Monthly Archives: September 2017
Don’t Turn Your Performance Metrics into “Success Theater”
One of the phrases and concepts that I love from Eric Ries and The Lean Startup is the idea of "success theater," which describes the efforts...
A Look Back at “The Good Jobs Strategy” – For Retail and Beyond
Today, I'm looking back at at podcast from two years ago, sharing this written summary that hopefully better reaches an audience that doesn't listen...
A Discussion on “Practicing Lean,” My Work, and More
I really appreciate what the team at LeanPub.com does, with their approach to "Lean Publishing." I've published a few compilations of blog posts and...
“Our Hospitals Are Killing Us” – From a 1966 Magazine
Three or four months ago, in the midst of a discussion on LinkedIn about patient safety, somebody made reference to a 1966 cover story...
How “Process Behavior Charts” Save Us Time and Help Us Sleep Better at Night
I've been writing blog posts about using "process behavior charts" - a form of "Statistical Process Control (SPC) chart" or "control chart" that can be...
Free Webinar Recording on Lean Collaboration Across Companies and Industries
I hope you'll join me to view a KaiNexus webinar that I'm hosted today. The topic is near and dear to my heart (as...
Texas Hospital Saves Money Occasionally With Lean Six Sigma… But Can Do More, More...
I saw this headline the other day about University Medical Center in Lubbock, Texas:
"UMC finds savings through waste"
The headline really should say "through waste...
Airplane Food: Flight Attendant Kaizen or a Violation of Standardized Work?
Today's blog post is about airplane food. It's not about the quality of airplane food... it's not an SNL Seinfeld-ish "what's the deal with...
How Toyota Gets Organizations Started with TPS
Last week, I mentioned it was the 25th anniversary of TSSC -- formerly known as the Toyota Supplier Support Center (it's now called the...
Safety Issues Plague Hospital(s) – Front Page of USA Today
If this post is a bit of a rant, I apologize. The problems here are avoidable and fixable. That's one reason I get so...
Has the #Lean Movement Failed to Learn from Dr. #Deming’s Mistake?
One book about the late, great W. Edwards Deming that's been on my shelf for a while is The Deming Management Method, which was written by Mary Walton, a journalist who spent some time with Dr. Deming in the 1980s. There's a section that really made me think about Lean over the past few decades (and it might seem familiar to those who use Six Sigma or other methods).
Podcast #288 – Dean Gruner, MD on ACOs and Healthcare Reform
Joining me again for Episode #288 is Dean Gruner, MD, the recently retired CEO of ThedaCare, a health system in Wisconsin that has long been considered a worldwide leader in the practice of Lean in healthcare.
Recently, in Episode #286, Dean shared his reflections on his work and ThedaCare's "Lean journey." Today, the topic is Accountable Care Organizations and other bigger-picture healthcare reform topics.
Dean was also previously my guest in Episodes 119 and 144.
I'm including a full transcript along with a three-page PDF summary, as I've been doing recently.