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.
Thanks as always to Ryan McCormack for this… Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Health Care Workers Protect Us. It’s Time To Protect Them. Great article in HBR by Ken Segel and John Toussaint. Volume-based incentives drive behaviours — often…
My guest for Episode #368 is somebody I’ve met fairly recently through his excellent posts on LinkedIn, Steve Feltovich. He is the president of SJF Consulting, Inc. and he previously had a long career in the automotive industry, in particular…
My guest for Episode #366 is Harry Moser, founder of the Reshoring Initiative. We talk about “reshoring,” in general, and why that’s such an important issue in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond. Harry definitely falls into the…
TL;DR: Most organizations say continuous improvement matters, but treat it as optional–while performance reviews are non-negotiable. That choice reveals more about leadership priorities than any strategy statement. There’s a very well-known cartoon that you might have seen where a caveman…
I was honored to be asked to participate in a supplement that was published by the journal The International Journal for Quality in Healthcare. The supplement is a collection of articles about the use of Lean or Lean Six Sigma…
TL;DR: Psychological safety is a shared belief that you can raise concerns, admit mistakes, ask questions, or offer ideas without fear of blame or humiliation. Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, whose 1999 research first established the concept, defines it…
Healthcare – Creating Value for Patients Does Lean “work” in hospitals in the US? Sort of, according to the Journal of Healthcare Management. There is evidence that Lean improves efficiency and financial performance, but little evidence to support improvements in patient…
During my fifth Lean study trip to Japan, I once again visited a Toyota plant — and was reminded of a simple but profound idea that Toyota emphasizes repeatedly: making things means making people. It’s a principle that connects Lean…
My guest for episode #349 is John Dyer, president of his consulting firm, John Dyer & Associates, Inc., and author of the new book, The Façade of Excellence: Defining a New Normal of Leadership, which will be released on October 1,…
General Jim Mattis has been making the rounds to talk about his new book that is out today: Call Sign Chaos: Learning to Lead. “Learning to Lead” sounds like it could be the title of a book about Lean management.…
After the last episode that had the first guest host (Chris Burnham), I’m once again joined by Jamie Flinchbaugh for another “Lean Whiskey” podcast. In Episode 4 of Lean Whiskey, Mark Graban and Jamie Flinchbaugh (and a cameo from his…
TL;DR: Home runs in MLB haven’t just “gone up”–the data shows a real system shift, not random year-to-year variation. Process Behavior Charts help separate signal from noise, revealing when it’s worth investigating what truly changed instead of overreacting to single-season…
