Mark Graban’s newer Lean Blog Audio podcast series with “audiobook” style readings of selected blog posts. Learn how to subscribe.
It’s a pretty common facilitation technique to do a “plus / delta” discussion at the end of a meeting, exercise, etc. In the plus column go the things that went well, were enjoyable, were helpful, and should repeated. The “deltas”…
This article caught my attention the other day: “Philly VA employees ask for golf shirts in suggestion box for improving veteran care.“ I hesitate to throw stones, but there are some very predictable dynamics involved here… and I will provide…
It’s easy to point fingers at others who don’t do what they know they’re supposed to do. Why don’t those nurses and doctors properly clean their hands when they enter and leave every patient room? Why do some surgeons still…
I’ve been reading a preview copy of the upcoming book (due out in April) by Dr. Bob Wachter, The Digital Doctor. It’s fantastic and provides a real-world, even-handed take on healthcare IT, including EMR/EHR systems. What’s the promise, what works,…
For today’s “Throwback Thursday,” I recently re-watched parts of a DVD I helped produce a few years back for the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value — Thinking Lean at ThedaCare DVD: Strategy Deployment, Alignment & Leadership. In the video, ThedaCare’s CEO, Dr.…
Earlier this month, for the College Football Playoff championship game, I wrote about “Lessons from the Football Coaching and Leadership Styles of the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes.” I had found articles about both teams in the name of…
My wife and I were late to the wildly popular podcast “Serial,” but we listened to the first six episodes while traveling over the holidays. I ran hot and cold on the serialized non-fiction story about a murder… it was…
Last weekend, at a patient safety conference, I heard a physician talk about “robust process improvement” and this, thankfully, included an endorsement of Lean methods. That’s the good news. The bad news was that the physician who was presenting trotted…
Last week, I wrote a post (part 1) looking back at our visit to the Toyota Tsutsumi factory that was part of our Japan tour that took place two months ago now. See previous posts in this series. I’m going to try to…
I’ve been overdue in writing more posts about our Japan tour that took place two months ago now. See previous posts in this series. I’m going to try to do one post a week on this topic. It’s always fascinating…
A friend sent me a link to this article, “7 cultural concepts we don’t have in the U.S.,” and he told me to check out item #5 in the list – Kaizen in Japan. By the way, if you ever…
TL;DR: Working with a personal trainer offered unexpected lessons about coaching, learning, patience, and improvement. Many of the same principles apply to Lean: you can’t learn just by reading, encouragement matters, progress takes time, and effective coaching helps people push…