🎙️ Lean Architect · Tyshchenko Lean Academy

Gathering data and engaging people

Interviews · SMART goals · Change management · Teamwork

SMART — a method for setting goals
SMART isn’t about pretty words. It’s about making a goal you can verify. If after 3 months it’s unclear whether you “hit it or not,” the goal isn’t SMART.
S
Specific
No generalities. What EXACTLY needs to be done? By whom? Where? How?
❌ “Improve quality” → ✓ “Cut the defect rate on the ready-meal line from 3.1% to 1.8%”
M
Measurable
How will you know you’ve reached the goal? What number or metric will confirm it?
❌ “Sell more” → ✓ “Raise case packer output from 36 to 42 cases per hour”
A
Achievable
Realistic given the resources, skills, and constraints. Ambitious — but possible
❌ OEE 40% → 95% in a month → ✓ OEE 40% → 60% in a quarter
R
Relevant
Is the goal tied to strategic priorities? Does it solve a real problem?
❌ Roll out 5S in the archive (where nobody works) → ✓ 5S in the area with the biggest losses
T
Time-bound
A specific date or deadline. Without a deadline, a goal turns into a dream
❌ “Soon” → ✓ “By October 31, 2026 — results review”
5 steps to prepare for an interview
1
Draw up the interview program
Write a schedule and goals · a list of target participants · plan how you’ll get approval for the interviews
2
Gather background information and form hypotheses
What do you already know? Which hypotheses are you testing? Agree on the priority hypotheses with your manager before the interviews start
3
Define the result you need
What’s the ideal outcome of this interview? What information or data do you need? What will you do with the answers?
4
Choose participants and schedule meetings
Prepare an invitation email template · an interview schedule · take workload and hierarchy into account
5
Write the interview plan and show it to your manager
Questions in order · the manager signs off → you have support. Run ~5 pilot interviews → adjust the plan
The key mistake: going into an interview “to see what they say” without specific hypotheses. Without hypotheses you’re collecting data, not testing assumptions. The difference is huge.
Sample interview — Production Director: defects in frozen breaded products
Architect:
What are the main causes of defects in breaded products?
Director:
Most often it’s deviations from the process, equipment failures, or variation in raw material quality
Architect:
How are defects detected, and at which stage?
Director:
We catch defects during forming, breading, or frying. The detailed check happens at the last stage
Architect:
What do defects cost the company?
Director:
Lost raw material, financial costs, and possible damage to our reputation
Takeaway: Working on defects systematically helps reduce losses and improve quality. Notice: the architect asks open questions and doesn’t interrupt.
On every project you’ll meet different people. Tap a type to see its traits and tips on how to work with it.
🧓
“The Old Hand”
Relies on personal experience and traditional solutions
▼
Typical lines
💬 “What are these kids going to teach me?”
💬 “We’ve always done it this way, and it worked”
💬 “You don’t understand how things work in our production”
Tips
✓ Appeal to their pride — ask them to describe their work and achievements in detail
✓ Ask what they would change themselves — is there something that’s been bugging them for a long time?
✓ Show genuine interest in their experience. They earned it — and they know it
⚠ Don’t open with “well, Toyota does it like this” — that kills the conversation instantly
Goal: make them an ally. An “Old Hand” with 20+ years of experience is a priceless source of data once they open up.
🦊
“The Blame Shifter”
Blames everyone else and takes no responsibility
▼
Typical lines
💬 “That’s the other department’s problem, not mine”
💬 “If the upstream teams did their jobs properly, we wouldn’t have any problems”
💬 “I did everything I could within my authority”
Tips
✓ Focus strictly on their area of responsibility: “Within your own unit, what could be improved?”
✓ Pin down exactly where responsibility passes to others — where exactly is the boundary?
✓ Use their tendency to see problems: “What would YOU do differently if you had the authority?”
⚠ Don’t let it turn into a string of complaints — gently bring them back to specific facts
Goal: collect facts about processes, not opinions about colleagues. Focus on how the system behaves, not the people.
🗿
“The Stone Face”
Claims to know nothing and just follow orders
▼
Typical lines
💬 “I just do what I’m told”
💬 “I don’t know anything — ask my supervisor”
💬 “This part has always been made this way; I don’t know why”
Tips
✓ Ask about a SPECIFIC situation: “What happened YESTERDAY at 2:00 PM when the line stopped?”
✓ Ask about facts, not opinions: who / what / where / how / when / why
✓ “Show me” — go to the Gemba together. Actions speak louder than words
✓ Ask a question and stay silent. Silence is uncomfortable — people often start talking
Goal: operators often know more than they say. Trust is built step by step — the first time is hard, the second is easier.
🎓
“The Know-It-All”
Has ready-made answers and advice for every case
▼
Typical lines
💬 “I know exactly why — we just need to do X and Y”
💬 “I read an article that said we need to…”
💬 “I’ll tell you how to fix it — just listen”
Tips
✓ Listen carefully — and question it in a friendly way: “Interesting. Why X, specifically? How did you arrive at that?”
✓ Play back what they said: “Do I understand correctly that you’re saying…?” — people often spot the weak points themselves
✓ Turn opinions into facts: “Is there data that confirms this?” “Where is it documented?”
⚠ Don’t argue — test the hypothesis. “Let’s check it against the data”
Goal: the “Know-It-All” may turn out to be right. Test their hypothesis — if it holds, they’ll become an ally.
Consultant’s view
▸ A true interview master doesn’t fight a person’s type — they adapt to it
▸ Every “difficult” conversation partner holds valuable information — the question is finding the key to it
▸ The first 2 minutes of an interview shape the next 30 — building trust matters more than the first question
SMART check — AI Serhii reviews your goal
Enter a goal for a Lean project — AI will check each SMART criterion
Interview plan builder
Fill in a plan for your interview — AI Serhii will give you feedback
1. INTERVIEW TOPIC / GOAL
2. PARTICIPANT (role and level)
3. HYPOTHESIS YOU’RE TESTING
4. FIRST 3 KEY QUESTIONS
5. EXPECTED PARTICIPANT TYPE
🎭 Role-play — practice difficult interviews
Pick a scenario and practice working with different types of participants
🧓
Frank Miller, shift supervisor
28 years at the plant · The Old Hand
The communication model
Sender (thinks through the content, chooses the receiver and channel, encodes, sends) → Message → Receiver (receives, interprets, responds).
The key law: “What counts is not what A says, but what B understands.” If B misunderstood A, the responsibility always lies with the sender. That applies to an interviewer just as much as to anyone else.
The communication iceberg
10%
Rational level — facts
90%
Emotional level — feelings, instincts, needs
The level of emotions and relationships dominates any conversation — including a work interview.
Channels at first contact
55%
Gestures, facial expressions — nonverbal signals
38%
Voice — paralinguistic signals
7%
Verbal content — the words themselves
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”
The information loss funnel
The chain of passing on a thought — a critical drop in volume at every step:
Intended100%
Put into words80%
Heard by the listener50–55%
Understood25%
Agreed with12.5%
Remembered6.25%
“We have two ears and one mouth, so that we can listen twice as much as we speak” — Zeno of Citium
Active vs. passive listening
PASSIVE “HEARING”
Patient waiting · waits only for what matters · a stream of one’s own associations · a “mask of attention”
ACTIVE “LISTENING”
Encourages the conversation · checks that you understood correctly · keeps the other person on topic
Paraphrasing techniques
Restating
“If I understood you correctly, you believe that…” — checks the accuracy of understanding
Clarifying
“Could you clarify…,” “What do you mean by…” — drills into specific points
Summarizing
“As I understand it, your main proposals are…” — sums up ideas and feelings
Responding to nonverbal signals
Disagreement
Crossed arms, closed posture, drumming fingers, silence
→ Reconnect, ask an open question, find out what exactly they disagree with
Discomfort
Closed posture, playing with hair, little eye contact, nervous laughter
→ Move to a neutral topic, adopt an open posture
Boredom
Looks around, looks down or away, yawns, checks the clock
→ Bring more energy, take an action break (e.g., coffee)
Respect / engagement
Looks at you, nods often, waits for positive feedback
→ Build trust, ask a neutral question about their opinion
Persuasion techniques
Socratic method — get 3 “yeses” in a row before the key question
Homer’s method — 3 arguments in this order: medium → weak → strongest (saved for last)
Building on arguments — “I agree with you, and on top of that we ran some additional research…”
Two-sided argument — honestly show both the strengths and the weaknesses of a proposal
Splitting arguments — first the part you fully agree with → then the part you partly agree with → only then the disagreement and counterargument
Comparison method — “Let’s run the numbers and compare…”
These techniques naturally complement handling resistance (a separate module): there, resistance is personal or about status; here, you need to persuade with logic and facts.