Organizational culture isn’t what leaders say—it’s what people experience every day based on management behaviors, systems, and priorities. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections on culture through a Lean lens, exploring how leadership decisions shape trust, psychological safety, learning, and performance. Many of these posts draw on lessons from Deming, Toyota, healthcare, and real organizations to show that culture is not a program to roll out, but an outcome leaders create—intentionally or not.
This article appeared back in March… March of 2013… as in this year: “Windsor Chrysler workers reduce waste to be world class.” I mean, good for them, but they are just now getting to this (even if the effort started…
“Approximately 8 to 10% of the individuals who walk through our doors are being hurt by us,” says David Musyj, CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital. That’s one of the first things you hear in this CBC program “Rate My Hospital,”…
In recent years, there’s been a movement away from having first-year residents work such long grueling hours – 24 hour shifts or longer, multiple days in a row on call, etc. The idea was that fatigued residents were making poor…
My guest for episode #170 is Stephen Parry, joining us from England. He is a keynote speaker at the upcoming Lean Kanban North America conference in late April. I will also be a main stage speaker at the event. Parry…
When I talk to people about the Kaizen approach to continuous improvement, with my consulting hat on or in my role with KaiNexus, I don’t find anybody who is resistant to the IDEA of continuous improvement. But, they have a…
Today I’m linking to a guest post that I wrote for my friend Marc Rouppe van der Voort who works at St. Elisabeth Hospital (Tilburg, Netherlands) and has a blog in Dutch (with auto Google translation). Marc used to maintain a…
My guest for episode #168 is Carolyn McCulley, from CityGate Films, and she is a co-director and producer of the upcoming documentary called “Breaking the Wall of Silence,” which sheds light on patient safety challenges in healthcare — but more…
With apologies to The Beatles and Dr. John Toussaint: “Kaizen Culture” (sung to “Revolution” by The Beatles) You say you want a kaizen culture Well, you know We all want to change our work You tell me that it’s…
Saturday at the Society for Health Systems conference, included an excellent keynote address from Roger Gerard, from the ThedaCare health system, co-author with Dr. John Toussaint of the book On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the…
Don’t threaten people with this quote… One of the more popular email-signature quotes I still see–especially among Lean practitioners–is this supposed gem from Dr. W. Edwards Deming: “It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” It pops up…
“A bad system, will defeat a good person, every time.” — W. Edwards Deming Would you polish drinking glasses at home with the furniture cleaner Lemon Pledge? Of course not – it’s got to be poisonous or at least harmful.…
On Friday, I had a great opportunity to teach a class of healthcare professionals at the Master of Business Operational Excellence (MBOE) program at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. I saw some of their capstone project presentations and…