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All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.

All Organizations Need a “Make Me”

Today's post is written by Steve Hoeft, the SVP, Chief of Operations Excellence at Baylor Scott & White Health (BSWH) here in Texas. This is his first written contribution to Lean Blog, but you might remember him as a guest in episode #226 of my podcast, where he and co-author Dr. Bob Pryor talked about their book The Power of Ideas to Transform Healthcare: Engaging Staff by Building Daily Lean Management Systems.

His article begins: "In my years serving as continuous improvement leader and consultant for some great organizations, I've discovered something consistent: Improvement will not happen on its own."

Podcast #297 – JJ Villarreal, Ed.D. on #Lean in Public Education

My guest for Episode #297 is John (JJ) Villareal, Ed.D., the superintendent of the Rockwall I.S.D. here in the Dallas area.

In this podcast, we talk about the applications of Lean in education, how to move beyond what JJ calls "the behavior waste of judgment and blame," and how visiting a factory was inspiring and helpful, among other topics.

Even if you don't work in education, I hope you'll be inspired by this podcast.

What We’re Looking Forward to Learning at the Toyota Plant Tour

Tomorrow, with the entire KaiNexus team, I'm going to visit the Toyota truck plant in San Antonio, the plant referred TMMTX. The 15 of us will be there in closed toed shoes and all other required clothing to learn about the Toyota Production System, Kaizen (continuous improvement), and Lean.

I've blogged about it on the KaiNexus blog. I asked the KaiNexus team to say a little bit about what they hope to learn in the visit and you can read their comments it here.

In this post, I share a 24-minute tour preview webinar that I put together, links to past tour blog posts, and more.

The Response to the Hawaii False Alarm Can’t End With Firing Someone

Saturday, you might have seen the news about a "false alarm" push alert that was sent to many iPhones and other smart phones in Hawaii. An alert was also sent out over many TV channels through the Emergency Response System.

Is the response one that focuses on blame and punishment? Or is it focused on understanding how systems fail and how to improve them to prevent future recurrence?

How does this all apply to your organization?

Eisenhower on Leadership, Sounds like a Lean Thinker to Me

You might think that "command and control" leadership styles are a thing of the past. But, old habits die slowly and many leaders today still seem to have a mental model that longs for a workforce that would "just do what they're told."

What did former President and General Dwight D. Eisenhower say about leaders who are "hitting people over the head?" I blog about that here...

Podcast #296 – Dr. Zeev N. Kain on Lean and Clinical Variation

Joining me for Episode #296 of the podcast is Zeev N. Kain, MD. MBA, FAAP. He is a physician and a Chancellor's Professor at the University of California, Irvine.

He has many additional roles and titles, including:

Director, System Redesign & Value Based Care for the UC-Irvine Health Policy Research Institute
Executive Director of the UCI-Yale Center on Stress & Health
President of the American College of Perioperative Medicine

Dr. Kain is "recognized as an international expert in the clinical management of perioperative fear and anxiety, and management of children undergoing invasive medical procedures. His research addresses major dilemmas encountered in the management of affected children."

He's also an advocate for Lean and Six Sigma and the connections to reducing "clinical variation" in healthcare. So, that's what we're talking about today.

Two Data Points Don’t Make a Trend: Why Headlines Mislead Us

Gun pointed downward, hidden behind a tape measure, with a large grey downward arrow overlay.

When looking at data, whether it's the number of homicides in San Antonio or some of our workplace metrics, it's tempting to overreact to a "headline" that says a measure went down in 2017 compared to 2016. But do two data points really help us understand what the real trend is? This blog post explores an approach we can use to make better decisions about our data.

Lean Healthcare Innovation at Atrius Health: Building a “Care in Place” Model

My guests for Episode #295 are Sarah Steinberg of Atrius Health and Ted Toussaint, a healthcare innovation strategist, formerly of Atrius Health. Ted is also a faculty member for Catalysis. 

Today, we're talking about some innovative work that they led at Atrius, using a variety of modern product development and innovation methods, including Lean, Lean Startup, Design Thinking, and more to create a new "Care in Place" model for home-based patient care that helps reduce trips to a clinic or hospital. Their work was featured in this HBR article: "How Atrius Health Is Making the Shift from Volume to Value."

Time for a Holiday Break, Relaxation, and Reflection – and “Gemba Claus”

I hope it's been a great year for you, personally and professionally. It's a time to relax, celebrate, be appreciative, and reflect. "Lean thinkers" like to reflect as part of our normal practice and our improvement work. The end of year is a good time to reflect on the year and to think about the year ahead.

As I share each year...

It's an annual tradition, dating back to 2009... my annual posting of the parody song "Gemba Claus is Comin' to Town."

Listen here:

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