Lexington keynote speaker for healthcare, manufacturing, and association events.
Chris Sund is a keynote speaker, Maxwell Leadership Certified Coach, and sitting executive who leads national healthcare staffing organizations. He speaks on workforce motivation, leadership, retention, and human potential for Kentucky associations, health systems, manufacturing employers, and organizations across the Bluegrass region.
Response within one business day.
The most copied management system in the world is built next door. Almost everyone copies the wrong half.
Lexington has an advantage most regions do not, which is that the best known people-centered production system on earth is operating a few miles away and has been for four decades.
The University of Kentucky is by far the largest employer here, with a workforce in the tens of thousands including UK HealthCare and the only Level I trauma center in central and eastern Kentucky. Kentucky state government employs thousands more. In nearby Georgetown, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky is the largest Toyota plant in the world with roughly ten thousand workers, and it has built more than fourteen million vehicles in its time here. Baptist Health, CHI Saint Joseph Health, Fayette County Public Schools, Lexmark, Lockheed Martin, and the region’s equine industry fill out the rest.
Now, the system that plant runs on has two pillars. One is continuous improvement, and that is the half everyone copies. Standard work, problem solving, waste reduction, the whole vocabulary. Organizations across every industry have adopted those tools, including hospitals.
The other pillar is respect for people, and it is skipped far more often than it is admitted. It rests on a belief that the person closest to the work understands it better than anyone above them, that their job includes improving it rather than only performing it, and that a leader’s primary output is developing the people who report to them.
There is a simple test for whether an organization actually has this or just has the posters. Ask what would really happen if a frontline person stopped the line, paused a process, or halted a procedure because something looked wrong. In a genuine system, that person is thanked, every time, even when they turn out to be mistaken, because the alternative is a workforce that learns to keep quiet. In an imitation, everyone on the floor already knows it would go badly, and so nobody ever does it.
That distinction is the entire difference between a set of efficiency tools and a culture, and it applies exactly the same way in a hospital as on an assembly line. A nurse who is confident that raising a concern will be welcomed is the single best safety system a health system can have, and no amount of process design substitutes for it.
Chris runs national healthcare staffing organizations and has keynoted state association conferences in eleven states, including LeadingAge Illinois and health care associations in Iowa, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado.
Operator, Not Consultant
President and COO of national healthcare staffing organizations, still making the hiring and retention calls he speaks about.
Respect for People in Practice
Material about the human half of continuous improvement, which is the half that decides whether the tools work.
Plant, Clinical, and Public Rooms
Works for a manufacturing crew session, a hospital leadership day, or a statewide association general session.
Groups Chris speaks for.
The Bluegrass region pairs a flagship university and academic medical center with world scale automotive manufacturing.
- UK HealthCare, including Albert B. Chandler Hospital and the region’s only Level I trauma center, for nurse leadership, all-staff, and recognition events
- Baptist Health Lexington and CHI Saint Joseph Health, headquartered in Lexington, along with the Lexington Clinic
- The University of Kentucky, the region’s largest employer, for campus and staff programming
- Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky in Georgetown and the region’s automotive supplier base, for shift-repeated crew and supervisor sessions
- Kentucky state government agencies operating in the region, and Fayette County Public Schools
- Lexmark, Lockheed Martin, and Hitachi Astemo, across advanced manufacturing and technology
- Kentucky statewide associations meeting in Lexington, the format Chris works in most often, along with the equine industry and long-term care providers across central Kentucky
Lexington employers running improvement systems.
Healthcare is where Chris operates, and it has borrowed more from manufacturing than any other sector.
Automotive and Advanced Manufacturing
Plants where the improvement system is only as strong as the willingness to speak up.
Healthcare
Systems that adopted lean tools and still need the culture that makes them function.
Higher Education and Government
Institutions with layers of process and frontline staff who see the problems first.
Equine and Agriculture
Operations where craft knowledge sits with the person handling the animal or the work.
Lexington and regional venues.
- Central Bank Center and downtown hotel ballrooms for statewide association annual meetings
- UK HealthCare, Baptist Health, and CHI Saint Joseph campuses for nurse leadership and all-staff days
- Manufacturing plants across Georgetown, Winchester, and Nicholasville for shift-repeated crew sessions
- The University of Kentucky for campus and staff programming
- State agency and district facilities for in-service and leadership days
- Georgetown, Richmond, Frankfort, and communities across the Bluegrass
Lexington events Chris speaks at.
Association Conferences
Statewide association annual meetings and general sessions, the format Chris works in most often.
Hospital and Health System Events
Leadership days, nurse recognition events, and all-staff meetings.
Plant and Operations Meetings
Crew sessions, safety kickoffs, and supervisor development across manufacturing employers.
Nurse Leadership
Charge nurse and manager development for the layer that decides whether concerns get raised.
Engagement and Culture
Sessions on the human half of any improvement system, which is where most of them fail.
HR and SHRM Chapter Events
Human resources conferences and chapter meetings on recognition and retention.
Keynote topics for your Lexington event.
Every session is customized for the audience, the format, and what you are actually trying to change.
See what conference organizers and HR leaders have said after booking Chris.
Booking a keynote speaker in Lexington
Has Chris spoken in Kentucky and the region?
Does Chris travel to Lexington?
We have already done lean training. What does this add?
Will this work for a clinical audience rather than a plant?
Can the session run for multiple shifts?
What does a Lexington keynote cost?
Can Chris speak virtually to a Kentucky audience?
Bring Chris to your Lexington event.
Send your date, location, and audience. You will get availability and a quote back within one business day.
info@chrissund.com · 402-212-5771 · Kentucky speaking · All locations
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