Gemba means “the real place”—where work actually happens, problems become visible, and leadership behavior matters most. These posts explore what going to the gemba really means beyond symbolic walk-throughs, dashboards, or status updates.
Drawing from Lean, Toyota practices, healthcare, manufacturing, and knowledge work, this archive focuses on gemba as a leadership practice: listening more than talking, asking better questions, building trust, and creating the conditions for daily improvement rather than fear or performance theater.
Today’s post is by Brian Collyer, blogger at Today’s Lean Manufacturing. Brian interviewed me recently for his podcast. Gemba: the Japanese term meaning “the real place” Gemba is the place in any organization where humans create value. In the…
I had previously blogged about this Lean healthcare study trip to Japan, but I’m really excited that it’s coming up soon! I depart in just over a week and I’m sure the trip will give me plenty to share and…
I didn’t have a post yesterday because it was the Labor Day holiday here in the U.S. While I’m not a “worker,” in the sense of an hourly employee or union worker anymore, I still enjoyed the day off with…
Many of you have emailed me about this horribly sad story: “Toledo hospital nurse accidentally throws away healthy donor kidney during transplant surgery.” As a blogger, I wish I could go to the “gemba” to really help investigate and find…
If your organization blocks access to YouTube… shame on them. The videos I’m sharing here are two reasons you should insist they open access to the world of Lean healthcare education that exists there. Today, I’m sharing two videos produced…
Interesting article here: “Case in Point: Avoiding martial-arts moves by ‘pulling the Andon cord‘” that was in the Washington Post, of all places. The piece, written by a duo of a professor and a consultant, attempts (I think) to make…
What a great time on Thursday with Masaaki Imai! We were hosted by a non-profit organization, SightLife, that has used Lean to improve the way they collect, process, and ship corneas to transplant patients around the world. It’s a bit…
Coming this week — blog posts and tweets (follow me or hashtag #HCsummit12) from the 2012 Lean Healthcare Transformation Summit on Wednesday and Thursday. If you are going to be there, please say hello!’ Looking back a week… the weekend…
So I was checking out the server logs for the website for my upcoming book Healthcare Kaizen (because, yes, my life is just that boring). Somebody reached the site because they searched Yahoo (??) for “find kaizen opportunities”. As we…
Hello from Las Vegas, where I participated in a wonderful event yesterday, the Lean Healthcare PowerDay. Here are a few key quotes: “That cry for more is really a cry to fix our processes.” – Naida Grunden, co-author of the…
Every few years, we see news articles about virtual reality robots that will roam hospital hallways – delivering medicines or supplies or allowing remote physicians to examine and communicate with patients in far-off locales who might not otherwise get to…
I received some really good questions from a reader, Nick, who has recently crossed industries to bring his Lean Manufacturing experience into healthcare. Since I thought the questions might lead to a good blog post, I’m going to address them…
