All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients “We have a good people in a bad system”. Here’s an excellent interview with Dr. Marty Makary, author of “The Price We Pay”, on how to address the challenges of the US Healthcare system. Who knows…
In Episode 13 of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh reconnect in their first joint episode this year, after a couple weeks of guest hosts. Our last episode together was filled with Grinches, gremlins, and glitches, so it was…
Thanks to the Shingo Institute for inviting me to facilitate a half-day workshop at the Shingo Conference, being held this year in Orlando, April 16 and 17 dates to be determined. The workshop covers concepts and methods from my book…
Returning to the podcast for Episode #358 is Steve Spear, a senior lecturer at MIT and author of the book The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition. He’s also the founder and co-creator of…
Shout out and hat tip to Dan Markovitz for his excellent blog post: “WHEN LEADERS TORTURE THEIR EMPLOYEES“ He makes a strong case that displaying three months of customer satisfaction this way might lead to a lot of wasted effort…
I try to practice what I preach. I’m not perfect, but I do my best. Writing is fun for me, but I’m also the primary technical administrator for this blog and my other websites. I do a lot of the…
Process behavior charts offer a way to move beyond emojis, colors, and single data points by showing whether a metric is actually changing or merely fluctuating. This post explores why many common visual scorecards unintentionally drive overreaction — and how…
Joining me today for episode #357 is Michael Conroy, M.D., the Chief Medical Officer of Sutter Medical Group in northern California. Mike was previously the Medical Director of the Lean Promotion Office for the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and he…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients It’s been more than 10 years since Atul Gawande wrote The Checklist Manifesto, showing the world that a simple 2-minute checklist prior to surgery resulted in fewer deaths. Adoption is “pretty spotty”, and in…
Today, I’m sharing a question from a reader who started their career at Toyota and now works at another company. See previous posts with reader questions. The reader has given me permission to share this — to get your input…
I was honored to be asked to participate in a supplement that was published by the journal The International Journal for Quality in Healthcare. The supplement is a collection of articles about the use of Lean or Lean Six Sigma…
TL;DR: Year-over-year charts look analytical, but they often hide routine variation and invite overreaction. Process Behavior Charts make real improvement–and real risk–visible without guesswork. The main subject of my book Measures of Success is “Process Behavior Charts” (see more in…
