Originally published May 4, 2016. Updated in 2026 “Patients are not cars.” I’ve heard that objection for twenty years now. It usually arrives as a conversation ender rather than a conversation starter. And the thing is, it’s true. Patients are…
Mark’s note: Here’s the last of three change strategies in a series by a guest blogger, Paul Serafino. You can click here to read earlier posts in this series about leaders who have no one to formally lead. Next week, I’ll publish Paul’s…
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…
Recent lessons from NICU innovation, primary care access, fan safety in baseball, and ongoing VA wait-time gaming This post is a collection of recent updates and follow-ups to topics I’ve written about before–spanning healthcare improvement, patient access, safety in sports,…
Thanks to my Amazon Kindle app on my iPad, I get to carry much of my book collection with me. Sometimes, while on the road, I end up eating dinner alone with my iPad. Recently, I was in a Japanese…
Mark’s note: Today’s post is by a new guest blogger, Paul Serafino. This initial post will be followed by a series of three posts with strategies that he tees up in this post. By Paul Serafino: The door to the…
Lean leadership isn’t just about asking people how to fix problems–it’s about asking them what problems matter most. When leaders shift from telling to asking, they unlock intrinsic motivation, deeper engagement, and more sustainable improvement. This lesson came through clearly…
The past two weeks have been very busy, to say the least. Thanks to the guest bloggers who contributed posts to help reduce my personal overburden (this particular overburden, of course, being a “First World Problem,” as they say). My…
Aviation lessons for patient safety anchor this conversation with Steve Montague, a retired Navy fighter pilot and commercial airline pilot who consults with hospitals on high-reliability practices. We get into checklists done well and done badly, why most hospital mistakes…
This week is the annual Patient Safety Awareness Week. As the National Patient Safety Foundation says, “Every day is patient safety day.” I’ve expressed similar sentiments here on the blog before. I think we need more ongoing efforts to raise…
TL;DR: Trump’s “if I say do it, they’re going to do it” reflects a command and control leadership style that even the military is moving away from. Toyota, Gen. McChrystal, and decades of evidence point to something better. Command and…
