Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… there’s always so much good reading, listening, and viewing shared here by him! News, blogs, articles, resources, and links about creating value, continuous improvement, innovation, and leadership. Healthcare – Creating Value for…
TL;DR: Kaizen isn’t a Japanese buzzword or a suggestion box–it’s a practical, scientific way for healthcare teams to solve problems, reduce frustration, and improve patient care every day, with leaders acting as coaches instead of gatekeepers. We’re coming up on…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #447 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Lauren Hisey. Lauren is a Continuous Business Process Improvement consultant, coach, trainer, and speaker. She specializes in helping business…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #442 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is Crystal Davis, the Founder, CEO & Principal Lean Practitioner at her firm, The Lean Coach, Inc. She was previously…
Scroll down for how to subscribe, transcript, and more My guest for Episode #429 of the Lean Blog Interviews Podcast is John Chacon, the Director of Construction Excellence at Black & Veatch. We’ve been connected on social media for a while and…
I received a question from a healthcare leader who had read about the “idea card” format and method that Joe Swartz and I shared in our Healthcare Kaizen books. I read your post about the Idea Card. Amazing! Have a…
I haven’t done a “Throwback Thursday” post in a while, but I’m going to do something similar here on a Monday. Exactly ten years ago today, l shared a post where I talked about leaving my employment with the Lean…
I’d like to thank my friend Skip Steward for inviting me to be a guest on his podcast called “Connecting the Dots.” The podcast is one of their initiatives that’s intended to get the word out (internally and publicly) about…
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Customer Experience practices are being more widely adopted in healthcare. Patient satisfaction surveys are no longer enough to put the patient experience at the centre of care.…
t;dr: A visit to Toyota’s North American headquarters offered more than a virtual plant tour. It revealed how Toyota blends the Toyota Production System, Lean leadership, and learning from crisis to build trust, improve communication, and continuously improve–inside and outside…
tl;dr: We often label small changes as “Just Do Its,” but that can skip over useful thinking. Even the simplest Kaizen can follow a quick PDSA cycle–Plan, Do, Study, Adjust–to ensure we’re learning and improving, not just acting. Maybe it’s…
I'm very excited to be leaving for Japan for another study trip in just over a month. This will be my second trip this year, this time with Honsha, after previous (and hopefully future) trips organized by Kaizen Institute.
Even though the previous tours have been focused on Toyota, as well as Lean and Kaizen in various organizations, one common thread is Total Quality Management, or TQM. In many Japanese organizations, TQM has been a solid foundation of practice for two or three decades, where it tended to be a fad here in the U.S., as I've blogged about: