All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
In 2009, I wrote about a nurses’ union in New Brunswick that supported Lean because they realized this methodology could help reduce waiting times and improve working conditions. It’s win Yet, as part of the recent politicized Lean healthcare brew-ha-ha in…
The price paid for most management consulting work is based on either a daily rate or some variation of a flat-rate fee based on what is being delivered. Enterprise software pricing is also often fixed. In both cases, the client…
What Henry Ford wrote about hospitals in 1922 sounds surprisingly modern. He argued for reducing nurses’ wasted motion, designing around patients, standardizing rooms, challenging professional hierarchy, and treating every process as experimental. More than a century later, many of those…
TL;DR: Lean thinking teaches us not to blame individuals for mistakes that are caused by broken systems. In healthcare, this mindset aligns closely with Just Culture and patient safety principles: human error is inevitable, fear makes performance worse, and real…
Since the healthcare improvement work I do is apolitical and non-partisan, I’m generally not one to butt into the political affairs of Canada or other countries. But, when I hear complaints about Lean or when it’s being called a “scam”…
After some supporters of the Saskatchewan Lean healthcare efforts reached out to me, I’ve been trying to follow everything that’s being said and written – which is hard to do (just try a Google news search). There are many facets to…
Since today is the first full day of the NCAA Men’s Basketball tournament, many of you might be checking scores or watching games instead of thinking Lean. So, here are a few past blog posts that connect basketball to situations…
I wrote an article for LinkedIn yesterday about the recent GM ignition problem controversy and recall. I commented mainly on the video put out by new CEO Mary Barra (which I encourage you to watch). As a former GM employee,…
Listen My guest for episode 196 is Jim Huntzinger, founder of Lean Frontiers. Today, we’re talking about the Training Within Industry methodology and his new website WhatIsTWI.com. We are discussing topics including what a typical TWI “journey” looks like for…
It’s easy for an organization to say they are “doing Lean” or they have “started a Lean transformation.” They might hire a consultant or put out a press release. Maybe there’s an optimistic (but premature) news article about how the…
Yesterday, Jim Benson and I were facilitating a “Lean for Knowledge Work” class at Geekdom in San Antonio and had a great time with attendees from healthcare and high tech companies. We facilitated some “Lean Coffee” discussion sessions in a…
A big theme in Lean management is the idea of “leading with humility.” The first chapter of an excellent book written by Toyota employees and leaders from Georgetown, Kentucky, is focused heavily on leading with humility. This must be important…
