All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
You might be considered “wonky” for enjoying the topics discussed here at LeanBlog.org… but that’s fine. This is a safe environment for being wonky about Lean and improvement. From Vox.com, Sarah Kliff normally does a great job covering healthcare topics,…
I was asked an interesting and thought-provoking question the other day: “Are there any hospitals where you’d suggest not trying to adopt Lean or situations where it might be counterproductive or harmful?”This question came from a PhD management professor who…
I’ve been a big fan of Dr. Atul Gawande’s writing for a long time (see previous posts about him and his work). His latest article is out, which I was able to read last night. It just came out (or…
I wanted to share a recent Kaizen improvement story that I heard from a hospital. Great things can happen when we: Imagine you’re a new mother and you’re recovering in a room after your postpartum care. You’ve been cared for…
I learned about this the other today via Twitter (hat tip to @agile_memes), but today is “World No Resources Day” (see hashtag #WorldNoResourcesDay). See the small website at and their thoughts on “why should I join in?” I’m not sure who is behind…
Mark’s note: Today’s guest post is by Gert Linthout, from Belgium. Gert and I were part of the same Lean healthcare study trip to Japan back in 2012. He was the co-creator of this creative video on Kaizen that I featured in this…
As I sometimes do, I’m going to close out a bunch of browser tabs (which makes my Mac run faster) and I’ll do that by sharing some articles that caught my eye but maybe don’t merit full blog posts of…
I was quoted in two articles that appeared in “Today’s Hospitalist”: Reducing Waste The author, David A. Frenz, MD, points out that it’s a “collective delusion” that the U.S. spending so much more on healthcare leads to safer or higher…
Last Wednesday and Thursday, I collaborated with Joe Swartz and a countless number of his colleagues to host 24 visitors from different health systems (and an Indiana state government organization) to learn about the “Kaizen” approach to continuous improvement first hand…
To the left is a young baby me. I don’t think I was thinking about Dr. Deming as a baby, but thankfully my parents had a lot of intrinsic motivation to take care of me! One of the many things…
Sometimes, continuous improvement sparks something bigger than anyone expected. In this story from Franciscan Health’s NICU, a nurse named Kelly turned a heartbreaking event–a baby developing a pressure ulcer–into an inventive solution that made care safer, easier, and more human.…
Joe Swartz and I have been working for a while to put together our first onsite Kaizen workshop at his health system, Franciscan St. Francis Health – all day tomorrow and Thursday morning. We’re excited that the workshop / conference sold…
