Thoughts on Change: How to herd humans without losing your mind
Thoughts on Change is the podcast for leaders and Continuous Improvement professionals navigating the real challenges of change management, leadership, and resistance to change. Every episode explores the messy, political, emotional, and deeply human side of leading change. We talk about overcoming resistance to change, building credibility, influencing without authority, creating buy-in, and helping people move from skepticism to action.
Whether you're a Continuous Improvement practitioner, Lean leader, Operational Excellence professional, engineering leader, or anyone responsible for driving organizational change, you'll find practical strategies grounded in psychology, real-world experience, and a healthy dose of humor.
If you've ever thought, "The solution was the easy part," this podcast is for you.
Successful change management isn't about forcing change—it's about making success easier. And sometimes, it's about learning how to herd humans without losing your mind.
Thoughts on Change: How to herd humans without losing your mind
Episode 7 - CI Warrior Series: Abby Kovarik on Muda, Culture Change, and Leading with Heart
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Kelly Mallery introduces the first CI Warrior interview on Thoughts On Change with Abby Kovarik, a continuous improvement specialist at Raymond Corp (a Toyota Material Handling brand), who focuses on strengthening people, clarifying work, and building problem-solving confidence. Abby shares how an internship during college led her into lean, including a mindset shift about inventory as waste, and defines muda through the TIMWOODS wastes, emphasizing unused skills as especially important. She discusses early challenges as a young woman in a male-dominated environment, learning to manage emotions, communicate passion professionally, and recognize the human side of change. Abby describes 12 weeks of coaching with Kelly that helped her slow down, notice control patterns, and become more intentional. She now prioritizes culture change by enabling teams and engaging leadership so lean becomes “how we do business,” advising others that they don’t need to fix things to be valuable.
00:00 Welcome to Thoughts On Change
00:34 Meet Abby Kovarik
02:36 Abby’s CI Origin Story
04:25 Lean Mindset Shift
06:22 Muda and TIMWOODS
10:49 Choosing a CI Career
12:40 Challenges as a Woman
17:26 Bringing the Human Element
20:37 Coaching Takeaways
23:12 From Doer to Culture Builder
26:12 Advice for CI Warriors
28:35 Connect and Wrap Up
Connect with Abby Kovarik:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-kovarik-b81519202/
Video:
Get in touch!
I'd love to hear from you. Feel free to email me any time with questions or comments: kelly@kellymallery.com
Connect with me on LinkedIn and Instagram!
Learn More
If you are interested in learning more about me and how I support CI practitioners grow their credibility faster so they can have greater impact with less heartache and exhaustion, check out my website:
There, you can find the Find Your ResistobotTM Quiz, that helps you identify your hidden patterns when resistance shows up.