Mark Graban

Questions for a baseball game, a hospital or any workplace: What happens when we have rules that are confusing to people? What happens when those rules aren't being enforced? And what if the rule is a solution to a problem that's not really a problem?

A culture of continuous improvement is really powerful - in a pizza restaurant or any type of workplace. It engages Milennials and people from other generations too...

In recent years, I've written two blog posts about the sad scenarios where the wrong building was demolished by a crew. In these scenarios, it's easy to blame "bad crew" instead of looking at systemic causes of such an error. Having a better process is always more effective than admonishing people to "be more careful." What did I see recently that caught my attention in terms of trying to prevent demolition errors?

My guests for Episode #282 of the podcast are two continuous improvement leaders from Cleveland Clinic: Dr. Lisa Yerian and Nate Hurle. Lisa is the Medical Director, Continuous Improvement and Nate is the Senior Director, Continuous Improvement.She's a doctor, he's an engineer, and they work together very closely in their efforts to help drive improvement at the Clinic.

Does your healthcare organization struggle with keeping hand sanitizer dispensers full? Let me know what you think of this "two-bin kanban" system prototype from a vendor that might more forward on this...

Thanks to Lean Frontiers for sharing a story from Mike Hoseus on LinkedIn. Mike is, of course, co-author of the excellent book Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way (written with Jeff Liker, who I just learned is retiring from the University of Michigan... more on that soon).

A reader asks why I got involved with Lean in healthcare. In this post, I share what I wrote about this in the preface to "Lean Hospitals" and I share some additional thoughts and reflections.

I helped present a webinar with Dr. Greg Jacobson, the CEO and co-founder of KaiNexus on Tuesday May 16: Taking Improvement Boards Digital: How Leading Companies...

Here are three audience questions we didn't have time to address after a recent talk that I gave... questions about engaging people in improvement and about how to share and spread improvement ideas broadly.

What are the parallels between the mindsets and approach of a world-class university band director and our mindsets in Lean, Kaizen, and continuous improvement, in healthcare or beyond?

Joining me for Episode #281 of the podcast is Julie Firman, DNP, RN, FACHE, the Vice President/ System Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) at Southern Illinois Healthcare.

Today's reader question comes from somebody who has been put in the position of what I call "the lone wolf" in a health system. This happens a lot. A health system hires or designates one person to be "the Lean change agent." It doesn't matter how amazing and/or experienced this individual is... I'd very skeptical about the organization's Lean journey.