Lean Leadership for Ops Managers · Jamie V. Parker

How to Create Effective Leader Standard Work with Paul Dunlop | 111

·38 min·25 clips

The episode starts with Jamie V. Parker welcoming listeners to a show for ops managers who want to spark improvement, foster engagement, and boost problem solving while still getting the day job done. He frames leader standard work as a way to cut through chaos and build a stable environment that can support continuous improvement. Jamie also notes that he got this wrong the first time he tried it, and he points listeners to episode 30 for that story. Paul Dunlop joins from Dunlop Consulting in Melbourne, Australia. Paul brings 20 years of management and manufacturing experience, and he folds elements of the Toyota production system into his work. The conversation keeps returning to the same tension: ops leaders need room for unplanned, reactive work, but they also need protected time for proactive follow-up and strategic thinking. Paul describes that balance as part of the key functions of the role. He emphasizes people focus and process focus. He says the leader's job is to manage, control, and improve. Jamie and Paul narrow the question down to what only the leader can or should do. That includes people leadership and communication. The episode warns against a common mistake. A boss should not simply hand someone a ready-made leader standard work list and call it done. The conversation is equally wary of trying to build the perfect day all at once. If a manager's current schedule is still unstructured and reactionary, the fix has to be incremental. Paul and Jamie describe the work as a move from the current state toward a better rhythm, not a single leap. That framing makes the tool feel less like a tidy template and more like a demanding operational discipline. The show then points listeners to the show notes, where they can see pictures of real-life leader standard work examples. It also links to other leader standard work episodes so listeners can keep digging into the topic and borrow ideas for their own routines.

As heard by us

A practical reset for leaders trying to move from firefighting toward more disciplined routines.

Leader-standard work is presented as a way to cut through chaos and firefighting, giving continuous improvement a steadier base. Paul Dunlop and Jamie Parker stay on the practical question: which functions belong only to a leader, and how routines can be built around those…

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Why you'd press play

Use leader standard work to cut firefighting without pretending your day is already stable.

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