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).
Dean Gruner on ACOs, Healthcare Reform, and the Future of Cost and Quality
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.
