Slow Down To Go Fast: How Continuous Improvement Powers Startup Growth with Lorraine Armijos
Manage episode 515066284 series 3464006
What if the fastest way to scale isn’t hiring more people, but removing the friction that slows the people you already have? We sit down with executive coach and lean practitioner Lorraine Armijos to break down a simple, repeatable way to grow: align strategy, process, and people, then empower the front line to solve problems where the work happens.
We start with the mindset shift founders struggle with most—slow down to go fast. Lorraine shows how to define the real problem before fixing it, using observation, data, and root cause thinking to avoid the trap of quick wins that don’t stick. From there, we dig into daily huddles and lightweight problem-solving rituals that turn scattered effort into steady momentum. Leaders set direction, teams own the path, and everyone sees how their work ties to clear metrics that ladder up to the company’s goals.
Lorraine also demystifies lean without the jargon: create value, remove waste, and build a culture where experiments are celebrated for the learning they produce. We talk about the right role for AI—after you simplify—and how to prevent automation from scaling chaos. A real client story shows how five-minute leadership huddles cascaded to frontline stand-ups, improved alignment across departments, and delivered measurable gains in performance and engagement.
If you’re a founder or operator ready to trade constant firefighting for compounding progress, this conversation gives you practical steps to start today: define success at every level, listen to the people closest to the work, and build a cadence that turns insights into action. Subscribe, share with a teammate who’s drowning in busywork, and tell us: what’s the one bottleneck you’ll cut this week?
Reach out to Lorraine and get the free tools here:
https://www.larinsights.com/scalingwithpeople
Chapters
1. Opening And Sponsor (00:00:00)
2. The Case For Fewer Wasted Steps (00:00:46)
3. Meet Lorraine And Her Approach (00:01:22)
4. When To Start Continuous Improvement (00:02:39)
5. Give Ownership To The Front Line (00:04:18)
6. Daily Huddles And Problem Solving (00:05:17)
7. Case Study: Leadership To Frontline Huddles (00:07:16)
8. Metrics, ROI, And Engagement (00:09:05)
9. Why Strategy Must Lead Process (00:11:02)
10. What Lean Really Means (00:12:18)
11. Avoid Adding Steps And Misuse Of AI (00:13:28)
12. The Biggest Misconception: Solving Too Fast (00:14:24)
13. Develop Leaders By Slowing Down (00:16:05)
14. Final Advice And Free Tools (00:17:20)
15. Closing And Calls To Action (00:22:47)
106 episodes