🧠 Just because you CAN fix something, does that mean you SHOULD?

Sometimes the problem right in front of us feels important simply because we have the ability to do something about it.

But is it really worth our time and energy?

In this clip from LeanVerse Storytellers, senior systems engineer Grant Comeau explores the intersection of Lean thinking and Stoicism through a simple mental framework: Does it matter? And can I influence it?

We discuss how stepping back, questioning urgency, and focusing on what truly matters can help us make better decisions without confusing acceptance with apathy.

💡 The Lean Stoic mindset: Not everything you can fix needs fixing. But don't give up on something important without first asking whether you can influence it.

🎙️ From Engineering Kata for a Lean Life with Bernadette Hill-Comeau and Grant Comeau.

🔔 Follow Savage Simplicity on Spotify for new episodes as they drop! View the full episode!

▶️ YouTube: https://youtu.be/UzrkKy24Khc?si=juxjLVvwX3zt9lBx

Because life is hard… why not make it simpler?

What if you stopped worrying about what you can't control and built a routine for what you can? My husband, senior systems engineer Grant Comeau, shows how kata works at work, at the pool table, in the gym, and at home.

Grant has spent more than 25 years in semiconductor manufacturing and is a master-level billiards player. We talk about kata, the Lean idea of repeatable practice you build until it becomes second nature, from Mike Rother's book Toyota Kata. And we get into the four boxes Grant learned in a college class: what you can do something about, what you can't, what matters, and what doesn't. They echo the Stoic dichotomy of control from Epictetus and Stephen Covey's circles of concern and influence.

In this episode:

• How a kid who wanted to build robots decides what needs attention and what is just noise

• The college class and the four boxes

• His kata before a billiards tournament versus everyday practice

• Health routines built around what is within your control

• Which routines work in a house with six of us, counting the cat and the dog, and when to let it go

Perfect for anyone in Lean, continuous improvement, or operations who wants to bring that thinking home.

Join the Lean Mastery Makers Space: https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/

📌 CONNECT WITH SAVAGE SIMPLICITY™

Savage Simplicity Ecosystem (Circle): https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SavageSimplicity

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@savagesimplicity

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savage.simplicity.with.bernadette/

LinkedIn – Bernadette Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadettehill/

Substack: https://savagesimplicity.substack.com/

Savage Swag Studio: https://savageswag.printful.me/

Feeling overwhelmed by pressure? There are 5 common leadership stress patterns that emerge when we're under extreme duress.
Understanding these patterns is the first step to managing them. A new, free diagnostic tool can help you identify your primary and secondary stress responses, understand when they surface, and realize their true cost.
This self-awareness is crucial for aligning your behavior with your values and demonstrating effective leadership.
Take the free 5-minute diagnostic assessment at https://lnkd.in/gNH_4Yk7 to understand your unique leadership stress patterns and learn what to do next.
Watch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/ggYKSK9p
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 JOIN THE LEAN MASTERY MAKERS SPACE (FREE)A free community inside the Savage Simplicity ecosystem for people who want to practice Lean thinking beyond tools — to see systems clearly, reduce friction intentionally, and improve without overwhelm.👉 https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/📌 CONNECT WITH SAVAGE SIMPLICITY™Savage Simplicity Ecosystem (Circle): https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SavageSimplicityTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@savagesimplicityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/savage.simplicity.with.bernadette/LinkedIn – Bernadette Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadettehill/Substack: https://savagesimplicity.substack.com/Savage Swag Studio: https://savageswag.printful.me/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━PRODUCTION CREDITSLeanVerse Storytellers is hosted by Bernadette Hill.Produced and edited by Bernadette Hill.

Feeling triggered? Before you say something you'll regret -- STOPP. Executive Coach Sonia Singh shares the secrets executives use to get control of their emotions.Watch the full episode with Sonia Singh here 👉 https://youtu.be/IIFI3UAd2Vo?si=JvFzbyZSNodELx61━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 JOIN THE LEAN MASTERY MAKERS SPACE (FREE)A free community inside the Savage Simplicity ecosystem for people who want to practice Lean thinking beyond tools — to see systems clearly, reduce friction intentionally, and improve without overwhelm.👉 https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/📌 CONNECT WITH SAVAGE SIMPLICITY™Savage Simplicity Ecosystem (Circle): https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SavageSimplicityTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@savagesimplicityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/savage.simplicity.with.bernadette/LinkedIn – Bernadette Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadettehill/Substack: https://savagesimplicity.substack.com/Savage Swag Studio: https://savageswag.printful.me/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━PRODUCTION CREDITSLeanVerse Storytellers is hosted by Bernadette Hill.Produced and edited by Bernadette Hill.

"Blame the process, not the people" is one of the most repeated phrases in Lean and continuous improvement.It is also one of the most consistently violated ones.In the Season 2 premiere of LeanVerse Storytellers, Bernadette Hill sits down with Sonia Singh — ICF-certified executive coach and founder of Point Three Leadership — to explore why the gap between knowing this principle and living it is so much wider than most leaders want to admit.Sonia brings the emotional intelligence lens: what is actually happening when someone reflexively blames a person instead of a process, how she built a diagnostic tool to help leaders surface that gap, and the in-the-moment tactics that help redirect a conversation before it slides into blame.She also shares how she applies her own framework to her own life — not just her clients.This episode is for the leaders who teach systems thinking and still catch themselves doing the very thing they coach others away from.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 JOIN THE LEAN MASTERY MAKERS SPACE (FREE)A free community inside the Savage Simplicity ecosystem for people who want to practice Lean thinking beyond tools — to see systems clearly, reduce friction intentionally, and improve without overwhelm.👉 https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/📌 CONNECT WITH SONIA SINGHLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soniaksinghSubstack: https://substack.com/@point3leaderStress Patterns: https://stresspatterns.com📌 CONNECT WITH SAVAGE SIMPLICITY™Savage Simplicity Ecosystem (Circle): https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SavageSimplicityTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@savagesimplicityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/savage.simplicity.with.bernadette/LinkedIn – Bernadette Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadettehill/Substack: https://savagesimplicity.substack.com/Savage Swag Studio: https://savageswag.printful.me/━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━PRODUCTION CREDITSLeanVerse Storytellers is hosted by Bernadette Hill.Produced and edited by Bernadette Hill.

Not all movement creates value

.In this final chapter of our Flow vs Friction series, we explore the last two of the eight wastes of Lean:

Motion and Transportation — and how unnecessary movement quietly creates friction inside systems.

Transportation is the movement of materials or information between steps.

Motion is the movement of people within the work itself.Both consume time.Both increase cost.

And both often go unnoticed.In this episode, we explore:The difference between Motion and Transportation in Lean

How poor layout and process design create hidden waste

Why movement often compounds other forms of friction

The “surgeon concept” and what it teaches about flow

How to design systems where work moves with intention

This episode closes our Flow vs Friction series — a four-part exploration of all 8 wastes of Lean:

Defects

Overprocessing

Overproduction

Inventory

Waiting

Non-Utilized Talent

Motion

Transportation

🔹 Watch the Full Flow vs Friction Series

If you’re landing here first, this episode is part of a larger system.

Each chapter builds on the last to show how friction compounds — and how to see it clearly.

▶️ Watch the full series here:https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLrdHOE7q0pvd6mdHlGm4o3uQcB-zNNkp6

🔹 Lean Mastery Makers Space (FREE)

If this way of thinking resonates, the Lean Mastery Makers Space is now live inside the Savage Simplicity ecosystem.It’s a free space for people who want to practice Lean thinking beyond tools — to see systems clearly, reduce friction intentionally, and improve without overwhelm.

🌱 Explore here:https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/

🔹 Connect with LeanVerseYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SavageSimplicityTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@savagesimplicityFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/savage.simplicity.with.bernadette/LinkedIn – Bernadette Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadettehill/LinkedIn – Tatiana Sell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatiana-sell/Savage Swag Studio: https://savageswag.printful.me/Savage Simplicity Ecosystem (Circle): https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/

🔹 Production Credits

LeanVerse is hosted by Bernadette Hill and Tatiana Sell. All episodes are programmed and written by Tatiana Sell. Produced and edited by Bernadette Hill.

When the talent is there but the system won't let it through. In this episode, Bernadette shares a years-long experience with a pediatric optometrist practice — a doctor who was genuinely skilled, and a system that couldn't reliably deliver that skill to patients.

Three-hour appointments. A forgotten dilation. A front desk that had simply accepted the wait as normal.

Tatiana and Bernadette use this story to unpack two of Lean's most human wastes:

WAITING — when people, work, or information can't move forward.NON-UTILIZED TALENT — when the system constrains what people are capable of contributing.

Together, these wastes don't just slow things down. They erode trust, drain engagement, and ensure the same problems keep coming back.

This episode closes with a reflection worth sitting with:Where might ego, ownership, or turf protection be quietly turning talent into waste?Part of the Flow vs Friction series on The LeanVerse Podcast.━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━🔗 JOIN THE LEAN MASTERY MAKERS SPACE (FREE)Practice Lean thinking beyond the tools.👉 https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/

📌 CONNECT WITH US

🔗 JOIN THE LEAN MASTERY MAKERS SPACE (FREE) A free community inside the Savage Simplicity ecosystem for people who want to practice Lean thinking beyond tools — to see systems clearly, reduce friction intentionally, and improve without overwhelm. 👉 https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📌 CONNECT WITH US Savage Simplicity Ecosystem (Circle): https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@SavageSimplicity TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@savagesimplicity Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savage.simplicity.with.bernadette/ LinkedIn – Bernadette Hill: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bernadettehill/ LinkedIn – Tatiana Sell: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatiana-sell/ Savage Swag Studio: https://savageswag.printful.me/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ PRODUCTION CREDITS

LeanVerse is hosted by Bernadette Hill and Tatiana Sell. All episodes are programmed and written by Tatiana Sell. Produced and edited by Bernadette Hill.

In Chapter 2 of our Flow vs Friction series, we examine two Lean wastes that quietly reinforce each other: Overproduction and Inventory.

Producing ahead of demand often feels disciplined and responsible. But when output exceeds real need, inventory builds. And when inventory builds, visibility drops, costs increase, and friction compounds.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why Overproduction is considered one of the most impactful Lean wastes

• How Inventory hides system weaknesses

• Why “just in case” thinking increases complexity

• How demand-based flow restores clarity

• What a simple pantry story reveals about hidden waste

This episode reframes Overproduction and Inventory not as productivity problems, but as system design issues.

The Lean Mastery Makers Space is now open inside the Savage Simplicity ecosystem — a free space for people who want to apply Lean thinking thoughtfully in real work and life.

🌱 Explore here:
https://savage-simplicity-ecosystem.circle.so/

LeanVerse is hosted by Bernadette Hill and Tatiana Sell.
All episodes are programmed and written by Tatiana Sell.
Produced and edited by Bernadette Hill.

🔹 Lean Mastery Makers Space (FREE)🔹 Production Credits