I’ve been doing a lot of speaking at conferences this spring, and I’m always warmly greeted as the “Toast Guy”: the person who produced and starred in the Toast Kaizen video. 

Earlier this year, I spoke to a large gathering from a metropolitan healthcare system. When I jokingly asked them, “Who has seen Toast Kaizen?” this was their response. Of course, I’m flattered to be recognized, and happy to hear how Toast has helped to introduce continuous improvement in many settings and now in 18 different languages! But my head has not grown too much. After all, it’s a 30-minute video about a “guy making toast”; a device intended to unfreeze people’s thinking. It’s not exactly what you’d call a body of work. I’m proud to say it’s a good opener—no more than that.

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