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GE Gets a Lean CEO, From the Outside: Larry Culp

Jet lag, even well managed and planned for, meant I was awake early on a Sunday morning. Over breakfast, I read more about news from last week, that GE had fired their CEO John Flannery after 14 months and replaced him with a relatively new board member, Larry Culp.

Culp is GE's first outsider CEO hire in their 100+ year history. So who is this guy and why did they hire him?

Culp was CEO of Danaher, a company that's quite often held up as the best non-Toyota Lean company out there. And they're an American company. Danaher, through its Danaher Business System (DBS) approach, uses Lean as a business strategy in a way that's very different than Toyota. Danaher has acquired companies and brought DBS and Lean in as a way to turn around and improve those businesses.

Mark Graban on Measures of Success: Understanding Variation, Reacting Less, and Leading Better

Jamie Flinchbaugh and Mark Graban

oday's episode is the second time that friend and podcast guest Jamie Flinchbaugh has turned the tables by playing host to interview me about my new book, Measures of Success: React Less, Lead Better, Improve More, which has recently been the #1 best selling book in Amazon's Total Quality Management category.

Jamie is very knowledgeable on these topics, so he was a great person to interview me and to have more of a conversation about choosing the right metrics and then managing them the right way. I hope you enjoy the conversation and future podcasts will return to the usual format where I interview guests and try to let them do most of the talking.

Can Lean Improve Spinal Fusion Surgery? Is This the Right Definition or Use of PDSA?

Here's a blog post written by three physicians:

Can the auto industry improve spinal fusion surgery?
It's interesting that they so closely associate Lean with the auto industry when, at this point, Lean is used in virtually every industry and setting. That's why I used the word "Lean" in the title of my blog post here.

They are also authors of a journal article titled "Application of Lean Principles to Neurosurgical Procedures: The Case of Lumbar Spinal Fusion Surgery, a Literature Review and Pilot Series," published in Operative Neurosurgery.

In my post, I comment on their work...

Robert Maurer on Mastering Fear, Deming, and Motivational Interviewing

Why do people fear change? Why are adults afraid of talking about their fears? My guest today is eminently qualified to answer such questions and to provide advice that can help us. My guest for Episode #315 is Robert Maurer, Ph.D., author of the outstanding book Mastering Fear.

Bob was previously my guest for Episode #153, where we discussed one of his earlier books on Kaizen, One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way. By the way, earlier this year I noticed that his other book The Spirit of Kaizen was one of the few books by an American author that Toyota was selling at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya (see photo below).

I hope you enjoy today's discussion on Mastering Fear. As the subtitle says, can we "harness emotion to achieve excellence in health, work, and relationships"?

The Carrot and the Stick on Steroids

I haven't done a Throwback Thursday in a while, but here's a new one.

I was reminded of an article I wrote for LinkedIn back in 2013:

The Carrot and The Stick "On Steroids"
The article begins:

There are a few cliché expressions that I've heard a lot of recently at healthcare conferences. Some of these clichés really need to be retired, including the phrases "carrot and the stick" and "on steroids."

Operational Excellence Mixtape: August 3, 2018

Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! Subscribe to get these directly from Ryan via email. Healthcare – Creating Value for Patient Not surprisingly, healthcare organizations with poor cultures of rigid…

From Pets to Vets: Applying Lean in Unexpected Places [Podcast Preview & Webinar Recording]

I played host for a recent webinar that we're hosting on Monday, May 7, featuring a presentation by my friend Chip Ponsford, III, DVM (pictured at left), a veterinarian who has become quite a strong Lean advocate in recent years. 

We've taught Lean together at a Veterinary Medicine conference (as I blogged about here) and I've been collaborating with Chip on his LeanVets.com blog.