All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Monday is Labor Day, a holiday here in the United States. Some nursing unions support Lean in healthcare, while others are in opposition. My stance is been that the unions should love Lean (since it improves the workplace for their members),…
Chris Jerry, founder of the Emily Jerry Foundation, continues his conversation on why patient safety demands system change — not blame — and why he chose to publicly forgive the pharmacist convicted in his daughter’s death. Listen to the Episode…
Last week, I published my first cartoon collaboration with a skilled artist (and medical assistant), Carrie Schurman. You might call that cartoon “Strategy Dog-ployment.” None of us expect this to be a weekly thing, but sometimes you strike when inspiration hits.…
As I wrote about in Healthcare Kaizen, one of my favorite Lean transformation stories is the realization of an experienced medical technologist, John, that Lean leadership was about being “a coach, not a cop.” He had repeatedly said “no” to…
If you know me, you know I’m a huge fan of The Simpsons. The show has been on TV for 25 of my 40 years. The cable channel FXX is having an “Every Simpsons Ever” marathon, showing all 552 episodes…
I was nominated to do the ALS “Ice Bucket Challenge.” I think I was officially the last person to do so, judging from my Facebook feed. I made a donation to the ALS Association and also made this video. I’m doing…
Here is a recording of our most recent KaiNexus webinar: Getting Started with Continuous Improvement: Lessons and Reflections Dr. Greg Jacobson and I reflect on our first year being involved in continuous improvement. Greg’s was at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.…
There are certainly many serious problems in healthcare. Let’s look at nursing, in particular. It’s a rewarding job, but it’s far more frustrating for nurses than it needs to be. Nurses often don’t have enough time in the day (or…
People often talk about the need for senior leadership support for Lean. If we’re going to really transform our culture, workplace, and performance, “quality starts in the boardroom,” as Dr. Deming said. Lean is not about “fixing” the employees —…
I held the first “Lean Coffee” gathering for San Antonio healthcare folks in June and we’re going to do another one in September, on the 24th (changed from the 25th). It’s a great format that I learned from Jim Benson.…
There have been plenty of headlines and updates since I first blogged about the controversy over Lean healthcare in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan (see my previous posts here). From my outside perspective, there are some good things happening. I…
I’ve had some cartoons on the blog before, including a few “Doofus & Leanies.” I can’t draw at all, believe me (although I sometimes do my own simple digital graphics). I’ve been fortunate to partner up with other artists before…
