What actually separates organizations that keep getting better from the ones that plateau or decline? Ken Snyder, Executive Director of the Shingo Institute at Utah State University's Jon M. Huntsman School of Business, has spent decades studying exactly this. Drawing on 40 years of Shingo Prize data and his own 30-year career in manufacturing leadership, Ken breaks down the three things he wishes he'd known as a leader — and why most organizations are measuring the wrong things entirely.
In this conversation, Ken and Kristina explore why KPIs are what Shingo himself called "death certificates" — by the time you're reading the results, it's already too late. They dig into what it really means to lead with humility (hint: it doesn't mean being soft), how psychological safety and trust create the conditions for continuous improvement, and why the best organizations eventually reach a point where the team improves faster than leadership ever could on its own.
What you'll take away from this episode:

Why tracking results instead of behaviors is the single biggest reason improvement efforts fail
How purpose and systems either drive or destroy the right behaviors in an organization
The difference between leaders who can navigate tension and those who can't
Why humble leaders can actually demand more from their teams, not less
How psychological safety directly impacts an organization's ability to improve
The inflection point where great cultures become self-sustaining

Connect with Ken Snyder:
linkedin.com/in/snyderken
Explore the Shingo Institute:
shingo.org

I hope you enjoy this episode! Give it a like, share, and subscribe to not miss the content coming your way weekly.
– Kristina and the Grounded Engagement podcast team

Connect with Kristina Katayama on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kristina-katayama-029834 
Visit the Be Possible website here: bepossible.com

Listen to Grounded Engagement on these podcast platforms:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033t4qPBxizCWyIisE77pC
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grounded-engagement/id1896884338
Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/9f6697fa-3ece-4e35-9588-5be82ace196d

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Grounded Engagement: Liberating Leadership is a podcast for leaders who know that real change goes deeper than tools, frameworks, and training programmes. Hosted by Kristina Katayama, founder of Be Possible and a whole systems change consultant with over 25 years of experience across 30+ countries, each episode is a genuine conversation with leaders navigating the hardest parts of organisational life — culture gaps, leadership transitions, equity work that stalls, and the tension between who an organisation says it is and what people actually experience every day.
Kristina brings a rare combination of cross-sector pattern recognition, relational depth, and a belief that transformation starts with how people relate to each other — not with the next initiative or intervention. Her guests are the leaders doing that work in real organisations, in real time. If you lead a team, a department, or an entire organisation and you're ready for honest conversation about what it actually takes to build a culture of belonging and vitality, this show is for you.