Picture Yourself a Leader: Illustrated Micro-Lessons for Navigating Change

Swan, Elisabeth: - "I am a President and CEO of Swan Consulting & Associates, Inc., Co-founder of the Just-in-Time Cafe, and I co-host the Just-in-Time Cafe Podcast with Tracy O'Rourke. I have over 30 years of experience advising public, private, and nonprofit organizations using Lean Six Sigma to help them transform their problem-solving cultures.Why I Love What I Do: I'm a translator. I love taking complicated topics and deciphering them so they make sense to myself and everyone around me. I love collaborating with my clients and colleagues to build a problem-solving culture together. I get a huge sense of satisfaction working with people to overcome seemingly intractable organizational barriers. After over 3 decades I get a kick out of sharing what I've learned so the people I work with don't have to struggle quite so much for so long or at least not as much as I did! I love the moment when a student no longer needs me.Favorite Quote: "I haven't failed. I just found 10,000 ways that didn't work." - Thomas EdisonFun Facts: I started performing ensemble comedy at ImprovBoston at the same time I started my Quality career. I'm not on the comedy stage any more but I use the tenets of Improv in everything I do.Professional Summary: I got my start in the 1980s at a consulting firm that pioneered Lean Techniques and helped with the reconstruction of Japan after World War II. During the mid 1990s, when Jack Welch brought Six Sigma into all GE businesses, I worked as a Green and Black Belt instructor for dozens of GE lines of business.I have trained and coached 1000s of people and continue to help organizations complete hundreds of Lean Six Sigma projects while supporting their transformation into a culture of problem solvers. Project work has included reducing workplace injuries in the hotel industry, reducing the time to open accounts in the financial industry, reducing the number of maintenance visits in telecommunications, reducing hospital readmissions and many more.Working in the Quality world means I've been engaged to develop improvement rollouts, design simulations, facilitate Process Walks, map processes and run Rapid Improvement Events (Kaizens) while working with leadership to make sure it's all supported and reinforced.I am am the co-designer, and Lead Instructor for the Lean Six Sigma Leadership course at University of California at San Diego (UCSD)Learn more at: www.ElisabethSwan.comNote: My name is commonly misspelled as "Elizabeth" with a "z" in