Jason Burt shares what it was really like to be coached directly by Toyota during Herman Miller’s early TPS journey. In this episode, we explore how Toyota develops people first, why results follow culture, and what many Lean transformations get…
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…
In this interview, UMass Memorial Health CEO Dr. Eric Dickson shares how Lean thinking, leadership behaviors, and frontline-driven Kaizen helped build a culture of “Everyday Innovators” across a complex healthcare system. My guest today for Episode #331 is Eric W.…
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…
Thanks to Catalysis for asking me to write a guest blog post… yesterday, they published this: Being Open to Learning and Using Process Behavior Charts Means Unlearning Something Else My post starts: “Why don’t people adopt best practices? I get…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Too often, patient involvement in design and research is tokenist or “tick-box”, and requires burdensome processes for participation. To truly design around the patient, research needs to be person-centered. Large healthcare systems continue to consolidate and…
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: Value isn’t universal. Different customers–and the same customer at different times–define value differently. Lean works best when organizations offer flexible options instead of forcing everyone into the same bundle of value. It’s said in the Lean methodology that “value…
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…
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…
Today marks 25 years since W. Edwards Deming passed away in 1993. I remember sitting in a statistics class as an undergraduate at Northwestern University — it must have been January 1994. My professor said something about Dr. Deming’s passing and…
