my belief.
(17:17):
And so, what gets in the way is people that like to control other people, people that don't believe in the dignity of mankind, the dignity of work. Those are obstacles. And the more leaders that we have that understand really what God intended, the better off we will be.
Ryan (17:40):
Yeah. You've just reminded me of something that you told me on the second Japan-Study-Mission, and you said Lean is built on two things, respect for people and respect for resources.
Paul Akers (17:50):
That's correct.
Ryan (17:51):
That always stuck in my mind. I always loved that line.
Paul Akers (17:55):
That's why Japan is Japan. They respect the resources. They're very careful with the things they have, and they respect one another. It's very simple what's going on. Everything's simple. I mean, I almost marvel at the whole thing, it's so simple.
(18:11):
And it's funny. I'll tell you one quick story, how simple it is. Here I am with the president of this $2 billion company, 5,000 employees. You can't even imagine the power that this guy had. Meets with the prime ministers of countries regularly.
(18:26):
And I had lunch with him about three weeks ago, and he's got his executive team there. And he said, "Paul, I want you to come here. I want you to do this. I want you to come to Kazakhstan. I want you to live here. I want you to do this."
(18:38):
All of a sudden, I look at him and go, "You don't need me. You don't need me. You can do all of this. There's nothing complicated."
(18:48):
And he looked at me kind of perplexed. And he called me yesterday on the phone. He said, "Paul, as I said in the beginning of this talk, I can't believe that a 50-year-old man could completely change his understanding in six days with you."
(19:04):
And he said, "When you said, 'You don't need me in Kazakhstan,' I didn't believe you. But I understand exactly what you're saying now."
(19:15):
I said, "Yeah, you don't need me. Absolutely not."
Ryan (19:18):
I think what Paul has built is a community of like-minded people from all over the world that think the same way. And as Alex Ramirez often talks about, it's loads of givers. They're givers, not takers. Even an example-
Paul Akers (19:38):
Exactly.
Ryan (19:39):
To explain the kind of guy that Paul is, when I asked Paul a few weeks ago to come onto this podcast, Paul replied within two minutes and he said, "Yes, no problem. Do you want me to fly there or do you want me to do it virtually?"
(19:53):
Paul was willing to fly here to Belfast for this podcast today. That's the type of person Paul is. Paul is a giver, and I think that's why this is also successful.
Paul Akers (20:03):
Yeah, exactly. That's the spirit of Ryan and everybody else involved here. We're not about ourself. We're about helping one another and just making the world a better place.
Matt (20:15):
I want to vocalize a very critical, skeptical, young, immature part of myself that just popped up here, [inaudible 00:20:23] you say that, okay, Paul? All right, it's easy for him to say, "He doesn't have all the business stuff that I need to worry about. I'm worried about the next month, and I'm worried about this," and, "What about this?" And all this stress.
Paul Akers (20:33):
Sure, sure.
Matt (20:33):
I can't fly to Japan right now to go and do this. So, talk to me about that. Educate me and father me in that moment because where you are is, when I think about the business person I want to be when I'm older, that's it. And so, do I have to get my ducks in a row first? Or do I start to become that now? Walk me through that.
Paul Akers (20:52):
Well, first of all-
Matt (20:53):
Free life coaching.
Paul Akers (20:54):
... You will be there much faster than you ever imagined. But it is essential that you become very good at the fundamentals. So, you're not going to get there tomorrow or next week, but you could be where you want to be in one or two years where people might spend an entire lifetime and never get there.
(21:15):
But you have to learn the fundamentals, and you have to be consistent at doing them. And you'll be shocked at how fast everything will fall into place because basically the world is dysfunctional. Organizations are highly dysfunctional, and those people that understand the organizational power and the human power that exist when you do Lean correctly, no one can touch them. They dwarf everyone. The differential is not 50%, 100%. It's 600%.
Matt (22:07):
Wow.
Paul Akers (22:08):
And so, when you know that you have something that powerful, you just get your nose to the grindstone, and you'll get there very quickly.
Matt (22:18):
I want to share an anecdote. We might end up cutting this. I don't know if you'll be comfortable with me to share this, Ryan. For people listening, Ryan's industry is manufacturing medical seats, medical chairs. And last time I was up doing a tour of the factory, one of the team had mentioned, or there was a question asked, "Do any of your competitors ever come and try to book a tour?"
(22:41):
And Ryan said, "Oh, yeah, actually someone's considered doing it now."
(22:45):
And we were like, "What? Why on Earth would you ever let the enemy spies come into your land and see how everything's done?"
(22:51):
Do you remember what you said to me?
Ryan (22:52):
Yeah, that's right. Basically, I think we said that even if they did come, they couldn't catch up.
Matt (22:59):
One of the craziest flexes I've ever heard in my life, Paul. And then I thought about it, and I was like, "Oh my goodness, he's right." The culture that they've built here, it's 600%, like you said.
Paul Akers (23:11):
But there's another element to it too. And that is the reason this works is because your values are correct. So, it would be impossible for someone to come in who was competing with Ryan and build the same authentic culture if their disposition was to hurt Ryan. The two don't coexist. You can't build a culture that cares about people when you're trying to hurt somebody who taught you how to be a decent human being.
Matt (23:56):
Wow. I have nothing to say, Ryan. You're going to have to take over. I'm speechless.
Ryan (24:06):
This is going to be an amazing podcast.
Matt (24:09):
Oh, man.
Ryan (24:11):
Paul, something that I've just been reminded of. Another thing you said to me, I think it's the time that we visited you at your home in the US. I asked you, "What book should I read next?" And all this type of stuff, or, "What books should I be reading?"
(24:25):
And Paul said, "No, it's not about reading all these books. It's we're taking a few books and really internalizing them."
(24:32):
Can you expand on that?
Paul Akers (24:33):
Yeah. Well, I'll give you a great example. I'm reading Understanding Japan for at least the 15th time right now. So, oftentimes we're overfed. As leaders, we are overfed. We have an obedience problem. So, it's better to read one or two books, deeply understand it and deeply apply it, than to read a whole plethora of books and really not ever take anything to the ground level.
(25:07):
And so, my goal is to become an expert at Japan so that I can absolutely understand why and how they got here. And I can tell you things today that I discovered by listening to this book. I've been listening to this book for over 10 years. 10 years I've been listening to the same book, and the things that I discovered today absolutely blew my mind.
(25:31):
Did that answer your question, Ryan?
Ryan (25:34):
Yeah, perfectly, yeah. I've really taken that on board. People almost... There's so much social pressure to read all these books, and you see all these posts on LinkedIn about people reading a book a week and all this kind of stuff, and that pressure isn't healthy.
Paul Akers (25:48):
No, no.
Ryan (25:49):
I feel if you have five or six books and really internalize them, I think that's [inaudible 00:25:55].
Paul Akers (25:54):
And over and over and over again. I can't even tell you. I'm read a book also simultaneously called The Presidents, and it's basically the Presidents' Club. It's the story of all the US president and how they interact with each other after the presidency.
(26:08):
And I think I've been through that book at least six times, and I tell you every time I go through it, I begin to understand the nuance of this extraordinary leadership... Aspect of the President of the United States. The things they go through and the things, the issues they have to deal with. It has helped me so much in being a better leader, but I had to listen to it over and over again, and listen to the relationship between Harry Truman and Johnson and between John F. Kennedy. Just the whole thing was just unbelievable.
Matt (26:46):
It's interesting hearing you speak. I'm hearing my granny's voice in my head where it's that old, "Be ye not just hearers of the word, but doers also."
Paul Akers (26:55):
Yes, exactly.
Matt (26:56):
We've talked a lot, Ryan, about the importance of being a doer, and I think that that's a really good callback to just take an action rather than just reading all the intellectual stuff, and it's all theoretical. No, no, no, no, put your hand to it and experiment. I love what you said earlier, Paul, about the learning laboratory and all these experiments. That's just so tactical. I have a picture in my head of almost being out in the soil, getting your hands dirty and up to your elbows in it as opposed to just being up in the sky, not doing anything about it.
Ryan (27:28):
So, we've got a famous quote, "The biggest gap in the world is the gap between knowing and doing."
Paul Akers (27:36):
I haven't heard that, Ryan, but I don't think anything could be more true than that. And this is what I say to the Kazak people all the time. I say, "Your problem is you're not applying this. If you'd just go home and start applying it."
(27:46):
I told them today. I said, "Lean is not about going to Japan with Paul Akers or wearing a Kaizen hat or having a Kaizen apartment in your company or having Kaizen posters up on the wall or being a green belt. It's about doing it every second of your life.
(28:05):
And I've got the top leaders here, and they're totally getting it. They're like, "Oh, I see it. I see exactly what you're saying," because they're watching me. I'm making improvement after improvement after improvement. Every time they turn around, "But you can improve that." And I go write it down, "Great. That's good. Let's do that. Let's do that."
(28:23):
And they're going, "How does anybody make that many improvements that fast?"
(28:27):
And I go, "This is what Lean is. It's not about the Kaizen logo or the symbol or the whatever crap you want to talk about, what book you read. Do it. Say it again, "The biggest gap in the world is a gap between knowing and doing?"
Ryan (28:42):
Knowing and doing, yeah.
Paul Akers (28:43):
Oh, guys, that's the best quote I've ever heard. Thank you. I'm going to use that prolifically every day.
Matt (28:48):
Paul, this has been absolutely mad. I'm literally, the notes I have in front of me here is, if I just spent the rest of my life reflecting on these notes, it would be enough for me to do well in this journey.
Paul Akers (29:00):
You're awesome. You're awesome.
Matt (29:01):
But a couple of questions from us just to wrap up and land the plane. I'd love to know maybe a wee bit more big picture what's, let's say, the greatest high and the greatest low of your journey so far?
Paul Akers (29:18):
The greatest high is getting a message from a single person who is not very skilled, not very recognizable, who is a simple individual, who sends a message to me and says, "I read your book, and it's changing my life. And I just wanted to thank you."
(29:47):
That is the greatest high in the world, when I can reply back to a person who would never expect to get a message from me and hear the joy in their voice, that's the greatest high, for sure.
(30:03):
Wow, the greatest low. I don't have many lows. I've had some difficult things happen to me in my life, but I was determined not to let them define what was going on. And I found creative ways to get around those issues and deal with those things. But I can say I have difficulties, but I don't have many difficulties.
(30:30):
I have a very joyous life. I have a life of great felicity. Not a perfect life, but I have continually flowing at me amazing human beings, amazing people, generous people. So, I can't point to that low.
Ryan (30:52):
Yeah. Something you said to me a while back, Paul, a few years ago, was that every 30 days an opportunity comes your way. Can you explain that concept?
Paul Akers (31:03):
Yeah. And it isn't just an opportunity. It's a significant life changing opportunity. So, again, everything I learned, I learned from someone else. I didn't invent any of this stuff. And that came from a friend of mine who's a Navy SEAL, and I asked him tactically how they maneuver through life.
(31:29):
And he said, "We recognize, and I recognize that every 30 days, a significant opportunity comes in front of every human being. The question is, are you awake? Are you alert enough?"
(31:44):
And Navy SEALs have to be very alert, very aware of their surrounding, what's going on at all times. Are you awake enough to realize it?
(31:54):
So, a good example for me would be when I got a call from Kazakhstan eight years ago, and they said to me, "Why don't you to come speak at their executive retreat?"
(32:07):
I could have said, "I don't really want to go to Kazakhstan. I'm in the beach in Costa Rica learning to surf for a month. Really, that's not on my agenda. Going to Siberia is not really something that turns me on in the middle of winter," because that's when they asked me to go.
(32:21):
And indeed it's like the middle of Siberia, but I knew there was something going on. I knew there was some reason this whole thing was happening. And I said, "I'm doing it." I told Iden. I was with Iden again last week, and I said, "You changed my life. There are very few people in the world that would ever experience what I've experienced in Kazakhstan, and the people." I can't even, there's no words to even explain what opportunities they've laid in front of me. And if I would have said no, my life would be pretty vapid, to say the least.
Ryan (33:01):
Yeah.
Paul Akers (33:01):
Did that answer the question?
Ryan (33:05):
Yes, definitely. Yeah.
Matt (33:06):
Absolutely.
Ryan (33:10):
So, this has been amazing.
Matt (33:11):
Oh my goodness.
Ryan (33:13):
So much unbelievable content in here. For somebody that has stumbled across this podcast, Paul, they're really excited and really interested in what we're talking about here. What's the first thing they should do? What's the first step someone should take to embark on their Lean journey?
Paul Akers (33:33):
Make the bed, push the chair in. Look around when you walk away and see who you've impacted so that they don't feel the burden of yourself. Get down on the floor and do five pushups, and do five pushups for the rest of your life. There you go.
Ryan (34:02):
Start small.
Paul Akers (34:05):
That's what it takes. Start thinking of other people.
Ryan (34:11):
Amazing.
Matt (34:12):
Brilliant. Paul, thank you so much for your time today. Really, really appreciate it.
Paul Akers (34:17):
Anytime, man. Thank you for having me. Both of you guys are amazing.
Matt (34:21):
Ryan, thanks for today.
Ryan (34:22):
Thank you. Thanks, Paul.
Matt (34:23):
Really good. Thank you so much, everyone who was listening, watching. Really appreciate it. You can find out more about the podcast on Lean Made Simple, their website. There will be a link in the description of this episode, wherever you're listening or watching, either on YouTube or Spotify.
(34:37):
If you'd like to come and see, what was the phrase, Paul? A learning laboratory in Limavady. A bit of alliteration for you there.
Paul Akers (34:46):
No, no, no. The best in the world.
Matt (34:49):
Hey, come on. Endorsed by Paul Akers, the godfather of 2 Second Lean.
Paul Akers (34:55):
Period. The best in the world. Ryan can tell you, when I came there, I cried. It was so beautiful.
Matt (35:03):
Wow. So, we'd love to see you here in Northern Ireland, you and your team. Bring them all.
Paul Akers (35:07):
Soon. Soon.
Matt (35:09):
Yeah, soon. Book yourself in for a Lean Made Simple tour. Again, more information on the website and in the descriptions. Other than that, we really hope this podcast was useful and beneficial for you, and we look forward to touching base with you again next time. Cheers. Thank you.