All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
The Thanksgiving weekend was a great opportunity to catch up on some reading and viewing that had accumulated in my browser and inbox. One thing I really enjoyed was a conversation (in advance of next week’s Lean Startup conference) between…
Last week, while in Canada, I saw this article in the Globe & Mail: “The power of the startup mindset.” I was surprised that the word “Lean” didn’t appear in the headline (there was physical space for it in the…
Mark’s Note: Today brings another guest post from Joe Swartz, my co-author for our Healthcare Kaizen series of books. Read his previous posts here. I also did a podcast with him about his experiences at the Franciscan St. Francis…
Today is, of course, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I wasn’t alive on that horrible day in Dallas, but I’ve visited the site recently, when living in the DFW area, and I know there’s…
In the Lean methodology, building upon the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, we work hard to shift away from “naming, blaming, and shaming.” Dr. John Toussaint is one of many who provide alternatives to the “blame and shame” approach…
TL;DR: Understanding Variation by Donald J. Wheeler is the most influential book in my Lean journey. It taught me how to distinguish signal from noise in data, avoid overreacting to normal variation, and focus leaders on improving systems instead of…
Mark’s Note: Today’s guest post is by Joe Swartz, my co-author for the books Healthcare Kaizen and The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. Joe will be a regular contributor in the future and I also did a podcast with him…
Thankfully, it was nothing harmful or that dangerous… but I committed a medical mistake on myself last Saturday. I tweaked my lower back last Wednesday – something that, thankfully, isn’t a chronic problem (but I did just turn 40). It…
I grew up just outside of Detroit, so I’m always pulling for the city to turn things around. The newly-elected mayor, Mike Duggan, is the former CEO of Detroit Medical Center. Back in 2009, I blogged about a radio commercial…
Last month, Joe Swartz and I presented a webinar for the newly renamed Shingo Institute about our Healthcare Kaizen books. The Shingo Institute’s new logo is at left and you can watch a video about their new name and expanded…
One of the more trivial things I saw on my recent vacation to Scotland and England was a badly designed toilet on a Virgin train. My wife and I were on our way to Birmingham to do a Range Rover…
Today is Veterans Day in the U.S. and it’s also Remembrance Day in Canada, the UK, and the Commonwealth countries. The poppy pin is worn as a symbol of Remembrance Day (as I wore, at left, last week while in…
