W. Edwards Deming’s ideas about leadership, systems, variation, and psychology continue to shape how organizations pursue quality and improvement. This archive brings together blog posts, podcasts, and reflections exploring Deming’s teachings—and how they apply to Lean, healthcare, management, and continuous improvement today. Many of these posts challenge common misinterpretations of Deming’s work, emphasizing that quality cannot be delegated and that improvement starts with leadership.
A Vivid Example of Gaming the Numbers on “The Office” NBC’s “The Office” is often a good source for clips that illustrate the opposite of Lean thinking. Last week’s episode continued the subplot where the new CEO assigned Andy, the…
While doing research for my upcoming book on “Healthcare Kaizen,” I found two books that touched on kaizen-style continuous improvement in our everyday lives. One was a brief mention in a book from a TV personality (see my post An…
At first I thought this post was stretching this week’s blog theme of applying Lean principles in everyday life, but I think it actually does fit quite well, at least for those of us for whom sports is a part…
I saw this article the other day on BusinessInsider.com: “10 Predictions For How The Workplace Will Change In 2012.” Two of the predictions caught my eye: 3. “It’s about the people stupid.” 4. The suggestion box will be reborn. Other…
Why inspection alone does not prevent defects TL;DR: Even with multiple editors and spell checks, publishing errors still occur. This post uses real examples to illustrate why 100% inspection is not 100% effective, a lesson that matters even more in…
On last Thursday’s episode of The Office, Dwight Schrute installed a software system that he called an “accountability booster,” aka the “doomsday device,” as it was referred to by the rest of the office staff. There had been a number…
Friday night’s PBS program the Nightly Business Report had a nice feature on the use of Lean at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downer’s Grove, Illinois. The video is embedded lower in this post, but you can read the transcript here:…
I don’t often go back to write about GM, the first company I worked for out of college. Thanks to my dad who sent this article from the Detroit paper: “GM delays 2nd shift at Detroit-Hamtramck.” You might think, as…
It’s important not to confuse a proper Lean “gemba walk” with the idea of “management by walking around” (MBWA). What did the late, great Dr. W. Edwards Deming say in 1982? ‘Management by walking around’ is hardly ever effective. The…
It’s a project that my co-author, Joe Swartz, and I have been working on all year… the manuscript is finally complete and sent (as a big batch!) to our publisher. I’m talking about our upcoming book, “Healthcare Kaizen: Engaging Front-Line…
On his blog, John Toussaint shared this letter from ThedaCare CEO Dean Gruner to all employees. Toussaint said the letter is inspired by Paul O’Neill and his thoughts on patient safety (you can hear my podcast with O’Neill here, as…
As someone who started his career in the auto industry, I’m excited to be interviewing a modern auto-industry legend on Friday for an upcoming podcast — Bob Lutz, the retired former Vice Chairman of General Motors. We’ll be talking about…
