All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
I first blogged about the possibility in March – doing a weeklong study trip to Japan with Lean Healthcare professionals, in partnership with Kaizen Institute. The dates are set for November 11 to 17 and we have people signed up…
A number of readers have sent me a link to the latest New Yorker missive from Dr. Atul Gawande (whose work I greatly admire). It’s titled “Big Med: Restaurant chains have managed to combine quality control, cost control, and innovation.…
Hat tip to Mike S. for pointing out this HBR article “Why “I’m Sorry” Doesn’t Always Translate.” The piece talks about the differences in cultural norms about apologies in countries ranging from Japan, China, India, and the United States. I’m…
TL;DR: Long before Lean and Kaizen became common language in healthcare, Don Berwick argued in a 1989 New England Journal of Medicine article that improvement requires leaders to stop blaming “bad apples” and start fixing systems. His message–replace fear with…
This isn’t a story about my frustration with a State of Texas office… it’s mainly a story about a failed “kaizen”-style improvement attempt that a good-natured state employee would have liked to have made – but yeah, it would have…
One thing I have enjoyed in the past few years is meeting and working with more people with direct experience working at Toyota (including here in San Antonio, my new home). There are always gems and brilliant nuggets that come…
Hat tip to my dad who saw this commercial on TV back home in Detroit. It’s an ad from the Henry Ford Health System, trumpeting their improvements in reducing errors and infections. They say if hospitals around the world adopted…
I hope you’ll join me and a lot of Lean friends at the 2012 Northeast Shingo Prize Conference, to be held in Worcester, MA September 25 and 26. I’m honored to be part of a great program (PDF), with keynote…
My guest for episode #154 is Rick Morrow, a director at Healthcare Performance Partners and author of the book Utilizing the 3Ms of Process Improvement in Healthcare: A Roadmap to High Reliability Using Lean, Six Sigma, and Change Leadership, from…
I’ve been to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan before — in February. It was a very cold, snowy place, to say the least! But, there are many warm, caring people who are using Lean management to improve the hospital working environment and patient…
Ah, the perks of subscribing to the GBMP’s YouTube channel… this might be basically a world premiere, breaking news video release. I *never* thought I’d see and hear Bruce “Toast” Hamilton singing Devo. And wearing the hat. And cracking a…
MD Anderson Cancer Center shares a lot of great material online and at conferences. here is an audio presentation (with slides) by Doris Quinn, PhD, Director, Process Improvement and Quality Education titled: W. Edwards Deming: The Man and the Message.…
