TL;DR: A Lean-themed Christmas song parody that mixes kaizen, gemba, and holiday humor–just for fun, and maybe a little reflection. Here’s a musical holiday treat for my regular Lean Blog readers and podcast listeners, a song parody, initially released in…
tl;dr: Halloween might be about ghosts, zombies, and monsters — but those same creatures sometimes show up in our organizations all year long. They lurk in old processes, mindless routines, and fear-based management habits. Here’s how to spot the spooky…
Lately, I’ve been enjoying the creativity of those AI-generated “action figure career meme” images floating around social media. That got me thinking… what would my action figure evolution look like, over the last 30 years of working in manufacturing, healthcare,…
TL;DR: Blame shuts down learning and drives mistakes underground. High-performing organizations move beyond “who’s at fault” and focus on understanding systems, building psychological safety, and learning from failure–turning mistakes into fuel for continuous improvement. Mistakes happen everywhere–on factory floors, in…
Does jargon–or Japanese terms like ‘Hoshin Kanri’–get in the way of clear communication in your organization? It reminds me of the classic Saturday Night Live ‘Celebrity Jeopardy!’ sketches, where Sean Connery (played hilariously by Darrell Hammond) would completely misread category…
For decades, the suggestion box promised employee engagement and continuous improvement–but mostly delivered silence. In Lean organizations, Kaizen replaced the suggestion box with visible, collaborative systems that turn ideas into action. This throwback looks at why the suggestion box failed–and…
2024 Update: A new April Fool’s Post for KaiNexus… or is it? The Rediscovered Origins of KaiNexus: A 1980s Video Game The Full Collection of Previous Posts: Here’s a collection of my April Fool’s Day posts and pranks from previous…
Many Lean practitioners know the famous Lucy and the Chocolate Factory Lean example from I Love Lucy–a scene that’s been used for decades to illustrate poor work design, overburden, and fear-driven management. Even if you’re too young to know the…
I’ve updated and am republishing an old 2005 blog post that I wrote about a former GM assembly worker, Ben Hamper, who has some very funny stories in his book, Rivethead: Tales From the Assembly Line. One story, in particular,…
I love the show “Portlandia,” and I also love the “Toast Kaizen” video. I bet the latter is better known and more popular in my Lean circles. “Toast Kaizen” is a great introduction to continuous improvement for individuals or teams.…
Here's the latest cartoon collaboration with a skilled artist and medical assistant, Carrie Schurman (see past cartoons). You can find her on Twitter as @carrieschurman.
The idea for this cartoon came from Maggie Millard, the director of marketing at KaiNexus. Maggie has learned about Process Behavior Charts from me and some of the stories are incorporated into my book Measures of Success.
What does this "out of control chart" look like and why did it make me chuckle?
Tonight is the start of the NFL Draft, which almost gets as much coverage nowadays as a Presidential election.
Can you imagine if CNBC and other TV channels spent as much time focusing on which Lean Healthcare prospects would be "drafted" from our leading universities and medical schools?
Here is our exclusive and official Lean Blog mock draft, featuring picks from our Lean Healthcare draft expert, Mel Kaizen, Jr.
