All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
TL;DR: W. Edwards Deming and Toyota each landed on 14 core principles, independently. They overlap most around long-term thinking, leadership responsibility, respect for people, and continuous improvement. The shared lesson holds in 2026: real improvement comes from disciplined, connected management…
I’ve been talking to a lot of healthcare organizations about Kaizen and continuous improvement. There are many organizations embracing the methods that Joe Swartz and I wrote about in Healthcare Kaizen. I think there’s some momentum building out there for…
I recently saw this headline in the London Evening Standard: “Nurses struggle to ‘get the job done’ due to staff shortages and lack of time on 12 hour shifts.” The article starts with jumping to solutions (needing/wanting more staff), but…
Listen: My guest for episode #165 is Chris Vogel, President & CEO of Compass Affiliates. I’ve met Chris before at an LEI Lean Transformation Summit and he is doing a learning session at this year’s Summit, to be held March…
Many of you who took my reader survey (still open and feedback welcome, prizes gone) mentioned that you liked this style of post with links to stuff I’ve been reading. I am to please… Some links to web articles I…
NBC’s “30 Rock” Six Sigma satire was always sharp, ending its broadcast run on Thursday. The show left us with a few last Six Sigma jokes, including the “Wheel of Domination” that includes not only vertical integration, but also horizontal…
Listen: My guest for episode #164 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Rachelle Schultz, CEO of Winona Health (based in Winona, Minnesota). Rachelle was a part of the CEO panel that I moderated at last year’s Lean Healthcare Transformation…
Reminder: Please take my reader survey and enter to win some Lean prizes. My friends at LEI have a new book out by Judy Worth, Tom Shuker, and Beau Keyte: “Perfecting Patient Journeys.” The book appears to focus on Lean…
My reader survey (with prizes) is still open through Friday. I recently stumbled across the movie Meet the Fockers on TV recently and was reminded of the “circle of trust” (Robert DeNiro, pictured at left, see video here). It’s…
tl;dr: “Best Doctors” lists often mislead patients–the fine print literally says they don’t prove who’s best. These rankings boost marketing revenue, not medical quality. Until transparent outcome data is available, patients are choosing based on popularity, not performance. Here is…
Don’t forget my reader survey – share your feedback and have a chance at some great prizes. In November, I blogged about a panel at the Lab Quality Confab that included Dr. Richard Zarbo from Henry Ford Health System (see…
It’s been eight years since I launched my blog… January 2005. Then it was “Lean Manufacturing Blog” at the kanban.blogspot.com address… it’s now “LeanBlog.org” as things have evolved in both the site’s design and content. My primary interests have shifted…
