Dave Harry

CEO, Black Belt Trainer, Process Whisperer Consultants LLC, Greeneville, TN, USA

Dave Harry is a retired U.S. Navy helicopter pilot. He is currently a Black Belt trainer and CEO of Process Whisperer® Consultants LLC in Greeneville, TN. Following a military career, Dave taught Lean Six Sigma “Belt” classes for various companies including the University of Tennessee, Northrop Grumman, TMG, and Rolls-Royce Energy.

Dave is currently on the Boards of the Operational Excellence Society, the Project Management Office (PMO) Global Institute, the ASQ Lean Enterprise Division. He has been a recognized LSS Instructor for several organizations. In addition to LSS Black Belt certifications, Dave is a PMI certified PMP® and holds Lean Bronze Certification from SME/Shingo/AME and is a Certified Scrum Master.

He is also a Certified Baseline PMO Consultant. Dave is Toyota Kata “Geek” and teaches Toyota Kata classes. Dave holds three master’s degrees in management and is also an ASQ International Team Excellence Awards Judge.

Shark Tank: Taking the ‘Bite’ Out of Project Idea Generation

Based loosely on the hit “Shark Tank” TV program, I will present a unique process improvement case study and methodology centered around a model to change and sustain an The distinguishing feature of Taiichi Ohno’s approach when he created the Toyota Production System in the 1970’s was to engage the whole workforce in seeking improvements rather than relying solely on experts, resulting in an engaged workforce with superior problem-solving skills, operating within an organizational culture and infrastructure that genuinely saw mistakes as opportunities to improve, encouraged knowledge sharing and rewarded adoption of good practices organizational problem-solving culture.

How do you gather project ideas and reward employees? Using several engaging polling tools, the AQI LSS attendees will learn:

•Employees find the “Shark Tank” format is a fun, engaging method to share best process improvement ideas while competing for rewards and recognition

•Leaders understand the format is a method to sort and rank employees’ new process improvement ideas

•Your organization can easily tailor “Shark Tank” ideas for different organizations to change cultures from disengaged employees to engaged and excited problem-solvers.