Where Leaders Go Wrong: Don Kieffer on Finding Better Ways to Work
Guy Kawasaki's Remarkable People
Guy Kawasaki
4.5 • 679 Ratings
🗓️ 8 October 2025
⏱️ 56 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What if the secret to organizational success isn’t another management fad but a return to the basics of how work actually gets done? Don Kieffer, senior lecturer at MIT Sloan and former Harley-Davidson executive, joins me on Remarkable People to unpack the five principles of Dynamic Work Design. With stories ranging from factory floors to biotech startups, Don reveals why firefighting cultures stall progress and how small, focused experiments can unleash innovation. His new book, There’s Got to Be a Better Way, challenges leaders to slow down, connect the human chain, and discover practical ways to build stronger organizations.
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Guy Kawasaki is on a mission to make you remarkable. His Remarkable People podcast features interviews with remarkable people such as Jane Goodall, Marc Benioff, Woz, Kristi Yamaguchi, and Bob Cialdini. Every episode will make you more remarkable.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The trick is, can I solve the underlying problem? So if the problem is we have three times |
| 0:05.2 | the orders, can I somehow find the extra capacity so the customers aren't waiting an |
| 0:11.7 | extraordinary long amount of time? Can I solve the underlying problem why I'm fighting the |
| 0:16.3 | fire so the system gets stronger? Instead of just going in and being the hero, people used to come to me and say, oh, Don, I wouldn't solve that problem. What's next? And I would say, I'll give you the next one when you show me that you've reduced the probability of that problem happening again by 50% after you solved it. We want to heal the system and keep that underlying capability getting stronger. So build another lane on the highway while you're rerouting traffic. |
| 0:39.9 | Hello, it's Guy Kawasaki. |
| 0:41.9 | This is the Remarkable People podcast, and we go all over the world looking for remarkable |
| 0:46.9 | people to inform and inspire you. |
| 0:49.6 | And we found another gem. |
| 0:51.6 | His name is Don Kiefer. |
| 0:53.5 | He's a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management. |
| 0:58.3 | Frankly, he is a leading authority on manufacturing and organizational transformation. |
| 1:04.3 | He's the co-author of this really interesting book. I highly recommend that you read that, |
| 1:09.5 | especially if you work for a large company who's |
| 1:11.7 | always going from fad to fad. The title of this book is called There's Got to Be a Better |
| 1:18.6 | Way. Truly, what more accurate title do you want? And basically, this book challenges the culture of |
| 1:26.4 | constant firefighting and offers really practical ways to sustain improvement and build a better organization. |
| 1:34.9 | Now, Good Old Dawn has a background in manufacturing. |
| 1:39.2 | This is not just an academic exercise. |
| 1:42.0 | He was a senior executive at Harley Davidson. So yeah, this is pretty |
| 1:47.0 | credible to me, even though my name is Kawasaki, but that's a different discussion. |
| 1:51.9 | So, Don, welcome to the show. Thank you, Guy. Thanks for having me. |
| 1:56.3 | Yes, I enjoyed your book. And one of the first things I want to ask you is, are you offering any two-day senior management seminars at the Ritz Carlton or, I don't know, Hali Kulani Hotel in Hawaii? |
... |
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