Amazon

Continuous Improvement Manager

Area Manager

Site Manager

Junior Site Manager

Syddansk Universitet - University of Southern Denmark

Junior Research Assistant

Kverneland Group Kerteminde A/S

Master Thesis Project

ForeFlight

Data Consultant

Odense University Hospital

Semester Project

Follow for daily posts about Lean, CI & Innovation | Continuous Improvement Manager @ Amazon

Hi!👋 Ivan here

I'm an industrial engineer with 7+ years of experience in Operations Management and Continuous Improvement.

I serve two main groups of people:

	• Business owners and executives who want to turn their broken processes into brilliant ones (and save so much damn money) through Kaizen and Innovation

	• Founders and consulting firm owners within CI, Lean or Innovation who want to promote their businesses and make LinkedIn a legit revenue channel

(DM me for the details) 


I started writing on LinkedIn in October 2023. 

Since then, I have been sharing actionable, educational, and entertaining content to support LinkedIn community members in their continuous improvement journey. This helped me grow my audience from 9,000 to 100,000 followers in a year.

Join my newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/ddQncJM5

Ivan Carillo

26 Kaizen Leadership Mantras

Here are the 4 principles that I believe are most powerful (and why):

1/ Gemba never lies; go and see for yourself.

I've seen leaders make terrible decisions because they trusted Excel sheets over their own eyes. The problems that cost us millions are often visible on the shopfloor, but nobody bother to look. Reports tell you what people want you to know. Gemba tells you what's actually happening. I think the moment you stop walking the floor is the moment you lose touch with reality. Your operators won't lie to you if you show up regularly, ask good questions, and actually listen to their answers.

2/ Without psychological safety, Kaizen dies.

I've watched brilliant Kaizen programs collapse because people were terrified to speak up. Companies that blame individuals for systemic problems get exactly what they deserve. Silence. Workers hide defects, skip reporting near-misses, and watch waste happen rather than risk looking stupid or getting punished. I think this is why most Kaizen initiatives fail within a year. You can't improve what people won't talk about, and people won't talk about problems in a culture of fear.

3/ The person doing the work knows it best.

I learned this the hard way early in my career when I implemented a Kaizen idea. The operators supported it, then immediately went back to their old method the moment I left. Every time I've ignored frontline expertise, I've wasted time and money solving the wrong problem. I think we underestimate how much knowledge lives in the hands and muscle memory of people who do the same task hundreds of times daily.

4/ Kaizen culture doesn't support strategy. Kaizen culture is strategy.

I spent years thinking CI was something that helped execute our "real" strategy. I was wrong. Companies with a strong Kaizen culture adapt faster, survive disruptions better, and outperform competitors with superior strategic plans. I think this is the principle most executives miss. Your competitors can copy your products in months, but they can't copy a culture where thousands of people solve problems every single day.

P.S. What's your fav one in the list?

Founder of Gemba Walk AI — I help executives cut waste and fix the broken processes costing them millions

Brutal truth: most Kaizen implementations fail within 6 months.

Here's why (and how to fix it):

Common failure pattern..

↓ Launch with great enthusiasm 
↓ Form improvement teams 
↓ Run some workshops 
↓ See initial results 
↓ Get distracted by other priorities 
 ↳ Kaizen activities fade away

The missing ingredient? 
Systems thinking.

Successful Kaizen requires these systems working together:

1/ Total Quality Management

+Customer focus throughout organization
+Process-oriented improvement mindset

2/ Just-In-Time Production

+Elimination of waste in all forms
+Flow-based operations

3/ Total Productive Maintenance

+Equipment reliability and efficiency
+Operator involvement in maintenance

4/ Policy Deployment

+Clear targets cascading from top to bottom
+Aligned improvement efforts

5/ Suggestion Systems

+Employee engagement in daily improvement
+Recognition of participation

6/ Small Group Activities

+Quality circles and improvement teams
+Collaborative problem-solving
 
Most companies try to implement Kaizen 
…without these foundations. 

Remember:

Success requires patience.

+Start with one system
+Build it thoroughly
+Connect it to others gradually

…and never stop improving!

Founder of Gemba Walk AI • I help executives cut waste and fix the broken processes costing them millions

Most companies create fantastic value stream maps.

Then file them away. (I've seen it dozens of times) 

Video credit to Krish Sengottaiyan. Give him a follow

Teams spend weeks mapping their current state. 

They identify waste. 
They draft the future state

Then ...nothing changes.

You know why?

No one is responsible for the customer experience.

Traditional organizations are function-based.

→ Finance reports to CFO 
→ Operations reports to COO 
→ Sales reports to CRO

Each leader knows their department.
But nobody understands how value flows end-to-end.

No single leader owns value stream performance.

"Everyone" is responsible = No one is responsible

VSM needs an owner with authority. 
One leader who can make decisions across silos.

CEO could, but they operate too high to manage CI.

So it's key to assign executive-level VSM ownership. 

Before you map your next value stream, answer this:

Who owns the complete customer journey?

If you can't name them...
save yourself the effort.

P.S. Does anyone in your organization have E2E accountability for value delivery?

Grow Your Career 1% Daily - I’ll Show You How | Follow for Tips on Learning, Professional Development, and Productivity | Professor | MBA + JD

Is this the part where I talk about brand voice, distribution, and storytelling across the funnel? Or say we “help companies scale content that converts”?

𝗪𝗲 𝗱𝗼 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁.

But what we really do is write content your team doesn’t have to worry about, so you can stay focused on strategy, not sentence structure.

𝗛𝗲𝘆, 𝗜’𝗺 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻. 👋

And my path here hasn’t exactly followed a playbook:
Banking → Law School → Teaching → L&D → Content

(Yeah… it’s been a ride.)

Today, I run a B2B content agency with my wife. We keep it lean and personal — just the two of us, plus our kids and a couple barky mini schnauzers. 

At Damn Smart Marketing, we give marketers writing they can trust and results they can stand behind.

✓ Content that sounds like you (not a template, not bland AI)
✓ Full support from idea to publication
✓ A partner who gets content
✓ Zero fluff, zero hand-holding
✓ More time to focus on what matters

In other words: you get to 🚀 while we handle the ✍️.

𝗟𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿? 𝗧𝘄𝗼 𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸:

1️⃣ 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗲-𝗳𝗼𝗿-𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀.
Blogs, LinkedIn posts, newsletters, case studies. If it’s got words, we’ll write it. You get to run the show without sweating every sentence.

2️⃣ 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 𝘀𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘀.
We’ve built an AI-assisted workflow that makes posting easy, effective, and actually worth reading.

If you're curious, DM me. 

No cold, hard pitch, I promise. Just a real convo about where you’re headed and whether some damn smart content can help.

Stephen 😀

Stephen Mostrom

I'm 36 years young today. 🥳 

Insanely grateful for...
- Donna, who runs our agency and our home like she’s got two full-time jobs (because she does).
- Two boys who’ve never met a quiet morning... or an off switch.
- Clients who think bold, talk straight, and pay on time.  

Doubling down on...
- Writing that sounds human, not “brand-optimized.”
- Saying “no” faster so I can say “hell yes” louder.
- The quiet stuff that compounds: relationships, reading, reflection.

Time to stop...
- Letting perfect get in the way of done.
- Underestimating the compounding power of showing up.
- Thinking about the next moment instead of living the current one.

And finally, my ONE BIG WISH. 

→ That we look out for each other.
Because it’s rough out there. Layoffs, burnout, uncertainty everywhere.

A quick intro.
A check-in text.
A “hey, you’d be great for this.”

The small stuff reminds people they’re not alone.
We need it more than ever. 

❤️

Writer for B2B Tech & Finance ✍️ | Running a content agency with my wife (and yes, still married) | Human words, AI workflows | JD & MBA

Finally got my hands on Brianna Doe’s new book. 

I’m *unapologetically* a fan. 

After years of admiring Brianna’s work from afar, I’ve gotten to hang with her twice in the last month. She’s exactly who she seems online — smart, grounded, and allergic to fluff.

So yeah, I ordered her new book the second it dropped.

The Unapologetic Professional?
Yes please!

My 3 favorites from a first read: 

1. Battle imposter syndrome with a brag book and better questions

Brag book = your personal highlight reel
Better questions = reframing those nasty “what ifs” into “what’s true.”

2. Community, community, community

Brianna makes the case that a small, intentional circle of mentors and peers does more for your career than any blog post or podcast ever will.

Find your community. Or build your own if you have to. 
Then go all in. 

3. Shift from job security to skill security

As Brianna puts it, real security comes from "knowing that no matter where you work, what industry you're in, or how technology evolves, you bring something to the table that will always be valuable." Truth.

Bottom line:

If you care at all about taking control of your career, The Unapologetic Professional is a must-read. 

5 stars. Highly recommend.

1. There’s NOTHING like in-person. I love meeting folks on LinkedIn, coffee chats on Zoom. But the energy, the spark, the serendipity of in-person… priceless.

2. AI or human creativity? AI and human creativity? It’s the great debate at DigiMarCon Las Vegas. And I feel like I’ve seen every angle. Tomorrow: my thoughts on “how to out-write AI.” 

3. Case studies over hot takes. The talks that stood out came from practitioners. Folks in the trenches. They’re sharing what worked, what didn’t, and why.

4. Marketers are crushing it… even in a brutal environment. So much change, so much pressure. And still, there’s serious innovation and a can-do attitude. Refreshing.

5. Still can’t believe I’m emceeing. The shy, back-of-the-room introvert now standing on the stage in front of hundreds. Pretty sure that if you’re willing to push through and look like a newbie, you can do almost anything.

Oh, and if you’re in Vegas, hit up Esther’s Kitchen. Best focaccia and pasta on the planet.

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LinkedIn organic reach is ☠️... right?

I synced up with my favorite career coach, Julia Korn, to share 5 pro tips from the 1000+ LinkedIn posts I wrote for execs this year. 

And the 10M+ impressions and 20K+ followers they drove. 
... Organically. 

1. Write like you talk
2. Get real
3. Subtract
4. Where's the proof?
5. Post, adapt, repeat

The article is LIVE (!)

If you're looking to grow on LinkedIn, don't miss this.
→ https://lnkd.in/eZj-25AS

Donna (extrovert): Let's be room hosts at MarketingProfs B2B Forum!
Me (introvert): ahahaha cool cool cool 😅 😱 ☠️

But where else can you hang with hundreds of B2B diehards?

Where else can you get a front-row seat to the sharpest voices in marketing and walk away with a dozen lines you wish you’d written?

Where else can you see Ann Handley dance alongside a marching band?

So yeah… 
This guy’s a room host. 

If you need me, I’ll be by the door acting like I didn’t rehearse my “welcome everyone!” a dozen or more times. 

And apparently I’m doing it again tomorrow. 🤷

Took me 2 years and 1000s of prompts, but I finally figured out how to get ChatGPT to kill clichés and vanilla writing.

The trick’s embarrassingly simple (can’t believe it took me this long).

→ Ask for the unexpected.

LLMs are trained to be average.
They scrape billions of words and learn to play it safe. Right down the middle of the bell curve.

For writing, that means:

- Exhausted metaphors
- Safe, recycled phrasing
- Copy that sounds like an intern with a thesaurus

Not how you stand out in a crowded feed.

When you ask for the unexpected, you pull Chat out of the center and into the edges where the interesting stuff lives.

Try prompts like:

“Swap this bland word for something unexpected. Give me 5 options.”

“Give me 3 unexpected examples that prove this idea.”

“What are unexpected ways to start this paragraph?”

Fewer filler words.
More scroll stoppers.

Hope this helps! ✌️

The *hot take* has officially joined the LinkedIn cliché hall of fame.

Why you should ditch it (and what to do instead) ↓

1. Most takes are lukewarm at best. 
If you're calling out a problem everyone in your industry knows, what's hot about that take? You're more likely to get a "duh" than a "wow!"

2. Most takes point an ugly finger. 
Your reader should be the shining knight of your content. But most hot takes treat them like the stable boy (and not the Princess Bride type). That's not cool.

3. Most takes offer exactly *zero* solutions. 
Great, it's broken. Tell me something I don't know... like how to fix it. Or where to go for answers. Or, idk, a way to make my life better, not just swim in the sea of negativity. 

It's time to retire the hot take and replace it with something better. 

I call this the "Hot Give." 

The Hot Give still brings the energy, but it leaves your reader with something useful. It’s not about outrage. It’s about outcomes.

The formula...

1. Share a scalding, fiery take.
Put in the work. Unearth something your reader has been feeling and living and wrestling with for years, but has never had words for. See Brendan Hufford's "Checkbox Marketing" for an A+ example. 

2. Point at the problem, not your reader. 
Your shining knight needs a dragon. Aim your ire at that. Instead of "manager, do better," say "manager, let's knock out this productivity dragon that keeps devouring your calendar." 

3. Offer real solutions for real people. 
Sure, use your hot take to pull someone in. But pay off their attention by giving them immediate, actionable, and targeted advice. Something that turns their "ugh" moment into a "oh yeah." 

Bottom line: 
The hot take had a good (?) run. 

But if we're serious about LinkedIn being more than just clickbait, it's time to evolve. 

Scalding take.
Attack the problem.
Deliver value.

That’s bringing the real heat. 🔥

I sat at the bar at Esther’s Kitchen in Vegas, chatting with the bartender for a half hour before she dropped the bomb that she was a trained pastry chef. 

“Don’t know if I’m allowed to ask this,” I said. “But what’s your secret ingredient... the one nobody knows about?” 

She looked around. Then leaned forward and replied…

“I put freshly-ground cracked pepper in my cinnamon rolls.” 

A few days later, I'm in my kitchen hand-grinding pepper into my banana bread mixture, and you know what?

👨‍🍳 💋 

In the right amount, this spicy source — that's usually reserved for steak and avocado toast — pulls every flavor forward. 

And I never would've guessed it in a million years. 

That's the beauty of the insider secret. 
The kind you don't get by asking ChatGPT for tips. 

It's battle-tested by experts and shared in quiet conversations. Most of the time, all you have to do is ask. 

So here's a little practice for the next time you're talking to someone who *knows their stuff*...

Ask: "What's your secret ingredient?"
Then start taking notes.

taplio

The Battle

Ivan Carillo

Stephen Mostrom

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taplio

The Battle

Ivan Carillo

Stephen Mostrom

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Ivan Carillo's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreStephen Mostrom's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreIvan Carillo's LinkedIn Performance