Mark Graban

So what's the new book and cover pictured here? This is the book being finished by my friend Chip Ponsford, III, DVM. Yes, DVM stands for Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. "Lean Veterinary Practice Management: Higher Quality, Less Waste, Greater Staff Engagement and Continuous Improvement."

I first met Davis Balestracci at a conference a few years back, where I heard him give a very spirited and insightful presentation. That's why I'm happy to have him as my guest for Episode #323 of the podcast. We'll talk about a range of topics, including some of the key lessons that you'll find in his book (as a much deeper dive than we can get into here) Data Sanity: A Quantum Leap to Unprecedented Results (2nd edition). Davis has been a long-time columnist for Quality Digest, and you'll hear his thoughts on Process Behavior Charts, W. Edwards Deming, Lean Six Sigma, and more.

Today is the start of the annual "Movember" fundraising movement where men grow mustaches to raise money and awareness for men's health issues, including prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health. I don't mean to ignore women's health issues or other cancer fundraising efforts, but this is what I'm participating in right now... so I thought I'd share. Yeah, there's a photo...

This content originally appeared in a post about my Halloween metrics webinar, but I decided to carve it out (not like a pumpkin) into its own post. A reader asked: "Should we be using financial statements in that way or is there a better approach given our knowledge about different types of variation? Or am I completely off track?"

I'll be presenting a free webinar on Wednesday, October 31st at 1 pm ET... as you might notice, that's Halloween day! Here's the description from the KaiNexus website: Metrics & Statistics Don't Have to be Scary

When I got back from Japan a few weeks back, somebody at a hospital client of mine asked me: "Why go back to Japan again? Haven't you been there, done that?" Why go back to Japan? Why not go back? I learn something new and have great experiences each time and my recent opportunity to tag along with Honsha was no exception.

Today's podcast is a departure from the usual interview format. As I blogged about last week, the Lean community has lost a young, thoughtful, inquisitive, and reflective member -- Samuel Selay. I regret not having Sam on the podcast to talk about our learning and reflections. He was a guest of Ron Pereira's on the Gemba Academy podcast in 2016, talking about Lean in the Department of Defense. Today, I'm doing a reading of a blog post that Sam wrote for this site back in August. I'm also sharing the audiobook version of his chapter from the book Practicing Lean (which is read by our audiobook narrator). It's not his voice, but it's his words and thoughts. As the Marines say (Sam was an active duty Marine for 13 years), Semper Fi.  There is a GoFundMe page that was set up by Sam's sister-in-law to provide financial support to the family — his wife and four children under 18. I've donated and I hope you might consider doing the same. 

Why do we have to be skeptical or careful when we see a chart with just four data points? Does such limited data help prove that our consulting work or our Lean Sigma project has made a difference?

I've been sad the last few days after learning that Samuel Selay, a friend of mine (and this blog) went missing after going kayaking alone on Lake Elsinore in southern California on Saturday. As it says in this news report and video...

The other day, I saw a post on Twitter that included a few photos related to what's often called Lean Daily Management practices in a hospital. The spirit of my post is not meant to come across as "they're doing it wrong" but more in the spirit of "they're doing a lot of great things, but it would be better if..." If Lean Daily Management is supposed to be, at its core, about identifying opportunities for improvement, I'd hope they wouldn't be offended by my recommendations, but I also don't want to link to the Twitter post or call them out by name. I will pass along private feedback through a channel I have. But, I'm writing a post because what I see here is VERY common in different organizations (not just healthcare).

Tomislav Mihaljevic, MD was named CEO of the Cleveland Clinic just over a year ago, replacing long-time CEO Toby Cosgrove, MD. As I've blogged about (and podcasted about), I've been impressed with the Cleveland Clinic Improvement Model and their approach to continuous improvement, problem solving, and Lean management. Dr. Mihaljevic has written a blog post about the power of "tiered huddles"...

This article from the WSJ caught my eye last week (might be behind their paywall): The Best Bosses Are Humble Bosses Organizations are making a push to hire and promote workers who lead effectively but don't seek the spotlight In today's post, I share some thoughts and related reading...