It’s really easy to make statements like “patient safety is our top priority.” That same statement can be applied to hospital staff, as well. Or, it should. But the “happy talk” (as Pascal Dennis calls it) isn’t always followed up…
For today’s “Throwback Thursday,” I recently re-watched parts of a DVD I helped produce a few years back for the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value — Thinking Lean at ThedaCare DVD: Strategy Deployment, Alignment & Leadership. In the video, ThedaCare’s CEO, Dr.…
My wife and I were late to the wildly popular podcast “Serial,” but we listened to the first six episodes while traveling over the holidays. I ran hot and cold on the serialized non-fiction story about a murder… it was…
Back in September, I wrote about our most recent “Lean Coffee” gathering in San Antonio, where people from different healthcare organizations talked about their improvement efforts. As part of my visit to The Netherlands this week, Marc Rouppe van der…
Time magazine recently featured GM’s relatively new CEO, Mary Barra, on the cover and in this story: “Mary Barra’s Bumpy Ride at the Wheel of GM“ Also, here is a USA Today summary that says “Five things ‘Time’ revealed about GM…
Our theme this month on the KaiNexus blog is executive leadership. We are concluding that series with a new webinar that will be hosted by me and our CEO, Allan Wilson. Learn more and register: How Continuous Improvement Helps The C-Suite…
Monday is Labor Day, a holiday here in the United States. Some nursing unions support Lean in healthcare, while others are in opposition. My stance is been that the unions should love Lean (since it improves the workplace for their members),…
People often talk about the need for senior leadership support for Lean. If we’re going to really transform our culture, workplace, and performance, “quality starts in the boardroom,” as Dr. Deming said. Lean is not about “fixing” the employees —…
Hospital CEOs are busy people, to say the least, but a big part of their leadership role includes communication with employees, physicians, and the community. That’s one reason I am always excited to see CEOs reach out directly to people…
Many healthcare organizations are non-profits. They provide some “community benefit” in terms of charity care (as do for-profit healthcare organizations). Then, there are healthcare organizations that are very charity focused, where providing free care and social services is their primary…
My blog will turn 10 years old in February 2015. You’re probably either thinking, “Wow, that’s awesome!” or “Get a life, dude.” :-) Here’s a look back at some of the posts from August 6 in past years… what was…
I was happy to see this article in FORTUNE’s recent issue: “Brad Smith, Intuit CEO: How To Be A Great Leader: Get Out Of The Way.” Smith (@IntuitBrad) talks about the Lean Startup concept often called “getting out of the…
