George Trachilis
Global Leadership Institute
Global Leadership Institute
George Trachilis started his Lean journey in 1994 as a manager. After 10 years of leading implementation efforts, he decided to start his own consulting firm. It grew to become one of Canada’s Fastest Growth Companies by 2006.
The government of Canada asked George to create an online course to teach his methods to the entire country. The course became the book OEM Principles of Lean Thinking. By 2011, the course was offered globally and educated 100,000 students from 60 different countries.
With twenty years of lean experience George embarked on a search for more knowledge on the topic. In 2012 he forged relationships with Dr. Jeffrey K. Liker, best-selling author of the Toyota Way, and Norman Bodek, the Godfather of Lean. Encouraged by both, he adopted a much deeper understanding of Lean which stretches back to Japan, the origins of Toyota, and with a greater emphasis on the people side of Lean and the process of thinking scientifically about change.
Jeff Liker asked George to be his partner and co-founder of the Lean Leadership Institute (now the Global Leadership Institute). His coaching is based on the book and online course, Developing Lean Leaders at All Levels, which received the Shingo Research Award in 2016.
(Keynote) George Trachilis shares his personal and professional journey to becoming a global Lean coach and leader. You will learn about his commitment towards building people to their fullest potential. George offers his insight into overcoming leadership and organizational challenges by building a culture of continuous improvement. He challenges attendees to think deeply about what *one* thing they are striving to achieve, and to remember that the driving force for any improvement effort must be aligned to a True North focused on adding value to the customer. He also shares the five steps of the lean leadership development model discovered by Jeffrey K. Liker. One of those five steps is committing to self development. George shares how the Harada method discovered by Norman Bodek (1932-2020) is the best system in the world for day-to-day management. Shohei Ohtani (a.k.a. Showtime) used the Harada method as a sophomore in Japan, he is now the best baseball player in the world.
(Leadership & Culture) George Trachilis shares his learnings from coaching and developing executives in a remote setting. You will learn about what a good lean coach must know. You will also learn about the core values each lean leader must have. He shares key learnings from his trips to Japan with global leaders such as Karl Wadensten, Paul Akers, Norman Bodek (1932-2020) and others. George hosted two leadership summits in Santorini Greece where he invited Ritsuo Shingo, the son of Shigeo Shingo. George deconstructs his amazing learnings from a Gemba walk of a wine factory. He challenges attendees to think about applying these lessons in their day-to-day business. The one key skill that every lean leader must master is the ability to go and watch at the Gemba. George shares exactly what that means and how to deconstruct this activity for any business.