Karyn Ross

The New School for Kind Leaders is an online school and connected community created to teach people how to become Kinder Leaders through practice. Our Purpose: Teaching everyone how to lead with kindness to create a kinder world at work at home and in the community. Practical classes, workshops and learning experiences to help leaders practice the Key Behaviors of Thinking, Speaking and Acting Kindly so that they can Lead with Kindness.

In late 2016, seeing a growing trend of unkindness in the world, I had an idea. That idea was to create small green buttons with red hearts on them and slips of paper with messages such as ‘Plant Kindness and Grow Love’, and ‘Practice Kindness’. My idea was to anonymously leave buttons and slips wherever I was – airport, grocery store, restaurants - for people to find! A small reminder that wherever we are, whoever we are, and whatever we believe in, as long as we treat each other kindly, the world will be a great place for all of us. Two and half years - and more than 7,000 Love and Kindness buttons later - I founded The Love and Kindness Project Foundation. Dedicated to creating a world of #LoveB4money, the Foundation ‘fosters projects that create love and kindness in the world’ by: • Giving out, at no cost, Love and Kindness Buttons, Plant Kindness – Grow Love Yard Signs and Circle of Kindness Bracelets • Providing materials and support for those who want to facilitate Kindness Kards for Kids and Helping Circle Activities • Hosting Kindness Events • Providing micro-grants and coaching to help people create their own love and kindness project The Foundation is supported by donations and by proceeds from the sale of the book I authored “Big Karma and Little Kosmo Help Each Other”. To learn more about the Foundation, order buttons, yard signs, bracelets and copies of Big Karma and Little Kosmo, visit our website at www.loveandkindnessproject.org.

At KRC we don’t believe in the need for long, upfront theoretical training classes, or in the use of simulations. What we know is that people learn best by trying things out for themselves, working on real-life problems with the help of an experienced coach. Learning this way gives people the confidence that can only come from doing. It also prevents the problems associated with trying to translate concepts learned in training into actual practice. With KRC’s Practical Creativity and Coached Practice approaches there’s no wait time, and no separation between theory and practice. Working on their processes, in their workplace, people immediately begin generating creative new ideas and using Toyota Way lean principles to turn those ideas into peak services for their customers. KRC works with clients large and small all over the world and is happy to help in person, or remotely over Skype and FaceTime!

Women in Lean - Our Table is a group dedicated to raising the voices for women in lean. A global group, our members are from around the world and work at all levels and in all positions in lean. We support, help, mentor and guide each other and actively work to provide opportunities for writing, speaking and other personal and professional development. We host free, online 'Get Togethers' and there is never any charge to join Our Table.

As an Adjunct Instructor in The School of Business, I will be teaching Lean for Service Excellence in SUNY Oswego's Online MBA Program, ranked 27th in the USA!

Provides consultative services to Liberty Mutual in the development and application of Lean principles, methodology and tools to promote continuous improvement, increase operating model consistency, and engage & empower employees to enhance the value of service provided to customers in support of the organization's transformation. Provides expert-level consulting, coaching and mentoring and leads complex problem-solving activities to drive transformation opportunities across a variety of SBU/corporate areas.

Dedicated Lean continuous improvement resource for Payroll Operations and HR Service Center Operations for North America Work closely with leadership to drive Lean cultural transformation through strategic policy deployment, determination of key metrics and reporting strategies and development of specific implementation strategies. Lead and support kaizen events and daily kaizen activities to drive customer-centric focus and improve efficiency and effectiveness across all value streams. Training, coaching and mentoring with a particular focus on PDCA thinking and creative problem-solving. Zurich Lean Business Unit Champion.

Created and applied effective process improvement strategies for the Chicago branch and Midwest region while managing 290 payroll accounts. Founded and led the Chicago and Midwest Region Continuous Process Improvement teams.