Tag: Culture

Organizational Culture: Leadership, Behavior, and How Work Really Gets Done

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.

Got Waste? Who Ya Gonna Call?

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Last week, I gave the keynote talk at a hospital's twice-yearly lean conference for leaders and staff. As part of the seasonal decorations around...

Guest Post – Lean Myth: Lean is Stressful for Workers

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Mark's Note: Today's post is by David Veech, the Executive Director of the Institute for Lean Systems. A fear or anxiety that people often...

Seth Godin Catches All Manufacturers, Unfairly, in his “Factory Thinking” Net

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I really like Seth Godin's writing - his blog on marketing is one that I have followed regularly for years and his book Purple...

Lean, Joy, and Kaizen: Why Paul Akers and FastCap Show What’s...

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I had an amazing conversation on Saturday with Paul Akers (pictured at left), the founder and president of FastCap, a company in Washington, a...

Another Annual Update on a New Zealand Emergency Department

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It seems to be an annual event to see a news story about a New Zealand emergency department, Dunedin Hospital (not pictured at left)...

A Favorite Client: “The Synthesizer”

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I had a good long chat with a former client (from my J&J days) the other day. I call him "The Synthesizer," and no...

Facebook’s Zuckerberg and Deming; Are Your Employees Afraid or Fearful?

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Reminder: I'll be on "The Lean Nation" today at 4 PM (more details) In this article about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, "Inside Mark Zuckerberg's (rather...

Labor Day – Our Obligation for Worker Safety

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Today is a federal holiday in the United States, Labor Day. I know that's obvious to the 70% of you reading from the U.S.,...

Top 10 Signs You’re In a Fear-Based Workplace

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Dr. W. Edwards Deming always said we need to drive out fear from organizations, as point 8 of the 14 Points said: "Drive out fear,...

Interview with Bob Sutton, PhD on His Book ‘Good Boss, Bad...

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Episode #97 is a discussion with Bob Sutton, a Stanford University Professor of Management Science and Engineering and the best-selling author of The No...

Another Hospital CEO Talks Lean Culture

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Here's a great article with a number of quotes from William Considine, the CEO of Akron Children's Hospital in Ohio. The article, from the...

A First-Person Lean Leadership Story from John Toussaint, MD

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I've had the pleasure to work with Dr. John Toussaint, CEO of the ThedaCare Center for Healthcare Value, over the past year.  John's...
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