Joining me as my guest for episode #189 is Rich Sheridan, CEO and Chief Storyteller at Menlo Innovations, a software development company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Rich is the author of the new book that I’m really enjoying: Joy, Inc.: How…
Listen: My guest for Episode 188 has been a leading voice in the Lean community for 25 years, Daniel T. Jones, founder and chairman of the Lean Enterprise Academy, based in the UK. Dan collaborated with Jim Womack on the…
Mark’s note: Christina Kach is back with a new post, this time a review of what should probably be considered a “Lean classic.” Come back tomorrow for my first podcast interview with one of the co-authors, Dan Jones. You can…
tl;dr: “Accountability” in most organizations means blame — but real accountability starts with leaders fixing systems, not punishing individuals who can’t do the right thing because the system won’t let them. One of our topics, prompted by some feedback from…
A few weeks back, USA Today published an article that made me think of some of the approaches being used by hospitals under the banner of “Lean Design.” In Lean Design efforts (see this great book), hospitals involve customers (patients…
Today is, of course, the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. I wasn’t alive on that horrible day in Dallas, but I’ve visited the site recently, when living in the DFW area, and I know there’s…
In the Lean methodology, building upon the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming, we work hard to shift away from “naming, blaming, and shaming.” Dr. John Toussaint is one of many who provide alternatives to the “blame and shame” approach…
TL;DR: Understanding Variation by Donald J. Wheeler is the most influential book in my Lean journey. It taught me how to distinguish signal from noise in data, avoid overreacting to normal variation, and focus leaders on improving systems instead of…
Mark’s Note: I’m away on vacation through November 6… there will be some guest posts in this spot during that time. Today’s post is by Richard Campos, who I met when he took my “Healthcare Kaizen” class in Denver back…
Mark’s Note: I’m away on vacation through November 6… there will be some guest posts in this post during that time. Today’s post is by Dean Bliss, a good friend of mine who has worked in Lean healthcare for a…
Mark’s Note: Today’s post is a guest post by Nial Toner, who works for PathXL in the UK. I thought this was an interesting post because it touches on leader behaviors and team dynamics in a setting that we don’t…
Thanks to the organizing sponsor Protegra and other sponsors, including my friends at LeanKit, for having me give a keynote talk about the Software Development and Evolution Conference (SDEC) 2013 Conference in Winnipeg yesterday (Storify summary here). I always enjoy…
