Apparently, we’re at the time of year when companies send you the “we’re sorry, but we’re forced to raise prices” letter or email. Nobody is forced to raise prices. It’s always a choice. Yes, it’s a choice. Case: Home Alarm…
tl;dr: Human error is inevitable–even for experienced professionals. Forgetting socks on a work trip is harmless, but similar mistakes in healthcare or organizations can cause real harm. The lesson isn’t to “be more careful,” but to design better systems that…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Why do we have to wake up patients to take vital signs every 4 hours if they are stable? Why does a patient need daily labs if there results have been stable for days? Because…
tl;dr Lean should reduce hospital overwork and unsafe understaffing — not justify them. True Lean, as practiced at Toyota, treats overburden (muri) as a serious problem, prioritizes patient safety and staff well-being, and invests in understanding real work before setting…
The “Miracle on the Hudson” was 10 years ago today. Read my blog post about hearing Sully speak at an event last year. I got my first (and only) iPad in early 2014. I use many Apple products, but I’m…
tl;dr: Toyota’s long-term success comes from treating Lean as a people development system, not a toolbox. By prioritizing learning, coaching, and growth over short-term results, Toyota builds stronger capabilities–and better outcomes–over time. When most organizations talk about Lean, they start…
TL;DR: Headlines calling College Football Playoff ratings “all-time lows” are technically true but misleading. When viewed with Process Behavior Charts, the ratings show routine variation, not a meaningful decline. Overexplaining year-to-year changes wastes time and distracts leaders from improving the…
Last week, Herb Kelleher passed away. He was the legendary founder, CEO, and Chairman of Southwest Airlines. Southwest posted a nice tribute photo of him on the front of their website and also put up a special website HonoringHerb.org. Kelleher…
Happy New Year! It’s a time of year when we think about improvement and goals for the year. We do this in our organizations and we do so on a personal level. Today’s blog post is a transcript of a…
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. You can…
Process behavior charts can be used for more than tracking performance over time. In this post, I apply PBCs to compare knee surgeons’ complication rates–and show why many apparent differences are just noise, not meaningful signals. This post is a…
TL;DR:Process behavior charts help leaders compare hospitals (or any organizations) without overreacting to rankings or small differences. By separating signal from noise, they show when performance differences are meaningful — and when they are simply the predictable result of a…
