I get annoyed by corporate euphemisms, such as referring to people as “resources,” the term “right-sizing” for layoffs, and the type of jargon and babble parodied in the Weird Al song “Mission Statement.” Using unclear language can intentionally mask and hide…
I recently wrote about my exploration of the collected papers of the late Don Ephlin, a UAW senior leader and a professor of mine at MIT. In that first post, I shared a few quotes scattered throughout the original NUMMI Team…
Joining me for Episode #263 is another returning guest, Pascal Dennis (@AuthorPascal on Twitter). He was previously a guest on Episodes #96 and #239, talking about two of his previous books (see a full list here). Today, we’re talking about his…
I’ve gotten to know to know Harry Kenworthy (pictured at left) over the past few years after meeting at a conference (the Northeast L.E.A.N. conference, I believe). The next Northeast L.E.A.N. Conference is October 4 and 5. It’s a great…
I want to preface this post by saying it’s mostly about questions, not answers. I’ve had many readers and acquaintances ask me about what’s been going on at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle. The short answer is: “I don’t…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more This episode is sponsored by StoreSMART. My guest for episode #255 is Mark DeLuzio, author of the recently released book Turn Waste into Wealth: How to Find Cash in Every Corner of…
Back in September 2015, I wrote a post (“Learning to be Lean” – An Inside Look at a Rapid Improvement Event“) that linked to a Modern Healthcare article about a Rapid Improvement Event at Presence Health in Illinois. The piece…
I love stories of humility and customer focus in healthcare. Let me share two such stories with you today. Oh, and, I ended up sharing a story of mine that’s related and might just recount a few screw ups on…
Dr. Gary Kaplan is the CEO of Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center, considered one of the world leaders in the adoption of Lean healthcare principles. He wrote the foreword for my book The Executive Guide to Healthcare Kaizen. He co-authored a recent…
Another question I get thrown at me very often is something along the lines of “How do we get more buy in for ______” with that space being filled with Lean, Kaizen, 5S, using the EMR system, improvement, or any number of terms. If you do a Google search for Lean “lack of buy in”...
It's very frustrating when I hear people in healthcare complain that their hospital or health system has equated Lean with cost savings -- only focusing on cost reduction or primarily focusing on it...
How many times do we hear people say things like “We don’t have time for Lean” or “We don’t have time for Kaizen“? It happens a lot, right? As I’ve said before (and this video) a “lack of time” is a problem to solve...
