It’s easy to point fingers at others who don’t do what they know they’re supposed to do. Why don’t those nurses and doctors properly clean their hands when they enter and leave every patient room? Why do some surgeons still…
Healthcare has become very politicized in the U.S. (and in Canada and other countries). I think the patient safety crisis (and trying to solve it) is something that should be a non-partisan issue. Neither party wants patients to die from…
Following up my earlier post about the “Patriot Way…” During her halftime extravaganza (video), Katy Perry had a silver strap around her wrist, attached to the microphone. It reminded me of the Nintendo Wii strap that helps prevent throwing the controller (Update:…
Last weekend, at a patient safety conference, I heard a physician talk about “robust process improvement” and this, thankfully, included an endorsement of Lean methods. That’s the good news. The bad news was that the physician who was presenting trotted…
Last week, I wrote a post (part 1) looking back at our visit to the Toyota Tsutsumi factory that was part of our Japan tour that took place two months ago now. See previous posts in this series. I’m going to try to…
Tomorrow afternoon, I’m doing two different webinars that I hope you’ll want to sign up for. Even if you can’t attend live, I’d encourage you to register in advance so you can get links sent to you automatically to view these on…
I’ve been overdue in writing more posts about our Japan tour that took place two months ago now. See previous posts in this series. I’m going to try to do one post a week on this topic. It’s always fascinating…
TL;DR: Working with a personal trainer offered unexpected lessons about coaching, learning, patience, and improvement. Many of the same principles apply to Lean: you can’t learn just by reading, encouragement matters, progress takes time, and effective coaching helps people push…
The concept of “Throwback Thursday” is very popular on social media platforms, especially when it comes to people sharing old pictures. Yes, that’s me as an infant there. No, I probably wasn’t criticizing a lack of “external setup” or a…
Here’s the latest video in the series that Joe Swartz and I shot at Franciscan St. Francis Health back in October. Pharmacy manager (now director) Ronda Freije shares her experiences in engaging staff and piloting and evaluating changes in a PDSA…
Happy New Year! Let’s talk about Lean. Let’s talk about Kaizen and continuous improvement and how to get better in 2015. You’re possibly thinking, “Hey, Mark, chill… watch some football… relax… it’s a holiday.” But, you’re reading this, so you…
David Mann explains why creating a Lean culture depends on leader behavior and management systems–not tools or compliance–and how leader standard work helps sustain improvement. He shares practical guidance for executives on using Gemba walks to learn, teach, and reinforce…
