All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
I made this short three-minute video for KaiNexus where I try to succinctly answer the question, “What is Kaizen?” Click the thumbnail below to view the video and/or to read the transcript: Please leave a comment on the KaiNexus website,…
Today’s post is being hosted by the Lean Enterprise Institute and their “Lean Post” blog… click on the headline below or the image to read: “Standardization is a Countermeasure, Never the Goal“ It’s a post that encourages people to “ask…
We all know the beaver is “the engineer of the animal kingdom.” That’s why MIT has a beaver as a mascot… It’s an engineer who likes to build things and is generally nocturnal, an apt description of MIT students. A…
“Weird Al” Yanokvic skewers corporate buzzwords in this new song and music video. He also skewers the now-tired (in my opinion) “hand writing on a white board” style of corporate videos, which I think is even more brilliant of him.…
I was happy to see this article in FORTUNE’s recent issue: “Brad Smith, Intuit CEO: How To Be A Great Leader: Get Out Of The Way.” Smith (@IntuitBrad) talks about the Lean Startup concept often called “getting out of the…
Listen: Episode #205 is a conversation with Joe Schnur, VP Business Development at Intelligent M, a company that “designs data-driven hand hygiene compliance improvement solutions for hospitals that dramatically reduce healthcare-acquired infections and their associated costs.” Joe and I share a…
Last month, I saw a headline flying around Twitter about a survey that says a majority of hospital pharmacies are embracing Lean. A statement like that, of course, begs the question of what “embracing” means and we might also ask…
I recently saw a tweet that referenced a May 2014 that was sent to President Obama and his administration: “Report to the President – Better HealthCare and Lower Costs: Accelerating Improvement Through Systems Engineering.” The report was written by the “President’s Council…
Joining me today for Episode #204 is Paul Plsek, and we’re talking about his excellent book (a Shingo Research Award recipient this year) titled Accelerating Health Care Transformation with Lean and Innovation: The Virginia Mason Experience. Virginia Mason, of course,…
At KaiNexus, Dr. Greg Jacobson and I have been doing new webinars each month (see the library here). Our most recent one was hosted by our friends and partners at Gemba Academy, so thanks to them for that and all…
TL;DR: PICK charts can help prioritize Kaizen ideas, but they shouldn’t shut down creativity. Instead of letting “Kibosh” ideas die, leaders should coach, simplify, and adapt them–shifting difficult ideas toward easier, high-impact solutions and keeping continuous improvement moving. The so-called…
I had a great conversation with my fellow Lean healthcare blogger, Brian Buck, the other day. We talk about once a month or so… Brian claims I am mentoring him, but it’s a great two-way exchange and discussion that I…
