Mark’s Note: I’ve known Ryan McCormack for many years now, thanks to his previous work in Lean healthcare and his attendance at Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit events. He’s been sending out an excellent curated email on Operational Excellence. Click here to sign up to receive them via Substack (these are separate from any Lean Blog emails you might receive). I asked Ryan if I could archive these emails to give them a more permanent home on the web… and he agreed. Thanks!
News, articles, books, podcasts, and videos about how to make the workplace better. This Operational Excellence Mixtape underscores a simple but often-missed point: new technologies like AI may change how quickly we generate ideas, but real improvement still depends on…
Summary: Today’s “mixtape” post brings together timely ideas on continuous improvement, leadership, productivity, and workplace culture. From avoiding “blank slate” metrics and rethinking PDCA/PDSA debates to learning from small, human-centered improvements like the Moylan Arrow, this edition highlights practical ways…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape explores how technology, leadership, and culture intersect in continuous improvement. Topics range from AI-driven quality engineering and jidoka in an AI era to healthcare process improvement, humility in leadership, and the importance…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape highlights practical thinking on value creation, continuous improvement, and leadership in an AI-influenced world. From empowering nurses at Cleveland Clinic and using AI as a problem-solving coach to avoiding common change mistakes…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape focuses on what real, sustainable improvement actually requires: leadership commitment, respect for people, and disciplined learning over time. From reframing “continuous improvement” as everyday improvement, to lessons from Larry Culp’s lived Lean…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape highlights how Lean thinking continues to deliver real results when it’s treated as a management system, not a toolkit. From GE Aerospace’s measurable gains under Larry Culp, to Toyota’s application of flow…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape emphasizes that real improvement depends more on mindset, leadership, and system design than on tools alone. From lessons on problem-solving behaviors and the persistent challenge of patient harm in healthcare to examples…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape examines why true operational excellence remains elusive despite decades of tools, frameworks, and good intentions. From reflections on learning organizations at LEGO and leadership discipline at Costco, to the hidden costs of…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape explores productivity, leadership, and change through a systems lens. From Canada’s long-standing productivity challenge and lessons from Toyota Racing Development, to breaking firefighting cultures, rethinking change management, and supporting leaders through the…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape explores strategy, flow, and culture in environments where improvement is harder than it looks. From how organizations can “play to win” without direct competition, to learning through cardboard simulations in healthcare design,…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape focuses on disciplined thinking, ethical use of data, and people-centered improvement in an AI-enabled world. From reminders that data have no meaning without context and the risks of p-hacking, to human-centered approaches…
This edition of Ryan McCormack’s Operational Excellence Mixtape explores how organizations build improvement capability through goals, learning, and culture–not gimmicks or shortcuts. From designing effective team goals and learning from the long history of suggestion systems, to insights on change…
