Matt Sims

Matt Sims Multi-Award-Winning Leading Partner & Advisor in Lean Thinking & High-Performance Cultures | Speaker | Author | The Guy From the Ever-So-Lean Podcast 🎧

Over the past two decades, I’ve had the privilege of navigating a path that’s been filled with incredible travels, opportunities, experiences and above all, invaluable lessons. From beginning my journey on the frontline to holding senior leadership positions across organisations such as Royal Mail and Amazon, each step with it’s high moments and it’s challenges, has contributed to shaping my under

standing of continuous improvement and true leadership. For me, leadership isn’t about titles or accolades—it’s about the people we serve and the connections we forge along the way. My journey has been enriched by experiences that have deepened my appreciation for operational excellence and the significance of investing in people, and fostering a culture of growth and learning within teams. Personally, one of my proudest moments on this journey was being recognised with an ‘Excellenteer‘ accolade by the British Quality Foundation (BQF) in 2024. It was a humbling honour, reminding me of the responsibility we have to continually strive for excellence, and invest time in developing our future leaders. Hosting the Ever-So-Lean Podcast has been an incredible highlight. This platform has allowed me to connect with individuals from around the world, sharing insights and experiences that I hope ignite inspiration and drive positive change. Speaking engagements also hold a special place in my heart, as they allow me to infuse energy and passion into every interaction, sparking enthusiasm and fostering a sense of empowerment. Partnering with individuals and organisations to support growth and the pursuit of excellence is truly inspiring. Through initiatives like the Ever-So-Lean Learning Series and Ever-So-Lean Rising Stars (dedicated to continuous improvement training for young minds), I aim to share the wisdom gleaned from my experiences, empowering others to achieve their potential. As I reflect on my journey so far, I’m filled with gratitude for the opportunities I’ve been given and the lessons I’ve learned. But this journey is far from over, and I’m eager to continue learning, growing and making a positive impact wherever I can. I want to support you on your journey, get in touch, as I’d be honoured to stand beside you along the way!

31/08/2026

A good meeting shouldn’t end when you run out of things to say. It should end when people have clarity.

Clarity on what we’ve decided.
Clarity on what happens next.
Clarity on who owns what.
Clarity on what good looks like.

Because agreement in the room means very little if everyone walks out with a different understanding of what they just agreed to.
And that’s where so much waste starts.

Rework. Duplication. Assumptions. Chasing. Frustration. Not because people don’t care. Because we didn’t create enough clarity before they left the room.

So here’s a challenge for your next meeting.

Before anyone leaves, ask:

“Are we all clear on what happens next?”

Don’t just finish the meeting.
Finish it with clarity.

30/08/2026

Who decided meetings should be 60 minutes?

Seriously.

If we’ve covered what we need to cover in 23 minutes, why are we still sitting there at minute 57?

No fillers, no waffle, no finding something else to talk about because there’s still time in the diary. Have the conversation, make the decisions, agree the actions, and close the meeting. Giving people time back is a form of respect.

Try it in your next meeting.

When you’ve achieved what you came together to achieve, end it.

Dodging the rain this morning, my son took me to a tiebreak in our tennis match. This was a bit of a milestone as it’s t...
29/08/2026

Dodging the rain this morning, my son took me to a tiebreak in our tennis match. This was a bit of a milestone as it’s the first time he has done this.

This is the face of a guy who has the tennis mind of someone in their early twenties, but the body of a guy approaching his mid forties. 😰

29/08/2026

Curiosity is contagious.

I see this all the time. One person asks a question, then someone else builds on it. Another person starts looking at the problem differently. Then before you know it, the whole conversation has changed.

But someone has to go first.

Someone has to be curious enough to ask, rather than assume.

So try it next time you’re in a meeting, resist the urge to give an answer. Ask a genuine question instead. Then watch what happens.

28/08/2026

The problem should determine the improvement approach. Not the other way around.

Too often in Continuous Improvement, we start with the method.

“We’re going to run a DMAIC project.”

Great. But what’s the problem?

Surely that comes first.

Understand the problem. Understand the environment. Understand the people doing the work. Then decide which approach gives you the best chance of improving it.

It’s also why simply taking something that worked brilliantly in manufacturing and dropping it into a service environment doesn’t always work. Different problems. Different environments. Different people.

The principles can, and do absolutely travel. The application has to adapt.

That’s something that I have both learnt and applied over the years. It's one of the great things about the Lean Competency System. It gives us a framework without pretending every organisation, problem or person is the same.

Continuous Improvement should help us think, not tell us what to think.

The full conversation with Chris Dando is available now on the Ever-So-Lean Podcast. Listen on all major podcast platforms, or watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Op9r3mh55xc

27/08/2026

Lean from the bottom up starts with one simple question: What are we actually here to do?

I love the simplicity of what Chris Dando is saying here.

Before the tools. Before the projects. Before we start redesigning processes.

Understand the purpose. What does the customer actually need from this service? What are the people doing the work actually trying to achieve?

Then look at everything we’ve built around it.

Does it help us fulfil that purpose, or does it get in the way?

That’s where some of the best improvement conversations start. Because the people closest to the work can often see the waste, frustration and unnecessary complexity better than anyone.

Give them the opportunity to question it, challenge it and improve it.

That’s Lean from the bottom up.

The full conversation with Chris Dando is available now on the Ever-So-Lean Podcast. Listen on all major podcast platforms, or watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Op9r3mh55xc

26/08/2026

Lean isn’t just for big organisations.

This was a great point from Leon Hardwick during our recent Ever-So-Lean Podcast conversation.

The word ‘Lean’ gets thrown around a lot in the startup world. Move fast. Keep costs down. Do more with less. But as Leon explains in this clip, there’s a much bigger opportunity being missed.

Startups and smaller businesses can benefit hugely from the fundamentals of Lean and Continuous Improvement. Understanding value, removing waste, solving problems and building effective ways of working from the beginning.

Why wait until you’re a huge organisation with years of waste and poor processes built in before you start thinking about improvement?

Catch the full conversation with Leon Hardwick, Bart van Waes and Beth Lee Wilson on the Ever-So-Lean Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube - https://youtu.be/mHO-sky6Zkg

Leon Hardwick will be speaking at the upcoming Lean Competency System Conference and Awards, taking place at the Manchester Marriott Hotel Piccadilly on 23rd September. Tickets are available here: https://lcs.leancompetency.org/lcs-conference-awards-2026

25/08/2026

If you punish failure, don’t be surprised when people stop telling you about it.

This observation from Bart van Waes on a recent episode of the Ever-So-Lean is something that has left me reflecting.

We say we want people to experiment. We say it’s ok to fail. We say we want people to speak up when something goes wrong.

But what happens when they actually do?

If the response is blame, criticism or a negative consequence, people learn very quickly. Next time, they keep quiet.

And that’s dangerous.

Some of the biggest advances we’ve ever made have come through failure. Look at space travel. Rockets worth millions, sometimes billions, have exploded. Missions have gone wrong. Apollo 13 was famously described as a successful failure.

But every failure gave us something to learn from. That’s exactly how we must see Continuous Improvement.

Failure isn’t the opposite of improvement. Sometimes it’s the thing that shows us where the improvement is.

The question is whether as leaders, we create an environment where people feel able to tell us when something hasn’t worked. Because you can’t learn from failures you never hear about.

Bart van Waes will be speaking at the upcoming Lean Competency System Conference and Awards, taking place in Manchester on 23rd September.

Tickets are available here: https://lnkd.in/eVcmNb_p

You can also watch or listen to the full conversation with Bart van Waes, Beth Lee Wilson, and Leon Hardwick on the Ever-So-Lean Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts, or on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eSYuv8ba

When we practice Lean methods to improve things for our colleagues and customers, we often speak about doing more with l...
23/08/2026

When we practice Lean methods to improve things for our colleagues and customers, we often speak about doing more with less. We talk about finding smarter ways of working to maximise the potential.

Tonight I have a great example of that.

This is the pavilion on the seafront where I live. However tonight the back of the building has been turned into an outside cinema.

The smart move here is that it’s free.

The pavilion makes the money from the food and drinks carts and vans that are in the grounds.

The place is packed with families, all buying food and beverages to enjoy whilst they watch the film. All from local businesses.

Any other night this area would be empty at this time, except for the odd person fishing, or those out on a dog walk.

A wonderful example of doing more with less.

23/08/2026

Want to know where some of the biggest barriers to Continuous Improvement aren't? The frontline.

I thought this was such a great point from Beth Lee Wilson.

We often talk about how difficult it is to "engage the frontline" in improvement. But I've found exactly what Beth describes here.

Ask people what frustrates them.

Ask them what gets in the way of doing a good job.

Ask them what doesn't work.

Then actually involve them in making it better.

In my experience, people are usually more than willing to get involved because they're the ones living with these problems every single day.

Compare that with the traditional approach. A new process gets designed somewhere else, by people who don't actually do the job. Then it's rolled out to the people who do, often with very little opportunity to challenge whether it will actually work.

And then we're surprised when people resist it.

There's a huge difference between being changed and being involved in change. The challenge, as Beth says, is making sure those brilliant local improvements don't stay local.

Beth Lee Wilson will be speaking at the upcoming Lean Competency System Conference and Awards, taking place in Manchester on 23rd September.

Tickets are available here: https://lcs.leancompetency.org/lcs-conference-awards-2026

You can also watch or listen to the full conversation with Beth Lee Wilson, Bart van Waes, and Leon Hardwick on the Ever-So-Lean Podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts, or on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mHO-sky6Zkg

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