Mark Minukas
Given this, I advise, consult, and coach senior leaders and their teams on how they can design effective improvement programs and harness the talent and creativity of their people to achieve significantly better business results.
I began exploring the topics of leadership and operational improvement when I was an officer in the US Navy. An engineer by training, I studied how humans and organizations affected the reliability and safety of engineered systems. I discovered that it was not enough to have great engineering solutions. The performance of systems was mostly determined by the ability of people to trust each other, communicate effectively, and make effective decisions – often under extreme environmental stress. I learned these lessons (and made many mistakes!) in the diving and logistics operations I had the honor to participate in as an officer.
From the Navy, I ventured off to McKinsey and Company where I started as a business analyst and member of the Operations Practice. There I had the opportunity to actively learn about the technical aspect of organizational transformation and process improvement (lean management based on the Toyota Production System), but also the softer or cultural side of transformation. While my engineering background made me energized to dive into the math and logic of improving operations, I found repeatedly that great technical solutions were never enough to sustain performance improvements. Strange human and organizational forces were always at play to prevent my great solutions from sticking!
Over time, I gained insight into these strange forces and discovered some critical factors that successful client transformation efforts shared:
- Personal transformation – individual clients (particularly senior leaders and influencers) developing the ability to see their own limiting mindsets and beliefs and shift them
- Team effectiveness – shifting the dynamics of how teams communicate and relate to one another as well as how they surface and solve problems together
- Co-creating solutions– not just having a consulting team deliver a report, but actively working with clients to develop and explore solutions together; creating ownership and excitement for the way forward
I now have the privilege to help clients handle these strange forces as a leader of Co-Creation Partners – and I feel like we’re just getting started on what’s possible!
I have worked across multiple industries including financial services, government, high tech manufacturing, biotech manufacturing, food processing, IT service, and others on wide range of topics to include operational transformation, cultural transformation, organization redesign, and strategy. Some recent work includes:
- Supporting a multi-year lean and agile transformation program at a large financial services company
- Activating a lean and operational excellence program at a pharmaceutical manufacturer
- Conducting a capability building and culture change program at a government agency
- Developing and deploying an improvement strategy for a group within the US Navy
- Improving customer service and efficiency of processes at a non-profit organization
Prior to working with Co-Creation Partners, I worked for 8 years at McKinsey and Company as a leader in the Operations Practice. I spent over 6 years in the US Navy as a Seabee/Civil Engineer Corp Officer. I hold degrees in Systems Engineering from the US Naval Academy and Ocean Engineering and Human Factors from UC Berkeley.
I am also a trained executive coach through the Newfield Network.