All posts from Mark Graban’s LeanBlog.org, including podcasts, announcements, articles, and more.
Listen: Podcast #128 turns the tables a bit, as your host Mark Graban is, this time, interviewed by Dirk Dusharme and Ryan Day from the online video show “Quality Digest Live.” Thanks to Quality Digest, I’m able to share the…
I found this idea for discussion in a LinkedIn group and I was curious to hear what my readers and this community would say. How would you describe what you do professionally in just three words? My first thought was…
A note from 2026: I wrote a fuller version of this same argument recently, with more sources and a fairer look at what Six Sigma actually offers. This post stays up because the comments below are still some of the…
Here’s a video with Eric Ries giving a good overview of key points on Lean Startups. I’d urge you to watch, even if you’re not involved in startups. There are some familiar and timeless Lean themes and concepts. Check out…
After last week’s piece on “putting the continuous back into continuous improvement,” I had another article published this past week. This new article was published in the publication “Hospitals & Health Networks,” co-authored with Rob Harding, and it’s called “Cut…
Dr. Richard Shannon shares how Lean and Toyota-inspired methods dramatically reduced hospital-acquired infections at Allegheny General and the University of Pennsylvania. This episode explores leadership, standardized work, and why disciplined problem solving saves lives and reduces costs. Podcast #127 is…
In my segment, we talk about Lean in healthcare, including my recent article on Healthcare Kaizen, quality and patient safety improvement, unique challenges in healthcare, and more.
“Progress isn’t made by early risers. It’s made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something.” – Robert Heinlein, American science fiction writer (July 7, 1907 – May 8, 1988) With “kaizen,” the Japanese word meaning “change…
I’m in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan for a few days for the Michigan Lean Consortium annual conference. It’s my home state, so it’s great to see the collaboration around lean healthcare and lean, more generally. Michigan, along with other industrial…
Thanks to Quality Digest for publishing an article I co-authored with Gregory Jacobson, MD, a co-founder and the CEO of KaiNexus, a software startup I am working with as we go to market with web-based technology that helps initiate, manage,…
Bob Lutz spent 47 years in the auto industry at GM, Ford, BMW, and Chrysler, and in this 2011 conversation he talks about his book Car Guys vs. Bean Counters, the “blanderizer” effect on product design, and why he thinks…
On his blog, John Toussaint shared this letter from ThedaCare CEO Dean Gruner to all employees. Toussaint said the letter is inspired by Paul O’Neill and his thoughts on patient safety (you can hear my podcast with O’Neill here, as…
