Today, we’re looking back at a podcast that I did back in 2015 with Alan G. Robinson, PhD, co-author of many books including The Idea-Driven Organization. I’m talking about Kaizen today at the Studer Group annual “What’s Right in Healthcare” conference, so…
My guest today for episode #284 of the podcast is Dr. Margaret (Margie) Balfour, the lead author of an article, published in the The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, titled “Using Lean to Rapidly and Sustainably Transform a…
Mark’s Note: Today’s guest post was written in partnership with the Society for Health Systems, an organization I highly recommend to those who work in healthcare improvement. I recommend and participate in their annual conference and I hope you’ll join…
Mark’s Note: Last month, I was notified about Prof. Jeff Liker’s retirement from the University of Michigan after 35 years. I wasn’t able to attend the reception for him, unfortunately. But, my friend and former J&J colleague Debra Levantrosser was…
At the recent Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit, there were thought provoking presentations... and we had many discussions about the role of incremental improvement vs. redesign or transformation. And, lots of discussions about imitating vs. innovating... so I explore those themes in this post.
I’m at the 8th annual Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit in Palm Springs, California. Follow on Twitter using the hashtag #HCSummit2017. If you’re here at the event, please say hello! I love meeting blog readers and podcast listeners. I’ll be adding…
We don't have money for improvement initiatives, but we do have money to burn on a daily basis due to poor quality and bad systems?
When did the term "concrete head" start getting thrown around in Lean circles? Do people still use this label today? Is it helpful? Should we agree that the term is disrespectful and counter productive?
Art Byrne's latest book, The Lean Turnaround Action Guide, has a lot of great tips that he's trying to share, CEO to CEO. How many CEOs are reading this book and heeding his advice, in manufacturing or in healthcare?
I continue sharing documents from the Don Ephlin library archive. What did Ford and the UAW learn when they visited Japan in 1981? Many of the things that made Japanese industry successful are the same things that make organizations successful with Lean today, including in healthcare.
Sunday is the Super Bowl. Past Super Bowl games and telecasts have led to some Lean-related posts. Below is a collection of those posts. What will happen this Sunday? Another example of error proofing (or a lack thereof)? An example…
My favorite book, as I've written about before, is not a "Lean book" -- it's Understanding Variation: The Key to Managing Chaos by Donald J. Wheeler, PhD. It might look like a book about statistics...