Here are two blog posts that my co-author, Joe Swartz, and I were very happy to see about our book Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line Staff in Sustainable Continuous Improvements: From the Virginia Mason Medical Center Blog: “Could this new book…
As I worked on co-authoring Healthcare Kaizen, I dove deeper into my study of “kaizen” practices and mindsets, revisiting many core books on kaizen after years of practice in different industries. I used to define kaizen as the phrase it’s…
In commemoration of the 11th anniversary of 9/11, I’m leaving the blog blank today – other than a link to Steven J. Spear’s piece that appeared in this space a year ago today: “Bin Laden Lost.”
Organizations that are most successful with Kaizen and continuous improvement don’t have fancier boards or better software — they have leaders who are more likely engaged with the right behaviors, more consistently. In my experience, I’ve put the same mechanics…
Almost two years ago, I wrote an article for FierceHealthcare.com called “How lean management helped hospitals avoid layoffs.” Here in 2012, I see headlines daily about a hospital somewhere in the U.S. who is “forced” to lay off staff (or…
It’s a double reader letter day… I was asked, by a healthcare professional, about where she could find Lean Healthcare conferences. I’ll share my list and links below, both the events focused on Lean Healthcare as well as those with…
I received a question from a reader, which I’m sharing and posing here (with the reader’s permission and removing identifying information). The question: Having only a year of experience in the healthcare industry, and almost 30 years of (quality and…
Last weekend was the start of the college football season (Go ‘Cats!) and tonight is the “kickoff” of the NFL season, which (of course) starts with an opening kickoff. And, I mean “American football,” for my global readers. So, in…
Principle #1 of the Toyota Way management system says: “Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.” The current situation with the Washington Nationals and star pitcher Stephen Strasburg creates the perfect…
I didn’t have a post yesterday because it was the Labor Day holiday here in the U.S. While I’m not a “worker,” in the sense of an hourly employee or union worker anymore, I still enjoyed the day off with…
There are many articles written about collaborative “ideation” systems (sometimes referred as “crowdsourcing”) – web and software systems that allow ideas to bubble up from a large population of employees. I’d call these “suggestions,” per Norman Bodek’s definition that ideas…
